clerk's office sent to the Bergen record. Additionally, to the extent known in accordance with the open public meetings act, the agenda for this meeting uh and whether formal actions will be taken was posted in the administration building was also posted on the official burough website
www.walticenj.gov/meing- gov/meing-board clerk, please take the role. >> Mr. Gerardano >> here. >> Mr. Brennick, >> here. >> Mr. Martinelloo, >> here. >> Miss Smith. >> Miss Wind. >> Okay, everyone, kindly rise for the
pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Let us have a moment of silence for all our Waldik veterans and
all veterans across our country who have given the ultimate sacrifice to serve our country. Some never returning so that we can live in a land that is free and assembled the way we are tonight. >> Clerk, please do the prayer. >> Dear Lord, we start this meeting asking for your guidance and wisdom. May we
find unity and fairness. The outcome should reflect our wishes to assist the burrow in all their endeavors. Thank you in his name. Amen. >> Amen. Okay, at this time we are going to have a uh consensual plan presentation by DMR. At this time I'll be recusing myself and
the council president will be taking over the meeting. Okay, thank you. >> All yours. President I'm here tonight and
tell you the real purpose because this is not something normally governed by here unless they do a lot of I believe it's first or second project I represent contract purchased as
blocks 96 and 18 thought that this area could potentially be redeveloped for purposes that would be more suitable for what it is.
located because it's right next to what we're going to present to you this evening is what we view as a concept that we would like the govern become part of an ordinance or if you
will development The wonderful thing about we're here tonight. It does a couple things. It provides highend town houses next to
your train station. It creates opportunities for your empty people who are not permanent home buyers yet to move into your community. The other thing
I very consistent with what we want to train stations where people can take advantage of a lot of time that does that does something else. I
was involved behind the scenes last very carefully to some of the concerns that both planning about some of what we call statements
are your dancing your setbacks and what I think you'll find tonight what we're presenting the most scaled down version of a highend townhouse project located next to the We can provide you
the value of that property and ultimately represent we believe taxes. So with that being said, our engineer
butcher his name just testify Mr. Is it your practice to have all professionals sworn and provide their credentials? >> Not for this type of presentation. So >> before I get started, there
are fine. Just ask that when you're speaking as closely to the microphone as possible. >> Yeah, sure. Sorry. So I'm just going to set these two. One of them will have some site documentation. The others will have some architectural
documents as well. Slide those here are two exhibits. The first of which is a exhibit for the the council is familiar with the site, but to give it some uh perspective, I also have some
handouts, just some aerial shots of the site, photographs of what's out there today. As our attorney mentioned, uh the project is located at 39 Houston Avenue located right along the train track as shown on this aerial exhibit with the
site highlighted in yellow. The site is about 1.3 acres in size comprising the site. Let's give the council an idea of what's around. But to the north of the site, you have some automotive repair uses, material
storage along the rail. And then to the east, you have some single family uses of the neighborhood. To the south, you still have more single family uses there. For reference, the whistle shop, the ice cream shops out at
the bottom there. And then obviously to the left of the page to the west, you have uh the train station. You can see the transit park and you can see the recently constructed station on the other side of the
so uh as part of the proposal being presented here the improvements are on site today are going to be removed and what the applicant is proposing flip this over is uh 30 town houses here on this
layout. Uh there will be 30 houses for 20 of them or 24 of them to be market units, six of them to be affordable. That's a 20% contribution for affordable the bedroom layout for the town houses and I'll talk about the architecture in
a moment. They vary because these are contemplated to be units and ideally they are pre-sold meaning that the potential buyer could go in there. They have options to basically swap out. Maybe they don't want an extra bedroom. they want like a den or loft or an
office, they have that possibility here. Which is why when I get to the architecture, you'll see that the bedrooms actually vary depending on how it's laid out. Two to four bedrooms per house. >> Could you speak a little louder than some people just comment? They can't hear you.
>> Okay. Okay. for the parking spaces for the site here. The uh we are proposing 84 parking spaces for the site. That's a ratio of about 2.8 parking spaces per dwelling.
And what that breaks down to uh in this townhouse layout here is that for the market rate units, they all have two car driveways and they have a onecar garage. Technically, there's space to have two cars in the garage, but per RSI because
Not exactly 20 ft wide. It's 19 ft wide. We conservatively saying that it's only one vehicle space in the garage, not two. So each market will have three parking spaces. Each affordable unit will have two. One driveway space and one garage space.
>> How does this compare to RSIs? >> So this actually exceeds RSIS. So it's actually two things. Uh in a prior and you'll make you'll hear me making comparisons to the Harrison. versus previously that RDB for reference
had a requirement of two spaces per unit of 60 parking spaces. RSIS has a slightly higher requirement at 72 spaces. The applicant for this project I ask a quick question. the 24 market
and the six low-inccome. The six lowinccome would also be for sale items or would those be rentals as low income? >> Understand that it will be all for sale. >> All for sale. So even low income. Okay. >> Sure. So that was actually my next point access. So that nicely. So access to the
site is provided from two driveways. They're both full movement driveways. That means you can make a right in, right out, left in, left out, etc. Uh both of those driveways avenue as in facing the train station. There will be two of them providing
access to the various town houses. They are designed as multif family courts. So they're roughly about 170 ft long. those layouts are comprising as well. Those drive you see on site because of the locations of the
driveways which are all rear entry driveways. I'm just going to give you an example here. This will look like the front of the building with like a doorway in the main entrance, but the garage and then what we'll call the typical entry. If you're a resident, your garage, so you'll have
a presenting front and then you'll have a rear garage entry. So there will be no parking on those two aisles. There will be private roadways on site. There will be no parking along them. All parking, as I mentioned, is provided either in the garage or the drive. When you say
they're private, what does that mean in terms of the maintenance? Well, that's great. What happens one of these homes or several of these homes decided to have a holiday party? How are we going to be able to consistent?
>> Sure. So in terms of guest parking for this project, as I mentioned before, this is located across the street from the transit train station. So we'll look at it in terms of three items. So one, there is transit parking located.
That parking is only restricted on weekdays from 5 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. So when someone is having a party at night or during the holiday, people can park there. Similarly, the transit parking lot is only 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays. So again, during hours during
a weekend or a holiday, it's actually free parking in that lot. It's located conveniently across the street from the town. So there's plenty of parking available on street >> on those private driveways, private roads for fire trucks that are going
down there. Usually in dead ends, there has to be a culde-sac so fire trucks can turn around. Is there enough radius there for our equipment to turn in event of an incident? exist for RSI qualified family courts, but because they are under 300 ft, they don't require a full
sack or like a hammerhead turn around. The fire truck will basically pull in and then back out again. Those lanes that are there, one of them is about 170 ft long. The other one was probably 160. So they're not very long for
two. So the vehicle would just >> I know you answered part of that question, but if somebody was wanting to have a party, right? Not just parking, but say, you know, like a block party and those are private streets. Is that
just something that the HOA approves? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> That would have to be in the bylaws would say you want to have one of those platforms. I don't know. But if you want to block it off, they own it. They can make that decision. They can have Halloween
treat. >> I'm going to give some references to the Harrison. similar development. So in terms of lot area like I said the minimum lot area previously was acite acres
in terms of building a little bit differently but essent building in addition for building height. This is proposing a density less than 30% less than that. So they're proposing
a density of 23.3 units an acre. So it's about 10 units an acre less than the pri in terms of building height. Uh the prior and what was being proposed there was four stories.
There are a couple uh home builders that working with based on some of the prototypes that they're looking at for those town houses. looking at a townhouse height of four stories 45 ft which is 10% less than the other
in terms of the coverage it's the same% this is roughly 80% so in terms of standard similar this is actually it's less density it's less building
compared proposed on a similar site in architecture. I do have uh the board up behind me. I do have a couple handouts. I probably don't have as many for everyone. So, I do apologize, but I
won't >> package provided four different potential architectural books. >> Correct. There are two that they're looking to do here. The first one up here you can see
is like a white pan with stone that alternates. Again, these are just sample templates layouts and designs. A final building footprint and design haven't been done yet. This is really
a sample of what could happen here in terms of the townhouse layout. So again, you have the first one here and I'll just flip this over. I know some of you have handouts the second layout which is very similar. Again, it's like this one does show garages on the front
entrance. This is just a sample in terms of color and materials that could be used here to give the council an idea of what's being done. I will say it's very similar in appearance to what you would see from the station on the railway side of it. So would be matching in terms of
that are very uh public transit oriented design in terms of the material layout. So we do think this is fitting for this area here which is why we presenting purposely these two versus the original question for those of us who are
challenged. >> Sure. I think so. So, this is what you would see from Walter Nightingale here or depending on some of the other town houses, there's a pedestrian uh
So it will be the facades on these two sides as well as on the northern lot line as well. So essentially the buildings are facing in towards each other creating two multif family ports that have those access points and then in terms of pedestrian access we'll call
it a primary entrance facing basically the south and then two don't have a side elevation here, but it would be a side elevation. So, there would be windows on that side as well. Have the benefit of having extra windows
for their bedroom and things like that. So they'll still present nice intent of the applicant similar as the remainder of primary question. Yes. Would those
have ability something like that. So answer question and to answer those questions the control of home home ownership cannot be
regulated. Anybody who owns a single family home can lease it out. We would love to control right so that the people who bought it are the only people that can use it. But my understanding and will be corrected by Mr. I don't think we control what
happens after. >> Okay. So, on that topic for architecture, I'm going to flip this board over just to show you some floor plan for the layout so you have a feel for what's inside. So what this first plan is showing is the ground floor.
It's called the lower level as well as the main level. So the lower level shown on the left side of the page. And what that's showing you again is that main entrance that fo with like a wreck room and a powder room on that ground level two garage in the back. And again that
will be facing the uh the two driveways that you saw in that prior rendering. As you go up the stairs there that'll into the main living space. That's where you have your kitchen, your dining area, your break room, as well as what's for
call it a sky, but basically like a cover patio on that floor. There'll be an upper level that'll cover it, but it'll be an outdoor area. There's some optional features there of like a fireplace and other things, but it will be a nice outdoor area right off the
The second page is, let's say, a little bit more complicated, but it kind of goes towards what I was speaking about before in terms of the two to four bedroom arrangement. So, when you get up to the third floor, that's where you have your main bedroom area. So, you can see that the owner's bedroom would be
basically above that dining area, above the garage on the back. And then in the front you either have the option of two smaller bedrooms or potentially just one larger bedroom. So that floor can either be configured for three bedrooms or two bedrooms. And then from there you would take the
stairs up the top floor which is the lofted fourth floor area. And then up there you can again either have like a a working space you know for people want to work from home or just another space. One of the options all the way to the right is to add that fourth bedroom. So
based on the configuration of what the home buyer is looking to do, you can end up with anywhere between two bedrooms. So with that, I know I kind of went through things pretty quickly. More than happy to answer any questions for the board,
I should say, regarding this project. Again, we're very excited to present this. It's a good project. for sale houses oriented right along the tracks believe. >> Yeah. So few questions. So first one
just visually from the property um where it ends I think next to it is the auto body place and another um next door. What are you going to do next to the last row of town homes for aesthetics on the outside of that for people who are
spending a good deal of money to buy this? >> I was actually just talking to my colleague about that earlier this evening. So you can see that townhouse is facing the body here on the left side. >> Yep. So right now we're just showing that as
foundation sidewalk but looking at the auto body there is room to cover the intention to screen that immediate view from those townous people living there
but for those who want to enter through the front entrance You stole my next question. >> Yeah, I'm going to bring up somebody else, but along those lines, we're going to have to do whatever we're going to have to do to make this project work based on contract purchasers. So, if
it's AR or whatever it is to make sure that it's going to work, we're going to do this because we want to be able to Yep. So, I drove by the lot over the weekend just taking a look at, you know, where it was. So, I I wasn't sure if that industrial building was coming down or not. Now, I have a better view of
what it is. You know, on a piece of paper, it looks open and, you know, looks great. Is it going to be condensed? Is it going to look squashed in that footprint there? >> So, the town houses, uh, I would say no.
The home builders that we were working have specifically chosen these townhouse units for this style. We proposed them on other sites that are being contemplated around this layout.
So when you're talking about the entrance, we'll call it the middle of the site right here where you have all the entrances facing each other. It's going to be a nice decorative lantern. There's going to be a lot of foundation
as you walk down the spine towards your house. Everybody's etc. The final layout supposedly >> and then behind it on Harrison Avenue, there are single family homes there along Harrison Avenue. So that's what back up to their backyards there.
There's a couple of homes there. >> Yep. Yeah. One of the neighbors may have a private garden there. That's okay. >> Okay. Um, in terms of, and maybe you're not prepared to talk about this stuff yet,
but in terms of putting 30 town homes homes there with multiple bathrooms and stuff like that, in terms of utilities for that area, um, water supply, sewer lines, things like that that are going to on the private roads, would that be something that the developer would handle or would they be looking for the municipality for in terms of utilities?
>> So, all the improvements on site will be handled once they're completed by the HOA. That's inclusive of the utility lines that basically site once it gets to the Houston Avenue where we're anticipating connecting all
right but the intent will be to have basically draw around that we have to pay for everything on that site It turns out there's an upgrade that's necessary to
those are things that are typically negotiated to provide but for the essential improvements. Okay. >> Question right away
right away. >> Yes. >> PSG involved in any way. >> They will get notice the application but because we're not interfering with the property don't expectations. uh environmental that is an industrial
complex to that one section there. Any concerns about soil and that kind of stuff? >> I'm not familiar with any phase one studies on the property. >> So whatever issues, we're going to have to
stand this project. So we're going to work with demonstrate that whatever clean my remaining questions will be financial. So I don't know if you have to bring somebody else up for that.
>> There's no private yard space for houses. Basically, they have the town. So, that's kind of like I wouldn't call it like recreational space, but it won't be.
>> So, our demographic Somebody's got to buy national but I want to stay in town my kids the other folks young people who don't want a forever home right they want to move in they want to live in a community
like with excellent school They don't they're not ready for the forever homes. So that's the demographic that we kind of sell to that >> and obviously New York City commuters >> I think so because
that's >> okay. Thank you for presentation. Alexander from DMR. >> Thank you. Alex, you prepared that hand. >> And does that hand out walk through the
potential things, right? potential taxes that would be generated from this site as well as the current taxes potentially impact school system. >> Great. And did you rely on the kind of
tried and true that are out there to determine that? >> Yes. >> And we understand ultimately somebody else is going to have to go through that disease. >> Yeah. Right at this top of the second page. Um I call direct public records.
The 2025 tax assessments for these three months um total assessed value between the land and the buildings was about 1.9 million and a tax rate of 2.295 ratio of 94.62
tax income to the municipality was about $42,000, >> you went analysis based on what you believe the sale point of these units were going to be. So, first of all, where did we get the sale point of those units? >> Yeah, our sales prices um are actually
we're hoping a little bit higher than what is shown here on the tax >> anywhere between on this you're showing $860,000 between the land and the building assessment. That's just a tax basis.
We're hoping the sale prices will do an analysis. So, what did you do your tax analysis on? What what price did you do your analysis? I don't know if the town would assess the taxes based on sales prices or if
they would assess it as just maybe a little more traditional on a cost basis. They put value on the land the land value that I show here of $260,000 per unit. I took that actually directly from the state department.
Every one of those units and those are similar units. They're older. They're not transit oriented. Every one of those units have a land valuation tax assessment of $260,000. I think it's actually a fair assessment
for this project as well. And then the building value I put at $600,000 that is our projected cost improvements for this development. So that $860,000 the other way might
this is a conservative approach and when you use that conservative approach you apply what are we expect about 4 That doesn't end the equation because we're not familiar with your school
capacity. We don't know for certain cost per you may very well know that did you do an analysis as to what the cost could be to the community for adding Oh, by the way, did you did an analysis how many school age children?
>> I did. Yeah, it's not really my analysis. I took it from the records school from 2006 which to my knowledge is standards in New Jersey. It provides specific student generation rates based on type, location,
demographic, etc. So that looking at that study, I arrived at a what I think again was a conservative number of.14 public school age children per
Some of these towns went two bedrooms and went to five and six. >> Oh, sorry. It was the affordable units we actually used a higher multip
tried to do an estimate as to what cost people could add assuming they needed to add more teachers and >> yeah that was based off of uh the US news and public school review that is an annual report that draws directly from
the news department of education the year ending in 20 sorry 2024 to 2025 the uh reported annual school district
I don't know if that's accurate but the good news is multip4000 like you said numbers those costs per student typically don't increase because you have fixed costs
facilities and what we're talking about increase in tax about anywhere between $400. >> Thank you. >> So uh first question for me I I see 24 on here. The other six are the the low-inccome uh units. How does that
factor into the calculation? >> The uh affordable units do have a higher SG student generation rate. Um so those numbers vary pretty widely in that we go from anywhere from two students up to
1.4 students per minute. Um these will DCA ultimately determine mix between those six units. might be a one bedroom, one of them might typically land somewhere.
So I think approach >> but the uh so we don't know estimated value because that could be one, two or three bedrooms. So you don't know what the value of the sale price for those would be >> for the for the tax assessment, >> right? For tax assessment. You didn't include those. So that's an addition on
top of whatever >> additional taxes are pretty low. I failed to mention that with respect to affordable comp. >> So, um, Craig or and maybe somebody could tell me how it works with those
affordable units. How does that pricing work? I know how it works with the rental units, but in a U purchase, how does that work? >> There's there's a price set by the Once you determine if it's a onebedroom, two bedroom, three bedroom depending on whether it's a low very very low low mod whatever there's a charge and it just
it's set by the state. >> Thank you. based on that. >> Yeah. Right. Suffice it to say how you get that. We didn't include that
in the analysis. Tax, >> right? So tax revenue is awesome. We we would love to hear about that coming into the budget. Um from a timeline perspective, one, what's the um timeline for building? Two, do you build once you
have sold those units? Are they pre-sold before you start building? Um what's kind of the timeline before we start seeing tax generated revenue? >> I'm going to take the first part. >> Okay. >> So Anna and Craig are going to give you the process. If you like this project,
you the kind of project that we hope you do. Um, we're going to ask you to direct Mr. Ryder to prepare a redevelopment plan that allows us to build that as a matter of soon as that plan, you will be in probably 30 to 45 days approval as a
matter of so we're going to talk about streets. We're going to talk about, you know, what goes on in the planning as a matter of once that's done, Alex, I'm going to turn it over to you. What are your thoughts in terms ofce we approval. When do you think construction?
>> Sure. Once we have the final site plan approval from the burrow, we do still have a few other government authorities to go through within hopefully two or three months from final site approval that we have our government approvals. We would go in
and improve the entire site at once. So all the underground utilities water paving everything would be done once for a site of this size probably three months of work before we start building vertically and we would start to answer
your question about phasing we would start I would say it's a little early for me to determine this it's not really my call uh but we would probably start with at least one building pad full pad of six or seven units um to build units
and both technically on spec and while those are going up marketing remaining units and building them as soon as possible we would like to get in. >> So DMR is going to be very busy in town with uh the Harrison Avenue project and
this um part of my other real other job I'll say is project planning and stuff like that. So, how does it all coordinate together with doing two, you know, not huge projects for for DMR size, but for for Waldwick's size, two pretty big projects happening at the same time down there.
>> Well, you guys have one person to call issues that makes it easier for you. Uh, for us, you know, the timing depending when we start with Harrison Avenue, I know we have a few items we need to finalize, but when we start, ideally, we'd like to just kind of think back. So
we go in do all the site work probably few months before we're ready over here but we just found over there subcontractors as soon as those buildings are finished
on Harrison Avenue >> the next years >> in terms of project financing because this is a different one when because you're having sold homes, right? So, is the project financing worked differently in this project versus what is on the Harrison Avenue as being rental units?
>> Uh financing for us ourselves? >> Y >> yeah, it depends on the on the strength of the project, I would say, and the lender you're working with. Traditional banks right now they they like rental properties better asset but there are
plenty of lenders especially in transit or developments and town homes in Bergen County are pretty big right now financing structure is a little bit differently but ultimately >> and I I do understand uh that there's no
pilot on this program >> right >> I will say benefits >> yeah we're we're learning all about pilots >> and I don't want to bang anybody over the head but there are tremend there is one town that I work the mayor's first
request every time this you're going to need a pilot, right? Because sometimes your schools are completely good. You don't need any additions. You don't it's not going to negatively impact the school age children. And even in those that do the mayor has said, "We don't have a
problem with pilot. If you need an addition, you come to me and I'll use that pilot money and I'll enter into an interlocal agency agreement with you to get you that money. We're not just going to give it to you so that it can be used and you don't need it. But I can tell you that there's tremendous benefits to
doing a pilot. But but I will allow Anna and Craig to explain all that. >> Yeah, we're we've been getting fully educated over the last few months on pilots. So >> benefits not just to the developments to the community. >> Yep. I'm done with my questions. I don't know if anybody else from council
>> actually kind of on the somewhat on the aesthetic. The other development you just kind of I know it's over to the right. This one is right. >> Yeah, it's uh it's about two blocks away towards the center of
town. >> Okay. So, whistle stop is kind of between and then >> Well, well, you're looking at it there. So, that property, then you get to Whistle Stop, then you get to Rocket, right? Rocket. Then behind Rocket Harrison Avenue is where the other
project is. Correct. >> I know I've seen some of the plans for Harrison Avenue similar not internal but externally. >> Yes, it would. the uh you know Harrison Avenue obviously includes an apartment
building Harrison that's kind of the main feature but it is wrapped with 21 town homes that are uh you know these homes are going to be a little bit bigger a little bit wider two garages we plan on using a
similar mix of materials bricks aesthetically Okay. Thank you. Appreciate your uh information tonight. >> I want to thank everybody for their time tonight. Just have a seat on your
ask this is something we have contracting as there's no guarantee that grant extensions so toward that project
very much >> thank you appreciate it thank I got a call. >> This point, we're just going to wait one minute for uh Mayor Jaro to return. Mics are still on. Everybody fell asleep.
Got a lot accomplished. Okay. At this time, I'd like to have a motion, a second to change the order of business to move into close session. Do I have a motion to second? Motion by Joe, second by somebody, Andy.
Now, do I have a motion, a second to go into close. Motion by Courtney, second by Angela. All those in favor? >> All opposed? How long do you 15 minutes? >> 15 minutes.
Okay, round two. Okay, we're going to continue our meeting under the mayor's report. I just have a quick uh u item to talk about. Uh on Sunday, I went to the Waldick band, which was originally the Waldick Fire Department band. the uh gentleman who
ran the band who was the conductor and the music director, Edmund Matarachi, uh retired after 48 years in the running the band and they had a uh he had a concert and then uh they had a little ceremony for him honoring him. So I went there and on behalf of the mayor and
council and the community, I presented him with a certificate of recognition thanking him for his 48 years of service. Other than that, that's all I have. Uh anybody have anything for financial administrative? Mr. Montello. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, so a few
updates. I'll save some of the comments for later when we go through the budget. I just want to take an opportunity to thank um our administrator Tatiana, our clerk Kelly, our CFO colleague, all the department heads that that worked on the budget as well as the members of the finance committee, Councilman Renick,
Councilman Richie for all their efforts on this budget. uh not a easy process for sure and of course it's not the outcome that any of us would always want in terms of raising our tax rate for this year. Um as we talked about when we
introduced it, the budget is going to have a tax increase proposal for 9.8%. Um and that's on the municipal piece. It's not on your overall tax bill. Just want to hammer that home again. The rough average is about $240 $250 per
year for an average home based upon the assessed value of $566,000. So it's on that portion where the tax increase will go. Uh the remainder of our budget is is relatively flat except for a couple lines mostly driven by the
state health insurance which is out of our control being a state health plan. So again, we have to continue to look for opportunities like we heard tonight as well as with the pilot program on Harrison Avenue. Those two alone have
some really good potential to bring in some nice dollars to our budget. It's not tomorrow. It's a couple years down the road before we start seeing benefits. One of the questions I asked earlier, but I do think that will help us long term in in our budget as we move
along. We're talking, you know, b on the numbers tonight. It'll be up over $700,000 a year additional revenue for the fur, which is quite helpful as we continue to look at things. We also will continue to meet as a council. I think uh mayor said last time we're going to
start having I think monthly meetings talk about budget so we can constantly track the progress throughout the year looking for opportunities for uh maybe other cohorts with other towns on things that we can look at as contracts come up
and look for opportunities as as they come along. Um also tonight you'll see a capital budget is also proposed. We have a healthy budget $2 million in there. uh always we could do more but 2 million is is a number that we feel comfortable with that will address continued road
paving program in conjunction with road paving programs from the county you'll see a lot of paving going on in BIC this year so if you do have questions about roads being paved make sure you call in and question so that we can share that information with you also included a
water capital budget which includes um upgrades some of the facilities there in addition to that Um the office put in a request to Cy Booker's offers, Senator Booker's offers for additional $1.2 million in state funding which would be
used for for water. Um those are in process. I think we may pass the first step. Um which is good news. So that means it's on a docket. We'll hear in a couple of months and we'll continue to get that money. Um on other front, our audit wrap up is
happening for 2025. So that's almost done. Also good. We're almost finished with our PBA contract, which is excellent. Set us up for several years with our our great department that we have and uh and get that past us. And uh we continue to look at our grants
proposals that we're working on. So, right now in in process, we have five grant programs that we're looking at. It's the 2026 Bergen County Open Space Fund for uh Veterans Park, basketball, and path resurfacing. We have the 2026
Bergen County historical full application. That's for the Erie Railroad Station Tower. We have the 2022 Bergen County Open Space for Burough Park and full paving. We have local transportation projects for ped pedestrian safety. And we have the
fiscal year 2027 municipal aid for roadway resurfacing and pedestrian safety. So, that's a lot in progress. We also have submitted and are pending $2.1 million in uh grants, including what we talked about earlier for Senator Booker. So, a lot of work being done on on
grants to also um help us out with our budget. So, that's all all I'll have for now. I will have one additional plug tomorrow at the Wook High School. There is a benefit for one of the young men in the program um for cancer. So, if you
have the ability to stop by Walden High School tomorrow night, there's a game at 6:30. Um, and there's a food truck and there's a lot of events happening down there. Come out and support the program for that young man for cancer research. So, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. >> Thank Thank you. Fire and Police
Protection Committee, Mr. Brennick. >> Uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Given the hour, I'm going to incorporate my my thoughts into our next >> Very good. Public safety committee, Miss Windgate. >> Thank you.
Recreation and health, Miss Smith. >> We had a really productive conversation about different activities that can So, one of the things we've been talking about is
aging. So, they've been in contact with an organization called they could be similar at So just looking at the needs of the blood pressure screen at the time we want to add
in that we also started talking about sponsor business memory screen and possibly older adult. >> Thank you, our administrator.
>> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I wanted to touch on what council president Martinelloo touched on earlier that we got good news this week uh that the appropriations that we had submitted as part of uh the water department's capital projects for
2027 which include water man replacement uh has made it uh through to the next step. This is a big accomplishment um given that the timeline for this request and the request for uh both senators as well as congressman
um included really quick turnaround times. Um we have a great team here. We got together all the order together with our uh grant uh uh grant contact as well and we were able
to put this through 4.2 million. Um and so we're on a list um it's a competitive list. It's a competitive process. Um the federal appropriations process um can be turbulent at times and so we won't know an answer for the next few months but um
the effort has been put forth and um I think they really recognize when we spoke to them what kind of uh what kind of positions small municipalities in New Jersey are put in when there are large capital projects that um you know
benefit the entire community that that the council deserves and these are projects that can make or break municipalities. So any help get the same over the federal government um you know are huge in terms of moving forward. So
happy to see that we were included, happy to see that they valued what we had presented to them. And um again with Bruno Associates uh being our our grant consultant will continue to move forward to pursue any grants available to the burrow. Um and as you see when we
present the budget tonight, you'll see um you know it's an important part of the entire budget that we put together. >> Thank you, mayor. >> Okay. Thank you. I have a clerk. >> Thank you, mayor. Um, vote by mail ballots have gone out. Uh, posted on the
clerk's page under voter information is the new vote by mail ballot video, which provides a step-by-step guidance on how to complete the vote by mail um, ballot. May 12th is the last day to register to vote in the primary election. My office will be open until 7 p.m. that night for
voter registration. We have issued 825 dog licenses today. And just a reminder for those who did license their dogs to please uh, come and pick up their dog license. There are several free rabies clinics in the area. Um May 6, Garfield,
4:30 to 7 at the Garfield um uh public works garage, 413 Midland Avenue. May 11th, uh the closest one is Midland Park, 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the um Midland Park Municipal Building, 280 Godwin Avenue. And then May 12th, uh in
Hawthorne, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Hawthorne pool parking lot on War Road and May Street. Just a reminder for those uh elected and appointed officials uh to submit their 2026 financial disclosure statements. Uh they are due no later than April uh 30th. U Melissa's
continued follow up on those and um failure to submit those results in a personal fine starting at $100 um issued by the state division of local government services. So for those who have not completed it, please do so. Uh we also had a meeting uh yesterday with
the 250th anniversary um group celebration uh which is going to be Sunday May 17th from uh 10:30 to 3. We'll have more details. They're putting together the flyer. Um the burrow is doing um a few things for the uh for the project. It sounds really great. It's
it's going to be a lot of fun. So just look for that flyer and we'll have more updates hopefully for the uh we definitely will for the May 12th. We've actually invited them to the May 12th meeting to give a a little presentation on what they're going to be doing that day. >> There will be a special guest
>> and a special guest will be coming with them. >> So, um >> so that'll be May 12th. Uh that's all I have. Thank you. >> Thank you, B attorney. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just real quick, I'm pleased to announce that the court has signed the order so for our fourth round of compliance. So, we have our
final judgment of compliance code. So, that closes that out for the next 10 years. That's all. Thank you. Thank you. Consent resolutions and resolutions of the governing body. >> Be it resolved as the following resolutions here within listed by
consent be considered by the governing body of the burough holdings are hereby passed and approved. 2026125 approval of consent 2026 126 approval of minutes regular meeting and close session meeting April 14th 2026. Policy votes A.
request to hold a block party May 24th from 4 to 9 with highwood app to be closed between Summit A and Portland Street with alcohol beverages being served. The Alexandra Burn request to hold a block party on May 30th from 1 to 9:00 p.m. with Smithfield uh road to be
closed between 38 Smithfield and 58 Smithfield with alcohol beverages being served. C. requests to use pavilion A on May 24th from 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. for a birthday party with alcohol beverages being served. D Mo requests to use
billionaire A on June 20th from 10:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. for a birthday party with alcoholic beverages being served. And also leave requests to use A on July 25th from 1 to dusk for a birthday party with alcoholic beverage being served. The form school requests permission to park at the pool parking lot on May 8th
from 8:30 a.m. to the end of the school day. 26 127 awarded nonar professional service contract engineering services for engineering services 2025 2026 ADA cur upgrades in the amount of 22,500
202628 approval of social affair permit for the friends of the wall library 2026129 approve of an annual extension on premise for gear blocking company LLC uh 2026130 authorize release of dumpster escrow for 30 Campell Street 2020 2631
cancellation and refund of taxes for block 16 lot 2426132 accept the resignation of Chase as police officer effective May 1726 and 2026 133 >> do I have a motion a second to accept
motion by Andy second by Joe anyone have a question not clerk please take the role >> Mr. Yes. >> Mell. >> Yes. >> Miss. >> Yes. Miss. >> Okay. 2026-134.
Waiver of reading in full of the 2026 admin budget. May I have a motion in a second? Motion by Joe, second by Angela. Cler, please take the role. >> Mr. Bren, >> yes. >> Mr. Marello, >> yes. >> Miss Smith,
>> yes. Miss, yes. 2026-135 self-examination of the 2026 municipal budget. Do I have a motion to second? Motion by Joe, second by Courtney. Anyone have a question? Clerk, take the role. >> Mr. Brown, >> yes. >> Mr. Marlo, >> yes.
>> Miss Smith, >> yes. Miss, >> yes. >> Okay. At this time, we will have the 2026 municipal budget presentation. Okay. Okay. Did you're good. The cord's pretty long, Joe. You can
keep moving up. Just don't know. There's a glare on the screen that's making it difficult to read. >> Not quite. Keep going forward. slightly better. Go ahead and uh get started on budget
presentation. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you to Council President Barnelloo for uh the intro and uh and comments that he made earlier. What you'll see here is a presentation that um We also provided in the council meeting at the
introduction of the budget meeting and uh thought that uh this is helpful for people to follow along and uh understand what the process looks like. You can go to the first slide please. So how did we get to uh our adoption here this evening? Uh preliminary budget
meetings began in October of 2025. Uh those are meetings with the administration and the uh council committee that that finances in December and nove I'm sorry November and December we held individual department budget meeting so every
single uh department that's uh within the burough's uh confines has a meeting with the administration office and my office directly to look at uh where their numbers landed in 25 and what to expect and how to adjust in the
following year in January and February we spent a lot of time preparing the draft budget A lot of work goes into that along with the assistance of the burough's auditor and other professionals to get to that point. In February and March, the council finance committee did their
budget review. At that time, tweaks are made based on what uh our auditor at the time recommends in terms of being compliant with the budget and the caps that uh you know that we're uh that were required to follow. and that led to the
budget introduction in March. And here we are this evening for the public hearing and the adoption of the 26 budget. The 2026 proposed budget uh is 17,50,999. The next slide will tell you how that
fares uh with last year's numbers. It is in a 2.36% 2.36% uh increase from last year's numbers. Um self explanatory there on the next page give you a breakdown of what comprises
that 17 million. So at the very top I'll start at the top state aid u we are fortunate that our state aid uh continues that's 14.7% of the entire operating budget. So we get about 2498
million from the state to help offset the budget cost that we have. If you move over to the right, revenue fees collected. Those are the fees that uh you know, as residents, you may be paying uh when you're dealing with the clerk's office or with the building
department. Um we bring about $1.9 million, 11.4% of our total operating budget is covered by revenue fees that we collect. At the bottom, fund balance. We have a lot of uh discussion around fund balance and um I'll get into a
little bit more detail in a later slide on that but uh this year the fund balance covers about 13.2%. It's two and a4 million uh that uh that'll be supplementing the overall budget and then the taxes that's 60.7%
of the overall operating budget at about $10 million. Okay, next slide. The history of the fund balance. So you can this kind of gives you an indication of where we were uh with the fund balance overall total going back to 2021. We were at about 7.5
million every year. The bureau has continued to use a portion of the fund balance to balance the budget. So you'll see that uh at the end of 2025 the fund balance uh total was5,464,000
though we have continued to go down over time. The next slide uh just shows you approximately how much we've been using every year. So it's been pretty close to 2 million. Uh in 2024 the bureau did spike up to 2.5 million uh this year as
part of the budget process. We did make and the council made it a concerted effort to uh try to make a a reduction in the usage of that uh that fund balance. Uh so two and a quarter was where they landed.
If you look at this next slide, it shows you the major appropriation increases that we have. um the police um wages at the top, the increase from last year to this year, $336,000. Our group health uh insurance, which is
is a statewide um uh you know, issue for many municipalities, uh $226,000 and that was dependent on the increase that the bureau and the um and the employees were being charged and and we
continue to will increase every year. We have don't have any indication that this would stop for for the next few years. So, it's it's been a challenge to keep up with that number. Our snow removal, $50,000 up. Uh we start this year with with some pretty bad storms. And as you
can imagine, that adds to the appropriations. And then, uh from there, it goes through a few other ones. our legal costs, our utilities, our recycling, social security, our solid waste collection, which is uh under contract currently, and then our general reliability
insurance. So, um the increases account for $817,000 from the previous year. Okay, the 2025 average tax breakdown. Um all of these graphics just tell you pretty much the same thing and how your
um taxes are split up. If you see on the the dollar bill, Bergden County accounts for for every dollar, it's about 10.8% that goes to the county. 19.9% comes to the burrow and 69.3% goes to the Wald School District. So, um
on an average assessed house of 565,000, the if your total um tax bill is, you know, $12,967 um I'm sorry. Uh 19% of that amount will go to uh to the municipality and the other goes to the county school
district. Again, the summary of the budget we introduced uh this year at 17 million. The tax levy is 9.86%. And the increase from the 2025 budget is $392,000
568. gives you an idea that uh we're not talking about a spending issue here, but it's more so uh really a picture about the costs that have gone up that municipality has had to keep up with. The average assessed home at this time is $567,000.
So to try to quantify that kind of uh 9% increase to the increase to the average assessed home will come out to be about $19.37 a month uh overall. And as was mentioned previously, we do
two budgets. We do our general operating budget and then we do have since we do run a utility, a water department, we do have a water department operating budget. We introduced that budget at 2.681 million. And uh that's $1,286,39
increase from last year. again um in order to try to minimize and and be within the confines of what was required and what we can do in terms of increases. Um that's why those appropriation requests and other grants are really vital to running our utility
and helping us move forward to address infrastructure and other capital projects. >> Sure. Uh again, these are some of the same numbers we talked about last time and we did a little detailed review when we uh last spoke about the budget. When you
look at line items out of that $17 million, when you take away line items that are fixed, meaning salary and wages, meaning health insurance, meaning things that are out of our control, we basically run the rest of the town on a $2 million budget. Um so those numbers are very tight. There's not a lot of
room there. Um, so this is the picture that we painted over the last couple of months and it's a conclusion of that process. So welcome any comments from the rest of the council have a chance to review these things. It was a kind of, you know, very
difficult to do what we had to do, but in the the scope of everything, you know, we are being uh very physically responsible to what we spend and how we spend and we're just trying to keep up with the the times and all these increases that we're getting. >> And I I just want to add one thing to
that because you you made me remember something. >> Oh, thank you. Okay. The one one thing I am proud of, the town has not cut any services for residents. We continue to prioritize health and safety uh with our contracts with the police, our DPW, uh
the spending that we do on the fire department. So, we take that very seriously. We did not reduce any headcount. In fact, we've increased headcount over the last few years to provide additional police officers, to provide for our schools, to provide additional office help, to provide um
clerk for the police department, provide a clerk for the DPW. So, we've in fact increased services for the town, we hear the residents who come out and vote for those things. So, while um there is an offset for that and that includes increased budget. So, I am proud that we
did not have to uh let anyone go or reduce any services to our community. So, thank you, Mr. May, for reminding me of that. As we speak, >> we're we're always looking at that. We we've never ever wanted to lay off anybody. I don't even think we've ever laid off anybody. They left, but they were never laid off. And we always
replace them with qualified people that take their place. Anyone else? Yes. >> Anything, sir? I do think that we did a great job. The bottom line is building reality.
a terrific job. >> That's what I >> And thank you for using the word we. >> Yes. Anything? >> I said I wanted to thank the people who really had a lot of budget and the work that went into it. wanted us to read the
whole budget for three hours. Thank you so much for everybody. It is something that was necessary for this year. We are going to look for
>> right and as Joe pointed out we will be having meetings but there will not be meetings of just three or four council people. It will be the whole council. Even if we have to have a special meeting like we used to do years ago. We used to have a meeting a work session on a Monday. Then we on a the first uh Tuesday of the month and the the second
and fourth. If we have to do that, we're going to do that. But we are going to be having meetings so the whole public could hear what we do so no one is accused of doing anything wrong. Anyone else? Nope. I close the public's I'm sorry the council's comments and open up to the public. Anybody from the
public would like to comment on the budget that was just presented? if you could kindly come up and state your name for the record. If not, I close the public. I'm sorry. Yes, you have to come up to the microphone. Just give us your name.
open this summer. I know that was a concern. >> There were no cuts to the pool in the budget and has >> that has on the public's comments and you could come up for that. This is just about the
budget right now. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? If not, I uh ask for a motion a second to pass this on to second reading and that the clerk be authorized to post this notice as required by law. Motion to second. by Joe and by Andy. Clerk, please take
the role. >> Let me go this one and this one. Right, >> Mr. Smith? >> Yes. >> Okay. At this time, the clerk will read ordinance number 2026-04.
>> Ordinance number 2026-04. bond ordinance to authorize the making of various public improvements and the acquisition of new additional replacement equipment and machinery, new communication and signal system equipment and new information technology communications in and for the burough
public in the county of Berg State of New Jersey to appropriate the sum of $2,73,600 to pay the cost thereof to appropriate burough capital surplus and state grants to make a down payment to authorize the issuance of bonds to finance such appropriation and to provide for the
issuance of bond anticipation in anticipation of the issuance of such bonds. >> Anybody from the council would like to comment on this ordinance? >> Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, this is an ordinance talking about the capital budget that we discussed earlier. This will be the amount that we have to fund
for the capital improvements in roads in the police equipment that we're looking at for the body cams and additional DPW equipment. So, >> anyone else? If not, I close the U council's comments and open up to the public. Anybody from the public would
like to comment on this ordinance. >> Just talk a little bit louder. Thank you. Do the bonds add to not the taxes but will we get an additional charge
taxes for the bonds? So the bureau has traditionally tried to stay flat with the bonds. Um it does affect the general operating budget because we do have to put money towards the down payment. Uh so you know it is part of the overall
operating budget. We do anticipate uh to have a presentation from our uh auditor I believe sometime early fall to talk about next steps for bonds. Um but it is something that the burough looks at when we're looking at the two million mark
you know that compounds over time. So um so the the council had a discussion about that you know what level are we comfortable uh being at but obviously with the projects and um you can spend a million dollars in 15 minutes nowadays but um but the reality is that that's
something that we look at to try to be as flat as possible. >> Thank you. Anybody here? >> Okay. Anyone else from the uh public? If not, I close the public's comments and ask for a motion and a second to pass his order on second reading and that the
clerk be authorized to post this notice as required by law. Motion second. Motion by Angela, second by Courtney. Clerk, please take the role. >> Mr. Bick, >> yes. >> Mr. Smith, >> yes. Missy. >> Okay. Clerk, kindly read ordinance
number 2026-05. >> Ordinance number 2026-05. Uh bond orders are authorized making the dire public improvements and the acquisition of new additional replacement equipment and machinery in by and for the water utility of the bur in the county of burden state in New
Jersey $275,000 the cost thereof to authorize the issuance of bonds to finance such appropriation and to provide for the issuance of bond anticipation notes in anticipation of the issuance of such bonds. >> Anybody from the council would like to
comment on this audience that was just read. >> Thank you Mr. Again, this is again the water portion of our budget for capital. These are the items that will be approved by the council for capital improvements for the water system.
>> Anybody else from the council? If not, open it up. I close the council's comments and open to the public. Anybody from the public would like to comment? If not, I close the public's uh comments and ask for a motion to second the passage of the ordinance on second reading and that the clerk be authorized
to post notice as required by law. Motion in the second by Joe, second by Andy. Clerk, please take the role. >> Mr. Bon, >> yes. >> Mr. Marlo, >> yes. >> Miss Smith. >> Yes. >> Okay. Do we have any unfinished business from
the council? Nope. Any new business from the council? >> Nope. There's a lot of events that are going on in our towns uh in May and June. So, just look on in our website uh and see what's going on so that you
could know and take part of everything. Don't forget we have uh the uh dedication of the reopening of the new um Waldwick Lions Club memorial playground on s on Saturday at 10 10:30. And then at 8:30 we have the 5K run
which is going to be in honor of the 250th anniversary of our country. Anyone else? New business. Yes. >> I hope everybody signed up for the newsletter. So she makes my job easy when I do have time to talk about
that. I think they're in chronological order. >> They certainly are. Right. Prioritize. This is a very busy weekend. access and the town and also the two things.
>> Anyone else? Okay, we'll open up to the public. Anybody from the public that would like to comment? You could come up now. Just a question. Has a pool manager been hired yet or >> we continue to interview but we have not made any hires for assistant pool
manager or the pool manager at this time. >> Okay. So we are open or how does that work? If there is not Wi-Fi, >> in order to open the pool, we will need a pool manager.
Are you promoting your husband here? >> Yes. >> We never got rid of them though. >> We've had them every year. Yeah. So, so everybody knows what how this was going on because I know some people criticize me for soliciting business from people. We didn't solicit
anything. These are people. These are big companies in our town that wanted to do something. And what I did was we took advantage of them like they we did last year. Like I said, whatever the imagination happen >> I think we'll be all right.
>> Yeah. No, I know. one of the few services that adults can participate into. >> Well, we gave everybody music and now we'll give them water. Yes. So, um our application, the bureau's uh application for all
employment, it's one application is on our website if you go to employment opportunities and um they should fill that out and they can email me directly with um you know a cover letter certifications um and you know a letter of interest. >> If you go to employment opportunities,
there's a link for the employment application. Anybody else from inside the public? And then anybody in there? >> No, it is not. >> Related to what? >> Related to what? >> So thereern members
sides to say these problems >> not in the financial disclosure that's I don't know what what >> you would have to >> there is there isn't there is no form that they would sign they would just recuse themselves from any discussions
if they have a conflict similar how the mayors recuse themselves some of the >> question. >> Yeah. >> That would be interesting. looking at net income that's what's important. >> Yeah. So you're looking at what services
that are going to be increased for for us there. Is there additional they talked about a little bit about school age children additional cost there. That's not a linear calculation as we talked about because just because we add 70 kids doesn't mean they have to add you know a teacher for each one of those seven kids. So that math is kind of a
little shaky. Um, at this point we don't think that it'll increase our cost for police or DPW services at this point. U will there be an increase in some kind of other capacity? We'd have to look at our financial planner to see if there's any other hidden costs in there, but at
this point uh we haven't I don't want to put the chief on the spot, but we haven't asked about is this going to impact us in any additional way from a policing standpoint. I think we're well staffed there. So, the other hidden cost that you're
talking about to get to a true P&L. That's a great point and we should ask our financial advisor to look at that as well. The last thing I know >> so we we have so council Richie actually helped with that and you said over the next five years in terms a percent
increase uh based upon what we have. We also have more solid numbers now with the contracts that we have in place. So yes, we do have that. That's how we're we're pacing out where we need to be on surplus. That's why the auditor rang the alarm on hey, if you continue down this path, you're going to you're going to
expend your remaining surplus by 2030. So that's why we taking the steps that we have in trying to level it out. But we do have a 5year interestingly against Yeah. So I guess write your senator and see if we can get a reduction in the
cost of healthare for state of New Jersey. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? If not, anybody in the TV land? >> Nope. Okay. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? >> Motion by Mr. Joe, second by Courtney.
All in favor? All All those opposed. Good night everyone. Have a nice night.