Good evening. I call this regular meeting of the township council for Monday, October 6, 2025. clerk, please read the open public meetings act compliance statements. >> The notice requirements of the open public meetings act have been satisfied
with respect to this meeting of the township council. The meeting time and date were introduced in the public meeting notice along with the public internet link and telephone call-in information. said notice and the meeting agenda was posted in the municipal building and sent to the official
newspapers of the township, the Verona Cedar Grove Times and the Star Ledger at least 48 hours preceding the start time of this meeting. The agenda and public handouts can be viewed online at www.veronj.org/countsil meetings. A public comment period will
be held in the order it is listed on the meeting agenda and instructions on how to comment will be provided at the appropriate time. Thank you, Madame Cler. What you're saying is >> Councilwoman Holland >> here. >> Councilwoman McGrath >> here.
>> Councilman Roman >> here. >> Deputy Mayor Mackoy >> present. >> Mayor Tambbor >> here. >> Mayor also present this evening is Township attorney Brian Aoya, Township Manager Kevin O. Sullivan, Deputy Township Manager Michael Krauss, and
myself, assistant to the municipal clerk Jessica Rodriguez. Everyone, I'd like to just read something before we do our flag salute because we ask for a moment of silence. Feels the devastating loss of Derry Gibia, a young woman who has had a profound impact on the hearts, minds,
and spirits of our community. Daria's unmatched strength and resilience inspired us. Residents of all ages banded together to show Darrier for family and all those who are suffering the entire town that in Verona nobody fights alone. There's Daria's remarkable
and bravery in the face of a battle against a ruthless force that truly united the community in spirit. This extraordinary young woman's legacy will continue to live on in our hearts and minds as we reflect on the great lessons that she so generously shared with us in
the gift that was her life. My deepest condolences to various family, friends, neighbors, teachers, and all those who are fortunate enough to experience the radiance and joy. We're going to stand with you as we do not follow algiance
to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> So, the mayor's report this evening, we
are noting the night this move to the October 20th. A few items. I'm sorry it's a long list because it's been a month since our last meeting. Uh thank you to everybody who participated in our September 11th ceremon. It was great to see great classes there
as well as our school district, our board president, our superintendent. uh as well as uh Peter who's a firefighter in six in Manhattan u
present presentation and sharing his reflection as well had the opportunity to participate in our strategic plan meeting for the public library. Uh it was a really great
meeting that uh we officials very stakeholders were able to share their insights on what the future meeting colleagues there as well. The opportunity to attend the junior
women's club taste of Verona has an excellent taste to it. Uh There's some amazing restaurants there. Well, we're joined by Congresswoman as well. So, thank you to the women's club for a very successful event for
bringing our restaurants together, supporting local business. It was wonderful to see our high school students dressed in pink last night on Friday night for a lot of the other sports as well. see our football
players, our juniors, our student breast cancer awareness. Tonight we had our flag raising for breast cancer awareness month. We were joined by Angel Group um who are based
organizations who continue to support uh patients through breast cancer. So I urge you to take a look at our flag raising video beforehand to learn more about the organization to support us. had the opportunity to attend the 60th
anniversary of Clarage House one. It's hard to believe that the Clar 60 years old. Uh it was a lovely and energetic event one. The all the residents I spoke to just really
the buildings there are unusual for this type of area and they highrise structure while having small town so many residents and talk about the next years. I'd like to take a moment to
recognize Isabella Lambert who was named one of the 161 US presidential uh scholars in the United States. Uh graduated from high school last year. I had the pleasure of teaching her is
% of this honor. recognize her when she is home from college andward. I'd like to thank all of our residents who provided feedback on community pool. Um
it was great to have a lot of very conversations with a lot of resourcations the opportunity to attend the celebration of pets in the city center that was put on by spirit. They connected a lot of groups to one another
and my dog radar was blessed by father moments. As her mother said in the picture like the happiest they've ever been. So thank you to father Jerry for his bright spirits. Um the environmental commission met this
month. Their newsletter is out and has been distributed by touch email. If you have not had a chance to read it, please do great information. I would also like to recognize the DEC for attending the
press conference regarding the proposed development in West Orange. Great to see love is in the air in September. It's been a busy month of weddings here at Vermont Town Hall. So, congratulations to all of those couples. Finally, please
do not forget a family night this. So, please spend some time, go out, get some great deals at our local restaurants and spend a really precious time together. At this point, I would like to when you bite the women's club
to come forth and speak about hunger week and friends, >> it sounds like a great the sitcom. >> You're a good writer. Should do well. >> So, I want to introduce the co-chairs,
the very capable co-chairs that helped me organize Rona Fights Hunger this year. Sally El Sharappa and Nina James. Of course, my always co-chair Rose Pashman is always here to help me organize as well. But I will be handing off um Bron Fights Hunger to Nina and
Sally next year uh to run on their own. This is my third year organizing Bron Fights Hunger and it has been an extremely rewarding experience and this moment here has always been very rewarding as well. So I really want to thank you for all of the support that
you give um the townwide food drive be it giving us space in the center of town. It really spotlights the generosity of the community and shows off the priorities of this community. Um and then just the affirmation here. Um it just really it really does affirm and
uh lift us up as we as we do this work. So thank you so much. Um true story, my son asked me recently what the most rewarding thing is that I have ever done, what I'm most proud of. Um and as a journalist, I have this nasty habit of immediately turning my mind turns to the
last interview I landed or the breaking story. Um and before I had a chance to respond. Thank God. Uh my son said, "Would it be one of hunger?" And I kind of took me back and I said, "George, yes, it would be actually that is one of
the most rewarding things I've ever done." And it just really really touched me that that was the first thing that he thought of. Uh he loves going out to the local supermarkets to do the shopping and drops. You should have seen him work in the crowd at Fresh Grocerer uh yesterday. And um you should have seen all our ladies work in the crowd at
Fresh Grocerer and Kings yesterday. We raised more than a thousand dollars over the weekend. And so it really is a testament to the generosity of this community and we are really so incredibly grateful. So um I encourage everyone here if you have not donated to Bron Fights Hunger, be it money, be it
food, uh everybody watching, uh please do so because it is just as rewarding to give that donation and know that you are feeding people who cannot put food on their tables. Um, and there's an alarming number of people who can say that. So, so please do what you can to
help and thank you again. Really, really do appreciate it. This would not have been possible if I had not moved to this town seven years ago and joined the juniors. So, really from the bottom of my heart, thank you so very much. And thank you to Nina and Sally for stepping up and taking over next year. >> Thank you. And where would people find
the production? >> Thank you very much. Thank you. That's a wonderful question. So, you can go to Verona Verona Juniors.org. org/hunger. Uh you'll find everything you need to know about fights hunger. Be it how you can help, how you can uh volunteer, how
you can donate. Um you can buy from the Amazon wish list. You can um the schools if you have a student in Verona schools, they'll be bringing home a shopping bag week after next week, sorry. Uh next week they'll be bringing home an empty shopping bag with how to help flyers.
And hopefully they'll all bring them back full of groceries, uh, fresh groceries that we can then, um, donate to two food pantries, two local food pantries. The Human Needs Pantry in Montlair and the Holy Spirit food pantry in Verona. Um, a lot of the shop and
drop donations go to Holy Spirit and a lot of the donations that come in through the week go to Human Needs. We gather here in Town Square on October the 18th, which I hope to see everybody there. Um, it's a really festive event. Moving vanu drives up uh donated by
Cassella and Sons Moving Company. They open up the the truck uh and we line up all the groceries along the perimeter of town square and then everybody hitches in and loads up the truck and we haul it to all all of it to human needs. And so it's a really exciting experience and
it's a great visual to see the generosity of the community. >> Thank you. Thank you Sally and Nina and Rose of course for being here and we have a proclamation that I would like to read. Whereas the Junior Women's Club of Verona Incorporated is a versatile
organization that has been involved in social and charitable work in community since its inception in 1926. And whereas the Verona Junior Women's Club continues to be a group of dedicated women who attempt to reach all people in the community by doing their best to bring to life Junior Women's Club motto of joy
and service, pride and achievement. And whereas the number of suburban residents living in or at risk of poverty and hunger has risen dramatically in recent years. Whereas a 2020 study of financial hardship issued by United Way from the New Jerseyy's 3.3 million plus
households 10% live below the federal poverty line 37% less basic cost. And whereas the same report shows that in Verona 21% of population ear runs less than the base of cost of living for
our state and 4.5% of our residents live below the federal. Whereas last year over 25 local businesses, civic groups, charities, organizations, school and township participated in this food drive. And whereas the success of the project over
the past 11 years has approved nearly 24,000 bags of non-p perishable food items, more than 52,000 donations for two food pantries that serve Verona and surrounding communities. Whereas the juniors have already delivered scores of bags of
fresh and whereas on October 18th, 2025, the juniors will arrange and suns service nearly 1,000 more bags collected to needlon hereby recognize
the junior women's club committee appreciation for dedication to assisting the witness where I set my hand and calls the official seal of the township of the county of New Jersey on the sixth
day of October and I would like to recognize council who was the chair of this committee. um few years ago. So >> yeah, well feels like a long time ago actually. It feels like a lifetime ago. I just want to thank the Junior Women's Club Verona for continuing this very
worthwhile effort. I after a friend of mine who were we were both in the juniors, we started Bron Fights Hunger Week. We passed it off to two women who passed it off to two women and I love to see that tradition continuing. And thank you Mana for shephering for so many
years. I was on the board for the human needs food pantry for seven years. Um I recently resigned, but I had a big visit with them and the need really is great. Um and so um you know the numbers have skyrocketed from the pandemic on um and
budgets are tight and the cost of food that pantry needs to buy has gone up substantially and donors are pulling back. So I think the generosity of Rona residents will come through over the next week and we really appreciate your efforts and I'm sure Holy Spirit feels
the same that the food is very much needed and and by um by residents of our communities and surrounding communities. So thank you so much. >> I think we can see who it may get passed off to every year. I look forward to seeing
that unveiling of the number and I I think every year since it started that number has gone up money financially and number of food bags donated. So thank you for all you do. It's a wonderful thing. It's a great day. >> We just also like to recognize this
organization and event. This is one of these things that makes Corona really special and uh kind of the feeling of being in there in the civic center and everybody helping to load the truck and then yes hearing the number is uh just very exciting. Um, one of the things about the need uh for this service, we
hear from the organizations that distribute food aid in in our community and otherwise help provide social services and um I refer to it as kind of a quiet need that you don't very um you know no one broadcasts, no one advertises it. Um but there are a lot of
people in our community right here in that suffer from food insecurity. Uh it absolutely happens. Um we hear from these organizations every year that they have more and more that they're attempting to serve. Um, everybody knows what's happened with the cost of food and the cost of living. So, this is a
very necessary endeavor to make sure. So, I am very appreciative of the organizers and support. >> Thank you. Um, I just want to thank you all for coming out tonight. I know this is a tremendous amount of work. Um, and
it's a huge undertaking and it's really just a compliment to your organization that it's so successful year after year. Um, I want to thank you for bringing your daughter. I think it's incredibly important for young women to see what older women or, you know, just maybe
more mature more doing. Um, but like I think it's important for you to see um, what you can be out there doing as well. So, I'm glad that you're here and you get to hear all this compliments, all these compliments for your mom. So, that's kind of a big deal as well. Um, I
do just want to echo some of the statements of my colleagues about food insecurity and the um tremendous importance of this program. And one of the things I also wanted to reference um is as you said, some of the contributions actually go to the Holy
Spirit food pantry. they have this incredibly powerful display in front of the church right now um with puzzle pieces and discussing really the need um and the food insecurity issue right now. So I want to also encourage residents if
you have interest to take a look at that. Um I think it's great that you're supporting so um both our food pantry here in Verona as well as the human needs food pantry and I look forward to this every year and I just I love seeing the Girl Scouts out there. I love all
the everyone helping out. So, thank you so much for all that you do. >> Thank you. Nice photo of everybody. I think so. >> Oh, yeah. October 18th.
>> Okay. At this point, I'll turn it over to Mr. Sullivan. manager for his Russell. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, I know we have a few presentations on the agenda for tonight, so I will try to be brief. We
uh we have the Bloomfield Health Department here tonight to speak regarding the beauty salons and massage parlor's recommendation for license lensure. Uh we have a presentation on pool recommendations and then also presentation on the redevelopment plan 383 Bloomfield Avenue which was an
addendum to the agenda. That's how I'll move through my report as quickly as I can and I'll be happy to answer any questions before moving presentations. Uh with the wastewater plant all materials have been delivered for the primary clarifier pump station project.
Construction's underway. So, we should have that uh that facility back up and running within approximately 75 90 days. Uh the Fairview Avenue well project has kicked off. It's a lot of paperwork early on. We will have a construction schedule within the next several weeks.
We'll be communicating that to all the neighborhoods and the local u local impacted uh neighborhood. Uh we've had our pre-construction meeting for the Pekman River Bank Stabilization Project. It was held September 24th. There are some materials which have longer lead
times. It's typically 8 to 12 weeks for some of the construction materials. So, the construction is expected to start sometime this winter. It will largely be dependent upon warm enough weather and dry enough weather, but we will be starting that project as soon as the weather allows us and materials are on
site. Uh the Lynen Avenue project is currently out to bid. will be receiving bids on the 15th and we anticipate an award of contract at the October 20th meeting. Uh the Everett Field project remains
under construction. Uh retaining walls are uh installation continues. Site grading and landscaping behind those walls will begin shortly and then the contractor will be moving into utility work. But that project is moving along quickly and on schedule.
Uh the regarding shade trees, the community forestry management plan and tree inventory is ongoing. Uh the township did receive a grant to offset the cost of uh that effort. Uh but that project is ongoing. It will be completed
by the end of the year. The community energy plan is ongoing. Uh we had a community energy plan kickoff meeting with the uh the Verona green team uh by Zoom on October 2nd. Uh we are looking to have some rough drafts of
the uh plan by the January to February time frame. Uh the AVA upgrades and improvements to the council chambers are expected uh the week of November 12th. That should allow us to have the new equipment installed
and ready for our December 1st council meeting. Regarding Verona's affordable housing uh efforts, the um the township received notice that a settlement conference was scheduled by the courts for October 24h
21st. We will be meeting with the courts uh with affordable housing uh professionals and interveners to discuss uh the current status of the township's affordable housing plan. Uh with the Bloomfield Avenue streetscape project, we are ongoing with our stakeholder
meetings. We had an overall kickoff meeting on September 12th with the chairs for representative knees for all the stakeholder commissions and committees. uh individual kickoff meetings with uh specific committee discussions uh began actually earlier
this afternoon and will be ongoing for the next several weeks. Uh we went out to bid for a number of roof improvements. Uh that is roof repairs for the community center, the annex, the communication building, and BPW garage. We received 13 bids on
Friday. Uh the bids were within budget. They're currently under review by the architect and we anticipate an award recommendation for the October 20th meeting. Uh regarding the emergency services building, uh administration is still working with professionals to put
together responses to the open requests. Uh we will begin uh we will circulate and uh begin distribution of those uh those materials as soon as they are available. We are still ongoing with efforts to get um answers to all those
open questions. Uh the regarding open space, the township actually just earlier today confirmed that we received a $ 1.9 million green acres reimbursement for the um for the previous three years
worth of awards. Uh that was a 700,000700,000 to $500,000 grant award for offsetting cost of Mount Prospect purchase. Uh that was received by the township uh earlier today. And then there is still a pending $1 million award which will be subject to
reimbursement in uh the coming months. Again, those are for both Mount Prospect and the Commerce Court properties. Um and then we are ongoing with both our age friendly audit and action plan and our inclusive healthy communities uh
assessment and action plan. The uh the next meeting for our age friendly audit is October 29th and our kickoff meeting with our stakeholders for the inclusive healthy communities efforts is October 17th.
Um I will pause there. I'm happy to answer any questions from the council. Um, thank you. So, uh, just going back to the affordable housing challenges because I don't know if our last meeting we just detailed it for the public. Can you just for
Can you just give a read something for the public on what's happening with affordable housing and the challenges? >> Sure. Um, the township adopted a housing element fair share plan. Uh the uh state
the statutes allowed for a period of time by which interveners could file objections to our plan. Uh there were four objections which were filed. Uh there were four interveners which filed um objections and at this point we were
waiting for a court hearing to or a court date to have a settlement hearing with the uh assigned judge and the special adjudicator. And that is the current stage that we're in. We're waiting to meet with the judge
adjudicator and all parties on October 23rd I believe. >> Okay, great. And then those Those challenge documents, are they available on the affordable housing section of the website just for transparency so that residents can read them? >> I have to double check if they're on the
website yet. If they're not, we can get them on the website. >> That's great. Thanks, >> Mr. One question on the streetscape project. I know we had a timeline of when you know what's going to happen in the next few months. When is this council
>> for the the uh engineer that is designing the streetscape project is currently receiving input from all the stakeholder communities uh committees and commissions. They will be holding those individualized meetings over the next I think they're scheduled for the next two to three weeks. At that point
they will then provide um a similar process for both township departments. So we will have discussions with public works buildings and grounds police department uh etc. They'll also receive input from the general public as well. So, we won't see
an actual concept plan or general design until sometime later next year, probably in the spring at the earliest to allow them time to adequately get public input. >> Thank you, Mr. Sullivan. On section six here, your
recreation is B, you're referring to trees. this to Everfield. >> Yes. Okay. >> Uh thank you again, Mayor. Um so the uh the next item, if if we can move through the presentations, we can bring up the
health department first. Uh they were originally scheduled over this summer. We had to reschedu them uh to discuss the beauty salons and massage parlor uh portions of the ordinance. We have Somaya and Sagar here to present and discuss and answer questions.
>> Health officer department. >> First, I'd like to thank Mayor Council. I was uh actually with Ky infection the last time I was here, so I bothered him. Thank you so much. Um after hearing the mayor speak and also the uh u the
residents um speaking how much of Verona residents love Verona I'm glad to be having this conversation this discussion as well um the discussion is to ensure that beauty barber shops nail salons massage parlors and hair styling uh
salons are licensed this means that the purpose of this chapter is to protect preserve the safety and the welfare of our citizens here in Verona. Most of us have either been to a hair salon, a barber shop, or a nail salon. When we walk in, we do believe that that in that
facility is up to par, inspected, and someone is held accountable. Well, sometimes that's not the case. Uh the uh the licenses for these establishments come from the state of New Jersey. The state of New Jersey issues this license.
It does not guarantee a yearly or a few yearly inspections. With this ordinance, we would provide our residents safety, health safety, public health safety with assuring that these establishments get inspected. They are up to code sanitary
code also uh align with New Jersey sanitary code for uh cosmetology as well. It also ensures that the individuals that are working at these establishments are properly licensed and they know how to also protect from bloodborne pathogens and also to deter
individuals from incurring any type of dangerous infections. um definitely want to make sure that there is something that we can do as a council, as a public health department to ensure that every single resident when they walk into our facilities here
in Verona, they are 100% safe and also if there is a complaint, we do have the jurisdiction to go into these establishments. We have the ability to inspect them and we also have the ability to take them to court or even shut them down if they're not properly doing what they're supposed to be doing.
This ordinance allows for enforcement to be part of the ordinance. It allows our inspectors to license them. The licensing fees are extraordinarily minimal uh for them and it ensures that it's not about the fiscal component of the ordinance. It is about the safety of
our residents here at Vona. I also want to know that uh note that a new establishment cannot open up without getting licensed. So, we are not going to be surprised by some nail salon that opened up that we do not know about. Um, so we want to make sure that this
ordinance reflects the uh care that we have in public health and the care that we have for the Vona residents that live and walk into any establishments and also whether it's taking their elderly mother, their child, how I take my daughter to go ahead and get her nails done. I want to make sure that that
establishment is safe and acceptable for all. Any questions? Uh yes, thank you so much for giving us that background. So um there is so in the fees that you proposed $25 for barber shops, hair styling, nail salons,
but $ 250 for massaging body work. So that's a huge difference. Can you like go into um how these fees were developed, other towns that have them, but also the big difference between those two different classes of businesses? >> Absolutely. So, uh when you are a
massage therapist, you are trained, you must go ahead and also to reertify every year. Those fees are uh sometimes at a larger uh rate due to uh some establishments not following rules and regulations of what's appropriate and
what can be done in a massage parlor and what cannot be done whether it's illegal or perhaps some illegal things that might happen in those massage parlors. those things in order to um avoid um new
therapists coming in without being licensed, without therapists who are in the establishment that uh the more therapists you have, the more expensive it is. So, you want to ensure that those facilities are licensed based on the
number of licensed therapists that perform massages versus other activities. if they are getting a license from the state. >> Yeah. So, this is us going in to inspect to ensure that they actually do have those licenses. Those licenses are
yearly licenses that must be renewed. >> Um, we've already had some like some informal feedback from some small business owners, so we may have some follow-up questions because it seems like that the license of massage therapist though now is applying very
broadly, not we would traditionally think of like a massage, but like anyone who touches like anyone can you like in some sort of more wellness capacities, can you talk about some new like how this actually works in real implementation?
>> So when a massage establishment opens up, they give us the number of of therapists that they do have within their establishment. if they want to add another therapist, that therapist is going to cost $150.
The re So if they have four therapists and we walk in there and all of a sudden we see that even though they are, you know, walk in and there's five therapists, we don't have a license for that therapist. We don't know if that therapist is actually practicing there.
And it also deters non-licensed individuals to be working. It allows us to really monitor the amount of people that are performing the services. >> Thank you. And I just want to make a general on these ordinances. They're
great except there's almost no implementation time should we adopt them. And I would imagine we would need some sort of implementation times to get everyone like every barber shop and nail salon in Verona. Um so the way they were written um there's it's like they're
effective immediately. everyone must be certified and in reality that's not going. We need some like 90 days or 180 days to get everyone off. >> I also think there should be a strong educational component before we go in and especially for the first year. I
know that we've had conversations with the inspectors to make sure that when we go in, we start to educate the individuals that are working on these establishments because some of them actually may not know. Um sometimes the owner themselves does not have a cosmetology license.
regulations or codes. So, our goal in the first year of implementation is to ensure that there is an educational piece attached to this as well. >> Council, I would share the council woman's uh concerns regarding the fee structure for massage establishments.
Um, we review our fees a lot here and I've always kind of pressed for our fees to be reasonable and reflective of our actual cost in providing inction and public service. Uh I'm not
seeing a substantial difference in what it would take to review and and oversee a massage establishment versus a barber shop. A barber shop that might have half a dozen people working there, including people rotating in and out of chairs on the, you know, depending on different days and so on versus a massage
establishment is basically doing the same things. all the individuals are subject to state licensing. I feel like we should be treating all these businesses, you know, equally. Um, so I'm not, you know, I don't object to the plan, but uh I do think I'd like to see some consistency in fee ordinance. I
don't want it to be our fees should not be punitive, should not, you know, be a way of um pushing back on legitimate businesses. We've had kind of hard enough times trying to keep businesses in operation here and I don't really want to, you know, find and see everybody out of business. So those
numbers kind of do surprise me a little bit. Um the other thing I did want to ask about and this is you know hopefully just to reassure our business community. Can you talk a little bit about essentially the violation remediation and uh and um you know your process
let's assume that you go into a hair salon and you find items of non-compliance. Obviously there are things that are emergencies that are a serious threat to public health but ordinary compliance items. Can you walk us through sort of the resolution of things like that? >> Sure. So, um just like um an
establishment when we're walking in to do an inspection, we do have a checklist that we use that's from the state. Um if for whatever reason that establishment does not fall within the uh parameters of sanitary uh precautions that they
should be doing, they would at that point probably receive a conditional rating. They would not be closed. There is no reinspection fee in this. So, they would just have a posting on their uh on their window of a conditional uh versus
a satisfactory posting. We would then give them a week or two weeks to go ahead and fix those violations. We would then go back and reinspect them and then change their status from conditional to satisfactory. >> Okay. Um this chart does actually show a reinspection fee for both classes of
business equal to the annual license fee for the facility. My apologies, council Matt. >> What is the fee? What is that? >> The reinspection fee is an amount equal to the annual license fee for the facility. >> Okay. So then there is a reinspection fee for them to do so. It would be $25
or $10 for them to get reincted. >> Okay. So then again for the massage if we were to go with the fee structure for a mass bodywork facility if they have and this is for any violation found. >> I think there has to I'm going to actually refer to Sager for oversees our inspectors but I think there violations
that are criteria where those violations would cause an individual to either get some sort of infection or they're not practicing proper protocols of sanitizing equipment, but I can have them add to that as well. >> If you would just give us a little bit of a summary of classes of violations
and what the regulatory response are. >> Yes. So there's so we're doing inspection different violations that could occur. It could be a simple thing where they don't have their licenses on there. Maybe they left at home. So that would not constitute a condition. You know, if
they're able to give me a copy of it, we'll work with them and say, "Okay, this is valid." We can even look it up online because they have a registry online. Um, but if there's more substantial where they're not sanitizing, let's say in the event of their clippers or their homes, they're not using their barberite, that's more
of a concern because you're potentially spreading know dis or they're not changing the razor blades, that's something that's more severe. um instance of a cosmetology if they're not properly sanitizing the
equipment such as the the table that they use for different activities you know make sure that they change it we sanitize it and those would be a more serious violation versus >> I'm just going to comment like for example nail salons who don't sanitize
their equipment when they're doing also in in some nail salons when women go ahead and get waxes they don't they're not supposed to be leaving the sticks inside because there's lots of blood that can actually be attached. So when we go in and do those inspections,
you'll see some of the times that that media actually has the stick in there, so we don't know how many people have used it. They're not sanitizing their tables. Like Saga said, they're supposed to have liners on those tables. Um the they're using the same tweezers, for example. They're not being sanitized.
There has to be a protocol for them to sanitize. They can't be using them on the same um on the same individual. The other thing is, for example, pedicures, right? We know for a fact that there's filters. A lot of the time, you need to make sure that those filters are cleaned. They need to be sanitized at
the end of the day. Sometimes these chairs also are not up to code because you can't go ahead and clean them. Um, we're also wanting to see what type of sanitizer they're using when they're cleaning the actual uh the either the pedicure stations or the stations that
they're using. So, there's a lot of things that we look at I think from not the the individual uh licensing perspective I think there's so many um individual uh sanitary things that are much more important in that case
>> also each practicing barber or cosmetologist they're licensed from the DCA um each of those licenses are again available online and a lot of times what we fall fall into is that they're not licensed at all so that would be a concern. There's no one on site that has
a license. That would be considered um because every facility needs to be licensed from the state for a shop license and then this person that's working. So a lot of times we'll go there, oh this person is here to do the facilities, you know, clean, but we see
them actively working on that's a violation. >> It sounds like there is a good case for this ordinance. Um like the only is making sure that the fee structure is fair. Um that I agree with you on the educational program that we should uh guide all these businesses basically
through, you know, I don't want anyone to panic and say that the town's coming in to close you down. I want them to understand, you know, here's here's all the requirements, here's what we inspect for and here's the process if we find an issue. So that's so we can you know we can get there. I think this is a good framework. We just the devil's in the
details. >> I try to find >> Oh, I was just going to say a lot of businesses take pride in their work are actually pretty welcoming and they will actually go ahead and show you how much they clean, how much they um because in
the end of the day when if someone gets sick, we have social media these days and that's going to be everywhere. Um so it is in their best interest to actually want uh these um you know they want the the feedback from us too a lot of the times.
>> I think the the ordinance is well done. We have no shortage of nail salons or estlishments in so it is important. Uh I do agree with the treatment piece that my council brings. I'm thinking about this when you're
describing all the hard like nasty things that can happen. >> So it's funny not There is no statute. There is no regulation to license >> so
our attorney grab his wife. So >> all right, we're boiler up over there. Actually, we didn't know that. We have to do a little research on that to see because I know the municipality can't act unless we're given permission to I don't know if police
>> Yeah, I'd be I'd be curious because all the same. >> All right. Any other questions for health officers? Is everybody okay introducing this at the next meeting with the reduction >> and with implementation? >> I don't think that's necessary. write
that in. >> Um I may be okay with introduction, but I do want the business community to have a chance to, you know, read this over now that it was in the package and now that we've heard the presentation. Thank you. And to raise any questions they may
have. So I while I would be totally open to introduction, we get feedback from businesses, we may need to revisit this again and have another conversation. And I do hope the business community we can get the word out even through the chamber of commerce and through our email list to make sure they understand.
But it's this is you know going to be for a lot of businesses in town. This is going to be a new process. Let them have a chance to read this and ask questions. Thank you. >> I just want to add I think there's about 34. So we have we have a list that you would
be proactively sending out information. >> We appreciate you. Thank you for your good. >> All right, Mr. Sullivan Jackson. >> Thank you, Mayor. The uh the next presentation that we've uh been discussing uh for tonight's meeting is
the recommendations for the pool. It's a summary of the 2025 pool season and it's an early look at recommendations for the 2026 pool season. Uh we've discussed it briefly at some of the prior meetings.
Uh and our deputy manager uh Mike Krauss and our newly appointed uh director of community services Pam Krisco is here tonight to uh to present the findings of the pool from the 2025 season. A summary
of the financials and a number of recommendations for the 2026 pool season so we can open up pool registration earlier than we have in prior years. uh have and and hit the ground running starting exactly January 1.
>> Thank you. And before we start, congratulations, Mrs. Frisco, on your new role. We haven't had a council meeting since that was announced. So, congratulations. Welcome. >> Sorry. >> Thank you though very much. I would like to uh before I start with the
presentation, I would like to um personally thank um Mr. Ro Sullivan, Mr. Krauss, and you may counsel for um giving me the honor to be in this role as the director of community services. I
have been here for a very long time, as you all know, and Verona has a very, very special place in my heart, and I will do as much as I possibly can for our and our residents um of this township. So, with that, I'm going to go
into our Verona Community School 2026 recommendations. I'm going to start off with our summary. Um so, we're going to talk tonight about our 2025 financial review. Um we're going to go into memberships and fee increases that are
recommended for 2026. We're also going to speak going to speak about the out of town uh pilot memberships staff salaries and wages and some policy changes. >> So for the 2025 financials they're still
being finalized mainly on the expense side but revenue exceeded what the township had expected for this year. Um we saw an increase of approximately
$45,000 in membership revenue. Um that is due to the fee increase. The total number of members had decreased and miscellaneous revenue was up around 15 to $55,000 from 2024. The large chunks
that make this up are $10 which was 4820. Um there were in sponsorships. There was the preseason contract concert for the summer playground trips to the
pool and additional pools. One thing to note is that guest passes and passes combined make up the largest chunk of miscellaneous revenue and they've remained fairly consistent in the
$60,000 range over the last years. On the expense side, um, as of Friday, expenses are anticipated to be around $940,000.
This doesn't account, this number will grow. Um, there are still some outstanding end of year bills. Um, we did assume the full $50,000 for water delivery and
45 $46,000 bills, but those final bills haven't come in yet. There's also purchasing some goods by department inform them of all those purchases.
So when we look at where everything falls right now with the inclusion of the $200,000 of surplus as revenue the total revenue for the pool is 1
million89,000 and the total expenses are 940,000 again expect that to grow the In the end, we are thinking that the pool
after surplus will have a deficit of around membership categories and some other miscellaneous purchases that members make. Thank you very much. So on this chart up here we have we we typed it out um
giving four different options. However, we feel uh 2% um increase on memberships for 2026 um would be something that would be reasonable and acceptable increases going forward.
for memberships and those show the rate increases of a 1.5 a 2% 2.5 or 3% increase. So 2% really stays within in line with everything
going into um we also discussed payment option plan for our residents. So this is just an example of what we would like to see for just example of a family membership. If we use the 2% it would be
a $70010 membership a four month a fourmon payment plans starting on February 1st of $17750 and then March 1st, April 1st and May 1st and then anything after received
after the May 1st could be charged a $50 late fee. Uh we feel this would also really be enticing to residents of all types. um could do the the payment plan option that would help help out and I
think would increase our memberships going into our 2026 the fees um basically you can see some of um some increases um pending what the council decides of the increase whether it's a
2% or two and a half or one and a half um we would increase those those fees accordingly. Um, some as you can see are not going to change and if they do not change then we will look to change them in 2027. Going into our out of town pilot
program. So looking at 2026, we are looking to do a one-year pilot program um recommending 100 out of town memberships at 100 thou $1,000 per uh family membership. Uh this fee
would um increase as the years went on. We continued with this uh pilot. This would be for um family memberships only and it would be offered on a first time a first come first time basis for um
residents that are in the continuous um towns in our area. Um to6 wages So salary and wages
are for all of our based off of the seasonal minimum wage that was published by the state of New Jersey that was released on October 1st or the exact date but it has gone up from
sorry 1453 to 1523 We've had success in recruiting staff for the pool. are maintenative. There's very few employee issues. The proposed structure would be to follow
the same process that has been done in prior years which is everyone would receive the seasonal minimum wage increase as kind of cost of living adjustment similar to the 2.75%
received and then for each year that they return as a staff member they would receive a service increase based on the schedule. So the first year they get 25%. So they return
this year it's their second year of employment they would receive 15 Some of the staffing changes that were made this year that will continue in 2026 is a reduction of the number of
office staff members. Um at the beginning of this year there were five employees staffing the office at all times. We reduced that to four employees except for family night Friday afternoons that would continue. There
were no issues reported with that. It did become a little difficult for the office manager called out teenagers do the maintenance staff we did not fill the position to 5 p.m. on Monday through Thursday
was picked up by the pool manager or office. A proposed change for 2026 is changing the and number of staff attempt this year noted that
they was not a great deal of attendance in the first half of open especially during the time that the summer playgrounds program was open at the pool around 3 p.m. He also stated
that when the closed The participants of rect did not leave the grounds. They stayed there with their families. And he believed that had the rectilies left shortly after that's when he recommend.
He also suggested that instead of having five staff members throughout the day, we have three staff from which will include two regular staff members and another senior adult.
We would not we are notic coach generally follow the same practice as prior years. There's a $500 increase when individuals return. The head pool manager, we increase the available range of the site up to $20,000
to hopefully hire someone to work on the pool over a period of time for the year. Right now roughly they start a little bit before Memorial Day and they go to Labor Day. We feel
that there is a need to have someone dedicated to the pool at least from April 1 through some works. Another item with pool managers is we want to provide more detailed
employment specifically how many shifts need. This slide is unchanged from prior years with the exception of add lesson. There is a red certificate a signed agreement giving them the right
to use the pool and there is no revenue that comes back through the starfish program but the pool absorbs all the costs having open the hourly cost and anyone who had instructor certific
assigned to starfish tools which managing we know there will be at least one man we are going to advertise that and
interview for that position we anticipate accepting applications November 1st through December 15th and then interviewing individuals between December 15th and middle of January and hopefully get them on board to help with
hiring policies and changes. I know this has been discussed quite a bit squad and firefighter memberships are ordinance in new business tonight that
would amend the section of code that grants fire memberships. The change would direct the CFO to calculate the value of memberships >> under the managers as E2.
the CFO would value the memberships and this is an example of how memberships would be valued in 2025 43 memberships were taken out across all categories
um at a total cost of 28,953 of the 43 memberships never checked in. We would propose deducting that value of $5,91 from the $28,000
leaving a balance of72 and the fire department and rescue squad provide services and supplies to the They provide training this year was conducted on June 25th.
Um they do a skills refresher for first aiding control, CPR, AED and confined space awareness and that is targeted towards the pool so that staff know what they can
enter, what they can't enter. and rescue numerous items to the pool. These items are purchased out of the rescue squad operating budget and it does not come from money that provides the rescue
squad. value of these services and supplies is $5,355 for training and $5,550 for supplies for a total of 10,855
leaving a gap that would be funded budget by administration of 12,17 the we don't know what The valist,000 number and transfer whatever the appropriate value
to our direct tent. Um right now the rec tent is currently open from Monday from 1 to 5. So, we are looking to open that wreck tent on the weekends to be rented for a private function just as the gazebo um rentals and then just use the
same rental um times and goals that go along with the gazebo for now as a trial and see how that works. Um disciplinary action. So, we're looking to um change some rules and as you can see there's different steps here. um a
verbal warning, a written warning email to the parent. And this is all for, you know, uh children under the age of 18, um a removal for the day, a call to the adult, um you know, unsupervised school privileges, and then a suspension of a
membership after meeting with administration and community services. So, this would just be to enact further disciplinary actions for, you know, problems going into our weather. closures. Um,
currently the recreation department, um, you know, we monitor the the weather daily and closures are only really required when there is lightning in the area. Um, pool doesn't close for, you know, little rain or lack of sun. um
pool managers and the administration and community services will you know look at the forecasted weather and continue to the remainder of the day of the weather for closures to our volleyball courts. So right now the volleyball courts you all know are
sand and um the sand is entering into the pool and causing um a lot of issues with the filters and the vacuum and causing a lot of extra pool maintenance. So we are looking not to eliminate the
volleyball court but to eliminate the sands and put it as a grass volleyball court to eliminate those problems. The survey that came out did show that people did like the volleyball courts. Um, so we're just thinking of just
turning that into a grat area. Moving on to table holdings. Um, so this would be put into place um, you know, something to say, you know, to respect everyone and not to hold tables with just your bags and then leave the
facilities. So, you know, to be respectful and mindful of the patrons of the pool adult swim. Um there was a pilot that was tested for a 15minute adult swim period in the 3 and 4 foot sections of
the pool. Um after the pilot was um the pilot was and survey was completed, the responses really were kind of neutral. Um seeing you know so we're going to amend the pool hours for 15 minutes.
adult swim periods between two periods at 2:00 and 5:00 p.m. on Saturdays for the adult swim for 15 minute adult. And moving on to sponsorships. Um, this is one of the items that I
really touched upon when I was interviewing for the position and I feel that we can really um benefit from sponsorships throughout the community and also outside of the community vendors and
just larger corporations that could have an interest in being a sponsorship. So these were just some ideas that were um that came out um gold membership, silver, bronze and individual and then also special event um sponsorship that
Elise um Northrup public information officer is also working on. So this is just you know to put it out there and hopefully get some really good sponsors to support a beautiful pool.
questions. First, thank you for your presentation. Also want to recognize theation and their full subcommittee about to offer their recommendations as well. Just a couple things to hit on when we
were talking about in the the finance uh talking,000 gap, right? That number is slated to be bigger for next year at this point, right? our debt services up,000
time,000 account. Right? So we are talking about if we had a $60,000 gap obviously right between that debt service.
So I think that's important to note. What I really think that we should have committed this basis is at our next meeting before we fined for next year. We can see side by side
in an Excel spreadsheet. So our financial pictures We also expensive so I'd like to see that reflected here as well that surplus pastition. Um,
couple couple things. I think the uh a lot of these recommendations are taken. Just a couple notes that I've got out of town members in I think at this point you know
one of the big comments I've got from community members is number one right um I would like to see a way based priority
the people who have a relationship for a couple reasons, right? The first being facamilies to get together so I think that's important as well and I don't think we're excluding anybody
but there should be priority registration and then we don't have membership by then put anybody out one comment in the presentation as well on that go is having a so I'd like to change first come first serve to have
basically put everybody on a waiting list I think another part is that we get a lot more members and a lot more sponsorships we could actually reduce the number and we need to be able
so we have enough revenue uh that significant. I want to be careful with the word continuous sounds. We have some nonigous sounds that would be our area that do not have
so But they're pretty close by. Um I feel like if we just market they have ours for that. So they may really start. So we're going to be competing by
members of all other towns. So we have to get out there and dynamically apply that. And going into another point with um with promoting membership, I think it's
one thing that we definitely want to work on is how do we get our own community members? So I I thank a lot of people on the call right now.
feedback. So we have a couple members will offer to do where they go out and tableic listener res. We have a lot of these things. So we really market the membership
that we might have and even maybe get a point where so we have a lot of manpower power on the ground that is do it so much and that's fantastic and
those res for offering that um I think your piece is good as far as reduction of the office with respect to
some very times because trends. So having like the same number of staff every day something calls out day
staff in there as well. And when we talk about the sponsorships, we need to try to especially table and I like that the presors
Right. So I think that's important as well to consider. The other thing that Membership has time grade people start to pull out of membership
and then people join you know get involved in pool again maybe not as members but as lifeguards and then they go and then they come back as adults and you know One thing I talked to manager about the
age. So members easier to keep members than it is to attract new ones probably something along those lines. I know they exist. Um, but those are some things I just like to put out there.
And another item is it'll be helpful to be able to see that. So we're not tens of thousands of dollars for that and we might be able to pay that service
over the course of years and eventually after that First of all, thank you for this very comprehensive report. I know that uh this is a very complex topic and a lot of operational analysis and financial analysis goes into it. So, thank you
very much, especially someone who's new to this role. This is quite a project to incredibly u proud and it's just great to see you stepping into this this role. So, thank you for being willing to do this and leadership. Um, one thing I would be looking for, and I pulled back
up the new gen strategies report on the pool, uh, and they have kind of a couple of forecast scenarios, basically showing over a six-year period, expenses versus revenues for the pool. Um, the fund balance or both capital and operating reserves. Uh, they they show using 140k
of fund balance through 2026, we're using 200k. Uh, but they're showing the pool returning to being cash flow positive 2027, 2029. What I would like for us to do is basically to take new gen slide and make it over and remake it using actuals. Um
we need first off because New's report is the foundation of a lot of our financial analysis on the pool as to our um fee structure and uh rate setting uh and overall the long-term operating plan for the pool. So if we're not continuously refreshing this, we're not
going to hit our goal of getting the pool back to being financially sustainable. So that would be my ask is basically new gen's numbers, replace them with actuals and reore through 2029 and let us know are we going to hit cash flow positive in 2027 or are we going to have
to sub subsidize the pool or otherwise manage expenses because we have to hit that long-term target. So that's basically in a nutshell. Counciloman, >> thank you. Um, I want to echo what Councilman Roman just said, um, as well
as the request for a budget and presentation from ideally our CFO. The point of doing the new gen study was to make sure that we were making rate making decisions based off of real data and that we were forecasting
appropriately. So, I wholeheartedly agree that we really need to be updating that on a year to yeartoyear basis to see if we're hitting our targets and how we are actually working through that rate process. For many years, the town
council was establishing rates for the pool based off of feelings, based off of reaction, based off of sometimes incomplete information. And that is why we ultimately commissioned the new gen rate study. And I do think that there's value in continuing that process. Um so
if we can get further detailed information about actuals um and a comprehensive presentation about what the actual budget situation is that would be tremendously helpful to this. Um I want to also talk about the payment
plan recommendation that was put forward. I think that's a creative solution. It's certainly something that, you know, there has been uh resident feedback on and an interest in. I want to talk a little bit about the practical realities of it. So, if we're breaking
the pool fees into four equal payments, are residents going to be charged four credit card fees every time they do that? Because that was something that was very shocking and surprising to residents the other year. Um, and so, you know, is this the actual amount that's going to be hitting people's bank
accounts or are they also going to be paying that transaction fee now four separate times? Also, what happens to a resident that has a change circumstance and then for whatever reason, they aren't able to complete that payment plan. Um, there's not a lot of detail here. So, I think we should anticipate
those scenarios where a resident may be dropping out or seeking a refund or something. So, what are going to be our policies around that? So, if we're going to be changing to a payment plan structure, which I do think is valuable. Um, and one of the concepts that had even come out was like could people pay
in 2025 the 25 rates for the 26 season, you know, because people do that with summer camps and other things. Um, I know that that's not one of the recommendations, but that was one of the ideas that have been put forward. It's about kind of the practical realities of it. So, I don't want to be marketing to
residents that, oh, you're paying, you know, these four equal installments and then there's hidden fees that they're not aware of. Um, with regard to the page following that, sorry, the slide deck doesn't have um page numbers
on it, but you talked about direct tent rental, which I think is a great idea. It's something that, you know, I've spent several years working with the rec committee um and the pool subcommittee talking about these different ideas and certainly the rec tent rental is one that they think is a great opportunity
because that space is available. It can be great for family gatherings. In some ways, it's even superior to the gazebo depending on the age group involved. Um but your slide says that it's $105, but it has this bracket that says first two
hours. It wasn't clear to me what that meant. There's when I was looking at the fee schedule, there's like $100 fee for the casino. That's all for two hours. You can pay an
extra $100. >> Okay. I think that needs to be maybe made more clear. Um especially if we are going to then be marketing this as a new service that's available. Um certainly in the limited time I had to review this um that wasn't tremendously clear to me.
Um your next point in your slide deck is about the out of town uh pilot program. So certainly this is something that's come up at different times. It's been recommended by the administration several times. It's come up in other recommendations as well. Um the feedback
that we have consistently gotten is that residents want to maintain the community pool feel. Um and where we have started to see a willingness to accept out of town members. Um is in the concepts of like for example I'm a senior. I still
live in Verona. I purchase a pool membership and I want to bring my grandchildren. I want to bring you know my my daughter's family and stuff like that. So is there a way that we can do perhaps like a sponsorship model? So, um, I know that Councilman Tambboro was
speaking about his concept about prioritization. One of the things I think might actually be really helpful for us to do when we're looking at this is to take a giant step backwards and really look at our fee structure overall. Is it still appropriate for us to be referring to
things as a family membership or senior membership or two adults? or should we just actually be looking at like households or extended households to the point where for example I as a resident could when my in-laws come for the summer because they're from another
country and because my husband's British come for the whole summer if they wanted to be taking my kids to the pool could they be added onto my account even though they're not residents but they're an extended household member right so can I do that they are now under my
account. I have that responsibility associated for it, but they've gotten that membership. Is that an opportunity? Because we had a very robust discussion at the most recent rec advisory committee meeting where we had a number of residents saying that they want their
adult children, they want their grandchildren to be coming, they want them to have those pool memberships and if we're opening it up to larger communities, even with a wait list, I think there's a petition there's the potential that we're missing those families and there could actually be opportunity for more than a hundred
additional registrations associated with that. So, I think it's something to really reconsider this existing rate structure and whether it still works. And that's something that we started looking at last year when we reconsidered what had been called the babysitter um the babysitter extended
family membership where now we called a caregiver because we recognized that it could be any any number of reasons why you would have that additional person. So like why don't we've already developed a concept where you add on to your membership. Why can't we extend
that? Um that's something that's certainly come from several residents. Marketing is something that has been recommended year over year by the rec advisory committee. They've had a number of suggestions that I strongly recommend that you consider including tableling, including doing a food truck festival,
including having a table with signups at like the Taylor Swift concert or something to that. um to that effect. With regard to volleyball and the change to grass, I would just urge us to go to the community about that. That was the first I had heard about that. I don't disagree
with you though. I've seen that sand all over the pool before and I it has raised concerns for me. Um I want to compliment you guys for reconsidering the hours of the rec tent. Um I think that's a great use of it and recognizing when it's more
utilized and it totally makes sense that it's utilized more at the end of the summer playground program. That's when a lot of kids are going to the pool to kind of fill that gap in the day. So, I thought that was a great recommendation. Thank you for that. Uh recognizing that
we didn't have a contract with Starfish and that we weren't actually making any money out of that was something that a resident raised at a recent rep committee meeting. So, I thank you for looking into that as well. Um and I did have some questions about the adult swim survey um and the recommendations there,
but I will I will bring them up separately. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Mayor. Uh, first, thank you both for this presentation. Uh, congratulations on your position and absorbing this so quickly and getting it
to us in this presentation tonight. Uh, I also like to thank the rec committee for all their work. I've spoken to chair and the analysis we get from them is so detailed and very helpful in all these decisions. Uh the one thing I I worry
about here looking at numbers uh is seeing what was and hearing what was said that whole revenue was up this year but membership is down. And we've talked about that last year when we were contemplating raising rates. Uh that was definitely a worry of ours. Uh I see
here we have 695 uh in income and if we're going to raise rates 2% uh this coming year that's another just under 14,000 in income. Uh you have 332,000 in salary with a 5% increase next year.
That's 16,610. So we're losing $2,600 there. Uh just in the in the rate increases as far as salary increases. Uh won't balance out what memberships will bring in. Uh I have said it for a couple years too. I think advertising up their
banners on the fence. Uh I really think businesses would would love to do that and I think that would be something where we can we can make up uh some money. Seeing this year we're going to have a a $60,000 deficit. So my guess is we're only going to take 60,000 out of
surplus. So we'll have another 140 instead of the 200 coming out of that. Uh I don't want to be redundant and go over others uh things that others went over that I agree with. But I do uh it would be nice. I mean our pilot program
is going to have 100. We're looking at 100 uh families. Uh I do think that if all these other ideas that we have work out and we can lower that number. Uh but this is stress that it is a pilot uh for
the next year. We'll see how it goes. Uh I I think the early registration is an excellent idea and any sort of payment plan for any uh family I think is definitely a good way to budget your money and I think that will bring some
extra uh memberships in. I know two people two families in town young couple little kid both said to me they didn't join because it was too expensive. So, uh, I directed them in other ways, but I hope they can join next year and they
can work that out. Uh, the the one thing you brought up about managers, how you wanted to extend the time period. My only question with that is uh, out of our current managers, can they you mentioned starting April 1 with the job, can they start early? I don't
know if they have another job and some teachers, whatever. Uh so that's something to look into and ask the current managers before we institute that. Uh the uh the volleyball court switching the grass. That's the first I
heard of it. But I will say one of the times I was up there this summer. I was watching a little kid walking towards a pool with a handfuls of sand. So and then someone stopped him thankfully before they dropped it in. So that I I think is is you certainly don't want to
have to have an employee there watching that the entire time. So I think that's a good idea. I played volleyball with my day and uh it's I think it's fine on grass. So uh that's one thing. Uh
the sponsors uh adult swim uh I do think you know Saturday I think is a good idea but maybe at another day like Wednesday, Tuesday, Wednesday uh it's only what 15 20 minutes per day two hours. Uh just an
idea, just a thought. Uh one of the other uh probably my last thing I'll bring up here uh I did a couple people, two people actually text me and one person talked to me u about I know the Twilight membership. What exactly is our
Twilight membership? >> I forget the time that starts. >> Okay, but it doesn't include weekends >> because these were people nesters that said on a Friday night at 5:00 I come home from work and it's hot out you know I'd love to go to the pool
for a couple hours and it's a time where families are obviously going home at that time same thing you know on weekends does it include weekends this is something like could there be some type of you know membership in there for people that want to use the pool on a hot summer day and and just a thought
and I I think we should think about that because I think it will bring some some new members in. Uh yeah, but like I said, I my worry is uh we have to really look at other forms of income for the pool and you you've given some great ideas and
and I think we should use some of them. Uh but I do think we have to be careful. Uh one thing here that I will say again, revenue up but membership was down. I think that's something we talked about last week. Thank you. Just wanted to raise
usually done by percentage of the purchase increase. >> Can I add one more thing? >> Uh my my point with uh revenue up members down. Uh one other thing that people
talked a lot about Is it something where if it was a little lower then more family members or relatives that come for a weekend maybe they would join also that's where I think if that number was a little bit lower we may have a lot more revenue
suggestion we can talk about it >> thank you guess I'm gonna get the last round there there were a lot of things that were said uh amongst the four of us and I know balancing all of these comments. Um, I want to focus on the fact that, you know, we had hundreds of
residents fill out our pool survey and we got the full results of the pool survey, including the verbatims at 2 o'clock today. Okay. So, as council members and I uh haded it up, so on the verbatim, the very last question was
just sort of like a free like, hey, tell us stuff about the pool. uh 25,000 words submitted by residents which is really incredible and so I want to start by thanking residents for their feedback
and also recognize that resident feedback is really important as part of this process and as people are kind of espousing a lot of u you know ideas and thoughts we have to start with the fact that a lot of those come from the
residents but we haven't as council members yet fully read all of the feedback from residents because we just got at 2 o'clock today, which is fine. This is a first conversation. I look forward to reading. The print is very, very tiny, so I look forward to reading
it all. Um, I'm going to start backwards with the adult swim. I understand you asked a question about it in the end of the year survey, but we also asked we had two real time surveys when we did the pilot this summer and I encourage
you to go back and look at those and read those verbatims because I have um adult swim I think there's a way we can um get to what we want to accomplish um and look at this not as a
one-sizefits-all situation or rule where we say every Saturday it's going to be at this time and this time. I think we really need to read the verbatims because the um they were very robust and I think they also come through in the
25,000 words that residents wrote. So, I do encourage you to reook at that and there may be ways of accomplishing the needs on um Adult Swim um to prevent a safe place for adults to be able to be in the pool in the middle of a busy day
without getting splashed to death. I know I don't like to get my hair wet at certain times too. So, um and so accomplish that in different ways. So, I do I'm going to start at the last thing then kind of work. I agree that we need to go back analysis. I am a little
concerned. This is like what we feel. So I do encourage in your next round of data to us. That's what we need is a little bit more data. Mr. Krauss, you gave us some great swipes data that was like through the end of July. Um I would
love to see that for the entire full year. Another thing residents keep asking us um that none of my peers have mentioned is how much uh people are using their membership. I see you did it with the fire and rescue but per membership class. Well, how much is what
is the distribution of how much a family is swiping in a typical pool season? What is a senior swiping? And I think that could also be interesting because the one thing that the new gen analysis failed to do was rebalance our rates. That actually gets to what Councilwoman
Holland is saying about thinking about, you know, maybe like rethinking our membership classes. Um, I don't fully understand why some fees are going up and others aren't. I also had a conversation with Mr. O'Sullivan about
the playgrounds. And so I feel like what we talked about last week about the intersection between our playground programs and them paying a fee to come to the pool. I think there can be some creative thinking there. Maybe I'll email some ideas, but I'm surprised it
was like a small increase. I thought there was more of an adjustment um to think again creatively on like lowhanging fruit. I was actually in benefit of the was it starfish program? Um but I I I think I emailed you this
summer. I'm like how like what is the arrangement with this? But I still want to be able just for you to keep in mind how do you give lessons to adults? Um because on a personal level that changed my life. Um, I took adult swim lessons at the community pool and my life has
never been different, but I do applaud you for realizing that that program is probably not working. Um, I think my the my colleagues have covered a lot of other things. So, I just wanted to hit on more data on the guest passes like
let's look at we have multiple years of guest pass data. So, we increase the rates. What does that look like? the pool parties. I would love more data on how they went this year than nonprofit ones. You're increasing the ones forprofit. I would love to see how many
people had a forprofit party. That sounds >> okay. So, but you're increasing it nevertheless. So, I would love to see the revenue projections that go with these increases which tie this to Councilman um Roman's point. Um, but I
think this is a great first effort, but I think we need to make sure we read those 25,000 words from residents. And there's some really good ideas in there, but there's also a lot of concern. Um, and I do agree and and then I have a miscellaneous issue that wasn't ever
fully addressed. We started replacing pool furniture and it really doesn't look like it was a color scheme and a style that did not match. the rest of the pool. So, I really want it. It
raised an interesting question for me like we need to make sure this pool looks good and we have like a whole look and feel and we need to make sure that as we replace aging equipment, we kind of keep the cohesive. Well, that's part
of its strength is what it looks like. And I was disappointed in some of the new um while they were they were technically, you know, good pieces of They were stable. They They didn't heat up too much in the sun. They don't They
didn't look like our pool. So, I'm a little concerned as we keep replacing furniture. So, please keep that in mind and and maybe we can do a force correction. Um but I I look forward to working with you, Miss Frisco, as I told you on email, and I'm really excited for
your energy and creativity, and thank you, Mr. I know you learned a lot this year on this pool stuff. So, uh I look forward to that. I think volunteer. They say Mr. Shore in the back of the room and all of the residents who wrote 25,000 words that I can't wait to read
the next week. Thank you, >> Mr. Shore. Is our you Thank you council mayor. Um just a couple things. Um, so I would say 90% of u happy because it's like 95 90% of the
things that we've all been talking about over the last couple years is starting to move in the right direction which is a great thing and now um in the details and I see from all the comments that's still going to take a lot of work and hopefully um work is done quickly
because you know um you know what you know it's Halloween Thanksgiving and trying to get to that payment starting in January happened. So, and there's only a certain amount of u council meetings. So, you know, please try to move it as quickly as possible. Um just
a couple things. Um I I really want to hone in on a couple things I've been spend um sponsorship uh direct tent event space sponsorship. Also, um I'm challenging the um administration hit the mark. 50,000,
100,000. That's where it really needs to be. Over the last couple years, sponsorship has been 12,000, 13,000, and the amount of expenses that has occurred here compared to revenue, it's just not enough. And if you look at it, yeah, you
can bring in a 100 um non resident memberships, but based on the expenses, it's still not enough if we don't do the sponsorships, the events, and membership goes up. So, I I like to see a um a a group uh committee working with uh
community services and congratulations to uh to Pam and I'm sure she's going to do a fantastic job. But I think that's very important to have a working group of volunteers to increase the membership. Um I know there are some
members that don't have have real hesitations about non-members, but you have to look at it. 751 members as family members. That's 75% of the revenue that comes in. We'd have
to hit 900 members or more to be able to not go into non-residents. That's very difficult. Last year we 812. So if we ever want to do that, we have to have a volunteer army of people
working with community services and the administration town council to be able to do that. There was a member of the rec committee said it very very clear volume cures all that's what it's going to take more bodies in the pool that's
what it's going to take a couple other things uh free membership um with the firefighters and rescue squad very happy about that plan it's a um good step in the right direction I think that's a great value what firefighters and res
squad bring to it just has to be covered because the financial scope of where we are. Um the uh adult swim. Um I'm I'm against it. I've said I'm against it. Uh the only thing is that I'd like to see the survey
uh the end of the year survey. I haven't seen it yet. Um I've asked for it. I haven't seen it yet. I'd really like to see it so this way the committee can get into it and the public can get into it. I asked for it. So this way maybe we can have conversation today with the council about it but we haven't seen it yet. U
one thing that strikes me about it is that there was neutral. Well if that adult swim is neutral then what about that means that there's a significant percentage that are very upset with it and there's a lot of people that are happy with it. I think you really have
to get into detail about the comments that were made and I agree with council member graph because I read those comments too in our first survey and it was a lot of people that were upset about what that adult swim happened and what occurred and I and I have friends
that are totally for um that program but there really has to get into the details about implementing a program like that and there's going to be people are happy and people are not happy and that's the way it is but I think just a little more detail has to go into that instead of
just saying, "Hey, you know, everybody's neutral about it. Let's move it forward." So, I have some concerns about that. Uh volleyball, I I didn't see the survey, so I didn't see any of the um reservations that some people had. Um it says there the volleyball that the majority actually wanted the volleyball.
Didn't say that didn't say that they didn't want to stand. They just said that they had they liked it. So, it is it means that they wanted to stand. One thing that I mentioned previously, and it's just one thing An example was at the splash pad. There was a wall there and I mentioned there should be some signage so that this way the kids don't
go on top of it and that happened last year which was great but it was unsafe. One thing that you could do at the volleyball court which I haven't seen is put signage when kids come out of there because my kids go go in there go for volleyball they're going to mix sand
castles right I tell them go shower go wash off before they go in there. In the last three to four years that I've been at the pool, I have never seen signage whatsoever. So, I think it's important that we communicate with our members before saying, "Hey, let's take sand out of the volleyball court. Let's try to do
another year to say, hey, let's put some signage and let's do some recommendations. Please don't go into the pool with the sand because it hurts the filtration system." So um otherwise you know like table holding good luck to whoever is gonna
>> assignment tables >> and I just really like to thank um all the members um of the the pool committee the town council uh that heard me five million times over the summer and have heard me all over the last couple years and like to thank the residents that and
town administration uh that I've worked with. I thank you very much and thank you for allowing me to speak here today. I I appreciate it and um thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Um just I think your point on setting targets for the um
for the sponsorships is important. It's something that I have as an idea as well to articulate. So um that would be something that would be nice to see by we would have sponsors uh behind there. And I just want to thank you for your leadership on this.
the committee has done very well. I know that's no small part of the individually as well but into preparing a lot of documents budgets and it is very notice >> I just had a take away from your
comments. One of the important things that I'm feeling is this is sort of an all of the above strategy to basically make the pool fiscally sustainable. We have to be hitting targets on um sponsorship revenue. We have to be getting as many memberships as we can through a marketing program. We have to do the out of town memberships. I agree
at this point of time that's just kind of a kind of a given. We need to figure out a way to get there. Uh we need to be doing more ticketed events. It's we need to we need to look at every single category of available revenue we can bring in the door u to try and try and hit these targets. But then I I I want
to just kind of reiterate point from earlier looking back the new gen report. The new gen report has us hitting casual positive in 2027. I would Organizationally, we need to try and hit that goal. You know, we need to we need to be forecasting it. We need it's if we're saying that we're going to do that, we need to track our progress
towards it, figure out we're going to have to adjust our operating strategy a little bit over the next two years or what, but we should really try and be cash flow positive. I hope to see that. But thank you again to the pool committee and everyone in the rec department and all the pool members and everyone who's been working
towards solving this very challenging, very important problem for the township. We have a commitment to keep the pool in good condition and We'll get we'll get through this. Thanks, >> Mr. Sullivan. It is still your report.
>> I do have one final presentation on my report. Uh that is for our township planner to present the redevelopment sign for 33. >> How do I connect? Should just plug it. There should be a
>> Y just should be just plug it in. It's all set up. >> This is my friend's here because she just pops right in and gets >> Thank you everyone. I promise Okay. So, um everyone has a copy of the
uh redevelopment plan. Um just to remind um every day I'll go through the process. Um uh you know a redevelopment plan is introduced by ordinance. So today it'll get introduced um on October 23rd. um I will be presenting it to the
planning board for consistency review and I'll come back to you in your van for a second brie which will be a public presentation. So right now I was hoping to go through it a little you know quickly so you understand what it entails when I come back I will be doing
a full presentation. Does that work for the uh for everyone here? >> Well thank you. >> Okay. Um so as you know um the red weapon process um the municipal council
authorizes the planning board uh by resolution to conduct area in need of redevelopment which um which was done um sometime uh last year. The planning board then
conducted the study, held a duly noticed public uh hearing and uh in um that was uh I think in January of uh this year and then the council accepted the planning board's recommendation and
designated the area as an area of rebramp and just to um refresh your memory it's part of the uh rehabilitation area And then um we were uh I was assigning to do the red weapon
plan which I've been working on it for the past few months. And uh we are right now the current step where um the ordinance gets introduced. Um then the role of the planning board is advisory in this case as per the rewriten
statutes and they'll check for consistency with the master plan and at the next meeting um the governing board you all of you either adopt the read weapon plan or you may ask me to amend it revise it um so but this although
it's called a readapon plan um as you all know it's an ordinance and then the next step would be of course going through the redevelopment process. Um and then when the red developer uh um wants to develop the property, it then
comes back to uh the planning board for a site plan review, which is typically what uh happens in this case. Um so as as I mentioned, it's a three-step process. Right now, we're in step two. The next step would be the
actual development of the uh redevelopment plan. So, uh the planning goals you have to the statute sets forth what it constitutes. So, it's typically planning goals and objectives. Um then the next
is you know analysis of any concept plans. Um it's the relationship to the development regulations. uh relationship to the master plan of contiguous municipalities as well as the town's municipality
um and regional and state documents and then it's required by statute to have procedures for amending um the plan. Um, as you all know, this area is uh the Hillcrest Farm property at the
corner of uh Park Avenue and um Bloomfield. And you know, every redevelopment needs to have a vision and the vision that we have here is investment and economic vitality. It was recognized in the uh
master plan. We've been uh you know with the rehabilitation designation um We continue to do that. Um we are we are um trying to improve the lot to have more sustainable development, improving storm
water management, um just overall sustainability and um you know to provide a range of housing, special needs housing. So, it's um it's a mixeduse development that we're proposing and um we're trying to
revitalize an underut portion of the township with something that's of a high quality. Um you know, the goal of all of it is to encourage walkability, public transit use, um and minimize vehicular
dependency. Um so you know typical there's an introduction section and existing conditions definitions for what's being proposed so the language is clear um use and bulk
regulations building and site design consistency and then uh implementation again the redevelopment area this is in the uh existing etc zone we are recommending an overlay So the underlying zoning
prevails but with that option of providing an overlay um you know as you know it's surrounded by um commercial and uh multifamily residential uses. Um
you know we've put in different kind of uses that the current zoning doesn't permit. This is more up to date. Um so uh as you can see it's very clearly uh described and I'll go into detail when I do the second presentation. Um and then
also one of the things about the beauty of a redevelopment plan is you know when you have design standards in under conventional zoning um they cannot be enforced to the extent that if it is a part of a redevelopment plan and we try
to put in uh building and unit design standards, driveway standards, um pedestrian requirements, signage and awning standards which is a little a little bit more augmented than what we currently have. Um we've tried to put in
um design standards in terms of what kind of materials we would like to see, buffer standards as well. Um so uh you know facade it's basically the whole goal of this is to embib the area and make it look very
attractive. Um so we put in standards like lighting standards for example which we have in our ordinance that we put in here um storm water management rules, some sustainability requirements in terms of landscaping, water
management, energy efficiency um etc etc. And then finally this um ordinance or redevelopment plan if you will will um compare the relationship to Verona's
master plan adjacent municipalities and the state plan. So this is it from me and thank you for your time and I'm ready to take any questions. Thank you, Sam. >> Thank you. And I'll see you uh in uh at
the next council meeting. >> Thank you. Anything else? M >> uh the only last thing that's under my report is uh the deputy manager report. Given the hour, maybe I'll suggest that we just open to questions from the
council on report. That would conclude my report. >> Don't worry, it's only 9:00. >> Thank you. >> Uh on to on the council member reports Mayor M. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for the moment of
silence. I did not know him. However, I did have the privilege of hearing at graduation this year. Principal for giving up his time here. Mayor, well done. The 911 ceremony was
very well done this year. I'd like to thank everybody that was involved. buildings and grounds, public works, uh, every year. Seeing all those flags uh, in the center of town is just breathtaking. It really is. You stop and
you kind of really think back to what went on and it's a very tribute that we've been doing and continue it forever. Uh, events that went on. I too attended uh Clarage's 60th uh Clarage one 60th uh
ceremony. It was very well attended in the building and uh very nice to to meet more of those people up there. Congratulations to the juniors on Taste of Verona that too well attended and it was a lovely event and I wish them luck
in their uh food drive. Uh I've also uh attended the blessing of the pets this weekend. Uh those events are a lot to put together. So I thank the church of the holy spirit for doing
that. I think this was 10 years was it? It's a lot to get through. So to get together and uh and I'd like to thank Wings and the House Angels for joining us tonight and uh for the breast cancer awareness flag
raising. Uh and lastly, uh I did attend a weare rally uh on September 26th. Uh the head of weare uh he is
gotten some of the biggest uh environmental organizations and groups in the state of New Jersey together to help fight the development up on White Rock. I mean, Split Rock up at the top of uh Howell Drive. The uh
the group behind them is very strong. Uh I urge anybody that really that lives in Verona and that is affected by flooding to please look into this and get involved and attend. I've been attending uh most of the planning board meetings
in West Orange. Uh it it will it has a possibility a minimum of 7,000 trees will be taken out of that forest. Uh it has a possibility of upwards of nine or 10,000 trees. Uh there is a an emergency access road being proposed on Howell
Drive. Uh it is in the West Orange portion of Howell Drive. However, who knows in the future if uh state regulations change and they have to change that to an access road, it will actually devastate that neighborhood
with the amount of traffic. Uh and that neighborhood is the Forest Avenue section. So, I urge people that live in the Forest Avenue section of Verona uh to attend uh and and really get involved in this one. It's coming to a close, but I really
This is probably one of the worst developments uh I've ever seen proposed and I hope that they are successful in getting uh getting this shot down and preserving that 130 acres 120 acres uh and keep it a
last remaining core forest in >> um I was also able to attend 160th anniversary All of us from council were there. So it was uh very nice of them to have us attend. Um it was great to meet so many residents from Clarage. One of my takeaways from that was that they really
do consider themselves a part of Verona as a larger community um and appreciate services and uh everything that this community offers. There's a lot of people that uh may have formerly lived in a single family home and moved up there. We saw some friends that we knew
uh there. So just a really special event and that building provides just a great community for its residents. It was it was a wonderful thing for us to be able to mingle with everyone that thank everyone there. Um I have it on my notes here. I already kind of mentioned this but I did again want to congratulate Mr.
Frisco our new director of community services. Um I've had the pleasure of working with her in this in her previous role and uh during my time on the council for the last 10 years. It's been a pleasure watching her uh develop as a leader and all the other things that she does in this community
just shows how much she cares about Corona, how much she understands this town and the community services role I think is absolutely perfect for her. Uh because this is an area that really tries to provide a service to every single demographic in
whether it be a w program or whether it be senior programs. We try and offer a little bit of something to everyone. It's something we hear from a lot of residents about. So it's uh it's value strong leadership is very important there. So I was just very appreciative that she was willing to step up for this
and that leadership came to a decision she has our strong support. So congratulations. Um on a bit more difficult note I did give the chairwoman of planning board a call today uh to
tell her that I was going to be stepping down in my role with planning board. Um, I have some significant schedule challenges that I'm not able to resolve. I just don't have my Thursday nights free anymore. Um, I have had the pleasure of serving on that board for the entire time on the council. Um, it's
one of the things I'm sort of most passionate about is land use and being able to shape the community and to preserve it for all the aspects that people love here in the town. Um, that's a very passionate group of people that also share that vision. Um, so it's
unfortunate The practicality is I'm simply not able to to make it this far. So I want to wish them best of luck with their ongoing work and again my it's a very intense uh rotor. >> Um thank you. I I want to extend my
condolences to uh Daria's family. Um as a fellow parent who had a child in her graduating class, this is just devastating news and is really rippled through the um class of 2025 very significantly. You know, I spent some
lot of time talking with my own child about her passing. It's really difficult to comprehend. Um and so my thoughts are with um Joseph and Dina and her brother and sister. Um, and I look forward to as
the family announced that they'll have a future and celebration of her life at the Roman Community Center. Um, and I look forward to um, honoring her in that way. Um, I too was at the 911 ceremony and I want to thank everyone who
participated including our high school chorus. Um, I too was at Taste of Verona. Thank you very much to the Junior Women's Club for that really fun event and for Congresswoman Macyver for attending. I too was at Clarage House one event and saw a lot of great friends
that I have there. Um and really enjoyed celebrating the building and seeing a beautiful book of photographs and momentos that they pulled together. Um my committees have been very active since um our last meeting. Um I served as a representative on a shu commission.
They met twice. Uh they are undertaking a inventory of shade trees around town. You probably saw the town show announcement on that. Uh that is in preparation of a community forestry plan which is due by the end of the year. Uh
they've been very involved in the Everfield uh renovation project and have met with these administration several times. They're involved in the streetscapes project and had a meeting on that today and they are preparing to apply for a
very significant grant which would go towards reforestering our town. There is lots of work to be done with the administration on that. Um and then you know we would have to cross our fingers that we get. Um so I want to thank the sheet tree commission. They're putting in a lot of time. Another group that's
putting in a lot of time is the neighborhood traffic and safety committee. Um at their last meeting they discussed the council's uh reaction to their complete streets policy. Um they have been attending meetings for the Essex County Safe Streets for all
project. The public is invited to go to a meeting for this very important initiative that the county of Essex has been undergoing for the last year. That meeting is on October 14th at 6:30m on Zoom. You can go to bit.ly-sex-me -6-
meeting. I believe this will be publicized through our communication channels. Um, and we thank our partners for the county for underdoing this work. Um, um, the c the township has the ability to download all of the data and get all
of the data that was collected in this initiative and I do encourage our administration to do so and I've already had a conversation with Mr. Sullivan about that. The neighborhood traffic and safety committee is also involved with the streetscapes project and will be meeting with the sub team uh shortly.
And then finally, the multicultural inclusion accessibility advisory committee um is also hard at work planning events. Uh they partnered with the Brona Public Library for what I heard was an incredibly successful uh Hispanic Heritage event um uh event this
weekend. The pictures looked lovely. Unfortunately, I was out of town. Um they are going to be a Halloween with teal pumpkins um to support kids with allergies who cannot have nut products and they are planning our annual Diwali
celebration which is going to be on Sunday October 19th at 6 pm. They also have an eye out um for planning. They'll be supporting Fairness Square um and uh planning um our annual Hanukkah celebration which may have a new
location. Um and that's it for my >> Thank you. Um, I was recently asked uh, you know, why I care about advancing women in leadership and I just something that struck me tonight was that we were honoring the juniors for Verona fights
hunger. We were talking about wings and angels and I just wanted to acknowledge these really impressive organizations um, and the female leadership associated there with um, I think the juniors and wings and and so many other
organizations do such an amazing job. Um, and I'm just delighted that we have the opportunity to honor them. I will spare the residents and save us some time from reiterating my attendance at all of the same events that my various
colleagues um, attended. They were lovely and I was pleased to be there and I enjoyed meeting with the residents while I was there. Um, I'm also very proud to serve as the liaison to the Verona Municipal Alliance Committee and
we are having Verona's uh family night uh this Wednesday night. So, it is a slightly different date than what was originally advertised, but it we have a amazing amount of restaurants that have offered discounts. Um, so I really want
to urge residents to take advantage of a knife that doesn't practices um and maybe a little light on homework um to avail yourself of some of our amazing restaurants and spend some time with your family because I think dinner does
make a difference. Um and I will acknowledge that my daughter did draw one of the posters and it's adorable. Um but I think it's a great um I think it's a great pro uh program nonetheless. >> We are biased. >> Totally unbiased. Um also I just like I
just don't want to cook dinner on Wednesday nights. So, I think it's great. Um, so no, it's excellent. Um, and I enjoy it. So, in past years, we we had Lego competitions at my house. I suspect we'll do that again. Um, I'm also the rec committee liaison. So, I do
just want to again acknowledge and appreciate um all of the work that went into the presentation this evening. So, thank you Pam, thank you Michael. Um, and thank you Corey and the committee for all of the hours that we spend together. I also serve on the joint advisory board. Um, and we will be
having a meeting on October 16th. Um, so thank you. Um, and so that will be next week and so I'll have more to report on that. Also, um, as anybody that's attended, uh, meetings of the council is aware, I often talk about affordability
and in particular your utility bills. Um, something that I want residents to be aware of is that, you know, as we move toward the winter months, and it certainly doesn't feel like that, right? feels like it's August. Um, but as we move toward the winter months, there is a winter termination program for your
utility bills. That's your electric and gas bills, PCG. Um, and it runs from November 15th to March 15th. But just um the other week, the uh governor signed or the acting governor signed legislation into law that will actually
create a summer moratorum program too or summer termination program. And what that means is that from June 15th to August 31st, if you have difficulty paying your utility bills, um the utility company will be procluded from
shutting you off. Um it gives an opportunity to negotiate budget billing or anything that you need to do to come up to um it just takes the time you need to be able to pay your utility bills. Um
it is clearly a very customercentric program and it's a great opportunity for our residents that may be struggling at different times. So I do always make a point of making sure that residents are aware of these programs. So again that will the winter program will be beginning in mid-March. Um and that's
just something that we should all be mindful of and now there's also an opportunity to have that reprieve in the summer as well. Finally, I'll close um on the sad note, but I do want to thank the mayor for the moment of silence. It is particularly devastating to have
heard the news about the loss of Daria and I send my sincere condolences to her family. I can't think of anything more devastating than losing a child. Um, and I will leave it at that. Thank you. >> Okay, at this point I'm open for public
comment on any item that any member of public wishes to address. Madam clerk, would you please read the public participation? Anyone from the public wishing to speak on any matter, if you are attending via Zoom, raise your hand by pressing the raise hand button on your monitor. If
you are dialing in by phone, press star 9. And if you are attending in person, raise your hand to 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 meeting recordings are public record 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 this public portion. After everyone wishing to speak has been heard, the board may address
your comments and slor questions. >> Thank you. >> Where do you live? your sweet and I live on 34th Avenue. So I am also center
my remark questions are going to be regarding those fees and proposal fees from health department. I call myself the massage and um so from everything I've understood so far it's all about the
safety of people now right going into those different facilities which I hope even restaurants also you know checked in that sense um
now I want to correct that they had. For example, the massage therapy license every two years and not every year. Um that we have about 70 hours of continuing educations which are very
expensive in some ways. Um we have to put our license you know for our clients to see that when we are in the office. So they have to see. So myself, I have a business license from New Jersey therapies and I have my personal
license from New Jersey. Um, from everything they were saying, they were talking about sanitizing and everything. Everything is about nail salon and barbers. And that's still that's not justified
for me the price of 250 per business and then 150 per you have to pay sales tax. So if I deduct from what I'm making pay my clients and I deduct everything I have to pay from my mortgage because
this place that I have from my license, my consuming education hour, my insurance, the material that I'm buying, the cleaning, I'm left with 35 to 40 bucks really. So if I don't work, I'm not paid. I don't have a paycheck. Um, so I just want people to
be aware of that. So I love Verona. I'm trying to open a second business in actually. Um, and one thing that I want to point out and I'm very not myself or whatever. But because of the uniqueness of what I'm doing, um I have
people coming from out of town, people coming from out of state, people are driving two hours to come and see me. People are driving from Cleveland to come and see me. So when they come here, they want to make the best of day. So when they come here, I refer them to
colleague in town. I refer them to I refer them to restaurants in town. I refer them to So they come with kids. They go to the toy store next to to us. They go to the book. So it's not only about us. We're trying to really make this community
work together. So I'm just hoping that the town is going to think that twice. I'm okay in having something that really make sure that everything is sanitized, everything is clean. But my understanding here it was all about massage therapist. Most of the massage
therapist in town are small family massage therapist. They're not like big corporates. Um so I think before anything like that is done I think it's better for us. together, right? So, I think it's better for us to come all together and talk about that and have everybody's opinion
because of the small businesses that we call >> Hello. >> Yep, we can hear you. Yes, my name is Elizabeth Connelly and I am a a Verona resident. I too would like to thank the
council for acknowledging Darius's passing. I live across the street and as I've told uh friends, we used to pray for Daria. Now we pray to her because she's surely
with the Lord. Um thank thanks to Miss Prrisco for her presentation. That was excellent. Um, I don't think the increases are prohibitive and the payment plan with some of the adjustments that Mr. Roman spoke about
um is a good idea. The extended family feature that Miss Holland mentioned may not be necessary if guest fees were more reasonable. Um, I know that uh they remained consistent over the last three years, even with fewer guests, but many
of my friends and uh fellow pool members have not brought as many of their family members as often uh this past season. Uh $15 for a toddler seems a bit prohibitive. Uh, also as Miss uh
mentioned the pool furniture, um, I really it looks great, but it has sharp rather than rounded edges. >> It may seem small, but that's a great idea for a picnic table where you're often in jeans or trousers, but the
angles are a little tough on the bare legs. Uh, the other thing, too, I spoke with Mayor Tambbor. I was happy that he reached out to me and I am a member of the woman power of whom he spoke and uh
I would I have said that I would be willing to um put information about the pool um in the mailboxes of the new residents. We've had a hundred more than a hundred people move into town since February. many of them don't really know
about the pool and uh I think it would be a really good thing um if as Mayor Tambboro said we could get the sponsorship cooperation of the chamber of commerce and produce something that would really focus on the pool and
perhaps uh Miss Prrisco may um want to even have tours pool tours whatever as I said I'm willing to volunteer to do some of this work so where do we go from here. How do I do that? Um, who should I
approach and how should I approach them? And um, that's about it. I thank you for your work and um, that's it. Thanks, >> Mrs. Conway. Anybody else in the room?
>> Yes. Come on up. >> Walter Simon. Verona, New Jersey. I want to thank the uh committee that put together this packet this evening for the pool. It was very well done. I agree with a lot of points. Couple things I want to bring up is swimming lessons.
You were talking about having swimming lessons for adults. We did do a few of them. Um what I think we should do is open up the swimming lessons to anybody outside of town. Also, I had a number of people come up to the to the front of the pool and ask about uh swimming lessons and we said we only give them to
members of the pool. Uh, I believe also with the volleyball, uh, we should have grass. Uh, the guards that are down by the, uh, diving board are constantly seeing the kids run over the sand. They should be watching the pool and not
disciplining children running in with the sand. Also, we don't have to deal with the wrath of the Department of Public Works in the morning about them having to pull out the vacuum to pull all the sand out. The sand is not just by the by the diving board area or in
that area. It's all around it. Come. They get the kids come down on the slides. There's sand there. It's down at the end of the ramp. It's all through the whole pool. And they have to take the vacuum out, the big vacuum, and take it all all over the whole area. Uh on the rec tent, I think it's a great idea.
I think they might need some upgrading on the rect tent. The rect tent roof I does not I do not believe is waterproof. Uh and also there's no power there. Uh and I also concur with the idea of uh having outside people have pe me members
of the pool recommend or nominate or uh just review who comes in at Mr. that mayor Tambbora recommended and those are my points. Thank you going online. >> Hi can you hear me? Okay.
>> Yes, we got you. >> Hi. Thanks. Uh yeah, great uh report by the way by the committee. I thought it was very good and I thought all the council members had very good points um on that. Um I want to talk about two
subjects. One very quickly, the pool and I've mentioned this before to the former wreck department head. Um the family membership is defined as available to one or two adults per household
and they're unmarried dependent children 24 years of age or younger living at the same residence. Children under 18 months of age do not require membership. They're admitted free of charge. >> So I have two suggestions there. One is you know I would raise suggest raising
the age of 24 to 26. That would bring that in parallel. It's a different subject, but companies are are required to offer health insurance to employees, children up to the age of 26 when they're supposed to be independent. That might keep people
more active when they're coming back from college and then more likely to sign up again. And then the other point that I have suggested before is uh there is families in town such as mine where you have an adult disabled child who is above the age of 24. And
really the intent of the family membership having that cut off is that those those adults at 24 you know should be having jobs should be independent and should be able to their own pool membership. But for those of us who are
caring for adults who are not able to work, it would be nice to add something in that definition for a disabled adult child, which is a social security term. Um, second thing on the pool, I'm a former CFO. I haven't seen this new mark
study but in terms of deciding on how much to increase the rates apart from the very good point by one of the council members that volume cures all in terms of the costs it seems to me I haven't seen all the reports you've looked at that you're
looking at things at how much should we increase this year um I think when you take a look at that you should leverage whatever that new market report is and look four or five years in the future and put in a sequence of assumed
increases so that you have time to adjust as time goes on. Because if those plans do not work out optimistically, then you may have to do a much larger increase down the road rather than incremental increases now or roll back
in the future. And then the second thing I want to talk about, which is why I really dialed in today, is I'm very concerned about ebike usage in the in the town. And I know the police are doing a great
job with that. They're trying to educate people, but I personally have seen ebikes that are illegal through town. I see people driving, children who are not old enough to drive those ebikes, >> driving them, driving them recklessly.
I'm all for kids having fun. I really am. But it's a situation waiting to happen where either a child is going to be hurt or an adult is going to hit a child and then as soon as that happens, the first thing that people are going to
say is, >> "Well, let's not bring this tragedy and criticize parents for buying their kids ebikes." So, in addition to what's going on right now, some of the ideas that I had, I don't know what's legal, >> is could we do some
license requirement? We have licenses that we need to get for our dogs and our cats. Could we require licenses for ebikes? Maybe tie some education requirement into that. >> And could we also do something where if a child or an adult is caught riding
something illegally more than once, confiscate the bike? Because I think that if we don't do something that has a real impact, this is going to go on. there's going to be a tragedy down the road. So, that's all I wanted to talk about.
>> Thank you. And for the record, that's Robert, >> right? Um, thank you all for your attention to people. I can serious. Thank you all for the work that that
you've all done with this and look forward to many more years of enjoying it every day. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> We love when we get nice positive comments like that. So, thank you, >> Miss Vincent.
Matter of fact, there two people online are still Good evening. Mom can um I've sent numerous emails over the last few months. Um some of you have not responded. I would appreciate some kind of response or you at least acknowledge
that you've received it. There was something that was said at the August presentation that kind of startled me um by the police presentation and they used suicide or self harm as a
for lack of a better word telling the most appropriate as a justification for an exercise room. And given the conversations and the presentations tonight, I
wonder if money for an exercise room would actually go to be better use for actually bringing back a full-time or at least a part-time director of health. We opened up tonight's meeting with talking about food insecurity.
Um we have an out of town Bloomfield health director who's Obviously in this day and age with technology, but she's three towns away. She doesn't live here full time, she doesn't get a sense of what's going on. And if suicide and self
harm is an issue among of our own police, then I imagine that it might have some impact through the whole community. And I think that warrants a conversation about just health in general.
I've shared with a couple of the members on this council that even when you think about this town, it's two square miles. I live on the corner of a dead end street. We haven't had a real conversation about garbage or sanitation, but that's health related,
right? And there's a sanitation truck that goes down my street at least four days a week. And there's other things that are happening. And the gentleman that just spoke, I had an incident break recently coming back from the park with my dogs where I almost, you know,
because of the behavior of some teenagers that they almost got hurt. So, I would welcome a conversation or at least some acknowledgement that health is an issue. We have to be concerned not just and I recognize that's all related
to just what we're doing with the street or at least hopefully the county will step up and do something aroundfield Avenue with congestion. Um, it just I I was I'll be honest with you, I was a little annoyed by the comment by
the police, but listening to what's hap the conversations here tonight, I think it's a much bigger problem. And if the police are going to use that as a justification, I hope they remove that from their talking. Thank you.
I was going to say invitation Paul, but uh >> I wasn't gonna >> I didn't know your hand, so I wanted to be fair. >> I wasn't Paul Petrangeli Verona. I just wanted to uh touch on a few things about the pool. First off, Pam, congratulations. Uh very proud of you. I believe one day there will be a statue
of you in Verona. Um, basically, uh, with the pool fees and everything with the out of town residents, uh, I just wanted to bring something up on that. Uh, the fee, uh, was suggested around $1,000. I know Cedar Grove and other towns are about $1,000 more than their
family charge. They add, so around 1650 for Cedar Grove out of towner. So, that is ways we could make up the money is just throwing that charge up there. Um, another thing is is let's remember that just like Councilman Mackoy said our revenue is up
but our membership is down. So this is a Verona pool. So we do want as many Verona residents as possible. One thing I have been talking to a lot of residents and the one thing I'm hearing is the couples rate. The couples rate just doesn't make sense versus the
family rate. That is a huge thing. I believe we would have more couples in town. There's a lot of couples moving in uh without I believe that rate would help just bring more people in and also uh a referral program. Maybe if we, you
know, to new members that move into town, say I know somebody and I want to, hey, you want to join the pool, I can get maybe a $20 kickback or something. You know, just a member referral program to try to get people incentivized to just get more Vona residents to our
pool. Otherwise, that's it. >> Sure. New Jersey. I just want to bring up two points. One, I wanted to talk about uh Mr. Blush just recently. Um just a personal story of mine that um my son
was diagnosed with autism at maybe a day before and I was at the pool and I saw Mr. Bliss there with his son and We had a good conversation which were the first time I told anybody that my son had autism and his son go off the diving
board and I just I just thought when I heard him today I was like that's the individual I spoke to at the pool uh that really like kind of calm me down because I was very upset before. So his point is well taken. Uh 26 is definitely
the the appropriate age. Um, and having him as part of a family membership and part of a family, seeing him every single summer is u is important. It's important to me. I think he's a great guy and I love his I love his kids. So, I think that's wonderful. Uh, second
point um on the guest fees. I heard a lot about that. Um, I hear what everybody's saying about the guest fees, but the problem is is if you lower the guest fees, right, then people will start using as a membership. So, you currently have at like 45 and 15, but
you do 45 times, you know, 10 or 15 times, right? The average click per individual, I believe last year for the police squad was like 15 16 times. So that's probably the average. I mean, I agree with you, Council um McGrath, about how many times people are coming
in, it's probably about 15 16 times. So if that click rate is about 15 16 times, and you do the guess times that, there's no sense of um no sense of getting a membership. and we're trying to get people to buy into memberships because that was 75% of your revenue over the
last couple years. So, when people talk about that guest fee, I get it. I understand it. But you also have to understand that the town um and the uh community services and the pool are trying to increase our membership as much as possible to be able to pay for
the pool going forward. So, thank you very much. >> Any other comments? some close public comment. Anybody else in Mr. Han, your concerns are well noted and I think that you have
folks on the council that we would like to lower fees and keep up with that process to make sure that happens there. And I I really loved your message about
referring people to business. operates. So that apply thank you for your thoughts as well on the guest fees and I will share your contact with Mrs. Frisco and
others I will send that on as well. Walter, as always, thank you for your sharing your thoughts and expertise on the pool because you think your point on the well taken for the administration
memberships. So I think that something that I doing some outear projections. One of the lessons that we learned from study last year is they they proposed dramatically higher fee rates and we
learned that something and I brought up because we like economic things like that but that's why we're looking increases
now because after that so at this point I think the vision behind the 2% is to recoup some of our increased expenses while relying on the other revenue streams to make up for that and it's a very Uh
it's a very delicate balance there. I agree with your ebike thing. I've had conversations with our police chief about ebikes. A lot of this is governed by the New Jersey state law. So we are
One of the most difficult things. It's a very tough position to chase somebody because it has to be something there. Once again, thank you for your your positive comment and participation
meetings. Miss Vincent, I think your points on mental health are well taken. Um and particular service based on what people see the past years
have been pushes to have programs within these services that have been successful but overall general health in there. It would be important for our services to know some of the things that we do in
health services. We have service programs in county as well. and Mr. I think would be a great addition to town. I
would just need you to begin the fundraising effort for that and I think that could definitely go to respond to your point on the town members other towns do charge much
larger amount and we're trying to take their business at the at least having I like the 999 that the committee proposed. But I think at that point if we do start to see people get interested and they like the facility then we can look at
some cases next year um still in a reasonable area so that we're not um incentivizing. But I appreciate your pointy So, thank you for your comment. >> Mr. comment regarding the massage uh
inspection. Uh we'll just ask if you could uh get in touch with either the township administration or the township council. Um there's a contact form on our website. Uh we would value your input on this ordinance. Um my comments earlier whenever we're regulating something uh and especially when we're
charging a fee for things, this is places I'd like to trend lightly personally. Um, obviously the health officials made what I felt was a a good case for why there should be some form of oversight of all of these businesses, but we don't want it to be a hindrance to businesses, particularly those that
are acting in good faith and and running running good operations. So, uh, if you can help us with your expertise any, um, it would be very much appreciated. So if there's anything in particular where you flagged in that ordinance, please council.
>> Thank you. Um and I agree with Councilman's comments. I do encourage you to step forward. I do want to um ask based on the feedback that we've received even today for Mr. and for the administration. I think there's a lot of
confusion between the guest passes and the like the day passes and confusion on those amounts. Um and because again people are like, "Oh, it's so cost prohibitive, but I think they're thinking a little bit more about the day
pass." Yes, we did raise the guest passes as well. We took away the free guest passes years ago and people have not forgotten. I think that's the other 25,000 words that we've gotten. um in the verbatims that I will be reading in the next two weeks. So um but people are
really confused. So I think thinking that through too and I think the day pass is very cost prohibitive. Um and but again we don't want it to be too low to Mr. Shor's point because then people use it.
So just want to leave that out there as >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to Mr. um uh what she went over there were just suggestions to us for prices so we can obviously review and revise uh the pool as far as the pool goes when I one thing
I was thinking of when I mentioned you know membership is down that's made me up there if I look at the town there's a lot of people putting in ground pools in their backyard so that's going to reduce membership because they're going to have and that reduces
membership because then the neighbors are invited and oh, we don't join the pool because they put a gate here for us. So, those are things that we just have to keep in mind. And I will also add uh to the guest pass uh comment that I made, it was from someone who are
grandparents that live in Verona and they paid a guest pass for their grandchild. So, that's they were saying that that was a little high for them and that's where that was going. Uh as far as ebikes go, I totally agree. Uh I actually attended this past spring uh
sat in for the mayor uh all the police chiefs in u I think it was district that uh had a a good conversation about it and how dangerous they are and what some of the towns are doing and I went with
our all right well we have some ordinances to discuss at this point so we are going to look at ordinance H1 The next item on the agenda is 2025-15
on second reading acting. Would you please read the title of this? >> Amending chapter A565 schedule of fees section 5 recreation department and community center fees. Okay, I saw your hand
motion. The ordinance has properly moved and seconded. This time I'm looking for public comments on this ordinance only. Same public comment statement applies. However, it's just any comments on Cory, New Jersey.
Just a couple of comments. Just want to thank the um advisory committee uh for working hard on the u this these proposals for our programs to the streets. Um mayor, there's one thing that I think you mentioned last time,
which was the um the affordability on the sliding scale. Um, I had some thoughts about that. I think that maybe the committee working with administration could potentially look at potentially a lower tier. And what I mean by that is I used to be on the
board for a nonprofit uh Seway camp and we did after school program and Seway camp and we did it for inner city kids. Um, so the idea was it was based on a financial scale, a sliding scale. It's possible that maybe with the correct
wording and There should be a tier that can be used for the low end of some of the fees so that some of the some of the it's kind of like the free reduced lunch. We could try to find a, you know, a lower tier to where families can pay a little bit lower for basketball, a
little bit lower for tennis or a little bit lower. And this would be consistent with all programs in w not the pool because that's membership and that's not other countries, but I think maybe as a rec committee we can work on something like that that would strengthen uh the ability of possibly um hopefully passing
this today and then working out some additional language to find a tier to do that. So that would be um my comment in that particular area from what you stated last time in the first reading. Um we worked really hard on the
recreational uh program fees. Um the sliding scale I think it's important for administration to have um leeway on to raise the fees. I think it's the first step because hopefully in the next, you know, two or three months um administration and the rec committee can
work together on um a budget on looking at uh the programs that we're currently doing, summer camp, basketball, and maybe increasing some of those um some of those budget line items. But increasing the fees is the first step.
the budget's a second step and bringing in line of how our town is increasing in size and then um going forward on the correct program fees to support good quality program across the town. So thank you very much. Anybody else
comment on that? >> Quick question. >> Uh in the Ruckers coaching class, who uh who does this pertain? What does this all sports? Do they all go to Ruckers for coaching?
Are they all required all across the board? Anyone coaching any kid in how do we go about finding out they register? >> So for the Ruckers uh safety class, any
coaches that is coaching any of our youth programs need to have this uh three-hour course. It's offered online. It's $40 per coach. There are certain dates that it's available through Ruckers. Then
Mr. McMahon from our office when a coach signs up. Right now we're getting ready for our coaches for basketball season. So our rec recreation and suburban coaches, he will check to make sure that each coach had their certification
through Ruckers. It's a one it's a lifetime once in a lifetime. So >> you could call you could check with Ruckers. It's a $5 fee for them to reissue you a card if you lost your card, but you're in their database and the database is on the Ruckers website
for us to confirm each coach has that course. >> Councilwoman Holland, >> yes. >> Councilwoman McGrath, >> yes. Councilman Roman, >> yes. >> Deputy Mayor Makavoy, >> yes. >> Mayor Tambbor,
>> yes. >> Ordinance H1 will be numbered 2025-15 and is passed by a vote of 5 to zero. It will be published according to law. >> Thank you. The next item on the agenda is I1
ordinance on first reading. The title of this >> fixing the salaries and compensation of the paid officers and employees of the township for the 2025, 2026, and 2027 calendar years.
>> I'll second discussion on for the public only just ask you flag any of these that are contractual or otherwise sort of set and which ones are discretionary >> yes
would you like that now or as part of the items. >> Discussion. >> Councilwoman Holland, >> yes. >> Councilwoman McGrath, >> yes. >> Councilman Roman, >> yes. >> Deputy Mayor Makavoy, >> yes. >> Mayor Tambboro, >> yes.
>> Ordinance I1 will be numbered 2025-16 and is passed by a vote of 5 to zero. It will be published and a public hearing will be held on October 20th. >> Thank you. >> All right. This signed we have the consent agenda.
We have this time open for public comment on the consent agenda only. comments. Agenda any council discussion first clerk our package. We had L7.
>> Yes. Not on the resolution. the insertion of the installation of an insertion valve into pump room waste water treatment facility. >> So if I may, it also says in there it resolved that all American sewer
services authorized the contract If we do need to fix what we're All right. Any other discussion on this? >> Yes. On L12. This is uh that is one of the opioid
settlements that did have a deadline which predated today. Um we ensure that we are included provided resolution which clarifies that action. Uh the second settlement
very simple one. Uh l wellation of the tax. >> All right, Madam Cler, call the role. >> Councilwoman Holland, >> yes. >> Councilwoman McGrath, >> yes. >> Councilman Roman, >> yes. Deputy Mayor Makavoy.
>> Yes. >> Mayor Tambbero. >> Yes. >> Mayor, resolutions L1 through L13 are approved by a vote of 5 to zero and will be numbered 2025-223 through and including 235. >> Thank you. We have no license for
comment this evening. We do however have an agenda. ordinance M1 which is the um introduction for adopting plan. >> Councilwoman Holland. >> Yes. Councilwoman McGrath, >> yes.
>> Councilman Roman, >> yes. >> Deputy Mayor Makavoy, >> yes. >> Mayor Tambbora, >> yes. >> Ordinance M1 will be numbered 2025-17 and is passed by a vote of 5 to zero and it will be published according to law.
Um L7 was a chiropractor L7 building service brothers >> by council second by Roman. comment on anybody like to talk about the insertion
involved in water seeing no public comment any council discussion >> it's important to invest in our critical infrastructure >> I would agree especially we digest up
um okay can I have a clerk please call Please. >> Councilwoman Holland, >> yes. >> Councilwoman McGrath, >> yes. >> Councilman Roman, >> yes. >> Deputy Mayor Makavoy, >> yes. >> Mayor Tambor, >> yes.
>> Uh, sure. >> Sorry, Council Ro. >> Um, I would for the purposes of uh serving a planning board through the rest of the year, um, I would like to uh nominate to move to nominate Deputy Mayor M to the remainder of
You can no longer >> Yes, I would be happy. Yes. All those in favor. >> No. >> All right. Three eyes. One extension.
And we are moving to public comment. We'll open one last public comment on any item. Executive session session. So one of these few times we get to right here would like to make that motion.
>> Councilwoman seconded by Counciloman Holland. All those in favor >> I oppose. >> Motion carried.