welcome everybody who's here welcome everybody at home to The Bu of B mayor and council meeting it is June 27th 2024 um Linda please call the meeting to order and read the open public meeting act announcement 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 bullettin board in the municipal building and on the burrow 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 June 17th 2024 Sunshine notice was sent to the record The Ridgewood news in Star lger and has been posted on the public bulletin board in the municipal building and burrow website Council M deloo I'm here councilwoman homman here councilwoman Loa solo here councilman oconnell here councilman OU here councilman Yaro here mayor wasinski here please stand to salute the flag States stands nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Del all right next we have approval of minutes we have May 9th May 23rd and June 13 do I have a motion I'll make the motion to approve second please second councilman deloo yes councilwoman hman yes councilman oconnell abstained for the 9th yes for the 23rd abstained for the 13th councilman OU abstained for the 13th yes to what the others councilman Yak arino yes all righty next we have agenda review we have two um ordinances this evening two introductions and two ordinances on second reading the second reading ordinances that we discussed last week were um the purchase and transfer of a piece of property that was along Memorial Park to the adjoining neighbor it is just a sliver of land but there's this big process to do this uh so that is what our our second readings are the two introduction ordinances one is to amend the salary and wage um uh salary and wage compensation of officers and employees to add a new Communications um addition to it the second um ordinance is actually to amend one of our street ordinances we um are going to require the utility companies to now pay from Curb to curb currently uh they were only required to pay half of the street when they did some work on just that half um and now we're requiring them to um go curb to curb I'm sure they're not going to be very pleased about that when they find that out but we'll deal with that when we come to it so our consent agenda is matters that are listed um they are routine but I'd like to point out some um interesting things that we've been doing to highlight some of the work that we've been doing first I would like to say congratulations to our new DPW employee Drew he was a seasonal worker and now we get to hire him full-time we work really hard on our Teamsters agreement and I think it's very very fair I think all the um guys are are happy and we're really happy to have Jo as our our new employee and we also actually have a seasonal employee too that we are putting on the agenda for approval today um there's going to be two new sleo officers these are special law enforcement officers that are going to be at our schools there is the purchase of some new cars and we also are appointing Amanda Richards who is actually in our admin office she's going to now take over the Board of Health responsibilities from John Gil and we also hired a new administrative uh assistant Dy we went uh through interviews all this week so we're very happy to have her joining our team okay so now I'd like to open up the meeting for public comment on any agenda items do anybody from the public like to come up and speak on anything on the agenda Walter up name and address Hamilton thank you I'm not trying to give anybody a hard time I'm trying to learn of course all right of course please uh regarding 2407 2407 gotcha could that be explained a little bit in detail what's else going on so do you know where Memoria Park is yes okay so if you're facing um the park from on Park Avenue there's a house right to the left of that yes so there is a little sliver of land there's that driveway and there's this tiny little sliver of land and he wanted to acquire that property because he wanted to make the his side yarge a little bit bigger and it was kind of not very useful for the burrow anyway because we had that driveway there so he was going to maintain it so we actually sold him that little sliver for $20,000 so these two ordinances are to um solidify that sale and the transfer of the property thank you one is the conveyance and one is the um they explained that before and I I thly understood sale yeah we we don't really do this often so it actually was like seven months of the process because we don't normally sell property so um we just wanted to make sure that we did everything properly so it's an ordinance and um then he's not going to acquire the property and maintain the property so now right now they own that piece of land it's just a little sliver yeah you wouldn't you would I I can understand that yeah it actually did make sense that's that's why we did it it Mak sense it looked like it was part of their property required to town to go through this officially correct the next question how many how many police do we have at this High School oh boy two I think at each School two at the island two two and two yeah two at Hillside two and Brookside who determined how many Place one at Island one each one at each School sorry there one at each school and that's mandated is that mandated by law it's not mandated by law but it is um something that the school required so we actually hire them they go through our Police Department um we pay them and then the the uh School reimburses us so they pay for them technically but they come through they're actually hired by they're hired by us pardon we pay for that regardless who pays them kind of yeah gu thank you you're so smart than you not roll he's not anybody else from the public have any questions on agenda items only all right so I'll bring it back so for the second readings ordinance 24-7 um Linda will you please read the title The Following ordinance published herewith was first read by title only on June 13 2024 and posted on the bulletin board of the lobby of the municipal building and burrow website ordinance 24-7 an ordinate an ordinance vacating a portion of Third Street burough of Allandale County of Bergen state of New Jersey and conveying such vacated lands to Craig John Foster and Leslie Vienna Foster husband and wife as the adjacent Property Owners um I'd like to open this to the public if anybody has any um questions on ordinance 24-7 please come up not seeing anybody um second reading is uh for the second reading of or orance 24- z a motion to approve oh I'm sorry I was going to do them together but uh do I have a motion to approve ordinance 24 I'll make the motion mayor to approve second please second roll call councilman delso yes councilwoman Homan yes Council uh councilman oconnell yes councilman OU yes councilman Yak arino yes next we have second reading of public hearing for ordinance 24-8 Linda will you please read that ordinance the following ordinance published herewith was first read by title only on June 13th 2024 and posted on the bulletin board of the lobby of the municipal building and burough website ordinance 24-8 an ordinance authorizing the sale of certain land to Craig John Fuster and Leslie Vienna Foster husband and wife of 146 Park Avenue Allandale New Jersey do um I'd like to open up uh the uh meeting to the public for ordinance 24-8 see if anybody has any comments not seeing anybody do I have a motion to approve ordinance 24-8 I'll make second please second councilman deliso yes councilwoman homman yes councilman oconnell yes councilman OU yes councilman Yaro yes okay next we have introduction of our ordinance 24-9 this is the ordinance that we are going to add we adjusted our W um wages and salaries we are um adding a new Communications person this person is going to take over doing um all of our public announcements take over the website the newsletter um emergency announcements um for the buau so um pardon do you have a question do I have a motion to approve ordinance 24- 09 I moov second please second was that yeah sorry I'm sorry um the public um sorry introduction the public hearing uh for this ordinance will be on July 18th 20124 uh council did I read this yeah ordinance 24-9 in ordinance to amend chapter 53 of the code of the burrow of Allendale officers and employees to fix the salaries wages and compensation of the officers and employees of the burough of alendale for the year 20 24 councilman deliso yes councilwoman homman yes councilman oconnell yes councilman OU yes councilman yarina yes next we have introduction of ordinance 24-10 this is the ordinance that's going to amend um and uh our code which will require all utility companies to uh pay Cur Cur when they have any work uh doing uh work that they're completing in the bureau Linda will you please read ordinance 24-10 ordinance 24-10 an ordinance to amend supplement and revise the code of the burough of Allendale streets and sidewalks chapter 233 public hearing date for uh this ordinance will be on July 18th 2024 at um 7:30 pm excellent thank you do I have a motion to approve ordinance 2410 so move second please second councilman deloo yes yes councilwoman homman yes councilman oconnell yes councilman o tul yes councilman yarina yes thank you very much do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda no mo second please second um councilman Delio yes councilman homman yes councilwoman um councilman o Connell yes councilman otou yes councilman Yaro yes super any unfinished business anybody any new business nobody all right committee reports why is that smile three minute minimum maximum I'll keep it K councilman yarina no you just talk your heart away I tried that once uh Crestwood season is off to a great start uh thanks as always to the DPW and the lake staff for keeping things uh moving smoothly uh we now have a consistent rotation of food options for League members thank you to Andy he's really been kind of leading the charge on that we greatly as well as the members greatly appreciate that um all Crestwood Lake members uh received an email earlier this week with the choices um we have some really exciting ones Caribbean cuisine Italian food Burgers so we really have a nice variety up there and I know that we've had a lot of positive feedback from so far uh pre-work was completed today Following last evening storm and overall there was no major damage at Crestwood which we're very thankful for um thank you again to DPW and First Responders for their efforts all throughout the evening managing power outages and tree limbs and so forth uh we have a final draft for plans on the new concession stand and we will be going out to bid on that very shortly uh last week Andy and I attended and hosted the ASA meeting here at burough Hall uh topics ranged from scheduling updates fall activities and then we're also going to be start start constructing a plan for long-term field maintenance so you may want to talk about that at some point later in the future um this p last Sunday Crestwood Lake hosted its annual family night which is uh always a fan favorite lots of activities for the kids and is always well received uh again lots of positive feedback for that and then our next band night will be July 13th with alen Del's favorite midlife crisis band uh finally this past Sunday we hosted our first Allendale Cars and Coffee event downtown we had 150 plus cards and hundreds of Spectators from town despite the very intense heat saying lightly uh we had a great turnout received lots of feedback um I do plan to host another one in the fall when the weather is better and overall we raised over $4,000 which partly was donated to the mural project as well as um some things going on here in town uh thanks to everyone who helped especially Andy and I were out the night before with the barricades at 11 o'clock at night so thanks Andy um lastly we know that tonight is John's last meeting with us uh John I've known you for a long time we have a great friendship and you know your efforts communicating to the residents of town just even the simple stuff you know showing up to events acclimating yourself with the residents being there promoting our events it really means a lot to us and then to the residents so we wish you well always and you know where to find us and you always have a spot here so thank you thank you very much councilman okono uh thank you mayor uh first I'd like to thank Andy I know you had a rough night in all the services all the Emergency Services it took me 20 minutes to get to this morning and when I get a text from you at 3:00 in the morning I know you had a long night yeah I got that text too so thank you for all that you do and uh the only thing I have is I hope everybody gets a chance to look behind the Red Barn there is a new fire pit oh I believe we're waiting for a bench and a plaque to be put on it and uh that's from our uh Boy Scout going for his Eagle Scout uh Dean Asin and our other Scout working on their Eagle project that's in Scout council so she's just waiting for approval from them great and then she's going to be moving with the okay to say cleaning up our garbage cans okay Amy's happy about that I'm very happy about that the only thing I have to say John you're gonna be missed here I don't want to talk to you anymore uh you're going to be missed because I always look for you at the parade you're always at the camera right on there so uh enjoy uh your next adventure until while and I didn't forget about no we forgot um I'm actually jump to councilwoman homman so I don't forget her sure um sry let's see so uh first of all this is great that I can join uh remotely so appreciate everybody setting that up and H John best wishes to you going forward don't be a stranger and um thank you to Andy and to Mike Dylan and both of their teams for all their work during the storm but also each and every day um you guys really are excellent leaders and you you lead excellent teams so thank you and I'm going to hold off on a long report and let Rey give any legal updates we have on uh water and sewer um from my perspective we continue to have meetings that um push forward different items that we still need to wrap up for the end of the violia water sale and then as a team we're continuing to work on the challenges that the Saddle River um developments can create for Allandale so thanks May wizinsky you're welcome okay councilman Delio thank you mayor uh so last meeting I gave a pretty extensive report uh we had our official DPW meeting that morning we haven't had a formal meeting since but uh I mean to jump on the bandwagon you know Andy getting to know you and and the DPW guys are hard your work you know thank you for all the efforts you put out through the storms and especially last night and you and you know police and fire everything you guys do to keep our town functioning behind the scenes that most people don't see uh as I mentioned in our last meeting we are investigating companies to come in and assess our Fields I know that's ongoing so when we get more information obviously that'll come forward um um I want to welcome Drew and Dylan to the Allendale family uh it's great that uh that's that's passed and approved so it's official so welcome AB board to those guys and uh to the rest of the team and then to John haven't had a chance to get to know you too long but it's been a pleasure I mean another Fair alone guy knowing a lot of the same people I know you're a good guy you're going to be missed and uh hope you keep in touch and as Tyler had said remember you always have a home here in Allen have minut to thank you mayor the Public Safety Committee met last Tuesday we discussed our usual topics so traffic including that downtown and truck traffic at 2:30 um Police Department is currently preparing for renewal of our accreditation status uh the accreditation process ensures the Department's policies and procedures are in compliance with established laws guidelines and best practices um the State Association of chiefs of police are expected to perform an on-site assessment during the first quarter of next year um fire department's had quite a few members complete Advanced training courses including Incident Management safety officer hasmat Incident Management Swift water and uh things of that sort um they've also increased their recruiting efforts and inv added a couple of new members so we're we're happy because they use the help uh avac reports that they're holding their own but they are also in need of members during the day so if anyone has the ability to respond during the day they would love to talk to you drivers correct especially drivers yeah finally allendale's emergency services are busy planning with the holiday observers for a safe and enjoyable fourth we had a call with the PD and the holiday observers uh yesterday the day before to discuss all the logistics so everything is well in hand and everyone's ready to make it another great forth here now and that although it was a quick storm left its mark thank you to our First Responders and to our DPW for assisting our residents and all the hours put in to get everyone back up and running and respond to any problems that occurred overnight John best of luck I'm sure there are paths will cross many times in the future and uh I will always remember sitting in this room during Co filming the mayor's reports so thank you B all right our staff reports are cler lindine thank you mayor um on Tuesday um I sat with our intern gabes and um explain to him uh for a few hours the duties uh the many duties of a municipal clerk after that we sat down and we worked on this agenda for tonight's meeting um so we did the agenda we did the resolutions together um so that was that was a lot of fun um John as you prepare to embark on the next chapter of your journey I want to take the moment to express my sincere appreciation for all that you've done for the burough of Allandale and the clerk's office during your time here you have transformed our communication strategies you've been a beacon to a beacon of creativity always pushing the boundaries and inspiring the team to think outside the box you have always been approachable supportive and willing to lend a helping hand your dedication hard work and positive attitude have made a significant impact to the burrow residents and burrow employees whether it was offering support and guidance or simply brightening our days with your smile you've been an invaluable part of our team thank you for your contributions your friendship and countless ways you've helped make our workplace better while we may miss you dearly we are also excited for the new opportunities and challenges that await you may your next chapter be filled with success joy and fulfillment and John do you Court um just thank you for all the kind workor uh it's been an amazing almost four years goes quickly fny that you know starting here uh right in the thick of co uh figuring things out on the Fly the the uh you know online meetings and it was H it was a lot of fun great learning experience and it was it was definitely a a challenge um I want to thank this you mayor and this Council and prior Mayors and council members that I've worked with over the four years um having been in government for a long time and just kind of being involved um you really do have something special here in town because you just hear of all the craziness that happens in all these other municipalities and having a mayor and Council and this is pror Mayors and councils you all just really get along and you work well together and I hope the residents of Allendale really understand how hard this Council works and that it truly is a love of this town um and it really has become the second home bar one will always be my number one but uh Allendale has very quickly become a second home for me I've always you know being I always joke about the greeter at all the events you know the the the cleanups and stuff like that um just have a great town here so you're very very lucky um so thank you all thank you Andy our DPW superintendent still awake John Echo what everybody else said um was a pleasure working with you have some big shoes to fil so um like everybody's saying our emergency service is stepped up as usual teamwork is the name of the game and always play that way so um Everybody stepped up long hours but traffic's flowing and everything's cleaned up so which is a good thing um I want to say thank you very much uh for appointing Drew as our new full-time labor of the DPW um Drew is a Workhorse and uh everybody everybody appreciates them at the DPW super um also thank you again for getting everything together for the contract um move forward and um that's a blessing and I like negotiating his contracts I don't know that no one ever thank you very much for the two new vehicles um yeah I I'm the first one that gets to ride that other one right absolutely did new gator just the gator I yesterday so it's uh locked up DPW good um for the mayor first ride crash instruction um I'll be away on vacation as I said in an email earlier um Dan Davis will be in charge of DW on the way but as usual if anything occurs or needed phone call you'll be here for your first Fourth of July and now yes I he's coming back for that attorney Ray West thank you bear busy couple of weeks uh as was mentioned DPW contract has now been completed which is nice to have uh that for you know years going forward uh working with you and the administrator on certain Personnel matters this week which have kept us a little bit busy uh with uh Chief Dylan on certain departmental matters and also with our OEM director who looked eerily Like Chief Dylan on some matters involving the fire department uh and uh as as recently as today because apparently there are you know a couple of still pending matters that uh uh involve him in in multiple capacities to uh councilwoman homman Point uh uh I guess the the uh best news in terms of the the sale of the utility is that we seem now to have agreement with bolia on what new Street and the DPW site looks like uh to the satisfaction of both the burrow and bolia uh and the third party to that negotiation is uh uh New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection uh their Green Acres Program because certain of the area that is not going to be either used by the burrow or by violia is going to be the property that we'll be offering to to Green Acres as a uh a set off uh uh what's called a diversion process so uh it looks like uh we've got at least agreement with theol and hopefully um the and Green Acres will buy into it and we'll be able to put that major piece in the puzzle um and what's good about that if and when we get Green Acres done is that there is a major sum of money being held in the escrow account it gets released to the burrow which I'm sure Allison will love to hear uh this morning I was in court on our PK litigation we had a case management conference with the judge there um the his direction is that uh I'm to finish the uh the depositions of the two principles of PK um in fact it it required me getting the judge to issue a court order to get that done because the other side is procrastinated but those depths will be completed on July 29th and then the judge directed that he wants a settlement conference immediately following uh even before anything else is done in the litigation so that was very positive news uh Tom bour has been working on the cell tower uh assiduously uh TJ's been involved with the clerk's office and chief Dylan on Oprah matters uh I think half the world has been involved in an affordable housing issue involving a unit that wound up in foreclosure um we may have made uh some progress in at least understanding the lay of the land I'm not sure that we've made progress yet in resecuring the unit which is which is our ultimate goal uh and uh the the the mayor crept into my world today by winding up with or yesterday for an hour and a half on an exploratory conference with the public employment Relations Committee U I'm not sure we didn't bore to tears but uh um uh I think by and large things went well and really that involves a uh I'll say a dispute with our PBA unit um so I I think by and large it went well from our perspective um but you know there'll be more of that going forward and that's about it John obviously I mean I usually get here early and who do I get to talk politics and music to I'm Gonna Be You know here by myself for an hour but we'll uh we'll miss you all right now my um mayor's report thank you very much um 210 West Crescent is moving along um there's G to be another meeting tomorrow morning actually I will not be at but Joey will be at that that may bill will I guess I guess I will you don't have to um we have we actually have weekly meetings and it's amazing to see each week how much the the project progresses um just having the paint on the wall now in the gym it just looks it looks really really good and then we had our first internal meeting because we still have to figure out how we're going to have this work for the whole community and we're not going to have keys and write things on calendars anymore it's all going to be electronic it's going to be state-ofthe-art and we're really trying you know our best to do it as seamlessly as possible it is for Allendale residents we're not looking to have anybody outside of Allandale um so we're still working at all the Kinks with with all of that um and also I've been working a lot this uh week on the grant money so we have Grant money we rewarded $750,000 they just want us to jump through hoops to release the money so hours and hours and hours of work that we still have to do for them to release the money but they do say it's ours um we were very busy with interviews this week so we're really happy that we have our new um admin assistant that will be starting on July 8th so I think she'll fit in nicely uh Lo uh councilwoman Lo solo and myself met with the Hillside School kids and um they had a lot of great questions and they wrote us a lot of um wonderful they drew us a lot of wonderful pictures they talked about all the places in alale that were their favorite so we're going to put them all around town there's some restaurants Dunkin Donuts um places like that so it's actually really cute and I have a couple letters here too I guess the kids just writing out writing in I I could read this one right had to read it for um as Ray mentioned fair share housing planning continues so we're working hard um what we're doing is our our Hazard feasibility study this is the study where we take analysis of the whole entire town we look at what climate changes might have happened in the past 10 or so years uh that will afford US to potentially you know uh preserve some of the land um so we don't have to increase flooding and some of the other issues that we've been having with all the extra building that's going on and as I've mentioned it's not just in the building in Allandale we're still dealing with 400 units that Saddle River is trying to put in literally on our border on fough Line Road and they want to use our sewer system so we are working very hard to make sure that allendale's protected and our infrastructure is protected um we had a library board meeting um this this week uh the children's Library looks amazing they decorated the library is always doing some great stuff so go and visit them Andy thank you so much staying up all night ping an all nighter what a storm we did not expect this at all but actually I received a bunch of Kudos from residents so you did a great job the crew did a great job as well as the police um Andy also offered to pick up the brush told them it could be very dangerous but we put in there please please residents do not empty out your whole entire backyard and put your old sticks and stuff this is just storm brush and we will come around and we will offer that service and and pick that up um so we had our Cars and Coffee as uh councilman yak arino mention it was my first car show ever I got to pick out the surprize I I have a tendency to like uh the old cars I found out about myself um but what was really special about it was it brought the whole Community together I could not believe how many people were there there was a ton of people there and it was just like d the Dale all andelle came together again and it was for the mural project so it was just a great Community event um so it was a lot of fun despite the heat um but it was actually really super um Gabe welcome aboard we are um happy to have you we love to be mentors to the young kids we love to have partnership um with Highlands so um anything that you need from us please just like let us know and finally John um John I just have to say you you're just a a great allaround you know kind of go-to person and never have to worry that you're having a bad day I never have to worry about just picking up the phone and calling you um you really are just the go-to person have always helped us just manage and work around things you you understood like my vision of getting the um information out there to the community and you and you made you transform that newsletter into something I could not even imagine I had it as this little word document and it's just an amazing amazing monthly um piece of information for our residents and just like everything that you did so you know just really was great Harmony in the office all the events that you did all the lugging of all stuff it all just bringing everything and making sure that we were all well documented uh you made us all look really good um with all of our events so um honestly uh you really can't be replaced and we do wish you uh luck and you do have always at home here in apple now so we will see you soon so with that I would like to open up the meeting to the public for any items anybody from the public would like to speak on anything come on up think you do you want to speak I could tell come on up dat your name and address for the record please um I'm Alex scarella and I live in 16003 Whitney Lane and I just like to thank councilman OU for uh your time you're taking time to meet with me on my citizenship in the community miror badge and I'd also like to thank uh councilman Lo solo for supporting my community service hours uh for this badge I've enjoyed helping cleaning the um the johnfel House lawn in preparation for planting the flags for the 4th of July thank you guys so much for your time and have a good night thank you very much well done is Right anybody else from the public like to speak on anything not seeing anybody I'd like the motion to adjourn the meeting so move second second all in favor