Don't don't don't touch a thing. This is perfect. Welcome everyone to the township of Verona regular town council meeting for July 7th, 2025. Madam current clerk opens, the notice requirement of the open
public meetings act have been satisfied with respect to this meeting of the township council. The meeting time and date were included in the public meeting notice along with the public internet link and telephone call-in information. said notice a meeting agenda was posted in the municipal building and sent to the official newspapers of the township,
the Verono Cedar Grove Times and the Star Ledger at least 48 hours preceding the start time of this meeting. The agenda and handouts can be viewed online at vereronj.org/counsil meetings and a public comment period will be held in the order listed on the meeting agenda and instructions on how
to comment will be provided at the appropriate time. Thank you madam. Councilwoman Holland here. Councilwoman McGrath here. Councilman Roman here. Deputy Mayor Makavoy
here. Deputy Mayor also present tonight is uh township attorney Brian Aloya. Township manager Kevin O Sullivan. Deputy Township Manager Michael Krauss and myself municipal clerk Jennifer Kieran. To the flag of the United States of
America it stands under God indivisibley and justice for all. Uh this will start going to my report. Uh I want to start off by recognizing
two uh Verona longtime Verona residents that passed away this week uh and actually thank their families for their service to Verona and all they've done. Judy Luzy and Paul Grimes. Uh Judy worked for the board of education for over 30 years and she was very active in
other things throughout town uh throughout the years she lived here. Uh Paul Grimes was a US Army uh veteran s sergeant. Uh served in Vietnam and his time in Verona was very very active with the Veron Alliance. He did a lot with
the equipment welcome program. So we thank both families and our condolences go out to them. Uh I'd like to thank the Verona Unico uh organization. Uh we they put a plaque up
at Verona Community Pool for Jed Grath, who happened to be a 1960 Verona High School graduate and a 1964 Tokyo Olympic gold medalist uh in the 200 meter backstroke. He was the first varsity swimming letter
person in the town of Rome that graduated from high school. So I thank Ron Unico for doing that. Uh kind of long overdue, so we were very uh Happy to see that. Uh we had a historic preservation commission meeting uh and
we discussed the freight shed. I've been talking with the manager about getting a survey done for the freight shed. Uh it is a designated historic site. So we'll be hopefully moving it to uh onto Verona
prop 100% onto Verona property because uh it spans two separate properties there. Uh the this will funded by an organization that is committed to funds to do this and to preserve this ship. Uh I'd like to congratulate uh two of
our officers, La Crew and Meguire for their promotions. Uh I went to their promotion ceremony last week and it's just great to attend these promotional ceremonies and just the C the chief reads through a list of all their accomplishments and what they do. It is
just absolutely amazing. uh the education they go through and the groups that they are involved with. Uh and it's time after time with every officer that we see going through that. Uh this past Sunday, the Verona uh Chamber of
Commerce uh partnered with the town of Verona and had a wellness fair at the community center. It was the first ever wellness fair and it was very very successful. I'd like to thank all the groups of people uh and the businesses
that attended and supported this and all the people that obviously attended it and uh thought it was a great idea. We have uh worked out some quirks. The Chamber of Commerce did and next year we're looking to uh make it a lot bigger and probably use a different venue uh
but staying in the community center. We can fit a lot more people there. I'd like to thank uh we had our fireworks last Wednesday. Thank all of our organizations, public works, excuse me, our police department, rescue squad,
fire department. Uh I'm leaving I'm leaving a bunch of people out, drone recck department especially for setting it all up and uh thanking uh everybody for a safe uh fireworks display, especially for people that walk there.
We have a lot. an event where I really like because a lot of people walk there. I do not. I usually walk around town, but I am on the opposite end of town so I do drive there. Uh but I I do thank everybody and uh it's went very very well and I hope everybody had a very
happy Fourth of July. Uh that is all I have for this evening. Uh I'm going to turn this over to our town manager for his report and his Thank you. Um, I will quickly go through
my reports. I'll be happy to answer any questions and then I'll turn the move over to Boswell so they can provide their summary of their capital project. Um, some of the items that that won't be discussed in the report though, our primary clarifier pump station project
is still moving forward. Uh, construction is expected to um really accelerate in September. Uh we've we continue to meet with the design engineer for the uh UV disinfection system and the microscreen projects. We had another progress
meeting earlier today. We should have our 60% design drawings by the end of this week uh with Fairview Avenue drinking well. We should have a recommendation for award um at the conclusion of the week and we should
have action at the July 21st meeting. Uh the Clar Pump Station project is also um awarded and working through submitts with the contractor constructor expected to uh pick up later this summer on that project and work through the winter
months. Uh moving forward, there's a number of uh road paving projects listed in my report. I'm happy to answer questions on those. Um, as far as uh some of the recreation projects, we have Everert Field, which is on tonight's agenda forward resolution after the adoption of
the bond ordinance. Um, we have a number of um initiatives that we're continuing to work with sustainable Verona on, including some of our community engagement projects. We also have our community energy plan which is kicking off this summer as well
and we will begin our discussions with uh the EIP program in preparation of you for uh sometime later this summer. Um the council chambers technology project is one that we will be um moving forward
with later this summer. We'll start with council chambers first and then advance to the community center upgrades as well. Uh there's a number of other uh facility projects. We have our roofing project for the community center, the annex, and
the communication tower. That's going to be um entering into design after tonight's meeting. We will have bid documents ready for this fall. And our town hall windows and refinting project continues to move forward. We have another progress meeting with the
contractor scheduled for tomorrow. Um, I will conclude my report with that. There's a number of other items in there. I'm happy to answer any questions for the council. Um, I have a question on something that's actually on our agenda, the
facilities audit. Why is the pool not included in the facility audits proposed? I'm thinking specifically about the buildings. associated with the pool in the bathroom. Um the
the facil the pool can can be audited as well. We can add that to the overall report. Um the proposal initiated uh by solutions didn't specifically list that, but that's a small enough building that
it would be a supplemental add-on to their existing to this proposed contract. So we can add that. Yeah, I'm thinking like we want to have all the building structures with the township homes kind of evaluated and it is an important structure.
public solutions including the uh waste facility which is correct. Uh yes, just wanted to ask I so this is a state project but it's within our jurisdiction so I may ask about it. Um I've seen some concerns about the quality of the pavement work that was
done on Route 23. Um, I can see there's already some sections on it that look like they're marked to be cut back out and reworked and so on. I'm just curious if we have any input on what's going on with this or you know it, be perfectly honest, it's not one of the better paving jobs I've seen. I don't know if
we have any leverage to have anything done about it. Thoughts? We did reach out we did reach out to the state already on that paving project. Uh, we were told that they have not concluded the project. That's not the final finishing course. So, they are expecting to come back and we have
communicated what our concerns are with them. Okay, it's great to hear. We're already on it. Thank you much. Yes. Sorry. So, that actually rather stat and then I hear that Grove is starting as well and some residents already asked
questions about, you know, getting that crosswalk at Hemlock. So, can you talk about what's going on with the county paving? Sure. the uh the Bloomfield Avenue County paving project. Um I believe Mr. Culture reported at the last meeting that they were expecting to come back
middle towards late July to come back to to start the actual paving in Verona and continue moving eastward. Um they have not shifted from that schedule from what they've initiate initially communicated to us. As far as Grove, they did start
with the uh concrete handicap ramps earlier today. Um we are following up with the county engineers office to find out what that specific schedule will look like for milling and paving and and potential road closures for Grove Avenue
and we are hopeful we're going to get that call as well. We've communicated that to them in the past at the pre-construction meeting and again to them today. So we've we've communicated the request for that additional crosswalk at hemlock. Yes. I can actually that because I actually I went to the county building for the
pre-construction meeting and they discussed that specifically. It was the only crosswalk being added to the whole group and then they were going to redo whatever other cross but it is 100% in the plan to add a cross. Uh defer
sure we can go to to Mike first then we'll go to Bob. We're not going to schedule like a committee for school. So I will also be brief. Um, as Kevin had mentioned, window replacement is
ongoing contract all the actual windows. They have some touches to do trim back as part of that all about $40,000 of expenses
that they sent to the GIF. We're waiting reimbursement. have to calculate some deductibles because there are two separate plans that are open. Uh the traffic flow changes at the community center been in place for about
3 weeks. We haven't received any comments that I'm aware of. We are still looking for public safety communicators, dispatchers, our transit drivers, school crossing guards, and the director services job
post has a closing date of July 11th. 30 or 40 applications for those position and we'll be going through this interviews. We are still meeting with the Fair View Insurance is completing a
wellness grant application in the amount of $10,000. We will use the funding to create kind of a point system to encourage employees to make healthier decisions. application says you have to do things like get your annual physical
dental cleanings a year, a biometric screening. All that information is kept confidential. So the employees shouldn't have any here without getting their personal information. Kevin and I have both been involved with community services at the pool quite
extensively. Summer playground increased registration about 20% according to recreation. We do expect a short-term increase in overtime there until the director's position is filled
and we are going through admins and account statuses. meeting with department heads next week or so to go over where the Evening mayor and council members. Uh we're here to report on three uh capital
projects we've been working on. The first is the smoke testing that we've done on the sewers in town. And Caitlyn Barbaro is our design engineer who's going to work on the project extensively. I'm gonna turn the mic over to her just to she can explain what we
did and where we're hi. Good evening everyone. So as you I'm going to talk a little bit more about any questions that you guys have forward. As I'm sure many are nationality
fine. There we go. Don't count that as any stuff. As I was saying, National Water went out and they reported a summary of where smoke was detected throughout the township. They then handed over their report to us so we could look further
into it and find any areas where there might be cross between the township system and sanitary systems of other areas around. So we took the approach of looking at it in two groups.
We first analy possible res inter connections as well as cross connections that might be coming from the town side. So first going a little bit into the residential end on this end if you look here at this map
I do have colorcoordinated areas of where we can find different issues that were found. So the main concern with the residential side was actually regarding cleanup caps or damage or missing clean
that did take up a large majority of the resial side and is a possible leading contribution to implement to the sanitary system. Those are the areas that are highlighted below. There are some 39 locations. Uh the other areas
that are related to the residential on this map are also highlighted in red that was possible deficient sanitary. So these are areas where property drains may have been connected into the
sanitary system, um gutters, things of that sort. These are all um preliminary investigation findings as we continue on through the program and further design will be able to exact issues that could be causing
these. Now the residential portion we are moving into what we call phase one. So Boswell has prepared res all the residencies that were located to have possible elicit connections. And in these letters, we're really highlighting
um what we found, photos of the smoke detected locations and encouraging the residents to look further into their problems and kind of address these issues in order to limit the inflow infiltration into the town sanitary system.
Moving on to the phase two that we're proposing, we're taking a little bit of a step back. smoke testing and we're actually looking to address the sanitary line that runs through the back of the properties on Avenue. This was previously um video recorded and looked
into a little bit. I know there was an emergency repair that was done a few months ago. So, our phase two is looking more specifically into finishing that videoing um addressing any roots that are going into the pipe and getting that main line up and running in proper
working order before we go back into the um connections on that. Now leads me back into on the side of Verona. This is where majority of the rest of our phases are looking to go. Sorry, can I interrupt?
Yeah, of course. So phase one is addressing the red connect the red on your map. These are the connections. Yes. Um on here on this map here it is the blue as well as the red. The blue
specifically is um the damage cleanup packs. I did separate them out because they were a larger majority of the issues that we found. Um and then you said phase two was one and a large Yes. And then you said going back to the side
of Verona. I didn't know which side you referring to. Oh, I'm sorry. Um, going back to the smoke testing that was found that impacts the township of Verona. Okay. So, not a sign. No, I'm sorry. That's helpful. Yeah, of course. that would be these
next few pieces would be addressing um possible interconnections or elicit connections that were found during smoke testing um on inlets or laterals that are owned by the township. So a majority of what was found during smoke testing on end was actually what
appears to be false connection between inlets going into the sanitary system. This was you know from the smoking of course it's what the exact issue is. As we get into design, we'll have to go through and die
test as well as video record the lines just to see if there's any cracks in the line. Does that be why smoke is coming from the line or is it directly connected into the so we'll be able to figure out and pinpoint
the exact issues. That way as we move forward we know more what we're exactly looking for rather than in a sense going in there making assumptions. exactly know what we're going to be changing, what we're going to be fixing,
what those are highlighted. Here we have um broken down phase map. Those are the areas that are highlighted here. Okay, that's
So you you've identified already some of the cross connection between the storm sewers. Yes. Through the smoke testing, we're able to pinpoint what uh inlets were smoking. Um we don't as of right now know exactly what line they may be going
into, what manhole they might be going into. So that would be a part of our further investigation figuring out exactly where it's leading to and what we need to address. And just before we push much further, for those of us that don't know, what is
a female cap like? Yes. So um sorry, and where is it located in someone's home or is it outside? Typically your cleanout cap is located in the brass. Um there are some instances where it could be in the basement. That's not the case majority
of the time it is located in the grass and the cleanout is ultimately what is separating the resident and from the street to the clean is more of a responsibility. So if they're broken or missing what is
like the average cost to a homeowner who repairs this a plumber um a plumber. I just I just want just to clarify in the town of Verona, you you as a resident are responsible from the street condition,
okay? Inside the home. Uh so so most of the houses in Verona, we're talking 100 years old or 1950s,60s even. There are no outside clean. But the newer homes are required to have clean out right at foundation and then every 50t is it or
100 feet something like that. So sometimes people with a lawn mower. Yeah, it got that's that's what she's referring to. I I know a couple saw them coming out of Okay. So, my question is just in general, are these costly to repair?
If you're just replacing a cap, it's just a a cap you can buy at Home Depot or on Amazon for But yet, we we anticipate if we could get all the residents to fix them that this will actually hope we hope that
It's one of the pieces. Well, I'm sorry. Is it definitive that they're all cleanout cap issues or is that like an assumption that was drawn? So, um, when National Water Man went out there, they did take photos of the broken cleanout caps and the smoke coming out of them. So, we can say that
these areas that we are Yes. And what is our enforcement ability? Because it sounds like we're going to send a letter. I'd love to see a draft of the letter that goes to residents. I mean, we have neighborhood where it seems like the vast majority of them have this issue.
There's I think about five or six different versions of the letter that are drafted depending upon what the finding was. Some of them had smoke coming out of the gutter line of the at the roof of their house which is one letter as opposed to a missing cleanout cap which is a different letter. Those
final draft letters are uh they're just going through final edits but we'll circulate that to the council before they get mailed out. And then the um plan of action would be for those residents that receive letters to
address and then schedule to address those issues and schedule an inspection through the township. So it will be just putting together a list of property owners that have been identified and following up with them periodically if we've not heard from them. So that's the the first step is notifying them.
But then if they don't schedule the infections and the like, what enforcement ability do we have? The township code has the the township has the authority to require homeowners to maintain their sewer services in a certain manner.
Okay. So we'd have to leverage just code. Correct. I have to add on top of that for a homeowner, you want to have that cap on there because you're going to get dirt, debris, sticks, and you're going to clog your main line and you're going to pay hundreds thousands of dollars trying to
get that line cleaned out. So, that should be added in the letter that it's going to benefit you just as much as Yeah. There's a lot of people that favors move on to the township side. Um, so the township side, as I was
mentioning, a lot of it was found to be cross and we made this assumption based on the fact that the inlets were seen to be smoking when they smoked tested the sanitary line. As I mentioned, further investigation will be needed as we go through the
design. Um, if you are looking at this map here, like I said, the pink areas are where the township and their side comes into play. It is very scattered along this map. So, we did try to um
approach this as different phases in order to localize the construction. That way we aren't closing roads all throughout the town. We are trying to keep everything friendly for our residents and make sure we're noting multiple roads on one side of town
versus the other. So this is the phase map that we came up with. As you can see, it's difficult to contain everything to exactly one area, but we are trying to keep things within the same side of
town. Um, the red portion of course is a little more scattered. That is phase one, which addresses the residences. So, those are a little bit more scattered. Um, with other areas, you can see our purple, we are trying to keep it within
that main area and so on. Um when also considering how we are going to phase out and address these issues, we kept in mind the road program that currently has in place as well as the survey study. When we are looking into this as of
right now, the road program and the areas where smoke testing was found, there are no roads within the road program that also will have to be addressed through smoke testing. Of course, as the road program evolves, I know streets may be added, streets may
move up or be pushed back, we can update our phasing, too, to reflect any changes that might occur in the road program and just consistently check between the two um projects to make sure that we're not going to have to go back and open up a road that was recently paved or have to
wait a certain amount of time before we go back and address these issues. We're trying to do it in the road program. as I mentioned also localizing the roads and then staying within the rate study. Are there any questions regarding the
Um yes so the most significant one on the map when you look at it visually is of course Lake Dwin. So when we talk about obviously we did an emergency repair across like four properties but what is the extent of this project
and like what is happening this seems like a very big part yes um it is a very a very large stretch of pipe there um we did begin with video testing or video testing the initial videos show that there are a lot of
roots within the pipe which will lead to us having to line the pipe um some areas pipe there were areas that that showed the pipe was pegging a little bit, so it was getting a little squashed down under the weight. Those
might be areas where we would have to replace a whole line of pipe from manhole to manhole. Um, but a majority of that issue was focused around the roots infiltrating the pipe. The um video testing that was originally
done because of how heavy the roots were in some areas, they were not able to complete the whole recording of it. So we will have to go back out and try and clean up some demand a little bit in order to finish that videoing and really address the entire line.
Okay. So this project will be scoped out and prioritized to start that's part of the capital budget for the sewer utility that was adopted at the last meeting. So the the first phase of this will start in the coming weeks
and again this runs through both forested and more backyards and streets. Right. Correct. Okay. So, this is highly could be highly disruptive. So, obviously we'll we just we won't know until we fully. Okay. The only other thing I'm going to
mention is um to your comment about not disrupting, you know, it's unfortunate and when I read the original report, the one thing that popped out um you know that I went back and forth with the administration's place because we had just reaped it and
there is a significant issue there. So that is that one's you know unfortunate. I do see you've like prioritized I thought it was going to be a later phase but I do see that that one is phase three. So we do want to get in there relative to fix
it that issue I guess. Um okay that's all I have regarding the So if there are any other questions, please feel free to ask. I have one question for what what kind
of jurisdiction do we have for properties that are outside township? Some properties here in West take on waste water. But so they're in our sewer service district and there are
sewer customers. Then our sewer ordinance would applicable to that to those customers. Thank you. Just a follow up on that though. I think it would be great to make sure there's
clear line communications to West Orange's administration just understand especially if someone with a west address one of these letters just so they understand what we're accomplishing. Thank you.
Thank you all. Just one follow up to that. The sewer race study as you know assumed a certain amount of dollars each year and that's how we study. So we're trying to live within that budget of each year projecting head.
Next project I'm going to talk about is Peck and Creek repairs um bank stabilization project and u you can see the plans are just about done for this project uh as you know that hurricane blew out the channel and the
banks in this location were uh approximately 400 million feet of bank stabilization have been designed and is now We have the NJDP permit for this. It took was quite extensive trying to get there to agree with what we want
to do here. So, uh there's existing shot along the banks that's in the blue that's going to be taken away taken out and the slopes of the bank will be graded on two two one and 3 to one slope. be 66 ft of a
slopement that's in the uh that's in the red. Uh that's going to be that's like a mattress going be on the slopes to pull the banks in. And then there's a approximately 172 ft that's in the center of the channel which consists of
really large boulders large rock. a lot of that that channel bottom eroded, blew out and the storm. So we got that was really the contention
that put so boulder boulder armoring to prevent scour that previously occurred. And then after all the soaps are completed with the stone, there'll be um file of retention and plantings on top of that.
and the stone top. The uh estimated cost of construction is about 350,000 and uh we're finalizing the plans and hope to set a bid date next to construction. When this is completed, that area from
the bridge down, how deep is the water? Are they going to graduate so that there's no depth there? Because I know at times they have problems would build up further down that make that area like well, you know, point be not to cause
additional flooding downream. So, we had to do a lot of hydraulics to keep it at the original river bottom. And that's where You can see the large stone corner on the bottom
pretty much holding the same originally as we can raise that mic. Yes. people are on camera. So we're we're trying to maintain the original bottom of the slope and uh part of the hydraulics is prove that we not
flooding anybody downstream which we successfully do. So in like lay person's terms for the people who live you know just a couple houses when this is done and we have another large event
you know, significant rainfall. How does this improve their situations? Like why are we doing this project? Basically, as for the because the this section experienced extreme uh soil erosion at the time of that
storm. And by smoothing this part of the uh the channel out, it should help the flow further downstream. Okay. We're not we're not it downream. Have to see how this treats it. We'll have to go
from there. But this should help the flow coming underneath the bridge going downream to uh stop erosion and hopefully continue it on the within the banks. Yeah. Right. Because that was part of the problem with the storm. I think we told residents too anecdotally that you
know when we got done with this bank stabilization process which of course it was a lengthy approval process with the D which is one of our learnings that you know again if they because they've had a lot of erosion on their properties they've lost you know feet off their properties like about
rebuilding like giving them a road map so that they can apply to rebuild some of their properties we look at that phase, next phase of the project that we got. Yeah, I'm not prepared to address that, but let's get this section going
what we can do to provide guidance for residents afterwards. Okay, Roman, any questions? No questions. Good. Thank you very much. Thank you. The final project is a Lakeside Avenue
parking lot, which which recently purchased from our lady of the lake church. The parking lot will have a total of 83 parking spaces, four handicap spaces, six electric charging
stations, 19 oversized and 54 standard parking space. U so uh the back spacious for the familiar oversized space spaces The middle spaces will be kind of pull through. So
there'll be uh 9 by 20 foot spaces and the front space is up against closest to uh they say 9 18 this project probably within several weeks be ready to go out to construction just by the end of the month we're ready finishing up the
electrical designation with the chargers the chargers are they going to be the superchargers I don't Um I thought that was our discussion. I thought that they were working pretty fast. Okay.
I haven't been involved with electrical. They are a big draw. Okay. People are going to charge. You're going to want to Yeah. It's 45 minute an hour to charge your whole vehicle and that's going to bring We're using this to bring people to the center of town. It's going to go a lot big. We'll make sure that
Thank you. But I just um just for the record just to remind the public that maybe listening to this recording or otherwise available. This is partially being funded by a grant from the state of New Jersey, right? Or like the acquisition of the property.
That's correct. With uh the township received a $1 million grant for the acquisition of this property through the New Jersey Economic Development Board and part of it is because of its proximity to transit and and those other
aspects. Yes, it was because of its proximity to the Corona Town Center and and transit downtown. Yes. Um, thank you. So, I wanted to just talk a little bit. There are a lot of trees in the front of the property. So, can
you just address the walkway, the pedestrian walkway that's going through um and why it was designed that way? Uh, it's a handicap accessible walkway. So, it's has to have a certain Uh and uh majority of the existing trees
are scrub trees which will be cleared out and we're going to have planted in accordance with the town ordinance. Uh tree planting selections will be ref. Okay. And I know our tree commission will be involved in those conversations
as our chair is here. So um I know some of the trees are not of great quality but others may want to be safe. I guess I do have a followup question. Thank you. Um, they are trees, right? Because right now there's a lot of
shrubbery that kind of like overhangs onto the sidewalk and it's quite messy and it actually creates issues with walking there at times. Um, so it's it's all going to be trees. Is that what we're envisioning in grass from the way it's Yeah. Well, we're going to put all new
sidewalk along the front of it. and we'll create a landscape uh with between the parking lot. There's a slope there as you know between the parking lot and the wall side. We'll have some trees and we'll put some stru
I'm sorry I have a non attorney question but irrelevant at this stage the sidewalk goes I'll call to the left away from a significant number of people probably going toward a so you might consider changing that sidewalk unless the traffic light is going to be closest
to where you're now letting people walk. So part of the discussion was that the county is moving forward with traffic signal at the intersection of Lakeside Avenue, please. So there would be a closer a closer cross to get towards the
park from from this direction rather than towards consider both. We could like it would maybe make sense to have it go both directions. I have to admit it would be really
annoying if I need to do it all the way that way to go out. You would cut through. I would pick the majority. You would go down. Yeah. Yeah. This for handicap. Yes, of course. But it's safer to have the the Well, we say handicap, but a lot of
people with strollers will be parking there for the park. So, they're going to Yes. And a lot of them will be parking. A very popular business for children that just down the road. So, they're going to want to be going in that direction to make their appointments
there. So, it would be best probably accomodate that. Yeah. To have it go both ways. Yeah. That's not that much more to check the slope and the distance and make sure it's 88 compliant. Anything we did design make it work.
Can you just very quickly repeat how many total spaces will there be? Um 83. Okay. That's awesome. Can you uh please discuss storm water management on this parcel? Uh there's is uh there's no existing
storm water management on site now and the parking lot is completely paved. So we'll be uh directing whatever we have toward the uh the basins in the street. There going to be some trench drains to catch the runoff at the uh in front of
the uh landscaped area because now it's basically slopes toward a lot of it slopes toward the lakes. We'll have some trench drain. It'll go into the catch basin, but it eventually ends up there anyway, but there's no existing u
drainage on the site. Okay, thank you. I guess we can talk about that. See if we can add something. Yeah, something. There's um the landscaping area in the front is certainly an
improvement of the um the ability of of the site to capture and um and provide some storm storm water benefits. Uh but what Mr. Ter was also uh saying was across each driveway there's additional
trench drains. So the catch basins plus the trench strains Plus, the landscaping is in effect a form of storm water mitigation that then captures it and redirects it into the existing system in the road. That's correct. Um, I mean,
you could add pavement, but that requires some additional. Thank you. Questions? Thank you all. Move on. Council reports. Councilman Roman. No report this evening, Mayor. Thank you,
Deputy Mayor. Thank you, Councilwoman. Um, thank you. Um, I was on vacation between the two meetings, so I did not attend some of these uh great events that I heard about. I was sad to miss the wellness
fair, sad to miss the fireworks, uh the pool dedication. Um the multicultural inclusion accessibility advisory committee did meet. Um they don't have um a date yet for an event that they're planning for disability pride month. Um
and so that will be pushed out when it's firmed uh through the uh communication channels to the township. And possibly I'll have an update at the next meeting. Tomorrow is um the neighborhood traffic and safety committee meeting um that's
held on Zoom and on Monday, July 14th, the shade tree committee will be meeting at 5:00 pm at um on Zoom but also at the community center. That's wonderful. Thank you, Council Counciloman Holland. Thank you. I was able to go to the pool
dedication. Um it was particularly moving to have a family member kind of tell the story um associated with it with our gold medalist. Um and I've already seen kids um you know taking a
look at that plaque. So I think it's really a meaningful contribution to the pool and I want to thank Verona Unico for doing it. Um I was able to attend the Verona fireworks display with my family. There was a huge turnout. It was a very lovely night. Um I want to also
echo um the deputy mayor's gratitude to the township employees that are engaged in that um effort. I know that there's a lot that goes into it, a lot of coordination from rec department, from the township administration, from the police and so on. Um but it is so
worthwhile. The community really really loves it and it's really nice to bring everyone together. Um to that end, I I want to, you know, remind everybody that during these summer months um to really
continue think about safety. Um not only um safety around fireworks um which is very timely for the 4th of July, but think about heat safety and most significantly think about flooding risk. Um I want to acknowledge and express uh
my deepest sympathy for those who are suffering in Texas due to those catastrophic flash floods. But I also want to remind our community that we also suffer flooding and that the Pacman River really isn't a creek. It is in fact a river and it has been known to
rise very significantly and very quickly. So if you do not have emergency um uh emergency alerts activated on your phone, I want to encourage residents to do so. And I want to remind you that
when there is a flash flood warning, it means that the flash flood is ignorant and um they do happen. We've seen them in July and August and se September when we get these very significant heavy rain storms and it's not always associated
with a hurricane or other major storm system. in 2018. The catastrophic flooding that we had in August of 2018 was not otherwise associated with a hurricane. Um, but I know many of us still remember the catastrophic flooding
associated with Hurricane Ida. And of course, it's very timely because this evening we were talking about the bank stabilization because of the channel damage that was caused when the Pacman River goes from like this tiny little trouser.
So, with that, I just want to remind residents to stay alert and aware um to activate those notifications on your phone um and to have a safe and happy uh summer vacation. Thank you. Thank you, council. At this time, I want
to open the floor for public uh comment. Madam clerk, can you please read the public? Anyone from the public wishing to speak on any matter, please raise your hand by pressing the raise hand button on your monitor. If you are attending by Zoom, if you're dialing in by phone, press
star 9. If you are attending in person, please raise your hand and be acknowledged before approaching the lect turn. Once you recognize, clearly state only your name and township of residence for the record. You're not required to provide your street address. However, if you do, please note that these meetings will be posted on the township's YouTube
channels and addresses will not be redacted for any purpose. You have four minutes to address the council and there'll be no cross dialogue during this public portion. After everyone wishing to speak has been heard, the council may address your comments and or questions.
No hand up. So, close public comment here. Uh we are going to move along to hearing adoption and amendment of ordinances. We have one ordinance uh on second reading. Madam clerk, could you please read the
title? bond ordinance providing for various capital improvements in by the township of Verona in the county of Essex, New Jersey, appropriating 10,300, sorry, 10,31,500, therefore including $332,656
New Jersey Department of Transportation grant, a $750,000 Jake Law grant, a $100,000 community development block grant, and a $317,712 community development block grant. and authorizing the issuance
of 9,00 9,793,500 bond notes of the township to finance part of the cost thereof. Madame clerk, can someone move this by Councilwoman McGrath second by council?
At this time, I'm going to open public hearing of this ordinance. Anybody like to comment the same? Seeing none, uh any council comments? Thank you. Um well, this is uh really
um a great moment and representative of a lot of hard work from our administration. So, I just really want to thank our township manager, Kevin O. and all of our department heads who uh and and our CFO um who really worked
hard to pull together one capital ordinance to refle reflect the priorities of the township. Uh they did great work um trimming their request to what was u most necessary. But in here
are some really good projects. And of course, the biggest one and the one that we're most excited about is Everett Field. I want to thank the VBSL organization for their advocacy, for their um commitment to this project, for
um their commitment to fundraising for a piece of it and helping to build and construct a piece of it. Um to all of the wonderful grants that we're able to receive um for this project. This is really um much needed and started a long
time ago um with uh children coming in here advocating for a safer place to play baseball and softball. I am going to be so excited uh for opening day next year when uh this field is done. I think we saw at the pickle ball courts that
when we invest in our infrastructure, especially our recreation infrastructure, the public really appreciates it. So, I'm very excited to support uh this uh bond ordinance tonight and get some really important projects um completed, get some of
important projects planned out. Um, and we're really making progress and I'm very proud of this governing body and I really am thankful to the administration. Thank you. I will uh quick comment. I agree with some of those statements. Uh there is
for the public looking at this. It's not just $10 million. There's a lot of different things in here that we constantly get calls about and asked about and texts and emails about even during meetings as we did tonight about
audio in here. So, uh this ordinance will address a lot of those questions, comments, and uh problems that have been existing over the last couple years. So, uh I look forward to saying yes to this.
and also uh Everfield is almost 60 40% of this and needed uh I look forward to that getting moved forward and done by next year also thank the administration everybody that helped out with this and
again echoing including the BBSL time and effort into that portion of this at this time I uh oh I'm sorry Councilman Ro I just wanted to also just add in I thanks to the administration and all of our township departments. Um you look at
this ordinance and it's doing everything from repaving roads to working on bridges to rebuilding fields to buying municipal vehicles and equipment. Um and we're getting a lot for what we're spending here. Uh I know that there was a comprehensive effort to go back
through and optimize this for best value to the taxpayer. Um I always appreciate it when that gets done. Uh and the other thing is I have a lot of great confidence in our project management ability to execute on all these projects and deliver top quality work to the
residents. So this is the product of uh the work we do every single day in terms of um quality financial management for our ability to support a capital program like this and I'm very very proud of the work that all of our employees, our administration uh does working together
to be able to invest on behalf of the residents of Rona like this. So thank you everybody. Thank you, Council. At this time, uh, Madame Clerk, please. Councilwoman Holland, yes. Councilwoman McGrath,
yes. Councilman Roman, yes. Deputy Mayor Mackoy, yes. Mayor, ordinance 202510A, passes 4 to 0, will be published according to law and a public I mean, I'm sorry, published according to law.
There were public hearings on this. Thank you. Uh we have no ordinances tonight on introduction. Uh next up we have uh our consent agenda. We have two sets of meeting minutes from June 9th, 2025 and
June 23rd, 2025. Does anybody have any changes in religions to the minutes? None. Anybody like to move consent? Moved by Councilwoman McGrath. All seconded. Seconded by Council.
At this time, I will open up for public comment on the consent agenda. Agend audience here. I will close public comment on the consent agenda. Any comments from council members?
Uh yes. So I want to thank the administration. I had a bunch of questions about the green acres document. Um in one of the addresses um for um the um Gro Street park. Um but ultimately if
we just think about big picture, can you explain for the public, you know, what are we doing here and and where does this how much money are we getting for green acres? When may we expect it and where does it go?
Sure. The uh the resolution the first resolution on consent agenda is an enabling resolution. Uh it is a project agreement resolution between Green Acres and the township of Verona if by which
Green Acres will be reimbursing the township approximately $ 1.9 million of um $1.9 million for open space property previously acquired by the township
through the Green Acres program. Uh it's a 50% reimbursement process. They'll be reimbursing um for the properties acquired uh at the end of Commerce Court and the Mount Prospect properties. Uh the township did
receive an additional award announcement this year for an additional $1 million each year. The township receives approximately $500 to $700,000 in grants through Green Acres for reimbursement of those properties up until we received the full 50% reimbursement. This past
year, we were fortunate enough to receive an additional $1 million grant award. Uh that additional $1 million is not included in this grant agreement. The state hasn't um enacted that grant agreement uh at this date yet, but
that'll be subject to another resolution at a later date. The money when it's received, it will go into the township's open space trust and will be used to uh offset either uh existing debt um or other expenses through the trust.
Great. Thank you. And then also um just to point out number um um resolution 13 entering into the interlocal purchasing system uh cooperative you indicated in our
exchange that that will help us possibly purchase new AV equipment. Sure. This this particular cooperative it's one of several cooperatives that the township will be um a member of. We are members of several other cooperative purchasing
agreements. Uh through this uh particular cooperative, there are a number of contracts that the township can avail themselves of. Uh it's a faster and more efficient process to uh compared to public bidding, but uh it does allow us to um enter into
a a timely agreement for upgrades to the technology in council chambers here. Yes, council. Uh, and I did have questions on L9. I thank the county manager for answering these questions. I believe the facilities order is something we should
automatically do every five or so years. Uh just so we're on track and keeping up on the maintenance of it and having it all on one page is agreement. Uh I want to note that this also uh consent agenda also has uh the list of raffle and bingo
reports from our clerk at this time. Does anybody have any questions on that part of it? Seeing none clerk. Yes. Councilwoman Holland. Yes. Councilwoman McGrath. Yes. Counciloman Roman.
Yes. Yes. Deputy Mayor Mackoy. Yes. Deputy Mayor. Resolutions L1 through L16 will be numbered 149 through and including 164. addendums.
Uh anybody any new or unfinished business? Yes. Um I have two items that I would like to bring up. Um the first is very quick. Um we've received various communications from the recreation
advisory committee. Um there is interest in hearing from council about those recommendations. I would very much welcome a discussion from the administration perhaps at August meeting about some of those recommendations. Um I think it would be very worthwhile for
this council to discuss some of some of what was presented by the rec advisory committee. They put a lot of effort into those recommendations. Um, second of all, I want to acknowledge uh the statement by the mayor at the
last meeting about uh holding a special meeting to discuss the emergency services building. Um, that has been scheduled, my understanding, is for August 13th uh as a virtual meeting. I would in advance of that August 13th
meeting, I would like to get a lot more clarity about the expectations um for that meeting. Is this just an open discussion or are we intended to be voting at that meeting? Um I would like to get clarity about who can participate
in that meeting um based on you know proximity of the property or roles in emergency services. Um I would like to get an understanding of what votes are necessary to move forward with the
funding of this project. Um and I would like a comprehensive docu uh document that establishes what are the requirements for the building. Um because we have been said it's been said repeatedly that there are certain requirements. I would really like that
to be stated in a comprehensive document so that we can identify what are the requirements and what are the guidelines um guidelines or recommendations um because I'm not sure everything that's currently included in the building is in fact required to be
included in the building. I think some of it is um in addition u to the requirements which it's fine and I do think it's un it's understandable to go above minimum requirements but I think the public has an obligation to know
that. Um I also want to state my dismay at the timing of this meeting. I think holding a discussion about such an important building in the middle of the summer is very unfortunate. Like even a virtual meeting which could accommodate
more people on August 13th is highly inconvenient for the vast majority of the town. The bulk of the residents in this town, families in particular are taking vacations in the middle of August. We got very low participation
from the community that was otherwise previously worked about this building at our last meeting and it's not clear to me whether or not they got notice of this upcoming meeting as well. I want to really urge them to be directly notified
of this discussion and encouraged to participate. And if we are going to have this meeting in the middle of summer, I would welcome an opportunity for the township to be notifying the residents and allowing a public comment period that goes at least into midepptember to
allow for the public to comment on this. It's a $40 million building um as it's currently proposed and I think that's very very significant to our community and I think the residents want to have a lot of input. We did have a public meeting about it previously and we did
get a lot of resident engagement and yet the last meeting and I worry that this August 13th meeting will be poorly attended by the public. Um and that's really not to anybody's best interest. This is being funded by public money and
the public should be engaged in this process. Thank you. I would say reach out to the mayor since the mayor picked the date of the meeting and have a conversation with him and obviously we discuss with the manager as
to how this is noticed. We did talk about noticing it to residents. Uh since it is going to be an open meeting, uh my belief is that there will be a session where residents from the public can ask as many questions as they
treated like a regular Any other business? So, sorry. Are you dismissing some of my requests for like additional notice or were you just providing that additional commentary? Because I providing that additional commentary. I'm not dismissing anything. I if the
public will be informed, it'll be a public meeting. I'm actually asking for enhanced an additional opportunity for public comment because I think people won't be available. Then that's that's a decision I would
think the entire council would have. Well, great. I think we need it at the next meeting. I think the August 13th meeting No, I'm not available at the next meeting. So, I would like to make a motion now. I If we need a motion, can I just say the the August 13th
meeting is uh I believe it's intended to be a work session. It's not for the purpose of formal action. to uh to bring together the building subcommittees of both police, fire with the council to answer questions of the governing body
on some of the specifics. In addition to providing the additional background that you requested, I made notes on each of the items. It was my intention to work with solutions architecture to summarize a lot of the comments from the previous meeting in addition to the items that you brought to the meeting tonight. I'll
provide a summary to the council to um to set expectations on what uh should be discussed during the meeting, what what the result of the meeting should be and then also um just it it there's not any action that should be expected from a
meeting. This is a effectively a work session. I think that's a helpful guideline to establish that it's a work session. Does it also include public comment public? Yes, it would have. Can we also have the opportunity for public to
comment into September on this? I I think there will be um there there would there would need to be that requirement anyway as a as as the next step would require bonding for the
design for the preliminary expenses for the final design of the building. Um so it would require an introduction and public hearing. So there there is a a still a bit of runway before before any
final quote would even be presented. That's fine. We are saying two different things, but understanding what you're saying is that there isn't going to be action on August 13th. Nonetheless, I think that the discussion in the middle of the summer is a disadvantage to the majority of the residents.
Madam clerk, did you want to No, I think I'm clear. Thank you. Uh I mean the reason why this came about was because the head of PBA who was in char who was the head of PBA at the time asked us what is achievable and wanted to have a conversation or at least that
was my impression wanted to have a conversation with the council whether it was one-on-one or as a group and I the mayor brought that up as a decision to see if we wanted to have a an open meeting with the entire council and they're building subcommittees
Okay. Um uh well uh thank you deputy mayor. Um that's actually not my recollection of events. We were in the meeting and we were giving feedback and the mayor sort of said that we should be we should have
a special meeting. I I didn't realize there was another conversation with the head of the BBA. And I will state on the record I am happy to talk to anyone from the building subcommittee oneonone. Uh, and I'm also happy to participate in this public meeting. I think that the building is very complex and I think we
have a lot of questions and what the council woman um I don't disagree with anything that the council woman said and I appreciate her raising these issues now so that we can understand. I am too confused on the voting process and like the decision-m process on this. So if
the administration could scope out kind of like you know what the process is and what votes are required when especially since we're borrowing ultimately we'll be borrowing from the county's organization and we've never done that
before. So I you know I do have those questions. I also share the concerns because you know we are five people with different conflicts of interest like just you know who can vote on what. Um I think getting all those ducks in a row are are good. I share the councilwoman's
concerns, you know, about a mid- August meeting, but I I am a little concerned um about how we make sure the public understands the process and we can get appropriate feedback before we design a
building that um we we get we spend even more money designing buildings. So, I don't disagree with the council woman when we talk about um you know amping up the the this project with a
communications plan which we did last summer and needs to be reactivated so that people understand hey they're having this virtual meeting this is what's going to happen but then later in the fall they're going to make this vote I mean the public really needs to understand because this is an incredibly
significant tax impact and the schools would have to go to referendum. I know we're likely not going to do that because of the timing, but this is a very significant. So, we just need to make sure the public really understands and it's hard because we're working in a
very constrained like we just don't have the media coverage we had a decade ago. And this is normally this would be like a multi-article story from like two different newspapers that people would read. And uh it's very information out.
So, um, but in terms of, you know, some of the other things raised, I'm more than happy to cover it directly with the administration. Thank you. Any other comments? Seeing none, uh, we did have an
ordinance to go through an executive session. Will be making any decisions during final public. Sorry. One more chance at it. Same rules apply. Seeing none
of any public comment for the night and we will adjourn the meeting close. What if we're scared? Thanks for coming, Carol. I'm not going to show anybody this slide. Sorry about