All set. Good evening everyone and welcome to the Verona Town Council meeting on July 6th, 20126. Madame clerk, can you please read the open public meetings compliance statement? >> The notice requirements of the open public meetings act has been satisfied with respect to this meeting of the
township council. Specifically, the time and date were included in the publication of the annual meeting notice. The public notice and meeting agenda was posted in the municipal on the municipal bulletin board at least 48 hours preceding the start time of this meeting. The agenda and meeting
documents can be viewed online at vereronj.org/countsil meetings. Please take notice that pursuant to NJ public law 2025 chapter 72. The complete text of each legal notice of the township of Verona, including all public entities under the authority of the township, may be
obtained or viewed by the by the public on our official state registered web page, veronj.org/legalpublic notices. A public comment period will be held in the order it's listed on the meeting agenda and instructions on how to comment will be provided at the appropriate time.
>> Thank you, Madam Clerk. Uh so at this time we have a new council person on board after we brought him in last week, Councilman Shaw. And at this time we will bring him forth and swear him in to the public. >> Who's more excited, daddy?
Hold the book up. So, put your um put your left hand on the book and put your right hand in the air. And you repeat after me. >> Sure. I, Cory Shore >> I, Corey Shore, >> do solemnly swear >> do solemnly swear >> that I will support the Constitution of the United States >> that I will support the Constitution of
the United States >> and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey >> and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey >> that I will bear true faith >> I will bear true faith >> and allegiance to the same. and allegiance to the same >> and to the governments >> and to the governments >> established in the United States
>> established in the United States >> and in this state >> and in this state >> under the authority of the people >> and under the authority of the people >> and that I will faithfully >> and I will faithfully >> impartially >> and impartially >> and justly >> and injustly >> perform all the duties
>> perform all the duties >> of the position of >> of the position of >> council member at large >> council member at large >> for the township of Verona for the township of Verona >> according to the best of my ability. >> according to the best of my ability. >> So help me. >> So help me God.
>> So help me God. >> Yeah. >> Sure. >> Take a picture. Come on, Max. >> Come here. >> Um, >> oh my gosh, look who it is. No one else.
>> Hey, Max. >> Ready? One. One, two, one, two, three. >> Nice. That was a good one. Yay! >> Is that all right? >> That's fine.
>> Okay. You ought to be in pictures. He wants to be on film. >> Yeah. >> Since the roll call is next, we're going to wait a couple minutes. It'll be quick.
Thank you. >> Thank you. Congratulations. >> Thank you very much. Thank you. >> Madame Clerk, can you please call the role? >> Councilman Shaw >> here. >> Councilwoman McGrath >> here. Councilman Roman >> here. >> Deputy Mayor Makavoy >> present.
Mayor uh Deputy Mayor also present tonight is uh Township Attorney Brian Aoya, Township Manager Kevin O Sullivan, Deputy Township Manager Michael Krauss, and myself, Municipal Clerk Jennifer Kieran. >> Thank you, Madam Clerk. Uh would
everybody, if you can, please rise for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. >> Okay. Uh at this time, I will just uh welcome again Councilman Shore uh and like to thank everybody for joining us for the ribbon cutting at uh Ever Field.
It is complete and it's being used and it the facility looks fantastic. Uh I'd like to thank everybody who uh came out for the event. There were so many I'm not going to mention them all in light of time tonight. I would just like to
put a special thank you to the Verona Rescue Squad for getting there early because of the rain and setting up tents for us so we can uh do the ribbon cutting under the tents and uh move forward. uh thank the uh uh staff for our
fireworks display and all they did to prepare for that last Wednesday. Uh and thank everybody that came out in the extreme heat. Uh our recreation uh committee and everybody involved there, public works, Verona rescue squad, fire department, police department, uh our
staff at the uh wreck department and our director up there also Pam Prrisco. Thank you very much for your staff and all you did. Uh it went off. It was very well attending. Uh over the last week, uh I'm just a special thank you to our first
responders. Uh last week was brutal. Wednesday was one of those nights. Thursday was another day. Uh around the state, it's been a tragic week. I know 19 or 20 people passed from the heat. Uh so the first responders are out there with those people trying to protect
them. Uh, so I thank everybody that that worked last week and and helped out and and uh got us through. It was a very very tough week, but hopefully those were the worst days of this summer coming up. Uh, and at this time uh I'm going to call up our county leazison,
Mr. Coltree, for your report. >> Good evening, Mayor and Council. Councilman, congratulations. uh on behalf of county executive, we only have a few things I'll be sure, but I'm also gonna bring our commissioner up here in this district, uh Commissioner
Luciano. Uh come up and bring your greetings from the board of commissioners. >> Thank you, Jay Coltry. Um what I will say is congratulations to our newest council member, Corey Shore. I know we had a nice conversation last week.
Congratulations to you. um July. So, we had our June primary. Congratulations to Councilwoman McGrath, um who is now a nominee to become a commissioner in Essex County. I think that's a great accomplishment and I look forward to serving with you. We know you'll be
successful come November. Former mayor Jack Makavoy, former mayor Alex Roman, town manager, attorney to all our folks. Jen over there, hello. It's good to see everybody again. Um, Verona is one of the 11 uh municipalities that I've
represented since 2011. I will say very few times do I get calls about folks that are disappointed or upset with the local governing body. So, that's a testament to the hard work and the fact that the township is is moving in always the right direction. Um, because some of the communities I represent, I do have
emails and phone calls quite often. Uh I do know that you guys invited me. Uh you said to the updates on the upgraded park that you just opened up. I apologize I couldn't make but as you know from our liaison Jay Coltry our county executive is always devoted and dedicated to
parks. We have one of the best if not the best park in Essex County with Verona Park. Residents not just from this community but up and down uh West Essex and the neighboring communities definitely enjoy that park. And if there's anything we ever need to do in
um collaboration or do better, please bring it to our attention or to Jay's. Um and again, this is your night, Corey. I know that you officially were sworn in already, but this is uh I guess where the rubber hits the road. Best of luck in in in in governance. Um I also see my
our board of education member right back here. Um we also know that that's a very thankless job. So, thank you for all that you do. sometimes uh you know we do need people to stand up for elected office and tell you the board of education along with the council is not easy. It always starts at the local
level. So I'm happy to be here and of course I'm going to turn it back over to our our our this is you know what I don't know how you guys got so lucky because Jay Colry is one of the most thorough I'm telling you directors we have in Essex County and I can tell you
how how I know this and how you should know this. He heads up purchasing and finance. And you always put the person who's got the most common sense and knows right from wrong in charge of the money. And Jay knows everything about it. So if you guys locally ever need,
you know, take a tidbit of advice because I call him often. He knows where the bur bodies are buried and how to get the money. >> No money for >> no money. No money for grown up. >> Come on. and commissioner, thank you very much because you're always
available and you always look out for Verona and you're you're there when we need you and we appreciate it. Thank you, >> Deputy Mayor and Mayor. I'm going to be short tonight. We have a list of events coming up through the summer concert
series. Uh there's one in on July 22nd at Grover Cleveland Park. There's another one on July 21st at Cedar Grove Park. So, citizens from the township of Verona more than likely may be my guest
attend. The other thing is July 11 to Saturday, July 25th, it's the butterfly tent safari at the Turtle Bag Zoo at the um the educational program. And then for
us, but then I know I could use it. It is uh wellness on the waterfront. And on Monday nights, which it's raining tonight, and I doubt there are anybody. July 6, 13th, 20th, and 27th. Uh bring
your yoga mats. They're having yoga. And uh I'm not that flexible, but we try our best. Then it's jamming on Tuesday night, July 7th, 14, 21st, and 28 uh 8th at 7 pm. And then there's a full body workout
uh July 9, 16, 23, 30, and the 30th at 6 PM. And I know you have other presentations tonight. Any questions from the council? >> Comments? >> Anyone? >> Uh >> thank you, Mr. Contract. like the commissioner said, whatever you know how
to get in touch with. Thank you very much. Have a good night. >> Thank you. >> And for members of the public, if you do want I think these were mailed, Jay, >> they were >> did receive one in the mail, but if you want a physical copy of it, there is a bunch in the lobby downstairs. You can come again.
Okay, moving forward uh to our manager, Mr. Sol. >> Thank you, Deputy Mayor. Uh I will be brief understanding that we do have our two presentations tonight but the one uh topic that I'll give an update on is that on June 26th. We did receive proposals for uh the uh role of subject
matter expert former our emergency services building. Uh we will be reviewing them and I'll be looking to coordinate potentially a special meeting to interview for the for the council to interview uh those uh subject matter experts at a later date. Um, that said,
I uh would ask uh the council to entertain presentations from DMR Architects. First, uh we have Mike Picowski from DMR Architects to present uh his work on our community energy plan. Uh the plan has been drafted and
circulated for the council. It's on the website and we will be asking the council to formally adopt the community energy plan at our next council meeting. >> Thank you. I appreciate that, Kevin. Uh, for the presentation, will someone else
be operating the slides? Okay, I'll look towards you then to gesture for to move forward. Thank you for the help. I really appreciate it. And thank you, uh, town council, and congratulations. I didn't anticipate this in my presentation that I'd be congratulating a new member, but congratulations. And
thank you for the public at large for the opportunity to present tonight. I'm going to be brief. Tonight, I'm going be presenting the community energy plan for Verona for the next three to five years. This process has been a year-long process starting in October of 2025
where we work closely with the town of Verona, including members such as Kevin O Sullivan as the lead, Verona, Sustainable Verona, and Sustainable Jersey, as well as ourselves from DMR Architects. So, the formatting looks a little off,
but it could just be um typically the the top I apologize in advance. The top is more legible in the PowerPoint presentation that I had I had uh sent. So, if you have trouble reading it, I'm going to try to read >> Yeah, I'm going to read the the top
titles aloud just so everyone can can understand them. So for tonight, we're going to be presenting the community entry plan. As I briefly talked about, the community entry plan really has three objectives to it. We look to the past to see what has been done and what
is being done in terms of sustainable energy techniques and educating the public and residents of Verona on initiatives that are happening. the current objectives of the town and the future initiatives of which there are 42
initiatives and Verona has selected 12 and sorry 13 initiatives uh the entire project if we go to the next slide uh was there's a a lead by the name of David Trost he is not going to be with us tonight I will be the honorary person
representing DMR he was a licensed planner on this project and I am the project lead. Uh we worked alongside, as I mentioned, Sustainable Jersey with this $10,000 grant. They were the ones in charge of initiating this grant, which helped fund
this project. Uh I work closely with Tracy Woods and Cornwa from Sustain Jersey. >> Oh, sorry. >> That's okay. And as I had mentioned briefly in my introduction, the township of Verona including members such as Kevin O
Sullivan as the lead as well as sustainable Verona and we have Carrie Bass in the background who is also a big contribution towards this these initiatives being selected and moving forward. I just want to thank you guys for the help with this. It really takes
a team to make this possible. And in here we have a brief overview starting with the timeline of last year in October of 2025 where we first identified which initiatives we were interested in. We meaning the town of Verona and DM architects alike where
then we we move forward with selecting the 13 initiatives out of the 42 spreading across seven strategies. So these seven strategies then that are uh identified clearly in the NJBPU we selected a diverse set of these
initiatives so that we felt widespread offering across these seven strategies and if you'll notice in the 50page report which I have on my desk and I'm sure you guys have received strategy five is not included and it's not included because they're state level
initiatives that would have to be made not necessarily township related changes. Let's move on to the next slide. You may also notice here, I just like to point this out. This was a topic that was brought to my attention. I just want to bring it to your attention. The census data that we have tonight is from
sustainable Jersey. It does not reflect the current census data that was done in 2020. So, I just got off the phone this morning regarding which census data we should use as the data source. and sustainable Jersey told me that we should use the current most recent data
provided by either the public at large or Verona itself. So those numbers that you see there which reflect the household population for example the median income that information will be updated as this is a draft presentation
for the July 6th the July 20th we will revise those numbers all the other figures that we will be presenting tonight will remain constant that's the only one that will change on the next slide or next two slides we will see uh we're point one which is
looking at the And we're going to be looking at the total energy purchased uh by the municipality for both the electric and the natural gas. And you can see that most of these two slides, the heavy consumption comes from residential and
commercial natural gas and electricity. So what does that mean? It means that provides the greatest opportunity for reduction in demand. >> I did both while you were talking. >> Thank you. I appreciate it. And if we move on to the uh community GHG
emissions, again this tells a similar story where the majority of the uh energy emissions that are used are from residents in the form of on-road vehicles. And uh in the next slide we could see
that there's a 70 77% energy usage for um vehicles including cars, trucks and vans. And over the course of uh the 2019 we saw 55 almost 55 million passenger miles
going through township of Verona. For the next slide uh in here we have the existing electric vehicle infrastructure. In 2015, there was only eight EVs and in 2020, there was 81 EVs, which is a significant
increase in the EV fleet across the township, which shows a an interest and action being taken as far as the township of Veron goes. In the next slide, we just identified public EV charging infrastructure. Right
now, we really only have uh some some level ones and level twos that are identified on this chart. On the next slide, there's opportunity for a lot of this highlighted green or light yellow area is opportunity for
rooftop solar that could be implemented. So, you can see there's a lot of opportunity for solar to be put throughout. In the solar available capacity, you can see that there's a lot of kilowatts uh that are available for uh representing these dots which all these sources again
are provided by a sustainable Jersey or a PSNG through sustainable Jersey. On the next slide here, we have just some residential energy data where the uh median household moon cold income from Verona is 150 135,20
and the population the percentage of the population in poverty is 2%. So the Verona as it relates to other townships and municipalities in the state of New Jersey is achieving a higher level of income and a really low level threshold
of poverty within it. So we can see that there's plenty of economic opportunity for Verona to invest both in residents businesses for more EV infrastructure at large because they have the means to do so. In here we can see this chart represents
the highest housing unit typology by structure is the uh single family or one unit detached. In the next slide we see the lifetime participation of the uh residential incentive program. The total completed
projects were 200 to date. So that's a large amount compared to other municipalities and as great great start forward for Verona to move with increasing that number. And here we've just identified the commercial industrial properties.
This one doesn't really have much to it. In the next slide we have the lifetime participation in commercial energy efficiency. And did I >> am I right? Back >> I think back one if you can. Perfect. Thank you. And 25 projects were
completed within with that in mind. On the next slide, this is the format for which we took the work plan template and converted into this 50page report. And on the next page, we can see these
strategies, these seven strategies that I mentioned. We selected 13 initiatives out of the 42. And you can see here this is the widespread that we have captured across these strategies.
And at a very high level I'm just going to go through what the initiative is, what the priority is, and what the anticipated length is. In this 50page report, it goes into much more detail about who is the key role, what other
people are involved in this process and what is the measure of success. So I would implore you to look at that document more thoroughly so you can get a full more comprehensive understanding of what each of these initiatives mean and what the level of success means to
uh this undertaking. So for initiative 1.2 two to train first responders on EVs and EVSC's. It's a priority medium and the anticipated length is one day uh every reoccurring 36 months.
For initiative 1.4 to purchase alternative fuel vehicles, we can see that Verona based on the previous information has already taken the initiative of increasing their EV fleet to 81, I believe it is. And uh we're going to implore uh this is a high
priority and the anticipated length is going to be ongoing. So they want to continue this effort all the way through. For the next initiative, initiative 1.5 to improve municipal fleet efficiency. Uh the priority is medium and the length
is ongoing. Again, this is ties in with the previous initiative that we saw for initiative 1.6. install public EV charging infrastructure. There's plenty of infrastructure available and opportunity for uh this to be implemented. It just depends upon
identifying those sites and moving with an actual built form of capturing the the EV infrastructure in the form of could be Tesla charging stations for example. For the next initiative, initiative 2.3,
train first responders on solar. This is a medium level priority and they plan on doing this one day every 36 months. For the next initiative, initiative 2.9, uh implement renewable uh government energy aggregation or RGA.
Uh the priority is medium and the anticipated length is ongoing. For initiative 2.11, support community solar as an outreach coordinator. uh someone will need to be the outreach coordinator for this and the med the priority is medium right now it's
identified as sustainable Verona and the anticipated length is going to be from 2026 to 2027 for the initiative 3.1 upgrade energy efficiency for municipal facilities this could be the town hall or it could be other municipal buildings uh the
priority is a high priority and the anticipated length is 36 months ongoing going for the next initiative, initiative 3.2, a residential energy efficiency outreach campaign. Uh this can be done in the form of posting on municipal website or
to create any public listing through the library or some other means to inform the public on how to reduce that energy consumption considering that they are the largest contributors to the total energy usage. Initiative 3.3 commu commercial energy
efficiency outreach program. Uh the priority in this is medium to low considering that again the total consumption typically comes from the residential units and residents themselves and the anticipated length is 2 years. Uh for the initiative 4.3 encouraging
benchmarking benchmarking and commissioning for existing buildings. Uh this priority is is low. This doesn't really have a high a high priority and its anticipated length is ongoing for initiative 6.5 to conduct energy
efficiency outreach to the community serving institutions. Uh this priority is high and the anticipated length is 1 to three months. So it's going to be uh this one has not only a high priority but wants to be done almost right away.
And initiative 7.1 is the adopting energy storage policies. Uh there are a number of grants out there which are available and Verona could take advantage of it not only for this energy grant but it could be available for having additional
funds through energy storage. One of them being the uh CPACE program. And there's a new legislation that's done or that's in uh which I'm just going to pull it up right now
which speaks to let me find the legislation. Sorry about that. The data centers legislation which provide which is slashing the uh next New Jersey program by half from 500 million to 250 million. So that 250 million has to go
somewhere and it could be brought into energy initiatives such as this one. So, by not only doing this uh grant, this $10,000 grant, do does Verona have the opportunity for funding through this
grantbook is qualified to receive additional funding through other initiatives, energy initiatives? And that's my presentation. I if there's any questions or clarifications from the public, I just want to make a note to Kevin Oman told me that he will be
receiving emails for the public to comment on this if there's anything that we missed tonight so we can incorporate it into the final plan which we hope to be adopted through municipal resolution on the July 20th meeting. >> Right. That's correct. the uh the energy
plan as drafted is on the website and there's a request for residents or anybody from the public who has comments to provide comments by uh a few days prior to by the 16th so we can have a a final edit done before the adoption on the 20th.
>> Thank you Mr. O Sullivan. Uh Mr. Picowsky, thank you very much for this. Uh I read through the whole thing and it's very interesting. Uh, I'd also like to thank Carrie Bass, who's our chairwoman for our sustainable Verona because she puts a lot of time into this. Uh, one thing I know you're
talking about public outreach, and she puts a lot of time into that. >> Uh, and we had some pretty good response for energy efficiency audits on the homes, things like that. But I think moving forward, I I like a lot of these ideas, and I think the town, especially
vehicles, uh, our vehicles sit all night long. uh if they're used during the day, they can charge at night. Where we put chargers, I think we should look at DPW garage for a couple chargers up there. Uh and other areas, I know Verona Pool was mentioned in the one. Uh if we do
that, I think we should look at maybe putting it near the upper part rather than the lower part that's used for two months of the year because we have the pickle ball courts up top and if someone wants a charge and they go in the pool, they can always park up top. uh just because I think it'd be used
for the whole year up there or more of other seasons outside of pool season if it's but we could talk offline about that when we get into the uh the facts about it. But thank you very much for all your time, Councilwoman McGrath. >> Uh thank you. Thank you so much for this comprehensive report. Um so just uh to
remind me and the rest of the council and the public the purpose of adopting this plan besides providing an incredible strategic roadmap um for you know how we can achieve energy efficiency is it also then are we then
be able to unlock additional grant dollars because this report is >> the foundation >> that that's correct obviously it does provide that roadmap for the township on initiatives we can undertake um but it also does allow ow us to more aggressively pursue grant opportunities
and point to a planning document that also supports that initiative. So it it can align us for grants more strongly in the future. >> Okay. Um and what I'm really most curious about and and maybe it's an an additional question that wasn't in the scope of this report is the benchmarking
of Verona versus similarly situated towns. So, I mean, what I I was impressed with like the bump up in EV usage, but then how do we compare to other towns of similar um wealth and location in New Jersey, for example? So,
it's great that things are increasing, but are other towns are there some best practices? Maybe you've done some other plans, so you can speak to that. I I have done for example I have a couple of pages from the prospect park energy plan which I had worked on.
>> Uh I would say that in general going from a a five to an 81 that just that number increase I haven't seen that dramatic of an increase in EV fleet including all the energy plans
that I've worked on. And so I would say from a percentage basis >> Verona has the highest percentage increase. >> Okay, great. >> Even though the numbers are lower, but the percentage increase, that I mean that's it's a significant increase and shows a real interest in it. And
something you had brought about and Kevin spoke briefly on is by doing this $10,000 grant, if you go on Sustainable Jerseys website right now, >> there's a $250,000 >> implementation grant, >> right?
>> Which only is qualified through submitting this grant. >> Yeah. >> So by doing this $10,000 grant, you are then open to a $250,000 implementation grant. That's great. >> So this it's the it's the road map and
this is step one in that map. >> Yeah. Well, the strategic road map is so important to everything that we do. So I just want to thank you for your hard work and thank sustainable Verona for all of their hard work. I think wherever we can benchmark ourselves versus similarly situated towns. It may help to
motivate um both commercial and residential users to be like, hey, we got to we got to keep up. we should really consider this, you know, uh because some other towns are a little further ahead if that's indeed the case. Yeah. But anyway, thank you so much. >> Thank you,
>> Mr. Picasso. Real quick, how did you arrive at those numbers of of EV sales >> or >> the figures that we have? >> Where do you get those numbers from? >> So, if you if you have the report in front of you or if you don't, every one of the charts or data points that I have, I list the source immediately below it. >> Okay.
>> So, if there's uh I will turn to that page now because I have it in front of me. So, let me find that specific figure for you. >> You don't have to. I I I go back and definitely have it >> just so you're just so you're because I figured that may come up. So, right underneath of all of them, I put the
source of where I got it from. >> And typically, it's from directly from sustainable Jersey. Okay. They provided most of the material. If not, it was PSNG through sustainable Jersey. >> Because I wonder if we cross reference that with our building department to see how many people got permits for EV chargers, we might get a higher number
even. >> Yep. >> You may. It's not everybody. Thank you. Anyone else have questions? >> We're good. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Sullivan. >> Thank you, Deputy Mayor. So, again, uh we'll we'll collect comments over the next two weeks and we'll present the
final report to the council for adoption at the next council meeting. Uh moving on to the next presentation is Chris Sotiro from NJ Future. uh he's been working with the township on our age friendly uh study and age friendly
action plan. Hi Chris, welcome. >> Yeah, thank you. Um I have some slides. I don't know if they're going to interrupt one second. Thank you. >> I will say also before Chris gets started that the the um purpose of this
study is very similar to the community energy plan in that it gives the township a very good roadmap of initiatives that we can undertake for age friendliness throughout the township. But it also does um allow us to uh avail ourselves of more grant opportunities with uh grant programs
that might align with initiatives and act items in our action plan. >> All right. So, I'll just let you know if I want to next slide or >> Yeah, I'll try to >> All right. >> Listen to your voice. >> Sounds good. Um thanks for inviting me to speak. Um I was about to say this is going to sound pretty familiar and just
the structure of what I'm going to be presenting on. Um but my name is Chris Tero. I'm a policy and program coordinator with New Jersey Future. I am here in that capacity alone. Um and we have been working with the township uh since September on this initiative. Um
and we can move to the next slide now. Um but uh New Jersey Future um is a nonprofit nonpartisan organization that promotes sensible uh growth and redevelopment in the state of New Jersey. Um we support things like transit oriented development,
walkability, um redevelopment in the sense of not, you know, paving over uh you know, forests and building housing developments, but seeing how we can uh in incorporate housing in places that have already been developed so that we're not, you know, adding to storm water issues and flooding issues and
whatnot. Um we can move to the next slide. Um so this grant comes from the New Jersey Department of Human Services. Um it was a I think it's the fourth round of funding um if I'm remembering correctly uh that they've done total for this. Uh the township of Rona was one of
many towns that received this funding. Um and it was awarded in March of 2025. Um, and the grant's uh purpose is to build community partnerships uh evaluate a the community uh and its its needs for its older adult population, create an
action plan based off of that needs assessment um to become an age friendly community certified by AP. Um, so I didn't incorporate this into my slides yet, but we have uh been officially recognized by ARP as a uh as a an age
friendly community in their network of states and communities. So that leverages us better for uh upcoming grants just as the previous presentation kind of hinted at. Um so that's going to be huge for you know ongoing implementation funding, future funding to evaluate different services to
incorporate different programs. Uh we can move on to the next slide. So the grant itself wanted us to focus on what ARP defines as eight domains of livability. So this is a framework for which the needs assessment and the community engagement um was trying to
evaluate uh senior services. So those are housing, outdoor spaces and buildings, transportation, civic participation and employment, uh communication and information, respect and social inclusion, social participation, uh health services and
community supports. Um and yeah, that's all of them. So we can move on. So uh why age friendly planning matters? Um, Verona actually has a a higher proportion of uh, senior residents compared to state averages. Slight
slightly higher and that's expected to increase gradually over the next coming decades as the birth rate kind of stalls out for a number of reasons. Um, medical technology continues to improve. So, um, making conditions better in our towns,
making services better, uh, for our most v vulnerable residents such as seniors, people with disabilities, children, um, uplifts everybody, right? A rising tide lifts all ships. So, the goal is to help residents remain healthy, independent, and engaged with the community um, and
not, you know, trying to downsize elsewhere because it's too expensive or because there's not enough, you know, community support or, you know, health services. Um and we can move on to the next slide. So the project overview and what it looks like. Um there I'm I'm envisioning
this with two phases. So uh the first phase which was what we completed this year for the grant um which closed out in on June 30th um is community engagement and capacity building. So figuring out um what the problems are, diagnosing them, figuring out what kind of solutions we can incorporate um
creating an action plan and then the next phase after this which the grant does not fund but which we could continue applying for funding for and implementing some lowcost or uh you know completely free options um for implementation onwards. So this this
project started with community engagement which funneled into the needs assessment, right? figuring out what the problems are in the town as seen by the residents. Um, having a leadership team comprised of elected officials, uh, health officers, uh, different types of
municipal, uh, employees, members of the community, volunteers, um, having them review, you know, what the needs assessment found, um, what kind of, you know, issues were raised and figuring out how we can go about, uh, resolving them or improving on existing services.
um which then informs the action plan which we've been presenting today and uh which should be um uh in your inboxes um and then onward to implementation. So um what we see as uh what has been accomplished so far we established a leadership team which can be dissolved
can be ongoing however the township wants to continue with this um which can kind of serve as a review board for implementing the action plan and its strategies. Um we conducted the community needs assessment um which looked at uh you know a community survey
that was promoted widely to the population. Um we also conducted focus groups specific you know one-on-one interviews and interviews with uh different civic boards. Um and that all kind of funneled into the final action plan. So I'll get into a little bit more about what the survey responses look
like in the focus groups. Um yep you keep going. >> Okay. So we got 278 total survey responses between uh digital copies and paper copies. Um we had paper copies available at uh community locations such as you know the municipal building, the
library, the community center. Um and we had a uh a digital survey platform called SurveyMonkey which was hosted um uh and promoted through social media through uh e- newswsletters uh mailers
community events um and I believe we had a dedicated laptop in the in the library for any uh you know any attendees to fill out the survey there while they're visiting. Um and we had a very effective outy strategy. Our goal was about 200 people based off of population data. So,
we surpassed that. So, we we had a pretty good sample size of uh residents giving their feedback. >> If I may, really quick, uh Mrs. Karen, I did get a uh a resident saying that they weren't able to see the slides on Zoom. I don't know if that's you're able to do
anything about or not >> or if uh Jack, are you watching the Zoom? Jack or anything? I'm getting the same text. But >> sorry, if we can just hold just one second so folks at home could see Why did he >> Okay, you give me a second. I can fix
it. Yep. Uh Jack's going to log in so he can check it as well. Why can't I get new computer? I haven't been on it. Okay. Okay. >> See it now. February. >> Stand by. Let you know.
>> All right. Uh we're good. >> Thank you. >> Get going again. >> Yeah, no worries. Um so, uh we held two focus group sessions. Um I think the uh there was a snowstorm that might have moved one or two of them. Um so the they
were held in the Verona Community Center. Um and there was a number of residents that had some common concerns. Those were some information gaps around the senior bus and library services. Um something about like the schedule and the locations not being open enough. um
yard work. So, snow removal, lawn care. People expressed that they would like to see some sort of um you know, work for higher service or volunteer program where older residents who can't, you know, maintain upkeep with their lawn during different seasons could maybe hire high schoolers or something along
those lines to receive some support. Uh difficulty using pay stations for parking. So people who want to visit uh Bloomfield A and go shopping on you know the main uh commercial corridor um would just avoid it because they did not fully understand um you know like the the QR
code scanning apps and going to the pay stations and you know wanting to see some sort of you know informationational breakdown of how to use it. uh senior bus locations. So, doing some sort of audit of, you know, where people want to go rather than mainly just grocery stores or some other locations or trying
to expand some services to see if we can, you know, have some more drivers or more flexibility with the hours. Um and redevelopment project uh units not being earmarked for seniors. Um some of these things are, you know, very limited in what the township can specifically address, but these were concerns that
were highlighted by the residents. Uh we can move on to the next slide. Uh so in the individual interviews and in interviews with some of the civic boards um some shared concerns were that uh you know certain speed limits were not being enforced um in certain parts of town. Uh again double doubling down
on interest in snow removal programs. Um people not fully understanding um different sources of information and keeping up with you know how times have changed. So, not enough people knowing about the e- newswsletter and where um you know, centralized sources of information are being uh are are being
sent out. Um senior classes needing more topics. Uh walking clubs had a huge interest um in different areas of the town and uh establishing some sort of senior garden club. So the action plan that uh was written to kind of address some of these
concerns and offer some strategies and main areas to highlight that came out of the needs assessment. Um focus on two goals. So the first one is establishing a uh a sustained age friendly initiative in the town so that the uh you know the conversation doesn't stop here after the
grant is over that uh it continues to be a kind of layer of review for each of the committees and the town council to uh acknowledge when uh you know passing ordinances or resolutions or you know conducting the annual budget. Um, so that looks like formalizing an age friendly subcommittee that would go uh
fall under MAK. Um, integrating age friendly planning principles into municipal decisions, expanding community partnerships, and pursuing grants and sustainable Jersey recognition. Um, there is one sustainable Jersey action that uh pretty much perfectly aligns with the action plan that has been
conducted. Um, which would be super simple to continue applying for so that the township receives uh more sustainable Jersey points. Um and the second goal was to remove barriers to aging in place that were highlighted by ARP um the eight domains to livability. So there are short-term and long-term
actions that um are a range of you know lowcost actions, other actions that may require funding. Uh other actions that just might require some restructuring of h of how we're already doing things. Uh so we can move on. So the first area of focus is housing
and obviously um there are some uh initiatives already going on with the the fourth round um affordable housing mandate. Um so some of the things highlighted were expanding downsizing opportunities. A lot of people felt that uh they were just being priced out of Verona and that they, you know, along
with other things such as, you know, home maintenance and lawn care and snow removal and just not really being able to access, you know, certain areas of the house anymore because of different, you know, accessibility issues. Um, not having enough opportunities to downsize. Um, they felt kind of limited in that
they were, you know, stuck in their large single family home that they weren't fully able to take care of. >> Uh, promoting affordable and accessible housing. Um, Verona is already, you know, making making strides in that direction. Um, increasing awareness of tax relief programs. A lot of people in our survey, there was a question about,
you know, what tax relief programs have you applied for? Um, have you received them? Have you not qualified? Have you just not known about them? A lot of people did not know about existing tax relief programs um that are, you know, issued by the state. Uh, creating a home maintenance assistance program. So, even
if it's not, you know, the the township going in and fixing your, you know, your uh your staircase or anything, but connecting people with, uh, existing services either, you know, private or, you know, county services that, um, just offer, you know, a more centralized pathway for people to find existing
programs and services that are out there. Um, we can move on to the next slide. Um, transportation and mobility. So, a lot of people um that responded to the survey and came to the focus groups have been aware of the senior bus and the medical transport bus were, you know,
active patrons of those services. Um some people just kind of expressed that they would like to see some more recreation opportunities, maybe going to the YMCA or, you know, different gyms. Um but people felt very limited in that, you know, uh there were a lot of, you know, grocery store options. people felt that there wasn't, you know, such a need
to go to like a parcipony uh Trader Joe's or Shoprider or something along those lines. Um, improving awareness of transportation options. So, for the people that do not know about the senior bus that are more homebound and, you know, less willing to be actively engaged in, you know, driving down to
Bloomfield A and, you know, parking and trying to figure that out. Um, making sure that they're aware that there's other options available. um expanding destinations, supporting residents that are transitioning away from driving um and exploring partnerships and uh different shuttle opportunities.
So, this one uh walkability um should really be walkability and safety. I combined a couple things um but conducting a community walkability audit. There was a lot of people that responded to the survey um a certain question asking about you know do you uh walk from your from your home for things
like uh you know shopping or dining or groceries um or recreation. A lot of people responded yes uh depending on different areas of the town but also felt that there were certain intersections that were unsafe uh certain you know crosswalks that people were speeding past certain uh traffic
lights that people were ignoring. Um, so conducting a walkability audit, seeing where people are walking to, seeing, you know, what intersections are dangerous, seeing where, you know, sidewalks can maybe be improved. Maybe adding some um of those like solar panel, uh, uh, you
know, high vision, uh, crosswalk signs that kind of flash when you walk by. Um, adding benches and resting areas, uh, addressing speeding concerns, strengthening winter accessibility, and improving emergency uh, preparedness. Uh, we just had a massive heat wave. We
also just had, you know, a huge uh winter uh snow season. We just saw lots of flooding today. I believe around 20 people passed away due to extreme heat. That's going to become, you know, a more common issue in New Jersey every summer. Um seeing where we can uh implement cooling stations that are accessible to
the public. um making sure that emergency responders and police um and fire all you know are aware of where homebounded individuals um are living and if there's any sort of uh you know power outage or fire that emergency
responders are aware of where those people are and can you know prioritize them in evacuations. Um and just to reiterate, a lot of the major roadways uh highlighted by residents and respondents in the survey um are, you know, either county owned or maybe stateowned, um such as Bloomfield A. So
there's a lot of limitations on what we can directly uh address uh on those grounds. Um however this survey and its findings are you know valuable data of what the community wants to see um issues that the community is having and that those can be leveraged uh to the
county and to the state for you know future advocacy efforts. >> Uh communication information. So um you know there's a lot of towns that don't have great senior services that you know we've worked with in the past. Um Verona is not one of them. Verona has a wide variety of different programs and
offerings. Um, and a lot of the the findings that we've kind of noticed are that people are just not taking advantage of them because they're unaware of when the schedules are. They're unaware of what is, you know, specifically being promoted and and, uh, and, uh, you know, afforded to the community. Um, so making sure that
there's a central kind of source and hub for information for seniors. So, uh, a big thing that would be pretty easy to implement would be having a senior services fair somewhere in the public, you know, maybe once a year, twice a year where just the, you know, the different, uh, offerings from the
community are publicly available. You know, people can come meet each other. Um, you know, having booths for the county, having booths for the health department, you know, any recreation services, that kind of thing. um having an age- friendly web page so that uh the the action plan is a publicly available resource so that the
community knows that um you know we are invested in making sure that conditions are improving for them. Uh printed resource guides uh better promotion through partners and having you know a single information hub. There was one question about where do you receive your information from and it wasn't really
just one overwhelming answer. people kind of receive information from a lot of sources because they feel like they're, you know, they're not really sure exactly where to look. Um, and we can move on to the next slide. Um, lastly, just social connection. So, a lot of people um, again feel like they
are actively looking for opportunities um, that maybe align with their interest. So just expanding different opportunities and you know having a variety of uh programs for recreation, wellness, establishing walking groups that might have existed you know once before but have been shut down for
whatever reason. Um educational programming, volunteer opportunities, intergenerational activities, um and municipal committee participation, whatever that may look like, whether it's a subcommittee or you know opening doors to more uh volunteer participation. Um and we can move on to
the next slide. So looking forward to uh the next year there's a couple of priority actions that we've kind of identified. So the first one would be establishing a age friendly subcommittee of MAK so that the residents who responded to the survey and noted that they would you know like
to be involved in future initiatives um have an opportunity to do so so that there's some community buyin. Um conducting a housing and downsizing assessment uh launching a home maintenance and snow assistance program. conducting a ridership ridership audit and improving the senior the the
services for the senior bus and medical transport vehicles. Um conducting a community walkability and pedestrian safety audit. Uh creating a centralized senior information hub and resource guide. Expanding recreation wellness and social programming. Uh improving and publicizing pathways to volunteer and
civic engagement. Increasing outreach regarding tax relief and financial assistance programs. and creating an annual age friendly Verona progress report that the uh newly established subcommittee could uh you know help feed into um just to make sure that these uh
actions are being you know monitored and that they uh do not kind of fall to the wayside after a number of years. Um so that is the uh presentation and there should be um the full action plan and findings from the needs assessment which contains um a
full breakdown of what was conducted and each of the uh survey response questions and analyses. Um it's a quite a long document. So if you ever want to kind of like look through and see exactly which questions people were responding to or maybe not responding to and what their
answers were um that is available for you all. So thank you and if there's any questions I'd be happy to fill in >> first. Thank you very much for your presentation. Uh I have I'm just thinking as far as uh
the overlap between you you talked a lot about walkability. Did you have any input on our streetscape plan on Bluefield Avenue? Because timing is definitely as you were talking through this, we definitely talked through the streetscape plan >> with uh Strand's engineering. >> Yes.
>> Yeah. So, uh we actually tabled at the uh fair in the square for Christmas alongside them. We shared a booth and we were kind of talking to residents about some of the things that you know they were trying to incorporate um and what you know the community wanted to see. So we had an opportunity for residents to
kind of address both of our initiatives kind of simultaneously. Um that was kind of still developing while we were uh doing the community engagement aspect of it. Uh we launched the survey for the month of February into maybe early March
I believe. Um so not you know all of their uh findings had kind of been you know finished by that point. Um so we were kind of there for you know early conversations and we you know tried to collaborate as much as possible. >> Okay. >> And then as far as uh you talk about a
subcommittee moving forward I think we should be more geared toward maybe we ask for volunteers from the public who want to be on a subcommittee that are in that age group that could give us you know feedback of for their everyday activities that they do. So I think that would just be the only thing I see here
is uh as far as you know a leadership you know team that's that's age appropriate for that group. >> Yeah. Yeah. And we have we have a list of uh residents who responded to the survey that are in that age group that expressed interest and provided their contact information. So that can be provided to you all if if that's you
know something you want to go along with. >> Okay. All right. Thank you Councilwoman McGrath. >> Thank you. Um well, thank you so much for this very comprehensive report and action items. I was really excited to be part of this initiative and to see it
come to fruition um is really wonderful and to get the AARP designation on top. So, I want to thank you. Um there's so much good thing there's so many good things in here. One thing I just want to add um is that our legislative partners
both at the state and federal level are great at providing um information on how to tap into some of those tax programs. So certainly when we think about implementation like they could be very helpful in those areas and I know our um
assembly and senate partners and the legislature are starting to do this in other towns. Um and our congresswoman um also does a lot of things of that nature and tapping into energy programs as well which ties into the other presentation.
Um Verona is considering a complete streets policy. So, I really appreciated all of the information on walkability. Um, and you know, h but I wanted to end with housing. It's just, you know, from my uh travels
around the county, which I've been doing lately, keeping seniors in their homes or in their communities, but in places that are more affordable is like the absolutely number one issue like is
how do we go about that's I think the hardest thing to address. Like do you have any thoughts about what you're seeing across New Jersey on that front? Yeah, we're we're trying to encourage a lot of redevelopment projects um throughout the state because, you know, every town has to comply with their affordable housing obligations. You can
do that in a way that's accessible to, you know, older adults and people with disabilities or, you know, anybody with those kind of limitations. Um or you can do it in a way where people are detached from like the rest of the community. Um, so we try to encourage a lot of, you know, mixeduse development where people
kind of have have access to a lot of the services that they would normally need to drive to. So, you know, you can have apartments on top of, you know, health services and other kind of community services and, you know, uh, you know, corner stores that provide groceries. Um, or you could just have, you know,
just straight housing. Um, making sure that there's, you know, elevators and, you know, accessibility needs that can pe people can have addressed. Um that's something that we really try to provide around the state. >> Yeah. I think the issue is the price point, right? So a lot of the redevelopment, you know, projects 20% is
affordable, 80% market rate. It's that market rate piece that, you know, a lot of seniors, they don't want to. They can't afford that rent, but they don't qualify for the affordable. So they're kind of caught. So yeah. Well, for another day. I'm sure
there's a lot of policy experts around New Jersey that are trying to work on that issue. So, thank you so much for your insights. >> Councilman, >> I'll just want want to say thank you. Um, this is very comprehensive and very detailed and I feel it's uh very specific about what our community needs.
So, I just wanted to say thank you for the for the level of depth that this went into and sort of my ask to the township is that they do take this to heart and use this a means of guiding the services and programming and uh meeting the needs of our seniors. Um, this really is there's a lot of great
information here. So just thank you for the report and your presentation council. >> Thank you very much. I uh very much appreciate the report. Um I was part of the initial part of this initiative uh and then our subcommittee for
recreation. Um some other members were involved in it. So I appreciate their efforts and your efforts um to make this happen. We I've known a lot of seniors uh whether it's in recreation or within the pool. uh you know they're great fantastic people high energy great
passion totally engaged so it's important that we look at our seniors and take care of them and implement some type of plan my concern and I've said this at the recre uh recreational committee um when I was chair is that
currently right now our municipal budgets are are very strapped they're tight so I think uh funding for some of these initi atives are really going to have to be looked at and where we're going to find that funding to be able to
initiate some of that to make sure that some of the some of the DPW or recreation their their funding that's currently strapped and providing services that we're able to get them additional monies so that this way um they can provide some of those services
as well. So, you know, looking at the total community, we want to make sure that all of our services are covered, including seniors, including um kids in our great wreck programs and all services that do snow removal, so forth and so on. But I think that's a key component, and I've said that from the
initial part of it is that we really need to make sure that with these initiatives, which they're great, and it's great to have wonderful policies just like this, but we need to fund it and make sure that we go about it in a very pragmatic and strategic way. So if you can, you know, talk a little bit about that and maybe some funding ways
or things that uh that you've seen in the past from other towns or other states, you know, that would be greatly appreciated. >> Absolutely. And like I said, now that we are uh recognized by ARP as having done this work and you know uh putting in a significant amount of effort into
understanding what the needs of the older adult population are um and creating a plan to address them. Now we are in a much better position to apply for that funding. ARP has a lot of uh you know social wellness grants and other grants that are specifically targeted for um implementing actions
that have been identified um and those are a little bit more frequent than at the the the state level. I think we're seeing some state funding kind of slowing down and drying up because of you know having to fill in for you know capacity with you know federal cuts. Um
so definitely looking at ARP and making sure that we're you know tapped into that network. um the the town should be receiving, you know, alerts and emails and having some uh conversations with the the regional hubs for ARP. >> Just one more question. >> Yeah. Um when you were um when this was
taking place and doing uh surveys and um when you're looking at the recommendations and implementation, did you look at any kind of cost analysis that would go that would be a burden on the particular municipality or what would be uh the actual overall financial
picture that's required to implement some of these things? Was that part of that? >> Um I I don't have a full understanding of what the the the budget is for the township. Um, but a lot of these are, you know, lowcost, short-term actions that kind of mainly just require thinking about things a little
differently or, you know, uh, rearranging kind of how we prioritize, uh, information access at the township level, um, or shifting around services so they're a little bit more comprehensive. But, um, like I said, a lot of these, uh, you know, recommendations kind of fall into
existing, uh, initiatives, um, because they're not specifically always, you know, only benefiting, uh, seniors. a lot of them for, you know, walkability or transportation um or public safety are a lot of things that the township is already, you know, looking into such as the street streetscaping project. Um so,
uh I don't have, you know, a full picture of what the budget is and, you know, how much certain things might cost, but a lot of these are are are pretty low, uh lowcost items. I'm I'm sure we can also get into it now that we have this full picture here when it comes budget time or when we're looking at um you know trying to um implement
these programs with administration and town council we can try to look at the overall scope of the budget to be able to implement. So this is a great first start. >> Thank you. >> Thank you >> Mr. Rose Sullivan. Uh I will conclude my
report unless there's any questions from council >> question. I Hi. >> Um I do have a question. So you had mentioned something really quickly and then went right into the reports. So circle back on your announcement that you submitted um bids for a technical
expert for our public safety building. Um I'm getting some feedback from the public that they need an update on where the project is. There is confusion. Um, and so I don't know if we can put out some information like from the public
information officer on where this project stands, what is the council approved, what are the next steps because it generates um there's there's confusion. Um, and so I think um
something needs to be said and maybe an update. There's I'm sure there's a landing page and a website um that we have already established for the emergency services building. So I think a a short update is in order. >> Sure. We can provide an update both um
on the website and and uh through uh some sort of social media post. But just for the benefit of the council tonight, the uh the subject matter expert RFPs were received on Friday, June 26th. Uh there were five firms that submitted. uh we will be reviewing the qualifications
of the firms and the proposals from the firms. We will circulate that to the council. We will look to schedule an interview process for the council to interview the subject matter experts to find a consultant that most aligns with the ideology of the council. uh at that
point that that subject matter expert will partner with solutions architecture and understand the current status of what's been studied, what's been presented, the cost uh analysis that have been performed and they will provide their uh their expertise in this
area to answer provide additional answers uh provide additional thoughts or considerations to the solutions that we need to address on both police and fire. So great uh that is where we are right now. So those interviews will
hopefully be scheduled either later this month or sometime uh in in August so we can move forward with bringing that subject matter expert in to work with solutions architecture. They will need uh probably three to six months uh at a minimum to work with solutions
architecture before they're then ready to present recommendations and findings to the council. So the sooner we select a firm, the sooner we will be able to take those next steps and present back to the public. But that there will be a period of time
assume at at a minimum six months before we are presenting to the uh to the council and to the public again. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Rosivan. I was going to get into that exact same question uh with our ordinance on introduction tonight, but we will rehash or go and
get there. Uh deputy manager report. May I just interject for one second? >> Mayor, if I may, mayor, deputy mayor, sorry. Um, I just wanted to quickly report that because of the vacancy that was filled tonight by appointment. >> Yes. >> Um, that according to state statute, um,
there has to be an election to fill that seat at the next general election, which is November 3rd. Therefore, we'll be having a special municipal election. during the general election. Council packets for those looking to perhaps uh
run for that seat are available in my office Monday to Friday uh 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and they would be due back on August 20th. So, we'll be putting out some social media information on that as well, but I just wanted to inform the public now.
>> Thank you, Madam Clerk. Thank you, Deputy Manager. Um on my report the uh strands engineering continues their work. Um >> pull your microphone. Thank you.
>> I should be on it. Um Strands Engineering is continuing their work. Um we did check with the state when the bid goes out even if the project is constructed in phases it will be one contractor um or one one bid
award uh we cannot do multiple awards. Um the window project is complete solutions architecture is waiting on final asbuilt plans from panoramic windows. We expect to have a
closeout resolution on the July 20th agenda. We have a salary ordinance tonight for a wastewater treatment plant superintendent position. Our new prescription coverage went into
effect on July 1st. There were, I believe, three questions that were brought to our attention around noon today. Um we have responded to all three of them and Harmony RX was involved in each answer that was given.
Um for personnel um as you may remember the OPIU step increases were split into two parts this year. Um they have are being processed for a July 1st effective date.
Um for community services and the pool um the fireworks was well attended. Um at the pool um I know we the council authorized tables to be ordered. Um the
order was placed in miday. Um, we were told initially that the ship date, I believe it was for 26 tables. Is that correct? 26 tables. The ship date was going to be June 16th. Um, there was
a delay as of June 30th. They had not yet shipped. Um, Director Prrisco checked in today. The last tables were being dipped and prepared and they expect a shipping um ship date within the next few days.
There was a delay in ordering them because we needed to wait until we had the um capital money in order to place the order. We do apologize for the delay. the delays mainly on the manufacturer side. Um for the EV
charging that was mentioned as part of the community energy plan, um we are looking to make ready two spots at the pool. They would be up by the pickle ball courts. Um it would tie into a larger project um where we're um looking to possibly put lights there and a um
gate that requires power. Um PSNG has some utility side cost assistance that could offset the cost of a new service and pole. Um property maintenance um can is ongoing. There have been a few problem
properties that we are working through. Um I know several residents have reached out about some property maintenance issues at Verona Flats. there was a issue getting into or getting in contact with someone who was not who was higher up than just being on
site there. We did make contact with them on Friday. They are putting a plan together to address some of the sidewalk tree and garbage concerns there. Um moving on to pool numbers. Um miscellaneous revenue is
strong. We've received 178,000 in miscellaneous revenue year to date. Um, as a comparison, all of last year at 187,000 and total membership revenue is $795,000
for um a total year-to- date revenue of 973,000. Um the anticipated revenue for this year including $145,000 of fund balance was 1,ion30,000.
So we are moving in the right the pool is in a good financial position considering we still have about nine weeks of or eight weeks of um operations to go. And that concludes my report.
>> Thank you. >> Question Councilman Shaw. Yes, thank you very much. Uh, dep uh deputy town manager, town manager. Uh, I just want to make a a question and just a little bit of comment about the pool furniture.
On March 9th, the uh rec committee uh provided a memo to the town council and to the administration about um purchasing the pool furniture. And I know you're you apologize and it's part of the budget, you know, it's part of
that budget plan uh that you couldn't release the funds and then you ordered them in late May for next year. Can we do better than that? Because on July 3rd this year at the pool, all right, all the tables were taken within five
minutes. Um there are over 500 new um members of the pool this year and the financials are looking good and the expenses are good. They're within line, but you know, there are members that are paying $1,000. There are family members that have been there for years paying
over $700. We need to make sure that we have enough tables there. What can be done to make sure that when we we're supposed to purchase more for next year, how can we get those tables ordered in January, February, March, so that this
way on day one those tables are there and we have new tables for our um great community pool. >> Uh council, if I could step in to answer that. So, I know the um the council has previously requested operating and
capital budgets be presented in one um one single effort to to consolidate the discussion to have a larger uh perspective of all the spending throughout the township. So, we've tried to accomplish that in uh in this uh this past budget season. Um, if the council
is inclined to consider a bond ordinance outside of the typical budget season, a bond ordinance for pool furniture for 2027 can be introduced and adopted at the end of this calendar year uh with uh what remains in the capital reserve fund
for the pool if the council's willing to consider it outside of the typical budget season. um that is uh up to the council's uh consideration, but if so, a bonus can certainly be uh considered at the end of this calendar year.
>> I'm for it. I'm just saying. >> Thank you. >> We can talk about later. >> Well, good. Concludes. Okay. Council reports. Councilman Roman. Uh given the uh given the uh extensive reports this evening, I'll just be brief and uh just say thank you to everyone who helped put
together the um uh ribbon cutting for the new fields as well as everyone that was involved in putting that project together. That was a lot of work to get there. Um the decision to basically rebuild that entire field obviously for crude because it really all the
improvements are so much better. Um I just wanted to say thank you to all the all the people that stepped in to to uh help sponsor this and the volunteers and so on. It's uh something that's going to pay dividends to this community for decades to come. This is one of these long-term investments that uh you know, future residents will benefit from. So,
thank you to everyone who had the vision and who executed this. Uh it's all I have this evening. >> Thank you, Councilman. Councilwoman McGrath. >> Thank you, uh Deputy Mayor. Um I too attended the ribbon cutting for Ever Field and it is really beautiful and and
to see how long it took and all the partners and the hard work to get there. It was really, even though the weather didn't hold out, it was really wonderful to be able to step on that field and and see uh what a beautiful facility it is
and what our children and our recreation participants frankly deserve. Um, I want to thank uh the VBSL organization in particular for being such an incredible partner on this and for fundraising such
a significant portion. I want to thank the state of New Jersey for their generous grant programs which took significant amount of um funds off the cost in particular for the playground and for the county of Essex for also
chipping in through their um community development block grant program. I do want to thank the township administration for swiftly developing a plan to address some safety issues near the playground. Um the playground looks
beautiful. I do have to say though um there are some small things in design that um maybe should have been reconsidered. So it just reinforces how important it is um to really preview
playground designs with end users, with parents to make sure that everything um checks out. Um, but with that said, I'm sure these adjustments uh will go just wonderful. And I want to thank the parents who reached out to the council
with their concerns. I too attended the fireworks and I want to thank our office of um um our recreation uh department for putting on such a beautiful uh ceremony and show. I love the music. I
love the um the uh reenactments. That was a lot of fun. and everyone looked like they were having a good time. Um, and it was fortunate that we did it on the 1st. Um, as other towns that had them closer to to the fourth unfortunately had very challenging weather issues. Um, I've been all around
Essex County. So, I just want to congratulate there were um uh fellow council people sworn in in Newark, Irvington, Orange, and Belleville. I want to congratulate all of the our fellow nonpartisan towns um who uh had
swearing ins. I attended the Essex County Board of Commissioners um pride ceremony to honor individuals in the LGBTQ community who are doing great work. And I also got a chance to walk in the Monontlair parade and I want to thank the township of Monontlair for
hosting such a beautiful event. And that's my report. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilman Shore. >> Thank you very much. I appreciate it. I also attended the Ever Field uh ribbon cutting and I agree with the rest of my colleagues um up here. I attended the
fireworks celebration at Liberty as well. That was fantastic. And I also um to make it short, I just it was it was a great event and I um I uh I feel the same way as my other colleagues. Um I was at the pool all weekend. It was
great to see so many people there. And what I really want to do in my report is I don't have any committees right now is I just wanted to um tell the tell the town what I've been doing since been appointed the last two weeks. So my first step was to review and analyze and
I've I've hit the ground running. I really have. And I've gone to all the different departments within Verona. I've been to the police department, firehouse one, firehouse two, community services and wreck department, uh the finance department, talking things out
with the the CFO and going through our budget, going through our finances, um analyzing what is ahead of us in 2027 and the rest of 2026, public works, emergency services, buildings and grounds, rescue squad, water utility.
I've been all over this town over the last two weeks just trying to get a sense of hitting the ground uh to make sure that uh we're really uh to really understand the issues that are going to take place going forward and that I'm up to speed 110%.
Um I look forward to working with the rest of the community, the residents, the administration, and um I just want to say let's let's keep working at it and having some fun. So that's what I'm doing. So, thank you very much. That's my report. >> Thank you, Councilman Tro. At this time,
I'm going to open up uh public comment. Madame Clerk, can you read the compliance statement for public commenting? >> Anyone from the public wishing to speak on any matter? If you're if you're attending by Zoom, please raise your hand by pressing the raise hand button
on your monitor. If you're dialing in by phone, press star 9. And if you're attending in person, please raise your hand and be acknowledged before approaching the lectern. Once recognized, clearly state only your name and township of residence for the record. You are not required to provide 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 will have four minutes to address the council. There will be no cross dialogue during the public portion. And after everyone wishing to speak has been heard, the council may
address your comments and or questions. >> Thank you, Madame Clerk. I see no one on Zoom. I see no one in the room with Oh, there is a hand up. >> Mr. Petrangeli. Oh, we got one on Zoom next. Paul Petrangeli,
uh, Verona, New Jersey. All right. Um, I guess this was perfect time to come say this because uh, you guys basically just said it all for me. This Everett Field that you guys built, it's nice. It's great that we did it, but it's locked at
all times. No kids from our town can get on that field unless you play for VBSL. I drive past Everett when it was the old Everett every day on my way home from work and I would see parents, moms and dads out there practicing with their kids, practicing because they probably
got cut from VBSL because they only take about 12 kids per year. So, you're opening that field for around 12 kids per age group. Um, football can't play there, soccer can't play there, lacrosse can't play there, basketball can't play there. The field
is only used for VBSL. So to me, why did we pay that bill? They should pay that bill. I was told not allowed to announce games inside the uh snack shack in the booth. My daughter had the first opening game. I was told VBSL members only in that booth. Now to me, they donated it
to the town. It's town booth at Liberty. I'm allowed to go in there and announce games. Everybody is. My son actually announced my daughter's gate. So, it should be a town field. Everybody in town should be able to use it. It needs to stay unlocked. It doesn't get ruined
by people using the field. It gets ruined because the DPW doesn't know how to rake it. I have been there in our first two rainstorms and I have photo evidence that the way they rake the field in the rain is the same issue that
ruined the first effort. the sand is going to the outfield and washing that way. You need to train the DPW on how to grade a field. You need to train them how to paint a field. You can't just keep kids off of a field because you think it's going to get ruined. This is
our field. We paid for it. We deserve to use it. Now, another thing is the crosswalk there to get across. Everything in this meeting was talked about safe walking. Okay? You need to come up with something, a resolution or
something to make that a safe corridor because no one in the county is ever going to put a blinking crosswalk sign there. They are like $800,000 unless you guys come up with a resolution and make it a safe corridor. Nobody from Brookdale can cross that street and play at that field. That is not fair. That is
not fair. You guys need to do better and look at the plans before you get all excited about the bells and whistles. The back stop behind home plate does not stop a ball. You put a 10 foot, eight foot fence around that whole entire field, it looks like a jail, but
it does not keep a ball inside. There are no nets. The back stop protects the snack shack. That's it. So to me, do better. Open it up and unlock it all. And you can also go to the away team's
batting cage and uncip all the netting because I did it for the home team on my first game and it's still up on the away team. So there you go. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Potentially. We have one on Zoom, Mr. Ryan.
Uh, can you >> can you hear me now? >> Sorry folks. >> Let me try something here to get rid of the echo. >> Is it Ryan? Yeah.
>> Yeah. But the only one with the hand up is >> Yeah. >> Let me try something. >> We're not hearing you, Mr. Ryan. He jumped off, but he's on three times. >> I see that. >> Okay. >> I don't
>> That one went away, right? Yep. >> You want to raise one of your other hands? I don't know where he went. >> There we go. >> One more try. >> You're muted, Kevin. There you go. >> Can you hear me now?
Can you hear me now? >> Well, sorry about the technical difficulties. >> See if you're >> Kevin. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, that's okay. >> So, it's in the room.
>> Yeah. So, it's the it's it's not routing to the speakers. >> Okay. I don't know how you trouble that. >> Go ahead and turn your No, turn your speakers down. That's not going to work. >> It's going to be on the zoom in on the
uh presentation system end. >> So, it's on that mic. >> Sorry about that. >> It's it's not routing to the to >> Yeah, put our microphone on. Right. >> No, but normally it comes out >> our microphones are coming out of the
speaker. I'm saying right. >> Right. But but his Yeah, the Zoom audio is not >> Sorry about that. Can you hear me now? All right. This one email says concern call my cell phone. I can tell that
>> Mr. Ryan, would you mind calling my cell phone and I will >> play your comments over the uh >> I did that microphone. Try calling him. He's down to one. Does he have his hand up still? the speaker settings don't have any any
additional options. >> Okay. >> Test out. So, >> call my office phone. Oh, hello. So, it's up to >> I just told him to call your cell, Alex. >> All right, we'll troubleshoot another time.
>> Um, did you try reaching him? >> I tried calling him and nothing. No one answered. So, >> not important, he said. Okay. All right. Signing off. All right. >> Sorry about that, Mr. Ryan.
Okay. Moving on. No other hands. Okay, I'm going to close public comment and we're going to move forward hearing adoption of ordinance H1. Madame clerk, uh, can you please read the title of the
ordinance? On second reading, >> amending chapter 150, zoning of the code of the township, specifically article 16, administration and enforcement, section 16.1 through 16.8. >> Thank you. Can someone move the
ordinance? >> Moved by Councilwoman McGrath. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Second by Councilwoman Shore. Uh at this time, uh we have public hearing on this ordinance. Same rules apply.
Uh, anybody from the public? >> Um, before before we do that, could we maybe get a capsule summary of the effects of this ordinance? Sure. Mike >> from either the attorney or township manager manager. >> Tell us a little bit about what you know
why here. I may I may have some questions. Um, so this ordinance was just simply amending a current ordinance that was on the book um for certificates, nonUCC
certificates of continued occupancy and clarifying who would be enforcing these. it falls under the zoning code currently and clarifying that um certain departments must go in to
inspect to ensure the buildings are up to code including construction, fire prevention, health um in order for occupants to um begin operating out of a building. >> Okay, I'll have comments after public
comment. Uh, anybody from the public like to comment? Please raise your hand. Seeing none, closed public comment. Councilman Roman. >> Sure. Uh, just curious about if there is an any applicability to residential dwellings. Um, if they are all, you
know, assumed to have a valid certificate of occupancy and use at this point in time. Does this only affect, you know, multif family and commercial? Basically what who does this affect and how >> this currently affects commercial properties >> only commercial properties
>> um when homes are sold there's uh if there's permits pulled then they get cert certificates of occupancy that way and fire prevention when there is a new tenant in a residential unit and I believe if there's I believe they have to do it for home sales as well um it's
a very long acronym but it's basically a compliance inspection on carbon monoxide, fire alarms, and some other items. I can get more information on that for you. >> Okay. And are there any properties that are, you know, significantly grandfathered or that predate
certificates of occupancy in their entirety? Um, and I know that there are I've run into this with commercial structures where there just has never been a CO since the building was built and existed before there were such a thing as a certificate of occupancy. I'm just curious if we have anything that falls under that or you know if someone
just has an old building that they've owned forever and they sell it uh what sort of process do they have to go through or if they change a teny >> I would have to get more information for you on on that. >> Okay. >> I I would say a little bit on that would
be if they don't change use then I don't believe there is a an inspection required. If it's a change of use, then absolutely have to go through the process of getting >> Okay. >> But I'm not 100% on that, but I think it's pretty >> Yeah, I might want to have I Does anyone
Is there any urgency about this or >> No, I I just I would like to just have a little sidebar just about enforcement, what the actual effect on property owners are. >> Jane, hold off on this. >> If you don't mind if we table it for, you know, till next meeting. >> Okay. There's a second reading. So,
>> yeah. Uh, >> so he has to make a motion. >> Do we have to I was going to say >> I'll move the table. >> Move the table. Do I have a second on that? >> I'll second it. >> A second by Council McGrath. All in favor? Is this a roll call? >> All in favor say I.
>> All. >> I. All oppose. >> Okay. If you want to set up a quick call or something like that, we can zoning. Okay. Okay. Uh, moving along. Uh, ordinances
on introduction. The next item on the agenda on first reading. Madame clerk, would you please read the title of the ordinance into the record? I1, >> an ordinance to amend chapter 140, vehicles and traffic, article 14, meter and permit parking.
Um, section 68, paragraph B of the code of the township of Verona to include municipal lot number three. >> Would someone like to move this ordinance? So moved. >> Moved by Councilwoman McGrath. Would anybody second it?
>> I will second it. >> Would be sorry. Would it be possible to get our video back up? >> No. >> I mean, I'm sorry. I think Zoom's out all together. I can't bring the video up either. >> Uh, no. The people are still able to hear us. They just aren't able to see us. >> So, >> there we go.
>> No, popped that one. Okay, never mind. We'll >> uh a brief explanation on this. >> Um this is this is simply adding municipal lot 3 to the list of uh
municipal lots in our code so that we could begin selling some permits there. There's this is not any type of reconstruction or anything like that. >> Okay. Uh and I just want to make this clear. Correct me if I'm wrong. This
does not mean this is Lakeside Avenue adding it is strictly a parking lot. The use is just so we can have cars parked there now, but future things could change on that property. >> That's correct. It allows us to provide
permits for overnight parking for commercial vehicles in its current state. Got it. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh Madame Clerk, can you please call the role? Councilman Shore, >> yes. >> Councilwoman McGrath,
>> yes. >> Councilman Roman, >> yes. >> Deputy Mayor Mackoy, >> yes. >> Mayor, Deputy Mayor, I1 will be numbered 2026-27. It will be posted on the website according to law and a public hearing will be held on July 20th.
>> Thank you, Madam Clerk. Moving forward on the consent agenda, we have two sets of minutes from May 18th, 2026, June 22nd, 2026.
Uh, does anybody have any changes of the minutes? Council McGrath, >> I >> um that's not why I was raising. >> I did make that to change. >> Yes, I did submit a change just to make sure that we the minutes reflect that we
pulled the Clarage resolution off the we tabled it. Yes. Okay. So, we have changes to the minutes, >> but I did want to pull um something from consent again. >> Okay. Any other changes? Which one would you like to pull? >> Uh L11, please.
>> Thank you. >> And mayor, deputy mayor, if also um I requested a correction in L7. Yes. >> Um >> yes, that correction's been made. Thank you. >> So, so >> it's for paving um right >> for municipal lot civic center, not for police vehicles.
>> Okay. We called for the same. >> I'd also like to pull one as well. Uh L3s L2 council >> L3. What's that? >> L2 I believe. Council >> is L2. >> I apolog Yes.
>> I you want to pull that? I live on that street. So >> Okay. Okay. >> So, uh L2 and L11 are removed for now. Uh would anybody like to move the consent
agenda? >> So moved. >> Moved by Councilman Roman. Would anybody second that? >> Second. >> Second by Councilman Shore. At this time, we would call for public hearing on the consent agenda. Same rules apply.
Seeing no one, we will close public. Any comments from council? Uh, Deputy Mayor, I don't know if we just clarified this would include uh M1 as well. The uh municipal clerk's raffle report. >> Oh, yes. >> So, I will amend my motion to include
M1. >> That's part of the consent agenda. >> I don't need to amend it or clarify that my motion includes M1. >> Including M1, our quarter raffle and bingo report. >> Okay. Moved and seconded. Uh, no
comments. Madam clerk, can you please call the role? Councilman Shore, >> I'm sorry. This is for L1 for everything else but L11 and L2. >> Is this is the minutes included in this as well? >> Yes, >> you would.
>> We should pull the minutes. >> Yeah, >> I >> revise the motion. >> I will revise my motion to exclude uh both sets of minutes >> K1 and K2. >> Thank you. So this motion is for just
L1, L3 through 10 and M1. >> Yes. >> So your motion so moved. Seconded by Councilman Shore again. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Okay. No comments. >> Madame clerk.
>> Councilman Shore. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman McGrath. >> Yes. >> Councilman Roman. >> Yes. >> Deputy Mayor Mackoy. Yes, >> there L1 L3 through L10 will be numbered 156 through 164.
>> Okay. Uh I will make a motion to move the minutes K1 and K2. >> Second. >> Second by Councilman Councilwoman McGrath. Uh no comments. A vote. Roll call.
All right. Um, >> just a minute. >> Right. So, Councilman Shore, >> abstain. >> Councilwoman McGrath, >> yes. >> Councilman Roman, >> yes. >> Deputy Mayor Mackoy, >> yes. >> There motion's approved. Uh, three to 01 extension.
>> Okay. >> Excuse me. >> Uh, moving forward. Uh, L2. Someone like to move L2. >> So moved. >> Moved by Councilwoman McGrath. >> I'll second it. Seconded by Councilman Roman. >> Uh comments.
>> Uh yes. I have a question for the administration. So how is this different than what we approved two meetings ago? Is this a different grant just from Morningside? >> This there was a change in the scope of the grant. So, um, historically we've
received, uh, a pretty steady amount from the Department of Transportation and to bring the project more in line with what we receive. Um, the project was amended to just cover Morningside Road as that was the road where the
pavement conditions were the worst. There were recent or the the smoke study showed issues and there had been recent sanitary sewer line issues. I believe there was a few collapses that DPW had to repair. >> So, this street was more of a priority
from an engineering perspective. >> Okay. Well, I will just make a comment that hillside is really rough. So this has to be said. >> So I mean I agree from what's under the road on Morning Side is like very pressing and as I did we all know the
analysis and what I'm hearing what you're saying but hillside is really a beat up road. So it this is unfortunate that that was taken out. Um but you know you're you're making these
decisions based on cost. It's based on uh cost to align the project with the grant and it's based on the recommendations from both Boswell and our public works department. Um it doesn't mean that hillside and other roads cannot be included in future road improvements. Uh they would just be
self-funded through just local um local bond ordinances in the upcoming budget. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> So with that >> Yeah. Yes. >> Yeah. I'm just going to I'm going to recuse myself from this issue. I live on Morand side. I just don't want any
conflict of interest. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Thank Councilman Shore. >> Councilwoman McGrath. >> Yes. >> Councilman Roman. >> Yes. >> Deputy Mayor Mackoy. >> Yes.
>> L2 will be numbered 165. It passes three to zero with one recusal. Okay. And L11. Would someone like to move this? >> Yes, I would. >> Moved by Councilman Shaw. Do I have a second? >> I will second this.
>> Okay. Comments. >> Uh, yes. So, my um concern with this change is that it's very broad um in terms of whom gets to approve changing the hours of the pool.
Um, and as many of people know who have been watching our meetings and reading my summaries on the pool for many, many years, I'm um when the pool hours were scaled back a few years ago in order to
save cost. This is uh something that is discussed frequently in the pool surveys. And when people are evaluating whether or not to join the pool, especially many of our working families where two families, two parents are working, they're like calculating, okay,
how how much is the pool open when I'm not working? And so, in particular, the Friday night close time is one of contention. And when we discussed this prior to this pool season, we discussed no, we can't expand the hours because again, we're controlling the cost. Now,
a bunch of special events are being planned. Some of which are keeping a pool open for hours after it should be closed. Um, and of course, by ma matter matter of procedure, those things were announced, you know, without not following our pool rules. So, we're
doing this after the fact. I'm a little concerned that so many people can approve the change of the hours. Um because ultimately this governing body and our form of government, we only oversee one individual in the township and that is the township manager. So the
finances of this pool are dependent on keeping costs um appropriate. But now we're authorizing through this very broad who can change the hours of the pool. It says pool management. I don't even know who that is at this point. The town manager, the deputy township
manager, and the director of community services. That's a lot of people. So, I would prefer this just said that the hours of the pool can be changed by the township manager. Township manager can take any of these individuals if they're saying, "Hey, we have to change the
hours." But ultimately, it is the township manager's responsibility to oversee the finances of this township. That's who he reports to us. We oversee his performance. And I would like to keep this tight. Um, and so I'm making a
recommendation to my peers that we just have the town manager be the one who can change the hours of the pool. And how he makes those decisions is up to him. >> Okay. Uh, a quick question. It was my understanding that any special events we
have up there are paid for events. >> No. So the uh the one particular event that would be upcoming u is the a world cup watch party which would be an event during the season available to both pool
members or members of the community that might want to purchase a day pass or come as as guest members. >> So they pay to enter if you're not a pool member. >> Correct. >> It's it's on a weekend on a weekend pass. >> But guest passes can be sold for that.
It's one of the items with the pool marketing committee was more events for members to attract or to give a greater benefit to them >> to the members themselves. >> To the members themselves. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Uh but you councilwoman you
mentioned this is decision is up to the pool manager also but it just says here township manager >> we were >> director there was there was an update to it but the intent of it was that everyone would agree to change the pool that no one that
>> yes ke uh the township manager could overrule everyone but that we'd have the sign off of or that the head manager would be involved so that he could ensure staffing was available for a township event that the director of community services is involved for the same reason and and that township
administration is there for or involved from staffing and finances and and the hours of the pool >> ultimately if I may it's the same thing what councilwoman's saying I think is fine because it always stopped with the manager and any of that >> yep
>> so the amendment unless >> it's a fine amendment >> I'm I'm seeing here just it says and township manner and so as long as it goes through the town. It's going to go through the township now. >> We'll just remove the other people though in the resolution to make the counciloman point. This way it's tight and we know it just falls on the town.
>> So it'll it'll >> I mean I'd be fine here with manager and or director of community services along with manager. >> Why can't manager if he's along with the manager anyway? >> The buck stops with him. >> I think that's a a fine suggestion. It
doesn't effectively change how it would >> be behosen anyway. >> Right. And I think Oh, I'm sorry. >> Go ahead. >> I think >> you know as I'm hearing this discussion from a practical point of view, this
decision from an administration point of view is going to be collaborative. A lot of people are going to be involved. It's going to be thought through in advance. But ultimately, if we're changing the pool rules, ultimately it's the town manager who decides, okay, we are extending the hours of the pool for a
special event. They're planning a movie night. They're planning a FIFA watch party, but again, every hour that they go past, you know, our stated pool hours is additional cost. So, there there has to be a given and take, but ultimately,
it's the town man manager who's responsible for the pool's finances. So, >> Deputy Mayor, >> Councilman Shaw, >> thank you. Um, I I think this is a good example of
where council, town council going forward, and this might be a good time to start to step out and allow administration to start administrating the pool, the rules. I'm not saying that
we're this is just one step today and I I agree with Councilwoman McGrath on okay the town manager that's fine but this is a good step in the right direction of maybe September October of looking at the entire body our finances
are are looking good we have a good financial model but with that model we need to start making changes towards membership having a little bit more say um also the administration having more say on pool rules of the council being pulled out of trying to be daytoday on
the pool rules so that management can manage and have trust. So I think this is a good example of given let's see what happens the rest of the year we have this we can pass this here today and then in September October look at a whole list of things of maybe that we we
should not be part of anymore and that allow administration and membership to be able to govern themselves and and put rules in place that can be more flexible for our residents or actually for our membership going forward. So, that's how
I view that. >> I would tend to agree with the uh councilman. I I think that it's a little much that we're doing this by legislation. Um up until maybe 5 years ago, I think uh we didn't actually pass
the pool rules as a council action at all, if I remember correctly, until, you know, the only reason we we did it is because essentially they didn't really have the, you know, have regulatory effect if we didn't do it. But the pool ran fine without us specifying the the
pool rules from the council de. So I don't know. I tend to agree with allowing administrative discretion and us giving guidance to town management as to where we hear concerns from the community rather than us having to go through the process of passing resolution or ordinance every time that
we want to change the hours of the pool. I I just feel like this is something that is within within the administrators that we hire to manage this town to do without us specifying it by, you know, to this level of detail. Just my opinion.
>> Thank you, Councilwoman McGrath. >> So, um I'll make a motion then to amend this resolution um to just say that the hours subject to change for township events are approved by the township manager.
since there's a motion on the floor. Anyone second that? >> I second. >> Thank you. >> Uh, >> so we have to vote on >> We have to vote. I'm going to comment before we vote. I just I think no matter what the manager is going to go through
the other people that are written on here, the pool management, the deputy township manager possibly or but the director of community services because they're involved with the pool. So I think including all of them in the title is a good thing because he's going to
collaborate with them anyway. So I Okay, I guess we got a vote on >> Go ahead, Councilman Shore. Last comment. Yeah. Um I mean I think the buck stops with the town manager and this is a short-term thing. Let's see how it goes and then come back to it in
September and October, >> right? And you know then then the director of community services can come up here with pool rules, what the budget's going to be like and make those changes then for a short term. There's some great events that are going to happen. Let's make the change. Let's
move forward. And I think that's the the best way of going about it. >> Okay. Madame Clerk, call the roll. >> On the on the changes. >> On the change. Yeah. As revised. >> Council Miss Shore. >> Yes.
>> Council McGrath. >> Yes. >> Councilman Roman. >> Yes. >> Deputy Mayor Mackoy. >> No. >> All right. Um, so the amendment passes 3 to one. >> Yes. >> Okay. Moving forward. We have no addendums.
>> Well, you want to Okay, never mind. >> Okay. Something else? >> No, I'm sorry. >> No addendum. >> Okay. Moving to move new and unfinished business. A discussion on the salary ordinance for the supervisor or sewage plant operator.
>> Uh, sure. This would be the establishing of a title that had been on previous salary ordinances. uh the the title had dropped off in recent versions, but it's reestablishing the title uh for the purpose of a license operator for the
sewer plant. Uh it's it's generally in line with the salary that had previously been in uh in effect for that title. >> Okay. Any comments from council? You've advertised the position already,
correct? We've advertised the position based on comments from the DP that the license operator position should be filled on a full-time basis if the individual exists. Uh we actually uh
held advertised uh we received three candidates that we called in for interviews. uh and we do have qualified candidates that hold the license that we need and have the experience the requisite experience to fill that position. So there is a line in the
budget for S for the the employee uh in that position. Uh so it is a funded uh position. We will look to to make a hire uh upon the adoption of this title. >> Okay. Is this this is a full-time
position? Have we looked at maybe a shared service for this? >> Well, again, that's where the state has stepped in. We've we've been utilizing a professional uh consultant to serve in this role. The state has come back and said that for a sewer wastewater
facility of our size, it should not be a part-time position. It should not be a consultant. It shouldn't be it should be a full-time staff employee. >> Thank you. Councilman Roman was first. >> Um, and would this result in a reduction in the consultant hours? >> It will. So, there will be a
transitional period where the uh successful candidate would overlap with the existing consultant. The existing consultant would uh would step back and the new individual would take on that responsibility and then eventually that consultant
would be would no longer be needed. >> Okay. Council Councilwoman McGrath. >> Thank you. So what when we see the ordinance is it just a title or is it also the salary? I'm sorry. And
was that in part of our packet? >> Nothing. >> No, it wasn't. Okay. So this is just in concept. >> Correct. >> Okay. Is there going to be is it just a position and a salary range that we're going to be looking at or is it just a position? >> It's a it'll be a position and salary
range. advertised the range that was advertised at the beginning of June was $100 to $130,000. >> Okay. So, that's what we're going to see in the ordinance. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Done. Thank you. Uh and next on uh
council liaison appointments uh being that council went Holland stepped down. Uh liaison to the MYAK committee and the joint flood exa advis advisory committee are open. Uh Mr. Sure. And I spoke uh
since he spent numerous years on the rec committee. He is going to now be the liazison to the rec wc committee and my correct Mr. Shore. Council shore. And I will then take on joint flood advisory committ. >> Okay. VMAC.
>> Oh >> no. >> Who had VMAC? >> Um >> did Councilwoman Holland have VMAC? Okay. We will talk about that and do it at the next meeting. Okay. They only need quarterly.
>> Yeah. >> All right. Uh, last public comment. Anybody from the public, please raise your hand. Come to the lect turn. Are you as a public member?
>> Good evening. Um, thank you. Since I'm here and I have the opportunity to speak, I would like to address um Councilwoman McGrath's uh comments about the hours. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Pamela Prrisco, director of community services. Um since I started this position in September and
when I first came here in October to present, um it was basically brought from the surveys that members of the me the pool membership wanted to see events at the pool. So, that's what I'm trying to do. And we
had the nerds event, which was a huge hit. That pool was open till 10 p.m. We're having movie night hopefully tomorrow night. Um, the nerds played till 8:30 and the pool was open till 10:00. We have movie night tomorrow
night. The movie cannot start until 8:30. It's movie night. And we're having the World Cup watch party, which we're watching two games, the 5:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. game. These were all planned all with marketing
committee meeting with groups and with Mr. O Sullivan's permission. I didn't plan anything on my own. Um, my pool managers, everyone that is seeing these events are thinking they're wonderful ideas. Have only heard great feedback.
So tonight to see this back and forth back and forth and micromanaging of the hours for special events. I also want to plan an adult social which is planned for the end of August for the adults. We used to have them all the
time in the community when my parents lived here and when my kids were younger. So I'm trying to bring things back to make the pool a better place for our members to bring our membership up. That's what I was told was needed for the Verona pool to thrive, which it is
thriving right now, as we could tell, our numbers are. So, I'm kind of really disappointed, really upset that the micromanaging is continuing. And if you had an issue with the times, then instead of this meeting, it should have
been just addressed to me directly. I'm not planning events. I'm just trying to make things better for our pool and our members. and I have only been receiving wonderful feedback that things have been happening. So, I'm really just I just had to say how I I feel that I'm trying
to do a really good job here and the fact if you want to if these events want to get cancelled, I can cancel them tomorrow and explain to the public why they were cancelled. So again, I'm just putting it out there that I'm trying to
do my best. And by having the pool open three nights over, today was a rain out. So today's rain out is making up for World Cup being open till 11:30 on July 11th if it doesn't rain. So again, I
just wish, you know, I want to do a good job here, but when these little things happen, it's really disheartening. I'm putting in 12 hours a day, almost 7 days a week. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Brrisco. >> Seeing no one else from the public, I'm
going to close public. Uh closing comments. Councilwoman, >> thank you. Um I have to say I'm I'm really surprised. So again with the misinterpretation of what went on right here at the end of
the day what we were debating was again the line of um appropriate chain of command. You're excuse me we do have rules and you know that I I have to admit I'm really shocked it is not appropriate to call out a council person
directly and also I do want to just speak to something. We have a certain form of government And our form of government is such that we communicate directly with the town manager. Okay, we actually don't go
directly to staff. It is actually not appropriate. In fact, when past council members used to go directly to staff, that turned out to be a really big problem because it borderlines on sometimes on harassment. At the end of the day, our job is to communicate
directly with the town manager. as he was not in last week, I called Mr. Krauss and we had a conversation. It is actually not appropriate for council members to go directly to heads of departments with concerns or criticisms.
Okay, at the end of the day, we have a set of pool rules. It's great that events are being planned. And I'm not saying events shouldn't be planned outside of normal hours. What I'm saying is what is the chain of command by which I want those things approved and the way
the ordinance was written because of a simple andor that was added. It made it seem like a lot of people could just change the hours of the pool and I wanted to keep things directly with the town manager. This you took it
incredibly personally and that is but that's not appropriate. You know from private >> talk to the group don't talk directly to one person. Well, that's what she did and in exchange, Deputy Mayor, >> she didn't go directly at you. >> Okay. At the end of the day, this was
disheartening exchange. Um, and I don't think anyone up here wants to micromanage the pool, but I will continue to advocate for the residents, especially the residents who choose not to join the pool, that they want more pool hours. And that was my
larger point. And I as long as I'm sitting here, I will continue to make that point to the administration. But with that said, it's great. Listen, I was at the nerds concert. It was really a fun night. I'd stayed at 10:00.
Um, but you know, it's really it is good that we're thinking of fun things to do, but I am concerned about the cost at the end of the day, and that was the point that I'm making. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councilwoman, Deputy Mayor. >> Any other comments? Councilman Shore.
Um, so I would like to say that I think uh the director of um community services is doing a really fantastic job. Um, from what I've seen from the wreck uh department and from what I've seen at the pool, uh, she spent a lot of time
there as as a member that goes very often. >> Councilman, I know that I know the employees spoke, but it's it's not proper for the council to critique good or bad employees. >> Then I apologize for that. Um I I just from what from what I heard just now, I
just would like to um just say that it's I think I think the pool in general is um running pretty well. I love to see events and um the time to make changes
will come in after the pool season is over and we look forward to having that conversation so that this way all parties uh can feel comfortable with the finances and can feel comfortable with the pool rules and organization so that
going forward everything is taken care of. We've come such a a long way with the pool in the last couple years. I think that we owe it to ourselves just to keep going, keep our heads up, and keep smiling because I think we're doing a good job. So, and I apologize for any
kind of etiquette or protocol. I just broke. Sorry. >> Thank you, Councilman SH. Councilman Roman. >> Thank you. And I'll just, you know, my philosophy on on these matters is for day-to-day operations of the township, I like to encourage agility and creativity. It's if we trust the people
that are administering the town and managing um the township as a whole and its departments and so on, they can have leeway to react to situations and opportunities as they come up. Um if we have concerns about things or we want to tamp something down or say, "Hey, we don't think this is a good idea." We always have the ability to reach out to
to the township manager, I do that. If he's, you know, it's a quick email if I see something that's going on and we have a call about it and that's and that's that. But I I feel like we shouldn't hamstring the operation of the town on a day-to-day basis. We should we are a body a body that that um that
legislates that sets policy and that hires a a group of administrators professionally manage the town on behalf of that policy from the council. So I just like us to to consider how far into the weeds we get on things. Um, and I'll just kind of leave it at that that uh
there is this balance between between, you know, trying to trying to respond to resident feedback all the time and trying to put our own ideas into the mix and trying to realize that we are essentially the board of a corporation that hires executives to lead on a day-to-day basis for it. And there is a
balancing act between what level of direction we give and what we don't. >> So that's just where my head's at. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Do we have anything for executive session? >> Nothing. >> We do not. Okay. Would anybody like to make a motion? >> I will close the meeting.
>> There you go. Second. Motion to adjourn by Councilwoman Grant. Second by Councilman Shar. Meeting is adjourned. >> Thank you.