okay I'll call this meeting to order welcome everyone Madame clerk please read the adequate notice compliance statement adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by the city clerk's office in the preparation of the Council annual meeting notice dated December 18th 2023 which was properly distributed and posted per statutory requirements please be advised that fire exits are to my right your left and at the back of the room the city has a listening system to assist the hearing impaired if anyone needs hearing assistance please obtain it at the the system at the deis and return it thereafter excent thank you roll call please Mr Boer here miss Hamlet here Mr migar here Mr palaski here Mr Smallwood here Mr bartan present president Allen here okay let's see the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation indivisible withy and justice for all Madame clerk please read the explanatory note regarding hearings comments and close session a Clos session meeting is authorized by state statute was announced and held prior to the start of this meeting and the known items for discussion were listed on the published close session agenda please be advised the council meetings are broadcast live on Comcast channel 36 and Verizon channel 30 and rebroadcast cast on Thursdays and Saturdays on httv on Comcast 36 and Verizon 33 when invited to speak please come to the lect turn clearly state your name and address spell your last name and speak into the podium microphone so that your comments can be understood by all and properly recorded whenever an audience or council member reads from a prepared statement please give or email a copy to the city clerk's office at city clerk cityofsummit.org to help facilitate an orderly meeting and to permit all to be heard speakers are asked to limit their comments to approximately 3 minutes or so in length unless you're using electronic device to follow the meeting agenda or needed for em professional emergency contact purposes please turn it off thank you okay thank you madam clerk we will be differing the vote for the minutes to the next meeting so clarifications could be made so we're going to move on to reports Madame mayor thank you good evening the city of summit is currently accepting applications from Summit residents for its College internship programs through Monday April 1st college students majoring in political science public administration Human Resources management Finance or Communications are encouraged to apply for the program participants will be able to add significant project management experience to their resumés interns will be paid $15 hourly and are required to work 24 hours per week Monday through Thursday for four weeks in the month of June there are a limited number of positions available in the summer internship program if interested please send a resume and cover letter to HR cityofsummit.org the deadline to apply is Monday April 1st the Department of Community programs and Summit Police Athletic League are hosting the 2024 egg hunt race on Saturday March 23rd the event will take place on the Village Green located at 356 Broad Street in Summit beginning at 1: pm. attendees can enjoy Arts crafts music games and a magic show the egg hunt will begin promptly at 1:45 the there will be three races separated by age one for children two years and younger another for ages 3 to 4 and a third for ages 5 to 8 not some too old following the egg hunt attendees will be able to take photos with the Easter Bunny and collect prizes this event is for Summit residents only attendees should bring their own basket for the egg hunt as part of this year's local government week the city will host a community Forum on public safety and city services on Tuesday April 9th from 6 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Summit Community Center located at 100 Morris Avenue residents are invited to view displays and meet staff during the open house from 6:00 to 6:30 and at 6:30 the summit police department will give a presentation on its home security Assessment program new drone initiative and other public safety measures measures the summit fire department will also share information on its new safety Cloud anti-collision technology and provide an update on the new Fire headquarters the Q&A session will begin at 7 with City staff and local elected officials and attendance to answer questions from the public more information on local government week is available on the city website at cityofsummit.org including details on the photo contest three winning photos will be selected and each of the three winning participants will receive a $50 Summit gift card to enter send photos to press office at city of summit.org by March 29th there will also be a department of Comm Community programs openhouse on Sunday April 7th from 4: to 6: p.m. at the commun at the rec center come learn about new and exist existing DCP programs EV events and initiatives there will also be an opportunity for residents to ask questions and share their thoughts about Recreation and Summit these two forums are part of a larger Community engagement effort that is being initiated by elected officials and City staff later this spring and throughout the remainder of the year we will provide opportunities for public participation and feedback on city services and more lastly um I just want to say that it's disheartening to see a small group of people politicizing recent statements on the proposed A4 and s50 legislation and its implication for our City's affordable housing initiatives the discourse surrounding this matter has deviated from the core of the issue at hand our Collective goal to develop and Implement Housing Solutions that serve an important public need and the best interests of summit political maneuvering only serves to distract us from our shared objectives and the constructive dialogue necessary to achieve them I urge our friends and neighbors to redirect our Focus toward towards what truly matters working collaboratively to ensure that Summit remains a welcoming inclusive and vibrant place for all its residents we all want the same thing to do what is best for our city let's come together in that spirit with mutual respect and understanding to make positive strides forward in our affordable housing efforts thank you seats yep there's a couple of seats up here if anybody wants to take um there's like three seats up here so okay yep oh is the is there anybody out in the foyer oh there is um is the TV on that's a good question I don't know um is the TV on outside you guys or you want to come in they're all're all oh you're all in okay okay great thank you mayor uh administrator Rogers thank you council president good evening everyone uh now that the wmer weather is upon us uh even though it didn't feel that way today uh as faal plants are reopening and we are gearing up to com commence with Municipal Paving operations uh this annual work is part of our commitment to improving city city infrastructure and the quality of life for residents several streets are in critical need of repair and are at the top of the list and will be paved in April and early May once we have exact dates the city will share that information and affected residents will be informed will be notified Oxo Road and Wildwood Avenue are tentatively scheduled to be milled and paved during the month of April but the timeline is weather dependent preliminary work on Division Avenue will begin in early April and take three to four weeks uh to complete concrete and other infrastructure structure work will happen in May and we be and uh and happening in May and more information of it uh will be available on the city of submit website uh the city of summit is hosting its annual Earth Day cleanup on Saturday April 3rd uh 13th and from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. people of all ages and abilities are invited to volunteer to help beautify city parks and Open Spaces individuals may volunteer on the day of the event at Brian Park or Martin Brook Park uh to participate as a group email event organizers uh email event organizers prior to the event to be assigned to a site participants should bring work gloves and a beverage in a reusable container community service hours are available uh participants should bring forms with them to the cleanup site to be signed by event organ organizers students in grades 8 to 12 May attend without a parent or Guardian with a signed permission form for more information to schedule part uh participation as a group or obtain permission forms please email summit Earth Day cleanup gmail.com and lastly the uh dog park at the municipal transfer station is now accessible to all Summit residents with a valid transfer station permit the park will be open Tuesday to Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. p.m. and Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to 400 p.m. it is closed on Sundays Mondays and holidays an official naming celebration and ribbon cting ceremony is planned for later this spring and that's all I have for this evening thank you council president thank you administrator Rogers okay um I'm not giving any updates tonight but I am giving a speech um since joining the summit Council in 2021 and now as your council president for the last 10 weeks I am honored to be serving in this community I'm honored to be serving this community in this role in our first meeting in January I outlined our priorities that I believe resonate deeply with our community's aspirations fostering a culture of active listening and learning from our residents ensuring our Collective safety and promoting compromise and consensus to strengthen Unity within our community I recognize and value the power of an informed citizenry to encourage engagement and grow resilience with that in mind mind I had invited Michael Sarah the executive director and the treasurer of New Jersey League of municipalities to discuss the implications of the recent legislation A4 and s50 on Summit and the municipalities across the state at the time it was proposed legislation but as of yesterday they passed it in total the legislature passed it the presentation in the following discussions reflect a commitment to informed decision- making it also underscores a collective belief in the importance of affordable housing recently mayor Fagan councilwoman Hamlet and I represented our community in Trenton to advocate for a pause on A4 and s50 we were joined by many leaders from across the state from across the Isis representing municipalities across um all spectrums who test in advocacy groups who testified and asked State lawmakers to please pause A4 and s50 to just make it better we remain concerned about the total um the potential repercussions of these bills including overdevelopment the strain on our infrastructure and our advocacy extends beyond the legislative debate we also have to address realistic Community concerns as the potential impact of new development on neighborhoods and infrastructure that we often hear residents come to councel and share their concerns about to be clear no one especially me disputes the value of having more affordable housing the question has always been what is the best way that we can get there as a community and feel like we're not putting each other against one another so um clearly we can do better they should have done better than A4 and s50 many of you come to this Council over the last month to express your concerns regarding the potential installations of of tatlock lights and the long-term impact it will cause on increased traffic pollution noise parking in your neighborhood speeding not too long ago residents expressed concern regarding the pr the proposed Primrose Daycare that was too large in scope for their neighborhood it wasn't a bad business it was just too big located on an already busy Morris Avenue which would have led to more traffic more noise more congestion and more pollution residents also expressed for the last 18 months overwhelming concern about the oversized Broad Street West Redevelopment project and it's likely stress on infrastructure congestion lack of parking and schools our Town's charm which encompasses a beautiful downtown excellent education diversity and green spaces are all qualities that attract and retain residents it's imperative that we preserve the attributes while also exploring sustainable growth strategies and include affordable housing as part of our new development projects I would like to clarify my statement on affordable housing that has caused a lot of discussion I let me just recl that let me restate that to clarify my St statement on affordable housing that has caused a lot of discussion I value affordable housing I value affordable housing I value affordable housing I feel like Andy [Applause] actually while I am fully supportive of its principles my reservations on A4 and s50 framwork is that it will cause us to do poor planning and that overdevelopment will diversely affect our city furthermore I don't want this to be lost in the process this is a really important point we have a state imposed con fiscal constraint on raising Municipal Taxes that we can't do we can't raise the rate more than 2% annually which presents significant challenges in balancing development with our commitment to fund services for Public Safety and quality of life with car thefts and home break-ins and safety being top of my for most residents and myself my com comments in front of the state legis legislature referenced my concern as to how we balance the potential of building thousands of new apartments and that includes luxury while also obligating us to bear for us let me say this us the municipality the taxpayers for us to Bear all the expenses related to ongoing development that can't be passed on to the developers I hope that that hit everybody's home the developers do not acrw this cost we do and that's what I'm speaking out against a municipality needs to be able to fund the cost of replacing aging infrastructure addressing environmental and storm water damage in which we have had significant flooding issues with residents that we've been dealing with for months so there is storm water damage there are environmental issues we also have to hire police we have to hire fire hire fire fire um and City staff as our population grows if development outpaces our growth and our Revenue because we are capped at 2% we cannot responsibly manage these resources so clearly Summit and many municipalities across the state agree we need a solution that is better than A4 and s50 as we navigate these complex issues our Focus must remain on responsible sustainable development and maintaining the essence of the city that we all love I'm dedicated to representing our community's interests and advocating for solutions that harmonize our growth and our priorities and our values I'd like to thank you for your continued engagement and I trust as we work together towards affordable housing goals we will make sure they are part of our enriched Community thank you [Applause] thank you give me one second I just have to go back okay um I'm actually going to I'd like to do historical minute first if that's okay so Bob uh councilman sorry councilman palowski historical minute thank you council president uh tonight uh we have Isabelle Jean who is a senior at uh Summit High School active in the black student union talented artist and who will be attending Drexel University next year to we thank her for coming and presenting on Florence spearing Randolph good evening everyone good evening Reverend Dr Florence spearing Reverend Dr Florence spearing Randolph pastor of Wallace Chapel am Zion Church in Summit New Jersey from 1925 to 1946 was also a leader of women's suffrage movement in New Jersey her involvement in American religion society and politics in the first half of the 20th century placed her among the most important women in New Jersey and local Summit history Florence spearing was born in Charleston South Carolina on August 6 in 1866 her father was a prosperous cabinet maker and she and she graduated from Charleston's Avery normal Institute with employment options limited for black woman Florence chose dress making and was ainted in that field in 1885 five on a trip to Jersey City to visit her older sisters Florence saw that her dress making skills were in demand at a higher price she decided to move north to Jersey City the following year she married Hugh Randolph soon she set up her own dress making business in their Jersey City Home in Jersey City she became affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion AMZ church as a Sunday school teacher and a youth class leader in 1892 she was invited to joined women's Christian Temperance Union wct this tie led to lecture and engagement and the foundation of an organization involved in the city missionary work her Christian and community service efforts came together in 1897 when Florence saw a license to preach it was granted although with some opposition from older male representatives in 1900 she was ordained a deacon and 3 years later an elder she organized the New Jersey state Federation For Colored women's clubs in 1950 was a member of the executive Community Committee of new jerseys suffrage association and was president of the missionary Society of New Jersey during 1922 to 1924 Randolph traveled throughout Liberia western Africa preaching and gaining knowledge of the AMZ foreign Mission particularly the educational health and service needs in Africa when she returned home she brought with her a student charity zala who was educated at Summit High School graduating with honors in 1925 she was appointed temporary pastor of the small 35 members Mission Church in sem New Jersey known as Wallace Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Zion church and met at the local YMCA Florence's first sermon was given on May 17th 1925 3 years later Randolph and the trustees purchased a duplex home at Orchid on Broad Streets in Summit providing for a 100 seat Chapel on the lower floor and a parsonage upstairs as the membership at Wallace Chapel increased so did its finance and in 1936 construction began on the same site for a new sanctuary parsonage and Community Center it was completed in 1937 and Remains the church today randol's work in Christian interracial organizations and community service led her led to her active involvement in the Equal Rights Movement as an influential executive committee member of New Jersey women Suffrage Association Florence was invited by the chair of the New Jersey Republican party to assist in Warren G Harding's presidential campaign in 1920 she she was awarded an honorary doctor of divinity of divinity degree from Livingstone college or North Carolina she was the first woman to receive such an honor from the college after 21 years as a pastor of Wallace Chapel Reverend R Randolph retired from active Ministry in 1946 the church the community center and the parsonage were all free of debt she died in 1951 thank you to the research of the summit historical society and Robert Hagman for the 2001 essay on Dr Randolph thank you so much okay um we are going to have Chief Evers please come up to give the new Firehouse project update thank you president Madam mayor council appreciate the opportunity to update the fires tonight we're going to take a little step back in time um talking to safety and member of the council a lot of questions about how we got to this point for the fire we're going to kind of go back I did this presentation uh when we first started the project I'm going to really quickly go through it and just talk about how we got to this point how we formulate our budget how the process worked and I'll I'll end it with a quick little update and where we St L with the project there we go so uh September 14 after um years ago Chris cter years ago our past Fire Chief came up the idea that we're going to need new fire at some point along the line so 2014 after long discussion we did a need assessment study of our current building and what that what that did was it looked at um can our current building accommodate our needs today and also into the future and how it compared with industry standards so you looked at a lot of different components of the firehouse vehicle circulation um safety is issues around circulation um training features that are building so all these issues came up life safety codes uh gender equality with bathroom and dormatory space so all these things were came up um and they compar industry standards and at the end of the day it told us that we do need a new building we scored very low the building is old infrastructure falling apart does meet today's modern fire department demands so with that um we took a pause kind of digested that uh talked to some um um um engineers and Architects and kind of had a little bit across that estimate of 10 to1 million this was back in about 20156 um got some ideas we formulated a new fire ARS committee within a firehouse to look at different concepts around the country and may of 2017 we hired May ER and Wilcox our architects who are presently on our project now to do a feasibility study what the Fe stud does it looks at um what we currently need in the firehouse what how we operate our call volume um our equipment and all the thing put together a big spread to be filled out um and tell this basically decides that a building we would need based upon what we need for our fire department and the city Summit also looked at site selection and at the end of it we looked at a cost estimate what do across a couple sites you looked at one site was across from the far housee this is the parking lot between the um post office and the senior citizen building that was one site that quickly deemed not really feasible to put for operations that our need and then that drove us to our second site which was on today is that the site the attitude Community parking lot on Broad Street um this seem the most feasable site traffic circulation met our need needs the space the size of the building met our needs to to work on this site um we also did to ensure that this site was a viable site a lot of historical um um um industry with in this in the site years ago we did some boring samples for contaminantes make sure it was viable to to build on all it stuff passed came out good and that brought us to the next phase um of January 19 we contracted with ler and wock to actually start uh designing our project so we started out with some um we also had a a budget of $1.8 million back then interesting note the 11.8 million was just a cost estimate we needed something for Council and for future Capital planning has some kind of number there so based upon our numbers at the time 118 was our number that was just a cost estimate for future down the road um that's where 11 lot of people last where that that budget came from was never budget the cost estimate on something we put in future Capital planning um in 2019 um so design development the building looked at a bunch of different interior designs uh how it fits our needs dormatory space offices training components all those things were built into this design feature we looked atarus Bay one of the biggest uh deficiencies with our old building was that contaminates from firefighter when fir come back from call they have a lot of contaminants on them our old building severely lack that safety feature um with our firefighters need so this building the first floor had a lot of components that that kind of um uh kind of front line with uh decontam firefighters and keeping them safer in the building a couple different Design Concepts as we went through the project early on this is one of the design we came up with uh second design kind of kind series back to what we did today and this is our current design here so throughout this part throughout this part of of the project um we do a lot of value engineering we would design a certain component of it take a pause get cost estimates just kind of steer to the right direction to try to make stay within our our budget and build building that you know that that can last for the future uh this is the project so after we're done with that we the the u b engineering team made up of council members City staff and a fire department members engineers and Architects we all sat down looked at the F the design we came up with we probably took off about maybe I know about maybe th000 square feet 2,000 great for the building the ridle design did little bit of tweaking here and there uh the point that we thought it was good Council agree with kind like we liked it it was good design that led us to our next step which was construction documentation at that point the engineers and the architect take take the um the study we had and they put it into a blueprint form calculations on everything from from the building that's needed pretty much preparing it to go out up uh to bid uh so in May of 21 we started the bidding process went out the bid um they had it for about through the summer we wed the bid September 2021 we had a groundbreaking ceremony October of 21 we did some permitting this this part is just going through all the perming process of City Hall making sure everything's aligned with all the codes and City requirements and then we began actual Construction in December of 2021 there was some a little bit of site work that took place between groundbreaking and late December took up to massel getting the ground ready to prep for uh uh the the construction so real quick um had a lot of questions on have the bidding worked why we picked why we picked the um contractor we picked so Municipal bidding it's all seal bids right we have to build a a bid spec we put it out to the general uh Community for a bidding we had 11 biders come in through seal bid we have a bid opening and basically the lowest qualified bidder you have to go with that's the law in New Jersey and that's that's how it works out so brah construction was our lowest bidder we had a couple add-ons to the bud the initial bid was 14670 that was our initial low bid we had a couple add-ons the radiant heat in the floor in the firehouse and a metal roofing for longevity of the roofing and the the award bid award was 50 million 17650 that went to brah construction we looked at this bid a lot of the bids if you take out the high number bottom they were all under a million dollars each other we felt it was very competitive on the time this was right on the cff of ending covid a lot of unknown with materials and construction cost so the numbers were there they're all PR competitive we figured this with a good good uh set of bids that came in so we decided to award it to BR construction um so our budget so based upon our bid award we um formulated a budget we had our base bid with our two alternates we had some remaining architectural fees that took us from construction to the end of the project we're in that step right now we have contingencies uh budgets typically I've stated in PR presentation that 6% is usually a standard for a building a size we chose 3% we felt very confident we were within that and to date on change orders we're less than 1% of contingency as far as change orders go so our team of the fire beening a great job on you know having control on all the change order for the fire housee and then our find then there was some um administrative uh cost that second 20 cost and our final budget with a little bit under $16.1 million for the whole entire project all right so that's kind of summary of how we got to this point as far as where we stand now um so we are a little behind in the project the contracts are behind VAR reasons why they're behind they had some subcontractor issues material issues and also you know every takes for product that size everything's about 90% completed on the project um biggest piece now is site work the site along um the firehouse and a parking garage needs to be completed but everything is almost there uh we're looking at probably a middle of May um Construction completion and then hopefully with all the punch list and final permitting I'm sorry final inspection will take us probably to the end of May uh we meet with them um every week they come on site once a month and we have meetings so we're kind of really trying to get the last 10 yards completed it's the hardest part getting the project done so um quality work we're very happy with quality to work we think you're doing a good job as far as getting quality work with the project um so just you know hopefully we'll stick to that made that that that that um time frame has been pushed a little bit as they go through it for VAR of reasons but really put a lot of pressure on the contractor there are some over costs with that as far as going with the budget there is language and our bit back that protect the city for it gives the opportunity to go after the contractor for any kind of cost out of pocket cost we are collecting all that data and at some point in time we feel it best to award them to talk to them we'll we'll talk to them they haven't put on notice that we are going to exercise that right to graft any kind of out of pocket expense this is incurred from the delay so that's we're starting now so right uh we are planning some life activities hopefully when the building depleted we'll have more talk about what that looks like leaving our current building and going down to our um new building have a nice ceremony that's all right so with that that is all I have for my presentation I'm happen to answer any questions thank you Chief is this um going to be on the website Amy it will yes it will be right okay wonderful okay I would like to open it up to council comments thank you Chief I'm excited for you having visited several times uh one question was the architect was Willcox included in the original price or no there not in the bid okay um so there was we we hired will Cox back in 2014 so there were they had a separate there there there was one one point little under $1.1 million for the whole entire process to by the time we started with uh feasibility to to current now that was their price act for the project that was separate from the bidding the architect we're continuing to pay them right now just because the project ran long is that correct I'm sorry we're continuing to pay them right now just because there has been some overruns because we had to continue with their project management part of it other than being Architects and engine we also had project management so right now we had to extend that um a couple times and that's the money we'll be capturing to go back to brah with at some point in time got it recoup that money okay I think that was the other question I had for you is you mentioned that we did boring on the site that we have the new Firehouse did we do any boring at The Old Firehouse just to I remember you tellinger that to I think there may well let me back up uh before we started construction way before we put new tanks at at our Firehouse so we we did some mediation work for that purpose okay that's what I was questioning yeah and then back in the ear mid 90s we did a small renovation on our Firehouse we did some many work then but as far as as far as our new fires project no nothing in our project to any kind of site work on our current so thank you very much great thank you thank you councilwoman anybody else any more questions Council yeah um more of a statement you know when when the mayor and I sat in on the interviews with you for Italian chief and Lieutenant one of the things that really touched me that I I really just didn't think about and um I don't know if most people think about is the contamination issue when we interviewed um the firemen we said what is your number one concern and it was interesting but not really it was kind of worrisome that each and every single one of them their number one concern was contamination because cancer I think is the highest risk for fire right it used to be heart attacks and cancer and for had four more fored to that uh so we every year we see more and more cancer blind Duty death related to job exposure so that's our number one fires are fires but afterwards we come back to the Firehouse Liv in there we going to step back that's our biggest concern now is things we Mo back to the firehouse and long-term exposure and get healthy down the road with cancer things that nature so it is a big issue in the Fire Res right now is cancer and contaminate that we bring back into the building and chief I know this has been an arduous process and some of what you you know going through covid and different things and contractor related stuff but um the new Firehouse the the difference between the contamination of the old one and the new one the things that you put in you know how much how much more safe are are are firemen when they when they move in there I mean this is a needed thing right 10 folds I mean we can't we we spent a lot of time and one of the reasons why we chose Lan Will C is that one of their team members has had cancer in the family and they he's really passionate on firefighter Safety Not only in the fire ground back home so this new building is state-of-the-art when it comes to um contamination and Decon within our hot zones in the building so when firem come back we have sop that direct fireman to take off the gear off they have to clean it they're mandatory to take showers clean themselves off certain parts of the building are are off for any kind of gear that goes into fire so we have a big big pathway a lot of scrubbers air scrubbers in the building a lot of fans circulate the a to clean it and everything that's down in the apparatus Bay is completely separate from the rest of the firehouse so no ac ducts no heating that's all separate so nothing can get up into the living quarters of the building so but it's definitely 10 times more safer than our current building is right now so thank you council president thank you Chief and thank you for bringing that topic up it's very big big sensitive topic in the fire I appreciate you bringing that up tonight so thank you thank you other questions any other council members no okay thank you appreciate it pby in April we do another at the saate The Forum with just more updates with the firehouse So yeah thank you appreciate remarks okay all right thank you okay so our next presentation is going to be on um tatlock field lighting with director ozoroski um since there's been a lot of questions and raised about tatlock field we thought it would be helpful to have our Department of Community programs give a historical presentation as to how and why we got here um many of us are new at this table including myself so it's a great way to level set and get everybody on the same page is that are you okay me yeah I just yeah go so as they work on that I just want to make sure that we all get level we have a level set um this is completely looking back um it brings us up to where we are today it is not futur looking um so I just want to make sure everybody's clear on that nothing more nothing less so um when they get everything up and running that's we will have director ozoroski up here yeah right and I just wanted to um pre it's okay it's okay um I just want to preface to the uh any comments we will hold until public comment so you'll give your presentation and then I'm gonna have people come up through public comment great thank you okay um good evening everybody my name is Mark aarosi director of community programs um I'd like to thank I like to thank council president Lisa Allen the mayor members of uh the council City administrator Rogers everybody that's here tonight to listen to myself as well as my chair of my um Advisory Board Sharon Clark and David Guida will also be chiming in at the end um to talk about just uh some certain things with this whole project so basically I'm going to give a historical um perspective from when this all came about Sharon's going to talk about what our committee had has done in the last year year and a half and then David will let everybody know what the future um next steps in the future is of this whole project so basically um I've been working for the city for 25 years um lights have been discussed um pretty much since 2004 2005 2006 when we put the artificial turf in down at tatlock um at that point in time there were discussions and there was a lot of people in favor of putting lights up while we put the turf up um obviously there was a lot of negativity towards that as well um so our group um Kevin Gardner who was the president of our uh wck commission along with mayor Jordan Glatt promised the community at that point in time that there will be no lights for that project um but nobody could predict the future there was never anything in writing it was a verbal agreement at this time while we put the turf in there will be no lights since that time um I've probably for the next 20 years have discussed lights um formally informally um and we've finally gotten to a point where um you know we've brought it out we've got the community involved and we're going to continue engage the community um we've always had problems with fields allocations for the sports groups um Sports continue to grow in this town female sports in particular have grown tremendously over the last 10 years um new programs are being added um I think everybody's aware and I've mentioned it a few times that the high school team or the High School athletic department um created a girls flag football team this year which has about 40 girls participating um we created a youth girls flag football program which has about 40 girls participating in it as well um unfortunately our girls we've teamed up with New Providence um in the youth program and we don't have field space for them so every game every practice this year will be a new Providence um the high school team that has just been formed they're going to be practicing on the grass field next to Washington School which is basically a piece of land that we have not ideal it's unfortunate for the girls for this first season to be having the practice on that um but that's where we are at this point um you know another issue just today the Middle School baseball team which consists of seventh and eighth graders they're practicing on a Little League field behind our building at Longfield which is in my eyes it's it's a joke it's a shame um so that just kind of gives you a perspective as to where we are at this point um the other issues that we've had are the sports are continue to continuing to overlap um 20 years ago the only program that played a year round Pro year round program was the summit soccer club since that time fall baseball has picked up tremendously um Summit lacrosse boys and girls is asking for a lot of time during the fall during you know their non-traditional season um field hockey clinics traditionally a fall fall sport they're looking for more time in the spring football traditionally a a fall sport they're looking for more time in the spring um we're just we're we're overwhelmed with it's fantastic I mean everybody thinks that's a great that's great for the community um you know we just we don't have the fields to accommodate all the activities at this point um so in order in in order to increase field availability for the sports Community we are I've I've proposed a $ 1.6 million project to light investors in tatlock Upper tatlock Fields switch it not working uh oh so actually in it's not 2008 2006 we had a Citywide recreational master plan um that is basically the book is probably 300 pages long I know some people have seen it hopefully everybody in here at one point has looked at it um and at that point in time at outlined field space is a long-term problem that has been exacerbated by expanded Seasons increased travel teams and increased adult participation but what they didn't put in there was again female sports increasing as well as new programs that have been added since 2006 2014 we had a site development plan that was created by Tom Miller um of Premier product development and in 2014 that site development plan had um tennis courts bleacher Replacements adding a basketball court Investors Bank lacrosse practice wall it had parking spaces it included Investors Bank field lighting as well as tatlock field lighting that was in 2014 the site development plan has been updated um was updated updated in two 2017 the light stayed on it and there was a couple um additional items the track was one um that we took care of we we we we did the track uh two or 3 years ago um new bathrooms were included in there new concession stand new ticket booths there's 10 different projects um that are currently in the site development plan so we get to October 2 2018 Council presentation so early in 2018 the DCP Advisory board myself met with all the sport presidents the athletic director ctor and we talked about basically everything needs what can we do to help out our programs um and some of the things that were addressed there as you can see soccer need an additional field that actually got taken care of by Glenside um baseball was looking for an additional t-ball field at the time that will actually be taking that will actually happen once the Middle School field is done they'll have an additional t-ball field lacrosse wanted um lights on their fields and football wanted lights on their fields so after we met with the group we had a presentation thanks David these were some of the other oh it's tough to see that but these are some of the other items that we had talked about we really looked outside of the box at every area in this town um just some of them a sports complex at the transfer station and I'll get into that in a little bit uh sports complex at the Red Cross site when it was being sold create fields on the cell Gene property use the can9 space at Glenn side there's 27 different um venues and areas we looked at in here and basically all were denied or we couldn't build on them there's still a couple out there that potentially we could we could build some field space um but it still won't help the issues that we have today so the October 2nd 2018 presentation as part of the T the recommendation recommendations to the council at that point in time we're to add lights on investors field and upper tatlock use lights on upper upper school seven days a week currently the lights on the upper high school we use 5 days a week um until 9:30 p.m. there are instances where we've requested to use them on a Saturday or Sunday and we obviously uh Dan Healey the athletic director had granted us permission to use them um as you can see update the Anderson Fieldhouse that's actually going to be taking place hopefully um based on the information I received bids are going to go out sometime in the summer work will be started sometime towards the end of the year after the football season um for additional impact upgrade field and back stop at at Franklin Field upgrade Franklin and field and the baseball back stop we're actually looking into that right now with the baseball organization create a t-ball field in the cow pasture behind investors field we looked at the cow pasture if you're familiar it's the area by Green Field behind the scoreboard um the unfortunately we can't really do much there because the track team uses it for their discus for their Javelin for their shot put um so the field really gets beat up additionally it stays wet a lot longer than most of the other fields um explore water service at Lincoln that's another thing that we're in the process of looking at um to be able to water water down the infields facilitate assessment to move K9 to create space at Glenside so we met with the county if you're familiar with uh Glenside field the county has their can9 units down there we were hoping that they would be able to move that um entire operation to another site somewhere in Union County and then we'd be able to use that space um they're they weren't going to move um it's the best location for them to access you know all the towns in the county 78 is right by and 24 is um and then support and engage in transfer station development task force um in 2019 a a task force was developed to look at um the transfer station to add additional Fields um we had a number of meetings and at that point in time um there's a number of different factors but um Fields could not be built on that property now you know potentially it might be looked at again um but in general the the the the layout of the property um was shrunk due to some environmental environmental concerns some of the um items at the transfer station would have to be eliminated so um there's you know there's still areas where you could possibly build one field um but that's uh it's more of a pipe dream in my eyes all right so the management report and goals so basically every every year as part of the city budget um that's created by um the administration all the directors send a a management report um to City administrator Rogers and basically this report um explains what you did this this year and your future goals that along with the capital budget which um we have in December those two items are in the actual City budget every single year so since 2020 within our management report one of our goals was to continue to look in look at the lights for tatlock and Investors Bank field um additionally in my Capital budgets for the last four years um I've requested money for f in the future for lights on tatlock and investors so it's been in there it's we've it's been in there I took over as director since 2019 um it has been in that report both from a management perspective as to what we want to do as well as money I requested for um Capital expenditures David and that's what I have for a historical perspective I'm going to bring up Sharon Clark she's going to talk about what our subcommittee has done and after Sharon David will come up and finish off the uh this is like a rose between two Thorns here um thanks Mark um so in December 2019 uh we had a funding request to complete a lights feasibility study so it's important that there a feasibility study to get this project started and those funds were um approved in 2020 we remember we had a pandemic then and and then in will you uh the bring the microphone closer to you thank you that's perfect thanks in 20 spring of 2022 um we signed a contract with as Mark mentioned Premier product development to complete a study and the subcommittee was created and that subcommittee is Mark David Elaine Anderson Scott Lin who both were on The Advisory Board in 2018 and then uh myself we met um with PPD and the lighting engineers and in January of 2023 we had the results of the lights feasibility study and spent a lot of time reviewing that and it was a pretty comprehensive report that looked at electric light technology specifically the diffusion and how the technology has advanced uh the placement we asked and received comparable sites um located similarly to where uh tatlock is and investors field uh information about installation and a cost the cost estimate and the committee also spent time um identifying and talking about other considerations where we knew we needed input and assessing the impacts such as traffic and parking the hours the lights would being used and any environmental impact and our goal at that point and continues to be the goal was to have sufficient information to be able to get fullsome community impact um and all the information that we have is on the website so the transparency is there in terms of where we are at this point in time in uh early February we met with a small community group um and in March 2024 that project was removed from the 2024 capital budget and then David we'll pick up on where we are thank you Sharon um so yeah so we are just to reiterate it it has been removed from the 2024 capital budget so it is not going to happen this year lights are not on the table we know that there's more work that needs to be done and um since we started meeting with um neighborhood members in February of this year there's been a four-step plan that's been developed that um has hasn't been formalized before but this year we really focused on formalizing it because each year the mayor and council do appoint um members to the DCP Advisory Board this board meets pretty much monthly maybe not over the Summers and when a capital budget when a capital project is identified by this board working groups are often created so the first step in any of these working groups is to meet with industry professionals and engineers and to develop a general plan Believe It or Not we've been working on this quote unquote General plan as Mark said since 2019 2020 when it was approved to do the feasible feasibility study in the capital budget so that's a lot of that's four years that we spent basically in step one because before we move to step one step two which is engaging with the community there needs to be some sort of plan we can't just come out there and say hey we're looking at doing lights how are we going to move forward with this that's way too lofty there's so many Whata ifs that exist and we do apologize if the neighbors do feel as though they weren't involved in the process up until this point but simply there was nothing to get anyone involved in until we had a general plan so right now we're in step two which is once a general plan is developed it's presented to the neighbors of the tatlock area for feedback um to be totally honest about that this was something that was kind of bubbled up and these Community meetings happened even probably sooner than we were ready to have them started because it was presented in the capital budget plan and before it was included in the capital budget there would have been these meetings a couple of concerned residents did bring this to our attention and lo and behold our meetings with the councilman Smallwood Mark our advisory committee began in February so the process was actually helped to be pushed along um to happen sooner by the residents and we are committed to continuing to meet with residents until we are in a good place obviously we've already uh received a lot of feedback and we will continue to receive it um step three is once plans are edited and feedback is received from the neighbors of the tatlock Park area the next step is to prevent present the revised plans to the larger community and receive a additional feedback and then after step four is plans are revised based on the larger Community feedback and presented to Common Council so this is quite a text Heavy slide but um we're we want to be collaborative partners with all neighbors as we go through this process and um we want the dialogue to be productive we want it to be truthful and we're taking steps that we're actively taking steps that will address many of the concerns that have been brought up by The Neighborhood um to be very clear on one thing that there's been a lot of conversation about no decision has been made about when lights would be able to be used it was stated in a meeting that yes lights could potentially be used 7 days a week 365 days a year until 10 p.m. but that is part of the community engagement you start with what is possible and you work your way down to what the neighborhood will be okay with if anything should this plan go through um something else that we've seen a oh you're a good something else we've seen a lot of his um Memorial Field is not a viable option there would be a substantial amount of grading work that needs to be done and the fields in order to meet the goals that this tatlock lighting project proposed would need to be turfed this would ultimately wind up not being the most fiscally responsible thing to do costing millions of dollars stopping this right in the right in its tracks no secret fundraising campaign is happening that Mark and I don't know about we're not aware of anything happening and we don't believe anything's happening um the project has not been approved there is no foregone conclusion that there are going to be lights at tatlock um we in the next slide we'll go over some studies that are going to be happening and um talk about that a little more night games are not going to be played G I'm going actually have you pause if there's anybody that needs a seat there's a couple seats we could um any elderly people or anybody that wants a seat there's a couple up front maybe we can squeeze in there's one at the end over here and then Chief um sori can you maybe grab one of those chairs and pull it over to the side if somebody wants to use those chairs I just want sorry I just want to make sure everybody can get comfortable yeah great so and I we put in here that night games will not be played every week we don't even expect them to be a regular thing again we're in this exploratory phase of talking to the sports groups talking to the neighbors and seeing what everybody really needs to meet their needs and hopefully get to a point where their wants are also met as well no permits are going to be issued to out of town groups we are not going to be permitting other groups to come in from out of town and use these fields this potential project for lighting is 100% independent of the tatlock playground the Washington Community has not been told that they are going to have to fund raise for whatever is not included in this year's capital budget if we rewind back to the maybe playground project we received at this point I think five grants for that project it was funded in two different Capital budgets so that's off the table yes would we encourage them to if they're interested in being involved in fundraising absolutely but that's not true that they've been approached and told that they have to raise that money um one thing that is very true that it's happening the county is planning to take over the scheduling at Glenside um that's two huge Fields set again very clearly the county has told us that they don't view that impacting our use of the fields however we we don't have a crystal ball with anything so we need to be strategically thinking how we can work past that if there are any bumps AC along the way and as Mark mentioned the Anderson Fieldhouse will be renovated it is being done this fall so I think that kind of covers all of the things that are kind of out there in the at atmosphere and as things keep coming up we encourage everybody to please check sum Community programs.com under the um parks and Facilities tab there is another button that says tatlock Park it's also on the main page landing page a direct link those FAQs are updated as we get questions frequently again can't stress this enough trying to be as transparent in this process as possible so next steps where we're going to be for the next year maybe longer who knows um we're really driving Community feedback um we're trying to keep everything in a centralized database so we do ask people submitting feedback to please use our um Civic Rec system just so we can track all of the feedback received kind of sounds like an excuse but it is hard to manage Facebook comments manage emails manage phone calls so whatever we can do to really streamline this process of feedback we're giving it a try using our Recreation platform on April 7th there is going to be a listening session and open house as uh mayor Fagan mentioned earlier at the community center talking about all Recreation projects but sure anyone is invited to come speak about the lights something that we are clearly focusing on is small group meetings with the neighbors of the tatlock community um councilman Smallwood director ozoroski myself and our uh light committee me Members right now have four different meetings scheduled on April 4th April 11th April 21st and May 6th to meet with more small groups and different individuals from the tatlock community and get their feedback um we're excited to be embarking on getting a traffic and parking uh study done that study will be done when there are cars in the area we are actually going to go out of our way to make sure it is done when there's a lacrosse game and practices going on so that way we can get a real simulation of what traffic may look like um I'm going to skip this next one the an environmental study is also going to be completed so this spring these studies are being ordered they're being completed it takes time we'll probably receive them over the summer summer is never a great time so in the fall there will be one meeting on the environmental impact study there will be one meeting on traffic and parking um because they're totally different topics and we can get very deep into everything so to be announced when we'll be meeting about those in the fall when we get results and finally field schedules something that people understandably keep asking for is a what a schedule May look like as uh Mark mentioned girl Sports really need space field hockey is pushed to late practices there's a lot of things that right now in the um field ecosystem I like to call it um that don't necessarily make sense but it's the way it has to be for survival of the fittest in order for a sport to survive you need to do things that may not be the most desirable and um including going to other towns or having second graders playing until 8:30 at night which not great things I think we can all agree upon so a stud a request for information is out for every single youth sport that uses any facility in Summit I sent that out last week to all of the sports presidents and um hopefully they'll be getting their information back to me by April 1st and then once we get that information back by April 1st I'm going to kind of dive in there and look at census numbers look at where we're going forecasting Trends and um the data we're getting goes all the way back to 2019 because we want to look at the pre-co numbers versus postco and do um a real thorough look at the growth of sports and from there we will be able to develop a more robust schedule of what the scheduling at tatlock may look like should the project be approved D and um once we get that in the fall you guessed it one more meeting on that so really focusing on the three big buckets of concerns we've heard and um being proactive um in mitigating those concerns while continuing to still meet to alleviate additional concerns that make him up so we we're we're at least here through the end of the year doing uh Community feedback and um likely longer okay thank you wonderful um before you run I just want to see if any Council memb members have any questions Council mam just two questions thank you David um everybody who presented appreciate it um two questions one is for you Chief sagorski didn't we just do a recent traffic study down in this area or safety traffic study I'm not sure I check on that okay Michael do you remember aon's not here but I I feel like we have some data on speed at least traffic but maybe a takeaway is I I'm almost positive yes okay we did the answer is yes okay thank you um so we do have I think it's a really recent in fact I don't think in the last couple of weeks I don't know what drove that I don't remember um but I think it's important to just say for a matter of public record I think there was recently some sort of traffic study I don't know what it was for um the second comment was something oh I have a question when we when we're redoing the Middle School Fields right now correct the inside Fields but aren't they used for really little baseball players like what was they used for baseball players I'm not I'm not a baseball person so inside then there's also a multi-use field that's also used so are the middle school so the middle school will not be able to play baseball there so who will those fields be for they'll still be used for baseball they will sorry Mark I'm just confused okay know so basically the Middle School field there's currently there's a large softball field that the girls play on Middle School um softball there's a smaller field at the youth program play on and then in the middle there's a multi-purpose that we use for field hockey and we use for soccer so they're going to those are going to stay and they're going to add another t-ball field in the uh Corner okay that way it's not big enough for a middle school baseball not even close right so I I'm just yeah I have a hard time understanding that but I guess it yeah I I won't have you answer um the second Middle School baseball plays on a six 90 field if that makes sense to you B um we have three of those in town one's the upper High School field y but primarily during baseball season the upper High School Fields used for girls lacrosse so where are the softball where the high school softball Memorial so they're pretty limited right they and they're high school softball Varsity JV play at Memorial okay um I think that was all I actually just got my planning board packet for next week we not to surprise the entire public but that is actually on the planning board agenda next week for the artificial turf that's being put on lower lower correct so I don't know if you want to briefly update the community on that as well because I don't want it to sound like we're throwing Turf in when I just want to make sure on the lower high school field I just want to clarify that is the board of even though it's the board of vet I still think it's important to yes I just want to clarify though we don't have any control we don't have any control but it is something that is going to be in Summit right so yeah correct bard of Ed they're totally in charge of the whole project it they're actually going to be starting that soon I know they've had um surveyors out there um we're hoping it'll be done in the fall or the end of the summer and we'll be able to use it in the fall and there will be five different sets of lines on that field which is the most lines on any field that we have in this town um so that was it though thank you yep okay thank you councilman palowski thank you um couple slides back uh there was a bullet that said night games maybe one more night night games will not be played every week you're only talking about varsity football games right correct and like that goes for like it's not like every week during the Spring there's going to be a lacrosse game not every week during the fall a uh football game or soccer game okay okay councilman migar do you have any questions no okay do you guys have any questions on this side do not no I don't know that it's a question I think there's just an interesting point though uh that I think is is important to point out right which is that there's basically two different groups of people playing sports in Summit right there's the school sports and then there's club sports right so so since you know like for example the board of EDS taking responsibility for the lower high school field right and they're they have money in their recent uh capital expenditure $35 million bond from the schools for uh Anderson Fieldhouse right but like there's there's nothing in the discussion of Lights in the school portion of the budget right so so you know I think we we should we should be clarifying right if the lights are to are to benefit all sports or if it's just School sports or if it's just club sports and if it's if it's benefiting School sports too I really think the school should be chipping in right because what we're talking about here is two different things we're talking about number one should there be lights right at all and then number two is it's a huge amount of money and is it should it be a priority in our budget I'm glad it's not for this year um but then you know who's who's responsible ultimately for paying for it and who's benefiting from if they if they have so that's the So to that point this goes to my comparison to an ecosystem basically in Summit our department Mark nollie they oversee all of the scheduling of all of the fields and Summit so while yes foot the high school football team will obviously benefit from the lights at tatlock so will every other sport while maybe not indirectly it'll give the girls field hockey more time to play on upper t luck or sorry upper High School the upper High School field when they wouldn't be able to play there at reasonable times before it opens up more places for them to benefit so and other groups will be using the field Rec of sports use um the stadium as well so it's everybody does benefit and even with the lower high school being done yes that is the Board of Ed property but our Sports use that area as well the nonprofit Sports use that area as well and it benefits the whole ecosystem of the sports great councilman small yes um I just had a statement I don't really have a question um you guys thank you Mark Sharon and David uh you guys did a fantastic job tonight in fact I half of what I was going to say I had to delete because you guys already covered it so um thank you very much for being here I just want to reiterate the fact that our primary focus remains on engaging with local residents around tatlock first C palowski councilman mittigar myself have already met with a few residents since February 7th the Department of Community programs remains committed to staying within step two of our four-step process we have devised a community engagement plan enabling residents around ttlock field to register at the Department of Community programs website for small group sessions on April 4th 11th 21st and May 6th there are still available slots and all four dates uh if you don't have access to website or Facebook page uh you can reach out to the department committee programs uh and schedule and schedule it with Mark or David and they can put you on the schedule as well so thank you again for your presentation great thank you I have a quick question this is a silly little question so in 2020 the light study was approved um did it come to council for vote that was so in 2020 the whole light project was actually in the capital budget that's what was presented at the 2019 budget meeting in December it got Whitted down to the study so essentially it did come to council the um approval of that study okay so Council approved the 50,000 okay I just want to make sure all right thank you you guys did a great job thank you Sharon Mark and David thank [Applause] you okay um I think everybody is anxious to speak so we're going to go to public comments at this point in the meeting Council welcomes comments ments from any member of the public um of issues that are not on the topic but we can talk about say on the on the on the agenda but chatl L say can say something yeah yeah okay because it was a presentation um that you can talk about anything not on the agenda uh for tonight's business agenda what whenever you come to the um lecturn please read from and you read from a prepared statement please provide that to the city clerk and to help facilitate an orderly meeting and to permit all to be heard we ask speakers please come up only once give your name your home address and please limit your comments to 3 minutes and you going to time for me okay thank you come on up okay uh good evening uh my name is Miguel valz I live at 113 Mountain Avenue and I have lived there since 1984 I uh was brought here by AT&T uh at B labs and I am now retired from AT&T and the New York Times I served a full term on the Housing Authority uh two years as chairman and then on the planning board at the time I was recommended by a good friend of mine councilman Eric MOS whom you probably remember and appointed by mayor long both were uh Republicans but uh that's what we do here in Summit we volunteer to serve the city in a nonpartisan Civic committees so I want to thank you all for donating your time as unpaid volunteers to help our city carry out its administrative responsibilities Summit has always been a city that strongly supports nonpartisan efforts to improve the lives of our residents especially the most vulnerable we are the home of the Community Food Bank Bridges uh Family Promise pep the other fellow First Foundation and lots of other things today for the Summit Housing Authority uh the budget does not come from the summit taxpayers it comes from the federal government some of taxpayers do not fund our public housing uh so why affordable housing right why why uh what what is this about who benefits from affordable housing well it's a relative term affordable uh if you um the officer that you're planning to hire in the police department uh you have a wreck out you got to pay 56,000 to start if that officer has a spouse and a family that officer would qualify for affordable housing uh so would a teacher so would a young graduate starting out maybe teaching in our schools or so with a senior who is downsizing and living on a pension so so affordable housing is a is a viable option for anyone who is you know less affluent or somebody who is no longer affluent or somebody who just needs a little help so excuse me so the reason I'm here last week on March 11th our council president went to testify at a senate hearing now I know you've made a statement if you had made that statement last week week at March 11th I wouldn't be here uh last last week you met at March 11th now I'm not speaking for or against the bill s50 but I'm here to say that we're totally totally embarrassed by the uh statements that you made inflammatory statements that you made Mr in front of the budget committee Mr council member I'm going to finish by up you're at 3 minutes sorry you're at minutes 3 minutes okay so the council member my have 3 minutes up yes which just my last sentence the council member made inflammatory statements that I think come directly from uh places like maralago now we have we have we have a reputation in our city and we're very proud of it your time is up your three minutes are up very proud of it we like you to speak well of our city thank you and if you can't do that well then we'll understand give me your statement Sir Mr V do you want to would you like to give us your statement oh okay yeah we have to minut okay um so we'd have to the seat the issues here so we have to well council president is the TV on outside or are there chairs outside don't think soy chief chief ever you can't hear outside Chief Evers you can't hear outside um so why can they just go sit down until they come up they don't have to wait in line I don't want people to be leaving the room I I think he's concerned about safety issues okay can we squeeze people in yeah okay can we get yeah we have seats up here so yeah please yeah and you know what um Chief Evers can they use these seats right here okay yeah okay okay go ahead uh three minutes hello my name is Robert Lee I live at nine Pearl Street in Summit um I'm a parent of uh two young boys here in Summit and uh we came here uh in 2020 um because of the school system and uh I've been fortunate enough last year to be invited to uh assist the coaches on the football field and help them manage the kids um and uh and so to me the lighting is not about one night or one event here in Summit but it's about an everyday thing for these kids kids and how they get to um participate in something that inspires them on a daily basis um I've seen some of the coaches firsthand inspire a team to come back from from defeat and and win a great a game in a crazy turn turnaround and um unfortunately uh as as a coach and during practice um there's been darkness and and uh that Darkness has remained for some of those students some of those students unfortunately uh who I believe were some of the greatest athletes in middle school have um not been able to continue their participation in sports they've gotten into drugs a little bit and so to me I wanted to express that uh having lights and having an opportunity for these kids to do what they need to do and and and grow up and participate in our community is a matter of both of public uh safety and but a matter of public health so I I don't think that um topic has come up much and uh and also it's a matter of equity because a lot of these kids don't have the same opportunities that some of the wealthier kids do and seeing two really great kids like that fall by the wayside really breaks my heart and I'm sure it does yours too so um with that said I'd like to to say for the health of our kids and the well-being and mental well-being of our kids why don't we let there be light thank [Applause] you name home address in three minutes thanks good evening I'm Matthew Winkler residing at 108 beakman Road as this is my initial appearance before this forum it's appropriate for you to know that Lisa my wife of 42 years and I decided to become residents of summit in 2006 mostly because Summit High School proved exceptional in cultivating the diversity of its students faculty and curriculum in the pursuit of Excellence our daughter who was co- captain of the tennis team among her several extracurricular activities before she graduated has since attained law and business degrees enabling her to become the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of an international Tech startup and found founder of reap now which is a 5013c nonprofit advocating for people seeking parole I am the co-founder and editor-in chief ameritus of Bloomberg where I am employed in my 35th Year Lisa is a former language arts teacher in New Jersey public and parochial schools as well as a published author we have three children and 13 grandchildren and remain forever grateful to Summit High School and the City of of summit for supporting values and programs that sustain it as a community inspired by the command to welcome the stranger into our midst which has its origin of course in the Old and New Testaments and to this day is all about sharing our bounties with those who are in search of safety love and kindness we now come before you at a moment of great concern when we witnessed The Summit Common council president Lisa Allen during the New Jersey senate Appropriations and budget hearing in Trenton condemn the commitment to affordable housing these are her words the expanding schools the expanding crime that is seeped into our communities her insinuation that affordable housing is in somehow linked to crime is bide by the facts which happened to be documented by numerous authorities including a 2013 study published by the National Library of Medicine do affordable housing projects harm Suburban communities crime property values and taxes in Mount Laurel New Jersey the authors conclude we find that the opening of affordable housing development was not associated with Trends in crime the University of Cali California Irvine more recently said what happens when affordable housing opens in Orange County Crime goes down and surrounding property values go up for the record Miss Allen's comment in no way represents our values because what she said isn't true and we hope her position as sum council president doesn't signal a departure from the summit city government TR and support for improving the lives of our most vulnerable citizens and always welcoming The Stranger who I'm sure all of you know Jesus himself in the Book of Matthew thank you from now on listen it's three folks have three minutes to speak you're going to be stopped at three minutes if you don't get stopped the chief's going to remove you from the the off the room so everyone has three minutes understood okay name home address and three minutes sorry Andrew Walker K Place Boulevard mayor Fagan council president Allen and esteemed council members I'm a proud resident of summit since 1998 and I'm very invested in the success and inclusivity in our town as a member of the nonpartisan community group at home and Summit I obser have observed firsthand the pressing need for more affordable housing options it is our Collective responsibility to address this issue with urgency and compassion currently at home and Summit stands in support of the nonprofit Summit affordable housing corporations proposal to develop 42 units of affordable rental housing on The Old Firehouse and 7even Cedar Street site this proposal is a practical actionable plan that meets important needs and obligations of our community the significance of this initiative cannot be overstated by providing mixed income housing we not only meet a critical demand but also Foster a more inclusive environment for our diverse Workforce consider for instance the recent job openings we heard about this earlier for police officers these individuals could benefit from this Housing Opportunity similarly our Educators healthc Care Professionals and public servants deserve the chance to call some at home without facing exclusionary housing costs the proposed housing units cater to households earning less than $76,000 offering one two and three bedroom units this aligns with our Town's constitutional obligation to promote fair housing opportunities as affirmed by both the courts and the state crucially the summit affordable housing Corporation has thoughtfully outlined a comprehensive funding approach ensuring Financial viability for this project the strong support from residents business owners and community Community leaders underscores the widespread endorsement of this plan transparency is Paramount in matters of public interest and both at home and Summit and the summit affordable housing Corporation have upheld this principle so for those seeking detailed information I encourage you to visit www homein summit.org so in closing I urge the council to advance this proposal as soon as possible thank you for your consideration [Applause] okay okay thank you just name address in three minutes okay do you want to take your mask off my name is lacricia Jones j o NES I live in the low-income housing on Glenwood Place um I um I first met Miss Lisa Allen at a residence meeting for Housing Authority I was there to voice my concerns about the conditions of low-income housing um the drug paraphernalia and illicit drug activity that has been witnessed in my complex um I was heavye hearted when I attended this meeting and considerably worried about allowing my youngest daughter to be able to take out the trash or even do laundry after a certain hour of the night due to unsavory characters that would be linging lingering around our complex specifically by the dumpster area and a laundry area at night I made the decision to move back to Summit 15 years ago driven by the desire to provide my daughters with a better quality of life education than they would have experienced in the city having myself briefly attended the summit school system I was acutely aware of the advantages that they would gain by growing up here however recently the changes in Summit particularly the increase in crime within lwi income housing and the rest of the city have left me dis disheartened instances such as drug activity car theft and the rising in property crime threatening the quality of suburban life that Drew me to well back to Summit despite these challenges I am immensely grateful for the dedication and efforts of councilwoman Lisa Allen and councilwoman dilia Hamlet they have tirelessly collab collaborated with me to bring about positive changes within our low-income housing community together we have Mar worked towards approving the overall conditions inside and outside of the property while also striving to reduce the crime and drug related activities I am committed to continue to work alongside these dedicated Council women as we Endeavor to Pres preserve and enhance the quality of life for all of our residents in our community and the City of summit lastly I like to say that I am for affordable housing however we have a lot of work to do far as low income housing and the sub subpar conditions with we live within we live in we live in thank you thank you [Applause] Jessica McLean MCC l a i n two Weaver Street Summit New Jersey I stand before you saddened by recent remarks made about council president Allen I have known council president Allen for over 13 years she and her husband welcomed me into their home as a part of their family while I cared for her children during that time I never felt misplaced or uncomfortable around the Allen Family recently Council woman Allan sorry council president Allan and I reconnected on a positive mission to make changes in the Summit Housing Authority unlike any other Council Personnel council president Allan and councilwoman Hamlet have put forth count countless hours of work into catering the needs of the tenants who live in the SU Housing Authority they've assisted in bettering our living conditions such as contacting our local fire department to fix multiple hazardous conditions that tenants have spent months complaining to The Summit Housing Authority about I speak on behalf of the summit housing tenants ass Association when I say that council president Allan and councilwoman Hamlet have done an outstanding job with the commitment they've put towards to help in the tenants of the Summit Housing Authority these women are perfect examples of what dedicated driven supportive loving caring leaders in the city of summit should look like thank you [Applause] ladies good evening um my name is Nora raist I live at 18 Blackburn place in Summit um first I want to thank you all for for all of your hard work I I do know how hard you work um I have no comment about the the substance of what occurred in in Trenton this week but I do want to urge all of you from personal experience to remember that when you speak publicly particularly at a Statewide Forum you're speaking for every single me member of this community whether they voted for you or not um and it in today's world you really need to parse your words carefully because all over America everybody's digging into everything you say and people say in their communities and trying to cause problems um so I just want to remind you of that I urge you to remember that you represent everyone and you've got to be careful about how you you phrase your comments so thank you thank you [Applause] mayor hi my name is Julie bradrick I live at two Sunset Drive in Summit um I'm here to talk about the lights um I think we can all agree that the subject of lights on tatlock has caused a lot of emotion and debate from the stop the stadium signs the exclusive Facebook group dedicated to the lights issue and personal discussions with some of the organizers against the lights who are actually present tonight I've learned that this topic is extremely important to the residents around tatlock field by talking and listening to you it was helpful to learn that you are open to Friday Night Lights but you that you have significant concerns about lighting the fields all year around you have concerns about noise pollution increased traffic reckless driving by teenagers who are staying late at the field and a potential decline in your property value just talking and listening to you I get it I understand the concerns you have about lighting on the field my one ask of everyone who is again who is dead set against the lights right now is that you try to keep the dialogue open I truly believe that if we can all come to the table with an open mind and a willingness to understand the opposing viewpoints we can get through this topic with less heat less hyperbole more communication and more compromise let's have a civil discussion with each other without the spread of misinformation or even worse the misrepresentation of any past discussions we all love our town and we want what's best for our children and our community I know that we can work this out thanks thank you [Applause] Barbara feo hod I've been a resident of summit since 1995 could you give our your address please 61 Way Drive I'm part of the tatlock community but I'm also representing Summit the comments of opening statements from mayor Fagan and council president Allen in terms of quality of life and decorum didn't go unnoticed on me because this is really the lights of tatlock field are a quality of life issue and I respect the fact that we have needs of a community in terms of sports but one of the things that we talk was talked about here tonight is a traffic study traffic studies need to be conducted certainly during Friday Night Lights and other big games because a fire engine couldn't not go down the block and people are parking on both sides of the street so that is a complete safety hazard teenagers drive and not necessarily very experienced secondly in addition the noise from that loudspeaker comes into my house three blocks away so the noise of that loudspeaker is deafening it's not attractive and I think we talk about compromise I heard about compromise here tonight but we also need to discuss the quality of life issues because the quality of life is not just for people to play flag football we moved here for a safe Community as someone who's raised Children Here someone who's lived here proudly for many many years I think we have to take a look at what the impact would be on thousands of people surrounding that field and the risk that is involved with the traffic and the speeding I'll right right now I'll ignore the beer cans that show up on the streets okay which is unacceptable in this community but is the safety of the community that is greatly being put at risk by populating that neighborhood with those lights seven days a week 5 days a week four days a week and I do appreciate the public knowledgement am at a time no no no please speak mhone and I app appreciate the public acknowledgement that a commitment was made to the community that no permanent lights would be put on tatlock field that was a commitment I witnessed it I lived it and because and so people have to do what they say they're going to do and if for the fact that is acknowledged here tonight by the community leaders I think there's no other discussion because a commitment was made and last time I made a commitment I kept it so thank [Applause] you did you okay okay thank you okay good evening I'm Claire to at 11 Sunset Drive as the weather gets warmer I'm again encouraging Council to pass a resolution closing the two downtown blocks of Maple Street for the 2024 summer season as other New Jersey communities have demonstrated this is a simple straightforward process Red Bank which has closed its downtown streets for many years well before the pandemic is a good example for Sumit to emulate red bank's police chief who until recently was also its acting City administrator says that because Redbank does not close state roads to achieve their downtown street closure New Jersey do is not involved and do is acknowledged this be um this means there is no annual process needed to achieve a closure in Redbank and because Redbank closes a street that AB buts a County Road much as Maple Street AB but Springfield Avenue they notify the county but that's it last year Milbourne closed downtown streets during the warm weather months calling it The Pedestrian Mall milburn's equivalent of our SDI undertook an in formal survey of users and that's what I've distributed to the the people the folks on the dis the words that most often came to visitors Minds were fun Community Lively friendly welcoming relaxing and Friends isn't that what we all want for Summit favorite features included live music public seating and outdoor dining all of which a seasonal closure of Maple Street would provide imagine little kids drawing out Hopscotch games on the on the street and making new friends while their parents enjoy seeing old friends with the renewed sense of community Spirit importantly for our downtown Merchants Mall visitors reported spending an average of $88 when they visited the Milburn mall and further reported that they visited other businesses in town because the mall attracted them in fact we do have some good feedback from Summit residents as a result of two surveys conducted a few years ago one by SDI and won by now council president Lisa Allen that overwhelmingly showed Summit loves destination Maple Summit moms and dads grandparents and visitors can all sit out under the stars while their PL kids play cornhole in or chess and for a little while everyone feels young a seasonal closure of Maple Street is not complicated it's a win for our downtown and it's a win for Summit residents sure we can address placemaking more in depth during the next master plan revision and we should until then let's keep doing what worked so well and make it even better minutes destination Maple is a place where Summit families can come together thank you thank you name home address in three minutes thank you I'm Danny O solivan 33 Crescent Avenue and I served on the common Council from 2020 to the end of 2022 thank you council president and thank you mayor Fagan and council members for serving I know how hard you work to try to improve everyone's quality of life I'm here tonight because my name has been mentioned at several Council meetings this year regarding my role as Council liaison to the community programs Advisory board and the issue of installing Stadium lights at tatlock I'm concerned that by this Council mentioning my name you are implying that I am endorsing the installation of Stadium lights at tatlock that's not true let me be clear I am opposed to the installation of Stadium lights at tatlock my first year as liaison to that board was spent dealing with the implications of the covid pandemic Renovations at the Summit toown pool deciding whether or not to open the pool when surrounding towns chose to keep theirs closed running summer camps and the status of the city's playgrounds among other things while we did speak about Stadium lights occasionally we didn't spend any significant time on it especially that first year it was not our focus in late 20 or early 2021 our Summit athletic director Dan hilly joined one of our board meetings over Zoom to discuss lights at tatlock I asked him directly why he wanted lights at tatlock and he very directly answered and said we meaning Summit High School athletics do not need lights he also added that the Summit High School football coach prefers to play all the football games on Saturdays at 1 p.m. he went on to say that the lights are for the private sports clubs like football and Lacrosse and isn't it obvious in the 37 million $429,500 Board of Education Capital spending Plan introduced almost two years ago there is no money allocated for lights at tatlock the community programs Advisory Board recommended a lighting study to look at electricity Supply and Foundation footings and also because I and most most members of that board knew very little about Stadium lights for instance I didn't know that each Light Tower needs to be 70 or 80 ft tall I didn't know that the cost was 1.6 million which in my mind is an unwise use of resources along with the obvious impacts on the surrounding neighborhoods these factors have led to my opposition of the project let me just add that the capital budget meeting that takes place every December is a presentation that is is open to the public and is a wish list of projects that each department head would like to pursue my first capital budget meeting was in December of 2019 the parking service director's presentation included a wish list item of a down payment of 1.5 million for a parking garage at the corner of DeForest and Summit Avenue there's no garage there now and probably never will be also keep in mind thank you also keep in mind the installation of Stadium lights at tatlock is a capital budget item that director Oar Roski once that's why it's been on his wish list for a number of years and that's okay he should have a wish list there have been some really great items thank you thank you for your time thank you it'll be in the minutes thank you Jody Campbell Dylan of 269 Ashlen Road um I live here with my husband and my five sons and today I'm here as a mother and a a citizen of this of this town to on behalf of of um Lisa Allen our council president I am horrified by what I read in the in nj.com calling our volunteer and I thank you all very much for your service um your volunteerism and and all you do for our town I am horrified by statements being made that are conflating to very different issues that are both very important to our town the affording hous foring affordable housing bill that was that you spoke about on Council um president spoke about on March 11th was relating to the way the bill was written we cannot as humans as parents as um citizens of Si Summit allow conflating of issues that are both very real very important and need to be discussed separately and both can be true at once the bill as written may not be what we want in Summit that is what council president Allen was there to speak about while her words did not come out as she may have wanted them or as intended we cannot conflate those words to but is in her heart and who she is as a person she cares about this town she cares about our children she cares about all of us and every person on this on the Town Council and every citizen in this St in this town we care and everyone's here just believing in what's right for Summit we may not agree we often don't agree um on how it gets done but we do agree that we are good people that we are good humans and we have to believe that people are out to do what's best for them for for their town and for their family please do not conflate issues please do not call name call we are not DC we are not part of this country Summit is a wonderful place where people do listen they take what they've said they look back I appreciate your statement I believe you I hear you and I I do accept your apology and that we're learning from this but please do not say horrible things about anybody on this on this Council we are all here and and we we appreciate everything that you do thank [Applause] you good evening Diego h n Aral Court last year president Greg veran allowed his neighbors to air our views as long as we need it even if the rules allowed limiting remarks to 3 minutes L excuse me I reclaim my time let me share one of many it's okay sir may I start again keep an eye on me on May 2nd 2023 then candidate balowski spoke for five minutes about the importance of free speech he waxed poetically our city is engaged we're at the de Summit neighbors remain engaged as we can see this year we have asked for redress of many grievances from an ordinance of question aable legality which worries many local leaders to our desire for outdoor dining and the suitability of Lights at TCT talk field and it seems that as our engagement grows public comment rules become more restrictive four weeks ago council president Allen opened public comments by asking us residents to keep our comments to three minutes quote if possible end quote two weeks ago council president Allen changed the rules stating quote at 3 minutes I will ask you to wrap it up end quote today we're threatened with with expulsion also to two weeks ago the Restriction was not applied evenly a chadam council woman expressing a position in line with what the council majority wanted to hear was allowed to speak uninterrupted for 4 minutes and 10 seconds in contrast tadlock neighbors speaking seeking redress for ganes were shown a sign at a three-minute mark and given a few extra seconds to wrap up also this Council has restricted our comments to one per meeting unlike the ban Le Council of last year which did not apply such limits Bob palowski was allowed to speak twice at the June 7th meeting last year and also at the July 18th meeting as reflected in the respective minutes which I include in contrast four weeks ago when I attempted to speak a second time council president Allen stated quote we don't do two times at the Lector in public comments end quote Council palowski asked last may quote since when did it become uncivil to ask hard questions it is not and I have two of my own how do these unevenly applied changing rules and increased restrictions reflect the transparency proper process and due diligence the new Administration campaigned on and two if Council genuinely wants to apply a time limit why not install a clock that's visible to all ensuring transparen transparency and fairness thank you thank you name home address and Sharon Nash 7 Au Street first I just want to say thank you for all all of your time um so one thing I wanted to bring up regarding the lights at tatl is that I think it's positive for the community as a whole um and I actually live right behind tatlock and Washington school is in essence just behind my backyard so as we've I'll I'll stick to my speech here um so um I think it's positive for the community as a whole to utilize the tack loock track and field after dark um uh let's see here as a working mom I like to walk in the evenings but at times I cannot I'm not afford the opportunity once you know I come home see what the kids need to do take care of dinner and then it's dark um and as a woman I don't feel safe walking and night funny enough I don't know if you remember Jody about I don't know if it was a year ago a year and a half ago oh sorry was about a year and a half ago or so um I was walking in Upper tatlock I was there was um a lacrosse practice at the field so I said okay I could safely Walk Around Upper tatlock while lacrosse practice is going on and then when they left I'm like okay I guess my walk is done so I would really like um lights at upper or lower cuz it gets really scary and you really can't see who's more than like 5T away from you because they just kind of come up um and actually most importantly besides my walks um is I have right now two high schoolers and um I would love my kids to have access to fields at night my son loves to play pickup soccer whether it's early or late um I know in the past they've used their phones to play um spikeball in the dark um they're constant just coming through my house getting like pickle ball rackets or soccer ball s and I think it's great for them to do something useful as you know something positive for the kids and for the community and honestly more even not organized games but just place for the kids to hang out safely that's lit and that is safe um and as we've been talking about the Lights I've started to pay attention that the tennis courts are lit up which which actually you know I really enjoy and also um Washington lights are on all night I never noticed that before but I've been paying attention and it's actually nice and the other side note is I can see upper tap lock from my upstairs window and I actually love if anybody knows me watching and seeing where my kids are so I go upstairs just to see oh there's Max you know and then I could be like okay he's good now I know where he is so I actually wish I had access to lower tat lock for my window as well which I don't but anyway um and I actually think that you know I love where we are just because we have tlock and it would be great to have use of it at night but thank you all thank you name home address in three minutes hi my name is uh Mike McAn I live at 11 Blackburn Road here in Summit um uh Madame mayor council president uh members of council first uh thank you all for what you do I know this is um a volunteer job and a lot of times you don't get a lot of credit for all the hard work and stuff that I know all of you do um I was a council uh member for six years and um I still tune in I wanted to come up because I was watching the council meeting uh from two weeks ago and I was struck by what council member boers said um around comments that were being made around not just himself but other members of council um it's always obvious to see when people begin to lose an argument the obvious sign is when they start name calling um and we've seen that unfortunately in our community um there was an issue about a law some people liked it some people don't that's fine we live in a democracy and we should be able to debate issues however it is not okay for people to start to insinuate that people on uh have ulterior motives that border on racism around that and Council people have been called that online um in public by online trolls um Anonymous letters to the editor these are with you know uh low intellect vapid commentary and these should always be called out um for what they are um and it's it is disappointing that our elected officials don't say it right away from whatever political party our leaders in our town whether you're from the faith community or from either party don't call it out while it's happening it shouldn't have to come as an apology after an council member makes a a statement up top it should be called out for what it is it has no place in our community you guys are doing the job because it's the best that you can do for the right reasons that you can do it um on that I'm just going to Pivot to uh this affordable housing issue um I want to thank the mayor council president and councilwoman Hamlet for going down to Trenton um I appreciate your comments at the beginning of the uh the evening council president um I know you individually I know you as a person I would ra I would hope in our community we give people the benefit of the doubt for what they are trying to say not to jump on them and attack them for something that they might have misspoken about um that I I think we would all deserve that to happen to ourselves okay so um what I do appreciate is that you went down there speaking for Summit two things can be true at the same time Mr McAn you're three minutes you can like affordable housing and you can agree that bill is horrific for Summit and you can Advocate against it thank [Applause] you hi Michelle cinon 67 Butler Parkway I'd like to talk a little about compromise in the last council meeting mayor Fagan council member Allen and David Gua talked about finding a compromise on tatlock field lighting every time I've heard a compromise discussed it involves reducing the hours from 10:00 p.m. to 9: or 8:30 on the surface this sounds like an even compromise splitting the difference between Sunset and 10 p.m. but it's not even at all the residents surrounding tat lock are being asked to give way more than the sports Community to demonstrate the difference I'm going to talk a bit about something that hasn't really been discussed property values that's right I'm going to be in nimi and complain about my property value one of my neighbors heard from a realtor that Stadium lights would depreciate property values in the surrounding area out of curiosity I did some reading and found that home appraisers have a term for this type of thing external obsolescence defined as depreciation caused by factors off the property and Beyond the homeowner's control as an example of this homelight.com says nearby eyes soures or high noise levels can lower your home's appraised value in case you're thinking how bad could it be or I'm sure these lights wouldn't be that much of an eyesore or a nuisance I want to hammer home how close some of us are to the field my house and some of my neighbor houses are 70 yard from the proposed light poles that means a 70ft light pole will be closer to my son's bedroom window than it would be to The End Zone on the other side of the field and if you really need any more evidence that these lights would be undesirable just drive down my street and look at the stop the stadium signs so now let's try to put a number to this external obsolescence specifically let's look at houses that would be most effective affected this map shows all of the houses that are within 200 yards or two football field lengths of where a stadium light would be installed I've also limited this limited this to houses that would have an unobstructed view of the proposed Stadium lights does anyone want to guess how the total property value of the 66 homes highlighted on this map it's $91 million there are 66 homes within two football fields of the proposed Stadium lights valued at 91 million in reading about external obsolescence I found that the effects can be 5% on the low end to 25% for things like living next to a garbage dump to be conservative let's use 5% although it may be worse for some of us 5% would mean that a million dooll home would lose $50,000 of value I think it's probably reasonable to say that a million doll home would have a price would have to drop its price to $950,000 to sell with something undesirable across the street so with our $91 million estimate as soon as you're three minutes yeah I think she's going to hand off to her husband you can you can give me your statement if you she's handing I'll take over for her okay all right um name address name address uh miles cinon um 67 Butler Parkway three minutes all right thank you um all right so picking up where Michelle left off um so with our $91 million estimate um the uh 5% uh decrease in home value would end up being $4.5 million and we do have a slide for that as well um but this is just the immediate drop in value this is as soon as the uh as soon as the lights go in the homes drop in value 4.5 but I'd like to look at it over time um so on average us home prices increase by 4.6% year-over-year so what do $4.5 million difference become when we take into account the difference in appreciation um councilman Smallwood I uh I've heard this is up your alley um can you tell me what $4.5 million would become with 20 years of appreciation at 4.6% assuming we compound monthly oh I'm sorry yeah keep looking at me no no no I'm sorry you can't pull the you can't tough crowd crowd all right it's $1.4 million um and I have a slide showing the uh showing the projection here um now does that seem like a fair compromise the Department of Community programs is giving up an hour or two to Field Time while the surrounding neighbors are sacrificing 11.4 million in property value over the next 20 years um I'd also like to finish by saying that for a plan that's been in motion for six years and is expected to cost $1.6 million I'm shocked at how little anyone has been able to articulate the need for stating lighting I keep hearing we're short own field space without any evidence other than some vague or hypothetical situation to back it up in fact the DCPS um website with their FAQ has just one example of how extra time could be used I challenged DCP to provide a proper document describing the need for stadium lights what alternatives have been considered and the full impact on the neighborhood including Financial before asking taxpayers to put up $1.6 million and members of your community to sacrifice $1.4 million in value of their homes we deserve a more compelling argument then let me make sure I get this right we would like to move second third and fourth grade girls field hockey practice from 700 p.m. to an earlier time thank you thank you Mr C thank you Mr C I I I double checked your math is correct 11 11.4 hi hi um Maggie Bowman 40 Lewis Avenue when we bought our house in 2000 we recognized that lights could be added to tatlock Fields it never occurred to us that the plan would be created by a subcommittee with no representation from the tatlock community one of my guiding principles is to always assume positive intent but I'm having a hard time doing that here on March 5th I emailed Mark oosy and councilman Smallwood about pickle ball I suggested adding Courts at Memorial Field and had a question about the court reservation system Mark told me he would talk to the ad about the courts and copy David Guida to answer the reservation question 14 minutes later David replied quote this is something that we will probably need resident feedback on there have been lawsuits in municipalities surrounding pickle ball courts because of the noise it brings there are several homes very close to these courts that will be impacted and quote 14 minutes after asking about pickleball Memorial a town employee said they need resident feedback resident feedback for a little paint and the same noise that comes from tatlock every day 14 minutes for someone to express concern for the Memorial Field neighbors the tlock light conversation entered the public record in October of 2018 over the past 5 and a half years did no one think about Resident feedback for this multi-million dollar lighting installation how is that possible it's not of course they thought of the neighbors the meeting agenda from the tatlock lighting subcommittee in September 22 lists quote ancillary nighttime items parking noise trash lighting curfew vandalism teen issues drinking Etc end quote so there was thought but no one took action to involve neighbors for one simple reason whoever is pushing this through wants it done and has no concern about Neighborhood Impact this is an oversized Reckless plan for Summit that will permanently damage our community Community I have to say it reminds me of Broad Street West council members talked about taking a field trip for the maybe playground work I recommend you do the same here fortunately you don't need to go anywhere the DPW can place their portable lights across the street from your house the lights will turn on at dusk and then off at 10 p.m. night after night each member of council and their neighbors can have a turn enjoying the lights council president Ellen stressed that she hears of residents concerns and is committed to transparency referencing prior Council measures that were pushed through without Community Support councilwoman Hamlet reminded us that this council did not initiate this plan that's true but you own it now to prevent tatl lights from becoming this council's Broad Street West you must hear the neighbors during the upcoming meetings start the traffic study right now as spring Sports begin release the redacted DCP advisory committee minutes president Allen I would like to take you out your word but I'm from Missouri this council is going to have to show me and my neighbors that you have the political courage you're at three minutes to do what is right for those who will be most impacted by this unnecessary project thank [Applause] you name home address and three minutes please yes good evening uh mayor Fagen council president Allen and members of common Council Jim Bennett b n NE 38 Fairview Avenue uh I've appeared uh be I'm going to Pivot to a different subject I've appeared before this Council before on uh the subject of Municipal debt and I uh I've attended the uh budget meeting on in December and my I'm just here for uh gather information uh what are the uh next steps in the budget process and uh when will the public get a chance to uh uh to uh to participate and uh will members of the finance committee uh be open to meeting with me privately thank you would you have a statement No statement you call me by surprise there Jim you dropped your pen oh thank you thank you thank you hello my name is Mary Higgins I want to thank you so much Mary for what is your home address Oh no you're no no the other one you're right home address 14 Avenue Summit New Jersey I have five Sons I've lived there for 30 years uh during Co the sewers failed on oage Avenue you're right in the summer there's nobody anywhere if it wasn't for Lisa Allen I would have a distressed husband with no hair but thanks to Lisa she was able to get it coordinated and get us situated on top of that I had a bill for 100,000 for my last son graduating Georgetown and getting just getting back to Summit and sports my children didn't get to use the summit schools because uh as we all know the principal told us boys school is not meant for boys they had to go on riddlin or I had to leave I couldn't believe it we left we went to Catholic School cost a fortune but they still got to participate in the sports as a summit resident even though your children do not go to the summit schools you do get to enjoy them and my all my boys went on to play sports in college high school and college so for that I'm very grateful thankful to you and it's just been tremendous to have you it's just unbelievable the amount of crime on Oak Avenue in that area it's it's beyond belief I feel like I'm back in Brooklyn it's crazy but to have you as a direction just know that we're working on things and that contact person you take the calls it's a godsend the other thing is the traffic we need a traffic study over by that hospital it's growing by Leaps and Bounds they're responsible for all the sewers canceling out because they're just not worrying about the infrastructure so I just want to give you my point I'm very thankful to all you here I'm so glad that you're accessible to me and my family and maybe we'll stay now see how it goes but thanks again and I appreciate it God bless [Applause] bye hi hi I'm Lori rufolo R UF o l o I live at 51 w Drive I've been there 28 years I've I've raised my children I've had a wonderful wonderful life I love my tatlock field Community we're a walk-in group we're a friendly group and I love it there I really feel I'm here tonight because I feel my the impact of the quality of my life in Summit will drastically alter with the lights I had the unfortunate circumstance of having a wonderful barbecue at the same time there was a game first of all the loudspeaker I am three blocks away I'm three blocks away from tatlock and the loudspeaker is so phenomenal that with my windows closed or being outside it is very bothersome um the rest of the noise is unbelievable too um so yeah it really impacted our family barbecue that day um the other thing is just coming home during a game it is difficult to get down the streets there are people walking there are cars parked on both sides of the street it is a safety hazard just getting to my house on the day that there is a game um also uh just walk I cannot even go down to that area and drive through like I would normally do I have to reroute myself in order while there's a game going on so I do feel it would really impact the quality of my life um and uh it's a matter of safety it's a matter of noise uh I feel like the entire area would severely change and be impacted so I hope that you could be very creative and find ways that the children could play sports and not impact other people's living around tatlock thank you thank you hi Henry hi Henry Bassman 18 Harley Road uh first of all I want to express my appreciation to everybody who is involved with taking the $1.6 million off the capital budget I think that was a very wise move and a very fair move thank you second I want to say that I'm a fan of community programs my oldest son uh goes to summer camp my oldest grandson I should say my two grandsons participate in trian and I've worked with David gida for years on the Memorial Day uh commemoration and it's a group that works very hard and does very good work but I'm afraid in the rollout plan for the community engagement there are two fatal flaws before I mention them let me tell you that I'm sure you're going to make a judicious decision but as you get along the process I'm going to follow Ronald Reagan's advice trust but verify and I'm sure that the other people who live in the area will do the same okay first flaw conducting environmental and traffic studies in the spring is laughable nothing happens in the spring except for Summit relays and the high school graduation the time to conduct those studies is in the fall three football games and two lacrosse games at least that way you have a good idea of what the impact really is on the community surrounding tlock second there's a notice about the community meeting that's supposed to go to people who live within 200 ft of tatlock that's ridiculous that would only include portions of Butler Parkway portions of Lewis Avenue and a small portion of Aubry Street the area that's impacted I estimate and I may be off but I estimate goes from River Road to Beverly Road and Woodland Avenue to Mars Avenue a more appropriate distance from tatw walk is maybe 1,200 to, 1500 ft not 200 so those are my two comments I want to thank you again for being judicious and being fair and I hope and expect that you will be in the future thank you thank you name home address in three minutes please hi Elliot Fishman 34 Webster Avenue uh Summit I do not have any prepared remarks I don't have any speeches to make I'm just going to say this ex extemporaneously a deep appreciation for everyone sitting across the dasas uh there's a lot of decorum here there's a lot of Civility there's a lot of listening and it makes for harmonious community and we're very grateful lots of us of either political party crossover voters Independents we just came out tonight to say thank you and we appreciate everything you're doing that's it thank [Applause] you can I use some good evening everyone thank you again um appreciate home address my name is Carlos Hernandez as h n ndez um 85 Butler Parkway um last time that I was here at the prior council meeting there were references to the 2018 meeting so I went kind of like took a look at that in YouTube um and and of note was that when they were discussing the various options to add to the sports field space in Summit when referring to expanding the use of fields or lights in existing facilities like upper high school and Franklin um Elaine Anderson provided some of the sense of the impact to those communities as result of the proposed enhancements but in making the recommendation of adding lights to investors fields and upper tatlock a much impactful idea she merily supported recommendation by tagging it to the T loock for development plan andm providing any notion of impact to the neighbors in the area when asked by a council member uh who led this in in the question by saying he thought based on the experience there would be Community interest she noted um no Community engagement had taken place she then try mitigating that by noting that there was input from Sports presidents who were Community residents she went on to talk about technology light technology has been a key differentiator from past similar discussions about turfing and adding lights to Summit Fields she pointed to the tennis courts at lights at tatlock as a perfect example of technology which is concerning because the lights of do spill over considerably even the superior technology from Moscow which is what is being considered now would have a dramatic impact on the community when referring to going from having no lights to having them it was also observable from the video recording of that cancel meeting that I was that it was not well attended a ga a well attended Gathering um and and no one from taclo Community um was was alerted to the discussion the absence of that was clearly explained by elae Anderson's own acknowledgement that there had been no preliminary Outreach to the most impacted Neighbors in reaching the recommendation from what I can discern from that Summit council meeting is that the council as a whole minimize the impact of the community programs Advisory Board proposal on tatlock um residents this weekend I also observe council president Lisa Allen's oral testimony when she was um used the initial feedback from tlock residents to make the council's case against A4 A4 and s50 bills I'm not going to talk about the community um you know the affordable housing project and your opposition to those bills but you actually did use our statements and you gave the impression that it continues to be the council objective to minimize the concerns of our community um even if that's not what you meant that's how we that's how we came across in your in your remarks you specifically Mr Fernandez you're a three minutes you specifically talk about the impact please up I thought I have 30 seconds after 3 minutes you have lesson time's up okay please you going in community engagement do not minimize the concerns of the community in your plans thank you understood thank you thank you sir hi everybody U my name is Teresa Solano and I live at 38 Lewis Avenue once again I'd like to ask the DCP to add the complete September 27th um 2022 meeting minutes to their tatlock page that includes the ancillary nighttime items in the spirit of transparency since the start of March I've hated that my husband and I and I personally have contacted the summit police four times via phone C click fix and an email regarding the safety on the Aubrey Street Lewis AB curve by tatlock field regarding illegally parked cars in no parking zones with dangerous traffic on both sides of our street in broad daylight I know that multiple neighbors have as well we're only six days into spring Sports councilman palowski has seen this firsthand this is not the quality of life anyone in town deserves or moved here for but it's important for the safety of the 25 plus schoolage children on our street this residential neighborhood and insufficient lot space is not designed to handle the parking buses and traffic flow as former Chief W agreed adding 70ft Stadium lights to one field let alone two proposed is irresponsible and wrong it was shocking as I sat in City Hall last month asking questions and threw out if lights had ever been considered at Memorial Field director ozarowski said the neighbors would have a fit I appreciate that Council McAn brought up that concern of the Neighbors in that 2018 meeting why should that park or any other green or turf um or upcoming Turf be afforded any special consideration for their well-being and their quality of life while the tatlock neighborhood is being steamrolled again last time I checked we pay into the same tax system that the rest of Home homeowners the entire city of summit do thank you thank you presid hi hi yeah please say your name address and three minutes y Alexis Baylor 42 lsav I'm here for tatlock lighting also I live three houses away from tatlock um my husband and I moved to Summit in 2021 and when we initially looked at our house the first thing that we asked the neighbors was the impact of the field uh this included whether or not there were lights or nighttime events we heard then about the agreement the town had made with residents not to light the field it was a huge selling point for us as was the fact that the field directly behind our home the cow pasture Green Field it's been called both would not be touched we now have a toddler and an infant and we absolutely love living next to tatlock it's an incredible environment that shows how vibrant The Summit Community is we're looking forward to our girls growing up to play sports there however we are extremely concerned about the prospect of Lights being added not only is it an eye sore it also poses dangerous dangerous issues for us and our children the traffic that we get on our street on event days is extremely frustrating and hazardous I'm not sure of the results of the traffic study that was recently done but if you come on any event day you'll clearly see lsav becomes a one-way street with cars entering in both directions to be honest at the curve of Aubrey and Louis AB this happens on any given day with students and coaches parking there the addition of lights will continue this problem late into the night it doesn't seem fair that our neighborhood has to carry such a large Sports burden for the town there was earlier talk about maintaining the character of our town this should apply to us too the tatla community is getting squeezed by all of the increased activity and development on moris ab and River a and inviting more visitors at extended hours will just make it worse it's very frustrating as an avid sports fan that this seems to be shaping into an anti- Sports narrative if you're opposed to the lights that is not the case in any way we're just trying to keep our own children safe and pro preserve the tatlock community that we love there was a previous comment made about the health of children and how lights would decrease drug use I frankly do not see the connection but I have to believe that those concerned about the safety and well-being of children would understand that they should not be playing sports until 9:10 p.m. especially on school nights additionally it does feel like pandering to continue to emphasize that one of the main reasons that this is needed is because of the increase in girls Sports I have two daughters and will have absolutely no problem if they're forced to play on grass or have to go to a neighboring town for a practice or game finally I understanding there are no definite schedules but if you truly don't expect regular night events why are we spending this money it would only encourage more games more visitors and more safety issues thank you thank you please state your name your home address in 3 minutes hi MIM zukov 49 Way Drive I'm sorry can you repeat that please MIM zukov 49 Way Drive M um I have lived in Summit for close to 40 years I've lived on W drive for 35 I'm an environmentalist I serve on the environmental commission I'm the chair of the recycling advisory committee I'm a founding member of the summit area green Faith Circle I'm very concerned about a lot of environmental issues in this regard I spend a lot of time walking in martinbrook park and picking up trash in Martins Brook Park and along buler Parkway it's disgusting and it's much much worse after there's been a some kind of a big sporting event the um the light the light pollution it's not good for any of us and especially for the people who live right around the field who have young children who need to go to bed at night they shouldn't have to get special light reducing window treatments because this is being imposed on them a lot of people have mentioned that we were assured many times over over the decades I've lived here that there would not be permanent lighting at tatlock field and we never dreamed that there' be another sports complex right on the upper tatlock the plastic pollution that washes down into the storm drains I don't know if anyone knows this it washes right into Martin's Brook into the pic river which is our source of water it breaks down into tiny little particles that are so small that it cannot be filtered out everyone should be afraid and I don't need to tell you if you live in the neighborhood that both Cano Brook Parkway and Butler Parkway are Speedways and I can't even imagine parking on both sides of Butler at night and parents parking across the street and waving to their child come over here I'm here to pick you up and the kid darting across the street and getting hit by a car going 40 m an hour on Butler Parkway and speeding is not enforced in our neighborhood never has been I don't believe it ever will be that's my comments I really hope you don't do this thank you thank you good evening Reverend Rod williams6 Glenside Avenue Fountain Baptist Church I'm speaking as an African-American and I want to admonish around the notion of codee that in essence often times when we hear about affordable housing it has now become one of the new buzzword as used to be terms like busing and uh as recently as November 23rd of 2021 New Jersey passed into law legislation requiring the removal of discriminatory language from deeds and homeowners and Condominium Association documents the practice of inserting racial covenants into real estate contracts which has been illegal since 194 48 but was still present in some documents that haven't been vetted as this law requires the removal of discriminatory language from all Deeds recorded on or after January 1st 2022 and from the governing documents of home owners and condominium associations I Shar this information as an abject history lesson of the commonplace practice of redlining that occurred across the state some included and this is why we should hope that any opposition to affordable housing would be tempered with Grace from those who realized that as opposed to maintaining such segregation that was inacted along racial lines there would be good faith efforts to eliminate those boundaries and embrace a more diverse community that that than that which was created through those despicable practices and finally councilman Boer I also stand to take issue with a statement that you made at the last council meeting which was recorded where you stated that at a previous council meeting you were told that you were not black I was at that meeting I don't recall that at all as the topic of the language of the resident protection ordinance was being discussed you addressed me with the question saying something to the effect of I guess we can agree that I'm black to which I responded with a gesture that neither required me to confirm or deny your ethnicity so I don't know why you felt that that was something to question any more than your repeated questions at the last Council session that the affordable housing component isn't meant to diversify Summit something you asked on two separate occasions so sir if you care to recount an exchange for the Republic record then it's important that the recollection be accurate and if you ask questions that appear to appease negative stereotypes that you don't do it in an attempt to score biased political points thank you thank [Applause] you David Chone 147 sumon Avenue I Madame mayor council president councilman thank you for hearing me I'd like to Echo some of what was just said before me but a lot less eloquently um I was watching this council meeting from my couch a few moments ago and I was compelled to get off my coach and run down here um literally because I couldn't watch one more person come up and apologize for the council president's comments at Trenton about affordable housing uh I couldn't watch one more person apologize or make excuses on her behalf um I couldn't watch one more person call out people who speak truth to power and call out racist comments for what they are are and malign those people who are actually speaking up and saying the right thing I'll avoid the r word uh I know it gets people really upset and they kind of shut down um but those comments at the very best were classist and let's just speak PL plainly you are a council president you are capable you wouldn't had that seat if you weren't uh you went they were prepared comments we know what those comments mean you know what they mean we know what they mean because people have said them before it's not the first time they were spoken uh they have a very specific meaning and I think we all need to work a little bit harder to ignore that rather to not ignore that and to recognize that and be honest with ourselves thank [Applause] you Lacy cter 123 Summit Avenue let's be clear when you mayor Fagan council president Allen and council person Hamlet went to Trenton you council president deled prepared remarks Rife with dog whistles dog whistles that were not so subtle in fact they were so blatant that they were they elicited passionate reproach from state senators in the room and when mayor Fagan had the gall to say please leave the decisions about development to the people who are directly impacted well that resulted in a scathing OP ED by Tom Moran of the Star Ledger that has severely damaged summit's reputation council president your statement the words you chose so carefully let's hear them again there will be no escaping the noise the pollution the cars the expanding schools and the expanding crime that has seeped into our communities look studies show over and over that responsible Suburban development responsible affordable Suburban development uh does not create more crime and more noise well not unless laughter is noise in the 20 plus years that I have lived in this town I have lived most of my days within two blocks of one of summit's affordable housing communities I walk my dogs through it I used to have a big red girl now I have a chunky little brown one and a huge Great Pyrenees and pretty much they're kid magnets kids always come over and pet them and say hi and seriously there is always a good game of tag or man Hut going down over there when families have access to affordable housing the reality is there are tons of positive outcomes increased savings increased credit scores reduce total debt and building affordable housing in Summit which is your obligation mind you means access to Quality education amazing Sports and theater programs a Vibrant Community with arts and culture after school programs at the Y and pep and downtown where kids can still work jobs at pizza places those are the people mayor that are directly impacted and isn't that the American dream isn't that what this whole experiment of America is even about we heard earlier this evening how much planning years and phases for tatlock lights from the Department of Community programs it makes me wonder what kind of plan do you have in place in the works right now to meet these obligations now is the moment for this Council to meet the third round of affordable housing obligations obligations not suggestions that must be taken seriously ly or our community will be in the crosshairs of a lawsuit that will result in a building that far exceeds what the proposed Broad Street West ever was crosshairs that the three of you made certain were're focused on Summit when you went to Trenton and delivered your deplorable remarks [Applause] uh Katie isakovich 51 Butler Parkway um I want to ask Council to take a few steps regarding the LaCrosse wall before it goes up kind of similar to what was done with maybe playground and the instruments there um I I have a concern that uh there hasn't been thought regarding um the the noise of the the balls hitting the wall I I just want to put that out there that um before it goes up if something could be done to mitigate that sound I have this concern that you know because nobody spoke up at the council meeting where it was announced and we we've kind of been talking about that a lot in terms of you know both the the tatlock lights in 2018 and how that compares to Broad Street West etc etc so I I want to lay that to rest yes that's true I was not at the council meeting where the LaCrosse wall was first brought up um I had just moved here I had an infant at the time now I have an infant and a toddler and my concern is that now not only are the events that that currently take place at tatlock going to steal their sleep um but also now we're going to have balls hitting a wall at any given time and again more nap time stolen so I just want to ask that that be given some consideration and before this becomes a reality something be done to mitigate the noise that that is likely to create regarding the stadium lighting at tatl lock I would also like to comment on council members and DCP coming to the tatlock community a few times requesting a compromise in exchange for our buyin but we understand that the current Arrangement was a compromise the tatlock community supported the turfing of Upper and Lower tatlock on the basis of council agreeing not to ever install permanent lights and we do not agree as some council members have suggested that the commitment to the turf was permanent while council's commitment not to install lights was temporary that is not an equitable agreement that the tatlock community would would have accepted so when DCP put together that tatlock like Committee in 2018 the tatlock community was not monitoring for this action um in Council meetings because we understood that we had an agreement permanent Turf for permanently not having lights and this committee from our perspective is a committee whose purpose is to figure out how to violate that agreement um from our perspective Council and DCP no longer like the existing compromis and agreement so they haven't acknowledged it and have demanded the a new compromise which is not ological ask council members have even admitted that any agreement made would be good for only as long as Council doesn't like the agreement anymore and then by a simple vote of council the agreement even if supported in an ordinance will disappear and that's all it takes to remove an ordinance the lights won't disappear but whatever was promised to the tatlock community will certainly disappear in time so while we're talking about you know not having a game every week or having the Lights Off by 8 p.m. how soon before that changes you're at 3 minutes please wrap up the tlock community already shoulders 10 seconds the disruption enough so we ask that it be more evenly spread across the the town thank [Applause] you your please just state your name your home address uh Danielle Lee 17 Butler Parkway um I would like to share some of the P that I'm already experiencing as a tatlock president so the tatlock community is already um is already shering a pretty big uh burden for the community already for the entire city of summit already asking more is not acceptable um so I've going to talk about three points traffic light pollution and noise pollution that I'm currently experiencing already so on the traffic the traffic is already intolerable right now on B Parkway particularly since the road was narrowed I never knew why the road was narrowed it looks better now but people Park on both sides of the butler Parkway which essentially creating a oneway traffic on Butler Parkway and whenever there's events I don't remember how many times I have to just stop to allow for the incoming traffic to go through so it's essentially a oneway traffic it's very dangerous because people kind of speed down from Morris Avenue and when they come down they they don't realize because they were like going downhills and it's just very dangerous cuz it create a lot of like um blind spots for me as well people are blocking my driveways uh I can't back out um even when I back out I can't see very well where I'm going because there are like a lot of cars so um so I think this is going to be much worse if we're going to install the the stadium lights right for sure um we're going to be more traffic so the light pollution um my son's bedroom is right across from the upper tlock field the uh there's already light on upper tatlock field and it looks pretty sufficient to me at this time I'm not sure why there's a need to have more lighting especially really tall lighting uh and uh and especially if it's if it kind of requires millions of dollars of investment is it like a wise use of money for the city right um and the noise pollution people love playing loud music when they're playing spots like having loud music after kids bedtime is going to definitely be a huge um impact to our quality of life and kids shouldn't be really playing spots after bedtime anyway right why would some kids are out playing like at 10:00 at night uh that's defeating the purpose of having spots right so that's hurting their houseal so um the tlock field is a sports field not not just someone's backyard where they can just stay as long as they want um so A promise is a promise verbal or written even though it was made by previous leadership so I'm really um asking this leadership to consider that and honor that promise and find other alternatives to the taog uh lighting project thank you thank [Applause] you Letterman uh Clark Street 27e Summit resident first I want to thank Lisa and the other newly elected council members and recently for their Grace and composure in the face of these idiotic divisive tactics by a couple of demented individuals whose only mission is to cause cast and drama no one is falling for it I don't think they even believe their own nonsense your calm leadership is truly inspiring and is precisely why you were were all elected thank you but getting lost in all the phony race baiting is some really good news somewhere I really don't remember where I thought I overheard that the beacon Church wants to subdivide the 2 acre Red Cross property and build a 100% affordable building like the at home and Summit one on it with some of that two 20 million building money they've raised if this is true and I really wish somebody was here from the church to speak about it uh it would be amazing it couldn't be in a more perfect location Li nicely integrating low-income residents into one of the best neighborhoods in Summit that's walking distance to a public school supermarket and train station I applaud the congregation for living their faith and not just wasting all that land on a Monumental building and trust that this is one application that will be unanimously unanimously approved by the zoning board this would be a great time for somebody to speak about this to break the news and tell us about how you are putting your faith into practice it would heal the help heal the divisiveness caused by the cruel and morally reprehensible racist nimi accusations and thank you for hearing to the three minute thank Youk you Vicky Miss leaderman do you want to give your speech just make a general statement that anybody who read from a statement if they haven't already submitted it please do okay right thank you thank you thanks hi name and home address hi there I'm Kimberly McGovern I live at 142 Colonial Road and I'm a 18-year resident of summit um I originally had no intention of getting up here and talking I just quickly type something up on my phone while sitting in the back row I am on the Executive Board of the suit boosters um and as sitting in that position I'm involved in Communications I've been asked about the lights to which I realized I was poorly informed um I've heard a lot of different rumors all of which on both sides I now realize were all wrong so I applaud the council and suit wck for doing that uh presentation to lay out really where we are right now so we can all be on the same page uh going forward okay so um I'm in favor of the lights but I'm also here to ask both sides of this issue to remain open and to truly listen to each other and to be open to compromise I live about three blocks from Summit High School the field there has lights and it is lit up at night I cannot see the lights in the sky from my home however I'm grateful to know that they are there I have four children and all four of my children have used the fields there uh the upper field for both organized and unorganized Sports uh my sons would regularly meet up with friends for a pickup game of touch football uh maybe for some ghosts in the graveyard you know you name it but as I've always been very grateful to know that I have that extra space for kids in the area to meet up and play so as someone who um would I would always assume and would that having lights on a local field is actually an improvement to property value um I certainly would see it as such I have a larger because it's a larger outdoor space that you can be using um I'm excited to think about another space for early evening activities for children outside and away from devices as I equate life with light with safety and I equate my kids spending time outside in the Fresh Air with health um there are numerous games at the upper High School field and I've never felt put off by the presence of fans buses players and the noise I really miss Friday Night Lights and the fun crisp fall evenings with the community when we all come together I feel like this is such a positive evening and um I really think it's Priceless as far as street parking I can attest that This Town Council will work with residents of the neighborhood by passing parking measures to make sure parking isn't an issue not this Council but a council prior listen to our area and worked with residents Madam you're at three minutes okay thank you so in closing I'm just asking everybody to listen and to be open and to be open to compromise thank you thank you please state your name your home address in 3 minutes yes good evening uh Blake scallet 105 New England Avenue I'm also the pastor of St John's Church at 587 Springfield Avenue thank you yes uh I stand before you uh thinking as a pastor person of faith of some words of scripture one that least came to mind for me was the uh the meditations of our the words of our mouth the meditations of our hearts u a lot of things have been said about things that were said one thing that you said tonight that really made me so happy was that you said I'm for affordable housing I'm for affordable housing I have uh as a pastor in this town for a dozen years years spoken to every time I get a political candidate or a politician in front of me the topic I want to talk about is affordable housing as a pastor in this community I have seen people struggle with housing at every level our church through Summit warm Hearts brings homeless people in literally off the streets two nights a week I've had members of our congregation who have been decades long senior residents who are literally facing imminent homelessness I called your predecessor mayor to say what do we do and and was angry irrespective of the party what are we going to do in this town to fulfill Our obligation to all of its residents we are a wonderful community that should be ever expanding to both meet the current need and it is a current need teachers police officers nurses most of the clergy can't afford to live here but also this is part of our best moments of being a community that dug in and did the right thing so I don't want to talk about what hasn't happened I want to urge you to move forward how are we going to put more affordable housing for all of its people in this community now the at home at Summit program sounds like a pretty good one I urge you to do the hard work to see if this is the right thing right now don't put it off move forward right now if it's not let's find the right one but let's do something right now people need this our community's health needs this Summit is stronger together with all of its people rich and poor all together thank you thank you Joselyn Modesto 61 Butler Parkway uh so my comments are also focused on the proposed lighting at tatlock um at the last council meeting after public comment councilwoman Hamlet referenced an October 2nd 2018 meeting which I later viewed thank you for pointing out that meeting to us as you observed there were only a few residents there so to characterize that presentation by Aileen Anderson as a presentation to the community is a gross misrepresentation When Miss Anderson was asked whether there was any initial community outreach she said only the sports presidents were talked to when council president na asked if there were any Resident comments there were none I can assure you and the rest of council that in 2018 we were not silent because we had nothing to say about the proposed lighting project we as the negatively affected tatlock Community were completely unaware of these progressing plans that will have a detrimental impact on our daily lives it is an unreasonable and burdensome expectation that every resident is looking at every meeting agenda and attending every budget meeting for anything that may remotely affect them your remarks at the end of public comment last meeting suggested we should have been doing just that for then we would have caught the three times in the past six years that the potential lights at tatlock were discussed publicly this is a large project that would affect those in proximity to the field in a very real and very damaging way so the burden should not have been on us to look out for this project however that sentiment only proves the point of my last public comment the tatlock community cannot trust in any compromise or agreement made with Council because it can be easily changed changed without any notice or input from us the tatlock community would have to always be on guard scrutinizing the council meeting agendas and budget presentations for a change and set agreement none of us in the tatlock community want to live that way as the conversations progressed from 2018 to today no one who will be directly impacted day in and day out by the proposed lights have been included in the discussions in any meaningful way they have not been placed on subcommittees consulted in an advisory capacity or had the chance to work collaboratively and bring some perspective to the designers of this project the DCPS own stated progression of steps does not leave room for a genuine assessment of whether these lights even belong in a residential neighborhood to begin with their website and FAQs have made it clear that the lights are coming to tatlock and our concerns do not carry any weight that is why this whole process still looks and feels very much like a dog and pony show from the from the tatlock neighbor perspective I urge Council and the DCP to take a deeper look into the harmful daily impact lights will have on the tatlock community and reconsider whether it is proper to even move forward any further with this proposal at all thank you for listening thank [Applause] you hi Dory gagnan 27 bford road so I come up here because this is the third project that's been down by Washington school that's this one's kind of affected me but not as much as oratory prep that's right across the street from me and the lower high school field that's right down the street for me so I understand where all the residents are upset um but one thing that everybody here has to understand is that they have the time to come up and speak to you guys um oratory prep was the planning board or the zoning board I don't remember it was almost 10 years ago and we didn't really have a say we had to compromise with them and was a done deal but I have a field with lights and I have a school now across the street from me and I went to Sergeant daily and I got a petition with my neighbors and I worked with him on the parking on my street so that's something that you guys should do now on your street to get ahead of all of the traffic that's what I urge you to do now I would talk to the chief before it's a problem because that was something that I did to take initiative um that's something I suggest the other thing is that that um the the turf on the high school the Board of Ed didn't listen to us many of us came to the board of ed meetings and said we didn't want the turf we didn't want it because they're putting a new sign on the entrance of Moors Avenue with a new entrance and there's no parking there and we're very worried of the kids crossing the street parking on Bedford Road and Crossing on Morris Avenue and with that are going to come lights and with that is more traffic and more concern for kids or someone getting hurt because what the parents are going to do is drop their kids off and say go ahead Johnny cross the street go to practice and then you said there're putting more lines and more lines are they going to put soccer balls and then kiss them on kick them onto Morris Avenue or lacrosse balls I was a coach I was a high school I was a college athlete I get it we want Sports um with the lights down on tatlock I don't really have a say or a concern but I do have a say and concern with the traffic and the safety um and kids playing sports till 10:00 at night so I think we have to look at everything in a hole and putting everything down on our side Memorial Field I'm sorry for you parents over there you're not going to like this but that field has to have a whole redo and stuff has to be start happening over there our area has to stop the traffic and the con like the congestion down by us is ridiculous so please take consideration and look at Memorial Field I would really appreciate that guys thank you thank you thank you Dennis and harryel 140 Broad Street Summit New Jersey good evening as a resident of 34 years in Summit and based on my experience as an intelligence officer in the US Air Force a district manager at New York telephone and 45 years as a pastor in this climate in which people seeds on every word spoken sometimes it's good to know when a personal appearance will not serve the intended purpose because the bill has already been decided and whatever you say could be broadcast over social media over the world then don't beat a dead horse consider the side effects in this case it is my honest opinion that three letters from mayor Fagan and council president uh and councilwoman A Hamlet would have been enough it would not have resulted in the unfortunate feedback that resulted by your speaking in Trenton even much of what you said had Merit just brighten the corner where you are and do what is right for Summit regardless of what the state of New Jersey does or does not do secondly point of History since the completion of the senior housing and Summit there was a gap of some 30 years before a large affordable housing unit was completed in Summit during this period Summit used what is known as Regional contribution agreements rcas to send Housing Trust Fund Monies to towns like Elizabeth and planfield to help them with their affordable housing in 2008 while President president of the summit Interfaith Council I along with my colleagues were successful in set in getting the Summit Common counil to dis continue this practice as it sent the wrong message that you can work here but you are not we are not doing anything to help you live here isn't it interesting that in the bill A4 A4 s50 this provision was permanently banned some 16 years after Summit stopped it thirdly in 1989 I came to Summit as the pastor Wallace Chapel Amy Zion Church from mayor Janet Whitman to now mayor Fagan and to every coun common Council from 1989 to now I have attempted to be an advocate of those moral principles that benefit every resident of summit that coincide with my philosophy of number one is there a need number two is it doable Pastor harryel your three minutes and number three is it the right thing to do the proposed affordable housing project meets a need is doable and the right thing to do I hope that the city of summit will add this project to Weaver Street Glenwood Place and the senior building and build at home for Summit thank you [Applause] Regina Walsh 24 Bedford Road um I just want to say knowing Lisa councilwoman Lisa Allen I know that her words were definitely taken out of context because I've had many conversations about affordable housing with many people here because that's how I met my husband he was living in affordable housing when we got married making $10,000 a year and he was uh he did have a little bit of money that he was able to buy excuse me that was able to buy um affordable unit housing from that was something that now we're able to actually have a nice house in Summit because of that opportunity that they were given I think um Sumit should look at affordable housing for people to be able to buy because then they're really they're making a little bit money on it um after my husband and uh we had gotten married I had a house uh he moved in he sold his affordable housing unit to his brother who was just starting out he had just gotten out of law school had lots of bills and I just think that's something that Council should also look at um another thing I want to talk about is the lighting I live on Bedford Road and as Dory gagan had talked about we live right in the backyard of oratory prep and um we were not given the opportunities to have open sessions like this it was was something that was not told to us one of the neighbors had gotten a letter from someone who had gone to school there so I do really appreciate that me living in the tatlock community that everybody is actually allowing people to come up and talk about different things and to try to come up with some sort of solution one of the things that we did living on Bedford Road is and I think that the people who do live in the a little bit closer to the area on Butler Parkway one thing that we don't have we didn't have the buses on the street buses should be up at the high school or someplace else they should not be in the community we also um have uh with the traffic we have no parking at certain times but oratory if they're having an event they put out signs and you're not allowed to park on one side of the street I also do wish that Butler Parkway was as that but uh Bedford Road was as wide as Butler Parkway our street really isn't that wide and when we did have two um Lanes a firet truck couldn't come down but I do think there's an opportunity for the people on but to come up with something like that also trees we went to oratory I look right onto their ugly Blue Roof but years and years later it's really not as bad as we all thought that it was going to be because um oratory worked with us I really do love hearing the kids outside um one other thing is that Friday Night Lights is not going to happen unless this project goes through talking to um the ad and different people like that because there is issu issues with having lights all the way up to the bathrooms all the way up to Washington field my son's the football captain next year and unfortunately he's never going to be able to experience the Friday Night Lights I understand that people do want to have Friday Night Lights and they were great uh agree with it but I just think that everyone should work together a little bit more and get a solution thank you Regina do you want to give your statement you want to hear a statement to Rosemary I don't know if you need that I wouldn't worry about it thank you hi guys uh oh hey hey Rachel Kramer 88 um Elm Street Su New Jersey so so much um first I do want to thank all of you guys up there I know what you do is not easy it's not paid it's often um thankless but I appreciate you guys I appreciate Department of Community programs um so thanks for that I'm not going to apologize for anybody's words just like nobody apologized for Diego's words when he said that 100% affordable housing would lead to ghettoization um you guys are adults and you speak for yourselves um thank you Michael Rogers for kind of explaining why Maple might not make sense this year and thank you Mr giobi for explaining the ordinance in a bit more detail last week um so that being said I've I've been to these meetings for a while um 3 minutes should be enforced thank you guys you didn't enforce in the beginning people alluded to midnight ride meetings they don't really know what that meant but um I think that this will help make meetings more efficient so thank you for that as well I've been in um coming to meetings for years and advocating for more affordable housing when BR sh us was part of the discussion I asked a lot of questions about why minimum 15% um was being considered we were told financial decisions and that was all that was required by law um I was sitting in meetings where people came up address the council talked about redlining and then in the next breath talked about the multiple properties that they owned in Summit that they used as um additional revenue streams so I don't know if those are rented out at affordable rates or not but I've noticed that it's really easy to come up here and Signal virtuosity instead of actually being virtuous yourself so I saw something and um it's not scripture but it made me think of a lot of what's been going on in these meetings and how does moral narcissism show up in social and political discourse moral narcissism is best identified by causing harm in the name of virtue in the realm of social justice advocacy virtue is often attached to social or political causes moral narcissism adapts a cause usually men many and weaponizes those causes to abuse shame ostracize cancel and punish those who defy their ideologies the difference between altruism and mor moral narcissism is that altruism does not cause harm for harm nor does it use labels to crush descent it is it is people pure centered and focuses on engaging and enlightening moral narcissism on the other hand causes harm under the guise of curing harm because the primary motivation is not to C cure harm but to project in feelings of guilt and shame onto others while using a weapon the cause to sanitize their own actions as virtuous in this way not only does moral narcissism you were three minutes okay sorry thank you so much and um D yes Memorial Field I'm there I'll help name address three 113 wood DAV um Greg maybe now Diego will understand why you mooved the comments till the end of the meetings when you were president um I just want to make sure that it's quite clear and it's kind of frustrating that the issues with the bills that Lisa and Elizabeth and dilia went down to speak about in Trenton wasn't against affordable housing it was about the policies by which they were it was implemented and building um and I think all of the council people were against it I'm pretty sure Andy was against it I'm pretty sure Greg was against against it Democratic leaders and Westfield were against it Democratic leaders and chadam were against it it's pretty universally bad for municipalities because you lose control and the issue then becomes overdevelopment it was very clear that those were the issues that you were talking about um Lisa and it's shameful that people mischaracterize that some people I can understand would not understand the bills and what the issues were with it um but unfortunately we have people in Summit and these are the people I think Nora spoke about when she said just watch every word because people are looking for something to pounce on well the president of the Summit Municipal Democratic committee knows full well what this what these bills were she works for a nonprofit that's goal is really to urbanize towns like ours these Transit Orient developments her firm is for this so um Lacy Cotter wrote an article and posted it into in nj.com entitled summit's council president affordable housing increases crime she she knows full well what the issues that you had were she understood you weren't talking about affordable housing but she writes this article anonymously then posts it then there is an also an article by Tom Moran of the Star Ledger who writes something very similar and then he writes Miss completely factual and accurate things about our zoning about our history he talks about how Habitat for Humanity is kept out of cities like Summit I don't even know if the guy understood that we just finished a Habitat for Humanity housing well the Summit Municipal Democratic committee Lacy posted this to their site post her article to the site this is her article this was given to me by the first gentleman that spoke and he and when he was damning you and I said did you listen to what she said he goes no I read an article handed me the article and then my friend angry friend back there ripped it up but this is it so he came in damning you because he read Lacy's article now Lacy's name isn't on this why you know I mean like we need to be honest like this this this dividing and attacking and I don't understand what why it's political I don't understand what the political motivations are they're not you know you're not winning elections by attacking okay sorry thank you thank [Applause] you is there anyone else okay if we have no other comments I'm going to close the comments and we're going to take a break for the council right public comments are closed okay I'm going to bring this meeting back to order um okay so we're going to start with ordinances for hearing Madame clerk please read the ordinance ordinance number 24- 3309 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap Bank excellent councilman Miner thank you council president this is an ordinance to allow the city to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and establish a cap Bank state law establishes two limits to what a city can increase uh to what a city can increase their budget two caps on the revenue side of the budget property tax increases are limited to 2% over the prior year's tax levy and on the expense expenses side of the budget Appropriations increases are limited to 3 and a half% over the prior years's Appropriations this ordinance deals with that Appropriations limit it allows for an increase of Appropriations up to that limit and then any difference between the actual final Appropriations amount and that 3 and a half% increase amount will still be a still be able to utilize in the event of an unforeseen circumstance because we will have banked that difference no actual money is sitting in a bank we are but we are reserving that leftover Appropriations increase amount for an unexpected future need for up to two budget years we are not planning to exceed this cap this is an important step the city takes every year giving us that extra Appropriations wiggle room should we ever needed I move to open the hearing on this ordinance okay the hearing is open any we need a second secondry thank you thank you uh Council comments public comments okay hearing none we'll close the hearing thank you um ordinances for final consideration Madam clerk ordinance number 24- 3309 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap Bank excellent um Madam um councilman migar sorry thank you council president having held the hearing just moments ago I move this ordinance for final adoption excellent roll call please I need a second second Sor thank you jumping faster Mr Boer yay Miss Hamlet I Mr migar hi Mr palowski I Mr Smallwood I Mr Varan I president Allen I motion carries okay moving on to ordinances for introduction Madame clerk please read the first ordinance uh ordinance ID number 11126 and ordinance amending the code chapter 7 traffic section 78.7 parking prohibited at all times on certain streets excellent thank you councilman Boer thank you council president uh ID number 11126 an ordinance uh this ordinance will um this ordinance will address the parking on Blackburn Road between Blackburn and prospr Street uh Locust Avenue um I move this ordinance for introduction do I have a second second thank you okay um Council comments no okay uh public comments we don't take public comments on no we don't interest I actually have a quick question sorry to thr absolutely um did we take out the 4our I know initially we were doing the 4our parking on the other side there was like an addition did that come out yeah yes so we're leaving the remainder of the street the same as it is now okay so the only thing that's changing is from the intersection of prospect to 210 ft so right past the driveway where the obstruction was but we haven't made any changes to the 2hour parking that was requested initially uh no no okay okay any other questions no okay hearing none uh roll call vote Please Mr Boer yay Miss Hamlet hi Mr miger hi Mr palowski hi Mr Smallwood hi Mr vtan hi president Allen I okay the hearing will be on April 2nd Madame clerk please read the next ordinance ordinance ID number 11172 an ordinance amending the code chapter 4 General licensing section 4-20 regulating of sidewalk FAS okay councilman palowski this is ID number one 1172 the city code sets forth the fee structure for sidewalk cafes in two places one is in appendix a the fee schedule of the city code and the second is in chapter four of the city code we recently learned that the latter needed updating so that the two are consistent this is an ordinance to amend chapter 4 subsection 4-20 do3s fee schedule to match that of appendix a I move to introduce dis Ordinance do I have a second second uh Council comments okay hearing none roll call vote Please Mr Boer I miss Hamlet I Mr EXC me this just for introduction yeah I'm sorry for introduction we vote on this yeah yeah the introduction you have to vote on introduction sorry uh I believe I left off Mr migar hi uh Mr palowski I Mr Smallwood I Mr ban I president Alan I okay the hearing will be on April 2nd onto resolution actually what I'd like to do um according to our C city solicitor I'd like to make a motion to move the whole agenda under consent um and if we do that I would like to get take a motion in a second and we can discuss any resolutions under the consent um that's correct right okay so I'd like to make a have a motion so move second second okay great discussion on any of the items any discussion yes yes City administrator Rogers uh I would like to include for the Personnel policies that we include quarterly reports in the one section that we spoke about on on sick leave utilization on sick leave utilization yes I would like to memorialize that we would like to see a formal uh quarterly report to what that that can we can accomplish that no no problem I think that was it so that's noted and that will be done in in uh clerk litis you should take a a roll call vote on the whole agenda okay I I have one more question sorry this is um Ros Rosemary this is for you the Sidewalk Cafe change what was the problem with the Sidewalk Cafe costs and fees I just I was looking at it and I couldn't figure it out okay so uh the we recently revised schedule a of fees okay in the code Y and um it was discovered when I was reviewing one of the resolutions uh for sidewalk cafes that um chapter 4- 20.3 showed two fee structures one for restaurants with liquor licenses and one without and the fee schedule didn't reflect the same fee structures okay so in order to make them consistent we needed to amend the ordinance so that now they they will both have the same fee structures in both sections okay thank you yes and before I move on I just want to make sure there are no other questions for Resolutions from Council are there any resolutions you guys want to talk about no okay okay I just want to give it um public comment an opportunity anybody okay roll call please Mr Boer I miss Hamlet I Mr migar hi Mr owski I Mr Smallwood I Mr Varan I president Allen I okay motion carries um we're going to move on to council member comments new business um councilwoman sure uh yes I I wish not everybody had left because I I did have some comments about Trenton uh for the last several months we have all been watching a rushed Bill come out of Trenton uh that our city administrator actually mentioned at the last council meeting that lacked Municipal input if we go back to last Sunday night I called mayor Fagan and I asked her if she was going to Trenton at the time we had no idea what time the bill would have been discussed in Trenton there was a ton on the agenda that day including the Oprah Reform Bill I believe mayor Fagan had also recently returned home from her mother-in-law's funeral probably that weekend on Monday the day of the vote in Trenton at 3 p.m. the mayor had a wedding to perform our conversation on Sunday discussed who would do the wedding if the bill was discussed at 10:00 a.m. or 2: p.m. would it be her or me I think I even texted uh councilman Varan that morning seeing if he had any thoughts or wanted to go down if he was going down to Trenton uh Monday a.m. she got the wedding moved to 4 p.m. which allowed the three of us a little more flexibility in racing home picking up kids and we felt better about the mayor being able to conduct the wedding depending on when the bill was introduced for those of us who think it's easy to speak at a public meeting in Trenton it's a little trickier than you may think the amendments to the bill are listed very quickly and it's difficult to take a massive Bill and digest all of the Amendments right on the spot I was sitting next to our attorney Jeff seran and we were both diligently taking a look at the Amendments and scribbling down what changed this can impact your comments instantly with all of that being said I think the bill was introduced sometime after 11: initially chairman sarlo uh was going to limit our comments from Summit New Jersey to 1 as you know you only have three minutes in my opinion I wanted to give Summit if we could 9 minutes so we got 9 minutes that day the mayor got her three minutes to give her statement as the mayor of summit I spoke about the lack of Municipal input expressed strong concerns about the proposed legislation highlighting issues such as reduced Municipal immunity from zoning laws changes to agreed upon affordable housing numbers post approval and increased litigation risks there is a reason we have a judgment of compliance and Repose which I just got a copy of last week this week and then but not then last but not least council president Lisa Allen while I cannot speak for council president Lisa Allen I will tell you that she is one of the kindest human beings I know she spends countless hours advocating for residents throughout Summit regardless of race background or economic status I truly think Lisa was so excited to make the connection between the passionate residents for and against tatlock lights because she was telling me that all week and she was trying to make the connection between what our residents are currently talking about as it relates to overdevelopment or current Community projects she was by no means connecting affordable housing to crime and is certainly not a racist I wish residents understood how painful it has been to watch our current Summit Housing Authority residents and the conditions in which some of their homes are in when these Summit Housing units are rehabilitated the Summits will Summit residents will lose their residency preference that is just a fact any affordable housing in Summit will be affirmatively marketed marketed again that's just a fact but I wanted to be clear that nothing we build will give Summit residents a preference again this is simply just a fact and I want to make sure the community is clear I wanted to make a com a couple of comments and I'll be brief on some of the resident feedback that we listen to today first if you were here and you gave a public comment and you asked a request these meetings are sometimes four hours long and although we can go back and try to remember absolutely every single request please send us an email please send our city clerk an email we do our best to remember but please send an official request it's better for everybody um one of the things that I heard a lot of the residents talk about with tatlock lights uh which is frustrating for me is um they make some good points around ordinances that can be repealed by another Council and I think we should we should think about that and have dialogue around that um something that I asked that would be put in our committee I asked for this last week is in the planning board uh the Capital Improvements program for the ml the governing body May authorize the planning board to develop a program of Municipal Capital Improvements for a minimum of 6 years to take into account future public facility needs based on potential development identified in the master plan or permitted by Municipal ordinance so I would ask that we take that and we really think about which projects should go to the planning board and which projects should remain with Council I think that's something that we should just think about as we're evaluating tatlock because I think some of their comments tonight were important um I would like to get a copy of the minutes that um resident salano mentioned the redacted committee minutes uh as a council member I believe I can see the unredacted version so I'd like to officially request a copy of those uh I would recommend that Aubrey and Lewis is a Dar if it's not sounded like that's a concerning problem uh councilman Boyer I'll I I just I'm not familiar with that area I don't know if the chief is or not um I think Mr Bosman made some really good comments tonight for the first time we may actually be agreeing I thought he made some really excellent comments and I can't quite capture all of them but I remember when he was up here I think they're really good comments um I actually asked Chief Evers last week if Butler Parkway I think uh councilman Smallwood you were talking to me about Butler Parkway and whether or not the the fir trucks could get through I think it was maybe you I can't remember but he did say that the fire trucks could get through but now that I'm hearing all these comments I just want to make sure that fire trucks can get through it sounds like it's really prowed I think it was leis was it leis okay I Wrong um and then to the resident who I think her name was Jocelyn I forget her last name uh I was only simply pointing out to the meeting in 2018 that that was the original meeting I was certainly by no means saying uh that that was the appropriate or only meeting to have a genuine assessment on tatlock so for the record I was just pointing out that it just didn't come up this year so sorry for the long-winded comments but I just want to make sure that we captured everything so thank you yeah thank you for your comment comments councilwoman yep you council president um uh so Mr Bennett Mr Jim Bennett asked a couple questions about the next steps in the budget process and I wanted to um include those there he is thank you thank you for nodding um so the uh we do still we do have a final budget to still discuss in committee uh probably one one to two more times um and then I uh I believe it's April correct me if I'm wrong April 8th April 2 April 2 introduction is the introduction to the budget um and that will be um yeah that'll be the first chance for the for the city to to see that and then there'll be a um I believe it's it's May 7th I'm not looking at the calendar but it's the first meeting in May yeah 30 days so we'll be the hearing that's our process um and I'm I'm absolutely willing to meet with you you asked if you you could meet so yeah I I would gladly do that deia just said she would do that same so um and then uh also Mr bassman's comment I wanted to ask if it would be possible to expand that I know 200 feet is the minimum requirement and that's kind of how um like say projects zoning projects they're required to notify you know 200 fet U thank you um but in this case I was wondering if we could just go a little bit beyond that expand it to 500 or a th000 feet it makes sense to do that especially with with lights you talking about tat lock yeah if we could just expand the group is the minimum that's what's required by law you can be um you know to make sure that everyone in the community knows and is aware of it what whenever you get to that point you could expand it and set it out uh much broader than 200 feet yeah I think we should it makes sense to do it with this one and Council m i I totally agree with you in fact you know with the the four meetings that we have set up in April for the uh the just the tlock residence only it does include expanded Beyond 200t you know because it includes Aubrey Lewis uh Greenfield and uh Butler Parkway as well as the two side streets I think off of Butler Parkway so that's great we did want to keep it local to the the tatlock residence but it certainly expands more than 200 feet thank you very much is that it okay right thank you sure Council palosi so um I just wanted to talk about public comment and um seems like there may be some confusion out there about uh this Council and its commitment to public comment um we had over three hours I think tonight of public comment um and uh we allow public comment during the open public comment period one shot three minutes we also allow public comment after presentations one shot three minutes for each presentation we allow public comment after hearings on ordinances one shot up to three minutes we allow public comment on resolutions um one shot up to three minutes and we also allow public comment on the consent Agenda One Shot up to 3 minutes I can't imagine that former council president Varan ever let me speak twice during the open public comment period I'm guessing maybe I spoke about a resolution or an ordinance and during the public comment period if I ever did come up twice but you could come up many times um there are some councils that do the bare minimum that's required by law and they allow a single public comment period that's it there are councils and Boards out there who are subject to the same open meeting open public meetings act as we are and the same uh Municipal Code As We Are Who allow a limited public comment period an hour if you don't get up there within the hour tough luck I've heard of one that was 20 minutes I've heard of a school board that requires you to sign up in advance otherwise you're not allowed to speak so um he's also like really good ideas I'm just saying I've also been told by the city solicitor that we all need to have our heads examined for not adopting one of those other procedures but we're very committed to public comment L there be any confusion and that's one of the reasons why we moved public comment to the beginning also uh so folks wouldn't have to wait until we get through all of our business and uh as we've seen in the first I don't know what have we had six meetings um public comment is as robust as ever and we probably wouldn't have had to sit through as much public comment had we left it at the end of the meeting so just want to make that clear for everybody out there thank you comments well anybody with money on 11 o'cl has lost it so so that's that's D Andy's fault I think he purposely threw it he was saying gambling on 11 anybody with money on 11 uh so so I I just I just want to talk about a few things so um following up on on your comments dilia so the the the statute that you were referring to about the planning board I think that's the the uh that that the planning board can do a courtesy review right of the projects that we're considering just want to make it clear we're not we're not advocating responsibility by saying the planning board can go handle it you know let them do it and and not we're ultimately going to have to you know you know so so and I think you know for things like the tatlock uh for things like the uh the cross wall at tatlock um they're going to do that courtesy review right so that's I think always uh helpful um the second thing uh just had to do with the Housing Authority um the properties at the Housing Authority so people know the Housing Authority is going through uh the process of rad 2 right which is where they get um funding sources to try to renovate the properties um the you're right that we will lose Sumit residents will lose the residency preference but smartly what the Housing Authority did I think it was last year or the year before was freeze the list where it is so right now there is a summit preference so everybody at the top of the list is Summit residents now and that and that list is frozen so those people that are already on the list will be first to get into those uh housing units as they become available um and then the you know the third thing um is just to talk about this the the bill for just a second which is that other towns uh other towns that testified um and and towns that have had Representatives come here and talk about the bill have uh rightly Express their concerns about round four right but they've a lot of those t like chadam and Westfield they've met their obligation for round three and we have not done that so so we do I think need to pretty quickly provide an update to the community about where we are on Visa you know this Mount Laurel committee uh you know what what kinds of recommendations are coming to council where you know what is the the advice and opinion of that group about this this at home in Summit proposal that we keep getting uh comments about you know because I you know I think uh actions certainly speak louder than words right and if we don't want to be perceived as a town that is against affordable housing then we should just build affordable housing we should meet our round three obligation and get that done so that's what I think we should do that's my those are my three things for today thank you councilman do you know what chadam um obligation was by chance not off the top of my head no but they met it you said they told I think a lot so yes my understanding is they've met round three I I don't want to talk about specific towns other other obligations but my understanding is that a lot of the towns around us have met their round three obligation is there a way to find out um how what other towns around us have made have met their obligation I don't know if fair share does fair share do a fair share probably has it I'm I'm sure Jeff would be able to get you that information that would be helpful that would be helpful they would definitely he would he would have it or he'd have the ability to find that out quickly okay and without naming a town there was a town that I talked to who said their only obligation was 30 30 yeah I me depends too just on on you know how much vacant land you have where you can build it um you know in some ways you you you as a town um it's unfortunate you have lots of affordable housing that you've given to your residents over the years that's affordable but none of it counts in their the methodology that they utilize so um but I think Jeff sing could probably tell you I think they keep track of it and they represent a lot of the towns around here they can probably tell you what who's met it who hasn't but I can tell you there's a lot of towns that haven't um or there's towns that have are just I'm involved in one right now they're just settling it now they're settling the third round now but there involves the 194 acre corporate campus that was vacated so it's only you know 1400 units well on that one property 1400 on that one property see you got a hand over there wait so um I do want to take exception with something that councilman Von just said Council M plasy please because um I will come back to you because not everybody has had a chance just give me a second because what I did want to say is um the one thing I'd like to look into is the Aspire credits um grants that you I think you've dug into quite a bit so the question is is do the Aspire grants we are trying to seek those for the rfps on um the housing authority and tonight I heard I think that um the summit at home also wants aspired credit so my I would be interested in making sure that those that grant money um can that go anywhere right like is there a limitation on towns on how much money they can get from the aspired grants if that's the way that we're looking for funding because the Housing Authority um absolutely should get Aspire grants this year and we should take absolutely um we should not take no for we should take yes for whatever um we should make sure we get a grant for our Housing Authority um because they are way overdue and we need to get those rfps done I've heard it for a year that you know we had an executive director leave and we're you know there's a little bit of movement but that's not acceptable we've done rfps it's time to get the job done and if we really are truly going to put our money where our mouth is to affordable housing we're going to make sure that our Housing Authority residents live with some dignity and make sure they get that money this year so uh coun I'm sorry councilman btan are you done I I interrupted you that was very rude of me I think I was done okay all right councilman Boer I think tonight I'm finally at a lost for words um there's so much to say and it's so late but I I will say that um you know I people come up and they you know double talk is is something that is just really unbelievable right it's uh you know it's speaking in a way that's kind of confusing um making it appear to be like um you're coming off a certain way and not being accountable for what you're saying um and then you know you sit back down and what I'm referring to is the the comments that were or or the gesture um that was referred to me when um someone said that you know I wasn't I wasn't black on one side you had somebody say that's debatable and this person looking right at him several people called me that night I mean am I imagining things I don't think so but um it's funny that accountability only works one way right we are to be accountable but other people are not now when it comes to uh affordable housing I'm not going to move on from that because I'm not going to keep going back into that that circumstance um when it comes to affordable housing you know I believe that the Mount Laurel Doctrine um was initially crafted even though I I don't think it said it in the original document anywhere about race I believe it was crafted um about race to deal with uh the black communities that could not build multif family dwellings um today I think we've lost the essence of that I mean we are uh a a much more ethnically diverse Nation um there are multi multiple different cultures in America now and affordable housing is not just for black people um and that to me um is a little bit problematic because folks come up here and we talk about red lining and we talk about historical injustices but however will black people actually benefit from the multiple apartment dwellings and buildings that are going to go up throughout the state um will will they will there be room for the the black folks who are in nework and Trenton or will this be expanded to all different types of people that we declare minorities today and listen I'm I I believe in uh equal share for everyone I think my my point is though that I'm I'm a little I'm a little tired of people coming up and leveraging the historical wrongs against black people to push affordable housing when white people may not even benefit from it I think it's that you know you know I think it's I think it's sad I think it's disingenuous now when it comes to Summit I think all well I'm going to speak for myself what I'd like to see is I I like to see achievable goals all you have to do is give us achievable numbers I mean look at our community each Community is different it shouldn't be a top- down approach what can we do in Summit take into account our affordable housing that we already have here take into account Glennwood take into account Weaver Street and our senior citizens building and take into account our density I mean it sounds so simple to me but with the government everything is just a one-size fits-all um Prospect and you just have to take it or leave it and when we talk about data 10 years from now people are going to turn around and say wow look what we did to our sub verbs we destroyed we didn't know what we were doing actually at the time um the other thing is uh a resident made a comment about uh affordable housing that Sumit doesn't pay for affordable housing I'm sure sure we do taxpayers pay for it um with this bill uh the other comment that I want to make is um council president not really that bad of a night actually uh I think you the the supporters that came out for you uh I think were amazing especially the ones on Weaver Street in Glenwood um the things that they said I mean actual things that you and Council uh woman Hamlet have done actual things that you have done not just said but done people that you actually helped it wasn't like an idea in your head people actually came in and said this is what you did for me great job the last thing I will say is when we when people write articles and paint a broad brush and say um what do you expect from you know the racist Council you know I'm probably not quoting it right but I think we get the essence I'd like to say when we talked that one night uh council president I said I asked you I said what's your story what is your story because you know what I realize in life as a 46 year old man is that everybody has a story we all don't come with a silver spoon in our mouths right we all grow up from somewhere that we we had to overcome something what did you overcome and your story was amazing now I don't know if I should tell your story but it was amazing it was one of it was one of struggle right it was one of um someone waiting tables paying their way through college busting it burning the midnight oil right getting to where you need to go appreciating the intelligence that you have and the motivation that came with inside of you to be here right now and to be sitting in that seat as council president what an amazing job and no one has the right to say anything about where you're coming from in your heart to call you the r word I'm not even going to say it anymore but good job good job and congratulations too you're doing a wonderful job here and on this note I'm going to I'll leave it alone we all thank you councilman Boer we we are we all here are for affordable housing I I I'm definitely here for affordable I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for affordable housing so come I mean come on let's I mean let's I'm going to use a colloquial term here let's keep it real right um the only thing I'm saying is that Summit residents are so special and that's why they did Glennwood and Weaver Street cuz they knew that that there was a specific need for a specific group of people and that's why I'm here what I'd rather us do is look at the needs of our town the people who we need to build houses for and pull their parents in like my mother um like my buddy Brink wne who lived in Fabian place down the street for me who I had a conversation with last night you you know who's in DC doing great things that brother wouldn't be alive either right now if it wasn't for Summit but these are the people that we need to we need to save you know um and I'll I'll end it there thank you thank you councilman Smallwood uh I I wasn't gonna say anything but however I there's one thing I I do want to mention about affordable housing and it's something that I've learned over the past I guess probably six months is the fact that we could build as many affordable housing units as possible and it still not affect one teacher one police officer one fireman and Sumit because it goes into a lottery system so we could build a 100 units and out of those 100 units it wouldn't benefit it could not because of a lottery system it potentially could not benefit any of those right the appalling thing that I F which I just found out tonight um by councilman barten is the fact that when we do the renovation of these current affordable housing that we're going to lose residents people who live here who are going to have to move because of the renovations may not be able to come back to Summit that's appalling no that's absolutely not true that's absolutely not what I saying I'm sorry maybe I misund The Residency pre preference will be gone in the sense that when new residents apply okay they will not be able to currently favor some of us that is not what I meant and the and the renovations hopefully wouldn't be any longer than a few days that people would be moving out of there then I I misunderstood you so because that was the first time I heard that so I totally misunderstood you so I apologize because I was like sorry if I wasn't clear no that was I was like the first time I I heard that I was like wow this that that's not going to be good um but anyway the the the fact about affordable housing is that I I keep hearing you know we need it for our teachers our policemen and our fire and our our firemen but it potentially couldn't even affect them so you know affordable housing is is extremely important unfortunately I think part of the reasons why we don't have affordable housing is because we have developers that come in and we buy buy homes they tear them down and build a $1.6 million house I would love to be able to buy a house right now but every time I try to go and buy a house I get out bid sometimes as has actually been by a builder they knocked the house down and they build a $1.6 million house that completely puts me out of the I can't afford it um so with that being said Matt's kicking me uh to stop talk not really I just I wanted to go back to I we'll wrap up shortly but I just want to give you a chance because you wanted to say something coun so um sorry now you know when we were campaigning uh Jamal and I both talked a lot about how great would it be to put 100% affordable housing at Broad Street West and guarantee it to our teachers our police officers our firemen we didn't realize that you can't do that and still have a count towards our affordable housing numbers um and so to add on to councilman vartan's point about losing the preference once we do these Renovations um we're also going to drop our unmet need by 195 units when we do those res Renovations and I don't think a lot of people understand what's that you can say it in the say it in the microphone um Michael that would be for Rehab credit though right yeah but you're good you still get those those credits right no I you're right so so so when when folks talk about our unmet need is so big and everything else that's true right I mean these are numbers that are put out there by fair share housing um but you know everyone should know uh also in the back of their minds that we have an additional 195 affordable housing units um out there um one last thing uh that I took exception to uh that councilman Varan said I don't I don't necessarily take exception to his opinion that uh we haven't met our round three need but I just want to make clear that that's not the position of the city I don't want anybody to take a position on behalf of the city that we haven't satisfied our settlement agreement which said that we would use reasonable efforts to facilitate the addition of 50 units um and it so we arguably have done that if we wind up in a lawsuit or anything like that I don't want anybody to uh say that we made some kind of an admission that we haven't done that um you know you never know where these things are going to take us that's it thank yep to your point I sent actually Lisa Allen an email February 23rd 2024 and I said Lisa it seems the public continues to be confused about our affordable housing obligation with Jeff coming to close session before the prior meeting I'm recommending we come up with a statement that goes out to the public we agreed to take all reasonable efforts not even best efforts to facilitate the construction of 50 units not to ensure 50 be built we did th we did through we did so through zoning putting ordinances in place to guarantee 15% 20% of units in development sorry to be set aside for affordable housing and I I just want to I guess Rosemary my question to you is um since I obtained that uh Judgment of compliance and Repose can we add that to the can we how do we get that to the public because I had never seen it the actual document up until the actual was it on our website previous it's on oursite it wasn't clear but he's clarified okay so now it's on our website so maybe we can just find I hadn't seen the actual document but I think it's important for the public to be able to see it so if we can figure out a way to do that I can talk to Amy about how best to do that okay yeah it it's clearer on the affordable housing section um it's been up there but it wasn't easy easy find because there's a lot of documents but I believe Matt delori made it a little more provent to see so but again I think we're all we all want affordable housing that's very clear and we will do our best efforts to obviously exceed that obligation thank you councilwoman okay I am going to make a motion to ad journ I have two things to say don't I get to talk I promise I'll be fast and I'm so patient um one thing I'm sorry to keep you here any longer than you have to be here um two things one is I just want to clarify because I think the way I understood it when I spoke to you Michael today about sort of I I don't want there to be an outcry from The Summit Housing Authority residents that they're going to be displaced if we refurbish or renovate so my understanding is they'll be temporarily moved out and then re removed back into the same unit or comparable one right and then if they choose or opt to move out that would be when that unit would become available and become affirmatively marketed that's my understanding yes correct is that your understanding that okay I just want to I don't want anybody who currently lives in Summit Housing to believe that we're going they're going to be bounced and suddenly not have a place to that I wanted to that we're a long way from I understand that I just wanted this to be that to be clear cuz that's my understanding I hope that's correct that's my understanding um and then the second thing I want to mention to the public who are concerned about affordable housing and are are dying to to help us as a community um comply and and really help to create these units is that if you happen to own a property and you would like to deed restrict it and you'd like to kind of donate it to the cause we're all ears come on over talk to Matt delori I mean that's that's a possibility correct that's something that could happen if there's a private property owner that is inclined to be very generous and help that help our cause for affordable housing we'd love to hear from you so those are my two things and also um I want to say that I want to thank Lisa for being an excellent leader and I want to Echo some of the things that were said about her heart because this woman has one of the biggest hearts I've ever known and ever met and um I've watched her with working through some of the issues in the Summit Housing Authority buildings and so I just want to be really clear about that um and lastly I have to say happy birthday to Christopher Harrison because his birthday is today Amy Ken's husband no she no she she said she does want me to she she told me otherwise but if you want to do it you're the council president but also happy birthday to Patrick Alan for missing we miss sorry can we do it oh yeah we should all right come on one no no happy birthday all right listen one happy birthday happy birthday to you bir happy birthday to you happy bir birthday dear Christopher and Christopher happy birth Christoph happy birthday to you happy happy birth motion to adjourn my is to have them not the motion to who's making the motion to motion toj so moved second Kevin did the motion toj and Greg seconded who second it was Kevin and me oh Kevin I'm sorry Kevin okay thanks for hanging in guys good night good night