I call order attach of council for Monday the 3rd of March 2025 Madame clerk which please read the public meetings act compliance States requirements of the open public meetings act have been satisfied with
respect to this meeting of the township Council the meeting time and dat were included in the public meeting notice along with the public internet link and telephone call and information said notice of meeting agenda was posted in the IAL building and sent the official newspapers to the township to Verona
City Ro times The Star Ledger at least 48 Hours preceding the St time of this meeting the agenda and handouts can be viewed at Veron nj.org counil meetings a public comment period will be held and the orders listed on the meeting and instructions on how to comment will be
provided at the appropriate time thank you madam clerk would you call the rooll please councilwoman Holland here councilwoman McGrath here councilman Roman here Deputy Mayor makoy here mayor tamboro mayor also present tonight is
Township manager Kevin oan uh to of attorney Rosemary Fiera myself municipal clerk Jennifer Kieran and CFO Jen mcar CL this time I'm going to invite uh we're gonna have a special guest here
girl Scot tro 20915 to leave the Pledge of Allegiance ladies can go right up to that microphone there we just think it's on and and if you would meet us in the FLH make sure there's a red light on it is there a red light is that on there
is the flag of the United States of America thank you ladies the ners report today uh just a couple items we had a very successful restaurant week uh this past week thank
you for the Chamber of Commerce for arranging all of that I think this was the most restaurants uh we've ever had and thank you to nomada the new Mexican restaurant in town for hosting the kick off to that I was pleasured to attend that and um as they
were gracious hosts um and they will be expanding their hours in the next weeks to includ things like lunch so we'll give upla for that so if you haven't dropped in please do uh it's it's lovely as always um in the past couple weeks we've had several more water Bain breaks that
our public works department has been uh responding to and dealing with quickly so on behalf of the entire Township team thank you for uh getting those things address right away uh there was a complex motor vehicle accident um last
week involving a uh involving a small school bus fortunately there were only two passengers but I just wanted to thank the Verona Police Department the Verona resue Squad the Verona fire department and the Monclair police fire DMS uh for their response to that uh and
it was uh it was a lot better than it could have been but uh anytime anything happens on the Town Line it's complicated anything involving a school buff is complicated so uh thank you all for that the planning board had a lengthy meeting this past Thursday to consider an
application uh for a uh variance for parking at a 60 comp Avenue uh and the planning board determined to not Grant the entire variance but to Grant a partial variance for the expansion of uh a pediatric physical therapy in phys
therapy facility uh that is inside but um which was a solution that was reasonable and accepted by the uh by the applicant as well uh so it turned out to be a a good way of addressing concerns
in addition the board in its finding included some Provisions including privacy fencing um handling uh fencing around the garbage area um doing better snow removal um and um various otherly
items to help residents on the marar area so uh thank you to the entire planning board for for their assistance that evening uh especially to Jason Heyman who uh joined me in in that motion um and help make some updates to
that uh I am pleased to announce that this is Irish heritage month here uh and everywhere else uh we just had our Irish flag raising outside um and it was a pleasure to be joined by the uh the women of Irish heritage the ancient
berans the shalele club and the heral society amongst various other residents it's always a pleasure to celebrate our Irish heritage and the clo connection that the United States and Ireland has always had uh we had a very special
honor to one of our residents or former residents but who is still a member of the Veron Rescue Squad uh Patrick Sullivan who's an EMT with Ron res Squad and a paramedic for Jersey City was named Irish paramedic of the Year by the Jersey City parade committee uh which is a great honor uh Patrick is
a graduate of ronto high school um and uh is just really an allaround good guy uh over the last couple weeks I've had the opportunity to officiate Four Weddings uh this is a busy time of the year for weddings Miss Kieran right we are we're just we're doubling up now I
just wanted to wish all the the couples happiness uh there as well uh finally on the report itself the I received a call today from uh the executive director of the New Jersey leag
municipalities informing us that a photo that had been submitted by our public information office um in response to their show off their cities contest um which was an aerial view of the Verona community pool uh was selected as the winner the picture was
taken by Norman sh the Verona resident um and that picture will be the cover of the Le municipalities magazine for the month of April so thank you to Alisa and team on that one um and it's it's fantastic that is something we're very proud of in this town is that pool um
and it's just it's great so I thank Elisa for submitting that and Mr desan for taking the picture um so if you don't get the we canp magazine I'm sure that we will be sharing an image of it for you um and finally I am walking on an appointment a mayor's appointment
it's not on the agenda um I'll be appointing Mr David needle to the second um alter number two for the shade Tre commission um and his term will expire
the 31st of this year um and now I'd like to invite our KY is on Mr J Jay good evening mayor and Council um sorry I missed last meeting I was checking the food out in Rome
Italy you didn't bring any backing you're not allowed to but I had a wonderful time and uh sorry Miss uh on behalf of the county executive uh this Thursday March 7th you're all invited to the state of the county it's at our
Hospital Center just 207 grow uh Avenue in Cedar Grove and it starts at 7 pm please come and join us and see what we're doing what we have done throughout the county uh Sunday March 9th 11 to 1
pm at the Bon Center at the turtle P Zoo there's a job fair and they are looking for specifically from Memorial Day to Labor Day uh students who are 18 years old
to work on the uh the Rope one run and uh it's climbing you have to be 18 and this is what I liked really about it the hours are from 10 to 4 so if you're a college student you want to go out at
night you can do that still wake up by 10 o'clock and get to our zoo and participate uh coming April April 6 we have it's open already on the Park website it's the K 10k run at Branch
Park but uh you should be receiving in the mail also our brochure of all the activities for the CH blossom season uh questions comments or anything else any questions for
Ken say thank you well thank you see you Thursday all right and finally uh in my report I do want to recognize that March 12th 2025 is the 113th anniversary of the Girl Scouts um so I have a proclamation recognizing that I would
like to thank our girl scout troop in that is present today for um for representing the Girl Scouts to receive this Proclamation for bringing the idea up to myself and AR we'll read the proclamation at this
time whereas March 12th 2025 marks the 113th iversary of Girl Scouts of the United States of America the largest most impactful leadership program for girls in the world and whereas the Girl Scout movement began on March 12th 1912 when Juliet Daisy Gordon low in na of
Savannah Georgia organized a group of 18 girls and provided them with the opportunity to develop physically intellectually socially and spiritually and whereas for over a century Girls Scouts of America has advanced its mission to build girls of Courage confidence and character who make the
world a better Place whereas today more than 50 million women Trailblazers Visionaries and leaders are girl scout alums who have made the world a better place whereas since the beginnings Girl Scouts have emphasized public service and Civic engagement and has fostered a
sense of community in girls and whereas girl scouting is a powerful force for social connection and creates a positive and uplifting National Global Network among girls whereas at a time when Civics education is missing from many schools Girl Scouts engages girls of all
grade levels in Civic programming that deepens their understanding of Community Action democracy and government that prepares them for a lifetime of Civic engagement and motivates them to take action on issues that are important to them whereas as a member organization of the world Association of Girl Guides and
Girl Scouts Girl Scouts is part of an international Sisterhood of 10 million girls and young women in 152 countries and is committed to offering girls more opportunities to engage with communities worldwide make meaningful Global Connections and explor citizenship gr
Girl Scouts Heart of New Jersey serves over 13,000 Girls plus Essex Hudson hun in Somerset Union Southern Warren and parts of middlex counties now therefore I Dr Christopher tamboro mayor of the township of Rona to here I applaud the Girl Scout movement for providing girls
with a secure inclusive all girl space where they can hone their skills and develop leadership abilities and declare March 9th through March 15th as Girl Scout Witness whereof here to set my hand and cause the Great Seal at the T thron in the county of Essex state of New Jersey to be a fixed on his third
day of March of the Year 2025 and I'd like to invite our uh girls present and their leader to come on up we have some copies of proclamation for everybody here and we have several extra copies for the people who are not um want to
thank you I love your roller I'm gonna give you these exra hop in the middle of I have to stand by my thank you all right we can't wait to see
leader of girls do you guys want to say you don't have to we appreciate the to represent the Scout our perf before everybody goes it's fun invite the rest of the council if anybody had some words I I'm just G to
start briefly as a a product of the of the bo scotting movement uh I think everything this Proclamation is spot on in uh in the skills that it brings and especially to young women who will make a difference and I look forward to all of you doing that just a
few months ago uh we had a presentation from our silver war recipients uh were just fine examples of young women leaders in this community so I look forward to seeing you all back here for that same thing which should happen sooner rather than later and I get work
on those projects ladies right sooner uh but I just wanted to ask if my fellow council members would like to say anything Qui thank you for all you do for Verona uh keep going and Inspire even people younger than you keep up the good
work sure um so how many of you are working on a silver award nice all right my understanding is that your troop is pretty active with the silver Awards so keep that going because it is a tremendous amount of work but
it's also a really big accomplishment and it makes a big difference in the community so I really just want to encourage you to keep doing that it is so important to have women leaders March in addition to having Girl Scout week is women's history month and you are making
history right by doing this community activity by having the township council issue this Proclamation for you I mean that's all very very important and I think you are the eighth grade troop at hbw has four girls in it and your troop
has like what three or four times that 20 yeah so it's pretty impressive that you know as a seventh grade troop you have so many girls still engaged so I want to Echo what Deputy Mayor u m Bo said like please continue to on this
journey it is so impressive that you've come this far complete your silver Awards and go for the goal in high school like that is a tremendous accomplishment very few women across the country earn that award um let alone internationally I made it to Cadet level
scouting um but I did not earn a silver award um and so it's really impressive what you're doing so thank you so much for coming this evening mention I'm also a product of The Scouting movement from when I was a youth and uh it gives you a lot of
amazing opportunities to try things to do things that uh you might not otherwise uh have the opportunity to experience it's great for building leadership skills um for being involved in your community so it's wonderful to hear the stories of uh what all of our Girl Scouts are doing in this community
it's wonderful seeing you at all of our events and uh here in the council chambers tonight I look forward to uh hearing about service projects and learning more about what you're doing doing and very much encourage you to continue on this path and congratulations and Council one um but
uh last but not least I too uh made it to the cadet level um so congratulations girls for continuing the tradition of the Girl Scouts um and I'm really struck with all of our scouting organizations how much they contribute to the community so I'm really excited to see
um what your troop will do especially since I heard how L large it is uh it's really wonderful and some of my Fondest Memories were being in the Girl Scouts and going to Girl Scout camp at Jockey Hollow so I hope you're really enjoying your experience and keep going thank you
thank you all right ladies feel free now to toart you're the lucky ones unless you want any money from the budget then you have to stay with them for the next hour so be bored feel free to bring cookies next time
all right Mr tent manager you're up thank you mayor um the I know I'll try to run through my report quickly we do have a good deal of budgetary discussions for tonight but uh there is a lot going on so I'll try to touch quickly as possible um the pool
renovation project is uh is ready for mobilization we waiting for a final construction scheduled from the contractor uh the final due by date for construction completion is April 30th so we should expect mobilization within the next few
weeks um as far as the uh smoke testing uh study that we did in graa Township we did receive a draft report from Boswell uh we will be meeting with them to review the draft uh summary and once it's in final form we'll provide that to
the council with the primary clarifier pumping station project we do have some minor work which is beginning majority of the work will be taking place later this spring and through the summer uh that will be complete later at the end of this year uh additionally we had a meeting with the design Engineers for
the disinfection system and the micro screen project today so those projects are moving through design uh we do have 30% design drawings ready and we will be working with both the DP and the ibank on completing that project and getting that out the bid as well uh with the
Lend Drive well that project is uh largely complete the water the well pumping water back into our system there's some minor punch list items which do need to be addressed to get the well 100% complete uh but that project is nearing absolute completion but is uh
providing service to the township again uh similarly Fair viw Avenue well we did finally receive an approval from Green Acres on our exemption application we should have that project activated this month and at that point we will be uh going construction moving that project
along as quickly as possible it is a 15mon construction so that construction won't be complete until sometime next year clar drive home station uh we we are still reviewing the bids on that project uh recommendation is
pending um we also did as far as some road repaving projects we did meet with the neighborhood Traffic Safety Committee uh representatives and the njtpa team on February 21st to review the draft recommendations for Lyndon
Avenue uh that committee will be bringing those discussions to their meeting this month uh at which point Boswell will look to prepare a design documents for then presentation to the to uh at an appropriate council
meeting um trying to jump ahead we also have our Everett field project which is at 70% completion in design drawings uh we have requested feedback from stakeholder groups we we have begun receiving some comments in return but we
will be looking to get final comments so we can incorporate all those comments into the final design in the coming weeks uh that is targeted for a presentation later this spring so we can have that out to bid in the May or June time
frame uh the pickle ball and Tennis Courts project uh the contractor jumped into mobilization uh they took advantage of some of the earlier uh really warm weather last week and they've begun demolition they do have a contract
duration of 90 days so we are expecting completion no later than late May for that project uh we also did receive and circulate the um final reports for the local government energy audit uh we will
have a presentation at the April 7th C council meeting and uh we are ALS so working through the final uh contracts for um the final proposed contracts for the larger solar project which we've
discussed a few times that project is coinciding with the Lakeside Avenue parking lot project those uh the solar consultant and Boswell are working together but we should be having final designs ready for presentation to the council and uh for the Lakeside Avenue
parking lot and we'll be ready for putting that project out to bid in uh the next hopefully in the next four to six weeks we'll have that ready for bid um we have uh two change orders on the
agenda for this evening one is for the communications tower building uh that project is complete but as previously discussed there was some additional work for the um the helical piles which are driven to resupport that structure Additionally the town hall windows and
repointing project is uh proceeding as previously discussed the pro the windows are into production they are not expected until some point in June however there was the addition of 3 and protected film on number of Windows on
the first floor uh that's the subject of the change order this evening uh and then there's a number of Grant applications which are summarize my report as well it's unless there's questions I think my report any question
for the evening to see you all [Music] again I have some friends today we we know they Le show up when it's budg of time you know it hurts our feelings a little bit of it right
uh before we get to my friends it was brought to my attention that in your printed binders um on the Das you should have received uh paperwork like this only really the second page didn't
print I had problem printing but really only the second page didn't print in the binders in the printed binders um which I I don't really know why why that happened but um which would is in tab
three in your binder so if we have um we can go over it I know that you just received it but um it was in the emailed binders that went out a couple weeks ago um but it is your debt service your co
co emergency and your grants as well as your rosand interlocal um if there's questions on that I can also come back to that and give you a little time to digest that while we get into the other
budgets any questions from Mr star on this want to councilwoman the yeah I mean I think it's fairly straightforward I guess my question is can you remind us what legal installments are and legal installments are the mandatory um down
payments that we have to make okay on the bond ordinances and so you're projecting that to go significantly down it went significantly down last year with the um addition in the ARP funds we were
allowed to use some of that money to offset our debt and I thought that was a good place to to use the debt offset um to reduce what we future need to borrow in the
future now gone um our minimum has reduced thank you thank you okay what's Happ I will call up uh tab 16 Tom J Jacobson
first Mr Jacobson welcome good to see you nice to see everybody good evening what you want to show yeah you want start CL okay so on the top obviously um
differences um or your your salary and wages which is your OPI agreement um that's the only major difference we also budgeted for overtime as you are aware last year we did not budget for overtime
there was um some health issues um with one of the employees in that department um so that had caused overtime and unknowing what 2025 would bring we decided to put some overtime costs in
there as well um to help with um the situation in general and and relieve some employees kind of um in that department so that is your largest
difference on the top on the bottom your largest difference is uh the file management that we discussed in the last um in the last meeting so it significantly reduced from 4 budgeted at
$45,000 to $5,000 those are your two major differences in this budget we also just budgeted slightly higher in clothing you want to yes good evening everybody um as far as
what Jen was saying with new equipment file management I have to give kudos to uh Jen k for phob onics and did a tremendous job with that and significant saving Rach money and I know uh councilman Roman for list for years been saying what are we doing here what are
we doing all this uh records retention and we finally have a plan thank you for Jen for doing that also Jen this genen for followup um the say 2024 was a challenging year with an understatement with the LA of our technical assistant and I really appreciate the support the
mayor council Township manager C Solan has shown to building difficult time I appreciate that um code enforcement is divided into three categories quickly I know he had a jam-packed uh agenda because uh Jen told
me if I talk more than five minutes she's going to wipe out my budget so I try to be as quick as possible code enforcement is divided to three categories the first category is construction code which is building Electrical Plumbing fire and Technical assistant second category Property Maintenance and third category is a
zoning department zoning official zoning assistant and board secretary in 2024 my office issued 78 permits and 125 permit updates the building department is off to another robust year and 2025 looks to be in Pace with or more than
2024 total Department construction permit income for 20124 was the building department conducted 2 845 inspections and some highlights uh for 2024 quickly uh the Verona Flats apartment complex with a total of 95
units Building C and 12 units is fully occupied Building B 12 units is fully occupied building a71 units is targeted to be completed and occupied by the end of March 2025 this month developers has been very appreciative of the time spent
Expediting the inspections so the work can proceed in timely manner we did knew rosand shared service contract for years 23 through 26 so now we've been in rosand for 13 years and everything's going very smoothly there the mayor is very happy with Verona so far have
continued to advance Green Technology in the building department in support of sustainable Verona committee to date we have 218 properties with solar panels and 21 car charging outlets in town and Kevin spoke about the uh Poots uh the playground at the Bron
Community Center opened in 2024 it was a big hit with the children because we could see it right out my window it's just it's just been a wonderful addition um we spoke about the digital file storage can head to 2025 the submission of permits to construct 200 units on
Sunset Avenue for spectrum 360 site when we had a meeting um with somebody the uh uh major parties for spectrum 360 with the township manager uh they said they hope to submit permits in April and April of this year but start
construction in 2026 so and every few years I'll review our fee schedule and compare to neighboring towns with a sampling of 10 similar towns I try to keep rone in the middle of the pack and we create a spreadsheet and i i r do that with um
Township manager El Sullivan um to see where we need to tweak up or down but I I don't like to be at the top of the list of all the towns I don't like to be on the bottom either so I try to stay in the middle of the pack and that's um that's really my report oh just so you know as of September I started my 49th
year with t but who's counting any questions for Mr Jacobson comment OB your budet is pretty straightforward but uh you know you and I've always had a number of discussions over the years and I always come to appreciate uh how public service oriented you and your department are um
people don't realize what goes into this but everyone's home is their biggest asset and and uh making sure that construction is done properly and safely uh is a vital public service that the township provides and we consistently hear you know from contractors and everyone else involved in building work
in Township that uh Rona is highly efficient and uh does this very well so I greatly appreciate it as well as all your efforts make we are raising appropriate amounts of Revenue and working with ro and Shar thank you very much we try councilwoman mcra thank you
uh thank you so much for your comprehensive report uh I'm really interested in zoning enforcement so and I know that you've had a lot of uh new staff come on so can you speak a little bit on how that department is working and do you have
any stats on zoning enforcement I do not um I don't know Kathleen was supposed to be here tonight honestly um okay traditionally owning was actually down by public works and we had a lot of comments from uh residents that well why isn't up here by the building department
and probably 99% of the building departments in the state the zoning is with them because a lot of times they come and they have the same questions for zoning so we finally got it up to uh up to uh our um Department we um we have gone through a few different uh board
adjustment secretaries sometimes they just move on so it's been a challenge there but um our new zoning official Kathleen me has been very good and addressing the public and at the counter and everything and she really knows but I don't have stats
but I can get them for you okay as far as specifically how many applications have come in and yeah and also enforcement activities that the township May initiate for you know for because um for entities that are not following our
zoning code right interestingly for small town like Verona there's a lot of applications especially Bo of adjustment they're backed up into May that's with three or four applications per per night you know so it's it's a very busy office
so but I can get more more specifics for you thanks questions Mr J I'll just finish Tom thank you um as always and one thing you did not mention in your report is uh your response when bad things happen to people's homes when we
have emergencies and you are out there at night in storms um and often the kind of the overlooked her of those situations so thank you for that and thank you for being here today thank you mayor thank you everybody have a good evening thanks we are going to flip
to tab 17 which is fire prevention Matt give her Matt's budget as you can see remain flat but if you want to discuss anything in there you are more than welcome to nope nope any question
[Music] and go over your capital I have some stats I'd like to this is your time man uh so the fire prevention Bureau uh employees four part-time employees three
other inspectors plus myself uh last year for 2024 we completed 407 inspections issued 42 permits um assisted the other Township departments with what we call call outs or notifications that were 35 of them uh
two complaints which is if our officer a complaint from a resident um we conducted nine fire investigations and one uh one thing that I really look forward to every year is our fire prevention month which is October uh with the assistance of the fire department we were able to educate uh
682 children in town U for fire prevention month um and then total revenue brought in was $1,355 and you have fire investigators in housee which saves us a lot of money four of us are fire it's a huge benefit you want to go over your capitals uh
sure okay your capitals are right here okay um so for Capital requests um for you know there's nothing additional from last year um but this year I'm asking for a pickup truck um a new vehicle currently our vehicles are all
used police cars uh varying with miles from 70,000 to 90 8,000 Miles um I would like to be able to afford you know my inspector and my investigator a new vehicle something to be proud of and also one that can keep them safe our equipment when we use it in a fire investigation is usually contaminated
when we're done with it pickup truck would allow us to put it in the back out of the cargo area um and uh until we can get it cleaned um radios we do um need to communicate with police dispatch often um so having radios uh mostly
those are uh mobile radios for our vehicles um so we don't always have to have our Portables on um with that being said we do have some uh corable radios that uh would become available that we could give to you know another town entity Squad something like that so we
get reused um and the in vehicle computers um the printer's part we can remove they actually don't support uh printer for the the process we would used but uh the printers would or the computers would save us a lot of time um from going back and forth to the office our vehicles are
basically a mobile office but if we can uh you know on the spot with an inspection be able to email um uh a business in town there uh you know be a violation or a permit or um you know completion of inspection it would save
us a lot of time from keeping it back and forth but that's what I have for any questions for Mr I just in terms of the dollar amounts on the capital uh items I kind of I'm having a hard time Recon sing to the request themselves um you I know that
vehicles have gotten pricey how many pickup CS are you just one just one yeah it comes in you know we've got 90k on a pickup truck 30k for radios and 15K for computers um you know the the vehicle I'm assuming we can get a pickup truck
for less less than that you know the mobile radios I remember them being for $5,000 a unit or so um then laptops are you know $1,500 items kind of curious as to where we landed at the dollar amounts on the capital so these were all quotes
uh that I got um so for example a pickup truck um you know it depending on which model we went with um I would look for like a quarter ton series they call like an F150 um those range I don't have the quote in front of me but I want to say it was high 40s um and then we would
like to put a cap on the back of it to keep all of our equipment um out of the elements that's a couple thousand dollar a slide out tray that's a couple thousand doll um license Sirens that that adds up um but I do have a a quote um that I could you know provide to you guys so you can see where I got the
number from um radios yeah uh they're about $6,000 a piece um installed there's an install cost um currently we don't have any radios in the car so that would have to be a new install so it would be three three mobile radios for each of our
vehicles and then the uh incar computers would be uh tablets similar like the police department uses um they're designed for you know being taken in out of cars or tough books they're called you can drop them beat them up um we're not the most delicate people um also
with mouse in the vehicles okay just one item on that if you um if you did get those laptops or Vehicles you need a budget line for data to run the yeah so currently the
town are uses sdo oh for for service for the that would be something to consider um that might be what we'd have to consider for in a future year or you know somewhere else you know for the point
being um I I think Council Roman's point on the on that $90,000 thing I I I think at this point it's probably about time for prevention to get a vehicle that it's not you know a uh hand
me down um especially something pickup truck but if we were to give you a a number would you be able to you know fit perhaps go and and use your network to try and find a solution if we okay this is what we could spend on on a pickup
truck this year is that a possibility uh yeah I mean I could shop around get some more quotes um you know I'll be hon rounded up a little bit but not really astronomical we could do it if we wanted to break it down over two years get the vehicle upfit it you know minimally and then the next year go with the cap and
the the SL and stuff like that but you can always tell your veteran that Town Council was saying like you got M it does it does actually work so now that I'm saying that in public U but you know just putting that out there and looking if you had to pick one of these three
requests which would be your uh the vehicle would be they're getting old like I they're used police cars um also I'd like to to note that this would be a five vehicle for its entire life it wouldn't be a used cop car that we would keep for three or four years uh if you down it you know trucks garage getting
worked on when they break down this one you know would be hours you know I would say at least 20 years yeah um you know so is there any possibility of storing that inside is there a room in the in the firehouse um I don't know I mean it
would be it would need to be available for like emergency response to inance so I don't know parking behind a fire engine or something like that would be because you know not all the fire always go out so um I would like to park that and it would also get used daily for called for longevity yeah AB May uht how
many vehicles do you have now three there's three okay and will you be replacing just one of the three or you going to use since it's a newer vehicle would it be since you're part-timers they you alternate and create the trucks there morning for one person afternoon
for the next so our schedule allows um the inspectors to work when they when they can there's no I don't require them to work certain days but so some days there's four of us in the office office and we're shorter vehicle other days there's just one of us in the office um so it really varies um this vehicle
would replace one of would replace our oldest vehicle um and again this would be you know purpose built specifically for um to carry all the equipment that we use for fire investigations um this would be the only one of its kind in our Fleet I'm not going to ask in a couple years for another large pickup truck um
this would just be a so the computers we're talking about obviously it would speed things up for you less time in the office you can get in the car type stuff in the computer it's I can relate to that with my work I put it all on my phone and I can send out a report uh maybe we break it down
where we get the vehicle now and you just keep with the same routine and worry about computers depending on the cost if they're not that much but maybe we can do the computers in in the second year down the that's mat thank you for everything you do and
thank your crew for us as well thank you all right we're going to move up to tab 12 for fire department Nick Paulo welcome even may coun this is another uh budget that has
remained flat um I'll let Nick speak do you have a copy of your capital okay um about the capitals as well as the budget briefly on the budget so a little
background on the fire department we are comprised of about 60 members right now so that is including regular members who are State Certified can go in fight fires they can drive fire trucks we also have auxiliary members to our department which they may not be able to fulfill
all the requirements of a regular firefighter they might not be able to go into fires but they can participate they can train with us they can go on fire calls they can assist with us all members are issued full sets of protective equipment um which is becoming more and more challenging to
get everyone outfitted uh Federal requirements are changing the lifespan of protective equipment even for those younger junior members so that's something we're dealing with right now um last year mayor and Council afforded us funds to go out and buy computer software so I'm partially embarrassed to
say that in 2025 we are leaping into the 21st century with technology um but that's something that Matt Matt is my assistant chief that we're working very diligently on this year is to get our computer software up and running so um we have the software purchased it's currently communicating with the police
dispatching system so we're in good shape there but there are going to be you know things we mention here in capital that are going to be important to keep that interface running and keep that uh interface up to speed with everything you can do for the township as well as federal reporting that's required of us so um you know that's a
big thing for us moving forward is continuing to expand that software Network any questions if you want to go to your capital okay on the capital I have money in here for firic tools and personal protective equipment so I touched on
briefly the personal protective equipment a full set of turnout gear excluding a helmet is about $4,000 per firefighter so a new member that comes on is not issued New Gear they are issued hand me- down gear the new gear goes to on a seniority level
firefighters that are more active fighting fires and then as a member graduates passes fire academy then you know if their percentage is in ordance they're issu new turnout gear um so far this year in just over two months we've brought two members on as probationary
that will hopefully go through the fire academy this year and get promoted to regular membership we have one Township employee that just last week joined our auxiliary program we have two high school kids right now who are in the final stages of their physicals and
applications with the town to become auxiliary members and additionally we have a father in town who's got kids in the school system who has going through the process as well to become an auxiliary so in a two-month span we've had six new faces come into our department and one of the things we're
struggling right now is to get them equipment we don't have enough helmets we don't have enough boots um our pants have holes in them our jackets are torn and ripped um it's the the stuff is getting beat up you know last year was very active in this town with fires um we had mayor you were at the one
incident on ball we had to bring in a company to professionally clean and decontaminate our gear so it it took a beating last year um so you know we need to replace we need to add to what we have and we need to make a stretch you know six members in two months you know hopefully that number stretches to over
10 members for the total year you know that's a good problem to have but still we need to outfit everybody and make sure they're outfitted you know safely and correctly um computer software so again I mentioned we purchase the software we're hopeful within the next month or
two to get the software up and running um again it is communicating with the police dispatch system which is great but there are additional modules and things we're looking to purchase um before uh Township manager of talking about solar panels that's a module that we could put in identify buildings in
town with solar panels um with some of our newer structures in town the Verona Flats the fire department's been up there three times since January training there's a ton of information about these new construction buildings that we can build into our computer software that can help us on the scene it can help us
with recording it can help us with training so it really affords us a lot of things currently the program that we have red MX Cedar Grove Township is using it Monclair Township is using it there's several other throughout us County using it and uh towns municipalities all throughout the
country are using the program so it's something we're really excited about now can I sorry Nick can I clarify so that the that's in here is $50,000 for the rescue tools well what we did I sent it back to Jim we broke it down into fire
medic tools and personal protective equip what's the breakdown of each uh so personal protective equipment I'm putting at 20,000 okay that would afford US five sets of brand new gear this year and then 30,000 would go toward firomatic tools so what we'd look to do
with that was spread that differently instead of allocating it all to rescue tools as we did receive a new set of rescue tool last year which work really good for us um we've noticed in our training up at the flats um that we need some additional high-rise equipment um
some different nozzles some different hoses some different appliances and applications um with the the building coming on Spectrum 360 Property that's going to present a lot of the same concern so we need to kind of shift our focus into what type of equipment we're purchasing so less redundancy and more
you know going outside of the typical scope of Verona fire buting just this was just a for a little history on this like last year you had asked for 100k C giving you 50 this is the other 50 yes for that so this is not a brand new request this is remainder
ofon corre I you know I applaud you for taking looking at that number and figuring how you can best fit the needs that you currently have and then sorry the last item we have in here is fire department radio equipment so with Matt's help and expertise um our radio
system that we're currently operating on was implemented in 2017 uh since then we've had no major upgrades or work done to our radios or our radio system within the fire department we did notice last year that we're beginning to see some lifespan
issues um we probably went through 15 new batteries that we purchased last year out of operating budget our pagers are beginning to fail um our Lael microphones are beginning to fail so we're seeing some wear and tear we're seeing some age on the the radio
equipment um the new units as we talked about earlier are about $6,000 a piece so what we're looking to do due to the lifespan of the equipment motor roler themselves will no longer service it we would have to go to a third party vendor who can come in and basically analyze our equipment for us so each one of
these portable radios is basically a computer so it's got computer software it's got chip it's got a health span to it so we want to determine how healthy is our radio system um you know we've been working on replacing pagers and batteries and accessories but do we need
to start thinking about replacing radios um again you know that's a huge ticket item if we have to replace 15 at one time so if we can break this over you know a couple year span and maybe get two a year replace what's good get out what's bad and uh continue that every couple years so we don't have to hit at
once with one big line at to replace a bunch of them all at once so this this you're talking about this was a this is a 2026 objective I don't see anything in 2025 for this for the radio am I missing something yeah we don't have anything
for radio yeah they don't have your um okay so what is the number on that so we had computer software at 15 on your sheet you have fire department tools for the 50 and the fire department computer software for 15 so the total still
65 for all of this that he's discussing currently he's just breaking it down separately the radio you said the radio piece yeah so what we did with fire department software where it's 15,000 on your sheets we changed that to 4,000 and we took that balance of 11,000 and added
in a new uh category a radio equipment so that we could take that 15,000 and better allocate it to what our needs are so just one one point on this I think I I appreciate what you guys are doing obviously we knew when well Council
Roman was was proba doing the Council on when this system went into place that there would be a time when we'd have to keep reinvesting right but I I think that the proper and this is my opinion not just the council but I would like to
hear from Chief Kieran on this because the chief is coordinates the radio system for the entire town um and If We Had A needs assessment it would probably make sense to do it for every Department right to figure it out rather than do them peace Feld which probably cost us
more money so Chief I'm volunteering you to to uh on this just briefly interject what the mayor said about the strategy with the radio system is very much correct when we went into buying this the town
used to have over 200 handheld radios every single crossing guard was issued one um we had a ton of units and we specifically made a choice to get just what we need knowing in future gear we would have to add for the equipment collection bit just because these on a per unit basis are so much more
expensive than the old radios we us have so I was there evening yes we have a meeting schedule with our radio consultant who actually brought us into the state system uh We've scheduled that uh with
the consultant spoke to Mr O solivan about it and uh police fire rescue DPW will all be in attendance when we talk about our needs moving forward and and the life equip then go to motor
we figured we would get our uh needs and really um compartmentalize what we really do need so this is all happening at once the $1,000 that the fire department is asking for for this purpose is part of an overall
project but that would be um the to temporarily replace some radios as far as the big that would be a 2026 capital okay because it it potentially could be much larger for Township all right Chief thank
you anybody else for the chief this Chief can we lot of CHS yes yes hi thank you so much for everything you do and it's great to hear that the department is growing that's that's really good news because certainly we want to keep
the volunteerism up and obviously you know people need the right GE um there was a grant that you received last year of almost 40,000 can you just detail like how that was spent and and what that went towards as we were talking
about Capital needs you know for this year you know the last year how was that Grant applied in your department so that was your that came in from FEMA um as well as which you from 2022
and for 2024 okay so the 70,000 was spent on turnout gear okay as well as I believe a washer and dryer a wash a washer okay great um the $20,000 that was received late last year that came in in December of last year oh um so they
are working on spending that money now that money was allocated for hose we actually have fire hose within our Township from the 1970s yes which amazingly passes testing every year but obviously if we' rolled to your house you'd probably want us using something a
little more modern or something a little more newer so we do have um those grant money is available for that which are ear marked for that great and obviously um with some of these Capital needs it would be great if we could find more grants you know for them
so to see what the future holds than you your members appreciate being here tonight U just wanted to say thank you I I know the fire department had unfortunately a very busy year with a lot of actual you know serious structure
fires and so so thank you for your service to the community and also um thank you for your efforts in this budget I see a lot of strategy to manage money effectively so I really appreciate that we're going to do the rescue squad the rescue squad does not have a tab because as you may remember uh that one
is just a one line item uh for their clothing stien but I'm G to have Ricky come up anyway uh that way he can also discuss his um Capital requests but in the budget it's 65,000 for the clothing
allowance stien and then we had two things just note for director that Council mcrath and I will remain silent during this part of meeting because of our association so is fun Deputy Mayor the deputy mayor has the chair
these are your two for 2020 and then you have future we trying a plan just to keep on so you're good good I know I'm loud enough on a baseline but I figured I would just check anyway so just to give a big background story for the rest of
squad over the last 10 years we've seen a tremendous amount of growth and response this last year was actually our busiest year we've had since pre-2020 which you know anything pre-2020 we were very very busy and then people kind of understood what real emergencies were but as the population is grown we still
getting a lot less of the nuisance CLS but we're still increasing in volume on the other side the drain on neighboring resources has never been w we us mutually less than 10 times last year which means we couldn't provide an ambulance so another town came to cover the call and in our particular instances
almost all of them bar maybe one or two of them was out of ambulances because we found as mechanical issues start to happen and I'm sure all the other departments can find parts just impossible to get so something innocuous breaks on one of our vehicles third down for three weeks and that's just the
problem everyone's kind of going through like our starter went on our 25-year-old ambulance and I mean it's really one of our Frontline Vehicles it has a great engine we rebuilt it it works great but just that lead time so we've already gotten it approved in the past because of the lead time on new vehicles for a new
ambulance but we plan on keeping oldest ambulances Reserve fees just because of downtime because every time a vehle go out now it's it's gone for a long period of time and in the state of New Jersey EMS is just not a necessity necessary
service by w is not a service that needs to be provided by the township so depending on where you are in New Jersey what you're going to get when you co9 one can be vastly different the average response time across the states like give or take 20 minutes it can go up as high as 40 or
as low as five and it goes across rural and urban areas Urban has higher volume less resources rural areas have less resources but a lower volume but it all kind of comes out in the watch on the averages I'm driving to is we're very blessed in V our volunteers by numbers
were at about 150 we probably have between 60 and 80 what I would call full-time volunteers then about between 30 and 50 what I would call part- timr and then per DMS and Affiliates which are basically people that remembers at one point that live and work in the town help out when they can but due to one
reason or another they can't give a full-time commitment it could be there you know a chief in a different department an officer in a different department they can only give us what they can give us but it's kind of a hodge podge between all of our active Riders and then also our auxiliary members that help with the fund as far as capital requests go as
everything's gotten so much dramatically more expensive the larger ticket I started come to the council over the last decade or so because we just can't fundraise enough to both keep our operation running and buy large ticket items up until Rescue 8 which would is
our I guess middle ambulance now the squad paid 51% or more of the ambulance than the town kicked in the rest and with rescue going forward it was just not sustainable for us to raise that money to buy an ambulance and because don't have any really true income on paper getting a loan is very impossible
or it's very non-economical I guess would be the best way because the interest rates are just ridiculous and I only know it's because some of the other agencies in the area do have to take out loans on their vehicles and the interest rates are just crazy especially when you can't show an income or credit score and all the stuff that goes like
that so the two ticket items you have in front of you one is for a CPR device it's basically an automatic compression device I could bore you with the signs I'll bore you a little bit but I'll I'll save my whole Soap Box B for a different time Cardiac Arrest is something that every minute you're down you have 10%
less chance of survival until depressions are started immediately there's about five chains of survival three of them we can affect one is early identification and compressions early activation emergency response early defibrillation so the town does a good job placing 8s throughout the town within the last year we started
providing Community CPR classes free of charge to the community run by our members at no cost to the community because frankly the more people know CPR the better chance you have a survival you know in Kings County in Washington where Seattle is they have a enormous Community CPR program and that's why if
you drop dead of a witness cardiac arrest you have like a 70% chance of survival copy and paste that somewhere else it's like 20% and it really is time is heart time is muscle so these original CPR devices we rolled out about a decade ago we initially bought two one for the police department one for us and
then with every ambulance we've rolled in a new one into the overall bonding cost to ease the burden on the town however technology has changed every four or five years the a rolls out a new CPR protocol and things have improved and so did the devices so the current device we have works wonderfully all
things considered the next version of the devic has come out with more aha standards it looks very similar it has just a suction cup on it which may seem very innocuous but it actually helps cardiac refilling by about 5% and you know when someone's life 5% is a lot of
leeway to play with and the reason we have one on all of our vehicles plus one for the police department is that whoever gets their first uses it and then if another one happens why we're on it we have additional pieces to go where we need to go and there's a whole list of good reasons for it after the first
rescuer does two minutes of CPR they're no longer as effective as the machine only have two people on a Crim two c you're going eat a good CPR before you're doing less than effective CPR so that's why both the police department and the squad are trained to put on quickly and rapidly once all The Rescuers are depleted but also in tight quarters patients that have you know
different kinds of things that need to be treated at the hospital which is very few and far between because the pams that come from the hospital provide everything ER does short of like hypothermia and a couple other odds and ends things we work them at home but if we do need to move them or they do rearrest it stays on them for transport
so if they go into cardiac arest again we can immediately start compressions again and take that chance of success and Revival to be much higher so I know it seems like a large ticket item but it's kind of like what do you put on a value of a citizen's life when it comes to the compressions they do a really good job and as someone who was not
necessarily completely convinced when they first came back in a Vogue watching it on a patient that has an aine that's hooked up to a monitor it does really good CPR and I I can't understate the necessity of them and over the years they've taken their damage you know carrying patients with them using them
patients they break we've broken pieces off we you know fixed stuff up best we can but we got 10 pretty decent years out of them and we have seen a little bit of a rise in cations which really is our end goal and that's by having these devices having Community responders having the vehicles partnering with the police department and doing the
community CPR classes so you have one per vehicle yeah we have one in every vehicle and four vehicles or uh one in every ambulance and then one in um one of the police bars are you to replace all the goal would be to replace them all because if we're going to bring it
up to standards we don't want to have mix matching pieces that's kind of the big rub of it and I don't have it how much are they per they are 60,000 each or sorry 66,000 total they would come out to be about three grand and change each I will tell you though we got them
last time from a vendor that's in the area and they usually are pretty good about throwing in so many aeds per Life arm if we negotiate with them and what we did last time was we basically got extra ads for the Township in with all the white farms and more ads in the town it's just better for the whole Community as a
whole sorry what is the actual count of devices that this $66,000 would buy us it would get four four four life arms and life arms and then possibly aeds yeah possibly aeds and then all like the extra stuff that with it because depending on what type of battery it is
the battery life of our current batteries all the extraneous stuff that comes with it it's probably a little bit high but when it comes to medical devices I always aim a little bit higher I'd rather come under budget than ask for more money as a rule I don't think it'll be quite that much but I'd rather shoot a little bit High because of these
devices just goes up as time goes on next anybody else have question so youve explained it very well I'm very passionate it's one of my big so boxes I've done almost all my papers for my Masters on community based CPR programs that's why when the kids wanted to start
one up I didn't have the time to teach it but I'm happy to organize it I mean we do do it we've offered CP training to anyone that wants it like I said it's free to charge and something that's kind of crazy to me is the healthcare provider classes can cost between like 50 and 100 bucks per student just for the community based on for like
residents that's very down dirty and basic still cost 2530 $40 and I don't think life saving train should be at a cost to anyone in my opinion that's part of our job the second L item I have is our SUV Y which is at the same age as I think
would be the assistant Chiefs explore we bought almost 10 years ago and we're looking to replace it with a pickup truck because we've been going a lot more both within the township and within the state the background behind that is on top of providing services to the township we're part of the N EMS task
force we're also very active in the county of provide Mutual Aid as well as we supplement both County coordinators for EMS as well as the state first a council president that oversees all the first aid squats for the state we're also one of the oldest actually we are the oldest 24-hour volunteer
organization in the state as far as the MS goes the last one that was had us beat out shut its doors about two years ago now I just have a question you replace you want to replace the Explorer tell like with a pickup is it
I'm getting there what's the benefit of a pickup the Explorer I I promise you I'm driving to that point so my plan is not necessarily to get rid of the Explorer it's just a supplement the fleet because we want to use it until the wheels fall off but that is a lot good for getting people where they need to go a first respond vehicle people to
take home the need we have is last year I believe we did somewhere the tune of almost 40 standbys throughout the township and when we do a standby we have to drive a lot of equipment into a vehicle some of the standbys are longer no we have a little more set of time some are not either way way we end up
committing an ambulance that cannot break or leave and that is bringing the chairs the tents and all the other stuff that goes with it extra bags all the fire rehab equipment by being able to store that in a solitary location we can bring that to where it needs to be bury that particular vehicle and leav the
ambulance free to go where they do it's less vehicles from the ambulance side it's a much smaller vehicle it's going to get closer to where it needs to be and for lack of a lot harder to get stuff than an ambulance because you try to get anywhere it's grass or soft ambulance they're very heavy and they're not very off road but do you put more of
that equipment in a pickup truck rather than an Explorer my reason is this because just obviously if it's you know you have bad weather and it's all that equipment is going to get wet so we would get a count on it since the price is about $60,000 it's for a pickup truck with a cap all the specking out that
comes with it for a drawer it's to fit both tents both sets of chairs all the extra fire we have equipment all the standby equipment and also just to be able to move larger equipment in it to different events that we go to we're not using the ambulances the ambulances even though are giant rolling boxes are not designed to be moving BS we do damage
stuff inside the vehicles by putting free equipment into it that gets bounced around and it's just a lot of equipment that we need to then load in and out of the trucks when T is at the essence especially for bigger events and stand by putting a cap on it we can also put a small white tower on it which isn't nearly as expensive as they used to be
to provide Lighting near the scene is frankly the firearm stops put the fire out and deal with the fire but not necess light up other areas that's you need to be able to light our own area and do what we need to dobly do rehab tents fans electricity for all of our equipment you know we have a lot of
other equipment that we can store on it that we kind of store everywhere in our building because we just constantly run out space there would also be a tow hit in the back for a bike rack to transport our bikes where they need to go because there's really not a graceful way to move our electric bikes exide riding them and it's any requested them outside of Verona they need to e their weedies
so they can bike to where they're going and then use them for what they need to use them for but it's a multi purpose vehicle that'll be much more of a special operations type vehicle versus the Explorer which is more of a Manpower moving vehicle used to take you Mt class because members are traveling farther and farther and farther to ENT class we
had four people graduate last year from East Bradway so between the tolls and travel and gas it makes more sense before them in the exploring go but then we lose that vehicle and that utility why it's at a town for a variety of other events and it also just comes down to having a pickup Tru with like that
plumber body on like the DPW has to store all the equipment tools on the side it's just quicker access easier access and it's one less thing we're using the ambulances for instead of their design purpose it takes miles off the ambulance it does last longer they're slightly more expensive than the
pick up yeah and I mean the grand SCH things our fet is growing but so is our B I mean when I first joined we were doing hair over a thousand last year we did about, 15550 requests for service our busiest year on record was 2019 which was about 17,00 calls for service
and just having that extra flexibility to both provide more vehicles in service but also cover more things adequately as well how many calls last year I think the exact number is 157 requests for Service Plus not counting all the extra classes and some of the standbys we
do anyone questions just as an as side of stuff like we're not asking for we're providing ourselves you know we constantly are seeking grants through both Millennium and our own you know passs things big issue with a lot of our grants is we can't have any kind of
fundraising company which bars like certain larger companies from getting them but we got grants for new radios so we got about five new estate radios we got like 67,000 Grant and we try to use our grants to replace stuff so we don't have to ask counseling but once we start getting up above that $40 $50,000 that's
just a lot for us to report from our new budget well thank you for all your du thank you for joining us tonight ex and we and we appreciate all the support Cil the mayor have the Shar again we are going to move to number 13
hopefully we can kind of keep everything else in order now that's police K in is wearing his white shirt which is the sunny shirt um do you want to go over the salaries um the salaries have have a difference
on the top your main difference is your regular salary and number one number two is your um clerical which is opu uh related number three is overtime and then the rest um pretty much stay
the same and your operating stay the same so I'll let you go into that sure good evening again uh the salary and wages page obviously is all uh contractual um
driven the meter enforcement which I call the utility uh people that we have they are part-time but they handle parking enforcement uh they can uh assist with
uh Crossing posts as well as administrative duties whether it be uh going to get a a car that's being serviced or picking up equipment uh so you'll see a uh a increase in that we also
expanded uh parking enforcement as for the ordinance on Saturdays the school guards came in about flat we did add posts and there were raises that were implemented
um over time was up partially due to increased uh wages but uh if I were to give you the breakdown which I will supply to you on that overtime the biggest hit was required
training so that's required training from the state uh that accounted for 954 hours um second was dispatch desk coverage so the two biggest sets as far as overtime goes are are requirement
training required and then uh desk coverage turning to operating does anyone have any questions on salaries Staffing compliment remain the same breakage or anything so we uh we are looking to add
two officers this year we have two officers retiring as well um but as far as increasing the TL we're looking to increase by two officers to what number to 36 what's uh driving the uh the interest
in increase uh increase in to co totals uh as well as increase time uh on each call um there's a lot more uh requirements from the state uh which we are in favor of obviously for law
enforcement but it does attack time onto each call whether it be new portals that we enter information into uh immediately or different uh legislative um new legislation I should say uh for different types of calls and
what needs to be done and both of those new position requests are at the pro officer level or correct correct then Chief if you add those to the Patrol Division would that reduce your overtime or training if you don't have to uh that would be the goal
um best laid plans so on the training is that like a one-time blip or that's the new steady state on how much training is required annually that is the new uh standard for training that is required from the
state um we have our own you know we're robust in in officer uh training and education um so it is something that we take a lot of pride in that our officers are highly trained but the state has increased not only with the new
requirements of Licensing they have more uh mandatory training which includes now um defensive tactics um there's a couple other things I could speak about uh in our annual report things that we've added here uh
lesle lethal uh equipment uh into to the officer uh into you know resources the officer has um there's also the aside from the mandatory training we also do uh best practices as far as training uh
with online portal uh we pay for a program for that that's everything from uh bias uh base policing to leadership to Legal updates to right to know blood War pathogens uh workplace harassment we we try to hit
on all those there's about uh two to four courses a month that each officer takes through the online portal that that is ours than CH are we able when we're talking about the U your metor enforcement dispatch Crossing two people
who hold that position or former police officers that's correct councilwoman mgra that brought up the zoning enforcement piece and obviously we have had a a difficult time in that department um with our zoning officer being less available because our
zoning secretary we've had several zoning secretaries at this point is that somewhere where we could cross Trin those officers and doing some zoning enforcement to handle some call-ins to yeah it's it's
definitely possible that would take them from their current responsibilities for paring enforcement so like we get a complaint and they're working that would make some sense that we could pull them from parking for a second go and check on you know somebody hasn't you know cleared the ice off their sidewalk which
happens unfortunately more often than I would like in town um or you know an over something overgrown building maidens that they could go over and you know they have a car and do all that stuff and try to deal with some of those quality of life concerns that come in um
and then leave kind of other the actual enforcement of some of the other regulations that isn't necessarily quality of life issue back to the zoning department just thinking if we can help in that area because it's something that we can definitely improve on as a Township you know I don't want to take them from here especially when you know
they're they're doing a good job with the de enforcement but we had something come in they could do that yeah I'll discuss it with the that PO into my head on that sorry
go uh operating uh we came in flat uh again um as far as uh some overages in in my lines there um there were some actually you know each overage I
could explain um and when I say overage that's in my lines not overage in the total budget not go over budget last year uh there's some one-time uh purchases or some end life equipment um that were thrown into a lot of these
different categories um one that will probably jump out at you is vehicle leases one we only spent $115 and that was in U motor vehicle fees what happens is we've been uh for
the the police vehicles when they're on side jobs it's a fee that the town charges uh we took in almost $60,000 last year from the uh companies that hired officers and used the vehicle so we use that money to pay off the
leases I have money parked there for this year just in case something changes as far as construction frequency or or something drops off um but I was able to use that money to purchase equipment through the year that's why that came out of
there any questions on operating Capital you need to do dispatch Capital so um the capital sheet that you were provided a couple weeks ago there's been some changes um from
where you received it to now um what Chris is going to present to you tonight and I will get you all of the numbers but he can go into um those numbers now for Capital requests I have two vehicles
including upfitting for 160 uh vehicles are anywhere from 45 to 51,000 a piece there's about $28,000 in equipment and upfitting per vehicle uh 173,000 for axon that's year
two for our uh body War cameras dash cams and tasers uh there's a lot of programs uh that are included when we did sign on with axon last year we're actually going to do a presentation for the council on everything that has to offer including a
lot of community involvement pieces to the uh portal uh bull prooof vests uh were their end of life January of 2026 uh for about 31 of the potential 36 officers so that would be about
53,000 we do get grants for vests we're exploring a couple other different avenues for for Grants but you get about $22,000 a year based on our numbers and a vest outer carrier vest can cost about
1,500 per officer with a fiveyear life and see um I have 35,000 for service weapon replacement uh we replaced our uh handguns in
2017 so we are just um right around a manufacturer um requirement for replacing the service weapon we usually replace them in about six to seven years which does give us more money on trade inss for the existing
weapons alal test replacement that is a New Jersey state mandate that's 25,000 uh it's end of life our current Alco test other Counties have switched over and the full roll out throughout New Jersey will be in 2025 what was the
number against 25,000 I have a gas mask request for a gas mask replacement request which would be 22,000 our gas masks are about 12 years old you've replace canisters obviously
to keep them uh within expiration date and plastic that does and then a request for a Polaris utility vehicle of 52,000 what happens is when we have uh
events we borrow the vehicles from DPW for the community center as far as transporting officers and equipment around we are looking at Grants for that as well and the two vehicles those are Patrol Vehicles P
Vehicles what are are they SUVs explorers whatever so it do whatever we can get uh we have a diverse Fleet um right now we have uh our oldest vehicle 7 years old
um the ones with the highest miles we have two vehicles with 65,000 miles one with 55,000 um again what we do with our vehicles when we take them out of service we either put them in as construction vehicles which are Revenue
generator or we distribute them throughout the town to various other departments then use them from DPW to fire prevention and code enforcement um as far as uh what I did not touch on was in overtime I just I made myself a
note and see it here as far as grants we received about 30,000 in traffic enforcement grants which were used uh that's everything from uh distracted driving pedestrian safety and DWI 14 tab 14 so here on uh tab 14 is your
dispatchers uh number one is they are under the OPI contract as well uh part-time remain the same shift differentials stayed the same and overtime uh was increased based on what they um had used B basically last year I
let you so partk time dispatch uh we have prum dispatchers which is a great tool for us to backfill dispatch coverage again you know when I started it was uh you came to work and you had the desk that day and that was it um obviously
it's specialized now you need certifications uh to be a pie app to be a public safety access point um pums are great they fill in everywhere we can as far as supporting desk coverage but we
did not um we spent more in um overtime than we anticipated uh with the 12 hour shift sometimes it's a little more difficult to uh get a pan for the full shift so we did spend money in uh putting dispatchers on the desk in overtime it's difficult there's only
four um so it depending on when the O the shift Falls you might have a choice of just one who's truly available you know ones either coming off an overnight shift or do in following day so that number you'll see is higher than
anticipated last year questions on this um is this the like what are the the elements of like the career like of people going into this as a career is there like a whole recruiting mechanism are you well staffed is just it's just a
hard thing to do with the length of shifts it's hard when um you know we have four full-time uh because that works for us um right now um traditionally people used to come into dispatch as a stepping stone into law
enforcement but it's such a specialized field field now and a very difficult field um I I could never work dispatch it's very very stressful it's very difficult even in a small town like Veron uh our dispatchers are excellent we have career dispatchers that we're
very lucky to have uh based on a number of reasons um and we we've kept them we intend to retain them okay great but um it is difficult based on there are four squads and a dispatcher for each so
there's not a lot of room for uh you know say a fifth dispatcher in our budget right now that maybe could fill the Gap when you see you know like the jail schedules where they work a weekend two days in a row we and things like that um but we're always looking at
different angles to try to try to attack that number but uh at some point um we'd love to be the Hub and take on some other towns um those talks are Ro great great thank
you thank you CH more I don't think any can we get an updated Capital um sure yeah there's some last minute um changes as you could
see so yes yes thank you um tab 15 building and grounds Mr Waterman welcome I just want to let know I'm only 44 years I'm not but mine's comeing to an end
yeah yes um so salaries on top uh you will see a slight change of $10,000 there um again contractual on the bottom um there were some things that we moved from different um departments one of
them was we moved 5,000 from um Recreation for cleaning supplies into this budget the other one is [Music] second okay sorry I'm just trying to
read all my notes um and then last year so the operating looks larger in a difference uh you may or may not recall that you approved a transfer either late last
last year or early this year out of Lenny's budget because he did so well on keeping his money so I had to move $35,000 out of his budget for um another department so that's why also you will see it kind of
looks like a bigger difference on the bottom uh but he originally did have around $220,000 in operating let fny is the um the overtime largely community events is that where
that's that is most of it yes and um planning board meeting uh things like that our overtime is down because we now have a snow line that all all our snow overtime goes on to the Snow Line
right um there's three employees including myself two work with me every day and one is the custodian that cleans here and the library they're both every time um yeah I mean it's pretty basic service contracts we have o elevator has to come
in It's All State uh fire inspections we have to get them through the state we have to do and operating and maintenance is their big one and that's HVAC repairs plumbing and you know how everything's going up prices so that's basically it
for that capital capital uh there's cameras for $50,000 which we're putting in every year now last year we did um I believe it was six cameras at the community center in addex but those six cameras each six locations
I'm going to say because some locations have four it's one camera with four views so we did that and then this year we wanted to do that was phase one we want to finish phase one up there and replace uh the cameras on this building
because they're 15 years old 10 10 15 years old so we want to replace them now the number 50,000 is just we come up with a list of what we want and then they give us the price on all right it's too high let's take this one out let's take this one out let's get to 50,000
that's how we're doing that and the other one we have 50,000 for municipal building improvements that should be municipal buildings Improvement so whenever something comes up like I know we need new carpet down
in the tax office that'll come out of that um we have four pregnant women on staff now who are getting to ready one left already and we're doing a lactation room downstairs which I believe I don't know if it's code now state law butal
yes federal law but we are doing that now we're doing to S and cabinets in a place for them finally yeah so that like that'll come out of that and that's about it any questions any questions we'll start with coun um just general question
on the state of the Township's building buildings um I can ask you for like the longterm view are there major capital projects or needs coming up anything concerns you we are having a company commanded do an assessment on all buildings yeah I know about that one your anecdotal your thought basically uh
Town garage roof we're in desperate need of community center needs a roof so bad but we're waiting on the solar because they will do the roof for so we get the solar but we're putting bandaids on them left and right right Community set a roof right we talked about that for a couple yeah you can see the shingles are
like blowing up every time we get a windstorm yeah that one truck garage is getting more the mechanics got an umbrella while he's working on the trucks thank you appreciate it you talk about hold on I just want to get first
yeah I wanted to actually ask about the cameras too so you indicated that we've already installed at the community center and anex we mean on the the building itself on the outside of the buildings yes so is there any plan for any cameras up around the upper field uh
and there's that bathroom complex up there that'll probably be phase three okay yeah we're working we're trying to work our way up and then we got to do every field when that gets done okay so we're that's why we're putting 50,000 each year just keep moving keep it going okay but our expectation then would be so you've already done the community
center this year not complete we got with what we could with the money we have to finish that phase so walk me through the next fa the phases if you would yeah well phase one was what we did at the community center we get the playground we get the two the Veterans Field Centennial Field we get the tower
building and we get the outside of all the uh Annex and the community center there's a couple doors that we want to get at phase two up at the community center where the employees go in and out and night you want to be to see if someone's there for safety um then we're going to go to replace the cameras
around here that's two that's two okay and then phase three will go up to the fields whether we do Liberty field and then next phase freedom field depending on how the money how it goes and then then after that
everfield or we may do everfield as it's built so the conduit and to save money to save money we're working with the contract the camera guy we're running all the internal wires to the location so he just comes and mounts the cameras and programs and more well I really
appreciate it there have been concerns expressed about vandalism at the different bathroom facilities like and you know we did invest a lot of money in the new playground at the community center um and the facilities up there we will be doing the same forever field so
I do appreciate you doing this thank you yeah I was uh cameras on phase two include the interior of the building here because I know we have cameras in the foyer uh I'm not 100% sure I was looking at the outside ones the inside ones are decent or
no almost yeah all right so inside I did take a walk around at the community center in the annx building and obviously now since we we have the filtration system up there I noticed the camera on the back so I was happy to see that yeah and up at the other towers and
the police view all the cameras from their desk now dispatch desk and their offices they can view great today I I appreciate your pH in approach something like everybody you know we if you notice we've been asking people to kind of phase
in on some of the camera things especially for the freedom and liberty Fields I'm wondering if it might be wiser for us to put those in the next phase rather than kind of waiting for a phase three this is technology that doesn't seem to be getting any cheaper like it's not one of those the cameras
don't seem to be getting less expensive as the years go by um I had also kind of was I was thinking along the same sorry I think along the same lines but I was thinking basically maybe we put cameras where we don't have them first before we replace EOL ones or something like that because again we're seeing you know
we've had vandalism instances at the fields and that's everybody's first question is okay well do you know to check the C check the cameras you know I'm just wondering if just may maybe strategically we might you know that's up to the down to figure out what your need truly are to best protect all of our assets but I would rather spend
100,000 now to avoid the damage to potential if we have damage to facilities especially if they're something that can Alert in real time you know some cameras have motion sensor technology that can that can alert so if somebody's on a field after 9:00 at night and it sends an alert to the
Dispatch Center and says hey you got somebody on the field please let go up there and probably nip some of these things in the butt I mean the bathroom thing just absolutely astounds me that people just can't use a bathroom um you think that's something we've learn very young but um but anyway I would rather
honestly and I know this is weird coming out of my mouth but I'd rather spend more money now on this project specifically and get us in a position where every all of our property is being monitored well if you want to put more money in yeah I mean I know it's so odd that I'm the one say here spend more but on this item I
think that it's probably something honestly I think we dropped the ball and not we weren't the counsel at the point but when Liberty and freedom were put in yeah that absolutely should have been part of the construction we do have the fiber optics up there so to do the battle right there just just a thought
because there is damage of those you know police are going report just makes sense to see if we can do some some uh preventative work up there with the councilwoman yeah I was just going to add you know is there an opportunity or maybe it's too late on the pickle ball courts because that's
going to be another asset you know um that we're going to want to protect and the pool and then I believe the um the leader of the community garden also sent in a request as well I talk car yeah um that's a different system but the police
can view the cameras at school so we could change that camera to like one of those four view cameras and probably get to G okay good I'm sure you saw these Le municipality there are now some really great Wireless and wireless camera technology that has like solar on so
instead of having to run the fiber optic for like the pickle ball carts re the fields if we put it on something like that um it could potentially save some of the installation cost because you don't need to be running fiber up the community pool parking lot or whatever so may be worthwhile looking to some of
these Alternatives that could tap into our system but I I think all of our assets should be protected at this point if we can and start working on that right away um and I would I would defer to Chief Karan on that as well um sure you guys talk about this but like but we
need to right away what they're seeing their concerns as well but I I would honestly like everything um protected all right let's change that to 200,000 one of five just poting that out do we have cameras at recycling yes we do have
one thank youy any other questions thank you have a great I'll be back well yeah you're not going anywhere you got to um okay Chuck we're gonna move into you next and then we'll come I'm working my way down the list they Dave has the
same pool too so we're going to go into tie 18 uh 1920 and 21 Chuck you always have the most tags most talk it's a
fortune all right so tab 18 is Street and Highway um again the top uh for salaries mostly contractual um in your regular line item number two stayed the same number three longevity stayed the same number four
overtime stayed the same uh reserve for storm trust I increased it not knowing that we'd have a storm every other day um this year so far so that's probably going
to not be enough the 25,000 but um hindsight being 2020 and storms um so that was increased with the intention of uh not having a snowstorm every day
and Ward not over and and more we're done we're moving on we're done uh so that is your your salaries per okay on salaries then I'm going to flip the page to operating the
largest difference here is that we moved um the flower baskets out of civic affairs and into uh Street and Highway the thought process behind that so that's number 12 that's that's your difference um the thought process behind
that is Chuck is usually the one that handles landscaping and flower bid um so we took it out of there and put it into this budget the only other difference is we also moved $10,000 out of this budget lots of moving uh and put it into
vehicle maintenance because uh the vehicles have been costing more and more money um like of everything is just going in general so that is your major differences for
tab 18 underst Street and Highway if you know questions about that one I'm going to turn the page to engineering engineering um was $27,000 last year it CHS 22 because we
transferred out five um in one of those transfer resolutions that was approved earlier this year so this Remains the Same under engineering tab 19 for shade tree shade tree the only major
difference here we combined four and five um so that Chuck can do with what he he needs to do between pruning uh removal of trees and repairs uh the only new addition here is
number nine which is the Forester which is something that we haven't previously budgeted for um which now is in this budget flipping to tab 20 vehicle maintenance discuss the increase here is
the $10,000 that was moved from Street and Highway um operating to vehicle maintenance to cover the additional cost of the um course course going on and you have
tab 21 is recycling the top um is your salary and wages which didn't change too much I have budgeted a little bit more in temporary and seasonal um un knowing again hindsight being
2020 uh we had lost a a a person um who passed away so unknowing that was going to happen in 2025 um I had bumped it up but again um not knowing that we were going to lose
an employee um so that's the only major difference on the top on the bottom uh you will see a slight increase in mixed Recycling and newspaper just based on what we spent what was trending um spent in
2024 um so what is going on there with um with the mix Recycling and newspaper is it oh you recycling more picking up more okay more of it I mean the price did go up a little bit you're rid of it we're picking up more of it more people are recycling get more down down the
recycling center that's what the price up and then we have the whole education tagging program so how are we doing with our fines and oh we've been good we hav't we've been good we've been good we haven't I don't think we haven't gotten we maybe got one F two fines this year tops okay so that's working out yes it's
working very good and just roughly again for the public the difference in cost for us yes it costs us to hallway recycling but it's less than hauling away garbage so what that rough it's a c to thir I mean you'd pay say $80 a t to
get rid of in the garbage and we're paying $37 a time to get rid of recycling so that's it's not that you're making money it's AC cost the fur that you're not putting it into to the garage stream yeah okay great so recycling sa moneyone
money coordinator is always as long as recycling is clean right yes I mean I don't know if you realize when bought in clothing yeah there's a book drop down there Depot now take a drop you want to go over your capitals
whatever you want to do what we're not at Water and Sewer yet don't rush them you got to stick around longer okay go over your capitals here you go the first couple are normal our sidewalk Capital 25,000 replace sidewalks raised
by Shay trees our catch basing Capital 25,000 to repair catch Basin throughout the town uh the tree planning I don't know if you're grouping that with the one that Carol's is separate carols um is at it's the very last line she had requested um
75,000 per year for five years that's I'm sorry sorry so 25,000 for a p plan for any trees that we're taken down every time we take down the tree we ask the home if they would like one back and most of the people say Yes
um our normal storm water cleaning uh we've done the hot town once it took us three years to do the hot toown we'll start all over again um my paint machines one machine's 41 years old the other one's 23 years old I'm look to upgrade my two new paint machines to get
two new paint machines that we use to paint the fields and Curbing and all that kind of stuff I'm looking at a third lift in my garage for my mechanics we have two now I'm looking at a third one my third one be more of a portable lift so I can roll into my Big Bay to use it on my big machines and my big
trucks that's roughly 100,000 and I desperately need to replace trucks I mean thank you you gave me two trucks this year but my my newest piece of equipment is seven years old not count the two I got this year I desperately need to replace trucks I'm looking to replace like four of my
trucks this year which one where is that it's the second one it's the second one down the Mason D trucks to we just did the M these are yes I'm looking to do more Mason dumps and more pickups my trucks as of now I don't know if you know I rehab the green
houses so I store a lot of stuff in the green houses now all my TRS are in the buildings they never were in the buildings before so now we're keeping them inside which makes a big difference so you're talking two Mason dubs two pickup trucks yes I'm going to sit with my mechanic
and go I want to get rid of my worst for truck you know that cost us a lot of money our our dossier system tells me when spending each year on a truck what truck is cost me the most and that's what I want to replace so you can give your Basin up to fire prevention and we'll give one ofs to
the but I'm looking to replace four or five year musle Glen you want the third I'm a good sh got how is your assault though doing salt D was excellent was the best investment we ever made it was excellent all year a matter of fact twice the
county cut off other towns we just kept right on going so that's a very good investment that was good foresight on that the only other thing I'm sorry is the paving of the Verona Community uh Center we talked about the well being done and the playground being done we've
been talking with Kevin about it needs to be repaved so mind that parking lot is in very rough shape very but we haven't done it due to the work we're doing we trenched it for things and yeah right uh speaking with rny and Kevin I want to trench and conduits all over the place so if you want to add electric
parking in different areas we can do that all in house and then just have them come in and Mill and pave last year's price under the co-op was about 225 I don't know if it went up probably but that was the mill and pave the entire every parking lot and there's
a few things the chief wants to go over about changing direction of traffic to try to ease things down he has some ideas with striping and Curbing and different stuff we want to add in there so 225 might be a little on the low side yes I will say when we do it just a
thought and chief may have thought us but maybe a raise crosswalk I was there on Saturday and that playground was packed it was great to see but a couple people parked one and they're walking straight across from the community center from the basketball games to there and it's you're coming up the hill
that' be nice if people saw that and slowed down raise or pain or something Chief had some ideas already with changing the traffic flow and crosswalk some different things and any fings nice so that's definitely like to get done this year any more questions yeah I just want
to add that this is the neighborhood traffic and safety committee's favorite um conversation which is the flow of traffic in that parking lot so they're already heavily engaged but the chief knows that we've been talking about it for a couple years he has some ideas that we went over already different
things with striping and painting and bump out cures and different things like that and I just want to add um and I hope the sh was invited to this conversation but I just want to say they're doing tremendous work um and you know a lot of very critical maintenance
work occurred this year with that $75,000 investment they need it again there's a lot of shade trees that need a lot of uh work I think the new tree company is really working out Jets um and I've seen a noticeable number of you
know things being taken care of um and in terms of shade tree planting there really going to not just you know handle there's a normal wear and tear where you're asking the homeowners if they want one people can request the sh Tre but also looking strategically at some
areas in town that are just really bare and really um they're thinking through ideas of approaching whole blocks you know provided again we have the budget and this may be a project for next year or the year after but really trying to reforest some areas of town actually
what they're trying to do out of their 75,000 my 25 000 isct for trees taken there yeah Tak a tree in front of your house I have a list pending every year I don't M I don't do the whole list y but every tree I take down you get a notice with you like in the Sha tree that's you try to plan I must have maybe 17 left
from last year I still haven't planning yet that's great yeah but that's their idea with their 75 do the project you're talking about and looking at different species and the age of trees and being more strategic on reforestation um you know we have a whole section of town that's called
Forest Avenue and there's other sections of town you can see from the heat maps that are available how hot the whole FM Brown section is and that's the area that has the least amount of shade trees so we can be really strategic there I'm really excited for them and I appreciate
that they're now for the first time in year is going to be a full strand with your appointment tonight as with the alternate so it's real exciting uh before we move on to water uh chairwoman Thomas of shade tree is actually on Zoom Carol if you want to say add anything
feel free to raise your hand and we'll call you in at this point um but you can do that anytime we can come back to you if Chuck wants to keep going you don't have to say anything you're good but you on the spot I think Council gra did this sumary but um just pop that virtual hand up if you want to add anything while we
do water and sewer well we'll move into um on number 23 Chuck also handles uh the bottom line in Recreation which is Fields um so that's a singular line in tab 23 T uh town Fields uh we budgeted
50 last year we projected 65 this year uh we discussed doing more uh field maintenance more field maintenance and the the stuff we need to buy is more expensive the line and the diamond dry and stuff like that that's all going up
and doing some more field mainten and I remember we take care of all the fields including the school Fields the turf fields we do them all so that's what we like to after at to 65 did you want to finish current um or did
you want to move into water and sewer and bounce back to current oh whatever you want you want to just keep going all right then we'll go to tab 27 which is water and
sewer and then we'll bounce back um for 2025 we are proposing a $875,000 budget for revenue and expenses um which you will see broken down in um the budget summary on the top
you will see that our rents with our rate study um our rents did increase in 2024 um and I was able to then reduce our fund balance use used in 2025 or
projected to be used in 2025 um which is the 8,75 th000 on the bottom of the first page is the appropriation uh summary total but we'll we'll get into if we flip the
page the first page is salary and wages again contractual op by OPI major difference let's see major difference uh was sewer regular um the sewer plant is I've been told um underst
staffed um so we have discussed black staff um in that area um used to be there used to be 12 guys in a supervisor now we're down to seven guys and basically May overseeing yeah
so speaking with Jen and Kevin like to hire two guys this year another guy in 26 another guy in 27 another guy in 28 get our staff back to where it should be we're putting a lot of money into the sore plant I need guys to maintain it it has to be greasing and changing oils and fixing belts and we just don't have it
seven guys there now just put out fires every day they do their normal work and fix whatever breaks do you have someone that would be in line at some point to take on that supervisory Ro time is very valuable to
this toship and we need to make sure that we're using it in best way possible for everybody you're only working like 80 hours a week so we'd like to get you down to maybe 65 to hold on to you that's part of our plan uh there's no succession plan down here so as we go on hiring the next two guys we're looking
to hire we're not looking to bring in labors looking at guys bring guys in with a little bit of more qualifications maybe have to pay them a little more money but they could start taking over running the plant and the sucession plan down there there was never succession plan so right now there's nobody it's just the guys that
work there and Joe and Dave he's stilling a bang up job but we have to come up with a plan and that's what we want to do yeah you will have um retirement there uh I don't know some of these guys don't want to
retire it seems like but we got a couple Jo I mean Jo Mike wi guys here with next five years Joe and Mike Wilson be going but hopefully we hire the right people we start training them now in the next five years years do people to take
over that's good for S um in your in the next page is your operating one new um line that we added was number 11 which is your well
costs the well coming up online this year there are some costs that we haven't had um in the past four or five years at least um and also new new um
amounts that to get this well up and running and operating fully uh which were necessary so we put in $100,000 um in number 11 for well costs um your sludge removal contract
was up I think in 2023 so that was increased slightly there uh water main breaks in Parts you stated earlier we've had a a ton of water main braks um which re
require a lot of not only um assistance from DPW but um fixing and materials matal so those are your major um items the other thing is also your chemicals so we increased chemicals uh which is
number three um because the wells are now online going to have to treat obviously more um than we had to do in previous years Jen on line 34 water purchase yes um we don't anticipate this going down
with the well being online or so this is the small well this well will help once we get the Fair View the Hillwood well on that then we should see significant difference the well that's running now just take care the O section of town 30's farest morning side Hillside we'll
see a difference we won't see a great difference the other well comes out once you see a substantial difference I also didn't want to budget too much um you know in case something happens as you excited that we have I know Pake Valley also uh increases their fees by
6% every year um so I wanted to have a little bit of a buffer there um on the last page a question oh I'm sorry that's not related to the filtrate media in the new filter systems is that's new or is that the 100,000 cost is yes right now
that the wells the wells used to be ran from down the sore plant they're now moved to my department I've been training two guys to run the wells there's filters that need to be changed every three months there's chlorine that needs to be bought monthly there's other materials and testing equipment 100,000
might be too much 100,000 might not be enough so we started with 100 to see how this year goes we're hoping 100 will cover both Wells we're not going to know like the chlorine should last us four weeks for a delivery depending how much we use we might be every two weeks it
might be six weeks so speaking with Jen and Kevin 100,000 is our starting point hopefully we can lower it next year or we might have to raise it once we put the other well online if I can interject we're we're working a deal with them that pool the pool chlorine I
buy in larger quantities so I get a lot cheaper price than they get so we can buy it from the pool and we'll truck it to each well to save money that way we're trying to work on it right on a good note the cost of chlorine
actually dropped this year something my question basically when we had the consultant come in and explain the past treatment systems they talked about the filter media change for the large filter vessels right um obviously this is the first year of operating this
system are you accounting for a filter media change for the large vessels or is that something we're going to say is next year hopefully hopefully from what our understanding is we should be able two to three years before we set have to change the media okay so no I'm not foret the media is very expensive right okay Med is a lot a lot of money for the
media okay that'll be cap and what we we have anticipated with the since not to lose the media even though the well hasn't been running into the system it's called wasting it we've been running it every day for 15 minutes so we have out and keep the media moving
right so that's why why we have to change it already but now we're running the well 8 hours a day hopefully by next week we're running 247 so exitting you should come up there and say it's it's amazing what's in those vild to look around everybody want to
come just give us a call great on your last page is uh mostly your debt service and your uh statutory uh payments you will see that our NJIT loan came off uh that was a loan from
2004 that was finally paid off in 2024 uh um so that is your biggest difference there um on that page we also have Capital requests for water and sewer capital on
page three of your long cheat we're g to go over these all right this is another well this is your Mason dumps which we talked about I was looking for forom uh we want to upgrade the store
we want to make that all digital and up um as you notice when we have a major water problem we have to pump with a hyen from monair to Verona and that comes to the boiling water and all that aggravation and all the testing and all the flushing we're looking to put an interconnection in where we just go
there and turn the valve and it feeds Verona system that's something we're working on um Asset Management Plan B yes so it's we did the asset management plan a couple years ago um
this is providing updates to that plan um I don't know if you want to add anything additional to it basically it's an update to the existing Asset Management plan to update what's been done what the new priorities will
be design the new nitrate system come up with that design down for treatment plant and get that taken care of lead and service Replacements uh the state says we have to check every water line in town so right now we're checking homeowner sides and every time we dig a
hole we check the town side and that'll be an ongoing project I think till 35 C we got or 33 33 33 so we have about 600 homeowner side check now about 500 Town sites that's something we're constantly doing checking le le
services and the went s line needs to be rehabilitated uh we changed one section already when the weather brakes will change the second section already we already appropriate the money for that we're looking to line or or do work on the entire system which needs to be done
and then our smoke testing we got the results back like Kevin said we're G have a meeting and decide what we need to do and what's our biggest problems and what's the home owners problems and what's the town's problems and get all the smoke testing done so we stop the infiltration of rainwater and Sun Pumps and stuff like that going to
our this is repairs relating to the findings of the smoke mhm yes yes um so these jump talks are specific for sewer yes okay and the other two are
four okay so four total but spoken for for two different two different budgeters okay thank you is that it for Mr Volo that is it for how many years everybody else has been years Service uh starting 84 41 41
you're the think about every day when I be tired 41 I'm 66 I can go tomorrow I let's get him hold you're good very much all right sa you're up we're going
back to uh tab 23 which is Recreation um on the top again contractual uh the only difference is um your community center custodian was separated out which I don't really know why but just to
streamline it I combined their salary from number two to number one um other than that um really no difference not too much of a difference in salary lines uh and operations stayed the same come
in evening everyone just gonna do a quick explanation of the office of community services um just to give some credit where credit is due because I think there's some employees there that work
extremely hard uh throughout the year to provide excuse me an incredible service um so the office of community service we see everyone from the occasional birth certificate in Verona all the way to our
uh adult senior exercise programs to uh death certificates um provided vital statistics for the town um our office is comprised of four full-time employees five counting
Anthony osario uh we have Mary Farrell who's supervisor of health and Vital Statistics Mike McMahon supervisor of wreck Leslie Sullivan who's the deputy registar and anywhere from 15 to 25 part-time employees those range from
Medical Transport drivers to the senior bus to Outside Inside um field gym supervisors and then during the height of the summer season which is rapidly approaching we could have anywhere from
175 to just over 200 seasonal employees so our office does have a wide scope of reach um we do our best to provide uh a very efficient and pleasant experience for all of those who encounter our
office um and I think over the past years that I've been there we've done a a really good job in doing so there any question sorry I do um so in terms of your staff yes you had for a while a staff member that was really
focused maybe exclusively focused on disability programming unfortunately he left the organization what are your plans to restore that um focus are you wrapping that into a full-time employees responsibilities or are you going to
rehire for that parttime position in the process of navigating that whether it's going to be a full-time or part-time person we're currently working on the job description salary um and how we're going to fit that in and manage it but it's in the works and should be
advertised shortly okay because that was really important also just to make sure that we hit our legal compliance issues in this area so thank you I'm really glad that that's coming back this J thanks move into tab 24 which is
Health um salaries Remain the uh the same the bottom um as you know our health contract has changed um over to Bloomfield um in that line it did reduce
what our cost was um but in their contract they do have a line specifically if there is overtime which we've been told that there will not be overtime but um it in in case there
happens to ever be overtime um I did want to budget a small amount for that which is why you see a slight difference of $3,000 there just in case um anything happens um it should be
incorporated five hour it should be hour yes um but there is language in their contract uh that we would have to pay overtime and obviously this being the first time that we're using them and unknowing if overtime will actually
happen or occur I just wanted to have a small buffer there so um that is the only difference there in tab 25 is your senior budget there's no difference that that budget has remained flat um of course I'm G ask about the pool
party so what is the senior Sy and pool party what are these fees for and is this matching how are we subsidizing the cost for so the special events are the bus trips that we provide to the senior
citizen Club yeah um the pool party has been a service that was provided by the town this year uh I've already spoken to the president that's going to be paid for by the senior Club this year so with everything staying the
same we're looking to provide um the same bus trips that we had which was four last year um and in charging the senior citizens for the pool party they're probably not going to cover their first year paying the whole thing
we're going to have a little bit of a buffer just in case the um bill is above what we want to ask the seniors especially the first time that they're paying but that bridge has been crossed this year um and they will
be uh paying for uh hopefully a good percentage of it but we'll be working to cover the cost moving forward okay great thank you glasses pool tab 28 on your budget summary sheet um we
are projecting or proposing a budget of 1,9 9,750 um in Revenue you could see at the top um based on survey results um you guys are all aware of the survey what
was put out there um we decided to do the 15% or you all decided to do the 15% increase uh which is reflected there in the memberships um and I also then put in fund balance of 200,000 which was also part of the
recommendation um a little bit higher than the recommendation from New Gen study um but I want to ensure if we do have a fall off um that we're still going to be
safe basically um at the bottom you will see the Appropriations match and then we'll get into that salary and wages on the next page um increased almost $220,000 uh this was a combination of
Dave's input as well as my own um and where we thought um and based on the conversations that we've had about the pool uh where we thought each line really should be uh most of the increase
you will see is in lifeguards which has been discussed do you want to comment anything on salaries just the that's okay uh the minimum wage has gone up
dramatically over the uh past several years I believe in New Jersey it's supposed to be $25 an hour by 2032 so it's going to continue to Trend you know Upward at a pretty big increase and the
number one job that like I shouldn't say number one one of the top jobs that keeps our pool safe is the lifeguards um in years past when I first started we did not give a dollar extra an hour or some of the other things that we provide
to attract those employees and obviously we want the best employees that we can find serving as lifeguards um other towns have had shortages of lifeguards so with the minimum wage going up drastically in Verona we put a dollar on top of that first year lifeguards to
again encourage um kids to get that certification um and to have that job with some real responsibility at a young age so for the increase that we ask for in salary and wages with the minimum
wage going up part of that is also that we do offer lifar extra dollar an hour when you advertise for the Lifeguard positions and the other positions those went out February 1 but
they're currently still hope no on the next page um we have part of the operating costs um Let's see we have electricity which increased
um which is our psng bill um your credit cards significantly decreased as you may recall last year uh the fee for using the credit card uh per transaction has been passed off to the consumer so that
has significantly decreased uh Parts repairs and Equipment has increased chemicals we kept the same clothing we increased slightly um and Landscaping we decreased we took a
with two lines the next pagey mayor sorry Jen where's the we had this talk a while ago where's the expense for water oh see this is what I had I had computer issues I told
you to nine and 10 yes okay I'll have to get you this copy as well um but it's included in it's it's included in the numbers it's included in your original emailed budget binder just not in the
printed for whatever reason I don't know why um what was the question what's the number water water 48,000 um let's see swim team was 800 and that remained the same water
delivery was 750 last year uh and we that down to 500 because what was spent was 121 just the lifegard St that's all that is it's not water really exactly the audit remained the same
at500 uh computer software and support was 249 last year we spent almost 17 so that dropped to 18 uh legal Insurance uh General Insurance in legal was 5,000 last year we spent
1,100 and uh what was proposed is 2500 state licenses was the 700 last year um which is the slide permit we have to pay for there was also classes
for po man and that's all that we paid for to so that was an additional cost um not originally budgeted for so what was spent last year was 1,7 $795 so we bumped up state licenses to
$11,000 the cleaning services was $8600 last year we bumped that up to 9500 last year we uh we had zero budgeted for water and sewer we are budgeting 48,000 this year and the rate
Study last year we budgeted zero and we spent uh 9500 and in discussing that um with the additional information that they' provided um they're looking for an
additional amount um as well so we budgeted for five there but it's all included in the total amount on the next page thank you and I will I will get this out to you um on the next page uh major differences is
your Capital Improvement Fund in previous year years it was 10 it's been 10 for as far back as I can recall uh this year I put in for 25,000 uh your payment of bonds stayed the same your interest on bonds went
down slightly your interest on notes remained the same your legal installment uh is basically the same it's up $700 Social Security Remains the Same General Insurance of $1,000 remain the same your Co emergency remain the same
and and number nine is a safeguard for me um number nine is for our ACR interest um if we don't have our annual financial statement that is completed I should have that by Wednesday um depending on if our crude
interest is up or down last year we had a budget 29,000 additional so I budgeted 26 that again is just a safegard for me to make sure that I have um enough budgeted for the acred
interest and then do you want to go over capitals are on your last page of your um long Capital 10,000 for furniture replacement if you I don't know if you've been up there you saw those you saw those um uh
recycled uh plastic tables they're one of them we're going to try to replace a couple every year because the metal ones are starting to rot out where the water H where the metal it's the concrete it rusts out and then fall apart so we're replacing a couple of year we whatever we can afford with the 10,000 and
there's 17,500 for to renovate the basketball courts that is I'm going to say in case we have to put a Band-Aid on the courts because the following year is the replacement of them and if we don't use it we'll just put it toward that other 100,000 next
year just in case we have to do something did of course to make them safe for this year that's all that is got some no coun I'm going toer fine um the plastic tables what are their kind of life expectancy because
I'm just thinking you know they're out in the sun all day they might get brittle they we've had no issues with it it's supposed to last a long time going to last a lot longer than the metal ones really yes okay and we tried the one
table to see how it was you know thought maybe it' get too hot but we had no complaints on nice yeah it's a nice table so how it's a lot heavier is it okay and how many are you thinking this year I'm hoping I can buy two or three each year with the 10,000 two or three depends on what the cost went up or
whatever okay thank you thank you I'm wondering if that might be something that we should start putting into operating just because if we're doing it every year and you know and we basing that off of cool fees you know just make sense put in there rather than potentially borrowing this money right
just throwing it in there as something if we're going to be on that just make it a budget line go ahead Council um I'm you know the basketball courts you know there there's safety issues there um I and we've talked about this before I think there's an opportunity we call
them basketball courts but there's actually a lot of space there to think multi-functional flexible you know and so I hope we incorporate then our thinking use our Recreation advisory committee and we have the opportunity to do some surveys because I think there's
a great opportunity there and that can add to the marketing of the pool if we have you know if we add you know throw in like oh we have portable pickle ball so some hours of the day it's pickle ball sometimes it's basketball and like it's just it's a it's a great space to
think big we can line it for that that's any got a question thank you thank you I hope the rest of your night goes loud quick robot how how many years for you we haven't hit double digits yet that's when last the
new all right and is that all for you that concludes um your proposed 2025 budget I will send you out uh the sheets that were missing as well as Revis uh Capital sheets to include some of
the differences um between fire and police yeah um did you get an update from the state of New Jersey no okay and when when you get it you will let us know yes I will about state aid yes yes
State a state a yes yes this may or may not be a budget allocation question but it's a general or maybe operational so kind of ask both to manager CFO um economic development is you know something that we we used to have sort of a dedicated function in
that and that's kind of Gone Away um I would like to make sure that even if we aren't necessarily allocating for a person to do this does we still have a single point of contact for businesses and an effective outreach program and marketing for downtown Verona because I
kind of do feel like that was effective at minimizing retail vacancies um I just like to know that somehow Within administrative operations of Township that is someone's responsibility it is it does fall generally within the function of administration and a lot of that
Outreach does fall with both Administration and public information um but I will uh review responsibilities and and make sure that there are all the the asks are still getting hit and can continue to grow on on those those needs
that are there right there were kind of a couple of the principal tenants of that were basically when someone was wanting to open up a business in town um we wanted to make sure they had a single point of contact within the township to ensure that they got all of their permits and were able to open in a in a timely fashion and then you know
obviously we did restaurant week and so on but we wanted to make sure that we maintained you know an appropriate marketing program for our business thank you thank you Sarah thank you thank you J thank you
and Mr T manager are you complete yeah I think the one last thing to note is that at the budget discussions complete Chen's coming back to the microphone real quick for timing on yeah so we're looking to introduce on March
17th um statutorily you have until March 31st to introduce your budget um adoption would be then April 21st because we need 28 days in between introduction and and adoption and what about the the capital
side we can really do the capital side will be done probably early May um sort of in a similar fashion uh like we did last time which was those very long Bond ordinances um but I need the capital improvement from from the budget to be
moved over so that we could actually do the bond ordinances so probably early May for I'd like potentially to not all the capital maybe in one night so start having these meetings a little more progressively on the capital
so okay um I would suggest and I think we did this last we in Council if anybody has any specific objections on a on a capital request to talk to Mr the next let's say by the first meeting in April uh about the next month to see
where that is and then or I would like to spend Maybe that first meeting in April talking about priorities um which I think we can do because we're have that meeting between the two budget yes Spooks and things like that start talking about that and then we can
finalize in May but I want to want to have some robust conversation we have a lot of requests and yes would like to have some robust conversations on those but I would start just going to ask if anybody has any particular concern Reach Out Kevin um and I think the other thing for my sake is I would
like to see some of these vids on items you know some hard you know there's a lot of estimates right I think in the next month or so I would like to see hard bids on and hard quotes on some of this stuff right so um that would be
my my request on that piece as well um so that's any objections on not approaching the council okay so it's saying first meeting April talk to Kevin by then and that gives department
heads a month to get some hard clotes and perhaps we can get those in a Google Drive sure and we just set up PC mail email kieran's got it all set up anyway just start putting stuff in Google Drive and then we can periodically take a look just shoot us an email saying hey a few more things
were added we'll pop in there and start looking some hard items um that'll be helpful sure right thank you okay uh we are moving on to C reports because it's only 9:30 so let's get ready into that Debbie mayor you're up
make it quick uh I'll jump off of what uh councilman Roman was just talking about uh I did actually receive some calls in the list from three or four new businesses uh so I will say it's a result of the Chamber of Commerce
becoming a little more active in town uh we actually hired a social media person last year so we've been doing a lot better with membership uh we're up over 50 members on the chamber uh and I'm speaking for the chamber because I am a member uh with business in town but we
had a very good Wednesday the last Wednesday of every month we're doing a presentation of one of the members we had Bren Tilman who is one of about three dozen LinkedIn experts in the country uh and she gave it very good it's recorded you can go to the uh
Chamber of Commerce website and watch it uh and as talked about before uh restaurant week we're getting some good feedback from it uh the chamber will be sending out an email for responses from all the restaurants basically a survey on how they did uh but we had over 16 uh
food establishments participate we had some places that aren't restaurants that just did sandwich specials so it went over very well and I to would like to thank NADA for hosting the uh kickoff last Sunday from 3:00 to 5 it was very nice
and at our meeting on Wednesday the president of the chamber uh did actually comment uh and thank said please thank the mayor for showing up it was very nice of you to come and support the uh not only just the businesses but the chamber and what we're doing so that's
about it and uh oh thank you for raising the Irish flag tonight honor of St Patrick's say so thank you cin Roman uh you'll be pleased to know that given the hour I will sure wave my rep and that is appreciated councilwoman mcgr ah thank
you um it was actually um a busy time in between our two meetings I want to give a huge thanks to members of the neighborhood traffic and Safety Committee they had a fantastic webinar I think one of their first ones um on
walkable communities um it was very well attended uh it was recorded and I want to thank our public information officer too for all of her hard work on that to get the recording out to Residents who weren't able to catch it live that ties
into the fact that Essex County is doing a huge survey uh which I encourage every member of the council to take and all members of the public it was actually a really cool survey on uh safety concerns that individuals have both from The
Pedestrian point of view as a biker as a driver um and there was one other category uh oh publish Transportation um and you can go on a map and Mark specific areas and provide feedback I
think this is really important for Verona residents to um to comment on we know a lot of people want better safety at the park at that intersection with Lakeside on Grove Avenue this is a chance to give feedback there's also a
public meeting tomorrow again all of the information is on the Verona Township website and again thank you to to our Township Administration for really blasting this out their next meeting of the neighborhood traffic and Safety Committee is on March 11th and as the township manager already stated they
will be talking about uh the Lyon Avenue survey results I have not seen them so I'll be very interested to see them and then I'm assuming that's getting back to the council um so looking forward for that meeting on March 11 uh the Multicultural inclusion accessibility
advisory C committee also had a fantastic IC event for Black History Month it was so much fun um to Showcase a local entrepreneur and their women of impact event is on March 23rd I was told that the uh honores for this year will
be announced this week um so we hope to see you on Sunday March 23rd um I too appreciated Restaurant Week um I went to Nada but uh not for the preview Restaurant Week I went the night before everyone please have dessert there it was stand out out um but I enjoyed
Restaurant Week very much um and I think it's really great what the chamber is doing and I was really upset by the way that I missed the LinkedIn seminar I thought that sounded really cool um finally our congresswoman L Monica mver had another town hall she is also
recording her town halls for individuals to listen to um after the fact in case you missed them um and she is sending out a Weekly Newsletter which is incredibly informative um so her website is m.house.gov that's
MCI i.house.gov you can sign up for her Weekly Newsletter she's done two Town Halls already in the last two months so she is communicating a lot and I do appreciate that as things are a little Dynamic uh going on from the federal
government and so she is providing very timely information and that's my report thank you thank you councilwoman you um I just want to acknowledge that we you know I well I'll say that I want to thank again the Girl Scouts that came
here and acknowledge that girl scout week is coming up um and that it is in fact women's History Month um so this year's theme is around educating and inspiring Generations so I think it's really particularly meaningful at our
first meeting of the month that we did have the Girl Scouts uh present um I'm also excited about the Township's programming that's coming up um in celebration of the month uh between the last meeting and this one I attended the recreation
advisory committee meeting um I had to travel for work but we I was able to participate by Zoom um the committee actually organized a really thoughtful presentation both from a Turf perspective as well as a grass
perspective um with regard to the fields so there was a lot of discussion about the future of Centennial Field and what that would look like um and so I just really want to say that I appreciate the rec committee kind of getting that off the ground and having that robust
discussion there was also discussion about other subcommittees um including the disability programming um and there has been Outreach to child and other organizations in town to make sure that we are meeting those needs um the
committee continues to be concerned about the pool budget and the recommendations that were made um but I did Endeavor to assure them that the Administration has heard those concerns and that we are going to proceed with
marketing and other things to that effect um there was a scheduled joint flood committee meeting but I believe it's been rescheduled until later this month or perhaps later um so that won't be taking place this week but we are approaching ing the spring I know it
doesn't feel that way um so we are uh running down the clock on the winter termination program so if there are individuals in the community that are having difficulty paying your bills um please just Avail yourself of that program I believe it ends on March 15th
thank you that concludes my report thank you at this time I'll open for public comments on any items about clerk would you please relase to from the public wishing to speak on any matter please raise your hand by pressing the raise hand button on your monitor if you're dialing in by phone
please press star n if you're attending person select turn once you're recognized clearly state only your name and cou residence for the record you're not required your street address however if you do please note that these meetings will be posted on the Township's YouTube channel and addresses
will not be redacted for any purpose you'll have four minutes to address the council there'll be no cross dialogue during this public portion after everyone wishing to speak has been heard so address your comments thank you m anybody in the gallery
enough we have stumped our favorite commenter today anybody at home hearing none I close public comment the next item on the agenda is an ordinance on first reading Madam would you clerk would you please read
the title of ordinance I one I get us numbering uh lettering because we added that so it's going to be I oh yeah yeah everything ised to be j& thank you h i u fixed salary and compensation of the
Deputy M thank you madam clerk will somebody please move so move second motions made by the deputy mayor and seconded by the councilwoman is there any discussion hearing none Madam clerk call please councilwoman Holland yes
councilwoman McGrath yes Council room yes Deputy Mayor M Hoy yes mayor tamboro yes mayor i1 25-0 published according to law and the public hearing will be held on March
17 um I just one thing for the public that is a range by the way so that gives the cant manager need to negotiate with a respective candidate for that position all right we're moving on to the consent agenda
which is one set of minutes and seven resolutions anybody call resolution no somebody move the consent please so move message made by councilman Roman is there a second second second is made by the
deputy mayor this time I'll open for public comments on the consent agenda items only same public comment applies that we're losing members of the public so we just went from 5 to two on So three anybody no okay I close public comments
any Council discussion councilwoman MCG um on case six I just um find the I don't think it actually says here what we're doing with the grant it's just very vague unless I missed
something um so I don't know can we add a sentence or is it meant to be this broad this is just the application this is just for the application the resolution itself is just boiler plate resolution provided from sustain the intention of the Grant
application is for subl Verona to implement a a pilot program for food composting yes uh to uh for a limited number of participants for oneyear trial to see the effectiveness of that that's
the intention of the grant y again the resolution is boiler plate I don't think there's any objection to adding an additional sentence clarify that if you're saying that this is all they need that's fine I just um but I do
want to say I am super excited with the idea that we are finally after years of discussion um doing a that we could do a pilot on U food waste this is where we need to move towards um so thank you for applying for the grant the deputy mayor
has been champing that for how many years I almost brought it up when we talked about disposal costs greatly reduce disposal tonnage and tipping Fe yes greatly reduce it thank you for your leadership on thater um any other discussion uh can
just comment on L3 uh I urge people in uh the public to actually read L3 and think about getting a whole house energy audit uh what they do is they go through they they will evaluate your house and
give you ideas on what you can do and give you a range of levels of you can do you can do one thing to save this amount of energy or this to do another uh you will in the long run get your money back and uh after a certain period of time
really start saving money and your energy s and that's it thank you thank you let call the rooll please councilwoman Holland yes councilwoman McGrath yes councilman Roman yes Deputy Mayor makoy yes mayor Toro yes mayor L1
s through three okay we Have No Agenda this evening we have nothing on the agenda for new FSH business anything to anybody wishes to bring up heing none I'll will open for public comment once again
nope uh I will close public comments and we have are we going to Executive session do we need to uh very brief and no official action will be taken correct being that we have passed resolution to go into executive session we will be doing so from which the
public is excluded thank you all for tuning in tonight we'll see you on St Patrick's Day have with us