good evening welcome to the March 5th 2024 regular meeting of the Emerson governing body this meeting is being videotaped and may be viewed on your local public access Channel either 36 or 77 the meetings are also available Live on YouTube for those of you present in case of a fire follow the fire exit signs above the doors and exit calmly Miss lyy would you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance the United States of America and stands na indivisible liy and justice for all I would ask you to remain standing for just a moment uh for some residents that have passed away um Anna Sanchez who is um the grandmother of our former burough prosecutor um Mr Roger castig Leone and a dear friend to uh all all of us here and who has someone who has played many roles for the burrow Mr Anthony basil um each pillars an Emerson community in their own rights and they will all be deeply missed I also want to note that March 6th has become known throughout the United States as well as internationally as Black Balloon day to remember those that lost to addiction and overdose tomorrow the burrow will display black balloons on the front steps of the burrow Hall to bring attention to the opioid epidemic and in memory of those lives lost to Addiction in support of the family and friends they have sadly Left Behind thank you this meeting is called pursuant to the provisions of the open public meetings law and adequately noticed pursuant to njsa 104-1 this meeting of March 5th 2024 was notice to the record and Ridgewood news on January 4th 2024 and published in said newspapers posted on the bulletin board in the municipal building and has remained continuously posted as required under the statute Miss Ryan would you please call the Roll Call of the governing body sure mayor deala present councilwoman arenia here councilwoman rice here councilwoman Maguire present council president Timberman is on his way councilman Gordon here and councilwoman Mo here may I have a motion to excuse councilwoman Maguire councilwoman Moore and councilwoman rice from the regular meeting of February 20th 2024 so move second all in FA all in favor I any opposed motion carries uh tonight we are happy to honor longtime Emerson resident and 50-year coach of the Academy of the Holy Angels varsity basketball team as well as other teams um Susan lyy on her 800th career win which occurred on December 30th 2023 this was the first opportunity to get coach uh lyd in the meeting with her busy basketball schedule in a few minutes councilwoman rice and myself will present her with a proclamation um Ashley is a former softball player of coach lyes and we'll be reading that Proclamation as I said um you're not only only an example of dedication hard work strength and commitment perseverance to all of your players but to all Emerson residents especially during women's History Month councilwoman rice and coach lydy would you please join me up at the front of the Das you can come up here with us you can stand between us as a matter of you're the person of all righty ready yeah go ahead all right whereas Emerson resident Susan lyy is the legendary coach of the Academy of the Holy Angels varsity basketball team as well as their Varsity softball and junior varsity tennis teams and whereas coach lyy has had a distinguished 50-year career including leading Holy Angels varsity basketball teams to four Team of the Year titles multiple Bergen County championships several State sectional fin and a state championship in 1989 and whereas coach ly has also led her softball teams to State sectionals most recently in 2019 and was inducted into her Alma moer Upper Iowa University's Hall of Fame the New Jersey coach's Hall of Fame and the burough of clusters Hall of Fame and whereas in a fitting tribute to coach L's devotion and commitment to their basketball program and all of its players the Academy of the Holy Angels Ray dedicated its gymnasium floor as blad's Court in 2018 and whereas coach ladyy who served as as Holy Angels athletic director from 1988 to 2001 and retired as their full-time health and physical education teacher in 2022 continues to run the Su summer basketball camp giving girls in Fifth to 10th grades the opportunity to learn the game refine their skills and become dominant basketball players and whereas coach lyy earned her 800th career Victory with Holy Angels on December 30th 2023 at the Joe holy tournament when Holy Angels defeated creskill and whereas the mayor and Council of the bur of Emerson wish to recognize coach lyd's Milestone and for being one of the all-time great coaches in New Jersey high school sports history especially during women's history month now therefore I mayor Danielle depa on behalf of the governing body am proud to congratulate coach Susan lyy for earning this great achievement and in genuine admiration declared March 6th 2024 in the burrow of Emerson as coach Susan ly day it'll be up on [Applause] words to say yes to he what to say to how you get all these wins oh that I I it's not me um over it'll pick you up if you just stand right in front right well first of all I'd like to thank the mayor and counsel for this honor it's um greatly appreciated but it was unnecessary and I'd like to thank um my people that I live with over there at 58 Kinder KAC that they came tonight to support me and my family who also came tonight to support me um I don't know what to say this is just unbelievable uh winning and losing is never was never what I thought about I just thought about making kids better along with uh my coaches and and uh the school but along the course of time you do win and I have to congratulate all my assistant coaches that I've had over the course of time kids who have bought into the to the program and the um the system that we run and every year you get different kids because it's not like college where you can go out and recruit them they just come and it's a credit to them that they were willing to do what they had to do to get to where they are and I know Mr M over here his daughter played for me also and he knows the struggles that we had back then and uh it's just I'm I'm very pleased and honored to accept this award and um I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow but I but thank you very much I can still walk I can still walk take a quick picture because Susan walks every day I'm always waving at um if your family would like to come up we can take some photos great like or your friends and yeah why don't you uh 58 Kinder come back come on up here my daughter will be there next year come up a pho next we'll here hold up your Proclamation let's get a little tighter over here we get and we'll do it like this do you can come closer your picture if you want to come closer you can well we're so happy that you're here we're so happy that you chose Emerson to come retire in and we'll see you on the streets when you're walking around thank you so much no youone ask that take some candy unless you want to stay because we do have our department heads here for the um budget so our next Proclamation this evening is women's history month and councilwoman Maguire is going to read that for usad Proclamation Office of the mayor women's history month during women's history month we celebrate the countless women whose courage and resolve have contributed to the very fiber and success of our nation and the entire world the equal opportunity for women in every facet of daily life is essential to a free and prosperous Society this month we honor women who have fought for equality and challenged the status quo who have persevered through discrimination partiality and Injustice and who have paved a strong foundation for the benefit of all these women have created a leg Legacy that continues to inspire generations of women to live with confidence to positively impact their communities and to improve our world our nation our state and our bur burrow every single day throughout history women have dedicated their lives to achieving equal rights for all Americans they envisioned a society where women could pursue a formal education start a business serve in the military and even run for elected office their examples motivate successive generations to Aspire to Greatness and to stand boldly in the face of adversity we remember all the American women past and present who have inspired and empowered today's women to advocate for their beliefs and pursue their dreams without hesitation Katherine Brewer who in 1840 became the first woman to earn a bachelor's degree and Dr Elizabeth Blackwell who graduated from medical school to become America's first recognized female physician are in the pantheon of Great American women both pursued their passion to learn and to achieve Advanced degrees in an unprecedented way their achievement marked the beginning of our society's move toward equality among men and women in education they would be proud to know that today female students constitute the majority of undergraduates in our colleges and universities leaders of our nation also stand on the shoulders of women like Janette Ranken the first women to hold federal office who in 1916 accurately foret told I may be the first woman member of Congress but I won't be the last now more than a century after Congress passed the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote more women are serving in Congress than at any time in our history this month we express our gratitude for All American women who continue to strengthen our family communities and Workforce our future is brighter because of their contributions and now therefore thanks to these courageous women I Danielle Della the first female mayor of Emerson on behalf of the first female majority governing body in Emerson's history to hereby Proclaim March 2024 as women's History Month in the burrow of Emerson I'm sorry I'm very proud of your govern body the men also but I've served with a lot of those um the next Proclamation is American Red Cross month and we will post this on the burrow website as well as hang it in um burrow Hall if anyone would like to read it um after the proclamations we are going to run over to appointments and resignations may I have a motion to appoint Kelly Waters as a regular member for the three-year unexpired term and 1231 2024 to the Emerson Board of Health Nicole can I get a motion oh just to the Board of Health so move second all in favor I I any opposed okay Kelly congratulations um she was not able to come with us tonight but we will swear her into an upcoming Board of Health meeting um minutes for approval may I have a motion we have a few of them may I have a motion to approve the regular session meeting minutes of January 16th 2024 as amended so moved can I second and a roll call please sorry it was rice councilwoman arenia yes councilwoman rice yes councilwoman Maguire abstain council president timman yeah councilman Gordon I abstain and councilwoman Moore Kelly you were at the meeting okay yeah got confused for a second is that a yes yes okay sorry all right may I have a motion to approve the regular session meeting minutes of February 6 2024 and Kelly this meeting you did Miss so so moved second second okay may I have a roll call please councilwoman arenia yes councilwoman rice yes councilwoman Maguire yes council president Timmerman yes councilman Gordon yes and councilwoman okay and may I have a motion to approve the closed session meeting minutes of February 6 2024 so moved second roll call please councilwoman arenia yes councilwoman rice yes councilwoman Mia yes council president timman yes councilman Gordon yes and councilwoman okay may I have a motion to approve the regular session meeting minutes of February 20th 2024 so move second and a roll call please councilwoman arenia yeah councilwoman right yes oh Kelly I mean uh Ashley I think that was abstaining was councilwoman McGuire abstain council president simmerman yes councilman Gordon yes and councilwoman Mo I've seen okay and one more this is the closed session for the same meeting uh may I have a motion to approve the Clos session meeting minutes of February 20th 2024 so moved good and a roll call please councilwoman Aria councilwoman Rights Council woman McGuire abstain council president council president timman yes councilman Gordon yes and councilwoman I'm same okay very good we're done with the minutes um so now we're all caught up uh this me this evening there is no correspondence Financial Business review of Department budgets and capital requests um everybody ready all our department heads are here we're going to start with our Fire official AJ satii uh Rob do we have a chair for them is this okay that's mine good evening AJ how are you so we did this on a Saturday last uh Year we're doing it tonight um changing the format a little bit um so you're here T basically to tell about your budget and ask us for any Capital um requests Lauren do you want to come up are you okay back there okay do you want to sit in maybe the front row I can't really hear her just in case you have to say something we want to get you picked up on the a microphone I know you'll throw your voice like a puppet AJ sorry go ahead uh I think everything with the budget pretty much stay the same um we did have to put in increase into my subscriptions um with the capital request I would like to get two more iPads cost on those I believe about $4 a month per iPad inrease that with the capital was the two iPads and then we have radios for the inspectors put upgrade so we canti the system everybody else okay our budgeted last year was 23710 actually put in 36366 so how much did you take in we took in 36366 so you exceeded your exceeded the the budgeting amount in few years that we do have a [Music] few in town that do have outstanding fees that we are working on collecting iPads is helping us keep that information up to dat and to keep track of it so while we're there we can get email addresses and streamline is help so you so you're saying they're a necessity because they are helping you track and and which is upping the revenue because nothing is falling through the cracks I believe it was 2021 we uh bought sdl in migr everything over to the computer based system sheetss it's a lot easier spatial data is a um computer program right platform Rob that um is able to assist some of our different departments in order um to track information correct Lauren and yeah and hopefully we're going to move it into other sectors so that we could go more um web based so um yeah and they do offer a um Mobile payment so we can streamline payments but it's a little more involved in doing that try get that there's just less double handing checks by I CH one click for okay um does anyone have any questions for AJ about um the fire official Department the iPads are for use by each by by each inspector yeah currently we have one right now okay and the two inspectors share that it's working but it's just it's easier it's easier to have everyone have their own but if if necessary you could share them we we can share it's just streams line everything okay anyone over here have a question for AJ what did you say he took in again last year last year was 36366 and the the amount budgeted anti Revenue was 23710 so that's it's 12,656 over and why do you think it was so much because the fines or because a new business is open I think it's a combination of new businesses in town um we did increase to fees in 2020 so catching up with with that I think we're seeing the numbers go up a little bit there and then being able to having the third inspector on and and going and you know being able to to Canvas there was 90 90 registrations in 2022 that we had to catch up with oh okay good and now everything's up and running and everyone's been inspected and up to date Perfect all right anything else to add no well thank you for coming in um we're going to continue to crunch some numbers and uh then we'll getting back to you about what you will be getting and so forth okay thank you for coming in this evening thank you we are going to stay with fire oh no we're not we're going to go to our emergency services and go to our volunteer Ambulance Corp Janine and Mike are you both coming up Mike would you grab a chair on your way and give your wife the uh comfortable chair maybe my um that microphone should go closer to the our speakers good everybody good evening Mike good evening Jan welcome you guys are from Evac um do you want to talk to us about your department a little bit and what your needs are for 2024 um basic yeah our our regular operating budget we're not asking for any increases we're looking to keep that in line with what it's been the last couple years um for Capital Improvements uh we're requesting some funds for acquiring a few more radios so that we could have both trucks um up on the new radio system so that we can communicate with County and to get a few more portable radios um in order to P our state inspection each year we have minimum number of portable and mobile radios that have to be on each truck um right now we're not making that uh but we were able to get past this past Year's inspection um going forward that's going to be a hurdle uh without updated communication equipment um and the other thing we're requesting is is the lift for the structure so instead of having to physically lift the structure into the ambulance you basically press a button and it would load the structure for you so you're not lifting the patient every time you put the patient in and out of the ambulance did you have one of those before that sounds familiar from about 10 years ago we've been requesting it for you got a chair lift years ago though that didn't that make things easier no don't chairlift either never had a chairlift no we have we have a that's what I'm thinking of yeah but that's different than what you're requesting now what happened is once we got the power structure it was nice because it lifts the patient up for you then you wield them to the ambulance but now that whole power mechanism is at the end the foot end of the stretcher that whoever is lifting the stretcher to put it in the ambulance is lifting about twice what they used to be lifting so this device grabs the structure and does all that lifting and a lot of the Departments that have utilized that have seen tremendous reductions injuries on the job okay so you guys have done a tremendous Drive um for um new members how many new members do you have a lot so you don't know how many members there are off the top of my head now okay um and are you running more crews yet yes and no um a lot of our crews that are members that have gotten fully certified um some of them are college members so we utilize them and have extra Crews when they're in town um we have a couple people that are in the process of going through getting certified um and we're hoping that by the end of the year we should have another couple Crews up okay great get certified the problem is just because somebody C doesn't mean they're ready or competent to be on their own MERS that just not there yet and you're not comfortable doing that that's a liability for the town because that means we don't have the confidence to do what you're doing okay we're getting very close to having a big jump and I I will say that one of the members um privately told me how terrific the two of you are when you're on a call and um how professional that you both are um and I just wanted to share that with you um uh do you have any questions anyone for them for the the ambulance courp I have a question for chief CU I know um we were discussing the radios and I I think did we say we were going to look to see how many extra were ordered remember with the radios yeah I spoke with um Janine and Mike actually Janine couple weeks ago and uh they only ordered the two that's that's all they received so far and and how many Portables are needed so we would probably need an additional six Portables and one mobile total at this point okay do you want to add anything um I think the only other thing in our Capital was the rolling um the rolling Capital the rolling Capital that that was set last year the Year okay does anyone have anything else to add or ask I have a question okay if the stretcher the power load stretcher Mount outlives the rig is it removable absolutely yeah that that's something that can be transferred one ambulance I was going to ask the same thing number is for two TRS okay that's for two that's for both of them that's for both so it's removable like if it was a f whe mount it up yep are you using both trucks are they both in service a lot of the times when we do special events to Day stuff like that it doesn't go out every day but it does go out a number of times throughout the of the year um assuming though you use the newer one when you go out on calls then the other one is sitting behind okay all right good if nobody has any other questions or comments then I'll I spoke to Rob today earlier about the calls with Holy Name can we speak about that I don't know what you're gonna say just that they were looking about numbers of calls and that the schedule seemed to be off like when when they were on they weren't getting the calls I think that's something that we should talk about with the chief and um with dispatch and figure out if there's some kind of a um we just had a meeting last night that's F so I just brought it up I talked to Rob is it something you want to talk about Rob that's that's yeah it's not a budget it's not a budget IDE we were all together I just saw we could take care I look into that all right if there's no other budgetary questions then I thank you guys for coming in thank you very much and thank you for volunteering we appreciate it everyone does you may as well leave it you never know who's going to bring a friend Mr salamando would you like to join us our camera shy DPW super welcome Perry good evening good evening we won't keep you long on know you have to go home and wake up very early to come back especially with all the rain how are we doing with all that good so far yeah good we knock on one okayy build ,000 okay what happens when the generator when the electric goes off right now you have to go to the generator flip a switch go to generator power price I got was 15,000 but 13 and change because you're either going to have to project or move the microphone closer we have little nodules that tell us whether it's picking you up or not uh added at 20,000 that I as for earlier we have to do a repair to the ramp at the ball the railing is starting to fall fall apart the one outside the police station yeah and how much is that going to cost when I was doing the budget I had the guy finally came to give me a price for the railing but he said that the railing couldn't be repaired because the rest of the ramp is in bad shape so we have to make make do with it for now we have to we'll put some kind of braces on there on the railing to get us this year and then we'll see if this a penic grant we could get because well yeah I'll leave it at that okay um also putting there for the burall parking lot to be paved depending on which way we're going if we're not doing anything with the building that does need it because it's starting to get bad somebody's going to trip back there I I what I did with that is I added it into this year's uh Paving contract with Dave okay so when we do all the roads and that way we'll do it as a collective and then it'll save money because we're doing it all together yes okay Mike you'll be happy I spoke to uh Westwood today and they pulled the back off did they they can't fit in their budget for this year so they don't want to do it now they can't oh they don't want to do what we were going to go in with a vac truck with Westwood the the sucks out the catch okay to replace the the existing one we have but they pulled it from their budget because the budgetary constraints okay so it will be coming up so then we rent one or we borrow one from the county we no we still have we have one but the last couple years we've been throwing a lot of money it's it's like foret what year that is 2002 okay and since you brought up the word in the pasak valley if they want to share with us I bring it up at my next mayor's meeting uh upper SLE River we could reach out toight you know I could yeah that's an idea yeah that's been a good partnership yeah yeah that's been working well um since you brought up the word vacuum every year when the leaves fall people ask why don't we get a vacuum and suck up all the leaves why do we have to bag them do can you just speak to that for 10 seconds why as a department you felt that that is not something that would would benefit Emerson well first of all we have no place to dump the leaves right and it would cost money and it's just not a vacuum I mean these towns most of them are doing it with like four or five garbage trucks and a vacuum to do the main roads and it would also be more manpower more manpower yeah and has been for several years now the D has been uh supposedly they're supposed to mandate bagging of leaves and then back I have to look when you know teller was in office they did a um a referendum that year and that passed like 3 to one since they with the to stay with the bags well we have newer residents and there turnover and people ask every year and I give them the explanation that I've heard for all the years that I've been on the council and it makes sense to me and I think even speaking um with the police department over the years with the leaves it causes problems with parking and um it just becomes very very messy and hazardous when the wet leaves are in the street I mean we're very fortunate here every Monday your leaves are picked up I live in Washington Township the first time they picked them up this year was like the Sunday after Thanksgiving and there's nowhere to park if youve people coming up you people and you're at the mercy of the company and luckily there was no snow this year I mean right one year we had snow and the roads are like you know down to one lane there thank you said the word vacuum and then I thought about it I me to put you on the spot so we'll pull that out uh I'm asking for $887,000 to replace our chipper um our existing one was a 2012 and last year the clutch went on it we had a real hard time getting they don't make that brand anymore okay the chipper goes out like three four times a week we use that thing a lot and we'll be using it even more now with with the new tree truck and and this is the device that you use whenever people call and say that I have um limbs on the side of my yeah like every Tuesday every Tuesday every Tuesday that thing is out you know when we're not using it for trees okay and and just for the record the they have to be cut the longer the better the longer the better the longer the branches the better yeah okay um I have in there a 4in trash pump trailer mounted for the pump station I spoke to to Dave we're going to try to get that out of one of the two grants we have for the two pump stations they put that bypass in on Cindy Lane without the pump the bypass is useless but uh yeah we're we're trying to work that into one of those two grants hopefully there'll be enough money at the end that's all I have on there okay good you have a stump grinder in there that was through shet tree different department same check all right does anyone have any questions for DPW super Perry I just have one question in the in the actual budget budget um flowers it went from 700 to 1700 is that due to inflation yeah we we're be we no it it is due to partly vacation to inflation but we're also yes I was going to explain we we increased the flowers because we are now beautifying center of town with the train station okay so we need more money to pay for more flowers and I explained to Perry that um I thought it was a good idea I when we were going around and taking photographs of the borrow of Emerson to put on our website I went to each Park and every Park I went to there was not one flower in the park so I thought at the very least that in order to put a good foot forward for anyone passing through town that we need to look good and for $1,000 um Perry thought that we could cover all the parks as well as the train station um and really present Emerson in the best way possible to anyone passing through town is there any like this was thought but actually was we were talking is there any like beautification programs or I tried to put together a beautification committee and um that we'd still have to put money in the budget in order to buy the flowers any like state funded programs for that money so no the one thing that I did do and I'll just is that I did did ask per to have um one of the members of the DPW read up on doing a um annuals perennials the flowers that come up every year um and we're hoping that we don't have to spend the money and that we could do like a rotating schedule so that the flowers um start blooming in the spring and then other ones come throughout the summer and insance that's something that we are started that with the train station this year I know the train station is not going to take care of it because I know no the Train the New Jersey Transit will not pay for anything and we adopted the train station remember so now we do have to do the flowers there that's what I was going to say in the adopted train station we went through when we try to get flowers from them I remember they gave us gloves and bibs that's ites and bags gloves and bibs so they I thought they gave us bags the yellow bibs whatever just so they could see us while we're out there taking care of it and then they could like bring have button in your shirt before your heart falls out we we could but we'd have to let New Jersey Transit know that that that we're letting it you know go to a second pair of hands but yeah we we monitor it obviously but just saying you know for their own or an Eagle Scout project an eagle scout like they get a badge for yeah but then it gets done once and you know Eagle Scout projects are wonderful and we love um helping them and giving them a project and we love that they're able to do something that enriches Emerson um but then the eagle scout moves away and the projects left and the DPW picks it up every time so even if we had an eagle spr Eagle Scout project do it the next year Tommy's in the back looking at me DPW picks up the par the waight the next time the next year yeah Tommy's the son I had one lastest no Tommy caros come on Nicole Tommy Tommy Carlos is laughing tomm Tommy's on a different Mission today he's suit I have one other request today that we were getting our launch stuff together and the guys on the way out this afternoon they asked me about replacing one at the T ride on mower how much is that the last one we got was like 15,000 and the one they looking to replace is a 2009 one of the uh it's a little smaller unit where you just stand on it you don't sit does it last more than five years oh definitely okay this other one 15 years old so we need $150 in the budget okay can I ask you a question then yes our tree TR tree removal pruning budget do we still need to keep that we only used 8,000 last year we could cut some of that down I wouldn't take it all out yet because well nobody's got a crane so if you get like a monster tree yeah we would need to to so leave the money in there and it's not needed it came up at our meeting where we did uh we cut that back you did cut it back a little bit yeah is that under shade if we cut it back a little more it can cover the deposit on the chipper maybe but maybe use that money to the Toro or the Toro that's I'm saying use the money towards the Toro to purchase we can talk further about it I won't hold you we'll do some inventive stuff when we're not on camera all right actually Lauren will do it m thank you for coming go home get a good night sleep we'll see you in the morning I hear nor Easter tomorrow by the afternoon thank you so that brings us to our volunteer fire department and the Tommy that I was referring to who was also on our DPW I totally forgot he was back there in uniform Chief Carlos and um assistant chief marritt are with us this evening from our volunteer fire department evening good evening gentlemen good evening is this a long Summary of why we need a new I keep forgetting he has du Services thank you so much thank you thank you oh sorry I'm in the seat you are just push the mic over when you come with this you better come in if you're going to bring us this much reading you know you this prior to what you didn't read this prior to of course I did I typed this out myself took me a week I didn't read read all I didn't read all the footnotes just the highlighted ones our budget's basically the same I mean it every year uh things happen obviously uh at the end of the year we had the ladder truck go down on us our Outrigger but a lad truck uh went out we sent it out for repair was out for 2 months uh we finally only got it back a week and a half ago I got the bill yesterday um surprisingly it was twice as much as I thought it the repair was going to be but this is one of the things that we discussed last year as the trucks are getting older the repairs are are getting more and more and with that being said same thing with the budget um the the 98 uh pumper failed the pump test um right now nobody's willing to uh look at it because it it looks like it's going to be an expensive uh cost for that right it's going to be an expensive cost for that um truck to be repaired and also too is is that something that we want to put money into because we lost the iso rating last year on it right so if we're going to start throwing money at something i' rather throw it at something that we can actually use in the burrow instead of something that it's going to break down is it going to pass pump test again um that's why in the capital request well actually let's go back to the budget you know every year we talk about you know the repair for the ladder truck was over uh $20,000 right basically after you take all the mandatory stuff that we have to have checked like the packs need to be checked the ladders need to be tested the hose need to be tested by the time you pay for all that stuff there's not that much money in there for for uh repairs especially now everything seems to be going up in pricing so I was very surprised to see um that bill like I said and that's like a quarter of my budget uh I know I talked to Lauren that that we're going to figure something out about that but it's just something to keep in the back of your mind as as we go along that the trucks are getting getting older or we could take that out of the fire department budget and put the trucks under the the burrow budget you know and see if the burrow mechanics can fix it or if they can you know put that in their budget instead of ours because like I said that was that's a devastating uh shot right there um also too we're trying to last year we cleaned everybody's gear even though we have a washer and dryer last year we brought a company in because it's required at least once a year that every every set of gear gets cleaned due to the fact of of the cancer causing uh you walk through the firehouse sometimes you'll smell the one guy went to fire school but all that gear is sitting there even if that person didn't use it they're like well why you going to clean my gear well that's the reason why because you know the trucks are being started in there and um so I added that to my budget last year U we went in with the rest of the pesic valley so we got a better price like a group pricing with that but that's something very important for for our members and um so again are you able to go in with another um conglomerate it's still a very pricey ordeal and just to hit on the cancer part all right there's three main components to Firefighters and cancer we have our gear itself it is now a known study that the gear itself gives us cancer every time we put the gear on we are exposed the chemicals that introduce cancer to us because of the prot protective nature of the fabric correct the chemicals compound and everything else they're working on a solution but it's called pfas you can look it up Google it they'll tell you about it um we actually just discussed at our officer meeting last night it's known that if we start to give uh blood plasma that will help reduce that um in our system so we discussed that at our officer meeting last night to start thinking about trying to get that into play um what do you mean give give the firefighters plasma from somewhere else plas you donate your blood and you give you the plasma and it helps uh your body heal faster so you don't get you know get catch it you don't get cancer so interesting so that that's one number two is the diesel exhaust all right even though we have what's called a prim event system which attaches to the truck's exhaust we're still exposed to it um and I'm proud to say that we just went for the afg grant this year to go with a vehicle mounted um exhaust system which will help prevent any exhaust from leaking into the firehouse being near firefighters on the scene it'll just overall help the health of the fire department so I'm hoping that we get that Grant what's the cost for that that was about $46,000 okay um believe that's what it was 46 for all the apparatus um and then the last component obviously is fire so everyone's been in the firehouse if you walk into the firehouse and you smell fire that's our gear still what's called off gassing and that's giving the carcinogens Airborne through the air anytime you smell that you're actually could be exposing your body to chemicals that cause cancer so we do have our gear extractor in the firehouse where we wash our gear regularly but having it professionally done does two things one they have machines that are a little bit stronger than ours so it gets more of the stuff out but two they perform an inspection when they hand over the gear so we know that the gear is in good shape we don't need to purchase new or quite the contrary we need to purchase gear here right and we had that happen and I guess I'm going to make the announcement now no hold [Laughter] on so so so that's that's the reason that the cancer it's a it's a very big deal so as as the chief just said um we end up applying for a a grant for um for gear we notified today that we did win the the the grant excellent it end up coming out to being like $62,000 $62,000 so we can get 15 set full sets that's helmet boots normally when you get something it's usually just a jacket and and the pant but this is full set 15 full sets equipment which is great because after we had this program U about eight of our sets were failed uh so we were waiting to see if we got this grant which we did so now we could replace this is the assistance to Firefighters Grant no this the American Rescue program from the state of New Jersey okay um I think it's left over funds from co uh they did it last year we we were not a part or two years ago we were not a part of it but they reopened it up and we we took part of it and we got 62 out of $75,000 and you're still waiting for the assistance to firefighter that yeah that's that application closes on the 8th and so we won't know that till late summer okay yeah we won't know yeah we won't know until the end of year that we had all all that being said that you know it's we're trying to help out the burrow I mean in the past we've we've gotten uh grants for the radios to help us out but um I know this is a big ticket item the first one here on our list is is definitely the uh the fire truck we've been asking for seven years and in the in the last seven years the price almost doubled in price um back when we asked for it seven years ago it was around $400,000 for a pumper truck now it's about uh $800,000 um talking to the manufacturer in the last uh couple days they they do have a a demo that's um they're going to actually show it to us within the next week or so they are that is for sale um it is significantly less than the price that's on this paper uh he wouldn't really give me a full uh price of what it is but it's something that maybe the bow should think about again for one miles are on that demo well the only it's not really the mileage but the truck's never been pumped it was at Daytona 500 as a pace car and they drove it from there they're driving it here and the dealer that's in Sparta is going to actually bring it down so so we could see it so the mileage is not the a big because we don't really put a lot of mileage on you know on the trucks it's more pump time and that it's never been pumped right it's never pumped out of fire and what year is it do you know either this year or or last year it's it's it's a brand new piece of apparatus um we're we're lucky enough to have the right people call us and give us this opportunity I'd like to just say that this $850,000 while high I think it's extremely Fair um we did a lot of due diligence to figure out what we can do and how we can cut costs um this apparatus you can go to other towns nearby where they go with specific manufacturers and for an engine that we're looking for they're over a million dollars um they can easily get there we are looking to get what we need and what we need only we're not looking for anything special we're looking to do the job that we need to do we need the equipment for the job that we need to do here in erson know we have the brand new block 419 that's going to put a strain on our department and our equipment so so we need to make sure that we are having the most upto-date equipment without a doubt this one in Daytona might be significantly less yes what truck would that replace uh the 98 pumper which is now our you know second do pumper to a fire you know and actually when one of the trucks are out that actually becomes either the first two like next week we're they're they're installing the radio so for a day that truck it's going to be our first due piece even though that it we're having problems pumping you know we're going to try make it make do with it you know and the life expect expectancy of a pumper truck well it depend we put this uh the papers that he hand you out the um go ahead Chief I'll you yeah so we're we're I want to say governed by the NFPA right um sure we can break NFPA but when something goes wrong and they come to us because we're going to be legally responsible they're going to ask why didn't we stick with NFPA 1901 which is a couple of copies that I gave to everyone um just to go over it they state that it's 15 years is what they expect an apparatus to last and then move to a reserve status where it's not being used every single day right um so that that's rough of the year we could probably get 20 to 25 which is where we're at with our other apparatus right we take really good care of our apparatus we don't abuse them so we're looking at that but nfba does State 15 years they suggest to be replacing fire engines um and all apparatus but for financing purposes the state of New Jersey just increased the useful life to 20 years so if we get it in the right Bond we can Finance it for 20 years 20 as opposed to 10 yeah I mean Lauren has her hand up maybe she wants to add something can I just ask a question you have to come closer to a mic the is5000 so we may be able to get this deal for 650 for whatever it is I should say the price but they still have to bid it I hope everybody understands regardless of what may or may not have been said we have to go out to bid for a fire truck or we could get it through a um or we could get it through a co-op Co-op um but if it's a national Co-op you still circumstances and requirements it's not as easy as a State Co-Op so unless this vender is either a State Co-Op from New Jersey state contract we still would have to go out the bid it's not something we can just have aake we just want everybody to be aware that so this is an opportunity and a chance not a given that we could get this truck we we understand that it's you know we're we're we're just looking out for the best interest of the burrow and we appreciate that you know and um um like I said if if that doesn't come uh there is another demo that is coming through the line it takes if I if we ordered a truck the buau of Emerson decides tonight buy buy a truck you're not going to see it between three to three and a half years from I thought it was two years it's three it's three to three and a half years if we're lucky it's better than the tree truck almost the only problem with that is that this engine that's already 2016 years has to make it another three years so that that's the problem that I foresee with doing something like I'm not saying no I just have a question sure does every single Department need all the same equipment like shared service well well since you bring that up like Emerson's best known as for our our engine right right now we're running a actually a rescue truck that's has a pump on it it's not really made to be an engine 28 uh 26 which is the 98 pumper is the actual fire engine right so that is um the truck that we're looking to replace and that's what we would need to you know make that that work out to your point with our with our ladder truck that's that's aging we're not here asking for that ladder truck replacement right now because we we both feel the same way right you need a fire engine what puts out fire what saves lives is water water that fire engine is going to bring water to the seat no matter if we have a shared service agreement or we're on our own we need that engine right the engine is is we don't need a ladder truck right most of the time Mo most of our calls I would say 80% of our calls we don't need the ladder truck you know but the engine is the most important piece it's like saying you know knock this this nail in with with a screwdriver it just it just doesn't work right so or like I said before our our truck that we're using now is basically a rescue truck that we made into a pumper it's not really working for us the the the hose bed is up high the the pumping of the uh the truck is on the side the the where we pull the the uh the hose from is is a problem for us you know I mean it's not like we don't get fires in the burrow um we had one back in uh July you know and you know yes did we call for help but all three of uh all three pieces of our our department were there and working that night okay so all right do you have more to add or can I open this up to the council for questions um well obviously the other thing is the the uh a new Chief's car that the the assistant Chief's car is 9 years old and then the last part is the the radio room that we have in the in the uh the firehouse we would like to renovate it and make it in its own little room because um there's too much noise background noise from everybody talking there so we want to move all the radios into a room and uh we need some money to uh to renovate that into what room where the fire fire prevention used to be fire when you walk yeah because when all the guys seem to hang out in that one room and then when we call them on the radio all you hear them is chitchatting and so you want one person at base on radio and then they still congregate in the correct is that a solid number or it's just kind of a rough estimate what it would cost to move everything well I asked uh a contractor and he said that's actually it's probably a little bit more but he's willing to do a little bit on how much did he say 10,000 is it anything that they could do inhouse with the DPW they would we would have to build a whole new console and with radios around I mean could we do it it would look nice make a rule that they have to hang out somewhere else too I hate to say that because I love the guys that sit there I drive by I see them but um if it's a matter of money we're trying but it doesn't seem to work Sops yeah okay I know they're hard to enforce sometimes do you have any questions does anyone have any questions for our fire department volunteers the pumper truck now will you hook up to 419 say there's a problem so like in the front of the building that right now do do you see that the pipe that's sticking out that's temporary right now as they were building they had to put they actually had to put that in right so if we it's mandatory that um the first truck goes there eventually they're going to put hot new hydrants in I I requested or the department requested two hydrants on kinak Road uh they have to hit the hydrant and they hit they hit that uh FDC that's the H that's yeah that that feeds the sprinkler system as well as the stand pipe so it's feeding the protection of the building and it's also feeding the hose that's going to be putting out the fire by our firefighters right which is why it's so crucial um because there's we did a walk through um it's practically impossible I I could sit here all night and teach you guys how to be firefighters U but that's the instructor it's impossible to bring pose from the fire engine itself to that third floor on the opposite side it's such a long run um it's it's possible but the amount of people that we would need and time where you don't have time in a fire so we're going to be relying on these stand pipe systems and even that's going to be difficult uh just to put it in perspective from one stairwell to the center of the building is 200 ft all right um so it's it's a lot of hose to be run I mean think about it 8 lbs per gallon we're flowing 150 gallons a minute out of the tip of our hose line so we are moving a lot of water that engine that's in that front of that building is moving a lot of water and it needs to be able to work that's the key okay right and same with the the blo if you notice they they they're going to change the side to the 5 in that when they put the building up they there's a little two little 3 in uh connections right there they are changing it to a 5 in I don't know if they did they I don't think so but I talked to the guy the other day but as the town getting bigger you know these are the things that you know we have to kind of look ahead to it's an unfortunate thing but with the fire service it seems that um manufacturers companies they take advantage of that um pretty much we we joke you can up the cost of anything by just saying it's fire rescue slap a sticker on it and you you can up $10,000 on the price um unfortunately we're held to that because we need the equipment to do our job right so years ago we would see increases um once a year now two three sometimes four it's unbelievable I I will tell you this that there's already known fire engine increases we're probably looking at another 300,000 if we wait another year it it's absolutely the manufacturers are actually going back to departments that boed the trucks two to three years ago tell them listen we we're going to up the price because of we can't actually sell to you if you can't buy the price I got at the department that's willing to buy it that's how don't they have a contract doesn't doesn't really matter because the other uh departments are so desperate they're willing to pay the extra money to get the okay and before I let you guys go I don't think we're going to have any more snow but would you give this the standard on digging out a fire hydrant just because you're not here a lot so that anyone that has a fire hydrant on their property understand what their responsibility is well since I have a fire hydrant from my house yeah so it's very important that the fire hydrant is clear because it's not just for your house it is for your neighbors so a nice three-foot plus out to the road would be uh would be very helpful that's time consuming for us we do carry uh in the in the winter time we do carry actually a shovel but it slows things down it slows because now that guy has to dig out into the hydrant and some of the hydrants I noticed that are down here and uh by like palis they're really low so like when even a little bit of snow actually starts to cover them up so so that's a a public plea for next year when it snows three feet around but we're not going to get snow I said next year I just want to put it out there because you guys are only here once a year and day what do your PSA for the day people yes yes I asked Perry a couple questions so I figured I'd put you guys on the no questions for the guys yeah and this Sunday is uh the time change so that I'll leave you with a little uh another PSA you change you change your batteries change your clocks change your batteries smoke detector save lives thank you our firemen thank you for your time I appreciate our volunteer firemen thank you guys and thank you for all that you do any Easter egg hunt coming up 23 23rd I'll I'll mention it later in my report but I figured I figured I'd let you tout your own event and thanks for doing all those things for for our community um next in the hot seat would be um someone who's used to it our chief of police Mark Savino good evening everyone good evening I'm asking for $2 million so we'll just and no questions can be asked where we going okay Mark what do you have for us my budget as everybody else's is more or less the same except for uh contractual obligations that have increased a little bit um and last year we did use uh money some money from OEM to offset the uh police department budget uh this morning I received an email um from councilwoman Maguire she had a few questions about my budget uh the first one was the increase in my electronics and uh Communications it went up to 25,000 for this year uh the reason being um our vendor for for computers uh Doug new meter from Dart uh next year 25 I think sometime in 2025 uh Windows is no longer going to be supporting Windows 10 uh and the computers that we have right now cannot be upgraded to Windows 11 so the police department has uh 12 computers that need to be upgraded and I think the cost is around $1,600 per computer 12 computers 12 computers where do you guys even have 12 computers I don't know why they get confused so that uh that's one of the items that uh increased um the council Maguire also asked or sorry is the always call me she can call me that's I get my kids names mixed up too you guys are Nicole was calling you not Jill yeah I'm sorry um I did that to Jake I think it's because you're both wwns now I I just said I just I did that to Jake again I did that to Dom before I was like later Jake he goes Jake I go I mean Dom I'm sorry my kids are in therapy because of that um councilwoman or jenzie also asked uh the range fees or $7500 for the police department range it has been a line item in the past but it was combined with uh can I just can I go back to your computers how old are your computers thank you Chief um like can they be used somewhere else with in the barel Lauren so it's actually not Police Department Compu also our stff our it us so what we did was order to offset it we're going to do half this year half next year for both the administra as well as the police department and there's additional money anticipated fromal because it is a one time purchase there's to the tax increase call for this and like you said we decided to break it up and do half this year and half next year when we have to be finished to make the easier not large good idea H how many computers is it in total it's 12 in the police and then it you don't know I say it's in ours we in total so we did half and half next year so under the administra you'll be able to see inre budg yeah from 21 to 36 so it's half this year half next year just in case cu the microphone she said wasn't necessarily picking you up I just want the public to know that we have a plan we do and the and the biggest reason is because it's coming off of Windows Windows they're not supporting it anymore at at certain levels you have Windows 10 Windows going forward these are not going to be supported any further therefore they won't protect our computers basic we and the computers Lauren are just obsolete at that point or we just get auction them off or does anybody want them do they have any value I don't think we can auction thems andely if we yeah you just have to take you have to Swip swipe them clean okay all sorry go ahead no it's fine um back to the uh range fees it's it's a separate light on them now I asked Lauren to uh break it up from uh there used to be range weapons and ammo we're all together um the the range we've been paying the 7500 it's increased every year over the past uh seven years and reason being in 2018 Park Ridge did a big upgrade uh they're planning on doing another one next year and all the Departments do kick into that upgrade all the Departments I remember when when they did that another uh item that uh councilwoman orenia asked about was the uh Municipal funds it's uh $27,000 um with that what's in that section is um there's an $8,900 fee which is the it's already been budgeted for um the Lexa Paul Rogers Group which all of our training and our policies is maintained in that program so to speak and the other remaining $177,000 is i' I've asked the uh appropriate Authority if I could get updated policies for the police department we haven't done it since 2018 um with that being said the updated policies protect the town from any liability and the police department from any liability because where we are up to code so and what they do is as part of the update they maintain it because as you all read in the paper the Attorney General is putting out new policies and mandates every day a policy new policy doesn't affect just that policy it could affect six or seven other policies and the the time that it would take us to go in and take out and switch it's astronomical so the company would do that for us right um and where is that physically done on your well the updates we would have to physically do them and it like I said it's it's wording here and there but they would do it at their facility they have people on staff to doing okay so uh and then as far as for my capital uh I asked for 15,000 for E tickets which e tickets uh if you it's a great system because the officers each get a uh computer in their car separate for the tickets where when they pull somebody over they just scan their license and then they type in whatever the violation is so it's less writing and it automatically goes into the uh CAD system and the court system so it would save uh la a lot of time and work and everything is right into the system so we're still handwriting tickets yes we're still handwriting tickets and if we went to this computer it would streamline everything and there would be less wins in court probably because of handwriting and and information that's wrong no not really I mean no but streamline we've had officers in the past these guys can pretty good it makes it it makes tracking easier it makes doing the work easier and getting everything because now I believe Laurel has to hand input everything into the system I'll just add to that about Laurel Laurel has recommended uh also to go to the E tickets and it's 15,000 yes and then there's a maintenance fee every year after that uh the other is it like a little computer like like you go to a restaurant now and it prints out at the table exactly and then the guys can bring back you know tickets to the cars it's a lot easier okay plug it in download it in right exactly actually no we don't even have to download it goes right into everything right all one system especially that's one of the benefits with the new uh info share we're using with the county so that it all goes in it's all Incorporated together and you guys for your reports you can see the exact number of tickets we can all see the exact number of uh summonses we're write in each one all right uh the other thing was the alpr and for the license plate readers we discussed that back in September or October I believe and everybody was on board with that that's uh $25,000 uh another thing that I asked for was um radios for the police reserves now the police reserves really aren't under the police department they're under the uh Emergency Management budget um I asked for six I believe uh if I could get three because right now the police reserves are using the police officers radios so if something happens to the radio one of my officers is going to be out of luck with a radio those radios are $7,000 the radios we'd be getting the police reserves are half the price so I asked for six originally but again I'm always willing to work and save money with the uh the town and for the town uh if I could just get three of those and and three because you generally at the most have three on duty at one time and those will connect to ones that off yes they'll connect to the officers they'll connect to the county because unfortunately the radios that they have now nobody listens you know there's nobody on the other because they're the old style of uh the old system and then the other uh item I asked for the police reserves was the uh was for vests um we are going to look for grants for that for them so we'll take that from there anybody have any questions everybody good okay thank you for coming in Mark stay safe out there no problem thank you okay which will bring us to our administrator and our burrow clerk my budget really is uh same pretty much as last year except you know um what we are looking for potentially um and this is new and we we talked we had discussed this with uh Lauren and we also had and this was a discussion that occurred with the mayor too uh in the last two weeks we've realized that um and not just the last two weeks that we've realized it actually it's just that we're coming to fruition on it that we're running out of space uh for files and and boxes and more boxes so um what we're looking into now is two a couple of companies fob onx is one and uh acus scan is another uh we're looking to see potentially on cost of what it would cost to digitize and uh some of the boxes and to eliminate some of the paper that we have here in the burrow um docu uh for uh fob onics uh has given us a a tell us they would come in with a price and we have a price acus scan but we're looking to get get those numbers before we would come forward uh with an actual uh fold number for the for Capital side but as of right now it could be anywhere from depending upon what you want to do on how many boxes that you would like look to eliminate but you could be anywhere from $25,000 to $75,000 on costs on on to digitize the records depending upon the companies so we are looking into that because we do believe that uh you know when we look at this where we are with our with capacity here for for our paper um we are going to need to do something very quickly and the mayor knows we were literally walking through the building and looking at spasis of where we were uh which is why we were asked uh at that point to look into uh the opportunities we used bionics before uh on a couple things and we're going to see where you we could come up with price uh and get back to you on on cost and potentially with that for you know for for digitizing the records okay what's next really that's my budget is pretty much like I said pretty much the same the only thing that I've added to the budget potentially for uh next year is as of one of the things that we saw last year and that we were very lucky uh by having Michelle to help us uh where we were going through some things uh is that we think that we are in need of a floater uh at the in the in the burough but we're not talking about the floater to start immediately we're talking talking about maybe somewhere in the summer going forward uh so we've have an estimate on here of a 15 hour per week at about $25 per hour so we do have in my budget right now potentially an additional $20,000 for a floater floater for what for the for the burrow for add for extra for extra things to go on in the uh in in the burough for replacement there been a complete increase in op requests um which are taking up a lot of time and um we need more hands on De in order to get everything completed in the Barrow I'm going to I'm just going to go that for a second too but it's part- time it's Pam it's there's no pension and no um doesn't matter it's still salary we have probably the lowest number of employees of any municipality I would guess other than maybe Harrington Park but they're a very small town um we desperately need help when you're in burrow Hall during the day there there's just not enough hands to do the work especially with the amount of people from the public that come in um asking for information there's been a tremendous amount um and I'm here so I know this I'm one of those hands and I don't really get more than my stien to help but um I pick up phone sometimes and I I help out where I can um but I don't always have time to do it and there's also a very extensive um raffle process and it takes a lot of time in the clerk's office to do these raffles so between the opras and the Raffles it's very difficult to do the statutory duties well I want to go into one of those so you we're right now getting opah requests at uh at an exponential rate and unfortunately we only have uh so many people in the in the in the burrow that can do those opras um one of the things that occurs with those opras is that you know people tell us you know we I don't want you to spend that much time on this I just hoping that you can get to this but it causes Michelle and Tria uh so you drove D Jane crazy and now you're G to get a floater and she retired well we we we were talking about that and no no I'm going to leave that because Jane was one of the things that uh was one of the reasons she asked us before she said look into this that's what I was going to get into is that Jane had been asking for months um for some extra help but we didn't have the money necessarily in the budget at that time which is the reason why we're discussing putting something in here now to go forward to look into potential opportunities uh to look into have a floater uh I also like I said on these Oprah requests um we just had an Oprah for something that legitimately um took hours upon hours not only from our police but from our clerk's office from our detectives Bureau uh from myself as as a staff also from my our finance department hours upon this to get stuff stuff done which you know basically is when you're tied up doing this stuff there's it's impossible to do anything else and you know so I know people on when they're looking at some of these things with the opras that you know they think of they just putting this in just it's something very simple to do it's not that simple in fact I think the way Oprah that uh the last one that Michelle had to go through there was 33,000 emails that had to be processed and these this is extremely time consuming and I think people do not really necessarily understand that what this does on the services to here and and the amount of money that's spent and waste of time to us on some of these things and it's it's it has to be done because it's Oprah so we have to follow the regulations and do it the right way and I appreciate what our clerks and are and and they're doing and the and also the police department the way they work with this but we do need help I love that you're playing lawyer for our clerks but let's move on to the next that's it no that's that's all I have I'm in the office I see all the opras it's it's a tremendous tremendous I I want the public also to know I think the public should know I think the public should know though what's going on that this way they understand of what's happening in there um anyone can Oprah the opras yeah and you can see how many opras are coming in and how extensive they are what are Raffles so the Raffles are all of the well let Michelle explain it uh bingo games oh actual Raff okay and and Licensing you know so so I don't even know that everybody even understands this on the governing body CU I really didn't but every time somebody from even out of town does a Tricky Tray or some kind of raffle within the city limits or burrow limits whether it's at hackin Sack or down at Soldier Hill or wherever they come to Emerson and have to issue the license in order to do the the raffle within town and and they're hard to process and they have to stand up and give a lot of help at the counter filling everything in um Bingo needs a license it's it's it's a lot and the state is make sure you have and they make sure you do it the right way if you're not it has to get it gets kicked back and it comes back and and these are volunteers most of the people who are doing this so they're doing the best they can on one of the things that they're seeing nobody that comes in knows how to do it everybody's it's a first time experience for every person pretty much that's coming in to do it um anything else Rob no other than that my budget basically is pretty much the same as it was the year from years prior all right good um Michelle do you have anything I won't make you go sit downstairs because you're taking notes but is there anything in addition to what Rob said in your budget okay thank you thanks Rob um does anybody have any comments or anything on the budget for this evening or we'll wait sit down at our next budget meeting and talk about um how we're going to effectuate this living breathing document nothing to add Lauren she likes to stay mum until she goes CR crunches her numbers it's okay um so we'll be ready to introduce the budget about when you have a timetable you know why don't you come up to the I'm sorry I know you hate this too we have a bunch of camera shy employees right now is to introduce the budget the first week the meeting ail and AD it at the first meting okay all right so we'll shoot for that goal all right thank you for coming in also Lauren which brings us to unfinished business um discussion of 2025 services for solid waste recycling and vegetative waste Rob so the vegetative waste uh of where we are is we have on our uh consent agenda that we're looking to put in for neglia to do the preparation for bids for this uh our again our contract is up this year um we're looking to get a head start on this to make sure because like I said in case we uh are in the same process of what happened two years ago we had to rebid so we want to make sure we have everything out there uh but I want to bring everybody up to date on a couple of other things that have gone on so we did sit down myself with uh two of the council members uh who are on the committee uh Council Maguire along with but can I are you talking about the bid still or something else I want to talk about the bid for half a second go ahead um I was speaking to another elected official in another town who's also up next year when when we're authorizing the bid are we authorizing to do it with another town or just by ourselves just right now that would we're just authorizing for bid to to set it up we're going to potentially look into all options right but if we're going to pay to put it out to bid shouldn't we make an agreement with the other town and put it out to bid that way and see what it fairs so basically when Dave comes to the next meeting all we're doing is letting him know we're going we're going to look potentially into that opport another opportunity and I don't really want to go too far into no I understand that but what I'm saying is there's a fee attached to going out to bid right yeah but we won't put that bid out until we know if we're going to have to go out by ourself all right I just or if we're going to potentially I just needed clarification on this right that's why I said I didn't have an opportunity to speak to you and I spoke to the other elected official that's all right no like that was I was going to get to that that we were um we've have a couple of different opportunities and the and and as I spoke to the council uh council members uh who are part of the committee uh one of the things that we've talked about was to look at all options on the table here how we're going to bid this every every alternate way any possible way whether it's garbage twice a week the same way we have it just exactly same thing every option then we'll come in to make sure that we every other week once a week twice a week in the summer once a week in the winter year potentially a shared service for for grass pickup somewhere with somebody else whatever we're we're going to look into everything every we're GNA leave leave nothing unturned for this good and we are we never do but I just I'm I want make glad that you're letting public know because I believe last year or two years ago it was very unclear to them um because we did a lot of it because it was negotiations and close session and they weren't aware of what was going on and I I want them to know that we've go through this every time um we go out to bid and we under every Rock for every savings that we can find it's one of our biggest uh expenses in our budget um and so we have to make sure that what we do when we go through this and especially when you so uh you know with the tax increase that we were talking about last year but one of it was because it was you because of this the the garbage so we have to figure out a way to try to do the best we can to keep this cost under control and I have spoken to some other elected officials and they're all looking at a more um Hefty increase this year due to the same reasons we got hit last year abely absolutely and so about other towns yeah so we're going to do the best we can what their other town we were shocked too so that's uh that's where we're at when Dave is here at the next meeting we'll be able to discuss further and hopefully I'll have more information I can give you on uh on the other opportunities that we may have all right good so that brings us to does anyone have any questions anything to add okay that brings us to new business um this has been batted around for a while um welcome to Emerson signs in order to beautify the town um but I think what we've batted around in the office is um reaching out to the Chamber of Commerce and any of our businesses in town to see if they would sponsor a sign um so we're going to um send out some letters correct yes and and get some um price quotes and um I get an idea of the signs to have an idea also of what your what kind of signs you would like to put up and what you would I think you get get a flavor from what the governing body would like to see uh and what you would have like to have on those signs and and then from there uh reach out to potential businesses that would be uh would like to sponsor all right good um so we'll talk about that again um um in the future uh which brings us to introduction of ordinances um there are no ordinances to introduce this evening adoption of ordinances there are no ordinances to adopt the saving which brings us to reports um and I will read my report as quickly as possible um preliminary applications are being accepted to join the wait list for two new affordable rental apartments at the Valero station um those interested should visit www affordable homes New Jersey .c or call 60966 42769 if you missed any of that please call um check the Barrow website for the information the deadline to submit the preliminary application is March 19th so you have about two weeks to the day to get that completed um and just as a side note uh cgp and is administering the process not the burrow and it is a lottery um just for everyone's edic a the mayor's Wellness campaign will be having our community conversations um opioid misuse among teens the our program um is at the senior center next Wednesday March 13th at 7 pm representatives of Northwest Bergen Regional Health commission the Emerson Board of Health and the Emerson police department will be in attendance to chair to share their perspectives and answer questions and um we do have uh a decent amount of Naran if you would like to have any in your home please come down um I'm sure there'll be a demonstration on how to administer and you could save a life if you have it on hand um we will distribute what we have um the Emerson Volunteer Fire Department's annual Easter egg hunt will take place Saturday March 23rd at noon Hillman's field mark your calendars important dates New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission mobile unit Wednesday April 17th at bur Hall yes at bur Hall on the parking lot uh shade tree commission um will be once again plant a tree in memory of those Emerson residents who have passed away between January of 2023 and the presid in conjunction with their Arbor Day Ceremony this event will take place Saturday April 27th more details on the location of where they will be planting the tree will come um if you want to add somebody's name to the list please call the clerk's office uh Bergen County Clerk's satellite office is scheduled to come Wednesday May 1st from from 10: to 2 at the senior center um that information will be on the website as well if you need a passport or something like that the Burrow's paper shredding day will be May 18th 2024 at Burrow Hall from 9:00 am. to 1: p.m. uh we'll continually tell these dates at every meeting that's uh before them so if you miss it you could call bur Hall wait till the next meeting um and be sure you can also check out the bcu.org um website because there are other recycling events that happen throughout the county um applications for the 2024 Emerson community garden are now being accepted through March 29th all plots will be assigned to Emerson residents on a first come first serve basis and they have a suggested donation of $15 um I had the pleasure of reading to the prek classes at Memorial School this past Friday um and then I was joined by councilwoman Maguire police chief Savino and fire chief uh Carlos at volano in the afternoon noon to read to students as part of read Across America activities it was so great to engage with all the young amaroni and it was really a privilege to get to the school and see the kids um that was the first opportunity that I had had to do that um and it was appreciated that the schools welcomed us all in uh the state of New Jersey started mailing application booklets for the 2023 senior freeze program if you did not receive one contact the new New Jersey Division of taxation at 800 88265 N7 this program reimburses eligible senior citizens and disabled persons for property tax increases on their principal residents to qualify certain eligibility requirements must be met the filing deadline is October 31st 2024 a link to the State website um is posted on our Barrow website and if you have any questions please call Lauren in our uh tax department the next senior meeting is Thursday March 14th at 12:00 noon those interested in joining this vibrant group can call 21599 6351 I go to Every meeting they do trips um they're going to start doing more inhouse things that they don't have to take buses for um and it's really a great group of seniors um if you're sitting home and you have nothing to do wanted to come down and and meet some of your uh fellow peers um there's also the senior bus which is available to Residents age 55 and up and to those with special needs it runs each week on Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday please call Stacy at 201262 6086 extension 1212 to book a ride and I encourage everyone to follow the burrow and the police department's social media accounts to get firsthand factual information from the burrow there are links to all of the social media accounts for the burrow and the police Police Department um on our burough website tomorrow they will be posted they are not live yet um and the next regular meeting of the governing body will take place Tuesday March 19th at 7:30 p.m. Rob do you have a report for us this evening very simple uh I have four things one uh the first one is our tribute banners that are uh we do for military uh just want to let everybody know that we're getting ready again for a Memorial Day to start the banners to have start putting them up for a Memorial Day and so if anybody is interested in adding to those banners and and doing so uh we have a pro the program is on our website uh it is $200 U and just follow the directions if anybody has any questions they can reach out to me we've been doing this now uh for a number of years highly successful uh we've got nothing but uh rave reviews and other towns have taken on from what Emerson has done and and is using it now in their towns because of this and so uh look at that second second thing is the fire I was updated today uh from CD cdbg uh that we had the inspection has taken place at the firehouse uh so that we're waiting for the state report now uh to come back about in regards to the elevator uh once we have that we'll be able to discuss that most likely at the next meeting hopefully of where we are to go forward the process of what we what we'll be doing and and moving forward with that um the third thing is that uh one of the discussions that we've had uh and have brought up and we would like to start to discuss with the governing body too is potential summer hours uh of where we are so have put that on an agenda item of where we're going to be of what we would what we were thinking for the for summer potentially uh of of doing those uh so that's something I think is you know we should start discussing though that Memorial Day is coming and and the want the residents to know if we are going to make any kind of changes uh to those start July 4th not Memorial Day whatever you decide that's why I that's what I said it's up to the governing body to make that decision of where what you would do um and the last thing that I have is my mother would be very disappointed with me if I didn't say happy St Patrick's Day to everybody I thought you was gonna say eron go BR no thank you for your report which brings us to public comment members of the public are welcome to speak on any topic by coming to the podium and stating your name for the record in the interest of time speakers are limited to 3 minutes in consideration of all who may wish to speak please please keep your comments brief and concise may have a motion to open the meeting to public comments from the public second all in favor any opposed we are now open to the public you've waited the longest please state your name Kelsey Wilson nice to meet you Kelsey I think I talk loud enough anyway um so yeah my name is Kelsey Wilson I've been a resident in the town of Emerson since December of 2020 um since and I have got married had our first kid we love it here um really warm Community we moved at a very awkward time because it was Co but our neighbors were still like very welcoming so we appreciate that very much um so that's why I'm here concerned citizen mom um there's a hazardous intersection by my house on the corner or not really corner but wut in a and Sycamore in AC so if you're familiar with that street there's like a hill there's two streets I'm on which is like facing the golf course facing yes facing the golf course so the street is a you so it's Walnut Broadway syore and then AC but Crossing is hazardous because there's a hill people fly over the hill all the time there's no crosswalk and there's no sidewalk on our side of the street so essentially you're like standing on AC to get across the street and now I'm trying to cross the street with a dog and stroller and it's cumbersome um so I originally um contacted the town back in November so there was communication back and forth with the town the engineer the police chief back and forth back and forth um nothing really kind of came of that and then I sent an email to Mayor and the council president didn't get a response I think you said it ended up going spam it did so then I sent a certified letter and then um so but we've spoken also a couple of times since um so now I'm just here to kind of just state it on public record and continue my efforts what I really want what what started as was a crosswalk so a crosswalk either like a cross acran from Walnut or a cross acran from Sycamore either one or both ideally but I'll take one um so that's kind of what my goal is um and some potential flashing pedestrian signs to kind of like draw sight to the fact that people are crossing over a hill the sight line is really not good and people complying over that all the time okay so just to update the governing body um there has been some discussion with our police chief and the chief do you want to speak or do you want me to um the chief feels that the signage is appropriate and that um that it's not an appropriate area for a crosswalk because it it is um at a rise and we don't want to encourage Crossing there correct well it's just we we haven't had Pro we've never had any problems there thank god um there is signage that says there is an intersection there there was speed limit signs going both east and west on um AC I believe in one of the emails you said further down but further down is West we really can't do anything about I've I've contacted W that yeah I had suggested to her and she told me she had already done it um right now there's really we My Traffic Unit doesn't see a need for it I spoke with Perry as well you know all right so what I explained to Kelsey on the phone today is that I think that we should now bring it to Dave um because we're maybe it's a pedestrian safety issue and maybe we can get a grant in order to put in some um sidewalks I know that might not be popular because that would mean going on the first the front of uh in the easement of people's properties um but she feels that it's important enough that we should look into it and um oh we do have a park on that street also on acri right how close are you to to the park I mean I have to walk there but again like it's a compound issue right so it's not just that there's no crosswalk or that there's a hill or that there's no sidewalk it's kind of all three of those lumped into one so like I honestly don't know what the best solution is either right which is why I think we should bring Dave in on this um but yeah so like even to get to because there are other crosswalks on aan but to get to a crosswalk I would have to be walking myself or on the street on which is not something I plan to do um but I still have to cross the street right and so there's there's other little kids on our block there my neighbor two down is in a wheelchair so there's it's just it's tough um and I know it's a bad area um and a tough SP for cross because of the Seline but that's not going to stop people from having to cross the street either um so it's kind of the predicament and part of why I'm here because like I'm solution focused by Nature so like I would love to find a solution um but I just don't know what the destination is because really is aough area all right so we is everyone in agreement that we should have Dave take a look at this I'll reach up Dave yeah the closest crosswalk to you is closer to aan park like at the bottom of the hill right at the botom where the sign is it says like dangerous intersection like going east on AC but it says it like pretty much at the CR of the hill so by the time you read this sign that's like pretty faded that's dangerous intersection well thank you for coming in I suggested that she that she come in this evening when we spoke today and she actually said she was already planning on coming in um so I didn't have [Laughter] to you're very welcome and I I'll get back to our bur administrator will get back to you after uh we take a look over there with the engineer just if you could just email me I have her information yeah I'm this way I have her information thank you you're welcome nice to meet you Kelsey welcome to Emerson four years later congratulations thank okay okay anyone else from the public seeing no more hands may I have a motion to close the public portion of the meeting so move second all in favor any opposed okay um we are closed to the public uh the next order of business is resolutions on consent um may I have a motion to approve consent agenda resolutions 888-246-3752 some move second and may I have a roll call please councilwoman aroun yes councilwoman Maguire yes counc president Tim yes Council Gordon yes coun yes okay very good which brings us to closed executive session members of the public May remain on YouTube until we return to open session at which time formal action may be taken may I have a motion to to go into closed executive session to discuss matters exempt from the public pursuant to njsa 104-1 at SEC and adequately noticed by resolution 997-2442 um may I have a motion to extend the time of the meeting to 11:15 p.m. so move second um all in favor any opposed okay we're going to go to 11:15 is there any other business is there a motion 999-2448 with police chief Mark Savino nice job can we get a second on that second and a roll call councilwoman uh orenia yes councilwoman right yes councilwoman McGuire yes council president kman yes councilman Gordon yes and Council yes very good we have a police chief um congratulations Mark um one thing before we end 1776 is the school play and they have a show Friday night Saturday afternoon and Saturday night I saw it last Saturday night it was fantastic please go see the show and support the kids um is there any other business with no further business may have a motion to adjourn at 117 so moved second all in favor I any opposed have a good night everybody