good evening everybody who's here good evening everybody from home this is the mayor and council meeting the burough of Allendale May 9th 2024 7:30 p.m. Linda will you please call the meeting to order and read the open public meetings act in compliance with the open public meetings act the notice requirements have been satisfied the meeting dates for the year are confirmed that the annual meeting are posted on the public bulletin board in the municipal building and on the burough website published 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 May 7th 20124 Sunshine notice was sent to the record The Ridgewood news and Star Ledger and has been posted on the public bulon board in the municipal building and burrow website roll call councilman deloo here councilwoman homman councilwoman lisolo here councilman oconnell councilman otou here councilman Yaro here mayor wasinski here everybody stand to salute the flag okay so we have some uh fun stuff today we have some presentations um our first one's the municipal budget but I think we're going to swap it around a little bit um every everybody of course is welcome to stay for the budget but we're going to start with the spring cleaning environmental day report as the first thing on the agenda Mark go Mark so then after we go through the pre presentations then I'll do the agenda review and then we'll have public comment so come on up thank you for that mayor course um we do have h a contingent from theore I thought they were all here for the budget yeah well they may stick around and find it interesting um well mayor and council members on behalf of the Allandale Green Team it's our pleasure to have organized and expanded allendale's yearly spring cleanup event and to report on our success sustainability is our passion and we take pride in being able to make a positive contribution and serve our community as volunteers just as importantly the success of the event also demonstrates the awareness and enthusiasm of the Allendale residents our team members include Council leaz own suzan Lo loas solo myself Steve rof who's here Carlton Frost Pat Finn and council member Emeritus Jim stouch and our newest member Walter mid Whitmer who is also here I'm so happy however the the team extends Beyond beyond our members to all those who have assisted our efforts and that includes our new DPW director Andy thank you Andy John Gil Linda Cino Kim Oliver Chief Dylan and Todd Griffith of the alale police department the C team and fire chief beas all have responded positively to our requests and contributed to the success of our event and last but not least all the student volunteers who gave their time as individuals as members of the Brookside environmental club and as Scouts and I can also uh mention my daughter Cara who went through the school system and comes back every year to help at the event and we can say that we've inspired the most senior members of our community as demonstrated by Walter's recent addition to our team and also our more Junior citizens the student students who volunteered and are in the audience tonight going forward we remain committed to informing the public of recycling opportunities beyond the mandated materials collected curbside which allows residents to make informed choices and to recognize how to make a personal contribution we were confident that given the opportunity the Allendale Community would respond to the request for additional recyclables such as EPS packing pH home and thank you Matthew for mentioning that um Sharps uh needles that were collected by the APD clothing X-ray and MRI films and also the ability to have food compost picked up at door Todo in Allandale our s our statistics show that we succeeded in that endeavor additionally we begun a dialogue with the Middle School teacher Joanne Lynch who's with us here today encouraging the school to explore Recycling and composting possibilities we've shared our success with the library by donating our TX bench which Nancy klouse the new library director has uh generously provided a plaque for and it's out there today I I came and took a picture of it and sent it to suzan really excited about that um our displays of compost pins and r barrels at the library and recycling center are now gener generating additional orders uh every day this week I've received another order because people have seen them we've developed a lasting community outreach relationship with Valley Hospital through nurse practitioner helina who's with us as well uh to provide Sharps Containers each year to the APD during the event mayor your initial action to create the Green Team demonstrated your commitment to sustainability and your continued support provides a catalyst for our achievements I thank you for that the green team will continue to bring new ideas to the collective attention of this body and we hope to inspire every citizen to contact the alale Green Team whenever they have a question regarding Recycling and sustainability every item that is disposed of in a responsible manner makes a measurable difference to the quality of life in Allandale and the greater World Community to which we belong I'd like to cite some statistics from the event if I may um there were 376 Vehicles which came to the event oh my gosh approximately 8.4 tons of material were collected uh and the public should be aware that every ton diverted from the landfill helps to address the increasing cost of of trash collection in the barrel so that reduces the amount that we're sending out the alale police department um Todd was there this year uh there were two 18 gallon medicine containers and two 18 gallon Sharps Containers filled which were approximately 20 pounds um Electronics there was a collection of 7,571 lb of material and uh there were two Scouts there in uniform as well as another Middle scho School student who manned that collection for the entire event uh also I I identified a new collector so that there will no longer be a charge of $2,000 to the barrel they will do it at no cost and uh provide the same exact service I met them at the sustainability Summit in Homedale uh we collected 6,860 pounds of material at the paper shredding event um and I don't did not see I was hoping to see the mother and son who manned that event oh there they are okay good to see you Ubie and I don't know your brother's name Ubie I'm sorry Eugene okay each year they show up on um without any prompting and man the shredder I should say uh both the mother and the children stay for the entire event and um keep it running without uh a hitch um helsy our new clothing collector they collected 251 pounds of clothing and we receive a stipend from them of $102 for our collection um plastic film there were 34 pounds collected and they also collected children's books Unfortunately they didn't say the amount um they give me a weight what but these are redistributed they're not recycled 10 six pounds of children's books um I'm very proud to say uh the U citizens responded very well to the baller styrofoam and they brought material that was clean material that should not have been there and um we stored that thankfully in Carlton's garage which is right next to the barrel Hall uh we returned last Sunday with a 20ft box truck which was nearly full and um we then condensed that material in Richfield Park down to 16 feet and 146 pounds um which is quite a lot of material when it starts out as large as a truck and and up in little cubes we had 5 lbs of X-ray films and um we sold five compost bins one tumbler two rain barrels and we had a number of U residents sign up to have their compost picked up at their door lastly uh there was a middle middle school group that collected $150 for a group called team trees for every every dollar they collect a tree is planted so yes it was uh quite successful and I do want to mention um the names of the students that are here tonight so that um you're aware of who was participating uh if you don't mind standing up Kiara and uh seus and Bruce are you both here Bruce is here Sarah and Robbie and Michael and Christopher okay and in the back uh is U Ubie and his brother Eugene so it I I was very proud I have to say of the the residents for their participation and of our group for what we accomplished and we look forward to doing it again next year mayor excellent great I just want to thank you so much for all the work that you put into it it was a great success um I just think everybody just saw all of the different stations there and I have to say it was seamless like you just went in and you went right out um sustainability is one of the pillars of success for allelle that we've trying to you know maintain and as you know starting the recycling how many years ago and changing the recycling it's constantly changing and you have to stay on top of it and it's just super important to bring all these young kids into it so they're the ones that are going to bring it forward so thank you so much for your efforts my pleasure really appreciate it Mark okay certainly it's want to echo on that Marcus you know I wrote to you last week yes I was there all day with the sech team and it being my first Allandale spring cleanup day I have to say it was organized from start to finish the appreciation from the residents and just the overall success event that's all to you thank you Mark I also want thank you as a very proud team member here um thank you for your leadership um your energy just inspires everyone including these students here today Steve I think I saw you come in somewhere too Steve thank you for all that you are doing as well for the Green Team um it truly is a it's a fun group it's a it's a motivated group and I just want to thank you all so much who are a part of that day yeah I'd like to I'd like to Echo and I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts and your team and you know one of the things that blows me away is the the volunteers that I see here I mean that's what makes Allen Del so special it really really does where else can you go and you see the community acting like we do with the kids and the parents and everybody cares I mean that's I mean I'm proud of you guys so thank you for everything you guys do yeah and for the residents to turn out the way that they did I mean the numbers are impressive very impressive I was out of town so I couldn't be there but Tyler actually brought a couple of batteries over for me my son brought the styrofoam yeah but those numbers are amazing so thank you thanks for bringing the Green Team back to life yes great thank you all right so next sure did children take a picture of course of course do you want have to come down or you want to get a picture is everyone here like can I move this or is it movable no because it's not a f SP all right you guys all ready all right all right right all right awesome yes took a bunch make sure none of you guys blink I'll know in a minute [Laughter] here for the budget long time next we have um a very special um award we have our former municipal judge Harry Norton Harry actually served as our municipal court judge for 32 years um he was also municipal judge for five other towns I know our current judge uh Chris bot you were also a mentor to him he said um and then you also went to law school with this guy over here so there's lots of connection so we really want to thank you so much for your years of service um to Allandale and being fair and just to all of our residents and we have just a little plaque here for you if you don't mind will take the photo of you you guys should think thank you so much it's it's probably um I looked around as I came up laugh I said GE you know 30 years got I mean really it looks great up the Run literally went in like three days ago I the whole thing painting everything but I I really wanted to thank you um I'll kind of tell the I think this somewhat humorous story I really did not Aspire uh to be a municipal court judge my background well one in one sense it maybe led to it because I was a bir CTIC prosecutor for a number of years and then kind of went into private practice and wasn't really thinking much about um doing any kind of Municipal law and I got a call from a friend of mine who used to be resident here as a matter of fact Council name is Dominic rosi and Dominic calls me up it was December 28th and it was either 1990 or 1991 I should to and um he says what are you doing I'm sitting here what are you what do you want and he says I'd like to know if any interest in being the municipal court judge now and then and I go well I've never really thought about it well our judge just resigned we need somebody you know start January 1st I said well give me a few seconds to think about it he goes all right you thought about it you know if Dominic that's how he would do it and he said so you know what you're going to be in and uh you're G to get a call from the mayor and you know about 15 minutes mayor palberg called and he really gave me what I consider to be greatest pie of advice that I've ever heard from anyone let alone a mayor let alone a political figure and he said to me he goes listen I don't know anything about you he goes Dominic says you're a good guy and he goes you can do the job goes the only thing I want to know about Municipal Court is absolutely nothing he goes as long as there are no complaints then we're doing a great job and uh so they were that was kind of that was the start and alale was the first of as the mayor correctly said six towns and then and uh we kind of got into the zoom era here and and I didn't enjoy it because I'm a people person and I like have the kids in front than anything else uh because I always thought maybe there was something I could say such as wouldn't you rather be spending your money doing something fun coming here and I always and so I kind of started to think about well maybe this would be a good time to end it so on December 31st I said goodbye to all six but Allendale was the first uh whatever I achieved and I say this to everyone is as a result of what occurred in Allendale the other thing and the mayor made a funny remark as I came up to except this very nice she was very nice to meet you and and and you don't know never in you don't know how important that is to have you as a group of elected officials allow that to occur what I mean by that is in every town that I have been in and I was never let go by anybody I couldn't pick mayor or any of the council members out of the life I didn't know any and I never have known it because I've never been political I've never been involved in politics they try to St lineups too Harry but that is you don't realize how important that is because what you did you allowed a function of the government namely the the Judiciary to function without any interference and that is so important in this day and age and from the bottom of my heart and and you're the first ones you were you know whatever I've achieved is because Allandale gave me that opportunity and I mean that very sincerely and I've always wanted to thank you each one of you and each each Council each mayor that has been here uh I just she goes to same church I do so yeah I mean the funniest thing is when I met her when I met the May for the person time look I said I know you you know this is in church and uh so at any rate but um and we were both praying for one another I think um but at the end of the day thank you it's really good to see Ray I really appreciate the fact that uh you asked me to come a different week when when he here it meant a lot to me because uh I've known Ry an awfully long time yes we went to law school together fing a bike on years actually I think he was class ahead of me yeah and uh but at the end of the day so again I don't want to think I get lot going on tonight that's where the water's piled up judge it's worth noting that you married my parents in 1996 now you're really making they're still married right now well that you know and that was one of the fun things of the job to be honest a lot of people you know I I always said yes my favorite part she gets to do that now yeah yes and it was always fun and you know that kind of thing you get a lot of Nice Notes and you know it's it's been a great run and you know as as I said before the only thing that's kind of different for me is I I get I'm still doing my day job I still work full-time I do all I have to do but I get 15 hours a week back you you think about that that's a lot of time a lot of golfing Harry a lot of golfing right well still only a weekend golfer as much as I you know play every weekend I still just don't get out of the office to do it but again thank you all very much and um yes you're in great hands with Chris B uh I didn't have to Mentor him he knows what he's doing and at the end of the day I'm sure 32 years from now you'll be honoring him so thank you very much super okay next we have a proclamation at recognition of May 30th as World Ms day whereas multiple sclerosis is a disabling neurological disease that can attack anyone at any stage of life and whereas this disease can cause impaired or double vision slurred speech numbness loss of coordination remarkable pain gate issues and unusual fatigue and whereas multiple sclerosis is one of the most common disabling neurolog olical conditions amongst young adults in the northern hemisphere with over 2.9 Million people in the world having MS and whereas this this disease afflicts almost 1 million Americans and over 13,000 residents of New Jersey and whereas the national Multiple Sclerosis Society has provided more than 410 million dollar for biomedical research and academic grants during its Half A Century Of History and whereas the national multiple scholis Society supplies a wide range of client services in areas of health education information and referral advocacy knowledge and Independence and whereas while research advantages have brought us closer to finding a cure for cause of and prevention of multiple sclerosis much remains to be done and services must continue to be provided to those who live with the disease and whereas it is imperative everyone is aware of and supports the ongoing battle to rid our state this country and the world of this disease through education Enlightenment and personal medical awareness and whereas World Ms day was launched May 27 2009 with over 200 events in 67 countries and is an opportunity to raise awareness about Ms and to strengthen the network of people living with Ms across the world and whereas the goals of world Ms day are to raise awareness and mobilize the global movement now therefore be it resolved that the burough of Allandale recognizes May 30th 2024 as World Ms data recognize the ongoing battle against this devastating disease and the important work of the national Multiple Sclerosis Society and I'd like to thank um Joe and Jill Walter for bringing this to our attention quite frankly I'm surprised we haven't had it before because we do actually try to bring awareness to all these type of uh diseases so uh thank you for bringing this very important um recognition to our attention and we will make sure that this is on the agenda every year going forward thank you so and if you'd like a copy of the Proclamation we can get you that if you do that that'd be great absolutely can you read it again I actually said multiple sclerosis without like tongue tying that was hard to do how many times I know so anyway thank you very much okay next we have our budget presentation so I'd like to bring up Rob from Lurch Vincy and Bliss um he's our auditor and he's going to go through our 2024 Municipal budget there is you can all stay it's very interesting for the fun stuff right guys you're paying for it you know that you're in good hands right so all right there is copies of the budget for anybody who like it on um the table there all right um are we do we have a presentation do we have it up on the screen or no uh I we just did the handout yeah I mean everybody has a copy of the handout I think and it's available up on the table too I think John on all right the presentation's online as well okay all right thank you mayor and thank you council members for uh inviting me here tonight uh just to give you a little background on the budget process back in April you uh introduced the budget that's BAS basically the beginning of the budget process uh the budget gets submitted to the state for their review um they actually approved you a few days ago or or late last week early this week to adopt so they go through it with pretty much a fine- tooth comb make sure there's nothing in there that that would preclude you from adopting so once they give you that approval now you move to tonight to have your public hearing on the budget and then formally move to formally adopt the budget um so what this presentation does just goes through what the budget as introduced would be uh and obviously there's no amendments so it's going to adopt as it was introduced uh so probably the easiest thing to do is just go through Page by page of the presentation um starting on on slide two uh basically just shows you how your how your budget is being funded this year from a revenue standpoint um so you have a few different categories of revenues uh that is being used to fund the budget and a comparison versus last year's budget so you could see on there the the real the big increas is in what we call the miscellaneous and what's uh that went up from last year uh with the American Rescue plan money so uh every government agency in the state got uh American Rescue PL money as a result of covid uh it was really a three-year process to utilize that money 2024 being the last year so you did use some in the previous two years in the budget so now uh because this is the final year you're using the rest of the money in the current year budget so that's why you see that that increase in that miscellaneous uh and all the other increases are uh just regular increases your Municipal revenue is all your regular just fees and permits construction code fees court fees uh any kind of other fees you collect uh your state aid that's money coming directly from the state to assist in your budget and then the last revenue is your general taxation which is what's being used uh from taxes to fund the budget so you can see on the total your total budget uh is at 16.6 million up from 15.7 million so about a 5% increase in total budgetary uh revenues from last year uh the second slide basically stay uh number three slide stays with the revenues just kind of gives you a pie chart of of how that uh how those revenues are broken down and obviously you could see from that the biggest funding source of the budget is from taxes you get um about 7% of your budget you can see on the bottom from state aid so the state gives you uh some minimal minimal amounts to fund your budget uh that increases uh has an increase for a while this year you got a slight increase in state aid as as that every other municipality uh but for the most part uh you know your taxes are really the the driver of the revenue side uh slide number four uh this now uh deals with the taxes that you are collecting this year for your operations so in this budget you're collecting a little over $1 million dollars in taxes to fund the budget and what this slide shows you is that uh the state has a cap on the amount you can raise taxes each year um and that what this slide is showing you is that you're actually about $3.4 million below that maximum cap so really you'd be able to increase your budget uh your taxes another 3.4 million and still be you know still be in compliance with the state regulations obviously this budget doesn't do that just comes in obviously much more below that um and so that just shows it's really responsible budgeting you know you could raise it a lot more but you're choosing to you know to to leave it at that lower level uh Slide Five this goes now to the spending side of the budget so turning from the revenues to the spending so this this shows you from a uh kind of budget area standpoint on where the money is being spent and again similar to the revenue side compared to last year um so you'll see some increas and decreases throughout there the big increase you'll see here again is under what we call statutory and fixed charges that is pretty much what the same as the revenue side from your American Rescue plan so as you're collecting that more money uh you have that more money on the spending side and you're using that uh you know in essence for covid related expenses as they're winding down and you're also have an increase in the amount you're paying down for your debt this year okay so in 2024's budget um you really have no debt at outstanding in the burrow okay as a result of the sale of the water utility in 2023 that wiped out all the all the town's debt so what you're doing now is as you authorize new debt for Capital ordinances you're using some money in this budget to pay those down before you ultimately take on the debt so you're authorizing a debt to give yourself the ability to do those projects but then before you go out to take on the debt you're basically spending that money down now so it saves money in the future from actually going out to permanently Finance those projects you're using kind of pay as you go mentality uh so that's the big increase there on the spending side I think it's also important to note here the public safety well it's a decrease um it's not that we are not um spending money in our Public Safety that we had a whole slew of officers who are making the top tier of the salary uh decrease and hire younger ones right reti reti yep yeah so as those as those higher salary retire you replace them with lower salaries so you see that decrease so yeah certainly not an indicative of a uh a lesser Services just cost uh and then slide six is basically the same kind of pie chart as revenues just spreads it out as far as where the money is being spent this year by by your different areas so you can see there's real no one big area there that dominates the budget uh you know the biggest area is Public Safety at about 177% of your budget uh and then about similar 17% in your s and solid waste disposal uh everything else is pretty much uh status quo from previous previous year uh now now slide seven similar to what uh on the earlier slide with the uh cap on how much you could raise taxes there's also a limit on how much you can uh increase spending so this deals with what we call the appropriation cap and it's basically saying that uh the part of your budget that is subject to this cap uh from what you're spending this year is 11.4 million and the maximum you would allow to be go to go up is 11.6 million so again similar to that tax levy cap you're below where you would be allowed to spend in the current year budget so in those incap Appropriations you'd be able to go up another $240 4,000 still be within the cap this budget comes in uh below that number okay and then page uh eight that really now shows you what the result of the budget is as far as the impact on taxes so what you'll see here is this is the uh estimated tax rate for 2024 based on the municipal the county and the school which are your three uh different tax levies uh that get assessed uh and you can see from last year you have an actual decrease in your tax rate and basically what that means is even though you're collecting more money than you did last year in taxes you have a decrease in your tax rate and the reason that is is because you're doing these reassessments each year which is really uh evening out the uh assess values throughout the town so as you are reassessing these properties up to a more realistic market value uh the actual tax rate goes down so the tax rate that's assessed on each of those properties goes down even though you're collecting dollar for dollar your budget goes up you're actually uh reducing the tax rate the impact on each individual assess value so it's kind of you know as you raise those assessments to market value it spreads out that that tax rate to a more reasonable level you know trying to get it in line with the market rate rather than you know historical assessed values okay page nine that basically shows you now uh as far as when the taxes get collected what uh from a townwide basis uh where that money is going so you could see from a you know basically $1 standpoint 26 of each dollar goes to your budget uh 63 cents of each dollar goes toward the school and then 11 cents goes toward the county so although you collect all the money from taxes obviously you have to you know give the county their share give the school their share and then you're left with uh your share which is the 26 Cents okay and then page 10 that basically now shows you what the impact on this budget is on the average home okay and you can this is now just the municipal portion of the bill so just doesn't calculate the school or the county um so just on your budget alone uh the average home would pay 4,476 in taxes in 2024 compared to 4,419 in 20123 which results in about a $57 increase uh and you can see on the bottom there that's really the effect of the reassessment is that your average home is really up from last year okay and that's really what what why this increase of $57 is there whereas if you didn't do a reassessment you know the increase would be a lot larger on the average home because you would still be at that same assessment from last year collect you know collecting more dollars from the same assess value now by doing those reassessments you're you're basically like I said before evening out that that distribution and as the assess value of the average home goes up you know you'll see that increase so that increase if that assess value stayed the same as last year that $57 would be significantly higher than than the 50 hard for people to understand that no it it's it's hard it is hard to understand it's like wait a we're collecting more money but it's less everybody freaks out right yeah I mean basically what the reassessment does it doesn't really um doesn't necessarily mean the Barrow is collecting more money from the reassessment it just it it evens out the who's paying it right so in a perfect world you would have some people who were going up because their you know reassessment might have had a lower value than it was it was overvalued you might have some that are going up and you have some that stay even so that's really what the reassessment does it doesn't really generate more money for the town it just evens out what you're who you're collecting making it more fair on who you're collecting it from okay so all in all I think uh you know very very positive budget I mean from a financial standpoint the burrow is in solid condition uh your Surplus is in a good spot um you're well below the State caps and um you know there's nothing in this budget that you know really is going to negatively impact future budgets so I think it's a very responsible budget and um think the administration the mayor council should be commended very much so I'd like to open up the U meeting to the public if anybody has any questions um about the budget um please come up and state your name and your address Don Wham 27 Byron Court my question is when did we move as a t to annual um assessments uh I think it was two years ago maybe even three years ago years might we might be on our third year third year of annual okay I got thrown but I don't know maybe I missed that there wasn't I don't was there a big announcement about that at the time or so you should be getting actually those and then what we did because there was a lot of confusion is that we we even made out kind of like a sheet to explain to everybody what you know what we're doing so it's it's everybody gets assessed every single year but it's every um fourth year you get the full assessment which means they actually go into your house and then they look at things but everybody gets an assessment every year so that's what keeps all the values the same before we did this we would have an assessment like maybe every three years or course people would do additions and it would be all over the place and then some people would have these massive spikes right so other people were kind of carrying the weight for other people so this way it is more fair and if the market goes down then all the assessments are going to go down it's just the market has been going up and up so everybody's houses have been going up and up but it's just important to know that our taxes are trying you know the municipal piece of it anyway we're we're still keeping our Municipal piece stable and flat thank you you're welcome anybody else have any questions on the budget up Walter woodmer 30 at Hamilton as with everything else that I've seen since I've been coming to these meetings the bottom line is you are trusting you to guide us and to do the proper jobs to maintain everything in Allendale and just I just have to say thank you you guys are fantastic from what I've seen and I have no complaints I just wish to hell I knew more thank you Walter thank you very much Walter um you know we do we take our job very seriously and everybody up here we love Allandale and we're all working very hard you know for Allendale we're all residents too we all invested interest in this town so it's nice to get a thank you every once in a while it means a lot so thanks so much all right anybody else sorry for having forgotten this that man deserves a lot we'll give him does a lot work we'll give him a raise the same as I I joined because of him and I had to do my little bit to help make it a success my hat is off to you good man and Walter thank you thank you for jumping into to the Green Team also you know being part of giving blood on um that day at the firehouse you you really are an important part of this community we thank you also thank you for coming and being part of our meetings it's an important process of the town as well as sh and everyone it's important it's important to be here all right so next we are actually going to vote on our budget so um resolution 24-13 Linda will you please uh read the budget by title only sorry I know I'm sking around sorry uh resolution uh adopted 24-13 yeah 130 y right thank you that's the resolution to read the budget by title you want me to read it what yes okay so um authorized authorization for mle Budget to be read by title only whereas the budget as advertise shall be read in full or may be read by title if the following conditions have been met at least one week prior to the date of the hearing a complete copy of the approved budget shall be made available to each person requesting the same and the governing body shall by resolution passed by not less than a majority of the full membership determined that the budget shall be read by title only do I have a motion so moved second please second councilman deloo yes councilwoman Lis solo yes councilman yes councilman Yak arino yes and next we have resolution 24-13 to adopt the local Municipal budget 131 I'm sorry 1 131 so this is the adoption of the municipal budget may it be resolved that the mayor and Council of the burough of Allendale state of New Jersey that the budget herein be set fourth is hereby adopted and shall constitute an appropriation for the purposes stated in the sums therein set forth um the Appropriations and authorization in the amount of 11 million 73352 for municipal purposes 108 281 for open space uh trust fund leavey and 736 932 for the minimum Library tax do I have a motion so move Le solo second second all call councilman Dela witho yes councilwoman Lis solo yes councilman UL yes councilman yino yes Al righty so next we have um second reading of ordinance 24- 05 so this is the ordinance to exceed the municipal um Cap B at 3.5 do I um so this is second reading the following ordinance was published and was read by title at the 11th April 11th meeting and uh this is the second reading and I'd like to open it up to the public does anybody have anything to say on ordinance 24-5 not seeing anyone do I have a motion for ordinance 24-5 I'll make the motion all right second please second suan tyer okay me councilman Delo yes councilwoman solo yes councilman OU yes councilman Yaro yes all righty next we have introduction to ordinance 24-6 so this is our our capital budget so these um thank you this this budget is for um various public improvements uh equipment additional Furnishings autom modal V Vehicles Etc that are in our capital budget um will you please read yes first um first a motion and then okay do I have a motion to approve ordinance 24-6 so moved second please second ordinance 24-6 Bond ordinance to authorize the making of various public improvements and the acquisition of new additional or replacement equipment and Machinery new communication and Signal systems equipment new information techn techology equipment new additional furnishings and new Automotive Vehicles including original apparatus and equipment in by and for the burrow of Allandale in the county of Bergen state of New Jersey to appropriate the sum of 1, 636,000 to pay the cost thereof to make a down payment or fully fund Appropriations from the capital Improvement fund to authoriz the issuance of bonds to finance such Appropriations to provide for the issuance of Bond anticipation notes in anticipation of the issuance of such Bonds in amend Bond ordinance number 23-9 adopted on May 11 2023 perfect thank you next we have our consent agenda um these are matters that are considered routine but I do like to point out some to uh look at all the great work we've all been do doing so resolution 132 uh this is our Ada Firehouse we have a change order here so we're very happy to provide this Ada uh bathroom for our for our firefighters um resolution 133 the purchase of a roll roll roll off truck finally yay uh this is actually from last year's budget so this is in the work so uh Andy coming on board uh really thank you so much for explaining to us you know how you really we really need this to um keep the burrow and our DPW functioning um 134 we have the authorization of Crestwood Lake salary so we are getting closer to opening day um and then we have resolution 135 so this is um for to allow our tax collector to prepare to prepare estimated tax bills the reason they are estimated is because the county has not been able to certify um their taxes yet because of delays with the state happens quite often um resolution 137 is we are actually going to phases five and six on our street skate so this is going to take our streetcape down uh drio drive and then also up um past the train station on the other side by the clock and after this we should have one more phase and then we should be done with our streetscape and it is looking um beautiful in our downtown all right and then we have our list of bills councilwoman loas solo did you have a chance to look at our list Bill thank you very much I did as well and then resolution 139 we have have a change of Professional Services for our special tax Council whose name is Levi cool and that is his real name and we're keeping him he just changing firms so I'd like to open uh the meeting to the public for anybody who has any questions or comments on our consent agenda not not not seeing anybody um I'd like to bring it back and uh we have our coun any I'm sorry motion to appr approve the consent agenda move second second councilman councilman deloo yes councilwoman Lis solo yes councilman UL yes councilman yino yes mayor can I just back up for one minute on um the introduction of ordinance 24-6 um I don't know if I read the public hearing date so the public hearing for ordinance uh 24- 06 will be May 23rd 2024 at 7:30 p.m. or soon thereafter uh at the mayor at the uh Allen Municipal Building thank you okay I think we're doing roll call or did we did got it okay um Al righty Council Reports zarino look at him I know my goodness his hand we're ready to rock uh thank you waitting for this report here it is um we are nearing as we noted the beginning of the Crestwood Lake season but even though we haven't opened the season yet the clerk's office has been hard at work signing Folks up for the lake folks returning new folks for this year so we're really excited to to get going as always I I say it every meeting but without Andy and the DPW a lot of this would not happen so thank you to you and your guys uh for really readying the lake and also for all your work throughout town I know the residents are very happy you know John had posted a picture of the lake and the comments from the residents were so positive to the DPW it's probably be good to share those with the guys as well um now Andy and I did speak today so the paperwork to Agra was submitted with regard to the lake testing as we do yearly um so we're just waiting on a date for the sample um all other paper that was needed with the county health department has been submitted which was one of the things that we've been very diligent making sure it's been completed thank you to Andy for taking care of that also with regard to the concession stand project as previously noted we are going to continue on with the bathrooms and the showers as they currently are in the concession stand and this was due in part to evaluation of the structure and evaluation of other opportunities and we felt that this was the most effective solution while not spending an egregious amount of money thank you um and as such all repairs have been completed and also in accordance with the county guidelines that we've worked with the county to make sure that everything is proper and suited for the season for the concession stand also for the Band Shell new wiring was completed so as we enjoy Crestwood Lake band nights um the wiring will be sufficient if we want to have a concert if we'd like to so we have we're ready we're have conc um also moving on with burall the carpeting as we've noted has been installed as well as other improvements Alison has been instrumental and moving this project along and the it looks great I really don't have any first word that comes mind is everybody's very happy with the upgrades they're noticeable and they're much appreciated so thank you thank you very much I'm not done oh I just wanted to and I just quickly wanted to this quickly touch that registration for Crestwood as of this afternoon is 386 and I wanted to commend the finance team in this year's budget so that'll be a thank you all right C love fell uh so my rep part it tonight even though still I don't know um but it's made easier because two things were already brought up tonight um the first was our budget uh many thanks to our Auditors for tonight's presentation and as always immense thanks to our CFO Alison elano who I mean who's been with us for a little over a year and yet completely dove in figure things out streamline streamlined and organized all of us into what I think is becoming a very well oiled machine so Alison thank you you are phom Al um I also want to thank um her and John Gil and everyone involved with sending out that special edition budget newsletter um that everyone received I hopefully it helped to kind of clarify things in advance of tonight's meeting um the second item is our Green Team and our burough spring cleaning environmental day many many thanks to the Green Team and all the volunteers who Mark highlighted tonight on another successful event um this now annual event was started a burough initiative three years ago and continues to grow each year thank you Mark for chairing the team and for all you do to raise awareness around sustainability and environmental concerns that are shared by all of us um so our land use committee our land use committee met on April 30th uh as always to discuss the topics and concerns that matter most to our residents in the buau in regard to property and land issues we start each meeting discussing residential uh property issues that slowly and surely are slowly being resolved one by one um The Familiar refrain of flooding problems and tree questions continue to Echo throughout our monthly meetings I'd like to remind people that not every tree on your property by the curb is a tree that the burrow planted most are not and therefore most are the responsibility to maintain and if need be to be removed by the property owner uh to help the burrow identify and catalog our trees we are creating a new and improved Shad tree committee we have asked former councilman Jim stouch to help lead this endeavor and we have a few people already interested in being a part of it if you too would like to uh be a part of the shat Tre committee please feel free to reach out to myself or to Jim and let us know um there are also some ongoing burough projects and forthcoming ones that we are discussing as always we value the input of our residents um and continue to encourage everyone to reach out directly to um to your mayor to your Council and to our burrow team uh our library in our continued partnership with the Lee Memorial Library I report out at the first council meeting of the month some of the exciting updates and programs going on at the library for the month of May the library is pleased to announce that it hired a new programming and Outreach librarian his name is Ethan Gavin his first day was May 6th and he has held various librarian positions in several libraries over the past 20 years he looks forward to getting to know the Allandale community so make sure you drop by and say hi to him once again his name is Ethan for the kids in May there is a create adopt and imaginary pet program on May 14th and the silent book club is on May 17th for the adults tonight was the important navigating the streaming maze um event that's what's going on there that's what's going on there um and the library wants to remind everyone that tomorrow night Friday the 10th it will be holding a newcomers newcomers and neighbors social event from 7 until 9:00 P p.m. so the newcomers are for new families moving in town so they can meet other new families and get to the of the library and the neighbors are all the rest of us so uh it's really open to everyone so if you want to stop by the library 7: to 9:00 p.m. tomorrow night and also finally the library hosts a dementia caregivers support group every month on the last Wednesday of the month at 11: a.m and all are welcome to attend thank you thank you so much Mandel with boy my report's going to be small compared the those to so uh DPW committee Andy and I had a meeting earlier this week uh the guys are doing a great job as always thank you Andy is as I say every month and you're getting tired of hearing that but doing a good job and appreciate it uh appreciate the guy's effort uh saw our temporary hire I did have the opportunity to see him and he's working he's working very hard so glad to see he's on board along with the rest of the guys who are also working very hard uh they're diligently preparing Crestwood right the water's there and they're getting everything ready for opening season uh the bathroom as Tyler had mentioned he took most of my report the bathrooms are up and running fountains up and running uh Fields continuing to maintain the fields in town baseball and softball fields that's an ongoing process um Andy still continuing to deal with the resident issues and responding in kind and I appreciate your sensitivity and the way you do that it's appreciative and I'm sure the residents appreciate that too I'm happy that the budget has passed so we're going to finally get the roll off and have the opportunity to start replacing some of our deteriorated equipment that's also in our capital budget has been moved forward throughout the year and uh that's pretty much it soun president2 I evening over on that side of you guys so the Public Safety Committee will meet for our monthly meeting uh next Tuesday uh but earlier this week we met with fire chief BAS to discuss a plethora of fire department related items um there's a follow-up meeting to the one that we had last month which was to see how the burough could best lend assistance with the fire department uh for the purpose of attracting and retaining members so we're still looking some outof the boox solutions which should be assisting them to bring people in um and then just the other night we had a similar meeting with Chief pataro of the alale ambulance Corps uh they're having particular trouble finding volunteers during the day so we're looking for ways to get the word out through our official burough channels uh same way we're doing for the fire department um so there is a tremendous need for volunteers if anyone is available during the day go out to the fire department or to the Ambulance Corp and introduce yourself and they will put your right to work um and finally the Run hiide fight program that was previously offered to Residents will be offered again for businesses again in town here at burough Hall on uh May 22nd at 10: a.m. and uh I yield the rest of my time C okay I do have more in my report that I that's okay all righty uh staff reports cfba Alis Al okay um so the most important item tonight is obviously the budget being adopted um the finance committee and myself have worked very hard um a lot of it started last year where we started projecting a little bit more into future years so last year we knew that certain increases were going to occur this year and we made it a point to make sure we appropriated to funds accordingly last year in order to prepare for this year and luckily we were very successful and we were able to still keep it below a 1% increase to the average home for 2024 um we're always thinking you know years ahead making sure we plan for what we know or what could potentially occur and it's important to continuously speak about the future and collectively the finance committe has done a great job and overall budget is great great shape um this year as uh Council L solo mentioned we issued our first Allendale happening uh budget addition letter this was sent out to all our residents um the purpose of it was we wanted to make sure the residents were more informed on the budget higher tax dollars are allocated how the tax rate is broken down between municipality Library County and school so hopefully it would beneficial to everyone and a little more simplified from the actual budget docum um I do want to say thank you to the finance committee and to mayor binski for contributing so much of your time to the budget um as the mayor mentioned the estimated tax bills will be going out chances are you'll be getting them around the middle of June for the third quarter of 2024 final tax bills are expected to go out sometime in August once we to uh receive final tax rate from the camp so that's about it excellent thank you so much thank you mayor um just to let everyone know all Financial disclosure statements uh were filed by May 1 100% everybody good everybody jail threat jail time the last data register to vote for June 4th primary is May 14th the clerk's office will be open until 900 p.m. for late night voter registrations as well as registration for Crestwood Lake compost permit dog cat license and all of your clerk office needs um I also want to uh I was on vacation for a week then came back on a Monday and at again the rest of the week um in order to attend the clerk's conference in Atlantic City uh so I want to thank the clerk's office for running the clerk's office smoothly in my absence I also want to thank John Gil for stepping in for me as AC clerk while I attended the clerk's conference the day of the meeting um in between classes I was sending him um you know instructions and and things to the printer and every single time I sent him something he says done done done done good feeling so um it's just nice to know that you have staff that you can rely on on your ab in your absence uh so that the burrow business can continue without interruption um and also lastly I want to I was advised by uh I was advised that Allandale is in desperate need of board workers uh for this upcoming election remao College was sent uh the fly a flyer to try to recruit um as well as a flyer was sent to Northern Highlands where it was sent to all the government classes and Thomas Walsh uh spoke to the teachers about sharing the opportunity with the students um so hopefully we can get some you know they they're only allowed to work between 11:00 am and 7 pm. and yes and and it's $160 and I believe they pay for the training $50 oh they train so that's for the primary and the general or just for the primary well for the primary first yeah one at a time yeah um yeah so um unfortunately I try to push for more training for some of the current board workers um yeah there needs to be a lot of training with this new uh system yeah yeah all right else that's it thank you very much DBW supervisor Andy go googly Arrow um just an update Franklin Turnpike 88 curb ramp improvements will begin on Monday the 13th um they're going to start from the wck border and go to the Ramsey border um and after that uh we're anticipating the road resurfacing program to start um on or about the beginning of June um in the same fashion the 88 C project going uh once we have firm detailed on it we'll send them out um operation open Crestwood Lake obviously he in full swing CPW staff's been did you just say operation Crestwood L open crood L perfect umw staff's been working really hard to get the Lake open for the summer and Memorial Day um the lake has been filled and the fountains on I just want to remind everybody that just because there's water in the lake the lake is closed nobody should be swimming in it right now um there's no lifeguards present um DPW staff continues to go around town um sprucing it up for Memorial Day in the parade um I would just like on behalf of myself and my staff just want to say thank you very much um to the mayor and councel and um Al as well for driving the wolf purchase um very much needed and I thank you and also same regards to Drew um Drew is a huge he play he is a really hard worker super I agree perfect B attorney Ray with thank you mayor uh busy couple of weeks lot lot on the agenda and a lot sort of In Motion uh been working with Chief Dylan on certain departmental matters uh uh both personnel and uh and policy matters uh with as councilman tool mentioned with the Public Safety Committee on certain issues involving the fire department uh and I guess also with respect to the uh the ambulance court building hopefully we're fin maybe getting lease in place there uh we've had a couple issues involving the uh the library and we're sorting those out together hopefully on a collegial basis uh we had aborted labor negotiations uh with our Teamsters unit uh there apparently forgot to show up in our negotiations U but uh hopefully we've now got an item on the calendar and we'll uh we'll be able to move that along and hopefully get closure we'd like to have the contract buttoned up uh Tom B my office uh has continued to work on the the cell tower uh I think the new date for the bid opening is June 5th if I recall the correct date uh the uh aftermath of the sell of the uh the Water Utility to the Olia obviously a lot of work going on with respect to easements as I reported previously uh and also um we've got uh U the Green Acres issue to go and and the green acers issue is important because of the money that is being withheld on on on account of the purchase that's the biggest component to get back in the budget and to make Alison happy but um I I think most recently we've reached agreement with violia on the portion of the DPW site that they will be taking and the portion that will remain U the Burrow's property and the intention there is to take the burrow component of that site and to dedicate it as Greenacres open space uh and hopefully that will give us the release from Green acers and will in turn um take that escrow money and move it into the burough caers as opposed to an escrow account uh on the PK litigation I have a case management conference on Monday before the judge uh and then on Thursday I'm scheduled to take the uh first eposition in the case that's one of the principles of PK uh and uh I think that uh that will probably go a long way to seeing whether we are another year of litigation or whether uh they may want to come to the table a little bit earlier than that so that's on the tap uh and then um been working with the mayor and Council homman on uh issues involving U our neighbors in Saddle River uh as you know Saddle River does not have their own um Wastewater facilities and Sewer lines uh they're dependent on running it through either Allandale or in some cases Waldwick uh but there is a rather large project pending in Saddle River adjacent to our border uh and uh we're anticipating some dialogue with both Saddle River and the applicant for that development uh and there are significant questions about our own capacity to handle U that project and also as uh everyone knows next year 2025 is the fourth round of affordable housing obligations so Allen Del has to have its own concerns about what projects we may be obligated to build in the future and may need our own Sewer Service to take care of ourselves that's it m all right thank you very much and then I'll just give my report um our community center is really moving along um I think I would like to do a video of it and explain to everybody again us people are starting to get excited people are already asking if they can um use it and when they can use it so we have even worked all of that out yet but it's it's it's really looking wonderful and then when you actually go inside you can see the room so it's it's a lot of fun so we're still looking um to work out all the logistics because um the the way that it's going to be used is based on how the community is going to need it so that is going to have to unfold because I think a lot more people may be using it than use this space here currently this is the only space that the community has so um it will be interesting but I think we we're going to get ahead of it as much as we can um we have our our second of our series of town halls um next Tuesday May 14th we uh look forward to this I think we had about 40 or 50 people at our last Town Hall most people come to the down town hall instead of our Council meetings for for I think just because it's a more casual setting we are going to talk about the fair share hous housing issue uh because that is a topic that has been on a lot of people's minds and I think it's very important for alel residents to be educated on this this um we will also open it up to just regular question and answer so we will have uh if not a full Council most of the council here and we'll be in this room um casual not up on the dayas no formal agenda but we will be we will be talking about um the fair share housing which is also the topic on Saturday at my very first mayor's meeting that is going to be here and thank you Allison for getting the room all spruced up right just in time for it so it's the Northwest Bergen Mayors uh we meet once a month and uh this topic there is going to be an attorney who actually specializes in it so um we're still working everything out it uh the the new law just passed so everybody's still kind of reeling over everything and just waiting for our new numbers which are going to be massive and higher than they were last time next week we're going to a mayor's conference um councilwoman Loa solo is going this will be also my first uh mayor's conference so um I always think this is really important you learn from other municipalities see what everybody's doing and leverage whatever we can to make allelle uh whatever can be benefit allelle so I'm looking forward to that hopefully that will be good and there'll be some good speakers thank you again everybody uh for the budget the budget is always the uh most important topic that we have in the municipality this is also the most important meeting you can see a lot of people don't come I don't know if that's because we're doing such a great job and the budget is it works the budget newsletter I think was super uh this year that was the first year we did the budget newsletter so thanks so much for for getting that out we try to make it like as usual friendly as possible and I I think we did a good job um doing that so I think that's something that we're gonna we're going to continue so I really appreciate getting that out in such a timely manner um opening day thanks so much Andy and everybody for getting um for getting the fields ready I actually ran into Richie um at the Wholesale Nursery I was getting stuff for myself and I saw him so I pointed out some baskets and everything for the lake as well as a palm tree so he'll be picking that up tomorrow I think um also 911 we're actually sprucing up the 9911 um area so we have new pavers coming in who was supposed to start today or tomorrow but because of the rain I think it's pushed off a little bit so all of the Bluestone pavers I have gotten a little bit were and tear we're going to um replace with the granite ones that we have there and a lot of that was actually a donation that we had from the original um uh 911 uh uh construction so and lastly the mural is moving along um it's uh thank you to Andy and the DPW for letting Simon work down there so he's working on some more of the components so there's going to be a big fundraiser on June 15th but we're going to close down on Main Street and the restaurants will all participate so we'll be pushing out that information soon and that's it I think for me for now um okay any unfinished or new business I will I will um and next I'd like to open to the public on any matter so anybody from the public wish to speak on any matters anything you want not seeing anybody motion to adjourn Mo second second all in favor I all right good night everybody night night