good evening everybody it is November 9th 2023 730m this is the um mayor and council meeting in the buau of Allandale Linda will you please read the open public meeting back and call meeting to order in compliance with the open public meetings act the notice requirements have been satisfied the meeting dates for the year are confirmed at the annual meeting are posted on the public bulletin board in the municipal building and on the burrow website public in the record within the first 10 Days of the New Year and copies are sent to the Ridgewood news and Star Ledger notice of this meeting by the October 25th 2023 Sunshine notice was sent to the record The Ridgewood news and Star Ledger and has been posted on the public Bolton board in the municipal building in burrow website councilwoman homman here councilwoman L solo here councilman oconnell here councilman UL here councilman Yaro here councilman delissio here mayor wilinski here please stand FL of the United States of America and the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right next we have the approval of minutes do I have a motion to approve October 26 combined work and regular session so moved second please second councilwoman homman yes councilwoman Loa solo yes councilman oconnell yes councilman UL yes councilman yino yes councilman deloo yes all right now we're gonna have agenda review we have introduction of two ordinances ordin ordinance 23-17 and 23-18 these are both cleaning up some of our ordinances and cleaning up the names to make everything consistent um they're more of a of a housekeeping type of uh uh ordinance and then we have our consent agenda um Mike did you want to talk about the um Allandale Police Department defense Logistics agency thank you madam mayor uh the federal government allows local law enforcement agencies to acquire various items such as unused or generally used office furniture electronic equipment generator non-military Vehicles tools medical equipment Etc this ordinance will allow us to continue our participation in this program excellent uh we also have a resolution approving execution of Ana uh with our PBA over some Mis communication um in the PBA contract and that's all settled and we have our bill list that I went through Suzanne did you go through that indeed yep I did Al righty and um then we have our firefighter authorization to go for a grant and that is our agenda review so next I'd like to open it up for public comment on agenda items only not seeing any I'm going to bring it back and first I'd like to introduce ordinance 23-17 this is an ordinance for first reading and setting December 7th 7:30 um PM for the public hearing Linda will you please read the or ordinance 23-17 an ordinance to amend supplement and revise the code of the burrow of Allendale officers employees chapter 53 do I have a motion so moved second second councilwoman homman yes councilwoman Lis solo yes councilman o Connell yes councilman oou yes councilman yerino yes councilman deliso yes okay next ordinance 23-18 again this is also first reading and the public hearing is set for December 7th 7:30 p.m. Linda please read ordinance 23-18 ordinance 23-18 an ordinance to amend supplement and revise the code of the burrow of Allendale officers and employees chapter 53 the hearing date for ordinance 23-18 is December 7th 2023 at 7:30 p.m. or soon thereafter in the council chambers of the Allendale Municipal Building do I have a motion so moved second second roll call please councilwoman homman yes councilwoman Lis solo yes councilman oconnell yes councilman OU yes councilman yakar Rino yes councilman deloo yes do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved hman second L solo councilwoman homman yes councilwoman Lis solo yes councilman oconnell yes councilman OU yes councilman yakar yes councilman Delo I wanted to abstain on 23-42 please thank you all right next Council reports councilman um Ed oconnell do you have a council report uh yes real quick I just wanted to thank everybody for uh the mayor council and the Republican Club for doing everything they could for the election and uh my running mate Joe uh I'd like to thank everybody that came out and uh supported us uh as far as DPW uh you saw the uh report from Ron looks like uh DPW will be able to do some transfers later this month to fill in the gaps and other areas and we are going to have uh our recycling center open uh the last day will be the last Sunday in December to get everything in and that's all I have mayor thank you all right Council Melle with you uh yes thank you mayor I want to Second the Eds it's thank you um it's this was my first time running for a public election and it's a very humbling experience uh this past year being appointed to fill the seat has been you know an honor and I want to thank the people down there who voted for Ed and myself and in trusting us and I can just as all as I can say is I'm going to give everything I have to continue to help this community be the best and wonderful place that it is and I really really do care about this community so I want to thank everybody for supporting me well thank you you've already done so much in the short time you've been here so we appreciate you well thank you for that that's the reason I'm here right gota work um the land use committee met this morning uh we had a relatively short meeting with a very short agenda uh one item that I want to mention to the public so the holiday observers and Vico Sanchez who's one of our holiday Observer members uh we're going to start some repairs very needed repairs on the grandstand facility uh for years the holiday observers used the grandstand to store materials uh there's been a lot of leaks and water issues the grand stand so uh with money raised the holiday observers we're going to do some voluntary repair starting tomorrow we're going to redo the seats and some of the items on the sides to enhance the structure so just to let everybody know that wonderful one of the items we discussed this morning was a new order to to our code to allow for and and put language in place for people who requiring handicap ramps on their homes or loved ones or relatives so we're working on that I'll tweet that it should have something for next meeting uh we did start the project at Crescent place that was mentioned in our last meeting uh half the project was completed the road work with the asphalt paving it's completed looks very very nice I'm glad they got that done so quickly before the as plant shut around November and then there's a little bit more grading work that still needs to be done on the out to enhance the drainage and that should be scheduled in the next couple of weeks and get that complete and one smaller item our burough engineer Mike Breeland is also reviewing some of our language in our variant package to try to make things a little bit easier for our residents who are coming for very minor tweaks to their veterans and their homes so he's looking at that and that's that's pretty much it so thank you very much thank you very much counc solo um I just want to also congratulate councilman uh delisio and O Connell on their Victory um it's G be great to serve with you guys um you're very hardworking and Jo I really appreciate being your second on land use um it's been it's been fun even this morning was fun um even even it's 7:30 um and I also want to congratulate our uh director of operations Ron kissner on his win as the new mayor of Hasbro Heights um so uh we've been really busy with HR and admin um and hopefully December meeting I'll have a a big report um I do try and at least report out once a month on what's going on with our library I am um on the board along with the mayor um so I'm just going to give a very quick update from um our library director Nancy Claus um in November the library is celebrating D November the children's area activities include a dinorama craft on the 14th a dinosaur dig activity on November 208 uh 20th a dino Extravaganza Story Time on the 21st and a DIY Dino egg program on November 27th in addition to a regular story times and R to a therapy dog programs they have a very special Diwali cele celebration planned for November 13th and then in our Adult and Family Programs um there is a brush painting program on November 14th and an author talk and book signing featuring Dr Jolene arz a local psychologist Dr jolen will be discussing her book why on Earth do I feel this way thinking maybe I should go to that one um our adult take and make craft this month features a recipe and materials to make bread sticks to serve or to give as a gift for Thanksgiving as always a complete list of all the programs are on the library website and that is it thank you C theom hom is hi first of all yes congratulations Ed congratulations Joe Joe I know you've worked alongside Amy on on a 21 2101 and have been just an unbelievable uh partner so thank you so much for wanting to do so much work it's well appreciated by by not only us on the council but the burough of Allen so thanks and welcome back to both of you um as far as water and sewer um I really continue to be pleased with the work that Folia is doing in Allandale uh temporary treatment vessels were delivered on November 1st as opposed to Halloween on November 1st to the West Crescent well and you'll see they're building a little shed type area to um begin to have that temporary treatment put in place and they hope that it will actually be in place uh by the end of this year so that would be uh phenomenal it's great news for every resident posos is something that we've definitely been um very concerned about and this is a great step forward and they're working towards getting the approvals for the permanent facility which will eventually be down um somewhere around in New Street area uh then additionally there's legislation that's out there that people may or may not be aware of called the lead and copper Rule and the lead and copper rule requires that a water system be able to identify all of the makeup of the service lines to every home and when we owned the system that was a very daunting task to think and it was like a certain percentage but we had like 1,800 unknown lines and Ron kissner and the rest of the Allen Del team has coordinated with PSC and G and while those roads are being dug up for PS and G to replace the miles of gas piping which is also an advantage to alleno Residents um they did the test pits which need to be done to look at what the makeup is of that service line and if there is a galvanized or lead line found violia will ha have that that actually changed out so um they've done 300 in combination with what pfcg has been doing there still will probably be another thousand residents that need to have a test pit dug so I guess what I'd be asking residen is and also our chief of police saying thank you for being patient with the coordination that sometimes obviously that takes up some Street space but it's a program that is really in place to protect residents not only here in allenvale but throughout the state of New Jersey and uh as far as the sewers go we're still working on some details with contracts with both Saddle River we have a meeting tomorrow morning and um with Ramsey so hopefully I'll have some finality to those contracts being updated my goal was by the end of the year and I am determined to at least get 50% on good good so that's it thanks than thanks um okay tool thank you very much uh first congratulations to edjo and Ron on their victories the other day um in fact on Tuesday the Public Safety Committee met uh we discussed our plans to keep everyone safe during the upcoming holiday walk which is going to be I think the first December second December 2nd um and we had a minor issue with the new speed sign on McIntyre has to do with the uh you know the solar panels so that's all being addressed uh various roadway striping will be completed next week including coach Franklin Turnpike and chess on Street um oh nice uh the fire and police departments are preparing next year's budgets to present to the finance committee uh and the on our consent agenda was the uh resolution for a grant for the fire department to um apply for the grant to purchase a special washer and dry dryer for their turnout gear which washer and dryer for turnout gear is about $35,000 so they have at Home Depot they do not have them at Home Depot and uh just yesterday Chief D and I participated in a meeting with a company that makes flooded baitman equipment to see if any of their products could help with some of the flooding issues that we've seen in town so uh more on that future that's all I got great thank you very much councilman Yaro thank you mayor uh we had a couple well first of all I wanted to mention congratulations of course to Ed and Joe it's a pleasure to serve with both you and also we know that Ron is not here this evening um but of course congratulations to him um this week we started uh from the committee's purview with an ASA meeting in the conference room uh we discussed a number of things with regard to field maintenance um the weather events that we've been having and the lasting effects that have been left from the field um we're also going to be following up with Ron with regard to Winter preparations whether we'll be using any Turf blankets considering the condition of such um and then also as Ron is retiring we're also going to be scheduling a special ASA meeting in January to meet with the new director of operations whoever that may be um so that way we're going into the spring season Walk to a strong start and everybody's on the same page with regards to Fields Wednesday morning we had a facilities committee with myself councilman dsio and mayor wilinski we discussed a number of our open projects as well as different policies that we may be looking put in place for different uh room uses within burall um in addition like I said we followed up on matters discussed at the ASA meeting with regard to fields and weather conditions and so forth um and then with regard to some of our open projects I did follow up with the contractor with regard to the concession stand um we are on target to have more news regarding that in December once the contract is officially awarded once the funds are able to be encumbered um finally with regard to the kitchen and the flooring there's and progress that's been continually been made um but I'm following up with the third contractor with regards to finalizing the quote for that and I did speak with another flooring vendor today so that we are on track to finish that up very soon great great all right some staff report our cler Linda thank you mayor um election day went well thank you to the board workers John Gil Amanda Richards oh Kim Oliver and the Allandale Police Department I also want to thank the super board workers Joseph Brennan Ali zambada and Bruce Davis they were amazing and I asked if they would come back for the primary the next mayor and council meeting is December 7th and I also want to congratulate uh Ed Joe and Ron perfect thank you Chief Dylan oh thank you Madame mayor uh working with area Police Department on some shared service possibilities working a few enforcement initiatives around town and collaborating with the Ala School District on school safety security I'd like to recognize superintendent Dr Barone who has been a steadfast partner in ensuring the safety of one of our most vulner vulnerable populations our children excellent thank you very much for attorney Ray West thank you be Joe Ed and Ron and abencia obviously congratulations you it's welld deserved and I look forward to working with you um just brief report is working over the last two weeks uh on some Personnel matters uh our new administrative officer is certainly very very diligent a great a great choice and she hasn't hesitated to to call up when she's grappling with something in the first instance and asking you know asking the questions and U you know we've been working together I think very well Chief and I have had a couple of personnel matters to deal with as well uh most of the time has been on the matters that Council wi homman is referring to uh we spent about an hour today on the phone with uh bolia and their attorneys um mostly focused again on easements and encroachments um little by little we're getting those in place we are hopeful that we will have the uh appraisal of the easements uh done a week from Monday we were given a 30-day estimate I think Monday is 21 days so um you know we're getting there once we have that then we can proceed with Green Acres I I I think we'll get all the other pieces or I shouldn't put a timeline on it but most of the other pieces in place by the end of the year and and the lingering one which is not a small one is going to be you know Green Acres and that all require some further discussion with the governing body in terms of how to ultimately address the uh the Green Acres issue and as councilwoman home and said uh tomorrow morning uh we're meeting with h Saddle River on uh their sewer agreement so we've spent a little bit of time going back and forth with Saddle River uh they have a developer who is uh I guess leading to the need to hook up to our sewers U as part of their fair share housing obligation so uh I anticipate an interesting discussion tomorrow morning soon as I can thank you bear all right and I'll do give my report real quickly um as councilwoman Loa mentioned there's been just lots of activity going on with all the Departments so we are changing the organizational design of the buau we're changing positions around a little bit it's all for the better offer to better serve the residents streamlining things better trying to get everything up and automated as possible we um currently now are accepting credit cards um for our dog licenses as I think we mentioned things like that um we're looking to do also cleaning up a lot of our files there's a lot of filing cabinets in there we're going to streamline all that to make the um office a nice place for our employees to work as well as residents to visit so 210 West Crescent our community center um it's lots of activity about a million emails in the past couple days so that's really uh getting kicked off I look forward to seeing that build I will be posting on Facebook I'm going to try to take a picture of like the same spot so we can kind of see see the timeline going forward I have a feeling it's going to be done very very quickly so we're looking potentially you know this summer to be able to do a ribbon cutting um thank you to all the residents um for all of the traffic detours um we know it's challenging but as councilwoman homman mentioned it is so important all these upgrades are very very important and it would be 10 times worse if we didn't have to go through this so we really appreciate um the patience from the residents and also the due diligence of our Police Department um it is not easy because things change constantly they get told one thing and then something else happens and something else happens so they've been actually on top of it and doing a super great job honestly very very few complaints and it's usually the same people so um I just wanted to uh thank the staff for all the work they did on Election Day that was a big long day um and also all the work you did on the food drive that was super um it was a food drive that they all started and um got a lot of food for the the food bank which is always in this time of year um correction the holiday walk is Friday December 1st not the 2nd I think and um I did want to mention that Veterans Day is this November 11th this day honors all our military veterans um it's always on the 11th Hour on the 11th day and the 11th month so um our veterans now um unfortunately um we've merged with with ramsy so they will be having the ceremony we not be having our Ceremony this year but I did want to just mention that um that veter day is November 11th to remember that and congratulations of course to our two councilmen who will be serving for another three years thank you very much and also of course to our director of operations who is now going to be the new mayor of Hasbrook height and that I think is it for me so now next I would I'd like to ask if there's any unfinished business any new business now um I ask if anybody from the public would like to come and speak on any matter pleas state your name and address for the record name is Joe guno I live at 62 Chestnut Street three minute remember three minutes yes three minutes um I want to um I didn't want to take anybody else's time but it's I'll take the three minutes um I'm in search of U first of all thank you for the striping issue being taken care of you are the people that we have to go to because um you get things done uh same thing with the foliage that was cut on Chestnut Street and also on Crescent and which is helped uh people um navigate the street so here I need to talk to you I need one person on the council or maybe or more to be an advocate for Chestnut Street rather than an adversary um the traffic Island that I brought up the reason for safety of the traffic Island Allen already has a traffic Island where the the clock is in the center of town and curly shes uh plaque and that that Island was there not just for decoration but that island is there because it's going to Route the traffic around that the center of town and make it safe that's what we need at Chestnut Street um Chestnut Street is the opening between chest Chestnut Street and Franklin Turnpike is two and a half times the width of the entrance to Orchard Street going east on Orchard Street before the police department and the reason I bring that up is because the excuse that was used why there isn't an island is because of the snow plow so uh just recently the Waldwick uh Department DPW had their orange or yellow uh Leaf plow that had to go up Chestnut Street then turn right and go down through U um Frank Franklin Turnpike South towards walwood so that plow is a perfect example of size so a snow plow is not the excuse that should be used for not having an island on um at Chestnut Street and Franklin Turnpike um I have a picture I I took a picture of a an example of an island that exists in another town yes I don't understand why is the what was the example I'm trying to like visualize what you're talking about tell me what was the example of the truck the truck is a DPW truck right we don't have an island now though we don't have an right so he didn't have to obstruct an island correct it was the space was wide enough because we don't have an island well it's before the yel there's a there's a triangle of there's a form of a triangle of striping that's at Chestnut Street and Franklin turnik it's orange it's the only striping that's on on that south of of uh Franklin turnp that truck was able to go to the right and what did not come anywhere near the this the striping that's exist here but maybe just a maybe you have to take a trip down there you know take a look at what what I'm talking about um but I found an island and I'd like to share it with a picture with with anyone that's willing to take a look at it that it doesn't even have to be this this large but if someone wants to put I don't know how to do this but put on someone pH but here's an an island that is already that's an area of Ridgewood by the duck pond and it's a perfect example of what's needed and it's not a major expense we're not talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars you know it's it's it's just uh cement and instead of having dirt there you could have U you know have Stones there so that people going from one part of Franklin Turnpike to the other part of Franklin Turnpike Crossing Chestnut Street can stop but but at the same time you're protecting about the traffic the traffic that turns going north from on Franklin Turnpike and turns left on Chestnut Street they are actually on the other side they are on the exit side of Chestnut Street so Mr W know the the County engineer the burough engineer the county safety inspector they've all looked at that intersection they've all examined it many many times you've come to us many many times regarding the same thing it was decided by the experts that they will not be an island it's not just just because of the snow plowing issue that's an issue but it's an ancillary issue it's not necessary for safety according to them it's been looked at already we're going to put stripes there and I have to rely on the experts you're not traffic expert I'm not a traffic expert so that's why we have all these traffic that you had any kind of I'm reading emails going back from when you brought this up you know many times so I I just you know I appreciate that you want it to be safe there we we oh safety is always our utmost important but we have uh we have consulted with our experts and we were're we're going to put a stripe um a striped safy safy refresh and it's it's going to be refreshment there and it's also going to have some reflective uh paint on it glass bead glass beads on it I'm very happy to hear yeah that's very nice and I just I'm my only concern is Russian Roulette that the are these people let me let me finish AR I'm not arguing with you I I appreciate what you've done my my concern is that if I'm the only one that's been concerned about this from the people that live on the street so to speak I wish I had known about any kind of meetings that were going on so I could at least sit or maybe I could be privy to what the experts say about the street you know I I just didn't know anything about that but I'm saying that this I'm saying that they may they may have their expertise that may be reluctant and I think that that's happened when I had to deal with hearnden and I had to deal with sherb when I tried to go through the least the police department at that particular time and or maybe Town Council Members in private meetings there may be a reluctance to try to put something there that would be more helpful that may be more helpful than what you have planned but I have to backtrack and let's wait to see how how how the improvements that you're going to do okay on chest street I'm will I'm willing to to say what great you know um I think it's happening next week now I just wondered do you have the plans is there are there a print out plans of what the striping is going to be it's it's refreshing W is there right now there's striping there that's that's there right now and it's going to be refreshed but it's going to have Reflections on it are we going to have the the crosswalks for the for the uh bus drops North so no again cross Franklin Turnpike cross Franklin turnike again we're we're not no I mean this is something that our traffic just tra is that because because it's only Allen's responsibility or is it because the crosswalks are the county responsibility so if it's a County Road it's the county responsibility but it's it's um it's not something that we we're not just putting we don't just put crosswalks you know anywhere it's there's there's patterns that are looked at so again we leave this stuff up to our our experts and the traffic experts so I appreciate that you want one there and and you know that's great but and this is why I'm saying about experts yeah you're this is why you're put in a bad situation from my perspective okay if the experts are the ones that did this they must have been the ones who had all of the traffic patterns done from from Ward Street North to Ramsey all of the crosswalks and everything that was done now who did that number one who did that because south of roof south of or Street to Waldwick there are zero okay well this that's why I'm here is are what we what worried but that's why I'm not I'm not here to I'm just saying you might you might want to someone might I'm asking for someone on the council or the police department someone to find out you know who's responsible for putting us in a situation where we're talking about why is it that north of roof of north of or Street has 12 and south of orch street has zero okay that's all thank you thank you very much appreciate your time and effort I hope there's an advocate somewhere thank you have a good day all right anybody else from the public wishing to speak not seeing anyone motion to adjourn so Mo second I sorry I have a good night everyone