##VIDEO ID:W4OZQLYD2Xs## e e e e e e e and we're on I'd like to call the meeting to order uh this meeting is being held in conformance with the Sunshine Law notice of date time and place has been furnished to the record The Ridgewood news notice has also been posted on the bulletin board of the administration building will the clerk please call the role Mr brck here Miss Sarah cldr she's just running late Mr martinello here Mr rundo here uh Mr Richie here Mrs Weber here please rise for the salute to the flag flag unit States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all we have a moment of silence can the clerk say the prayer we thank you for everyone gathered here now thank you that you know each of us by name and have cause us to walk with you we say that you're dependent on you and our trust is in you completely as we surrender ourselves in your adoration we ask that you would come by our your Holy Spirit and Inspire our hearts today come fill our lives with your love fill our conversations with your grace and truth feel this meeting with your presence we ask this for your glory and praise amen okay proclamations and presentations tonight we have a proclamation in honor of the Lunar New Year can the clerk read the proclamation sure whereas the new moon marks the New Year in the lunar calendar and ushers in celebrations for Lunar New Year which falls on January 29th 2025 this marks the end of the year of the dragon and the beginning of the year of the wood snake the snake is associated with wisdom introspection mystery and eleg wood element is associated with growth resilience and forward-looking energy and whereas Lunar New Year one of the most widely celebrated culturally significant holidays in the world it is its importance is rooted deep in history and today Remains the most important occasion for generations of families to reunite and spend time together and whereas it has been a priority for the mayor and Council to unite our community share our culture and traditions and educate younger Generations on the unique Heritage of our residents proudly displaying our diversity inclusion and equity and whereas all cultures traditions and religions make up the burrow of Waldwick and such make us a stronger more vibrant and we do not Toler any xenophobia in any form now therefore be it proclaimed the mayor council of the burough of w County of Bergen state of New Jersey to hereby proclaim a happy Lunar New Year to all our residents who celebrate and wish you happiness health and prosperity in the year of the wood snake next order of business is the mayor's fourth annual house decorating contest winner to go to the good evening everyone uh on behalf of the mayor he would like to thank the following uh judges that uh worked within this holiday presentation Dian petrassi Alana Wan maker and Ali gardano who were the judges this year for the decorating contest I'm going to read uh the addresses that were in the contest and submitted a request and we want to thank everyone for decorating their homes uh 119 Longwood Drive 65 Lillian Street 48 Sycamore Drive 44 Summit AV 58 McKay 23 Frederick Street 95 wof a 24 Monroe Street 100 Hopper a 28 Lindberg at Parkway 27 Scher a 43 Summit AV 32 West Saddle River Road 15 Bergen AV and 121 wo F can the following uh people please come up 119 Long View Drive 65 lilan Street and 48 s Drive um for yeah 119 Long View Drive is for the best overall congratulations 48 Sycamore is for most outlandish congratulations and 65 lilan H cre creative yep next item of business is the mayor's report and reports of the committee so do you want me to read his report first sure uh the mayor asked me to read his report uh the mayor attended the Chamber of Commerce meeting and spoke with them about the town's accomp accomplishments in 24 and his goals for 2025 he committed to always supporting the chamber and working with them as we always do our community and our residents uh he met with the new captain of the ambulance Corps Adrian and asked for a meeting so Adrian can formally introduce himself to the mayor as the new captain of the corps and Lucas the former captain and now president was also in attendance the mayor thanked them all for what they do for the community and the residents the mayor will be helping them on recruitment as well as the town he gave them some ideas on how to recruit new members the mayor attended the Chamber of Commerce meeting for the 5K and one mile walk to be held on May 4th the theme this year is May the 4th be with you it's a Star Wars theme he spoke of the support the burrow will again give them and this is their 17th uh year of doing this on the 14th of February the mayor will be reading at Burrow Hall Flyers posted on the website for anyone to read uh on the 27th at 6 PM in the walwick public library he will hold our second Ramadan Crescent lighting a flyer is already on our website if anyone has any questions for the mayor he reiterated that you can either email him or call him and he would answer any of or all of your questions that's all I have committee uh Financial Administration committee Mr Richie thank you uh mayor uh Mr R council president Rondo thanks good evening everyone it's it's really nice to see you we'll be doing new business this evening introducing um well we'll be having our first budget meeting for fiscal year 25 so we'll be uh doing a bit of a review on what the budget was last year kind of how it came in and I think this evening we're slated to discuss mostly uh the capital budget which is large infrastructure projects roads repairs things things of that nature so um we'll be doing that during new business I I imagine that discussion probably take about half hour 40 minutes if if you know if I had to guess so I'll save my comments for that time thank you thank you Mr Richie fire and police protection committee Mr brenick uh thank you uh during the uh during the month of January so far uh the fire department responded to about 19 calls of various types um once again it's you call we come I could go into details what they are but doesn't really matter no what matters is you call we come we did however have an ice rescue drill over at the uh at whites Pond about a week and a half or so ago it was uh was attended by the fire department police department and wal um heavily attended it was a good drill um very informative really cold out but um nonetheless a good drill uh we also have two fire officers that are currently um undertaking the um level two fire instructor courses um and if I understand correctly it's being done right here in Waldwick uh and we also have two new members who are currently in the academy uh taking uh basic fire one course that's all I have for tonight uh we'll skip the public safety for when Mr H comes back if that's okay uh Recreation and health committee Mr martinello thank you Mr council president um I had the pleasure of attending the reor meeting for the Board of Health um last week they reelected their board um to start the the New Year same board as last year um they encourage everyone to visit their website they have a lot of programs um for everyone actually I picked some programs myself for my mother-in-law which they had some Vision programs there really is an untapped resource for a lot of us so we should uh use the facilities right here in walck um they're a great resource for everyone um we do have a blood pressure screening coming up on February 5th at 11:45 a.m. at Whit sling we also have a bunch of other events this this uh in February as Mr amundo pointed out we have the Ramadan um Crescent Lighting on February 27th at the wall Public Library there is also uh a Bunko and learn play the first Wednesday of each month at the wal Library another great program to learn um on Thursday February 6th um there's a Harry Potter event um which will be great for grades three and up um there's also a quilted Hearts uh fundraiser for grades 4 through 8 on Thursday February 13th and also our Waldwick Girl Scout Troop 9 97306 is hosting a drive to benefit the Oasis Haven for women and children also another great fundraiser uh for you to contribute to and of course uh Story Time with Mar gordano on February 14th I hope everyone can come out for that um Recreation wise um W baseball is uh open their registration um they're off to a great start we already have about 200 boys and girls signed up looking forward to opening day on April 26th we invite the community to come out and participate in our annual parade and also uh see the improvements that been done down at Burrow Park which uh we're very excited about um that's it thank you Mr council president thank you Mr marello uh Public Works committee that's me uh tonight I don't have anything to discuss but I think there's some items that uh our administrator will discuss with regards to the water tonight uh buildings grounds committee Miss Weber thank you council president um few items uh we had a first frozen pipe over at the ambulance uh building and um from what I understand there wasn't too much damage and they were able to get that under control pretty quickly um the library they found that they had a broken window um they weren't quite sure what had happened so they did file a police report and from what I understand the DPW superintendent would also stopped by to assess the damage um I was at the library on the 23rd they had a concert uh the uh classic wins five wins um group was playing and uh that was uh sponsored by Tom and Victoria price their uh residents in town here and that's when uh Lori asked me if I had known about the window so we went to take a look at it so that's being taken care of um I don't the the Board of Ed meeting with the safety do you want me to bring that up under new business or new business okay and that's all I have for now thank you thank you Mr Weber um department head reports uh Pro administrator Mr Neil uh thank you council president um I'll start with water Clarity issues obviously we've been experiencing some ongoing problems we do have a nice summary that was prepared by our Engineers on the website now uh you can find that at Waldwick nj.gov Department Slater um kind of gives a summary of all the issues we started experiencing from back in June when we had that major watermain break up to uh current time now um it it really kind of Recaps everything that happened what we did our responses um and then the the next phase for that page is to actually put up a comprehensive plan of the next steps forward um with the infrastructure obviously we know we have some old infrastructure in in the areas that are experiencing the the most problems so we're just evaluating the be uh best methods forward you know if it's repair replace lining uh all our different options um we abs appreciate everything that our residents are experiencing now with the discoloration we are trying to push forward as as fast as possible unfortunately we don't have a a magic switch we could flip and just correct the issue um but please know that we are working on it we're we're trying to do everything we possibly can um so check that page for frequent updates we will begin sharing this page and other updates in our Weekly Newsletter beginning this week so that'll be out on Friday um with some some additional information and I also just want to comment on we did have an issue last night um where we had some work starting with a contractor over on Sheridan Avenue they inadvertently opened a hydrant um not thinking it would cause any issues but it did cause some issues so we sent our Ward Department over there to help flush the area and and clear clear some of the discoloration up that ended up um causing some residents to lose pressure completely um or low pressure so we ended that pretty quick quickly we we stopped the flushing immediately and everyone's pressure was restored um we realized some people might be having some discoloration issues still lingering so we encourage you just to continue to flush your cold water line um if it doesn't clear up just give us a call tomorrow morning and we'll be happy to you know take a look at it um we did send a DPW staff member around last night to a few uh homes and and helped walk walk people through that um so please you know we we definitely know this is frustrating um but we don't have a solid timeline on this yet and um we will try and get more information out as soon as possible thank you thank you Mr Neil bro clerk Miss htz thank you council president um I just would like to uh inform everyone that the digital version of our calendar is available for 2025 on our website um please take the time to read this as the information contained is up to date and and accurate um the 13mon 2025 calendar started to be mailed out over the weekend and all residents should have one in the next couple of days again that's a 13-month calendar so it will run uh January of 2025 through January of 2026 um with regards to elections um we have another big year with the gubar election um which we're going to be discussing um at Bergen County elections uh annual meeting on February 28th in hackin saac for those who are not aware Governor Murphy signed uh into law legislation rescheduling the June 2025 primary election date from June 3rd to June 10th um uh because of the observant he's wanting to to observe the Jewish holiday of shot uh the new law also requires a secretary of state to make necessary adjustments to all deadlines required to meet uh to be met ahead of the primary election and publish a calendar with the adjusted dates except for the nominating P petitions which are still due by 4M on March 24th in my office um in addition we are all watching um a 5117 which is a bill that would increase the number of signatures needed on the nominating position petitions for this year um it's been passed by the assembly and it was amended by the uh State Senate um this bill can be enacted in the next few weeks and will impact our petitions being circulated for the 2025 primary which again are due uh March 24th so if enacted which it kind of sounds like it's going to be the nominating petitions for the following offices um for particularly for Waldwick um it's going to be dependent on our population so we will need 50 valid signatures uh anybody who's going to run for any of the seats um one of the changes that also took place that they've already uh posted for us is that April 16th is now the deadline to change your party uh affiliation and to get those declaration forms in those uh forms are available on our website uh Switching gears to dog licensing uh dog licensing is ongoing and it's the main focus right now um Melissa has done an excellent job at keeping up with the licenses and cleaning up the roles even more um we've issued 567 licenses to date um that's significantly more than we did last year we were really only in like the 300s at this time so that we're like only one month in and we have almost you know half of our people uh half of our dogs licensed so um Melissa is also doing U an excellent job um keeping up our burrow events calendar she we put her in charge of that she's doing a great job with that and she's beginning to do uh work and post items on our uh website so she's going to be doing some of those things um and she's doing a great job with that um she's been a tremendous asset to me and Tatiana and um we she also just received her notary it was one of the things we had asked her to do and she's already gotten it so that's very helpful alarm Reg ations will be going out shortly followed by tenant registrations some people have already submitted those and we've accepted those payments um with regards to Oprah this month we've received an increased amount of Oprah requests that have that has kept us pretty busy um these are separate from the 12 to 20 I forward to the police department each week um and then on a personal note I wanted to thank the mayor for attending the Bergen County municipal clerk Association holiday Lon where he swore in the executive board including um me as president for 2025 and then also I was appointed the president of the Board of Health for in the town that I live in that's all I have thank you Mr bosing thank you council president um on your agenda tonight is resolution 20256 that's the binding resolution for the fourth round of COA uh one if you know when that is adopted uh we will be filing the the next step is to file the declaratory judgment action which I have all prepared just subject to the adoption of this resolution we'll get that filed and then any objections to the numbers that we've come up with are due by the end of February and then there's a timeline going forward from that so we'll address that when it comes that's all I have I do have uh two items for close close session but no action will be taken after the Clos session thank you thank you Mr Bing Recreation and health commit um no Public Safety Committee Miss s Drake thank you a few highlights since December month end for wvac officers were sworn in at the January 7th meeting they appreciate the invite from the town and Council two members received CPR instructor certifications and we be offering free handson CPR training to local organizations and businesses that are interested if anyone is interested they can reach out to Lucas or Adrien directly or contact them through info@ Waldwick ems.com wvac Sprint car 592 deployed in service to improve incident response times and level of care to the town's people more updates to come on this they also provided crew to stand by a wrestling tournament on January 5th at the high school they provided a crew to cover hogus volunteer ambulance courp on January 8th during their holiday party and also provided a crew to cover the Allandale volunteer ambulance Corps on January 10th during their holiday party um they also participated in an ice rescue training with the fire department on January 16th thank you thank you Miss sah cake U will the clerk read the consent resolutions and resolutions of the government body we resolve that the following resolutions here withth listed by consent having been considered by the governing body of the burough volcker hereby passed and approved 2025 58 approval of consent 2025 59 approval of minutes recess meeting of December 23rd and the reorganization meeting of January 7th 2025 policy vote a Annette Gordon request to use V billion a on August 23rd from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. for a family reunion with alcoholic beverages being served 20 20260 a binding resolution of the burough of Walda County of berens committing the dca's fourth round affordable housing present need and prospective need numbers as modified in directing the burough attorney to take appropriate additional actions 2025 61 authorizing acceptance of the 2024 Bergen County open space trust fund Municipal grant program for Municipal Park improvements Memorial Park playground equipment surfaces and entrances landscaping and fencing 202562 endorsing resolution for the buron County Community Development block rant for Ada curb ramp Improvement project 2025 63 authorizing exec uh execution of an agreement with the Morris County cooperative pricing Council to become a member for a period for the period October 1 2021 through September 30th 2026 2025 64 authorized shared service agreement with the county of Bergen from 911 communication Services 2025 65 award a non-fair and Open professional service contract to Peter Lupo Esquire toight Communications LLC telecommunications attorney and an amount not to exceed $5,000 20256 Award of non-fair and Open professional service contract for risk manager Frank cavelli Professional Insurance Associates 20267 authorized contract with Northwest Bergen Regional Health commission for local um for local public health services 2025 to 2027 20268 authorized vehicle auction 20269 amend 2025 Council reorganization ation meeting to change time for Council regular meetings for February 11th and February 25th to 6:30 pm 20257 authorized Amendment to the autocab license for InStyle car and limo 2025 71 appointment of clerk 1 Lindsay rule 20272 appointments to the board of adjustment 202573718 can I ask for a motion Mike H Joe II second clerk can you any questions any questions no go no I don't have any no no but everyone's looking at me like I should have I think you looked up ask just roll roll call please Mr brck yes Miss Sarah col Drake yes Mr martinello yes Mr rundo yes Mr Richie yes Mrs Weber yes uh we have one introduction of an ordinance that the clerk will read ordinance number 2025 D number one ordinance number 2025 d01 and ordinance repealing and replacing the Burrow's storm water management ordinance to comply with updated njd requirements a motion in a second is in order to move and pass this ordinance on first reading and that it be advertised in the local legal newspapers requiring the setting of a public hearing two weeks from tonight's meeting at 7:30 p.m. well actually should it be 6:30 p.m. y because 6:30 i'lljust that 6:30 p.m. or soon thereafter as the matter may be reached a motion by Miss Weber second by Mr brenick roll call please oh no Steve do you want to speak or Mr bosing handle this one yeah so these are these are updated requirements by the DP we had PR we had previously done this and we had um utilized a shorter form ordinance because we thought it made more sense but when we flipped it to the county for their approval of it the people at the county wanted us to adopt the long form ordinance so we amended it did the long form ordinance to satisfy them but for the most part it's the uh exact same okay but this is really just a to update everything according to the new DP regulations that's all thank you Mr paing roll call please Mr brck yes Mr s alre yes Mr martinello yes Mr Rondo yes Mr Richie yes Mrs Weber yes do we have any unfinished business from the council any new business so any new business besides the municial budget discussion yeah okay okay missa um so I've been speaking with the fire department and there's currently a state requirement for full-time peed firefighters to have access to periodic cancer screenings but there's no aid for volunteer firefighters so I've been speaking with Chief agero as well as assemblyman Bob Al to support these benefits for our volunteers assembly Man O is the prime sponsor of assembly bill 4649 that offers the same cancer screenings for volunteers I'd like to propose that waluk does a resolution supporting this bill and assembly m o can send that to Trenton and governor Murphy thank you Mr great do we discuss that or do we how do we do this I would support it if we want to add the resolution to the next meeting yeah we'll add the resolution to the next meeting that's yeah we could try and provide um some materials in my memo this week too sure thank you I had just a few just a few questions if that was okay for some new business so we've been doing I think a lot of people know we've been doing a lot of Redevelopment in town uh discussions we we passed a plan a couple weeks ago I was wondering if it made sense to put some information up on the website add a tab on the website specifically around the development efforts that way if people have questions about what are the I see a lot of posts on the internet people wanting to know what do the what do the you know potential plans look like what's the overall goal for the burrow um I think it might just be a nice place for them to go and get that information yeah go ahead uh yes so actually have discussed that with the burough attorney also we are planning to do that um just full disclosure I haven't gotten around to do it quite yet but there is a plan to do that that'll become the central place for all things Redevelopment we'll put copies of the plans ordinances uh any Associated info COA obligations stuff like that anything that could tie into this we definitely want to make it as as open and available as possible okay cool um the next uh the next question comes from more now of a a personal interest in a matter matter that Mr leaport has been coming and speaking to us about for the last last three years that I've been here so I have been smelling the Sewer Authority more and more every day I went I was I walked down to Charlie's on Saturday night it it ruined my meal I went for a run Monday morning it was the fastest run I ever went on it looked ugly but it was very fast because you could smell it from my house all the way down to the the Walgreens it was it was terrible so I know and and and maybe it's not fair the mayor is not here but I there's a committee that's been formed to kind of discuss what are our actions I know assemblyman o has offered to kind of help us take action here does anyone know has that committee actually been formed who's on it I think you're going to have to ask the mayor that question yeah but one of us presumably is on that so if no one has any knowledge of it I know one of us is supposed to be on it and someone from the public is is on it so so if we haven't met then we haven't met but I I think it's it's it start I mean it's winter and we're smelling it I think it's just atrocious and as you'll see in our budget it ties in our bill is going up $210,000 this year for the sewer authorities so they're plaguing us uh both on our right to enjoy outdoor space and they're plaguing us financially now so I I think we have to get more much more aggressive here and I would Advocate I would Advocate taking assemblyman off up on his his uh offer to help help us seek legal advice on how we can really put pressure on the Sewer Authority to you know they have to invest to enclose those these are open air sewage tanks I mean we can't be living like this it wouldn't enclose them they would put the the scent to Fus up right something they have to I mean they keep tying in more and more communities to this too we we're becoming the the garbage dump of of North it smells in the winter that's exactly yeah when it's when it's negative 10 degrees out so right all right so I'll um in in all fairness I'll raise that uh at the next meeting as well um the last the last thing I just wanted to raise I know Steve you put it in your your memo recently the the traffic easing measures have we shared that report with everybody on Council um yeah I believe so the report was done before I actually arrived here I know that was one of my first meetings actually I believe councilwoman s COA Drake was on there so I we could probably post it maybe we'll create a page find the best home for it on the website so it's accessible there was some really nice I know you've put together some really nice recommendations there was some really nice recommendations on that to help with traffic easing measures they were recommending uh they're not speed bumps they call them uh I don't know soft speed HS or soft ramps and chicanes you know which is uh ways to kind of slow the traffic down the overall investment was something like $600,000 and I think that the net results were would be transformative for this side attack as far as the traffic easing measures goes so yeah I would I think we should make it public and and and have an open debate on the merits of that especially as we move into uh budget season and start talking about Capital expenditures sure if I could just note on that real quick um I've been working with PD recently we're trying to get kind of just a master list of all the traffic safety equipment that they want right now it's pretty extensive so we're going to put it together get compare pricing and see what we could get done um did you will seeing the capital discussion tonight we did bump up the traffic safety line this year a little bit um so maybe you know once we get that list we we could adjust that as needed also but that is the goal to really start getting this stuff out there yeah great thank you Mr Richie safy Miss Weber um on the topic of safety we had a uh we were invited to a board of ed uh group that was started um with some parents and Board of Ed members uh we were there on the 23rd at 6:00 um the board of members that were there were Mary Beth nappy Amy Weiner and President Dan Maro myself and uh councilman brenick and mayor Jana wals are there there were a handful of uh parents I believe there were six parents um that were that were there and basically it was them presenting some of the issues that they see in town having to do with the students and safety around the schools um one of the topics that was brought up uh was busing um first the kids on the other side of Route 17 uh also a crossing guard on that side by sherid and ab uh some extra signage at the schools notifying parents to keep moving and not to stop and help their kids get their their items out of their car just to keep the traffic flowing and one of the major topics that was brought up was adding police in the schools um we're supposed to get some information from president marrow about that topic the board of vet is interested in having four officers um on staff one in each school so the high school and the middle school are combined but they would get one they would get two officers one for each side of the school one at Crescent and then one at trap um so there's just the discussion obviously is to come up as to how much this is going to cost uh we're still going to get some numbers from them regarding that they would be police they would be police officers but they would be retired police officers but they would be um hired and maintained through our Police Department uh their guns would be pres would be owned by the burough and they would check in there in the morning and then go on to their prospective school so there's quite a lot of things to go over with this and including the what it would cost for the board of AD and also the buau because they want to split the the fees with us so that's another discussion I I'm not sure when the next meeting is going to be there I don't know if yeah I think we an update on the me another meeting tely scheduled one for uh February 13th okay so that's where that's where we're at I don't know if councilman Bren would like to add anything or no basically it's in it's uh very beginning stages yeah and U there's still a lot to discuss um you know I believe that the idea is uh genuinely a good one um there's a lot of a lot of things to work out um we need to be uh in touch with the police department and those things hasn't those meetings haven't occurred yet but uh just to let you know as as as residents of the burrow you know what's going on here and what's what's possibly coming com and that's what we're trying to do keep everybody safe yeah there's there's a lot there are a lot of moving parts and it requires a lot of different departments and areas of the buau and the board of AD to be involved so uh like councilman berck said it's very high level right now we just kind of spitballing ideas and we listen to What the residents and the uh Board of that had to say I just have a question you know I get the uh the request for the special class threes I think it's called right uh to be added to our school system I think a lot of other schools in the area are are are going that way now so it's probably something we should think about we don't want to be um a year too late better be a year early then a year too late in that kind of Defense of our of our kids in our schools um I guess to lay any fears has the Board of Ed said that there's been any threats or anything that would require those officers right now that we hadn't had them just to elay any fears that we're not going fast enough not that I'm aware nothing to that extent was was uh relayed to us at the meeting um I would hope if there was they would have they would have let us know that um from what I was told and I didn't really know much about it it we seemed I think we're the one of the only towns in the area that don't have officers in the schools um I I could be wrong on that but that's how it was conveyed to us so it's it's a lot of moving Parts there there are there would be officers that would need to be hired there's there has to be a cause analysis done on what this would is even going to cost right the board of is willing to also share a net CA correct they correct right yeah and I don't know much about these U programs with the with the officers but um I would imagine they work a school year correct right so after that they're not really on our payroll right so they're not really full-time they're they're full-time to the extent of that they that they're there during the school day full-time but then they they're not on during the summer and I believe there's no benefits package because they're they're retired again that's all things that we're going to have to yeah that's going to be Cas down the road but there is no eminent danger that was brought to us the other night at all yeah I think that's one of the key things that we need to do um and we lay the groundwork for this is identify clearly the roles and responsibilities of these officers and um and perhaps even the expectations on the part of the public as to what they believe these officers are going to do should an event arise right so there are no surprises or youing whatever yeah M Weber Miss brck I have a question uh in regards I know they're saying that they would require four dedicated are they also factoring in additional members in case someone is out either for illness that that hasn't even been just just a thought it's a it is it is would be part of the puzzle that doesn't come up in discussion yeah but that that would be it would have to yeah yeah um I would assume that you guys or the committee would be looking into opportunities to share with other schools right and seeing what their programs are like as like a framework guideline right I mean we're not we're not Reinventing the wheel on this everybody there's a lot of other places that do not just towns that touch us but in New Jersey as a whole so I guess they look at suest we would take the uh that we would take take a look at the police department and have those guys say you know alendale what do you do what do you do and then we'll mold the yeah because Allendale does do it I believe they they brought up right the Allendale has the program I know whitef does whitef does too and then I believe mland Park I know those are the general towns around us I know some in Hudson County that do but I I don't know specifics we they do it's a white yeah we have St Elizabeth it's a wake off retired yeah and it's it's amazing and the kids love the officers too so it's peace of mind and it's and it's nice for the the children to be exposed I used to have dare program gr up we used to have police in our school all the time so I think it's nice to kind of bring this back any other additional new business yes sir Mr uh two items just one um want to reiterate what um administrator Neil said earlier about the water um I know it's been a a long suffering problem here in in Waldwick and I just want to make sure that we are um you know lating our professionals our DPW staff who's working really hard on this every day um you see a lot of comments on social media I try to ignore it but our guys are working very hard on it they're out there every day trying their best to to solve it and so was our staff here in the in the administration um most of them live here too as do we and some of us have experienced the same water problem so just to um answer some of those things that are on social media we do care and we are looking at it and we talk about it every meeting we get and our DPW guys are out there every day they work on it uh administrator Neil works on it every day so we are doing our best that we can not ignoring that situation so I just wanted to make sure I said that um in response and one other item also from the Board of Education meeting last night um a great program they started a couple years ago is the Martin Luther King week of service a lot of the students in the high school will be going out to various locations around the community and offering volunteerism which is at the heart of uh what we are in W so uh great program and good luck to the boys and girls who are doing that this week thank you anyone else so let's get into to the municipal budget discussion all right that's you're on mik deep breath it's a this is our first meeting we typically have four four meetings I think in a in a reasonable year on our budget um I I thought it would be helpful to start with just high level overview of what the 2024 budget looked like uh as far as the line items are concerned so um and I apologize for everyone uh residents in the audience um uh who who don't have this in front of them but but you know Waldwick has three really our budget is made of three different budgets so uh we have a general uh budget which essentially deals with the day-to-day Appropriations our salaries for our DPW all of our employees police Etc all of the costs um associated with the burrow we also have a capital budget which is something that we uh we take on WE bond out that um so it's essentially uh infrastructure projects um roads repairs to our buildings um equipment for our uh various departments all of that is essentially purchased on credit uh through bonds that we send out and then we have uh because Waldwick has a water department we have a third budget which is specifically for that water department um which has both its General Appropriations as well as its own Capital uh budget and and we go through all of those every year trying to put together the best bud that we can to make sure that the the burrow has all of its needs answered uh we plan for the future from an infrastructure perspective uh we do what we can to keep the taxes low uh in at at a time where our statutory costs continue to increase that's been difficult but I think we've done a really nice job over the last couple years keeping that in line so just a highe level overview of what 2024 would looked like so when referring to our general budget and I'm going to use round numbers here just uh for the interest of time General Appropriations for 2024 were about 15.3 million um uh we reserve just under a million $177,000 for uncollected taxes essentially that's saying we expect around a million dollars worth of taxes to not come in either from delinquencies or just people you know merely forgetting so our total Appropriations as a burrow for all burrow related uh uh burrow related um Affairs this doesn't include the school this doesn't include the county portion of your taxes is about 16.3 million for 201 24 within that General Appropriations we have to pay certain interests um and principle on the bonds that we put out the burrow currently has around $24 Million worth of debt that's about 1.5% of our total net valuation for the burrow okay maximum allowable is about 3% so we're about halfway there and we have a bond that should be going out uh to Encompass the last 5 years worth of our Capital budgets and that will increase total debt to about 33 million for the burrow so as you're going to see I think this year and hopefully in years to come there's a major effort to to start reducing that debt burden uh on the burrow so that we don't put ourselves in some serious trouble Downstream but also to reduce the total amount of principal and interest that we pay each year in 2024 we paid just under $1.5 million in debt interest and principle towards those infrastructure projects that have accumulated over the last roughly 20 years we have to pay 5% of each capital budget into our Appropriations and so last year we paid about $223,000 uh in down payments to the uh the debt that we took out so just to kind of recap we have 16.3 million in total Appropriations last year we took out a new $4.4 million in debt and we paid 223,000 as a dow payment onto that debt for the infrastructure projects and that's what we're going to talk about tonight reducing this year's uh capital budget uh and starting to kind of talk about what are those key infrastructure projects that the burrow needs to take on for 2025 on the revenue side um we take we take in miscellaneous Revenue these are construction fees uh various fees in town about 4.2 million uh we took in just under $9 million in uh total taxes last year uh we take in a library tax as our librar is associated with with the Bergen County uh kind of Library as an umbrella and that's what brings in all the wonderful programs that you have available within the library I think it's it's a worthy investment when I first joined Council I had my ambivalence towards it but as I've spent a lot of time up at that Library I see the value that it brings to the residents in town um and then we put aside $50,000 for for Grants um what what I think is a painful line item for all of us is that we used just under $2.2 million from our Surplus our savings account essentially to balance last year's budget um I think that's also a line item that we're going to really focus on trying to bring down uh in this year and in in years uh moving forward we're starting to draw down on our savings account uh we're we're we're we're taking money from that um and I think that we we we certainly need to look at that a little bit differently when we talk about our water uh our water department we take G about $2 million just over $2 million in revenue from water fees that the residents pay in town that's offset essentially by $1.9 million in uh Appropriations for the water department now I think what's really key for everyone to keep in mind is that of that $1.9 million that we appropriate to water we're allocating certain salaries wages benefits and and uh items from our general day-to-day into that uh into that appropriation so not all of that 1.9 million would go away let's say you know Allandale sold their water a couple years ago their water department if wal was to go through that process we would lose the $2 million in the revenue but we would only cut out probably $400,000 from the $2 million in costs associated with it and so doing that for the B would lead us to about a million and a half deficit in the whole uh in in the subsequent year so just something to keep in mind and I did for all the members of the the burrow uh Council and the mayor uh provided you with a detailed overview of what the capital I'm sorry what the water budget is there's um line items associated with salaries and other expenses those are large they take about 1.5 million of the total budget so um those are all laid out for you so in in detail so you have them um finally there is our fund balance or our savings account I provided uh to all of you an overview of what that fund balance looks like going from 2009 all the way to 2023 we were able to grow the fund balance the the the um uh essentially the savings account considerably over the last 15 years we took it from $2 million all the way up to roughly 7.5 million so I think the burrow did a really nice job of saving last year though was the first year that we we took we we we started to really eat away at that um we don't have the numbers yet for 2024 we won't have those until the audits completed at the end of February but I think based on some anecdotal uh stories that we heard about how tight the budget was at the end of the year and uh it seemed like it was a gray hair moment for all the employees here at Burrow Hall I would Envision that we probably are putting very little back into that Surplus in 2024 and we'll see that that Surplus gets drawn down even further uh but that's obviously uh subject to the audit I don't have a crystal ball that's just conjecture on my part I certainly don't have any inside information on that but but but keep that in mind as we we build out um this budget so um we know some statutory we know we know our pension is going down uh our purse is going down which is nice uh that went down 32,000 but our police pension went up 55,000 GIF 25,000 increase G contract which is our trash collection went up 53,000 these we know and those are relatively small numbers with respect to our budget easy to absorb what kills us is the 210,000 that the Sewer Authority has increased uh and and so we know already that whereas last year we had 16.3 million in general Appropriations we should anticipate at least 300,000 in statutory required Appropriations on top of that 16.3 million that we had from last year's budget I say it every year that I've that that I've been on burrow uh Council our Appropriations are not the issue we have a barebones budget we unfortunately pay our employees less than we pay a lot of the surrounding towns there's no fluff in this budget there's no waste um I mean we we really have a very Bare Bones budget our issue continues to be we need more sources of revenue we and and and this is why I've been a big uh supporter of some of the discussions we've been having around uh Redevelopment so we can certainly look at the uh General budget when we come to it but I expect uh Steve that you'll be not not not requesting any cuts from that this year uh yeah I didn't think so um but what we will make up I think in that is if we can keep our try to keep our capital budget at $2 million that's uh 2.4 million less than last year so that's already I think a very good start as far as reducing our overall debt uh for the community and that cuts about $100,000 out of our general Appropriations as it relates to the down payment for the capital budget uh for uh 2025 so um you know with that said uh that's a very high level overview happy to take any questions from any members of the Council on on that and then I thought maybe we could turn it over to Steve to talk about his proposed uh capital budget for the year I I guess my my big comment and thanks for all this information Mike it's very very helpful very detailed um is there any remedy again on the S authority to challenge the additional cost yeah that's I guess a question for Steve and for for our Council over there I I I yeah I don't I don't know that yeah there's a whole lot we can do so I think in general we just have to make this a priority for for this Council maximum pressure from the community from the council I don't think that they want bad press uh down there I don't think that they want the attention uh but I think it's time that they get the attention and if we're going to be paying these kinds of numbers if we're going to be paying 200,000 above what we paid last year at a minimum we should be able to live in this town without having to deal with the consequences of it at a minimum so um I don't know that there's much we can do Joe except just this maximum pressure uh kind of campaign do we know what the increase is used for like did they give us a breakdown of why it's going up 210,000 yeah there was yeah yeah Steve yeah I'd be happy to gather that and and distribute that to everybody RW and do we know if other towns are paying more this year as well other sorry can other towns yeah so that Al has the whole breakdown of what every town pays the percentage of the total increase okay um we are I will say at the higher end of that increase for sure I think us in Franklin Lakes I believe was also very high um others saw actually a decrease in their rates this year while we saw a big increase cuz I would have thought it would go down if they're bringing in other towns right like isn't that going to make it cheaper for us that's what the hope would be town I think that came in the last few years was Oakland yeah but it was like a big effort wasn't the whole town it wasn't all of Oakland only it was only one section of Oakland on the Franklin Lake Side it wasn't a lot of people like uh like they still have septics most is still septic yeah okay so yeah I could definitely distribute that to everybody thank you I think Mike what would also be good for everyone to understand is coming off of the revaluation last year yeah what the impact of um that is on our tax base yeah it's a that's a great question so last year um drawing from memory I think our net valuation so if you take all the properties in town and you take the valuation for each property businesses as well as residential and you add it up I think we were at 1.8 billion if I believe it was one between 1.7 or 1.8 billion in in the total valuation um yeah I have I'm sorry I have this was in the one last I I I'll um I'll uh correct myself at the next meeting uh if if need be um but I do believe it was between 1.7 and 1.8 billion we had a a firm come in state regulation State mandated they came to houses and they basically said your valuation is higher or lower our total net valuation increased to 2.2 billion U so we went up about 500 500 million roughly uh in our total net valuation uh because we're you know our general Appropriations were basically set for the year that brought the tax rate down considerably uh some people saw their tax uh their their tax payments go down others saw them go up um but essentially what that does is uh bring the tax rate down uh and for future years uh when we see and this year which I think we're going to unfortunately have to come to uh when we add tax increase um hopefully the burden on a perouse basis won't be uh as significant as it was uh in the past uh we have some tax scenarios laid out here um for everybody just is just a again ballpark I've not had any conversations with anybody about this this is not a consensus but I I asked Colleen to put together what would the net additional Revenue to the town B for a 2% and a 2 and a half% tax increase uh on the current valuation uh given the current rate uh at a 2% increase we would bring in an additional 588,000 roughly in uh total uh Revenue in taxation if it was a 25% increase it would bring in 634 th000 uh in total taxation so last year we did a 1.5% increase uh and that brought us about 188,000 I think just under 200,000 in uh net total uh Revenue so um you know these are just uh back of the envelope numbers uh that we're running just to try to understand how we can deal with some of these these increases again the what kills us are increases we have no control over Pension funds Insurance um the G contract killed us a couple years ago J this year the main culprate is the Sewer Authority um and so you know eventually I think we're we're taking the right steps I think we're really putting the budget in in good shape I look forward to uh a time you know hopefully you know next year the year after where we can really start to look at critical infrastructure projects in town and and deploy the right Capital uh to those without uh killing us uh in in in both our overall debt as well as the the down payment in the um in the general Appropriations but uh the time will come and uh yeah I think um with that if there's no other questions maybe we kick it off and talk about some of the projects proposed in the capital sure okay um just a couple things to note before we start that this is just the general Capital right now that we're going to discuss we haven't gotten into water yet obviously there's some outstanding issues that we want to address in the capital budget if we can this year so we're going to try and pull those numbers together together uh and get that out to you so this is just general Capital um also have not had a chance to meet with the fire department yet to go over their request um but I wouldn't there's a couple placeholders there I wouldn't anticipate too much of a change from this list have the meeting scheduled for Thursday night okay okay great so yeah otherwise um DPW Administration wvac police this is pretty tight um based on their their requests so we have solid pricing on a lot of this stuff um so if you want we can just start at the top um kind of go down the list uh I'll comment on some of the projects give an update I think maybe just from the top it looks like you were able to put something together in that $2 million uh framework which is which is beautiful because I think CP go back last year we we really wanted it to be $2 million but we started at five so it was kind of hard to get to get down there was some key things we needed to purchase but but this year I feel good that we're going to be able to land uh close to 2 million based on where we're starting yeah and just thank you to the finance committee for meeting with us early um I met with all our department heads and staff and they kind of you know receiv received the message and and knew we had to get tight this year but um I'll say that we were able to get it right around that two Mar Mark without sacrificing any major infrastructure projects or wants so that's great um I think we're in pretty good shape with this list um so just to start at the top we have our our two dot projects um improvements to Scher la which is planned for we did receive a grant in the amount of 186,000 almost 187 for that project uh we did budget for this last year so we wanted to add we added some things to this project uh specifically additional drainage along there which seems to be an issue so that added some additional cost to the overall uh construction estimate that was originally budgeted for so this year we're requesting an additional 75,000 to cover the rest of that project um jumping down to Hudson AB Phase 2 as we're calling it so this is east of Route 17 um so we discussed this we had it on so right now the way it's designed that we applied for the the next dot Grant um we actually applied for the 2025 dot Grant U for this project we're all in at $750,000 which is a pretty high price tag but that includes all drainage uh replacement upgrades um some sidewalk upgrades and then full curbing along which will actually also help with the drainage issues over there um if you've been over there that road is is pretty beat up um so we definitely want to get that going is is that the side of Hudson where the residents were coming I think it was last year and the year prior correct correct okay yeah yeah I I think uh it's unavoidable yeah so we we had we got the one side done this year uh which looks great over there so now we want to do this side um so our plan which we discussed today which I'll put this out to all of you obviously is because it has a high price tag we can scale that back a little bit so we can have further discussions on that but our thought was we met with the burrow engineer today and the DPW superintendent and we discussed actually we could hold this project for another year and actually apply for the 2026 dot Grant and we could actually stack both grants so you can double up on that so essentially we'd feel confident we'd get about the same so maybe call it 180,000 hopefully a little bit more but then that would really bring us halfway to that 750 Mark next year um we're actually going to utilize cdbg uh grants also to help offset some of the curb work and the Ada uh improvements there also usually we expect around 70 to 78,000 for that just bringing that down even a little bit further so then you know our Capital request for next year would hopefully be in the range of about $300,000 and really do that road nice Allin brand new curving everything and put us in good shape there so Steve that's the east side of 17 correct a lot of the roads that intersect Hudson there are in pretty rough shape so would that be part of this whole dot project or we'd have to do that separately we would do that separately so the dot project would just focus on Hudson but our 202 six road paving program is focus on all the offshoots of to get that all done um the ones that go down the hill towards Sheridan and the ones that you know hit 17 which it probably wouldn't make sense to do them before that was to do a lot of construction in the area which would probably cause damage to road that correct so if this plays out the way we're proposing um in 2026 that entire area would be completely redone and reconstructed in one time and at one shot that's better so just to understand so we'd be pushing the Hudson Road repaving to 2026 correct no who who wants to tell them who wants to tell them just are they able to like limp it along like we did the first side the first side of Hudson because we did like the DBW did some nice Paving just to kind of clean it up so it was yeah there's there's some really rough sections as you all know and DPW did pave that um they kind of put a nice coating on it it's actually held up pretty pretty well so far after the winter of course we're going to reevaluate it and see how it is but we we're planning to actually do that again if we have to just to get through the year um it seemed to have really helped we heard from some residents that were happy with that so as long as it holds up we feel confident we could get it done and we do think this is the best option to really tackle that the way it should be cuz it's going to include drainage correct too yeah without the drainage you're just right I mean we could pull everything back get it down to a nice low number and just include it in our road paving program but that doesn't accomplish really what we're looking to do with the curbing the drainage everything yeah yeah if there's a way if there's a way to proactively reach out to the residents that were here uh during those several meetings to just say hey here's our plan we know we didn't get it in 2024 sure um we're also not going to get it in 2025 but there's a bigger plan but there's a bigger plan and here's what it is here's the biggest plan I think some of those residents were here were on the other side of Hudson yes which we address some were address some were addressed in on the first side but in those conversations other residents from the other side came up also so yeah um yeah I mean be happy to do that we could even host a a quick little meeting if people wanted to come in and we could really lay it out once we have all the details if this is the route we want to go we could present that to them yeah maybe we could just put it out there that we'll we'll bring it up in new business at our next meeting and anyone who wants to come to kind of hear what that we could do a nice presentation with the PowerPoint you know I think we should should use PowerPoint and uh that'll buy us another year hopefully yeah okay yeah we'll try and work on that for the amount of money you're going to save you I think this is pretty simple correct you want to try to keep expenses down yeah don't want to take a look at bring your taxes up right this is easy this is an easy one it's going to be a little tenderous yet but this is the way to go yeah I think if we could hold tight for another year we'd be in really good shape and I think they'll understand with explanation okay what the plan is right I mean I would there yeah I think it goes a long way I think it goes a long way to be proactive in that discussion yeah and we'll obviously we'll continue to patch if there's potholes anything that come up we'll definitely keep maintaining the road as much as possible okay um jumping down we put in I know we've discussed this uh HVAC up upgrades um I don't have really firm pricing on that we I have in there right now 25,000 which I feel is pretty realistic we we've made some big Replacements this year so kind of going off those costs I feel that that's pretty good and we we'll keep us in good shape um and we'd be able to get a lot done so and if we don't need to utilize it all we'll carry it over and we'll I plan on having this as a regular line in the capital budget kind of every year so we could have a nice like preventative maintenance kind of yeah exactly and that's the plan is to actually engage some different contractors and vendors this year sit with them have them do a full audit of all of our buildings check all the equipment and come up with the plan save a lot of money in the long run with that um jumping down to the next big one is L Lions Park playground improvements uh we've talked about this a lot last year um and which is great news we actually just received notice um we got another Grant uh I just closed the file uh in the amount of I think $113,000 towards this project as well there is another Grant opportunity that we're going to go after and maybe get another hundred $100,000 or so so the the last the grant you just talked about is not included in this 263 that is yeah so that includes that that that new one um so you know if we could even get that up to about $350,000 we'd be in really good shape with that project um we're still looking for about $400,000 though um you know it's a significant amount of work over there we're looking towards the port in place surface yeah 400 this year and 600 next year no so this would be 400 right as it stands right now with our our estimated cost that 400,000 we'd be able to do this project that that number in FY 26 is 600 yes I'm sorry that should be removed that'll go away yep okay yeah that was just carried over from last year gotta yeah I think for members of the public this was something we looked at last year we we did Kick the Can on this one to try to uh cut down on the capital budget but I've been there anyone who's been down there with their kids it's it's really starting to Fall to Pieces so it's a i it's an absolute must have at this point and I'm hoping by the next meeting actually we should have the 3D renderings they were supposed to be ready today they had one error in there so they had to correct them so as soon as those are ready um again I think it'd be a good idea to post these on the website let people check them out um get excited about it because it's going to be a really nice project good um kind of some of the standard items now are VAR it and telom Equipment upgrades looking for another 25,000 we know we're end of life um for a couple of our servers which are costly um and we need to do some upgrades with our Windows systems across the entire network um we put in I think it was 20,000 last year just so you know we ate pretty much all that up this year but we upgraded our our firewalls across the burrow so cyber we did upgrade some equipment we bought some new equipment um so we feel pretty good about that I will be meeting with our IT company uh next week to discuss that and we should zero in on that right now that should be good though um going down the admin and Public Safety sprinkler improvements and I added insulation I'm looking for another $775,000 this year um based on a couple of the quotes I've received from contractors that would cover us for fully insulating uh the public safety building attic space and this attic space um as you're aware last year we replaced all the sprinkler Mains in this building so all the mains are brand new in this building but the next phase is we have to insulate it and then get it heated um and then we want to do the exact same thing over at the public safety building where we had some leaks recently and then we'll also convert that to a wet system so the recommendation from our our sprinkler guy is to can have both systems be a wet system and we should eliminate a lot of the leaking that we've been experiencing in conjunction with the insulation correct yes yeah so we all insulation comes first then the Heat and then the the transformation to the wet system can't be a wet system if it's not insulated or heated uh moving down I kept in there second floor Renovations the office space that was for up here we actually still have $85,000 from last year as you know we abandoned the um Northwest ber and health Commission Office Space here we didn't move forward with that but we still want to utilize that space there's a couple ideas we're kicking around internally um so I just want to put that there we're not asking for any money this year for that project but I do want it to stay there so it's something we could discuss going forward uh moving down is something new the signal Tower so I don't know if you've been by there recently but the paint is peeling pretty significantly um which is causing some of the wood to rot some of the shingles um they' the committee there has done a good job trying to maintain and keep up with it but uh we're pretty much at the point where we have to do some major work over there to get it restored um we've actually received some communication from NJ Transit too kind of encouraging that process um so right now we worked on some numbers to get it you know fully upgraded painted properly sealed the way it should be fixed the the decking the stairs all that to bring it up to standards would be about $50,000 that also includes uh window replacements U door Replacements things like that on the inside the uh NJ Transit is encouraging us to do this yes yes can we encourage them to take on a small project in town STS tell you what that answer is I mean there's a couple more zeros on that one but we can make it a two-way encouragement but the one good thing is it is listed here but you'll see down below if you flip over the page actually um we have a nice open space trust fund um I think right now we take in about $86,000 a year so the goal to actually be to take this money out of the open space so that would offset which would be nice um moving down added replacing pool furniture I'd like to this to become a regular item also uh it's time to start swapping out and and replacing some of the furniture we want to upgrade to some of that nice sturdy uh Steel coated uh Furniture over there um it it is expensive one table is about $5,000 so if we start adding this in you know $110,000 every year we could really start to make some upgrades over there um I'll jump down to DPW uh the road program so right now um where we're at I met with the superintendent and engineer on this again today um we're not going to get as many roads paved as we did last year we went pretty aggressive last year um we're able to get a lot done um but we are asking for $500,000 this year um we will get some some big roads done I'll just highlight a few um it'd be Rustic Drive acrian uh Grove from LOM to Ridge uh Charles Terrace Albert Herbert um and then we do have to as part of our water main replacement project on Hemlock and Evergreen we added the p for that road into the road paving Pro program so we could keep cost down on the actual project and it just made sense timing wise with Paving and the season and everything Sheridan and Bergen will have to pay that section yes they sh so we'll we'll look at that y um only one vehicle for this year being requested which um we took off the list last year so that's the new 654 um which is for one of our supervisors I think they managed to get through this year but there were some significant repairs that had to be made so it's probably time for that vehicle to come out and get that replaced uh we're asking for another $770,000 for the Ada ramp upgrades um just so you know we did apply for cdbg for that also um we're kind of doing that now because there's not as many projects in our our Zone that is eligible for cdbg projects but Ada you can utilize anywhere within the buau so we're trying to use it towards the ramps and get as much done you know so no additional out of pocket for that uh traffic devices you'll see we put 25,000 in as it stands right now that may change uh a little bit based on the the list we put together but we did 20,000 last year and we were able to get some nice equipment uh like the blinking crosswalk setups that are will go on Crescent and East Prospect just so you know those one set of those blinking crosswalks is almost $144,000 so this stuff is costly it's absolutely valuable and we want to get it in um but it does cost a lot of money so this 25,000 would go more towards after speaking of PD we're looking to get the solar LED signs so more of the solar LED stop signs kind of threw out in targeted areas um pedestrian crossing signs at a lot of our crosswalks we want to start swapping out and putting these solar LED signs also just to bring more attention to them do they are they solar are they effective as effective as like an electrical uh um yeah they're pretty good yeah with the LEDs they're they're pretty bright is that Hopper we have two hoer on Hopper okay I got you Hopper and Prospect yeah they work really well in Middle Parks had them in place for almost 10 years at this point yeah um going down our regulars are kind of the striping uh tree removals in burough Park and Veterans Park we didn't do a ton of tree removals this year so we have money left over from last year uh but we wanted to maintain that 20,000 just because we didn't do as much this uh in 24 we anticipate doing more in 25 I know we walked around Burl Park in the field so there's definitely a lot of dead trees that need to come out um couple other requests are a ride on leaf blower um our regular storm water repair and grates a new snow Raider machine uh you know mini mini snow for sidewalks to help DPW and an underc Carriage cleaner for Fleet Maintenance purposes um which should help us kind of prolong the life of some of our our vehicles in DPW do we have any ride on leaf blowers right now I don't believe so oh do we really need that we can follow up with DPW um really to get some additional input we have someone in the crowd that's saying yes okay they not yards our extensive Lea program could see how it I'm just trying to keep it under 2 million you know yeah um then going down you'll see the next section is not on for this year but we wanted to add them to the list because you should be aware in the coming years there are some significant equipment um you know these come with a heavy price tag so we have a a new international um a new loader and a new sweeper all are over 300,000 $350,000 a piece um so right now we have most listed in 26 one in 27 that's not to say everything is going to need to go next year but we just put it on the list just so keep that in the back of your minds that at some point these should be coming I see the inflow and infiltration on there um is that for the that is that's for SE that's for sewer um we we're going to have more on that because we really want to talk that program out so again we kind of push that to next year you'll probably that number will probably have to go up eventually once we get a solid plan in place that might save us money in absolutely yeah that should help all that yep um and the sweeper I'll just note we're we're exploring maybe possible shared services opportunities um either hosting or or utilizing County Services it's a street sweeper a street sweeper yes so just our street sweeper is out every single day um just so people know they they focus here in the downtown area try and keep that clean but they are out every day it gets utilized a lot but they're very expensive and th those parts are very expensive the must have yeah yeah for anyone who rides a low car or a motorcycle when those streets aren't swept it's it's it's not very fun um so moving down just ep one suggestion just my my accounting brain kicks in like sometimes um some of these items that you said you wanted to start putting in for an annual number for example the replace pool furniture and the um it equipment and stuff like that could you extend those out into the outer years I know we're focused on 2025 but as those big numbers start popping in there you know we have a target of 2 million we're already at 2% and then some of those other characters aren't there for next year so it would be good idea to just extend those out now so we get a better picture of what the next three years look like too yes absolutely we'll we'll fill all that in um let's SK over fire since we don't have solid requests there yet or numbers um walvac they did provide a quote the only thing they're looking for from us for Capital this year is a key fob system for their building um which I think would be pretty beneficial for them over there it makes perfect sense uh they're just using keys to you know go in and go out it's it's kind of cumbersome and with a lot of members it's an issue so I think that seems to be a pretty fair request um PD is next you do that sorry Sor yeah on the key fob I mean maybe an idea is for the upstairs in the wall back meeting room to do something like that because I know that folks always come here to get a key from PD and then have to bring it back someone who's rented that room before for meetings from football and stuff like that it's easy to forget to bring the key y so something like that might be yeah we talked about that and actually utilizing there's a couple different programs out there scheduling programs um actually talked with Allendale they use I believe it's called Master Library um for their new Community Center building over there so there's some options we definitely want to explore for that cuz even if it's not a fob you might be able to have a Cod just a code that people punch in I think that's what they use for the the community center right that's it you can reset it yeah and it's only for that specific person per se or whoever the person is you can look at the top yeah exactly yeah so no no going to dispatch picking up the key and returning even if they don't bring the fobs back the fobs are more than key yeah they don't uh so PD they really wanted to focus on you know kind of streamlining some of their systems they were still doing a lot of paperwork they have a lot of paperwork but um you'll see a lot of the request de with digitizing a lot of their their processes and systems upgrading some of their current digital processes um like law soft their their software upgrade um which with their forms their mug shot system so they utilize law soft already they're trying to utilize it even more and and bring in all their other systems into one Central uh portal basically where they can manage everything through there um it's a pretty powerful platform so I think that's that's a pretty good request um the next one the License Plate Reader hardware and software uh it's pretty much end of life so that one's almost a must have for them um seems pretty reasonable again really just focusing on you know updating their their Communications digitizing as much as possible I think that's very important for their safety yeah same comment here just on like I'm sure we know what patrol cars are coming up in the next few years just to add in the outer years yep for planning preferences would yeah absolutely and I will I would like to thank PD because um we're able to get creative yeah if you look back last year we had a detective Bureau vehicle on there um they had two Durangos that recently just came out of service one was provided to walvac as a Sprint vehicle which is great um and they're actually going to utilize the other one as a DB vehicle so they didn't have a request for that seems to be in decent enough shape for their use with the DB um and then the old DB vehicle is actually going to come here as an administrative vehicle um so they are still requesting one vehicle uh just one new Tahoe is what they're looking at right now so Allin is that $84,000 they actually included um the upfit in that cost so that is a true all-in cost that's with all the vehicle upfit the lights radios everything is included in that which isn't too bad but they did this year um was went to one vendor who does it all so the vehicle comes to us completely ready to go and what kind of vehicle that a Tahoe Crown Victory full size Taho full size Tahoe crown 84,000 yeah yeah the vehicle itself is about 50 55 and then the upfits like 30 35,000 what vehicle is being replaced uh good question I'll I'll find that out for you you could also find out the total number of vehicles that they have yep and will they get money for the one that's being replaced if they sell it yeah so that one isn't kind of earmarked for anything like the the last two were so this one we go out to auction hoping they're in pretty decent shape I think maybe like $155,000 so it does help off that okay uh one thing to note to that 84 may actually come out probably will come off this also um dropping we believe we have that in the vehicle trust uh we just have to confirm those numbers because we were still waiting on some of our final payments cuz the reason I asked about that the for a patrol car to be 84,000 and and a regular water pickup truck to be 110 I'm just wondering that's a boss truck right I believe so supervisor truck yes you just need a F-150 you don't need a yeah F 350 or yeah maybe we can get a cheaper one yeah I think it is pitched as a a 350 but um yeah we could take a look at that Black Ops package on yeah because I think Joe in the past just used an Explorer for supervisor which is lot less money okay yeah we could look into that yeah um and again that is most likely that 84 all of it is probably going to come out of the vehicle trust so because we switched to jobs for blue for all outside Duty last year um our numbers went way up so we did really well with that with the vehicle at the admin fees and the vehicle fees so our trust account is pretty healthy right now um we were able to buy a vehicle out of there last year so we're hoping to do that again and pay for it out right so more than likely that 84 is coming off this list and that'll come directly out of trust great great great the supervisor's pickup for the DP is not used to plow though is it it oh then they're not going to get away with a 150 why that's why unfortunately I will confir yeah just confirm yeah uh if you flip your page over the last two items uh the pistol range HV HVAC system and roof replacement obviously we've been we've been talking about that we did budget for it last year $500,000 um as we were working with the architect and Engineers on it that cost has gone up a little bit um so we are requesting an additional $300,000 on top um a lot of that money is going to come from just all the work that's going to need to be done to basically deconstruct the whole range take the roof down take the whole targeting system down all of the sheetrock the ceiling all of that work um which wasn't anticipated originally uh they're estimating it around $200,000 just to be conservative we're hoping that number will come down but we just don't know so for budgeting purposes we don't want to have to come back to all of you for another request so we feel pretty confident an additional 300,000 we'd be able to complete that project this year does that include I know that there was a discussion when Lieutenant Le cfor was here potentially Outsourcing it to other departments so they could be an income that is still the goal we are still under contract um till until next year so the agreement yeah um but there's a lot of different variables Lieutenant cord has a lot of ideas So currently this is not a revenue Street correct no no not even close not even close so once they start construction on that how long because they can't use the pistol range at all right so they're going to be shut down because the roof the entire back is going to be open um we would hope around 3 to four months would be the goal um which would limit us the timing of it would be rough um we were hoping to kind of get it done over the winter cuz then what's the cor what's the the uh contractual agreement with the other towns that we have yeah we'd we'd have to obviously notify everybody and give them a heads up because they would be down I think we would be able to work around the scheduling as much as possible it's really the qualifications yeah exactly so we have let them know pretty far in advance yeah 100% what CL would we incur for the research for our own officers that's a good question to to Mark's Point can we get a list of what Lieutenant C's ideas were when he presented that last year I think it's right I think it's the timing is right if it's going to the end of this year right the Consortium yes he was going to confirm that we kind of I think last year we thought it was through 26 but I think it's through 25 and it's up in 26 so Lieutenant C was going to pull that inflow for us and this is and this just shy of a million dollars upgrade will be the same amount of alleys they wouldn't be able to increase anything or make any of the other side of that room that where the kitchen is bigger or not really seeing an upgrade to anything else no it's really just the range part yeah the reason I asked that ear is because if we could turn it into a re also a revenue stream more so that it would need to be bigger in all those other areas I think one of the ideas was you know maybe we can rent it out for for private Gatherings try Char more not that big yeah it's not that big but we might be able to restructure make some upgrades that's what I was wondering it's kind of a wonky setup and that other room is really like a little garage really it's not really a room yeah I don't think there's room to expand but maybe we can make some upgrades to make it a little more attractive yeah all right and then their last is um it's called Vector system so it's really another computer program to help track all the training um it also helps track if there's complaints filed against an officer it kind of it will send up Flags if there's different Trends so it's it's able to analyze all that um and just would make their life a lot easier for a price tag at $7,000 it seems pretty reasonable um with their new certification requirements and everything this is really going to help them kind of centralize everything and and help them track things better and that's pretty much it for right now what are they doing now what they're doing now is a lot by spreadsheet just paper uh recently as because they have been going through the accreditation process so that's what's driving a lot of this also u a lot of their processes and systems are are old paper okay I'm asking questions because obviously there are wants and there are needs yep I want to make sure that we're talking about a need here not a want it's a want we'll see what we can do if it's a need yeah but if they get the accreditation does that help us on the GIF side from an insurance standpoint so that might offset the cost it did at one point I thought it did got that right yeah I we got a grant for $228,000 to the GIF for the accreditation process um I don't know if going forward once we fully get certified on that if it helps there's one piece that we haven't finalized that's holding them up from from pushing forward so we're trying to address that now so we could actually finish the accreditation process but they don't want to submit until that final piece is is addressed yeah so um in total we have 1. n76 million with a $450,000 Grant offset some money coming from the open space kind of our net debt would be 1.4 million down from 4.4 Million last year so uh that I think is a great starting point it will cut $175,000 out of our general Appropriations from the down payment on the capital alone so that goes a very long way uh and I think it gives us some room to add uh needs if there are more needs that arise as we we discussed other other projects or as things arise so I think it's a great start thanks Steve and for all the department heads and for everyone who spent time putting that together one other question I had again looking longer term there's a a nice big number in FY 27 for the engine is that a real date that is coming I would say it's probably not a realistic date um but again that's more of a placeholder with an with an estimated value exactly yeah exactly I would call that a placeholder at this point in time definitely more discussion on that when it it comes time so before we finalize this we'll still look into some of those questions that we had to see if we can get absolutely okay perfect yeah I just kind of wanted to get a feel for your thoughts on this list if we need to I'll definitely follow up get more info but if you want to knock something out or if something else pops up we'll definitely address it but if everyone feels good about this as a start I think we're in pretty good shape yeah I agree i' just like to I think we talked about it last time when you look at the roads maybe Mike can go look at it our guys use it a lot Malcolm we had a lot of work done down there I know it's not on the list you didn't say it that Road's in pretty rough shape and our guys are on there constantly there's more stuff to be done over there yeah it's just a matter of timing but maybe a quick maybe just or something cuz they're doing that pump project is over there they got to do so yep that's going to be starting up soon so there's going to be some work done it's bad though maybe they can address right some some some real bad ones yeah absolutely and that's a good thing to note is some of the even some of the roads in our cdvg Zone um were planned for waterw so we didn't want to submit for that until obviously all that's done so there's still a lot with the Dig and determines all the leadline replacement work that we know is coming so that's why we we scaled back on some of these roads just we know they need to get done um and we'll try and you know express that to Residents as much as we can but we it just doesn't make sense to put them on the list now not at all all right thank you so I think at our next at our next meeting we'll try to uh address the general budget Appropriations uh which is in two weeks is it in two weeks 6:30 February 6:30 we'll probably follow the same format just do it in new business I guess does that make sense yeah work out well okay and just we will have the full binders uh ready for for operating uh we're still rolling together a bunch of numbers so I didn't want to have that printed out now because it's going to change no problem are there any comments from the public please come forward state your [Applause] name good evening everyone uh good evening Mr council president I'm Joanne Mitchell I would like to thank the DPW for doing a fabulous job on snow removal when we had our little episode of snow last week we uh driving in Waldwick was much easier than driving in the surrounding towns and for their fast response when the water main broke on Richard Drive it's it's unforgiving work at any time and in this kind of weather it's absolutely brutal and please thank them for doing a rapid response on that unfortunately I am still having problems at my house with spontaneous floods not floods too literal uh the output from the tap on two evenings this past week Thursday and Saturday expressed a medium yellow uh fluid oily residue that left an oily residue with a metallic smell to it uh was approximately 11:53 p.m. on Thursday and about 12:04 a.m. on Saturday unknown cause unknown reason for that I've been a resident in the same house in Waldwick for going on 38 years this year this is the most main flushing I have ever experienced in 38 years as a resident and I appreciate the concern and the hard work I would like to know when a solution will be arrived at Steve um yeah unfortunately we just do not have that timeline yet um we don't know the full extent of the infrastructure needs at this point and until we know that and we can't really zero in on a timeline even once we have that all outlined then we have to really dive into the budget and see what's reasonable and what we can actually do what's the schedule for root cause analysis on the problem we're hoping to have another meeting with our Engineers next week um to touch base hopefully they'll have additional information for us and then we're going to put together a plan when can we expect that that plan I I I really honestly can't give you a solid update on that I would hope within a month or so with all due respect I held the project management professional certification for 10 years managing projects I find it very disconcerting that this is an open-ended problem and we have professional staff at hand and we have not established a defined project plan there is no start date there's no closure date it's an ongoing problem I will spare the council the details of the filters that we have to change in my house and probably some of you as well because I have under sync filters on the drinking water or any water that's used for cooking prior to the installation of the pfas installation at the burrow to remove that toxic material so those filters still have to be replaced due to the current contamination which as far as I know is unspecified I can make a qualitative assessment of what it might be but as far as quantitative I have no idea so I would really like some more communication on what the project plan is when it will start what the midpoint will be and when we expect the resolution it is getting very concerning I will spare you the details of how many shirts have been ruined in my house house so if the new engineering company is going to formulate a project plan can we expect it reasonably by what date I I cannot give you a solid date as the as the bur is the customer to the engineer I would encourage the burrow to say hi I'd like it by and stipulate a date we are and we just engaged with them fairly recently this new company so they're they're diving in they have a whole team that is trying to get this together for us as quickly as possible we are going to do um a full town hall meeting to let residents come in ask questions directly to them and outline our our game plan when will that be as soon as we have more information February I I would be reluctant to give you a hard date my goal would be for February okay when will we have an update on that I will provide an update one way or another at the next council meeting if there's anything received before then we will definitely put it out and we'll put it on the website outstanding thank you I noticed on the website if I go to the meetings that is still stipulated at 7:30 on the website is that going to be updated it will yeah yes thank you oh and uh thank you Madame burrow clerk the calendar arrived today at our house it looks fabulous thank you very much the water issue is of acute concern for a variety of reasons and I appreciate everybody's concerns you all live in town you're all experiencing the same thing as everybody else and people are getting very frustrated people are stopping each other in the Super Market and complaining and I look forward to a quick resolution of this and a lot of communication I I'd like to see something twice a week even if it's hi we had a meeting there's no update but to let people know what is going on would be a large Advantage thank you very much thank you Eric leor as far as Mr Richie um with the Sewer Authority um the 2.5 million is a lot of money uh that we have to play play with um you were talking about putting the Dome over some of the when I was going to the meetings it was $2 million per V and then the next meeting I went to recently they can't afford it it's almost 6 million they can't afford any of that money they said um we spoke a while ago and I only think the way we're going resolve some of this is what you and I talked about about a petition you know get everybody in W together a petition channel seven whatever you know because like U Mr Richie said they don't want any um word Word of Mouth coming back bad against them um so I'm going to put it out on um wal United Facebook to see you know what the town's people think about it yes no maybe I mean is that okay with Council if I do that can you answer yeah yeah I'm perfectly okay with it I'd like to see what we can do formally to support that through a resolution uh if if at all possible um these petitions cost money you try to maybe somebody will you know donate their time a lawyer in town Etc yeah I'd like to see what we can do to help I think we have support I mean Joe you've been I don't want to steal your thunder you you you really were kind of Spearhead this with assembly Mano so I don't know if you want to comment but um last conversation I had with assembly Mano was he was going to provide us another update he had uh been working behind the scenes I know he want wants to meet with u mayor gordano and the committee that he um assigns um he hears us and we we we've told him we've I I've met with him I think councilman Drake councilwoman Drake sakola councilman Richie uh Steve Neil we've all spoken with various members of the state $6 million is a lot of money but the state has to have $6 million if that's what it costs um in my opinion well the mayor gave me a letter you know and like Mr Richie said if you the aroma is bad you call down there you leave a message with the gentleman yeah nobody yeah and it's always always Friday or Saturday cuz nobody's there EPA D nobody is around and then they call Monday or Tuesday do you smell it now you know two days later it's a little different so can we put a I mean can we put a resolution together to to discuss and support a petition from residents uh I mean we we would probably have to work with you on what the language in the petition says I I imagine right Craig yeah yeah so uh maybe we can connect after put connect all the dots and I I fully support this you know being the one of the highest rates it's horrible too and we also don't have representation on that board yeah right so that should also be included yeah we used to I know we used to but we haven't in quite not since I've been here in 2018 and the other thing is what are they going to do with all this increased housing that's that's not just here it's in all of those towns so how are are they going to you know accommodate that accommodate that they're going to have to increase their capacity capacity they can't and they're landlock there I know so I'm just those are things that we should say the only other thing I have is maybe in the worldall of newsletter I don't know if a lot of council members noticed about the vets that we have in W whether they're World very few World War I two Korea Vietnam any Iraq are entitled to quite a few different things um maybe we could put that on the wall watch whatever we call that they're entitled to stairlifts they're entitled to U bathroom facility bars um shower bars they're all entitled to all free and if they were um subject especially Vietnam with agent orange they don't pay uh real estate taxes uh I know my cousin disabl excuse me they're 100% disabled right well my cousin had agent orange Vietnam he just had a heart transplant which is great and the U mland Park they don't pay tax they took his taxes away I wonder if we could maybe U put that on our wal watch or whatever we call that for you know they deserve it my opinion they really deserve it our vets yeah we could maybe build out a resource resource page on there okay great we could talk to John V [Applause] yeah good evening Joseph and Allen 40 Wolf Avenue I'm sorry to tie up uh Council memb time on a routine administrative uh task but um just some background on the 16th of uh January that was a bulk pickup day I scheduled the two pickups I got the acknowledgement on the pickups um the item wasn't that one one item was taken away by somebody not the borrow but was taken the other item is out there it's a box spring uh small box spring but I can't move it um so it's been out there and uh Mr Neil I I called your office twice over the course of six days and I was just asking for status not to complain that it wasn't picked up because things happen trucks break down Personnel is sick I understand but I never got an answer so unfortunately I came here and taking up everybody's time to find out what just what going for I don't want it out there for a month until next bul pickup that's what I'm asking okay yeah I apologize for not getting back we're inundated with a lot of water calls but um we'll definitely get back to you tomorrow morning okay uh does it sound like it's got got to be out there for three more weeks or no yeah I'll just I'll uh reach out to them tomorrow morning uh it's 40 wab there's a box bring there and I'll just ask them to I'll ask them to pick it up tomorrow okay thank you very much thank you welcome thank you do we have a motion no motion to go to close session motion Mike and okay we can do it here we can yeah all in favor to go and close all in favor 8:16 PM are we have formal action or no no formal action okay