okay we good we're good all right I'm call the me to order all call please mayor here Mr amang absent Mr is absent Mr mine yes Mr rero here Mr ruse here M here notice of this meeting provided to the Burnville news and Courier News filed with municipal clerk and hosted on the municipal bton board on December 14 2023 please stand welcome to the April ail May 28 May 28th meeting of the B burrow Council this meeting is being conducted in person in the council chambers in Burl Hall and it is being broadcast Live on YouTube and on Zoom to make it as convenient as possible for residents to attend the meeting members of the public who are here in person and those attending remotely on Zoom will be given the opportunity to comment at appropriate times during the meeting in accordance with the following guidelines members of the public will be allowed to speak during the open sessions and during formal public hearings on the agenda including public hearings on ordinances comments will be limited to 3 minutes per speaker which will be monitored and enforced by the B Club comments containing offensive profane or ENT language or language constituting hate speech will not be permitted remote participants will be muted unless they are unmuted by the clerk and remote participants will not be able to unmute themselves the clerk will mute remote speakers at the expiration of their three minutes of a lot of time or if they make any inappropriate or offensive comments All speakers whether in person or on Zoom shall State their names and addresses before making their comments speakers on Zoom shall activate their cameras so that they can be seen by members of the governing body and audience failure of the governing body to provide a LGE broadcast of this meeting or technological problems encountered during the course of the meeting that affect remote viewing and or participation will not invalidate this meeting or any action taken including but not limited to the adoption of any ordinance resolution or motion questions all right we're good okay we have a couple presentations well one here um Our Guest here today um from I know you all have a copy of this United for impact and I guess most of you know I would have been on the sigma free committee for the county and we are we have our sticker in the window that says we are a stigma-free community and it's basically um getting rid of the stigma about mental health and drug abuse or drug use so we had our um as I was telling is it Rosie or Rosie Ros Rosie I got that right that we had our department heads trained in mental health first a kit and Christine and I also took that and we've really been working with community in crisis to do um other mental health trainings um we have a grant from I forget the agency that oversees the mayor's Wellness to do specifically for mental health and particularly in the uh Latino community so we have been working on this so I thank you for bringing this to our attention and I will read this whereas mental health is essential to everyone's overall health and well-being and the stigma associated with mental health disorders is a significant barrier to seeking and receiving appropriate care and whereas one in five Americans will experience a mental health condition in their lifetime yet many do not seek help due to the stigma and discrimination surrounding men mental health issues and whereas the burrow of Burnville recognizes the importance of raising awareness and promoting understanding of mental health to eliminate stigma encourage open dialogue and ensure that those affected by mental health conditions receive the support and care they need and whereas recently founded and Somerset County based United for impact along with Community Partners advocates for Effective residents and is committed to creating a stigma free environment that promotes mental Wellness supports mental health recovery and provides resources for those in need and whereas May has been designated as mental health awareness month since 1949 and whereas the establishment of a mental health stigma free day serves as a reminder of our Collective responsibility to support mental health initiatives educate the public and advocate for policies that improve mental health care and eliminate stigma and whereas the bur of Burnsville is dedicated to fostering an inclusive community where mental health is valued and stigma is challenged encouraging all residents to speak openly about mental health and seek help without fear of judgment now therefore I Mary Jan canos mayor of burrow of Burnsville in coordination with the burrow council do hereby Proclaim May 30th 2024 as mental health stigma-free day in the B Burnsville and urge all residents to join us in this observance by promoting mental health awareness supporting those affected by mental health conditions and working together to eliminate the stigma surrounding mental health and I don't if you want to take a minute just to talk about unit what United for impact is yes definitely thank you all for giving me your time and thank you for listening thank you mayor so for United for impact we are dedicated to spread awareness what we are seeing is there are different organizations already that exist we're not trying to invent the de here but at the same time there are kids there are seniors there are veterans that are committing suicide regardless of there being so many different organizations at this time so we decided because there's been happening all around us there are some close friends that were affected by this which sort of pushed us over the age and we thought we're going to do something about it we are working with one of the biggest organization in New Jersey which is Nami we're working with them we just launched our mental health awareness lunch which was very well received which we had over 100 plus guests there we had president from Nami come in there as a speaker we also have Mental Health Association people coming from Morris County they the speakers as well we are trying to spread the word around we are looking for interns to join us so our summer program is also full we are trying to teach these kids how to read red flags so that when they go off to college these are mostly the high schoolers that we have at the moment so we just trying to train a few people at a time when they go off to college they can read the red flights what's happening around with their dorids schoolmates batchmates and maybe they can do something about it and we can save some kids that's very thank you official to give you so that's official copy yes thank you thank you so much piure yes thank you thank you everyone okay we have minutes to approve April 15th and April 29th I have a motion yes minutes April 15th April 29th second all in favor sh okay uh we now have our first open session for a public hearing on anything that's not it doesn't have its own public hearing any the ordinances I just wanted to uh share some mostly thanks um as you may have heard the library had its last Toilet Fail and and um it the the the damage took out our community room and most of the picture book area and we wanted to say a Hardy thanks to DPW for their quick response particularly John mcdal he has been um instrumental in both attitude and expertise and helping us get this remediated get it ripped out get it repaired and we're we're hoping to be back in Action soon so thank you very much to him and of course to the library staff who've had a great attitude about moving programs to the patio and runda um I'll be out there at 9:30 tomorrow morning singing with babies um and thank you most of all to the public who have been very understanding of our temporary limitations um thank you to anony and Nancy for getting our resolution tonight on the uh Docket in case we can't get payment directed from the insurance company to the carpet company um so thank you very much and in happier news uh we now have our Museum passes can be reserved online we have full to Museum passes which is a bunch more provided by the friendss of the library and those are available to be reserved you can pick a specific date in a specific Museum many of them will go right to your email um there's one or two that you have to pick up still at the library but it's um we have some great new choices beinged the con Museum of Stu so please come and check that out so before you go ahead so I believe that we approved the while back f for redoing of the BS yes unrelated we had there was one single bathroom left in the children's area that a different bath this is the different single use bathroom that was back by the must have like a bathroom gnome that's going around I don't know why they they appear to be unrelated to construction and the but in better news I have pictures if you want to see of the backsplash and the the tile work is up they're tiling the floor and the new bathrooms Tom tomorrow and it's coming along well so back I've heard days I'll believe all of it I see it but they're they're supposed to be done now I'm sorry that's terrible to endure well it is it is everybody's been great and like PR to SC people together it's really shitty sorry yeah we're trying to still off as much as we can yeah really hav done a good job inaming things thank you thank you anyone else from the public wish to be heard or online I don't know Chad is a really tough act to follow it's been a long day I don't come up for this anymore harri Hazelton mind Brook Road uh I just wanted to say I wasn't able to be at the last meeting but I did I did read uh the Bernal news article about the discussion about the the path up at the polar grounds and happy that we're looks like we're finding a way to make that happen but I want to say that I agree with councilwoman mccre I think that if we pay part of it and leave it that way until sometime later that it's not going to it's not going to look good and when I think about how many people go to narar and how they've never had pavement there and when I was working in physical therapy with people with gate and balance disorders we participated in the miles for methen and people with Walkers canes and wheelchairs could easily go around on that path so I think maybe my I would think the best thing to do is fix the drainage which has always been like the number one concern and the biggest Capital expense at this point for that path um from what I understand from the article um and get a gravel path in the part where the gravel is rough have that smooth out I guess that's towards the middle school and put in a gravel path and see how that works for us rather than putting in the do a partial um a p a paved p p and I just think that we may find that doing that is all we need to have what we what we are looking to accomplish especially since I noticed during Co that people were walking the the sidewalks that they really need a hard surface they have a perfectly good sidewalk to walk around the Bedwell in the middle school and people were just making laps there during covid when we were doing the farmers market there I'm sorry if I'm over time no I forgot this I was like wow that was yeah I would just yeah you have well I think we're going to take a look which basically after that discussion we thought we would actually we're going to talk about the next meeting because okay I think a number of us agree and we may we're still deciding so Nancy I don't want to get ahead of what you're thinking but we may even try to look at bids for paid and then gravel and see how they come back with some options on that so that um taking two different fits you mean yeah we were thinking about maybe doing something like that but I think after that discussion we um we're of the same mind so after discussion I asked Tony to put together several different estimates one for all stone dust one for press Stone one for all pavement and then he already has the one for half and half the only concern and it's interesting what you just said the concern was about adaa compliance and you're saying that stoned us they were able to walk and put with oh yeah I mean and I was working with patients with Parkinson's disease um Alzheimer's and we we were and my dad I also took him there with a walker that path supports wheelchairs it supports canes it supports Walkers and people are able to use it and so if we do a quality job with the drainage in that one area where we wet I think we might find it and have the use that we really want with without having to go half and half or um you spend the the you know large amount of money it seems like it would take to to do the paid app you know what I want to do is reach out to the county um since they're they own that or about product they use or how they you know when they had a flood this year I noticed in the area where the river had risen that all of the stone dust and we don't have that kind of flooding incident because we don't have the RAR River through but it had all moved into the field and underneath there was the large Stone the rip wrap almost rip wrap that that was left there underneath so that must be their base and that means that we could go over top of that area where we had the trucks go in over by the middle school we could maybe I'm sure the engineer to do it we could top that with the stone dust and that would be the base and that if we did ever want to PVE it that would be a base that we'd be putting in anywh yeah so I didn't ask that about well what would happen if we did you know partial now then one pay how much more is that so Tony said he put I think was five inches of stone now so then you just have to scrape the top to off if you wanted to PVE it something like that whatever it was he's putting together a bunch of different options and then we're not going to bid them yet we them bring the estimates to you to see if they're vastly different if you want I misspoke I me they had this amazing machine in County too after this uh stone dust had moved they were vacuuming it up into piles and then they put it they took it right out of the lawn and put it right back where it Bel so if we ever got in trouble we could borrow it I think one of our Public Works people is from we used to work on the F uniforms so which one [Music] that would keep our impervious down to yeah all right thank you ter anybody online see all right I will close this public session we have let's see ordinances to introduce start withad sure move 2024 1999 Assumption of alcoholic beverages in public places in amending chapter 3 the code police regulation introduced by title pass on first reading publish according to law all the hearing scheduled for meeting begin 7 Monday second all faor there's one before you do that there was one open question is whether the current ordinance prohibits the sale be is that to remaining or is it coming out I don't know I would think that they want to sell it I would think so too but I wasn't sure yeah they want to sell it yeah I think that will not be part of the is introduced yeah okay this mainly we're trying to get the ordinance in compliance with to allow us at a Town Festival to have a beer garden right I try to make okay yeah so all right I one I moved that ordinance 2024 d2000 an ordinance vacating a portion of burn Avenue which is outside the pav roadway and sidewalk area and which is necessary for the construction of the affordable housing development at 63 burners Avenue the in uced by title pass on first reading published according to law and that a public hearing be scheduled for a meeting beginning at 700 p.m. Monday June 24th 2024 second all in favor okay uh we talked about this last time this is a piece that's not being used right um next one y I move that ordinance 2024 2001 making procedural change to the notice required to an owner in connection with the repairs of sidewalks and amending chapter 14 of the bar entitled streets and sidewalks introduced by title pass first reading public the law on the public he schedule for meeting beginning at 7.m Monday June 24th 202 second all in favor question okay no oh sorry I move that ordinance 2024 2002 appropriating $1,271 1200 from Capital Improvement fund for various equipment and improvements be introduced by title that on the first reading publish according to law and that a public hearing be scheduled for a meeting beginning at 7 p.m. Monday Jun 244 all in favor and anyone in the public who wants to see what that's about it's in the budget presentation if you want to look at the detail of the capital budget all right we have resolutions 2417 2414b and just uh want to uh thank people for volunteering again for we have let and Maga Gonzalez so great people I think they're both be on the first sh 24 [Music] 117 roll call please Mr MC yes Mr Romero yes Mr R yes is yes all right we're up to adoption of the bubble all right I will open the public hearing on the 2024 Municipal budget can I move that the the bubble becomes the official communication all so would anyone in the public like to be heard on the budget and we had a excellent presentation last month was it yeah and it is available on the website see done I will close the public hearing all right Finance chair is in here I move that resolution 24-25 adoption of the 2024 municipal budet I'll give a second congratulations please M yes Mr R yes Mr yes M yes so here we are in June half the year just I know all right oh okay maybe just recognized Les still on but Leslie Robertson's on thanks for all the hard work now oh yeah yeah okay yes thank you I just CL that up my yeah couldn't have done it without you absolutely Nancy too yes good call all right mayor's update um we had a mayor's Wellness meeting for which we stuffed on the envelopes to send out the invitation for the SC music through the years that we're having on Thursday with Charlie Z going to do a program for us um I attended the intergenerational golden senior prom at the high school they brought it back I think 2019 was the last year they did it because of Co um I believe it's the Key Club that sponsors it and it was really they did a great job the kids served the food they had tons of donations and it was a pretty good turn more more people people in my age around this town than I thought I attended the conference of Mayors from uh May 15 to the 17 topics covered were technical assistance grants flood proofing which I learn I didn't notice that the tree absorbs 4,000 gallons of water just one tree um there was a seminar on affordable housing pilot programs Communications insights from experience so all in all an excellent conference and they have a new administr executive director who know and she's doing the break job on the 18th we had bernsel night at the Ballpark thank you Nancy for coming with his family and Jeff throwing out that first ball lobing at least it made it to the point good um we did get at that um Congressman kan's um I'm not sure what his title is JD Bryant came and and presented us with there this beautiful Congressional Record copy of the Congressional Record which says uh from Mr Speaker I rise today to extend my warmest congratulations to Bernville on its 100th anniversary I am truly grateful to be celebrating this Monumental Milestone with you all over the past hundred years Bernville has blossomed into a VI town with exquisite natural scenery Rich culture and a bustling Town Center Burnville is also home to my congressional district office so I can personally attest to its unique charm in history I am proud to have such a remarkable Town within the Seventh District and I look forward to watching it continue to flourish in the coming decades I wish Bernville a wonderful Centennial anniversary may your next Century be filled with as much success as this one so we decided we're going to get this and put it um I I I attended on the 21st of the Bedwell Museum of national history that was phenomenal what the fourth grade kids did with paper mâché was over the top um I had posted some pictures on on the bubble um but they had done you know a whole Under the Sea Montage with you know a life-size shark and a paper say a life-sized giraffe for the jungle scene absolutely amazing it was they do such great that was Mr T do his team um I met with the superintendent and the business administrator from the school to talk about sh Services we then had the Memorial Day Parade yesterday thank you again Nancy for coming out it's morning um considering the weather it was a good turn out Jeff Christine were there um and they actually let me talk um but you know I think it was important because Bill uh Staley never gets any recognition and he's done this for so long so I was glad that I could introduce him and kind of give a little of his background um John sternik was the Grand Marshall and Bob Walsh was the keynote who's 98 years old did a great job job he was in nasac which was and I understand he has a an album that he made with his experiences that maybe the library could get the archives um just a reminder the car show is this Sunday six that's the Sunday June 6 June 2nd um in the train station it's not at the high school this year will be in the train station so please support that I think it's 9 to three and there's a Somerset County governing officials association meeting on the 12th at 6:30 at the Columbian state house in that is my important Nancy thank you uh we received notification from PSG that the Board of Public Utilities is requiring them to replace gas meters in people's homes um and they did this in my town a few years ago so I guess they just go town by Town um they sent letters to Residents I don't know if any of You' gotten one um many residents have not responded but to make an appointment so PSN be sending out more letters letting people know that this is a mandatory replacement um and that the meters actually will be able to be read without going to your home so more convenient for people as well but it's mostly safety upgrade um not that they're on safe now but they're just trying to you know keep up the letter tell residents they need what they need to do to schedule the installation um and if they don't get response to this letter they'll send it one more but eventually if you don't schedule it they will turn off your guess so it's very important please yeah um we could put the letter on our website so that if people don't get it they can call and make their own appointment as we discussed at the last meeting we received two bids for the PO grounds project one was disqualified because it was not responsive and the other came in much higher than our estimate so uh we're going to need to reject both those bids so we'll do a resolution in June um but in the meantime for your direction the engineer and the architect are rebidding separately and those bids will go out on June 11th and are due back in July 2nd with an award date at our July 8th meeting um we're still waiting for a quote from mcow to get the lights separately from um and then finally as the mayor mentioned it was our Memorial Day parade and ceremony and so I want to thank our rec director Bob markwick for the hard work that he put in to open the pool on time to get Summer Camp going and organize memoral PR and ceremony all basically at the same time um great job Bob and thank you to CER and Ryan Futo who also are working with Bob this year but I'm sure Bob is happy as I am to welcome Alena Moria she is the new um her title program coordinator for the recreation department and Friday was her first day in just in time for Memorial Day and um so she was back toting so that's was good so um so I just want to welcome her and um say thank you to Bob and steam for a great fun event yeah really it was a lot for one weekend there so yeah all right and it came off without a hitch um I need a motion to accept the monthly reports sorry all in favor items of buiness business unification coordinated person guard what are you did you not have the letter no um so this topic is regarding Wendy Brown's job um there are a couple points I want to make first uh a rice notice was issued the Wendy last week notifying her she would be discussed in executive close session at today's meeting um and giving her the option of asking Council to have s Open Session which she did make that request which is why we're talking about it now um there's been a lot of questions about rice notices and meetings and all that so I just wanted to give like a little bit of background about that uh a rice notice is started in a 1977 case in Union County Regina rice was the president of the teachers union and the case roled around whether employees whose status may be adversely affected must be advised of the right to have to require the employer to have their discussion public the case affirmed that that requirement is necessary and that the document is now called the rice notice named after reg um so over the years the requirement that a public employer provide this requirement has kind of expanded to mean any change in employment status promotion raises Etc would also require the issuance of rice notice um but the effects of R notice are only any discussion that would have been held in closed session must be now held in open so it's not a public hearing neither the public or employee are given the right to speak so it's basically a private conversation between the governing body members um in front of a bunch of people so this does include anything you would have talked about which includes the employees performance um so uh to get to the just of what we're talking about um quick background uh Wendy um was hired in the bar in November 2021 as assistant to the tax assessor shortly after I started here in April 23 the assessor informed me that Wendy was not really able to grasp what she needed to in order to Be an Effective assistant he informed me that he brought in someone uh in the same position from another town to train Wendy on a couple of different occas agent but she was not really retaining the information so at that time I suggested we asked the person from the other town to come back and assess whether she had improved since the original training and maybe work with her some more but the woman from the other time uh refused to come so uh I did get another employee from a different town to come in to work with Wendy on two occasions but unfortunately the conclusion was the same that she just could not learn what was necessary to get the job done so I should note that these conversations did not take place in a vacuum and I did have conversations with Wendy along the way and I learned that her talents really lie outside the office she's very creative and she loves working Outdoors so in fact she told me more than once she would love to work in an outside job even for public works but unfortunately the director felt that she did not have qualifications for that job so I came up with a solution that would allow her to keep her full-time job with no C salary and benefits and also at the same time provide a service to the burrow so I came up with a position where she could be outside every day doing what she loves and we all decided to call a beautification coordinator and there was a position where she could plant flowers we public grounds Etc and because I knew that would not sustain a full-time position and police department was looking for a cressing guard we combined them and you approved it it And cared the job and gave her the offer um she was so happy that day she actually cried and she couldn't thank me enough and so beginning of September she provided this service that allowed DPW workers to focus on other things um but around mid J January she went out on disability she has been out since with um original estimates from her doctor to return on July 1st uh the last that we heard from her that Anthony heard from her she informed us she turns the doctor next on 17 so this is the issue her FMLA ended on April 8th her disability pays ended on May 6 her unused vacation and six days were applied which end on Friday this Friday 31st so I informed w three times in writing in emails on May 6 and 21st and by letter delivered via FedEx on May 23rd that her disability and PTO were ending in a May 21st email I said this is a quote if you would like to be considered for unpaid leave because that's basically what would happen after May 31st an unpaid leave of absence if you would like to be considered for unpaid leave and agree to make the required payments which refers to her health benefits and pension you will need to request in writing that the council approve it therefore I will leave a letter or an email prior to the 28th and then in my May 23rd letter I said you would need to ask the bough counsel and writing to Granny will leave of absence without pay I've outlined the details in the email but it is important to note that I would need this letter by May 28th prior to the meeting if you're planning to return to work the only response I received to any of my communication was an email from Wendy on Friday in which she informed me that she would like this meeting to be held in public she also requested well she said that she wanted to come here and talk about any accommodation she would need when she returned from her doctor but I told her that that would not be something to discussed in this venue because it's not a policy decision but um she did not request that the council approve her unpaid Le she didn't reference it so um because this is a policy regarding our Personnel manual and in spite of me notifying her on three separate occasions my has not provided that letter and so this is the last meeting that EV will meet prior to the 31st where you could have considered an unpaid leave um as advised by our labor attorney as of next Monday she will have constructively resign from both positions because there is no she would no longer be in the play with the verb so there is no action we need to take because you're not terminating her she just has no more time and she isy to return so um I would assume that either Jack or our labor try to send her a letter I guess yeah to send her a letter that you know I mean unfortunately that's the you can leave a por of water so um I you know there's really not a lot left to do so I figured I just bring to you and see if you any questions thank you for sharing this correspondence so that we see I put it in your time yeah said thank you for that okay so that's it for that yeah okay um we don't have any correspondence do any unfinished business new business okay now I can say yes thank you for Lenny and magula for volunteering actually I saw magula yesterday she was at the parade that's great they got more people um and then we've got the the contract for Summit Health this R it we went out to bid on that yes yeah is that all one there because they expanded is that all under one contract yeah yes great all right uh you want to move resolution 24- 126 and 24-17 be adopted Please Mr mcen yes Mr yes Mr yes M yes all right we have another Open Session if anyone would like to comment on anything I have a comment unless you're gonna come say it um the thing about the firehouse oh yeah that's what I was gonna say we spoke about you were grade minds think alike so I've come to many um been I've come to many U Memorial Day services and sometimes it's beastly hot sometimes it's raining sometimes it's threatening rain always noisy when we're at FOH hall because they open up the road you can't hear the speeches so I want to put in a vote for moving the Memorial Day celebration to the Firehouse permanently so we don't have to worry about the rain I thought it work out great all the trucks were lined up everybody was safe we were able to hear all the speeches and it just made for a great experience for everybody so better yeah the audio the police said about the safer shorter and no where it's so hot and there's no place to sit and the kids get fidgety on the hill way they they just kind of went like I noticed that most of the scouts were gone they had on to do other things but that wasn't disruptive because we they weren't visible visibly leaving the only thing I heard from people that were like outside the doors that they couldn't hear they plenty of room I don't know why they were out I just don't know if we can it's really well it's the veterans in Recreation and the fire company that have toe on that but yeah was just really much kind of organizes it so we can it on to Father take it up with I think the veterans liked it better myself too that steep hill and get back up yeah and then the heat you know can get to them too yeah I just would suggest we have more chairs so more people right okay was it anyone else okay um have any exective session I don't think we don't need to come back out do we yeah I don't have so I'll move us to Executive session all right well thank you for coming this is like a record here right