What do you mean, John? What? I have I have I got you. Thanks. Okay. Notice of this meeting in accordance with the open public meetings law 1975
C231 has been posted. Two newspapers, the record and the Ridgewood News have been notified. Roll call, please. Councilman Banano here. Councilwoman Brodsky here. Councilwoman Margolus is on her way shortly. Councilwoman Marsh here. Councilman Pollock here. Council
President Stern present. Mayor Reno here. Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. Approval of minutes April 23rd, 2025, close session. Is there a motion? Motion second. All in favor? Yes. Yes. Any opposed? None. Motion passes. April 23rd, 2025 open session. Is there a
motion? Motion. Second. All in favor? Yes. Any opposed? None. Motion passes. May 5th, 2025 open session. Is there a motion? Motion. All in favor? Any oppose? None. Motion
passes. Budget hearing. Ordinance number 25-05 year 2025 an ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriations limit to establish a cap bank pursuant to NJSA uh col4 40 4A
4-45.14. All right. Um motion to open to the public. Motion. Second. All in favor? Yes. Any opposed? None. Okay. Anybody like to come up and speak on this? Just on this ordinance. It's just on this ordinance. It's not on the budget
for you come up. Three minutes. I'm taking time to Yeah, I know. You got 78 pages and you got orders. I'm under orders. I'm a sold. Yeah, I know you are. Sometimes the orders are That's the way things go,
right? Uh would it be possible to have a buzz presentation before we have the questions? This is this is just for the the cap ordinance only for the cap ordinance. That's why I said it's just for this cap. Yeah, the cap ordance that we do every year. Okay. That's why it's
not for the will be after the budget presentation. Right after the budget presentation. Terrific. Thank you. All right. Thank you for staying on the Is this on? No, just this one into the chat. Y motion to close. Second motion.
Second in favor. Yes. Any oppose? None. Motion passed. Motion to adopt. No, it's uh for this the waiver and reading of both. Oh, okay. Yeah. No, but we have to adopt that.
I thought we were doing all Yes. Correct. Sorry. Motion to adopt that motion. Second. Roll call, please. Here. Yes. Oh, yes. Mr. Yes. Uh, Miss Marge, yes. Mr. Pollock, yes. Mr. Stern, yes. Motion
passed. Thank you. Resolution number 25-147, resolution authorizing the waiver of reading of the full 2025 budget. Okay. Resolution number 25-148, self-examination of the 2025 budget. Motion. Second. Okay. All in
favor? budget presentation. Bush, step right up. Hello everyone. Hello. Hi. And Mr. Joseph, the dream team. That's a term.
So if it's okay with you u what I was going to do I was just going to briefly talk a little bit about globally um the financial highlights of the municipality and talk a little bit about
what happened in 24 globally where are we in 25 um we can go through the slide presentation um and we'll go through it kind of um really hasn't changed much fun over the previous years and you'll see um and then of course if anybody
have any questions we'll go through that that um so just a little bit of a little bit of a highlight just want to make sure if anybody's watching Right. Thank you. So, um let's talk about 2024 fiscal
highlights. So, 2024 was a very successful year for the Burwood Blake. Um surplus um is was up 200,000 from the previous year before. Um I'm not sure it's an all-time high, but it's over the last seven years that I had at least a
data we and we can go back 20 years, but um so you know that is a a positive uh what we're looking for annually. So surplus went from 4 million ended the fiscal year to $4.2 million. And really what that does that just gives you the
ability to use that surplus to balance the budgets going forward as of course you know prices increase inflation goes up costs are going up on an annual basis. Uh so that was positive news. Um so that provides us a little bit of
leeway on on surplus collection rate tax collection rate has been steady here for as long as I've been around since you were in 99 98% which is terrific. really where you want to be. Um it's certainly not unusual for this type of community. Uh
but again, very consistent. So that is most most of our tax bills are being paid on a on a timely basis. Um tax appeals tax appeals are always a big thing with Cliff Lake as we all know. Um dealing with with
those specific issues. Um we we did go uh in previous years and ask for a refund ordinance on other fields. Um the balance sheet itself has reserved balances. We have reserve balances for number of items and one of the items is
is for tax appeals. So at the end of 2024, we actually have $500,000 sitting in our bank account for future tax appeals. Um and then in addition to that, we have $190,000 that we budgeted in the 25 budget, assuming it's going to
pass tonight. Um, and then we also have some reserved unspent monies from the 24 budget, roughly $180,000. So we have over $862,000 rolling forward in our reserve for appeals. So that's required for any payments that we're making in 25 and and
and and forward. Um, so that's positive. I know that back in the day when we were going through this process and getting approval from LFP on the deals, um we were uncertain as to where our balances were going to be and how much we actually needed um and whether or not we were going to have a surplus going
forward and be able to build that surplus. So, we're going in the right direction. I guess that's what I'm trying to say is that although I know we're dealing with some legal deals um that I know that at least from from the cash perspective of the financial statements, we actually do have some reserves coming forward. And really the
idea here is hopefully we can we can sustain any future appeals without having to entertain the local finance board application passing permission to to fund that over multiple years. Um, so I know I said a lot there, but I guess at the end of the day, I'm happy with
with with where we are in these open fields. We also have over $420,000 set aside for terminal leave payments. That's as employees leave, they're entitled to terminal pay. Um, so this way relieves some pressure on the budget side as well because we actually have
money set aside for those those pains. And finally, we have a storm reserve, storm trust reserve, which is intended to pay for unanticipated storms throughout the year that we're not budgeting. So again, we have we have budget appropriations that we normally handle these expenses on on an annual
basis, but again, we do have circumstances that warrant and we certainly can get into the reserve balance. So financially, I think, you know, Flake is in excellent condition here. I mean, I think these are great numbers to have. Um I'd like to talk a
little bit about uh 2025. So um yeah we can we start to go through some of the slides here. Um so if you go through some of the slides obviously the first one that we're looking at here is just it's just a breakdown of the revenues. Um I think the big important things when
I look at this is this obviously you can see was surplus. So we're the utilization surplus is up $150,000 and that's only possible because the fund the actual balance itself the previous year increase and that's what's given us
the ability to to utilize more surplus to balance the budget local revenues and I'm sure if I put last year's I I do have it here a lot of these these percentages are unchanged um it includes all these other items that that are listed in the bottom which is basically
anything we that we don't see specific specifically identified uh licenses fees permits. I think the only thing and it's not a material change is obviously the hotel tax is no longer an anticipated revenue in 25 anticipated revenue in 24
but pretty stable and I think that's that that's again that's really want to be no real surprises no real fluctuations on the budgeting side state a slightly down everybody saw that because uh in the previous years the state came back found additional monies and for those towns that didn't adopt
the budgets we had to reserve And so if the candle budgeted revenue in 24 they would reappropriate their event. That's why you see that that stuff decrease. Um delu taxes um you know it's up they're up slightly just because the
levy keeps increasing right. Um but um 230,000 we're able to anticipate more because the balance went up a little bit more. So we're able to anticipate that as a revenue. um just means we go through a two-year cycle on tax collections, right? We send everybody a
bill, we've got to pay the county, we've got to pay the school 100% of their taxes, and then we have to have enough money set aside for us to pay our bills. Um and then we go through the second year cycle, and that's where we anticipate that revenue, those delinquencies. Um so I feel very
comfortable with that as well. Um and then you're looking at the grants here. Really the big distinction this year is that we lost some of the grand but really was the remaining piece of the ARA money. That ARA money had to be committed or spent by the end of 2024. Um that's why we're looking at
what we're seeing here. And then you have to get the tax which is again final denominator, right? What are we raising in tax? So that's it. that increases is $400,000 to roughly uh 3% um
uh 3.2% um on total tax dollars being raised and the total budget's up 4%. And this is just a breakdown of the dollars. I mean in this again um I I did look at last year as a matter of fact and I think almost every percentage or
allocation of tax dollars is similar to last year that show political 23s and 42s it's just indicative of what happens in this in your type of community. Um the majority is coming from from from taxes. Um okay uh tax levy caps. So the
tax levy cap um this is the caps on on the tax levy itself. How much money can we raise? We all know that the state of New Jersey implemented scaps and the idea was to try to lower the taxes in the state. You can control the
increases. Um you know even though you're looking at uh a 3.2% 2% increase taxes. You know, apply sitting here at the 2% but there's exceptions to every rule as everyone knows. Um, and really what this what this slide is telling
everybody that okay, so in 2025 the governing body is presenting tax increase. So the amount that we raise by taxes of the 12,882,000, but the state's telling you, well, what you could you could raise it $600,000. So, we're raising at 400, but they're
telling you if you wanted to, you could raise it a million dollars a year and still be in within the cap. Um, so that's just telling you that there's banks available for future use. Um, sort of I can't imagine anybody intend on using those banks, right? That is keep taxes as low as
possible. Um, so then we get to the expense side and um the expense side. Um I think you know again uh similar to the previous years here you know when we
when we try to compare what the budget was in 24 to 25 I think what kind of sticks out for me is that the salaries and wages are only up 1.2%. Um and that's really holding the line. And I think that you know what what the public has to understand is that um you know
even if you even if the contract is you know we always seem to pick on a PBA right but um always picking on could be DP as well. Um so we could pick on but so you go through those contracts and if if if the governing body awards a 2% increase on that contract it really
always equates to about 4%. They gave it the 3% is somewhere around five six%. because you have the increases in the steps and those steps have larger dollars. Um so to keep this at 1.2% 2% is tremendous. Um and just to just to explain on that I think most of the
governing body knows I know it'll definitely finance committee but for those uh a large reason with that is we are having a transition both within the police department and the DPW where some senior folks have or are retiring and
are being replaced by younger uh members. So, you know, that that's uh that adds or that's uh one of the reasons why uh why we're able to keep it. Now, obviously that's always going to go up later on, but for for now and
maybe the next year, we you know, it's good for us. Although, Tom, I would note we you know, we did see a increase for police officer salaries of 145,000. Correct. So that Oh yeah. So that really does drive, you know, we really did have
to make that up with with with other employees. So that the that the cops still went up. So it's not as if that 1% represents the cops because it's the other salaries that really drove that down. No. No. And that's contractual. So we had no control over the, you know, the cop salary anyway. So and and I
think you you stated at the bottom there, Mr. not to take it from your uh presentation, but the other expenditures I I just think that it's uh very worth noting that a large portion of that and my CFO knows is uh the health benefits which is a uh a concern not just for us
but for every town, every every school board and everything uh every government agency right now that that's that's taking a big toll on on all the uh the uh municipalities. Yeah, by far that's that's one of the major increases that we're seeing, you know, town by town by
town. Um the health insurance um you know, and of course there was articles in directory. I'm sure everyone was aware of those with the state uh health benefit plan. Um you know, I don't know where that's going. Probably a good spot. Um so uh yeah and if you look at you
know the other expenses so again what we're looking at we kind of lump into sales and then we go through some of the specifics and then everything else gets lumped into other um so that that's a large 264 really 170,000 is benefit is insurance um and then we have small
increases that was the lease pension um that's the bulk of what makes up that $280,000 increase. Um other than that you know the pensions those are pretty well flat. Uh we did decrease the capital improvement the capital projects components and I think
that was a direct reflection of when you look at what we have on the bottom towards we we see debt service you know debt service and that went up sizable this year and so I think it was a conscious effort at that point then what we need to back off on the capital improvement the capital side of balance
those a little bit. Um so at the end of the day and get the reserve from collected as I said before that's always done that we just we increase that every year because your total levy was because you know we're levying the taxes not just for us but for the local school regional school and the county. Um so um
that's just the one of those items that this requires on an annual basis. Um so again when you look at this grand total here um expenditures were up basically 4% from the previous year. Um and then when you get into the appropriations as
the percentages of the total again for last year which I didn't full these are almost identical again where the tax dollar is going um you know salary and wages is obviously big but the the other expense of the insurance stuff it's
starting to creep in um and take a little bit of a larger slice of the pie go forward so I go forward This is one of the other caps. This is probably So the state um way back when
started with this spending cap, the appropriation cap and they thought that was a good way to limit tax increases uh to municipalities and and to the residents. Um but it at the end of day in my mind the important cap is really taxing cap right what you spend uh is
really not that relevant. It's really how much you tax is really more relevant. This is one of the caps that we have to live with. And I'll be quite frank with you that even though you are below the maximum amount of 268 in a lot of my communities that I represent,
we're we're coming up against those numbers and some we're having to cut to get underneath those caps. Um even though the tax levy cap still has an available balance. So it's one of these things that I think the legislaturator is going to try to deal with next year, try to exclude some other stuff out of
here. Again, in my mind, it's really not an important issue. Um, one thing I do want to point out when we look at on the spending side up top, we can see that it increased 1.8%. So, that means the limitation amount. How much do we spend? What was inside the cap subject to limitations,
which is good. So, really, we only increased inside the cap of 1.8%. Um, which is which is really nice. And the floor is a little bit higher. So that's a good number and that's really what's allowing us to increase the available balance to 268. If you look at
last year was was wasn't much of a balance. And then we get into the history of the tax uh reortionment. Um you know it gets a little odd here. not odd I shouldn't say but it's a little bit a
little bit different consent when you're looking at tax rates because we do a rolling assessment our assessed values are always being adjusted on a annual basis so we have increase in assessed values which could actually lower the
rig not indicative of what the tax dollars are um so really again what we're saying is is here is that the municipal including the open space which just one penny was going up at half a point. But um and then we did an
estimate on the on the county and then the local school. But I think what's more important is coming up in the next two slides again because that's adjusted for increases and assessed elements. So this slide again this is like where did your tax dollar go and then what what of every dollar where does the
money go that we paint as a resident right? So we know that for every dollar that we pay 11 cents is really for the county 25 cents is only for the municipality and that's what we're here to talk about. So we're not here to talk about the remaining 75 cents and that's the bulk of it. Nearly it's always from
school. That's again typical of the state of New Jersey. I think last year's I know last year's percentage are quite down to five. Um but this is typical of of municipalities um in your demographics. And then really what does
it mean? So when we get back here, we're kind of like to the last class home and that's of course what's what's important to you residents and that's really how does it affect the average um resident average home value? What are we doing on taxes? What's the increase here? So,
what we're projecting is is that we're looking at $235 increase um from 204 to 2025. And the home values that we're using went from a $98,000 average now to a
$944,000 average. Um so, I guess at this point I would open it up to any questions and then um maybe any other details or Okay. Any questions from the council?
Mr. Lurch, I mean maybe Paul maybe you can just explain that that 235 a large percentage of that is based on you know some of the changes in the commercial um assessments not necessarily based on the on the tax levy. Yeah that's
interesting thing. So as a as a to the point um so because we do these royal assessments which means that basically 20% of a community every single year goes under a reassessment or revel or adjustment. Um so what's happening is is
that over the last four or five years what's happened is is that even though the assessed values in the bur gone up the percentage allocated to the residential side is going up at a greater percent than the commercial properties. So that's what we call a
shift. So what happens is is that even if you were if we were to raise zero tax dollars, we kept our budget in 2025 identical to what we're raising in 20 what we raised in 2024 because of the shift alone on the municipal side, you got an $80
increase. And if you extrapolate that out, it's over a $300 increase just on an estimate when you add the county and the two schools into it. So from and I think we should just focus on our side of it. So on our side of it, like I said, and you're shortly um it's a 5%
increase uh because of the shift and and $80 that at 232 was part of that shift. Last year was $110 was the shift. Um so um those were one of the biggest um hurdles that Blake
is trying to to get the hand around and I think we want to write down. I mean, I know this has been a battle the last few years and I've been involved with finance and going through that process and I think we're we're coming to a uh a resolution here as to moving forward that we think going to be able to to
hold by these shifts. So, M. Did you want to add anything? No. Mayor, thank you very much again. Paul gave a very good Paul gave a very detailed overview as we know and appreciate all the support from the council and the mayor and all the staff.
It's a pleasure working with everyone here. Yeah. Thank uh council brother Stern and Councilman Pollock on the finance committee [Music] pleas. Yeah, just before we open to questions, I I didn't recognize you was
a Yankee fan, so I thought that No, I guess before we open to questions, I do want to say, you know, we as a a finance committee, we did go through this budget line by line, you know, over over many hours. You know, we really did
try to cut whatever waste we could in a reasonable way. You know, no one took out a chainsaw and pretended they were um somebody else. But we really did try to do it in, you know, in a very reasonable way. You know, we did keep
the tax levy um to 3.2%. I did just want to point out, you know, we there were probably five specific line items that really drove, you know, whatever increase we had. You know, we had about a $300,000 increase in debt
service, 168,000 in insurance liability workers comp, 145,000 in police salaries, uh 30,000 in utilities, and 45,000 in pension. That's about 700,000. So if you look at the
levy, which is only an increase of 400,000, we were able to find, you know, sufficient cuts in order to sort of offset most of that and really keep it in a reasonable way for our taxpayers. Yeah. And I guess just to add to your
point, well, we had one of our meetings and we started out with a uh with a document that was almost $700,000 in increase in taxes. Um and then that's when um a line by line approach and And I know that he went through that and
that's how you know through their hard work we were able to take from that 700. I think also for the public to note when you look back at least the data that I had readily available was the last I believe six years this is the smallest
yearon-year increase um on the municipal side at least over and that's also with black state aid since the Christy administration. Uh so basically municipalities are not getting anything from the state. Doesn't matter who is in power. Uh and so we have to
make that money somehow. I just I also want to add that one of the questions I had concern since you talked about was that you're leaving enough in reserves and to make sure should there be any emergencies or anything that need to you're planning appropriately. So tax appeals that we
think the unknowns the unknowns. Yeah. And as we know with the weather shifting and flooding shifting, it's really gonna um we don't know it's usual, right? But also, I do want to point out too, you know, we you we had several favorable tax appeal settlements this year. Some
of them were, you know, one of them um you know, we certainly had estimates from our appraisers that it was a multi-million dollar exposure. We were able to settle that just by having a modest reduction in assessment. So we really have tried to tackle that issue
and it's just been unfortunate the last couple years you know it has affected the the commercial assessments but you know we we've sort of reinstituted trying to have bimonthly meetings you know with our assessor uh to try to go through this because um it's been a
thorn in our side the last couple years. Yeah. But even just add to that if you look at the last five years the total assessed value of the burrow about $365 million. It's a tremendous amount. But the problem is when when when it shifts
to the resident side and not from the commercial side and that's when we feel these tax increases without really spending any more money. And it's not that the commercials are not going up. Yes. It's that the commercials are not going up as much. So lower. I think what's also important to note when you
look at the budget in totality um despite the fact we were going line by line uh throughout the budget and trying to find savings or things that perhaps in years past that have not been spent to its fullest we're able to save some dollars but in doing so uh none of the burough services that
we provide today are changing or going away as a result of you know shaving uh where we have though we still provide the same level of service to our residents while still finding some savings doing so. Okay. Uh, at this moment, I guess we'll
make a motion to open it to the public on the budget presentation. Motion. Is there a second? All in favor? Yeah. None opposed. Anybody would like to speak better. They're not done. All right. Well, come
on up here and we can have a seat right here. Okay. I like how John got the leaf. Yes. My first comment is um I'm glad we're not the federal government trying to slash 7.4 trillion
dollars out of some needed programs, I think. But uh generally on here just say your name and the time you Bert Taylor Woodliff Lake uh I think you've done an excellent job on the budget. I didn't have much time
to look at it but I I think it was was done uh all in in in good taste. You you looked at it. I look at this I find out that the average price of the home has gone up 4%. The average price of our tax has gone up 4%. That's just part of
where things are. you're in the in the midst of all of these things that happened within the statewide with insurance and and and liabilities and that was that was a good part of it and I I understand that. Um I think also the
fact that you've got the um um the me the the non-public if you will the the business side of that. Um we know the loss of of companies here. I hope there's a committee that is formed
to see what we can do. I I see that our neighbor city, I'll call it Montfield, has decided that they are going to uh try and become a city and attract a certain type of clientele there. Um I think what would be a perfect one for us
too, but they've decided that they're going to try and attract um medical and doctors and health care and etc. perfect thing for them. Uh I personally am a patient over at Sloanketing over
there uh unfortunately. But they're also trying to attract more medical in there uh low traffic uh not a lot of people coming in etc. and uh high high vacancies and etc.
So I don't know if we can do something of that nature. I don't know what we're going going be going going to be doing forward. I know at one point I think there was a mayor's 2020 committee. Um I would suggest you might want to look ahead at a 2025 committee to see what we
want to do in the next five years. Um this we have the planning board absolutely but I think it sometimes comes from this mayor and council that says what do we want to do with this burrow? And I think we've got a lot of qualified people up here to take a look at that and see what what we should be
doing in the future. You're all residents here. This is your town. So, what would you look at in the future for this that would be helpful for the for us to keep both the cost of taxes down, but also to make this a quality place.
And I just have a couple of comments if I might. Um, I'm trying to to take a look at everything. Overall, the reserves, uh, every town has to have them. Um, you
never know what the future has for you, such as like when we had CO and everything just changed overnight and we have a somebody in charge of our health who doesn't believe in CO. So, we'll see what happens with all of that.
Um the um other expenses went up $500,000. My wife did a little look at this. I take it that's mostly due to what you had to do for insurance and and uh healthcare. That's I mean like I read your five line
items that was you know that was know 700,000 right there. Okay. So it was less than the total amount that went up. So again, I say a good job was done by all on this. Um I would say there's one
part of it. It's not you. We do have representatives to our our high school. Yes. Do they at all confer with the mayor and counsel as to what the desires are of the mayor and
council? Nothing formal. Nothing. So that they're just totally okay. Um I I bring up something unfortunate that I found out that when it comes to all this high all the high
schools in the state of New Jersey, we're number two in terms of pay average salary of 117,500. I don't know how many of you are making 117,500, but it's a very nice salary.
The only thing is that we are ranked by US News and World Report as number 68 in this in the in the state. When I look at our salaries at number two and I look at our ratings of the schools at 68, there's a disparity
there between that. I I I would expect that we would be in the top 10, but we're down at 68 by US News and World Report. Not sure. I mean, I know it's not your area, but I wish more people like you would attend those boards. I I
I totally agree with you. I totally This there's this disparity and it gets worse every year. You're aware of it. Um so that's basically what I had. I think I tried to make some notes here and that's
about it. I think well done. Um, I look forward to uh a good year for the for the for the mayor and council and for the burough. So, thank you. Well, thank you. Hi. I just want to re reiterate what um please state your name in the title. I'm
sorry. Yeah. Josephine Higgins Wickliff Flake. Um, I'm glad to be a resident of this town. Uh, I've looked at some of the other towns and what their tax levy is and people are being hit really hard. Um, I just want to ask Paul, how much do
we have left if we need if we have an emergency like we had, you know, with co it's for surplus we or amount. I thought we were about like 1.7.
No, I want the actual amount of money we have. That's about 1.7. Oh, wait. I think John 1.6 something, but that doesn't include the reserves. Almost 1.9 million yet. Jonathan, you already have. We have that in reserve. Yes, mayor. So, in that 1.9
million is actually um it's it's the highest over the last 10 years. It's like the surplus number 4.2 million. It's the highest over the last 10. But Paul, that that number doesn't include the money set aside for employees their terminal, right? That's another reserve.
And and it doesn't include the money set aside for the tax abuse, right? Just on balance. Thank you. Paul, maybe you want to elaborate a little bit that by having a healthy surplus that also helps our bond
ratings, right? Yes. Yes. I know you know that support for the public. Thank you. Um mayor, just one more thing also just to clarify that 1.8 8 million. Our balance includes what we utilize in the budget as well. What? I'm sorry. What did you
say? That includes the balance of what we used in this year's budget as well. Okay. That's left over. That's what So numbers 1.8. That's the answer. Yes. Rolling forward.
The balance of a surplus rolling forward after we utilize the amount to balance the 25. That's the remaining balance. Surplus. So, you're saying 1.9? Yeah. 1.9 minutes of ground. Yeah. Okay.
Um the other thing, um I just I love our fire I mean our um police department. They're great. I just one area that I think we could have um saved some money is that we have three police or to be police
officers that are going to the academy, but we're paying for their schools and the academy and um and uh money that they receive. And I think that in the past we've we've had good luck getting
uh police officers that um you know are already trained. They come from another town and um I just think we could have saved more money. I'll answer that mayor. Sure. Go ahead. Because I I'm a big proponent involved in the mouth. Yeah. I spoke to Chief. We had an
extensive u evaluation. We received over 130 applicants. Right. Uh believe it or not, not a lot of alternate route or officers changing departments. After extensive interviews through uh through the
process, uh what we've always done both going back to Chief Tenniselli, Chief Burns, now Chief Frank is we want to get the best candidates be it an alternate route or someone we have to send to the academy. I don't disagree with you. It would be great. But um we did have uh
one who was an alternate route who decided to go to another department because they called him like you know a couple of weeks prior. So um it wasn't for lack of trying or looking. It was just that we want to make sure that the folks we get are staying here. As you
know, over the last 30 or 35 years, with the exception of two officers, everyone who's come here has stayed here. What with the exception of I think two officers, everyone we've hired has stayed here. We've only lost two officers who have gone to another department, right? Uh one went to the
prosecutor's office who did very well became chief and one left a couple of years ago uh to a larger department. Otherwise, they usually come here and they get invested in the community and stay here. So, that's that's the goal is to find someone who's who really fits in
with the department. I got to give credit to uh to the command staff there who have done a really good job of making sure that that's I just think that's a area we can save money. It's always something they look at, we look at, right? Right. But at the end of the day, it's what is best for the borrow,
what is best for the police to follow. And the timing of such was get them into the academy for on around July 1st based on the retirements that we have to make sure we don't have establish. Yeah, I know that the retirements are coming in. So, and um very good job. Um who's on
Yeah, I'm on the police committee. So, okay. And no, I mean who's on finance? You Mr. Pollock, Mr. Okay, I just scheduled it. Okay, very good. Thank you very much. And thank you for the good job. And I
just want Paul has I was I was Yeah. I'm going to say Yeah. But um it was during my administration I put Yeah. And you've done a terrific job. And no, not that you didn't come into my
house, but you've done it. You've done it. Mayor, by saying before, but I also want our our department heads, uh, who's here and all the department heads because they work very closely with the finance committee, right? You know, to, you know, find places where we could save,
where we could, you know, uh, be creative. Yeah. And and and do do what's best for the town. So, um, it's a team effort. Yeah. What um how many people are we down in the DPW? Actually, we are we are now at full complent. We have we
just hired someone last last month. Okay. Um and um you know we are now we have full compliment. It's a very high turnover department. So tomorrow we could be down one or two. Yeah. So yeah, you know we're you know we tell uh David
he can hire basically at will because you know we're turning through people. It's just unfortunate part of the of the profession these days and and I sorry to add I do think that as time goes on and we keep on adding different things to the mix in town there could be an opportunity to increase DPW we've been
talking about it within the committee to see if we can get some more people to make sure we're keeping everything in a state of good repair and also sort of moving the burrow forward in that they're the unseen heroes I like to call them right then um with hold on a second I had stopped some of It has to be a
great option. Oh, you know what? This will go under a different thing. We're just doing Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.
Nathan. Okay. Name and Bob. Nathan Wood. Nice presentation. I've sat through many of these, so this is good on this side and through the school. Um, I really just have a quick question. You said you had roughly about
$900,000 in tax appeals uh or reserved for tax appeals. Has town looked, do we know of any other buildings that we think are coming in um going forward? Have most of the buildings been in? I'm assuming most of the office buildings
have already been in over the last few years. Um, I do find it interesting being in the real estate business. Prices are are as high as they've ever been except for the office market. Yeah. You know, retail market, all all the other type of
uses values are are super high. So, I'm surprised they even try to get appeals or or I I I don't pay attention enough to see where we settle them. Um, I mean, the issue we were having is we were having multiple year years of appeals. So, you know, the same building would
have four to five years of appeals. I guess the one building to sort of keep an eye on is, you know, so we do our assessments as of October 1st, right? Um, party city um went vacant after October 1st. So, in in the next year, I would expect there to either be a
reduction in the assessment or um a tax appeal. And the one thing about the appeals is even though we only collect 25 cents on every dollar, the burrow actually pays the entire appeal. So what that's one thing we've struggled with is
you know whereas the you know we pay we collect the taxes for the school that you know we have to pay their share of those taxes. So but that's one bill that we have to take a look at. Right. Right. and and and with that and I think uh council concern made it before what we're trying to do is trying to stay
ahead of it if you will. So that's why we're having at least monthly or by monthly meetings with our tax assessor and the appraiser to say hey is this coming down is this a potential you know so that's one that's one of the things that we are trying to be more proactive about. I I guess bottom line is do we
think $900,000 is going to be enough going forward? We don't know real estate business fortunate or unfortunate these tax apps take time like like councilman said none of them are five six years old anything filed today you know unless
it's a do we have anything outstanding do we have any big ones outstanding now or we expect that that's that's being filed and then right like I said um one 123 we just settled recently I think 100's going to be filed but that's
that's only going to be filed for take time So, they filed for 2025, although I don't think they have, you know, um, as much grounds as they are going to have in 2026 because they were not vacant on October 1st. I don't I don't I don't know what the assessment was in 25, but I know in 24 or 23 when they bought the
building, you know, they paid $46 million. So their their they they their success shouldn't you know maybe in 26 when party city went out I understand that we're not going to have much of an argument but prior to that I think we should have good arguments not to still
have the health still right okay my question right I'm up one one minute I can ask it actually from here when we pay the sewage sewage fee in here that is for the use of just the municipal sewage and water fees. Am I correct with that?
Sewer fees. Yeah, that that's usually to uh the the BCU. Yeah. Obviously folks are you know just wondering how it was from Hillsdale I'm we have yes we
have some there's um uh actually we connect to Hillsdale upper Saddle River and Saddle River have a couple of uh smaller properties about 20 or 30 that connect to our in pay us for for doing that.
Okay. Motion to close to the public. Motion. Second. Second. All in favor? Yes. Any oppose? None. Motion passes. Uh resolution number 25-249. Uh resolution to adopt the 2025
budget. Is there second? Okay. Roll call. Sabano. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. Motion to
open the public on any matter, Miss Higgin. Oh, sorry. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Appreciate you. Okay. U motion to open the public. I'm sorry. Second. Okay. All in favor? Yes.
None oppose. All right. Anyone would like to speak on anything, please step up, state your name and the town you're from. Yes, it is. Um, uh, a couple of people came up to me, um, after we had the open Higgins
from WL Flake. Oh, I'm sorry. Josephine Higgins, Wickliff Flake, I'm sorry. Um and what they said is um they really think we should have besides the police crossing people over to uh the park that
we um also have a a um a crosswalk that is it's actually painted out. I know that's a county road. You know, I don't know how much we we can do, but if that's possible the you know, it wasn't one or two. They said that you know
several people. Okay. actually uh we are have been working as a matter of fact today I received back some comments from the county uh we're looking to put a call on wood clip uh towards like the bliss area like at
the the area by the park and and the other complaint or comment we got back is the curb is very high you go crossing so it's very difficult and the reason there's a reason why that curve is so high if you recall and you like if you were still on the council last year we
major flooding that came across. So that was done specifically to protect Yeah. that area. So short answer, it's being looked at, it's being worked on. We do have to work with the county, get their approvals. Okay. It's not going to be
tomorrow, but it is being addressed. Okay. Right. And Councilman Stern, Councilman Pollock, and myself are on the committee. I don't know the full the official name of it for that area. And we also have asked the county for a reduction in speed both on Woodliffe and We were miss. So we are waiting to hear
back on that. And we've done a traffic light study. We've done a whole different series of studies. We're just trying to do the things quickest that can get done. So the traffic and the other crosswalk are the Okay. Thank you
very much. Thank you. Bob Nathan Woodflake. Okay, so I brought this up once before and I'm going to bring it up again. Paving of Hunter Ridge. Our street is 32 years old and we have never been paved. You have paved
numerous streets of developments that don't get nearly as much used and were developments built after us, including Birwood. You just did or doing You did Stacy Lane, you did Stonewall Court, you did Winthrop, you
did Carrington. Um you're doing Birchwood again. I'm sorry, you're doing Brookview. I think you're doing it again. um which is probably as bad as Hunter Ridge when I drove down it today just to see what was going on. I don't know if it's worse. I don't know if it's
worse, but our street needs to be paved. And our curbs, at least my curb, and now some of my neighbors, whatever the I don't I know it wasn't the town, but whoever put in the streets, Curly had a bad pour in some of the curbs on our
streets cuz they are crumbled. And mine specifically has disintegrated to nothing. And that's it's growing. It's like catchy. Um, and of all those streets, Hunter Ridge is an actively used street by the neighborhood. Um,
Nikki, you okay? Um, where all the other streets are not are really just neighborhood streets. They're culde-sacs. They're not even used by other people. Um, but just you got to look at it because it needs to be done. I mean, I will just comment that that the selection of streets is actually not something done by the council. It's
really done by the DPW and they base it on not only on age and the engineers. It's based not only on age but but on use. You know, Brookview is a major uh thoroughare through town. Um certainly it's been ripped up a number of times. I
I believe Hunter Ridge is high on the list. Although, you know, but it's not it it it Let me finish. But those were not the other streets you didn't were not major thorough but but there are streets that are older than Hunter. We're not. No, there are. Oh, there are. Oh, there are. I can tell you I believe
Claremont hasn't been paved since 1994. Um, we're prior. Our our streets were put in in 89. If you're prior, top code in 93, I think. You know, if you're prior, I think you're probably only one year prior because I remember looking at the list.
Um, it's a question of something we're going to evaluate next year. you know, we have really focused this year on on paving, you know, on the capital budget which is being introduced. I think we spent more on paving than than we've ever spent, you know, to do Brookiew and to do West
Hill are a lot of money and I think we spent, you know, somewhere between $800 to $900,000 whereas normally we might spend 300. So, it is a a priority of this council to really focus on infrastructure and next year we'll go to our engineer, we'll go to our DPW and
we'll ask them to make you know, decisions, but nobody in this room is making that decision because those type of things should not be political decisions. They really should be by professional. So, you know, I appreciate you coming here, but like nobody's go, you know, I'm not going to lean on DPW and tell them Bob Nathan
came in and you have to do this. I'm gonna I'm gonna wait for them to come in and if you have a disagreement with them, you know, we can sort of discuss it in open session, but just ask them to look at it that they that they do it. Listen, I
understand paving is not a sexy thing to spend money on. Trust me, it's expensive. I I get it and no one comes to you and says, "Oh, this is beautiful. This is great job." You know, like I get a call almost every week on Yeah. some obscure street I've gone with you to
look at facts that I go out there and I'm like it's it's fine but no I I get it and I'm not trying I will make sure that they will definitely uh look at it I can't promise but Bob I think it's also important to know which
I didn't realize until I got here you think you know I my street should be done Hunter Ridge is a huge street right so when you're looking at different streets and different sizes it's sort of like a Tetris game like what you have the money for to fit fit in which works into the formula right you don't want to leave money on the table so you figure out which little streets can be done
quickly and for cost effective and then you have two big streets so what Josh was saying is Brookview and West Hill are huge streets right so we're trying to figure out the best hey listen I think Heather Hill should be paved but like you know everyone has their own views on it but I think it's it's a it's a game but I do think that to the DPW
committee which is Chris Josh and myself we have a new DPW super so he's going to take everything with a fresh eye and look at things again and As times change, Overlook keeps on having problems. It needs to be patched every year, like multiple times a year. Yeah.
I'm just saying so like there are things that unfortunately emergencies take things away, but they are going to look at again as Josh said, we did add money to the paving. We do believe in paving. We think we have to, you know, clean out our sewers more regularly. like we have to go back to sort of making sure everything is focused because as I feel
like a broken record, flooding has really changed in this town and things are really happening that have never happened before. I mean the state took down a house in our town and paid for it because flood waters changed and the t like the movement changed. So we are taking a bigger look at it. It just you got to give us some time because we're
getting you do West Hill. Are you doing all of West Hill or you really doing it up just to We're doing West Hill from Lion Camry. Yeah. From Emory all the way down to the You're not doing the new part of West Hill. Correct. And just they were also developed after us. Correct. That's the point like you know
I don't know if you know that on miss the other miss I always forget which is lane and which is road the big one that splits to Hills the other you know Hillsdale paved it and we didn't pave it and then we paved it. You know we we're trying we're trying to do better about working coordination so it makes more
sense and Brookie has been on the list for a long time. Um, and Westville also West Hill is a dangerous road, right? The way it curves and whatever and it needs to be in good repair or someone's going to go. And just so you know, we got grant money for West Hill. I think we got 130,000. I mean, that does factor into what ultimately gets decided which
roads we can get grant money for, right? But some of this issue is, you know, um, you know, maybe five or 10 years ago, there wasn't that emphasis on paving, okay? You know, so we are playing a little bit of catch-up and that's why we are spending more money this year than we've ever spent. So, we will get there, right? and I welcome you to come to
every meeting you want. Make sure they look at it. That's all I can ask. The residents of make sure they're there and if the residents want to put some money together, we'll Right. Okay. Second question, redevelopment of the Hilton and the redevelopment of the BMW
building. Okay. Whose decision was it to to go after um a process the area re of redevelopment area re an area in need of red in in need of redevelopment and to do a pilot
because one of the issues that I've had and I've had for a long time is our town and specifically council and the school systems okay don't look at it as as one
unit, everybody, you know, and and I'm sorry, but specifically council looks at it for themselves. Okay. And and the gentleman No, no, no, no. I disagree. If you're going to attack the council in this body, I think you have to I you have to I know you're a member of the school board, you know, but I've been here for 20 years doing this, 25 years
doing this. Everybody up on this stage looks at it as one talent. I can't talk to the other organization, but but everyone on this stage looks at it as one town. So I take I do take exception to the author made a comment, okay, when he said that no one looks at it. They're
they're they're looking how the money is spent, okay? And they're looking how it's broken down on the town, okay? And well, this is only 11% goes to the county and this is the town and this is the high school and this is the elementary school. I don't really
believe people in town look that way. People in town look say, "I pay $25,000 a year in taxes." Okay, if you ask people, and I'm not saying he's wrong, the numbers are are accurate. Okay? But if you ask people, I bet most people in town have no idea what the breakdown is
or anywhere close to it. Okay? So, they're just looking at the number. They're not looking at where it is. Okay? And yes, does it hurt counsel? Yeah, because everybody blames counsel, fortunately, for the most part. And you all know that. You know, it's it's it's where the the herd comes from. But in
doing a pilot program, that's where my question was. Okay. We are we are getting less money overall. Okay. The town will be collecting less dollars overall. That's what a pilot is. You're giving an incentive to the developer to come in
and to develop the site. Okay. I'm not sure why needs to give anybody an incentive to develop in this town. Okay. Now, what the pilot program does do is that gives more revenue to the town. Okay, I get it. At the expense of the
school system, not at the expense of the county, but at the expense of the school systems. So, there's there's less revenue. Okay, there's less revenue to the town. Well, with the just just to be clear, the town collects all the taxes. The
school submits their budget to us and they say, "This is our budget. This is what we want. this is where it goes. So whether or not the money being collected is allocated towards the school or not, we're responsible for covering the school's budget. So even if that money is going to the town, the town will
still pay for the school's budget. So the school's not losing any money, the town's just allocating our money differently and putting it towards the school. But I do want to add too, there's been no decision on a pilot, right? There's been no negotiation with numbers about the pilot. So, you know,
we have no one here has made a determination whether or not these these projects are getting pilots. You do the area needs you can have those discussions and see where it leads, right? But there's been no uh number crunching that that that I've seen. I will also say one thing I think you're
missing is, you know, we are in a regional school district. So, if you look at how that regional school district formula plays out, I'm sorry, it's terrible. Correct. Do you know we we pay double per people that than Hilldale pays. So pilots are actually extremely beneficial to sort of
remmaning that wrong with that school forming. We can discuss it, you know, outside if you want to go into more detail, but you know, we what I'm saying is it's not necessarily we're collecting less taxes because that's all subject to negotiation. And so when the law
provides a pilot has to be at least so for I'm sorry, council for inance 188 is the only pilot that we've done. Right. Right. 188 we're collecting the first year the same amount that we were collecting before. Now you're going to say, you know, the kids There's four
two grandb room apartments. We also through negotiations with the mayor and the council host with that entity. There is a provision in there that if more than four kids come out of that facility or that that project, they have to pay the the developer has to pay the full
rate of that of that of that student. So, okay. So, again, and again, just to stress Councilman's point is it's a negotiation. Nothing has been decided yet. And this is, you know, it's a tool, right, to to to allow the question. The
other thing is, I'm glad you're here. How can I get the the data of of the uh of the student population because I know every school does it and I would guess as many schools, it's actually declining than going up. Right. Well, uh, I've been off the board for five years now,
believe it or not. It's been a while. I I I still talk to them, but I've been but I've been off the board for five years. So I don't I do not get all that information anymore. The other thing, Tom, that the council knows this is that the fact that you're declaring an area
needed redevelopment doesn't mean you have to give a pilot. It just means that they're eligible for a pilot, right? And when developers come in, just as they did with 188, they have to justify. It has to make financial sense to the governing body to enter into a pilot and
at the same time there has to be a benefit to the community that would this site get developed the way we want to see it develop absent a pilot. So all those considerations go into so and and the benefit of designating as an area in need of redevelopment gives the
governing body the ability to do all that. Otherwise the person would just go to the zoning board and request an approval. So you have large parcels of property to your point earlier about office space and you know this this community had large ratables
attributable to the office space and they're not there anymore. Their their assessments are appealed. There's not a need for them at this point in time. That could change but presently there's not. So these large parcels have to be redeveloped and I think the governing body made a decision that we want to
have as much controls as possible over the redevelopments of these sites and again declaring it an area needed redevelopment gives the governing body that control that it otherwise would not have. Okay. to going forward on those two sides. Have you looked at 188 now?
And I don't really know how you assess an apartment as far as value, you know, I'm not that part of business. So, we're going to say, you know, each apartment has, and I'm just throwing out a number, has an assessed value of of 400,000.
No, 188 is already a signed pilot. So, we No, no, no. But no, I understand. I'm not I'm not saying you don't. Best value is three methods. is I understand but okay but if but just as a as a quick rundown in your head you're saying okay so every apartment is going to have a
value of $500,000 as an assessed value the town homes which are they're asking a million half dollars are going to have a million2 of assessed value. So if you add up all the apartments you add up all the the town homes you get all the assessed value and and you now put it in
by 2.17 which looks like possibly might be our rate for next year. Okay, we're going to get a number of taxes and then you're going to compare that to whatever the pilot you agreed to and and it would have been built that way because again that's where the developers
I don't know if I'm going to build again so just so and I'm sure you know this because you're you're in the business. when they propose a pilot and and I'm just going back to 180 because it's the only experience we've had part they provide financials we hire and you know probably our auditor someone who is an
expert on this and can then analyze and say well this may be good for instance 188 it's coming up they want a 30-year pilot at the end it was an 18-year pilot and and and because we felt that that would have been too long and so that
provided us enough revenue And like I said, we put in that clause to, you know, to cover ourselves with the with the two children. So we felt that it was fair and otherwise we would probably still have either an empty office
building, right, and paying nothing or a storage facility because that's the only thing people are building. You're all over the place. So at the end of the day, you know, it's well, I didn't know about the as I I've never done a pilot. You know, most of
the time for pilots are in to my knowledge are always in areas that need to be redeveloped. Go to Vayic, go to Patterson, you know, you'll get a lot of you'll get a lot of pilot programs in in those type of towns. Go to Hackinack. Um you'll get a lot of pilot programs. Um
but I do love the fact that you limit for the children. I hope you do that again on BMW and on on the Hilton and this is it's still in its infancy. Nothing is decided nothing and that's right. I got news for you but I got calls from other towns like they're like
we heard you did how did you do that? I go talk to my attorneys that's what we came up with and actually it came from the Anthony I can't recall the name and I apologize who did our pilot analysis. They're like listen this is what we proposed in other towns. we think this
is what we should do brought it back to the net was like absolutely it's like that's not working either right you know we but again I would I would just do a quick analysis and can't do it is that again what would the taxes have been and
and what you agree to and I I don't even know the number so I can't even tell you good or bad you know it could be and it and is that worth it going forward and what you want to do that's where there's a there's a an a number there there's a line where where it makes sense for than for the developer
effort and all that in the end it's probably more of course but they're going to say it's not worth it for us to carry that because you know I'm going to have to build and like I said then we have an empty an empty building so it's it's that balance and that's you know
that's why they get to sit up and decisions okay thank you thank you thank Anyone else? It's so cold in here. I haven't changed my identity. I am Did
Name in town, but uh just just going over that briefly with the four children. No, he said change. You have to say it for Carmine Gamut. No, it it it does make sense with the
four cents with the four uh uh children in there. Thank you. Uh I I looked at our school system and I made an analysis of my own. If somebody came in and had four children in this town and starting from being in here, they have four
children, put them through our uh you know, grade school, bring them over over through the high school. those four children will cost us cost cost us a million dollars. So when you put that limitation
in there and keep out an extra four, you've saved the town a million dollars in the long run. So it's good to take a look at that and I thank you very much for that. Um I know we're making some uh allocations of things. Can I ask you
please um and I think I think the other uh person there with me Josephine will agree. Please put something into the facade of Burrow Hall. Okay. By by next we are we are working diligently on it. Um I went over to the
police department. The doors are just falling off the hinges. when I come in the front door here, it looks like might hope to have that done by the fall, but yes, we have Okay. Well, thank you. We do have we do have some a capital budget for Burough Hall that we had from prior
that we are looking we've been actually waiting uh for the architect to uh give us some uh some feedback on. Okay. It's it's it's it's been on our on our radar for a while. Thank you. Trying to make it happen. We've been trying to chip away at it. You'll notice the new signs
in front of the building, but the doors, the roofs of things are right. And and I'm aware with Julie that we're going to be putting up some signs around town to welcome people to the burrow. This is all things. Remember within Would you want to sponsor one of those signs?
We're doing that in sponsors. Uh are you putting in I'm sorry. I'll I'll put in 10% of whatever you do. Wood. I'll tell you the gardening around here would be different. My wife and myself are master
gardeners. So don't stress down in that part. Um the uh no within a year. I mean our our valuation of the average home is going up. So that says within a one year maybe two years we're going to be
averaging a million dollar home here. you make we want to have a million dollar image. Anything wrong with that? Well, the question for us that we weigh all the time is to council president
Stern's point is where do we put those dollars? We need roadways, we need buildings. I understand. We need pool and it's the dollar infrastructure. Miss Spky says, "Let's make the the people welcome to come into town."
Actually, she usually says, "Stage." That also was that also is a determination of things. Stay in town. We want there to be upgraded everything else. So, they stay here. We don't want them to just drive through. I know, but if you're going to charge us a million dollars for the average home around
here, you better stay in town. There's no other place to go. Uh just a quick question. The park, you all, I guess, went to the opening of the park. I think it was a great success. I think it went well. Uh the the food trucks were welcome. Uh especially the cousins
lobster. Edison was marvelous. Uh Springfield, excuse me. Excuse me. Oh, they're up at Sloan Catering right now in Montfield today. They were I follow them around. They're good enough. Very nice. Uh and I got one from my
doctor too. So it was a big bill. But uh the the park uh just general two things I'm two two sets of questions. One of which is I know things change over time. Originally there was going to be a fountain and originally
there was going to be I'll call it an amphitheater, right? I'll call it an amphitheater because we were going to have entertainment up there. this was going to hold 1500 people, right? Well, I don't know. Well, a number of people. Let's call it at least 500 or
something. Were those just changes that made that that didn't make sense? Well, uh the council looked at the entire project and okay, it decided to uh scale it down a bit. Uh it's not off the table. You never know what could happen in the future. It could always be added,
but at the same time, I think uh there was a good balance in terms of providing to the public uh the park and and and not going too crazy on it. Okay. Well, perhaps instead of the fountain, we can have a water fountain there. Yeah.
Water. You can refill your water bottle. Feed something for the dogs. There's so many people there. I couldn't see the water fountains. I'm sorry. It's got, by the way, we're getting a lot of uh, you know, from the visit to the park, a lot of recommendations, a lot of advice from residents, which is good. Uh, you know,
a lot a lot of feedback from residents. That's that's what's needed. Uh, so we're looking at some fencing along this road and cliff a uh just in case, you know, ball goes on the road, a kid doesn't follow and things like that. So,
I see your point. It's work in progress still. Um, but these are things that we're constantly looking at. Okay. Maybe a little bit more shade trees or something like that because it's it's quite hot there. Um, it's going to take at least 10 to 15 years until you got a decent tree there that's really going to
give you some shade. I'm sorry. That's work in progress. Trees only work so fast. I'm sorry. Right. But um for the future, okay, um there's going to be upkeep cost of that because we've got the trash, we've got station, uh the the
bathrooms, etc. that will be coming out of DPW or do you see that coming out of a third party who will be taking care of our our parts? For this year, what we did is we hired an outside landscape company. They're going to be doing the
uh the cutting the grass and trimming and all that. We're going to see how that works out because DPW is already stretched in the bathroom. Uh early in the year, we upgraded our cleaning service here in town. So, we have someone basically here uh five to seven
days a week that not only does burn hall, police department, fire, right? Um they also do the pool, the the two bathrooms at the field and that one also. So um again as it progresses as the use we'll have to see but uh but for
this year it's covered with basically outside the contract and obviously W's there when we have uh events on on overtime basis but right I I saw them getting ready for things different things uh throughout summer and beyond.
Yep. I saw a couple of people over was taken into consideration and you know drive the platform. But I think just to add to that, Tom, I think that's also why some of the changes got made to the original plan was because DPW took an active part in it and said the
easiest things to maintain and what was more manageable for them and what was more native to this area that would grow healthier, stronger. So DPW really took an active part at the table to help those tweaks. And they help us with the
Shade Tree Committee, too. So yeah, I I agree with that. Um, please I I I know it was an opening and etc. Are you Are you trying to apply? How many do we had? At least six of them there.
Oh, five. Five. Five. Okay. And a member of the sheriff's. Oh, yes. Maybe they moved quickly and it seemed like there was but it was five. Okay. when we get involved with another festival, a fall festival or a special
opening or something or possibly a concert that will be there, we're going to have to think about the presence of the police there insufficient quantities again, right? Because the parking situation. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's it's something that we are aware of and
we are, you know, trying to budget for it, but that's obviously going to take into consideration how many events, how we do the events, when we could do them because it we have to make sure everybody's safe. I mean, we needed them because we, you know, that's a very difficult intersection. So, we can't not
just, you know, have one person and please, you're you're you're right at my heart. six and a half years ago, I sent a recommendation to the council about putting in some extra parking in in there, etc. Uh I I sent pictures of that
corner as well. I'm I'm well aware of where things are. I just want to make sure that the county put something in before we have an accident. We again, like you heard us before, we're working with the county on how we could address this. The county has their own I know
but we they said five seven years. There's a lot that can happen in seven years and we can all hope that that doesn't happen. Yeah. Okay. I thank you anyone else on any topic whatsoever to
come up and state your name and the town you're from. Any public comment questions? Okay. motion. You want to come up? Yes. Well, come on up. Come on up. I guess I I guess I came in. I thought the meeting
started at 7. Okay. Did you discuss the name? It's uh Rudolph Millian and I'm a resident of uh Woodcliffe uh Lake. I've been a resident for uh almost 30 years
and uh I uh been talking to a group here. But have you already discussed the subject of the redevelopment of the of the two properties? Was that part of the agenda? No. No. No. No. So, you know,
then I'll leave my comments until that becomes uh part of the agenda. No, it's not even on the agenda, right? Questions or comments. You can make a statement if there won't be another public portion. Yeah. Well, my concern has really been
with the area around the mall uh nearby the Ty area and only because that area was very successful at one time. It had a great hotel. It had uh a lot of
offices. Then we added retail and everything was going well. Meanwhile, uh the country has changed since 911. So the office uh sector has gone way down. Convention hotels have also been
affected. Uh meanwhile, retail continues to be very hot. I just came from a a national convention of retails that was held in Las Vegas over this past weekend. And retail continues to to thrive. There's a big demand for retail,
restaurants, etc. And so I just see the area going downhill and I just think it's going to affect our tax base is going to just get worse and worse. Valuations are going to go down. Occupancy is going to go down.
So I really think this council needs to focus on the entire area to be redeveloped. I'm also concerned on the hotel side that they have already, you know, sold to a multif family developer
and it's just going to generate a lot more multif family. Multif family makes a lot of money in commercial real estate and so there's a lot of need. But if you do it right and if you add just the right percentage of the uh uh you know
homes that are for affordable housing and you do certain things with it and you add boutique hotels or hotels that are uh catering to the uh the dweller
that that lives on a longer stay. that also we can redevelop the uh retail, bring the parties together and try to expand it into the party city building so that that whole area can thrive
again. Diminish a number of uh of office buildings and do the right thing for Woodcliffe. Make that the town hall. Make that our downtown. maybe move the these offices there as well and that
will generate a lot of money for the participants as well as for the residents here. So those are my thoughts. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Motion to close the public. Close to the public. Second. All in favor? Yes. Any
opposed? None. Motion pass. Okay. uh proclamations uh mental health awareness proclamations in your packet. Now moving along to council members reports may report you. You weren't at this. No, no, I'm I'm good. Good. See, I
knew that. I knew that. I know. Uh okay. Council members reports. Councilman Paul. All right. Couple things from my side. Uh first and foremost, we heard uh approved the budget earlier today. So, as I said in the last meeting or two, I just want to thank Council President Stur, um,
Administrator Padilla, uh, our professionals, as well as Councilman Banano. Uh, I'm working through the budget. Um, it was a lot of late nights going line by line by line. I think there's a point by line 587 that I learned with my mind a little bit, but,
uh, we did it. Um, a I think a positive outcome for the residents of Woodcliffe Lake. I think there were probably some items both in the operating budget, capital budget we all would have hoped we could get in, but at the end of the day, it is our
responsibility to do what is uh in the best interest of our residents and what we presented to the council for a vote uh today, I think reflects that well. So, thank you for uh for working through that over the last six months and and having those weekly meetings and uh and
getting us through it. Uh second, from a police department perspective, you'll notice uh several resolutions on that continue to move uh our uh camera system uh forward. Um we had one of the things we've done over
the last couple of years is expand our uh ALPR license plate reader program which has been instrumental in um countless uh opportunities to solve crimes here with Cliff uh both as a reactive um what
happened where's the suspects how to solve the crime to proactive uh things that were about them. So, uh, this the resolutions help expand the federal grant money that we got to expand that very successful program and continue to
to keep the entirety of Woodluff Lake safe. So, we're looking forward to that. Uh, we will we are continuing to sit down with members of our PBA to negotiate their contract which is up at the end of this year uh for for the next cycle of uh that labor agreement.
Uh, I want to uh congratulate members of the council of our parks and recreation committee on a uh successful springfest this past week. Uh, and speaking on behalf of my family, it was an enjoyable um
time. as we look at all of the um sort of things that are happening in our parks and rec department, which seems like we've got a lot of new programs coming out and just so much going on, particularly now as we go into the summer months, there's a lot for us to keep track of as a council. And one
of the things I wanted to propose to my fellow council members is uh an improved means of how we can all stay up to date with things that are going on in so far as uh and we've seen this being successful with other uh committees. Uh
administrator via does send a weekly update to us on the high level things that are happening around the municipality. the uh council president Stern and myself get a monthly report on the uh matters of the police department which is done so by ordinance. I just learned I think we're the only ones to
receive it going forward if all members of the council um could receive that perhaps you want to forward that up. Um but the one committee that historically has not necessarily had sort of an update from the director was parks and wreck. I wanted to propose resolution
this evening and make a motion to uh get a bi-weekly I think that's a sort of a fair timeline report from the director of parks and wat members of the mayor to the council and the mayor on
monthly I'm sorry every other day um no but just so you know and because I don't let you know if we need a resolution I have instructed Ryan to provide high level means to everybody on the castle. So, I think it's something that that's already been addressed and unless you know if we need a a formal
resolution, but but they won't be providing formal high level minutes to Well, but what does high level entail? Will it entail things that are in formation or will it only entail things that are final? Like what will it entail? I mean, I think we have to see what he puts first and if there's an
issue, we'll address it then. But you know this is sort of you know and I don't want to pick on Ryan because you know no other committee provides high level minutes and you know communication on this committee has been a multi-year issue but you let's see what he produces in the first minutes and then if it's
not detailed enough or it's too detailed we'll we'll adjust it. I don't think we need to well I think dwell on it but issue is like by ordinance the other committees so the the police chief the superintendent of the department of public works they're all bound on
providing sort of regular updates to the council when the parks and recreation department was established back in the day the ordinance does not state that the director needs to I just think there's so much happening in that department just having that cadence requiring that it needs to be submitted
to us is not to your picking on any particular member. It's just there's so much happening and that is also the most visible committee for us in the community that it's just good to know what's coming up, what's going on, the details of things and I don't know that we need minutes of a meeting to be
honest. I think it's sort of high level what are the things happening what's upcoming just to keep us on. I think the leaison report every meeting on what's happening in parks and wreck if I'm not mistaken those are the things that are happening. I mean things may come up in Queens that I guess you get an email or
something but it's really the responsibility of the AANS to report on an update on meetings like this. Mayor if I may maybe I can find some common ground here because I I I've had a discussion with department heads and uh I'm going to take a part of the blame
here because I've been trying to do monthly meetings before the council meeting from them to get some. So, I know I already sent everyone L. Garcia's u property maintenance millennium. Um Dave Linko just got me his uh today. I'm
going to be sitting down with all them and getting similar to what Dave says. It's it's nothing really formal. It's like this is happening. This is what we did. This is what we did. I think if Ryan and and again, I I don't want to be bringing up he had a personal issue. He
had to be away this week. Um, and in all fairness to him, the last couple of weeks, aside from the park opening, which was a massive undertaking and issues because we weren't sure if it was going to rain, it wasn't going to rain and this and that, uh, the pool and we
and actually that's the only thing I have to report on that come up. There's a slight issue with the pool, but we're working on it. I think if you allow me to go back and have the department heads provide you with that. Let's see how next month. If that's still not what you want, I think that then but again,
you're the council. If that's what you want to do, whatever you want to do. No, but I do want to add there there are other committees and there are other council people who don't necessarily report to everybody. So, it's not just necessarily a park and wreck issue like we have a chamber of commerce committee. I have not had one report. I don't know
if they had meetings or not, but you know, but that's a committee where I haven't had any I haven't had any updates. You know, there are issues where, you know, certain things get done and people find out after the fact and it's not park and wreck. And so, I don't want to make this a park and wreck
thing. You know, as I said, Ryan's been instructed to provide minutes. If there's an issue with the level of detail in his minutes, we'll address it then. I think, but I think the more is that it's the most visible. the ones where things are posted on social media. It's the things for us as council
members to be able to speak to on you brought up a good point. The social media is a very important. I actually had a conversation with him last week because my philosophy has always been and listen, we all mistakes that you as a council should know before anything
happens. So, I will reiterate that to him when he's bad, especially on social media because what happens and I know it goes up on social media and you get a phone call. Uh, and you know, before you even have a chance to see it, you know, 12, you know, you know, Sally sent it to
Julie and everybody else and everybody's like, "Oh my god." Then they're calling you. So, I will I will uh I will address that with and and I've done that with PD also because they put out some social media. sometimes they put it out and I don't hear about it. Um so it it is you
know something that I think we can improve and we should and I think that we will. Um but um aside from that um you know there you know I I mean I try to keep you guys a breast of everything and I'll be honest with you some I I forgot sometimes and you know and and it
happens but uh but I think if if we all uh kind of regroup and and and just try to keep everybody you know I'm tuned and you know the only other thing I will ask since you guys opened the door if there's an issue give me a call. my
phone's on 247, you know, and I will address it right away. I will get back to you right away. I'd rather and it's with all due respect, it's the way it's supposed to work. They're not, you know, the liaison are to that committee, not really. They're not in charge of that
that department. They're not the department head. They're the department head. I'm the administrator for all the departments go through. That's also makes it easier because sometimes, you know, he may answer, you know, you or or you, but Chris is calling me on
something else and if I know because I'm going to get the call from I just think that if we keep the that lines of communication and the chain of command, I think would be also helpful. So, Councilman Stern, I'm going to take a little bit of um I'd like you to clarify what's been a
multi-year problem with the park and reccomitt because you stated it. So I'd like specifics or how you can Sure. Yeah. I mean I think communication last year was terrible from park and wreck. I don't think it's you know I think it's just been an ongoing issue. I think you know there have been a lack of informing people as to what was going on. It's not
something that was created this year. I think it's been a m it's been a multi-year problem. It probably predates you as well. So it's, you know, but I think to that point like right, wrong or indifferent, wherever the truth lies, there is sort of this consistent feeling
of communication. Yeah. But I think the issue really isn't about communication. It's about who's on the committee and I think there's disagreements about who should be on it and like that's really what the that's really the elephant. I do want to step in here. I do think some of it is about communication and how we
find things out and it shouldn't be a situation where any members of the council are being informed by Facebook um of of anything. You know, like Tom pointed out, we do get calls about them. We should know, we should have the heads up just because, you know, and and you
know, for across the board, everyone should be doing this just it's it's helpful for all of us. It makes all of us look good if we know what's going on. It's not a good look for any of us if if one person, you know, posts something and then everybody doesn't know. And so I think when we talk about
communication, like this is a specific issue. We can all work better on liazing, but even very specifically like we do need to be using our social media in the right way and we should be using it and it is a very helpful tool in communicating with members of the public
and especially our residents. But before things go out on social media, we should all get a heads up. Even if it's a text, even if it's this and that, however it is, just, hey, this is going up. Hey, this is something we're doing. If you have questions, let me know. If you get calls, this is what it is. And I think
that that's that's a fair thing to ask for for all of us. Are we talking about anything? Because not everything that goes up on social media is correct. I personally think anything that does put up on social media, my my opinion is
you you should know before it goes up. However, I will tell you that I think we are all um subjected to this instant notification, instant gratification mentality. And I think including our employees that they want to get the word
out. And again, I think we just I'd rather we wait an hour, send it out, and then send it out. So, I will be putting something out tomorrow to all my my departments. I think if I think I think it's only fair that you should know before anything whether it's um you know
you know uh you know I'm sorry you know um you know any minutes or any reports or public documents there so so they're subject to oper and I think the
committees when they're preparing the report should keep that in mind and it's too Sorry. Yeah. To clarify my point, I was very purposeful and said the direct director of parks and recreation, not the parks and rec committee. And the reason I said that is exactly to your point. It
is Ryan as our director is responsible for a social media channel. We'll put everything on. So everything that is set to go live. It's not necessarily just to your point just a byproduct of it. It is what is going on in the municipality. Things that are perhaps a couple orders lower than the things that are in your
weekly report. So it's I'm not picking on a committee. I'm I'm just I'm trying to get in solid. And something you just brought up uh for councilman that maybe I think would be useful uh for guidance for whether he's doing it, anybody else
doing it for the future. Maybe you as a council as the policy makers to say we expect these kind of things to go out on social media. We would allow um community groups to you know promote something through our social media. with
a lot of the schools uh even though they may not be on the school board anymore to promote things. So obviously I'm joking. No, no, no. Were you here when JSP was here? Uh no. I I Jay used to come because I sat on parks for a long
time. Jay used to come to the meetings. So just as a idea if you want but I think I think somebody's calling. I'm just playing. So, and and and and listen, I've had that. I was count the county. All the department heads came to
all to to the meetings. I don't I don't propose. I don't think we need to do that. I think there's no again that's up to them. They're the bosses. They're the bosses. That's what they want to do. That's what they will do. Um, but my point is that yes, I think you should know ahead of
time and I think maybe set up a policy that these are the items that we believe should be out on social media like um you know if we get a call from you know the boy scouts no or yes same thing with the message board but again that's some
that's something I think is within their per but once you once you open up to other organizations right you can't say no That's the we have to be very I I think one of the things that um we discussed last year on the
communications committee if there was something that involved um members of the community that they were invited to it's a way of informing them of what's going on whether it be a high school play or whatnot. If our intent is to really bring the town schools together
um because it is all our children all our events um it's that we can do if the resident because if you're not in the school system, how do you know something's going on? I guess you could say it's up to the school to do it, but
we represent I got a call yesterday from someone about an event happening at at Wood Park. I didn't know about it because it's a fifth grade event, a lead event. That's not it really wasn't a it's a lead fifth grade
event. So, uh, again, that's something for you guys to consider because maybe eliminate because like John says, if we open that up, then, you know, what if you have a brand new community organization that may not be, you know, someone we want to promote, but they're saying, we're community organization.
Okay. But I I also think it's it's also what's constitute community then. Okay. So, let's uh let's move on. We got the gist of it. I know Tom is filibusting a little bit. So, so we're going to move on. So, we're going to We're we're going to speak to Ryan and
and get a procedure uh together. Get everybody on on the same page. Okay, Councilman Pollock, you're done with the uh Okay, we got we got five more council people to know. I will end on on this piece. I I do
think the dialogue conversation we just had was important. You know, I know typically at least the last two and a half years I've been on council, it's very procedural and there's definitely a path and place for that, but I think you know, we had talked about do we do more meetings or things like that. I think that dialogue is healthy and I'm glad
it's happening. So, okay, thank you, Councilman Banana. Yes. Um, okay. First thing, pool and tennis pool tennis camp updates. We are a little bit above where we were last year. um and looking to
bring that up, but it's more last year and this year we're almost identical to the two uh events coming up. We have the book pool opening on the 24th. Um we have the Memorial Day celebration at the uh at the new park. We have the tribal memorial day parade starting at
Montdale and from 12 to 7 the pool is open to everybody which are going to be all of residents. Um and Saturday May 31st we have the reservoir cleanup by the station. More details will be posted shortly.
Um, couple things on talk about DBW. Do what we were talking about before. I thought the uh Springfest I heard was great. Unfortunately, I couldn't be there. I had a uh I had to go to But anyway, what I heard was it was very good. Everyone was talking about it. People have
reached out and said how great it was. Um, same thing with the opening of the park. I thought we BPW did a great job. I think everything worked out great. Um, one thing I met with um, Marilyn the seniors today to talk about upcoming
events we could do at the park uh, with at the, you know, the new park. We've had some discussions on some stuff um, that I'll talk some more about Julie and Ryan and we'll hopefully get some really good stuff. It's good to get feedback from her seeing what the seniors would
be interested in having, not necessarily just focusing on just the young. So, uh, we're working on that. Um, that's pretty much it. Okay. Thank you, Council Councilwoman Broski. So, just to circle back to Springfest,
uh, one more time. Um, it was our first major event at the park. Um, and we did receive a lot of great feedback. I do want to thank Brian McGee um, for the coordination of the entire event for um, booking the bands, the food trucks, the craft vendors, um, also our DPW um, Gate
Link and staff along with our police department for their support and assistance throughout the day. Um the balloon artist, the face painting was a huge success. Um some of feedback and um notes taken for um our next major event like that. We could have used um some
high top tables or some seating of some sort, water bowls for pets because there were a lot of dogs um in the park um as well as some activities for some of the older kids. So all things that we will be looking at. Um, I just want to give a sponsorship update. Out of the eight
benches, we do have five that have been sponsored. Um, of the many trees, um, right now we have six that are sponsored. We have four additional on tonight's agenda, um, for resolutions, and one more was confirmed this week, um, by a local,
um, doctor's office, which pediatrics. They're sponsoring a tree. Um, we also have a scoreboard that's being sponsored um the scoreboard by Lockwood was sponsored years ago by um Val Orthodontics and when they heard that
there were new scoreboards coming in, they wanted to responsor it. Um so they will be uh taking on that sponsorship as well. So it's nice to have two local businesses um being involved in our sponsorship programs and we encourage all of our local businesses um to get
involved in one way or another. Um for the shade tree projects, um I do want to just give a little update what the shade tree committee is working on. Um the cherry trees along um by the tennis courts have just been trimmed. This was a much needed um thing that needed to
happen in in order to keep the the trees healthy. Um they also um had the clearing of dead trees and weeds along tree far away with the goal of planting some more trees. So it looks like much nicer and you know as you go up road. Um
they are also looking at a project on Pascat um to plant more trees there. And there have been requests for 24 trees by residents um for the street tree program which will be planted this fall. And that's all I have. Anything on the community garden?
It's still in process of being cleaned up. So Okay. Uh Councilwoman Margolus, thank you. So um just so I I also miss Springfest. I apologize. I wasn't at a sad event. I was at a bot mitzvah. So,
you know, but um it was it was a daytime bach mitzvah, so it took the entire day. So, but I heard it was great. My kids were there with the babysitter and the babysitter's entire family. So, it's okay. So, uh we uh the seniors are having their summer party on June 5th and next
time if you meet with Marilyn, just let me know so I can attend. You may. Yeah. Well, I was thinking about Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, uh, so the other thing in ter in terms of lead events, uh, I know there's a bunch coming up. I know about them solely because my son is in fifth grade, so he will be there. So just so
everyone knows, the movie, which was supposed to be tomorrow, is most likely going to be changed, obviously, because the weather is not great. Um, an upcoming date will be coming in the next couple weeks. They have not announced it. The other thing they are doing is they will be the lead will be taking part in the parade on Monday, and for
the first time in years, there's actually a ton of kids that will be participating, which is great from Wook of Flake. Um they're very excited except now I don't think they can all fit on the pickup truck. So now that's going to be a bit of a fight. Um they also as part of their um end of year events they will be doing
the torch run with the police department which they fifth grade does every year. So they will be meeting at the VFW and running to Hillsdale which is Wil's portion of the torch run. The fifth grade class does it every year. And then at Hillsdale lucky for them is a snack stop on the torch run. they get to have
snacks at in Hillsdale, but it's only for fifth grade. Um, no parents either except they get to watch. And then the other thing that the the last uh community event that the fifth grade is doing is a cleanup in mid June just for the fifth grade after school, but it's
part there's an educational program that starts before the cleanup. So, it's only the fifth graders and what they say is an appropriate amount of chaperones. So, we are working on that. Um, in terms of film ready, we're starting to get locations. People have approached me on locations that they thought would be
great, which is great. And I've also, um, asked local businesses if they would like to be part of it. In terms of the chamber of commerce, which which I have reported on for a couple months in a row, is that we don't have anything yet. Phil, the fire fire officials, Ralph has
finally gotten together an updated list of all the businesses in this town that he has on file with contact numbers. So hopefully in the next couple weeks Chris and I can sit down with Ralph and them and try and figure out who's the right person to speak to. Some are corporate, some are not. Um but they also it would
be great as new developments are coming into town and stuff that we have a list or encourage people to come into town like Montail does. Um I had the pleasure of meeting one of the Montail planning board members last night at track and he was telling me how uh what they some of the stuff that they do to entice
businesses and stuff. So to the earlier point which who I forgot maybe Burton made it um that will hopefully come under the Chamber of Commerce and we could take an active part in promoting and getting sponsorships and really doing it. We just need to get the right contact info and so that has been a
challenge but Ralph has been able in his new position to update all the lists which is great. He has yet to send them over though. I'm harassing him. Although my understanding is he does not have email. Is that correct? Some of them has emails, some are phone numbers, but we will be able to get they
had in the past they did not include uh emails on their annual um correct their annual registrations. That was something that I brought up to Ralph. Uh so little by little hopefully that's going to Yes. Luckily for us, we can then once we get
these, we can reach out to the owner of Ty and the owner of um the Whole Food Shopping Center, so they can give us other people if those are not the right people. But I'm trying to go with the official we're trying to go with the official list first and then go from there. And then actually um you know,
the new veterinary clinic is opening in town. And so Rachel, she's softly she's softly open. Yeah, Rachel will be inviting us to an event there, but also she also offered to possibly have a first chamber of commerce meeting there, which would be nice. She doesn't have a big space, but she said, you know, at
least to give her some more business, which would be great. And then DPW has, which is strange, but they're finally in their quieter season because it's not leaf or snow, but now they're in pool season, so they're sort of moving all about, but we should thank them for what they did um and what they continue to do
for us on the regular. So, thank you. Is there any update on the chili cook off chili cook off? Is that It will be in the fall. We have not picked a date. We had said when it got moved last time it was going to be um during fire prevention week. I'm always thinking food. That's prevention week will be the
but I I did have another question actually to council and the mayor actually posted it. What is Woodcliff Wednesday? Oh, my bad. I meant to speak to that. Um or actually I thought this was going to but that's okay. So, in terms of looking at summer events, um
looking at months of July and August, um with knowing that many people go away on the weekends, um what day of the week could we possibly, you know, schedule some events in the park and with sort of had a nice ring to it. So, it was something that we were thinking about.
Um, Ryan is in the process now of reaching out to different types of venues, whether it be a band, could be a magician, could be, you know, something for the seniors. Um, we're trying to get a nice little mix. Um, and that's really
how the calendar will be built in, um, as to, you know, first come, first serve, availability, and whatnot. And then hopefully, you know, now that we have these big two, you know, between the opening of the park and springfest behind us, the pool will be opened. Um
Ryan will be able to coordinate a schedule of events um sooner than later and then we can get that all out to everyone. That was the thought behind what the fun and then one of the businesses towns said that you're doing a food and wine festival. It's something that I had spoken about um in previous
council reports as we look to um fall events, looking International Food and Wine Festival in September and then in October um looking to do a health and wellness um series of events for the entire month. Um we can do you know we're looking at different things like
um you know can have a yoga instructor yoga yoga in class one morning. Um uh breast cancer awareness focus um all different types of things we're looking um at doing. I was actually at the Bergen County um sigma free symposium at
the beginning of the month. Gathered a lot of information um and contacts um to reach out to for the month of October in terms of all of this. So it'll it could incorporate a lot of different things in terms of health and wellness um but so the food and wine festival for
September, health and wellness in the month of October and then July and August there's summer events. And when's October Fest? September 27th. When is the run? This Sunday. Oh, sorry. Next Sunday. June. June 1st is the Ed
Foundation run. Festitionally, and I just would like to thank Ralph who just sent me the list because apparently he's listening. So, run for education is June 1. Also, I know Councilwoman Bronzky met
with Marilyn Clark uh to go over the park. Uh she uh had indicated that she would like to have the pavilion named after her, right? Uh so we're looking at the price of putting up the the plaque
or the be similar to the name of a smaller scale over the clock. So for now, right? So, hopefully everybody's okay with that. I mean, considering she was very generous with
us. Okay. Uh who where am I? Councilwoman Marsh. Thank you. Um last night was our planning board meeting. Um a few things about it. One is that we didn't pass
resolutions for 200 um Ty and we passed for the Hilton and BMW for 300 Chestnut Ridge as well. We did pass the resolutions for the area need um just so everyone is reminded of the process. The few people listening um the resolutions
were passed by the planning board. We are going to take a look at them. Then the council can adopt the resolutions as well. Then if we do um the council begins the process of a redevelopment plan for those areas and yes um a pilot
can be considered within those plans. But again just to remind everyone the people who are invested in these projects do have the best interest of the town at heart. And that does not mean the town part of the town and not the children. It doesn't mean just the
children or our own personal interests. um when we're looking at the way progress is moving and the way developments are happening and the way other towns are developing around us, you know, there are some positives and there are some negatives that we're seeing and we are deeply invested in making sure that we're doing the right
thing for our town. And some of that could be what kind of materials we specify in certain buildings, the look of them, the number of units. You know, some of those things are very important to us. Some of those, you know, things might require a pilot, but there is no one on this council, on any of the
committees who would ever want to hurt our school systems, those are our children, or who would want to hurt the town. It is a very delicate balancing act of making sure that we are really taking everyone's interest at heart. And no one up here, no one on these committees, no one on economic
development, no one on the council in general takes that role lightly. Um it is it is a process but it is one that we are really invested in and making sure that we do the right thing. Um so that is how the area and needs are going to proceed. Um, another thing that came up
at the planning board last night, um, is just when we're talking about bulk variances, and this is just for anyone who comes before, um, the question of if we have variances and ordinances in place about, you know, zoning requirements, why do we then, you know,
provide variances? Why do people get to come up for that? And I think just to make it clear to everyone, the bulk ordinances really are for the town in general, but not every lot is conforming to those. And so when people come before
us, you know, for a variance, it is usually a non-conforming lot, a hardship, um some sort of easement, you know, all of these things get taken into consideration. And those are some of the reasons that, you know, certain properties might require a variance. Um
the council at the planning board did have a difficult decision last night over something that seemed like maybe it shouldn't have been such a difficult decision, but the people that come before us are our residents and you know the planning board works really hard to make sure that we are trying to make all
of our residents happy while following the the zoning ordinances for town. So just if anyone has any questions about how that works or why it works that way, you know, feel free to reach out to us. You can reach out to anyone on the planning board. you can reach out to me. Um, we are happy to answer any questions
and you know just to to clear up how how things happen and why because I know sometimes it seems like things come before maybe they get rubber stamped but it really is a process. Um, that's it. So the next meeting um for the planning board is going to be June 24th and that
will be a combined planning board council board um and it is going to be at TIC and someone should have let the chairman of the planning board know before last night. So accept a phone call and he was talking he forgets like some other
people. That's all I have. Thank you. And I'd like to say Councilwoman Marsh has been working very hard on the planning board and also uh very challenging because we have some major developments coming in in the future. So that board is going to
be very very busy. Uh and she's been working very hard with uh Council President Stern on fair share housing. A lot of this stuff is driven by fair share housing. And at this point I'd like to turn it over to council uh council president Stern for his presentation. I'm going to keep it
brief. Uh 9:00 am on Monday is the Memorial Day ceremony. It's been sparsely attended in the past. Hopefully with the move to the new park and the beautiful monument section of the park, more people come out um for that and the
parade starts at 10:30. I did notice during the uh Springfest uh there were you know kids and kids will be kids, but a lot of kids were climbing on some of the monuments. it may be worth putting up a small sign. Um, you know, I just
see I did think it was a little disrespectful for for states to be climbing on monuments to people who served, but you know, you know, like a gentle sign I think would be would be helpful. Um, keeping it brief, the the June 30th
is our deadline for the affordable housing fair share plan. Uh, we are working diligently on it. Um, you know, every day there are changes to it, but um, it will be heard as Councilwoman Mar said on June 24th. Um, we will get the
entire council a draft as soon as we can. Um, but, you know, I think we've tried to keep everybody in the loop as to what's going to be in it and we will continue to do so. So, that's it. Thank you, Councilman. Go ahead. I have to read
that I uh prime minister Dolan he had sent I believe the council and um John receive coffee he had asked us one was in uh April 25th and one was May 9 to read to put something into the minutes.
So, one thing he asked me to read, um, is that something is that something where we're required to formally read or can we place it in the middle? Right. What you have to all you have to do is acknowledge the date of the correspondence and the subject matter. You don't have to read the entire letter
unless the council wants you to read the I mean, I think we've already been provided copies. Received a copy. So, I will place both letters, one dated April 25th, 2025, and one dated May 9th, 2025 into the minutes. Um, and it's related
to BMW. Very good. Thank you. Administrative report. Uh, yes, Mayor. Um, really quick, I just um we have a slight concern. Um, the county was at the pool today to do their annual inspection.
However, um our lab results were not back yet and the reason was that they came out on Monday to you know to do the lab the uh the analysis of the pool water but because the pool was being re
uh refilled because as my report noted we had to take some water out and put the features back in and there was an issue with that. They could not take the sample. Um they advised me that they could only come tomorrow. we would not have it back till Saturday to prevent us
from opening. Um, we were able to find an accommodation. Um, again, thank you DPW. DPW drove down to Hillside, New Jersey, picked up the appropriate uh containers, and then came back, filled it up, went back. We should have the
results Friday. I do believe that we will uh will be okay, but I still a slight concern. They they they're telling us that that that'll be done then. Um so um unfortunately because of the work being done at the pool this lab
would have been done a week or so ago but it wasn't all completed but um you know we we should be good but I wanted to make sure that you you have that and obviously if there is an issue uh we will let you know first and then we will
notify everybody on social media and and the like afterwards. Um, although it is good that is I think the high is 63 on Saturday. The only and I was going to joke but the only good thing is that the weather in this case may actually uh be
helping us. Um, but again it's otherwise uh the pool work although it was slightly delayed seems to be working well. um been working with M Statino uh and then we will uh obviously
uh hold up our end of the settlement once it's all been deemed uh complete. Uh same with the park. We we still have some uh some money to pay on that and we are holding off because we still having issues with the lighting and just a
couple of small punch list items that I will not sign off on and bring to the council till that is all complete. that unless if anyone has any questions on any of the resolutions that have been my report. Thank you. Okay, moving along
to ordinances. Ordinance number 25-04, an ordinance to amend chapter 250 entitled vehicles and traffic and the burough code of the burough wolf lake state of New Jersey. Uh motion to open to the public on this ordinance. Second. All in favor? Any opposed? None. Anyone
from the public like to come up and speak on ordinance number 25-04? Come on up. No. It's not in my copy of the agenda that was left out. I started 255. No, no, no, no. It is. Go a little bit further. It's in order. So you go I
would bring into 254 is right before the right after the proclamation the engineers report and then there's 25 I'll send you the trouble what we're doing is we're eliminating we're eliminating uh any non-residents from
buying parking tickets parking permit parking permits I'm sorry for the train station. to only only residents what we love. Okay. In the past, we allowed after a certain date if there was still any available and to be honest, we've only had I think
three in the last uh couple of years to the council felt strongly that he preferred residence only. So, correct. Okay. Motion to close to the public. Motion second. Second. All in favor? Any oppose? Motion passes.
Introduction of ordinance number 25 uh-06 flood plane management. Is there a motion for introduction? Motion. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? Yes. Any oppose? None. This be since it was introduced today. Okay. And
this uh matter just so for the public it's this is all um uh mandated by the state uh we have to go back and forth engineer and the state so that we are in full compliance with uh the new state regulations.
Very good in motion and number 257. Uh it's a long read there so it's in your packet. So motion to uh introduce motion. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? Any opposed? None. Motion
passes. Okay. Any questions in the consent agenda before we move on? Can I just ask a question? Are we do we expect that the independent expert for the pool that we're sort of at the end of this since it went Yeah. In fact, the pool is is done other than he has to
complete a form that we need completed and there's one minor uh repair or what is it? reflector by the uh by the pool features when we went to install the pool features. It's not fitting correctly. So, one of the pool features still will not be on at least for this
weekend. Um so, it needs to be trimmed away, but obviously we were not going to allow RDW or anyone else to do it. We want the premier pool to come back and do it. So, that's we don't avoid it type of warranty or or condition of the agreement. So uh so yes for for your for
your question the as far as the independent expert it was more than anticipated. Yes. But we feel that it was worth it because they were there uh quite a bit and several times I instructed them that I wanted them to be there visibly there to inspect because
we want to make sure that this was uh done. He's he's he's signed off on the uh on the work being done. In addition to our own consultant, the manufacturer of the materials that I use was on the site to super because they give a
warranty to us to the material, right? So the project was heavily supervised and I don't want to you know superstitious but it's it appears that it did a very good job. So, should there be any failures, the independent
contractor will come back, right, to we we're holding money back. We're still holding money back over the warrant for for the six-y year warranty period. Okay. And he's have to be re-engaged. Yeah. Okay. Like sadly, we're holding money back still for a couple of years
from the uh from the original premiere. And then just to add to it, the uh the the manufacturer has that warranty for 10 years with the material. So that's that was a that was a little good thing too. Okay. Okay. Thank you. All right. Motion
to accept the consent agenda. Motion second. All in favor? Yes. Any go? Uh do we need to do close? You guys want to do close? Want to go close session? I think there's
uh one matter updated council. Okay. So motion a resolution number 25- 170 uh resolution providing for a meeting not to open to the public in accordance with provisions of the open New Jersey open public meetings act NJSA 10 colon 4-12
uh topic litigation update uh we may come back uh after close to uh we'll have to close we do not expect any action this is for how long do you think we'll be in close to announce that about 15 minutes so so the council will be in close session approximately 15
minutes at which time the meeting will reopen the public will be invited to attend. At that time we'll be closing and take action. So is there a second council? Thank you. All in favor? Thank you
guys. Thanks. [Music] On the intersection of Mus and we're dead in