adequate notice of this meeting of the mayor and Council was sent to the as Park Press in the co-star of the official newspapers of the burrow of balar on December 13 2023 and notice of this meeting was posted on the bulletin board of the municipal call councilwoman Donovan here councilwoman Kenny here mayorca fesco here councilwoman Rondo here and Council L is absent please rise for the of Allegiance FL United States of America to the for it stands na indivisible please remain standing for a moment of silence for our troops families and our responders okay workshop I'll I have a few things I'd like to just go over with the council um obviously as I think all the council people know we we received a grant from the Department of Community Affairs um for improvement of our Boardwalk the boardwalk preservation fund and it was in the amount of approximately $1.5 million which was not expected but it was something that uh we figured we would put in for uh it's a it's a new program I think it's a one shot uh deal at this point so we were pleasantly surprised when we got that Grant when I was notified uh by the commissioner uh just to to give you a little uh idea of what's up in the future what we have to do is we actually by March 15th the burrow needs to provide them with another revised budget and an addendum more paperwork that we have to do to give in and then they're going to have a kickoff meeting at some point which they haven't um told us about yet so our burrow engineer and our grant Consultants will will obviously be taking on that role to uh provide them with whatever it is they need uh to perfect our our grant one of the things I wanted to point out uh which obviously wasn't Apparent from the from the grant was that we actually asked for a total of 5.27 million for for that Grant because you know we we pretty much had a wish list and not knowing how much they would award to us but knowing that the big number was 100 million figured why not let's just ask for for everything we thought we could use to you know improve our Boardwalk so there were three areas as as you noted if you read my comments one was for uh a new bathroom facility uh which would around 15th or 16th Avenue which we thought would have been something nice to do another permanent facility the second thing was to bring our our trailers or restroom trailers up to D standards in terms of their support so we were looking at taking away the concrete slabs which are which were the the issue that the D had with us about them not being permanent and our again our burrow engineer came up with a plan of putting in you know pilings and building a a support on the pilings and then installing the the restrooms on on those pilings which would have inquire required a little more work on the boardwalk itself because right now that the travels sit on the ground and they're level with the the boardwalk if we raise them up then there has to be some modification to the boardwalk ADA compliance and all that to get them into the to get people into those restrooms so that was another area and the third area were the were the deck repairs um and that is a a situation we were made known of actually as we were doing this there's a center beam that goes down the entire Boardwalk because uh and it supports the hering bone pattern and what's happening there is the uh some of that is starting to Decay I think that's the right word I don't know Billy you brought that to our attention so our engineer again expect what it would take um to do that so we had three projects you know you know the just to give you round numbers the new bathroom facility was at like 1.28 million the support structures for the four trailers was 1.7 million and the deck repairs were 2.2 million so obviously 1.5 million we can't do all that so the next step will be for us to go back and you know sit with engineers and figure out what it is that we really want to do and obviously once that happens we will advise the council uh and the public and come up with a plan on how we're going to do that uh this probably is going to be a multi-year uh plan but you know I think we have a great start at uh at doing this because we got that extra money because we really do need to do something with the with the um the trailers that we keep rolling in and out every year and that was one of my uh goals when we first uh got on board here CU that was one of the first issues that we had was the D not um really being satisfied with the way that we were handling that so um I look forward to working with you know the engineers Mr C and also our grant Consultants to see if we can get any other money to uh to start working on those those projects so I just wanted the council know you know we're not doing all those things in one year because we're not uh we don't have the funds to do that and unfortunately we didn't get $20 million like Asbury Park did but um you know we we tried okay um and as I said we need to need to prioritize our projects to uh to figure out what we're going to do in the future I Just Want to Thank You mayor bakap Pasco and uh Kevin Kane for all your hard work and getting these grants to happen for us to move Belmar forward uh our Administration we've been in um office for 14 months and so far we've been awarded $2.2 million in Grants so thank you so much I'm really proud of all that we've been able to accomplish together well thank you we have a good team and uh we try to get as much as we can from wherever we can uh the next item on the agenda is a um something that came out of our planning board actually last night um there was a sign committee subcommittee uh that did some work on uh signage throughout the borrow and some of the issues that we're having and I'm just going to point out two things that I think the council really should should take a look at um and it really goes under the area of the fact that we have ordinances pertaining to signs too in particular that that really are not enforced so we we need to I think look at that and see if you know we want to keep it as is or or change something the first area that uh we need to look at are the flutter flags and Banners according to our ordinances that they are not permissible yet when you drive around town you'll see flutter flags and and Banners so I think our issue is that we and we don't obviously we're not deciding that tonight but I mean it's for further discussion do we do we ban them completely do we just permit them or do we create a situation where perhaps we we do it on a specialized basis like have an exception like if you're having a grand opening you know you can put in um for a request to put some flutter signs out for a period of time whether it's a week or just a couple of days um or thaning with banners if there's a if there's a some special event that a business is having you know they would have to come and and perhaps see permission to to put up a FL flag or banana or Banner because I I think um the the complaint is generally that sometimes when they go up they never come down and then they start to look ratty and they they rip and you know it it's a it's a situation where I think we need to just lay it out clearly so that businesses know what is and what is not permissible so that's that's the first area the second one kind of similar is uh painting signs on the sides of buildings uh we have that in a few areas in town and again according to our ordinances that's not permitted so we should think about how we want to handle that uh in the future do we just want to again keep it uh as something that's not permitted or is a situation where perhaps we could permit it with some you know review of what the sign is going to look like like so that we know that it's appropriate so um and there there are a few other issues but those are the two the two main issues I think we would have to look at uh the present time uh and uh so you know I can give you the sites for the ordinances I can send them or I'll have ail send them out to you and then perhaps at the next meeting we can have a discussion about what what it is we want to do as far as those two things go the other two areas were just just to let you know with temporary signs like the like the lawn signs I mean we already have rules on uh you know political signs and real estate signs I mean those are pretty much followed but then there are just general signs people put signs on their lawns contractors put signs on lawn um you know a new roof is going up and you see a sign that the roof is installed by so and so you know is that something that's supposed to be permitted is it not permitted if it is how long should the sign stay there um and we have signs like you know take down the Verizon towers I'm just kidding but you know it that's an example of you know temporary signs that that you know we should deal with and the same thing with contractor signs you know how long do they keep up a sign after they finish a house you know and they put the sign this was built by so and so or the roof was done by uh so and so and then a general area of you know signs in residential areas you know should we permit signs uh in a residential area my my thought on that just s the top of my head was well in the situation of professionals like lawyers and doctors and dentists and accountants maybe we need to you know let up a little bit and let them have signs again we need to look at the ordinances to see what is and what is not allowed and and then um I think give the the planning board some direction as to how we think it should go okay so a little homework for us to do uh for the next meeting um the next thing I want to talk about was at the last meeting there was a question about the 1200 Main uh property and we do have an update which is actually from from the end of January from our lsrp which is um Gibson and stle and you know there's there's a lot in their report but the the basic conclusion is that there is more work to be done and just to let you know you know talking about the the the history here they said um you know this has gone through a number of phases and uh even though the second phase of this operation was completed they say here that you know soil and groundw contamination May being present at the at the site so they have given us a proposal to uh assist us in completing whatever required environmental remediation is necessary at the site and I'm not going to go through the whole you know all of the different aspects of it but it basically boils down to um they want to suggest that we put three permanent groundwater monitoring Wells on the site and then some temporary Wells uh for four temporary Wells to to uh check to see if the groundwater uh basically coming off of the site and you know I think uh based on what they're saying here uh that is something that we need to do we have a proposal from for them we haven't yet approved that proposal but I think will'll be working on that in the days to come and uh so there is still work that needs to be done per the lsrp and I just sort of would let everyone know that you know we're working on it we want to get it done as soon as possible and um hopefully we'll have you know further updates in the near future that's that mayor is it right that um our our Engineers are looking at that property to do an assessment as well at this point yeah yeah because one of the things we had spoken about or came out at the last meeting is we don't know what the interior of the building has if there are any hazards uh we suspect there might be aestus in the building uh by itself that doesn't necessarily mean it's contaminated if the asbestos is not Frable you know it it's perfectly safe but if it is then it's not I will note that I I don't ever remember seeing uh prior to the building being purch purchased if there was an inspection on the inside of the building um for us to buy homes we always do Home Inspections and I didn't I don't recall seeing that uh because that would have told us if there were what the condition of the inside was but uh we'll deal with that and I like you said I think our uh PR Engineers going to be looking at that and giving us an opinion on what you know what we should do with the property at that point mayor is that have a proposal something you can share with us yeah I can great thank you it's a number of pages and it has charts and all kinds of good stuff so because they're just sorry are they're just monitoring what the direction of the plume of water the groundwater if it's still contaminated like like what exactly yeah well I I you know from my non-engineering non- environmental background what it seems to me is they're doing both they they they have areas where they they try to determine if there are you know uh volatile compounds or whatever in the in the ground and they they keep testing those and you know a few of them are okay maybe a third one is not okay and that's usually right on the property itself but then they want to the temporary ones they want to go a little further to make sure that you see what the levels are further away because if there's groundwater spreading in my mind what's happening is that the any contaminants are spreading with it so that's why it's important for us to to uh to try to find out what the extent of the the ground Lord contamination is and then ultimately when our you know we get a a report from our B engineer it would be behoove us to remove most of that contaminated soil as soon as possible because that will you know it's like a sponge you know and as long as the sponge is there and you're pressing on it the water is still going to seep out so we can get rid of some of that contamination soil or all of it then that will alleviate the you know the groundwater Vapor right because that was my concern too like I feel like why are we waiting like let's just clean it up as soon as we can so it doesn't continue to spread and spread and spread there's School across the street you know what I mean yeah no right any other questions on that and and the last thing was um I know there was a question at the last meeting about affordable Housing and Redevelopment and and and what we can let the public know about that and I just want to let everyone know that we have tentatively scheduled at our uh March 26th meeting I think it is April we're going to be having a presentation by our Redevelopment attorneys as we had a couple of meetings ago so uh at that point if uh you know if you're interested and you're want to know what's going on and ask questions that would be the meeting to to make sure you attend they'll be here here and they'll let us all know where we're at okay any other Workshop issues we have to do our presentation for our trap neuter and release program and I have uh Chief goar here from the mammoth County SPCA who's going to uh give us that little presentation actually I'm just going to introduce uh presentation mayor but thank you and good evening everyone my name is Mike W I'm the chief of Humane law enforcement from M County my main job is to oversee and enforce the animal cilty regulations in the county and present the cases to court for adjudication I also get to oversee the animal control services that we provide to most of the towns in MTH County including the privilege of doing it for Belmore for the past five six years but what we're here to really discuss tonight in pinpoint is our trap neuter and release program or the Trap neuter and return program which we feel is the best way of dealing with your feral or Community Straight Cat situation uh and with me tonight I have uh Karen hen who's our TNR coordinator for the M County SPCA Scott Crawford who's our animal control manager and Shannon marak who's our newest uh Humane law enforcement officer uh Scott's gonna Scott Crawford is going to talk to you about the TNR program itself if you have any questions all of us will be here to answer the questions right afterwards and moving forward we'd like to talk to you about some possible you can put in place that could also help with any straight cap population problem that you're having so thanks for having us here tonight and I'm going to introduce Scott Crawford hello mayor and Council hello ladies and gentlemen thank you for having us here tonight um first I'd like to start by saying thank you to the mayor and Council you guys should be commended for adopting the TNR mou program in belmare in addition to our uh standard Animal Control contract secondly I'd like to say normally uh County Commissioner Ross L Citra would be here doing these things so I'm going to put on one of his hats today and try to fill those very big shoes while I get through this quick presentation for everybody so each year we have over a th000 cats and kittens that come through our TNR program in the now 21 municipalities that are contracted with the mam County sbca for TNR services our TNR program allows us to spay neuter rabies vaccinate ear in microchip feral cats for free to the residents in the burrow the cost of the surgery being $75 which is a shared burden between the municipality here in belmare and the M County SPCA um the issue of stray cats within our state is a massive one we know that female cats who remain unspayed and Outdoors can reproduce Two sometimes three lit a year averaging four kittens per liter um allowing room for tens of thousands of cats to be born if there is not early intervention the TNR program when done consistently over time allows us the opportunity to effectively stabilize and reduce feral cat populations a few specifics to our program our TNR program has a structure to it to ensure that cats are not only being trapped and coming in on days and during the times that we have medical staff available for surgery every cap being trapped has to be scheduled with our TNR coordinator Karin um while Animal Control can always be contacted for help with stray sick injured animals they cannot pick up healthy trapped stray cats so by adding this to the addition of your basic Animal Control contract it really empowers us to do more within the municipality um cats are typically brought to the mammoth County sbca in the morning receiving surgery that day and are released back into the municipality the following day our medical director and Medical Teams clear releasing within 24 to 36 hours after their surgery and obviously weather permitted um under some accentuating circumstances we may hold cats for longer but that will be decided on a case-by Case basis with our staff at the SPCA um the SPCA has completed medical and behavioral over has complete medical and behavioral oversight over the Stray Cats coming in through our program if we feel a cat is friendly and can be placed for adoption the shelter reserves the right to surrender it to ourselves and do so if in the rare instances of medical euthanasia is deemed necessary that would also be at the discretion of our medical staff um for those who are feeding Federal Colony Cats we have a colony caretaker program that allows residents to sign on with Belmar and the mammoth county S SPCA to continue to feed without fear of repercussion um with that being said there are restrictions in place to limit the times that food is left out to make sure the caretakers keep their property and surrounding areas within those neighborhoods clean um we often rely on the help of residents especially those who have taken the responsibility of feeding to help with the trap in process when we can we do have volunteers in in various municipalities that we're contracted with who can come set help set and monitor these traps additionally we can um additionally when we can we may be able to loan out traps but please keep in mind our traps are often being rotated amongst residents we may not always have traps traps available for residents to borrow from us um if anyone's interested in vol ering to help with our TNR program we have information available as well as those who are interested in becoming registered Colony caretakers I believe Ken's going to leave some paperwork in her cards here today um you know I don't want to drag us on forever but in closing this isn't a silver bullet to the cap problem in New Jersey or Mom County specifically but it's a huge step in the right direction the uh towns that we've been doing this in for a few years now we're noticing less cat cats on the street less being being impounded into our shelter and that shows that the population is going down in the way that it needs to happen um so if you have any questions Karen will help uh answer a few of those now otherwise that's pretty much the presentation in the nutshell thank you thank you I just had a question about um so when they are trapped they're also vaccinated so they're vaccinated against uh rabies as well yeah we do the rabes vaccine uh it's the only vaccine that we do uh the distemper vaccine we do not do um for our medical team um that is a series so it's not something that we can just do that day so we only do the rabies vaccine which is really the most important one for them to have that's wonderful so then they can't spread that infection to other other cats animals and even our pets yes yes and the Studies have shown that those rabies vaccines will usually last the entire lifetime of that stray or FAL cat yeah any other questions any questions from the public we can how old is the c be it to trap it I I mean we'll trap the kittens when they're you know eight weeks is usually when they're weaned you know and no longer nursing so we can trct them early and we'll do the surgery at 8 weeks or at 2 pounds obviously that young are hope would be to get them adopted but if we can't we would just T them and release them back when you say release them back to the municipality they released back to the property in which they were trapped so we don't provide any kind of relocation ever for nuisance while they I want to ask the opposite question is it released to the person who who submitted the cat so there are scenarios in which I if it was you for instance who had trapped a cat there are scenarios where sometimes someone will meet me at the shelter you're welcome to take the cat back and bring it back home or we we'll do the releasing so thank you I guess my question is so how as a municipality how do we start this program what would the next steps be I mean the best thing is usually once we have meetings like this is I'll leave my information and anyone who is interested if it's something you guys wanted to post on the website if someone wants to either call or email is usually best and I can reach out to that Resident directly figure out how many cats exactly what the situation is and then figure out you know a time frame for us to get started will there be data collected for um for bmar specific yeah so once a month I can send you a spreadsheet of the cats and the kittens that have come in through the program so it sounds like it really is a the type of thing where we're looking for residents to to call and yeah it's definitely important for residents if they feel like they are seeing Stray Cats just to contact us so we can navigate how many cats there are are they someone's pets are they already ear tipped how old are they it really winds up being a case-by casee basis um but we could certainly you know talk to everyone individually and then move forward in the best way to help them okay any other questions yeah we always do this Sandy Capa Sur Avenue uh thank you so much to you to uh all of you for coming and giving us the presentation thank you to the administration for doing the work to get us signed up on this are we signed up now I'm not sure what signed up I think it wasn't something we had to a resolution what what we do no not yet it's still in the presentation stage uh because we had we had the one person come up at a council meeting said that there was an issue so we we reached out to the sbca uh Russell Citra came in and met with us and then uh this was the Public Presentation the key to it is as they noted is to have you know if somebody has a colony of stray cats they need to become a colony caretaker and go through the paperwork and document everything and work directly with the sbca so what we're going to do is the information that Karen talked about we'll take that and then work towards the next steps okay I think our our end of it is the the agreement that we will fund the uh whatever it is the 50% for the uh thing and we'll you know we're on board to do that if Ross hasn't already we'll make sure you get the memorandum of understanding okay this way that can be signed between both of us okay so can do residents have to wait until we we have that memorandum signed okay so hopefully by the next meeting we'll tell you that it's been signed and and then the program can move forward with making calls and whatnot administrator can reach out to me or to r c anytime we'll get move okay okay thank you may I suggest something when you get a feral cat and you tip the ear do it good because sometimes it's I will let them know let us do it I the cat will not like be two feet from me and stay still so that I can get a good look at but you you do you do such great work I'm sorry Kar I didn't mean to displace you from the microphone used to stepping up your dra that's fine that's fine does anyone else want to ask any questions uh let's thr Mr then I'm just looking for a recommendation because uh a couple meetings back a question was asked um as far as the SPC SPCA uh I'd like to know what their opinion is of of Licensing of cats uh the burough used to license cats and then didn't license cats and I believe that L chomo still licenses cats uh what's is there any benefit or detriment just pass it our opinion is it's really it's a matter of of of choice for the borrow it's very difficult for us to enforce that unless we pick the cat up for another reason um we're not going to go to door too and enforce that ordinance we just don't have the people or the time to do it usually the ordinance as far as cats goes is that we like to see is one that limits the total number of cats allowed per household and also an outdoor feeding ordinance unless you're part of a colony caretaker situation there should not be outdoor feeding allowed because it attracts other nuisance Wildlife it's that's an individual town by town uh issue if we pick up a cat and and it's a Ray and the owner comes back to pick it up they'll be told to license the cat if you decide to do a cat licensing ordinance hope that answers your question uh yes and thank you um I don't know whether many people I don't know whether many people here have have lived in a multif family dwelling and U I did at one time and believe me it it got down to the to the police level um you know people would let the cat into a m in the hallway and U it was it was difficult and and actually people couldn't get sleep to go to work in the morning and it became uh quite the job for the for the Belmar Police Department I'm going back a number of years but uh I think we have to give some consideration to that because we have so many multif family dwellings going up now we don't all live in a private residence where we have control of the doors and everything in the house that's all okay I just just a quick uh just a quick question speak just a quick question I believe one of the gentlemen said something that New Jersey has a big feral cat population do we I mean is this a is this a Hu huge problem in belmare I or or anybody have any sort of sense of it or is that what you're going to start doing uh to sort of I I wouldn't say it's a huge problem in belar I mean we are in Lake Cuomo the lake Cuomo section A Lot doing trapping in return um so you know the idea is to prevent it from growing out of proportion to what it is now okay thank you very much we might be doing this at the right time before it becomes a huge problem so any other questions okay thank you so much good to see you have a good evening everyone put on the website okay we can full simp perhaps maybe in our uh e360 uh area so everybody can have them we don't have to come in okay next um petitions do we have any petitions from the public no we did not receive any okay approval of minutes can I have a motion to approve the minutes of the February 27th meeting or February 13th meeting me motion second councilman Donovan yes councilman Kenny yes mayor vco yes Council rero yes the reports of council counc new upon in thank you um the environmental commission has been very very busy uh we haven't actually met officially since our last council meeting but uh we've been down at Silver Lake quite a bit um I'm please to report because we've been tracking that we've seen a pretty dramatic decrease in the geese population um I can tell you that I've had one of the lasers for the last week or so and much to my chrin I have not actually been able to use it because there haven't been any geese at dusker Don um we've had we were listening to Residents who were concerned about the geese during the day and so we've actually started using a drone to scare them off quite successfully so and that's just been one of our residents our volunteer Ed Li and Cott who's been doing that we have some cool videos that we may post on the environmental commission's Facebook page which you should all follow um um I would also just wanted to take this moment to thank our volunteers who've been doing this work um particularly Ed lipot and Colleen Sullivan everyone's been working really hard um we're still only in Phase One of this um DPW actually was out just there out just out there they cleared those frag mes from the island which is great because it's allowed us to get to the geese who were trying to hide there um the next phase will start in early April where we'll go and um try and prevent eggs from hatching so that is we're only in phase one but I mean we were seeing reports of over a hundred geese in a single day and I think the largest number we've seen now has been between 15 and 20 at one time so that's pretty dramatic um I've also had a lot of people who have been asking me who have been interested and helping out with this process and with the overall project of beautifying Silver Lake um in general if you're interested in that we would love to have you the next environmental commission meeting is March 14th um so please come on out um the silver L team has been meeting we've been exploring a lot of great grants um we're meeting with some of the experts over at M to talk about more grants and um exploring the possibility of maybe starting a C3 for fundraising purposes um Harbor commission we are interested in doing a little bit of market research to explore the trends over time between open and charter boats um and in general still seeking the solution to um the pilings um we were lucky enough to have Mr milil come to our last meeting to discuss changes in the Lang language to make it more clear how we're differentiating between types of votes so that our staff down there can more easily control any uh Wayward captains um so oh uh Verizon the Verizon update so uh two weeks ago we're still waiting to hear back we're waiting to hear back from Congressman Smith's office about potentially meeting we have about eight representatives from different towns here on the shore who were interested um it is taking a little time but they did tell me that uh this right uh with two counties 40 towns and more than three4 of a million constituents sometimes it takes a bit but we're optimistic that's it thank you councilwoman Kenny thank you mayor uh okay around Parks and Recreation Junior guard signups are happening now um summer camp signups will begin March 14th this is a kind of sells out kind of quick so if you're if you need or know someone who wants to be on summer camp please see the recreation website for further information about that but March 14th is the key date for for summer camp tennis lessons running club and summer basketball signups are coming soon check the burough website for those updates if any bmar senior citizens would like to join the recreation email list please send an email to recreation.com Al you may be included in that email list the Easter egg hunt is March 16th 11:00 a.m. between 4th and 5th Avenue uh beaches and people ask me about the this the Little League that's happening in town now with it's it's run by TR Shore little little league so it's not run by the burrow it's not a burough Recreation um activity anymore so they're not affiliated with TR Shore so if anybody you know wants to play Little League they should reach out to or look on their website www TR sh r i s h o r l l.com for more information about little e um the Ada committee we met last week and discussed some of the things that have happened in town regarding painting handicaps you know accessibility and parking spots and the committee just wants the public to know if there are any issues in town business locations that don't have proper parking proper railing handicap accessibility Etc that they should just reach out to me to let me be aware so we can uh look into it further at J kar.com and then couple things around the schools Belmar Elementary has their fashion show Thursday night the 29th and next weekend the drama club drama club uh Belmar Elementary presents Friday and Saturday presents Wizard of Oz in the auditorium and St Rose High School both the boys basketball boys won the shore conference for the first time ever so that's kind of a really big deal for the boys basketball at St ruis high school they defeated man w at a soldout crowd at momic University last weekend and both the boys and girls are continuing to compete in the state tournaments they both won the first and second rounds uh they both won last night they're on to Thursday night I believe it's the third round and that's at St Rose both of the teams are number one seeds so they get to host and then lastly St Rose High School Belmont uh is hosting their bmar St Patrick's Day Parade watch party which is this Sunday the 3D 12:30 p.m. they attempt is right on Main Street so if anybody wants to join the St Rose Community to watch the parade they can do so on Main Street and then lastly don't forget about our skate park big fundraiser March 23rd look out for more information about that thank you so much thank you councilwoman rero thank you mayor uh I can't wait for the parade this Sunday I just wanted to thank all of our uh burough employees and Volunteers in advance for the work that they put forward to make this a safe and successful parade uh the parade committee has continued to knock this parade out of the park we have four dedicated and inspiring Grand Marshals so congrats to uh Casey cly Megan Levis Michelle cerly and Ed nepi um Belmar and our sister bur Le KO have much to be proud of um so let's please go out and uh go into our shops and restaurants um and show them the local love let's make sure that they have the attention that they need as well to make this successful for uh Belmar um the mayor councilwoman Donovan and I had the pleasure of being there for the ribbon cutting of a new Boutique in town to Bell uh the owner Felicia's thrilled to be here it's a wonderful Boutique they even have plus-sized clothing which I appreciate um I spoke to Felicia today and she said that she had a really successful week and she's so happy to be here in Belmar uh Belmar Housing Authority I spoke to executive director Paul De Sanchez today for an update on the building uh they're still awaiting a fire alarm system for the main elev official bids for the facade did go out um February 15th uh however there's an opportunity for any contractor interested in the project to take a look around the building this Thursday um and I've been told there's a one month bidding period to follow the next meeting is March 4th but in addition there's a special public hearing on The Five-Year Plan for the BHA on March 15th at 9:00 a.m. so please feel free to join us uh the belmare public library uh Saturday March 2nd at 11:00 a.m. the next living history event features actor historian Dr Daisy Sentry of the American historical theater is Harriet Tubman on March 5th at 6 pm at the lower level of the library there's a free workshop for lgbtq caregivers and Elders with caregiver coach cat verie who's been there before Jamila Smith project manager and a trainer with Garden State equality so we welcome you all to come to that there is still time to enter the brown soda bread contest at the library St Patrick's Day Parade celebration uh the standard way contest is full um but you still have a chance if you've got a good recipe for a brown bread uh and that celebration is March 14th at 5:00 P p.m. at Taylor Pavilion um this event is always a blast they have um music and dancing with the darc School of Irish Dance it's going to be fantastic so please join us but you do need to register so even if you're you're going to um if you're going to bake you need to register if you're going to come you need to register and lastly the library is developing a strategic plan for its future and it's inviting all of the residents of Belmar Lake comoo and any card holder um to you know put in what your input is of what you would like to see um from the library we welcome as much feedback as possible so feel free you'll see a online survey um soon but you can always contact the library and the person who's our strategic coordinator is Leslie noton so I will make sure that we have um her information for you thanks okay thank you so much I think we can move on to our public session for the consent agenda if anyone has a comment or a question about a resolution on the agenda please step forward state your name and address none can I have a motion to close the public session a motion second all in favor I can I have a motion to approve the resolutions as listed on the consent agenda the motion second councilman Donovan yes councilman Kenny yes mayor bua Fusco yes Council rero yes next is public reading public hearing and second reading on ordinance 20242 this is an ordinance amending and supplementing chapter 19 uh creating a handicapped parking space this is open for public hearing if anyone would like to speak on this ordinance pleas step forward state your name and address Mr ker Eugene ker um let me just get this straight here uh handicap parking limited to specific persons in front of certain residences uh and this is at 3041 13th Avenue I did a quick uh Drive this property and there's a definite hardship here um dwelling property doesn't doesn't have any Wall Street parking at all so you know if somebody has a handicap which apparently they do that no place other other than the street to park uh unfortunately I don't think this will solve all the problems involved when you establish that parking space on a public RightWay it's available to anybody that has the handicap plard and the documentation uh the proposed parking space uh in the public RightWay would have the because it's a oneway street the curve would be on the passenger side uh it doesn't mention here anything about potential concrete work or or other accommodation but uh typically when you have a handicap parking space against the curve if you're just trying to get out of a regular car it's it's a lot more sometimes a lot more difficult than um getting out into a lane of traffic um the other thing that and this has been going on for for quite a few years in town U number one the town is last time that I had taken a look at the town is up to 2010 ada8 standards uh in 2010 uh the Americans with Disability Act was changed to a a civil rights law um and one thing that U um that they no longer refer to a parking space as being a handicap parking space it's an accessible uh parking space um let's just see here I want to tell you just a quick story about what happened in my neighborhood um a woman down the street had a handicap parking space in front of her house and um it took over 10 years to T to realize that this person was either not living or there was no need for parking hand parking space here anymore in New Jersey when you get a a handy cap PL or or plaer um it's good for a term of three years and I no this because I have to renew mine this coming August uh in any case um I I I think that any of these on Street U handicap parking spaces perhaps should be tied to or at least tied to the person that has requested it um in other words for if the person had just gotten the handicap plers uh they should either have to renew it at the end of the 3 years um wise the parking space go back to regular parking U if you get the approval from the state it's three years if you get one from the Belmar Police Department I believe it's six months um although I doubt whether somebody with a temporary parking plaer would just want to have you know access to that space um I guess that was about it um quickly just tie some sort of tied to term of of the handicap parking space to the person that had requested it yeah I I don't know um how the state I mean I know the state follows up on the handicap placard I don't know how we would be able to to do that uh unless the state issued some kind of a report or something about or we could just to add it to the ordinance um that it has to be REM I know our traffic officers that approve these that go out and look at the spaces and and decide whether um it to be put in or not um we we do create an incident on it I mean it could be something that we just we have in our CAD system to where you know check it years years but we've been working with W um the spot on eth Avenue that was in question on 6 BL um it took a little bit of time but um we're going to be removing that one that one can be removed um but I'm sure we can come up with some sort of I mean they go through the police department in April April so that we can come up with something to where we can keep an eye on it and and figure out a way to you know have them renew it or you know notify us when they a question I have is is this spot perit spot in other words the person get an actual permit number so that it it determines that only that person can park in that spot but there is such none of them none of them none of the residential spots I know I've driven around other towns and I've seen certain spots that actually have a permit and only that person can park in that spot okay something we can look into yeah I think that's what Mr Crea was referring to in one of the comments anybody can park in this spot right you know actually inmore I would be able to park my truck in that spot and leave it they all some the uh so so it's very difficult for law enforcement to enforce handicap parking I do about the only town here that I see that actively pursues enforcing handicap parking is Wall Township all those stores on Route 35 here including Al and acne and so on but you see it's very simple for them they they just can sit there see somebody parking in half spot you know and it's the old saying you know I'm only going to be a minut and u then they run into the store apparently not I had that happened six years ago and fortunately my father was with me who had the handicap spot and I showed it to the officer and I was like yep here we go I ran into the store and got what I have as long as as long as you're carrying handicap person that's fine a lot of times you know I'll drive to the supermarket my wife will go in shopping same sort thing yeah that's that's fun in any case I I think this could be very easily yeah I think we can work out something so we can keep track of the spots and and when they exps as well okay okay nice any other comments on the excuse me I'm in favor of this excuse me I'm in favor of this oh yeah I got that from the beginning any others I don't see any other hands can I have a motion to close the public hearing motion second all in favor and can I have a motion to adopt ordinance 20242 motion second councilman Donovan yes councilman Kenny yes mayor pusco yes councilman Rondo yes right now we have the regular public session um so if anyone would like to speak please remember to state your name and address first hi my name is Eugene randao I'm proud father of Maria who sitting up in up in front uh and she's been taking care of her handicap dad for the last week and I'm very gracious grateful to her for doing that but it also like to extend my gratefulness to the mayor who was nice enough to donate uh not donate put to lend a nice chair recliner chair for me and a wheelchair which was uh terrific I was drove driven to the beach and on the boardwalk and all thing uh my daughter threatened to leave me there one point and later she uh nearly dumped me on Main Street but other than that things have been fine and I just wanted to uh mention these things because I've come to know this town as a very uh loving and Community oriented place and it's attraction to me uh it's uh diversity it's um how could I say it's it's you can feel love in this town it's musical background it's there's there's a lot of things about it that uh attract me and I'm from a small uh town in Upstate New York uh called horse heads and uh it was uh the reason for the town's name basically was because the indigenous people didn't like the fact that the Americans had come up and uh start started a a massacre up there um and they left a little momento for the citizens and and the people there in uh in horse heads it was their ponies uh and their horses they cut their heads off and threw them over the post so anyway I just wanted to let you know that there are some horse heads available as the problems in town and that's about it thank you I appreciate thank you very much and I appreciate the fact that it took less than five minutes because I'm would to hate to have to cut you off yes thanks Papa our Bureau certainly has heart and I'm glad Jersey Shore Medical helped uh my father um uh fix his heart um this week and thank you everyone for all your thoughts and prayers and yes thank you mayor and thank you to marleene who really came to our rescue with every single item we could possibly need for my father's day thank you okay any other questions comments CL hner 18 and B um first of all thank you very much for a detailed update on the 12 Day Avenue property everybody's been waiting for that and if it is a sponge like you said pushing down and that water's going in out like councilwoman Kenny said there's a school right across the street so it's kind of like a root canal either pull the tooth or fix it okay um all the ban Flags I hope you don't spend too much time on it okay um it's a flag that's up there there's code enforcement if the flag gets ripped and torn tell them to get a new one just like people tell you if the flag is ripped an American flag is ripped we get a new one you know it's code enforcement with something like that okay um I don't know if I had anything else but um no just basically I hope everybody remembers to stop by bar on March 9th for the MTH County Police Unity to our fundraiser okay thank you Friday or Saturday it's a Saturday you don't want to miss it we were there last year and it was a lot of fun and it's all electronic it's all electronic great May there any other comments and I live on 16 and um my question is on the grant for the boardwalk um improvements how did you assess the need for the um permanent bathrooms and where exactly is the location for the permanent bathrooms going to be located and could tailor Pavilion be considered for permanent bathrooms that already exist okay I'm going to start with the last question yes permanent we actually uh just went out the bid for permanent bathrooms in the tail Pavilion so and those uh for those who want to see what the the uh specifications look like they up on the website under the uh miscellaneous documents I believe yes yeah so that you'll see the architectural drawings there of the bathroom uh again preface my remarks but these were just proposals you know there it could be years before we see you know a permanent bathroom I think our our idea was that um if we could put up a structure rather than a an a trailer that we're moving in and out it would be to the betterment of all and just looking at the the beach you know and the boardwalk and we have a we have something at Fifth Avenue we have something at 10th Avenue that ultimately at some point perhaps could be house some bathrooms and you know the next five blocks would be 15th or 16th that was the the real really the only way we got to that to that U conclusion was just to kind of evenly space the permanent buildings that were on on the boardwalk um and uh and that's really you know again it was a I won't say pie in the sky but it was something that if it could happen you know I we thought it would be nice to really have a a permanent building for for bathrooms so okay CU I'm just thinking you know the the um commercial buildings that exist from 16th to 17th they all have bathrooms right there so to put another bathroom structure but a lot of the again I'm only speaking of the talk a lot of the commercial establishments don't want don't permit people to go in and use the facilities well they have to allow it if if you if if you're buying a dunk a donut you go but but we have but we have um you know we have traditionally provided bathrooms along the boardwalk and I don't see us never ending that they come and they go you know so if you live there we don't have to look at a permanent bathroom all the time I guess is my point and then I feel that sometimes you're going to end up up with the DJ's people comeing down this way to then use that structure it's a you know it's a type of thing where uh you know if you get 100 people in the room you're going to have maybe 50 different opinions as to what what should be done I mean you know the alternative are the are the the temporary bathrooms which in and of themselves have have some issues because POS they're probably not as nice as a as a permanent bathroom would be number one and then the borrow every so many years has to you know have the expense of purchasing new ones because again you know subject to Salt Air and we store them and and so you know it's a continuing expense and I think our idea was just to have another facility where you know if we if we wanted to keep it open year round or for most of the year it would be a lot uh easier and and better equipped than using the the temporary bathrooms somebody that monitors them during the summer is somebody going to monitor them then we would have to yeah if it was open it's not going to be left open without being monitored obviously Spring Lake leaves it open and there's no issues you know as you walk up and down the Border they don't have that many bathrooms in Spring Lake do they I I don't know what don't what do they have uh like two and I don't know the length of their Beach but it's got to be at least a mile I would think so yeah but then again they don't allow you to bring food on the beach so I don't know you know okay so it's it's going to be a process it's not it's a process it's not it's a thought it's not something that's going to happen next year I doubt highly but it's a you know it's going to be a process that will if obviously if we go that route you'll hear more and more about it we get closer all right there we good I think you had a question how big would it be I IDE we it's really in the it's really in the idea stage that's it okay cool excuse me mayor I just have to clarify though for the public the bathrooms at T The Pavilion that grant money this current that has that has nothing to do from yeah that's just making sure that y that has nothing to do with this Barry Luben 15th Avenue uh Mr mcel might be able to clarify but those stores um on Ocean they're not required to open those bathrooms I think the only place that is required to have an open bathroom is a sit down facility restaurant I I don't know the law on that okay uh from being a store owner for 32 years um my store was private property my bathroom was private property if I didn't want it open and I believe it's the same any of those shops okay any other comments your had your CH no didn't we have Ordinance do say one comment per night I don't exceed five minutes you mentioned that the uh the bid is out for the um for the bath do we have the square footage or whatever for the rental space it's it's very close yeah work that that that that's step two okay that's step two so by next meeting maybe we'll have that too yes CU summer's coming that's oh no we know oh yeah thank you any other comments Mr Eugene 4th Avenue um I didn't had a chance I guess it was the last meeting the gentleman was here from uh jcpml um the electric company and um I guess it was a toward the end of January uh jcpml changed that CH changed my uh electric meter over to a smart meter and and they did a very good job I Had No Interruption whatsoever to power um the clock on my microwave oven didn't didn't get upset nothing uh did a great job and I'm looking forward to these uh Smart Meters know a little bit about them and U quite truthfully I'm more interested not my own house but over at the senior building U I guess was about two years ago we had an incident there where um the senior building had there was an aage in that section of town and I guess the senior building tried to start up a generator and in any case it turned into a major headache for them I think I don't think the town first respond had found out for over 9 hours that they were without power well in any case uh I haven't studied the jcpnl tar but uh most of these utilities and I'm pretty sure they do also if you have life sustaining electrical equipment on your property one benefit of these smart meters is that the first one to find out that the senior building has lost Electric will be jcpnl and uh they'll have the ability to notify First Responders here in in Belmar and make sure that we don't have a response time problem like we had in the past uh I just wanted to mention that because they did a very good job uh at my house uh do we know how you know how many people or how many meters have actually been SW out I don't no I'm not sure we could find out i' be curious to find out maybe when I'll certainly find out as far as the BHA building um you know whether we can look into uh the smart meters because that that would be great I my understanding is the whole town be because I got one I don't think that they literally just hung a little sign on everybody's door saying you're getting a smart meter and there was no real I already like yeah that was like six months or so ago I believe yeah I believe everybody's up okay very good um actually you may or may not be happy uh eventually these things will go through time of day and year in other words you'll pay a different price for electricity uh hot summer day then you will you know in the winter time but the added benefit of it is that it can detect a smart meter can detect an electrical problem on the customer side either so I I think it would be a good idea uh as long as somebody in that building can get it's like the handicap laws in New Jersey as long as they can get a medical practition to uh you know sign off on the reason that a tenant uh needs electricity uh for life sustaining equipment it could be anything from a respirator you think I dogen machines and all this other stuff nowaday that should be no problem that okay you thank you any other comments can I have a motion to close the public session and adjourn the meeting motion second all in favor