[Music] number nine in accordance with the open public meeting act notice of this meeting was provided to the home News Tribune the star Leisure and the Highland Park planet on January 5th 2024 and was posted on Bor Hall website at www.hpborrow.com and on the bulletin board of Bor Hall 221 South fth Avenue in Highland Park New Jersey and has remained continuously posted as required by law exit are to the left and right of the council chambers Mrs H can you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance uned States stands Nation indivisible andice for all call Mayor Foster yes councilwoman can yes councilman George exuse councilman Hil here council president H here Council woman Kim Johan here councilman ponic excused B attorney Shaw here B administrator H EXC and special Council D approval motion to approved minutes as distributed February 20th 2024 regular meeting and March 5th 2024 regular meeting May I have a motion may I have a motion to approve minutes as distributed roll call councila yes councilman H yes council president HC yes and Council woman kiman okay B attorney good evening everyone um before we get started with every meeting we just want to go through some of the ground rules the mayor runs the meeting so with that um she will all the questions that you may have have to be directed to her and then she will direct if she is not going to answer it to somebody else who will and the other item too is that until she recognizes you that's when you can speak so we just want to make sure that everyone understands that those are the ground rules if if for whatever reason there is a A disruption and everyone will have an opportunity to speak I will call you out of order until we maintain some Decora there are going to be two public portions the first portion is to comment on any ordinances and resolutions and the second public portion is where you can talk about anything you like for both of them we're going to have all the questions put on the record and we're going to close the public portion after the public portion is closed that's when um the mayor and anyone else that she wishes to respond to the questions will respond um and I just want to note that once the public portion is closed please do not um call out from the audience or on the phone to cut the person off who's speaking and if there is there is an opportunity after the meeting if you like to continue the conversation you may do so but once the public portion is closed it's closed thank you so much thank you our attorney and now have Council report counil who welcome back [Applause] coun thank you thank you so um I don't have a report I'm trying to catch up I'd like to thank the council members that have been um filling in for the rent control meetings and all the finance meetings as well too and um I'm happy to be back back going back council member Hil hi I'm Matt H and I chair the economic development um many for the council um so just brief report tonight um Sunday May 5th is uh the Highland Park uh street fair in 5K um really really anybody who is uh interested in running in this in the in the 5K um uh or anybody who is interested in in volunteering to help with the 5K means really needs um as much people as possible you can go to main street.org um to sign up as a volunteer to sign up as a as a runner uh Main Street is also looking for um uh uh support and and um people to sponsor a variety of different things um if you are are able to sponsor or want to sponsor um uh the 5K or if you want to be a vendor um at the the uh the the street fair uh those opportunities are still open again is May 5th um uh coming up very very quickly um all of the money that comes from into the 5K goes to the Highland Park PTO um so it's a great opportunity to be able to uh uh run out have some great exercise um and then uh go to the street fair after it's a big event for High Park um it's really an exciting time um so anybody who wants to be a vendor anybody who wants to be a runner um you know please come out um council president H and I have decided we're going to start running tomorrow tomorrow and we may have a chance to win if that's a possibility so we're going to we're going to start early just to make sure that we get really really close to the Finish Line before everybody else starts um so uh again please uh if you have any questions go to Main street.org and I would also very very much like to welcome oi's moms back for being back here so that's I councilwoman can thank you T i chair Health and Human Services um the Board of Health is a co-sponsor in the go clean and go green event being held in Edison at eus Park on Martin Avenue on April 14th it's a free Hands-On demonstration of battery operated landscaping equipment the commission for universal access will be meeting this coming Monday they're meeting with the special education parent advisory Council to find ways to help all our children feel included in the community the Community Food Pantry is open on the 2 and 4th Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. and again from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. and Saturday following that Thursday from 9:30 to 10: a.m. the Highland Park gives a food pantry is every Tuesday at the zone 6 center from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. both pro programs have seen an increase in families meeting our services human relations commission held their gratitude Tree Project it was fun and meaningful event and you still have time to put up your leaves or flowers of gratitude for more information email Highland Park HRC gmail.com the Mental Health commission held its first meeting today they're still looking for new members and anybody interested can please email me at Tara canava hp.com and on a personal note I would like to thank Sergeant when goosi and officer BBY they responded to a call at my home when my grandfather when my grandson fell yesterday they were very helpful in calming my daughter down and reinsuring her that my grandson would be okay so I thank them for doing that while I couldn't be there and I'd also like to thank the esm workers and lastly I'd like to thank the police for holding the make a kite with the cop event it was a lot of fun so thank you and welcome back that's the end of my report thank you council president H thank you mayor um very quickly just a few items um my name is Matthew h i chair of the U the Public Works committee for the council uh please join the Highland Park Environmental commission uh on Wednesday this Wednesday tomorrow at 800m on Zoom for a regular meeting and to hear updates about our River Trail concept proposal for commercial Leaf blow commercial Le lower ordinance Community solar and more it's a robust and open discussion and um uh a lot of knowledgeable folks on the environmental commission so please come on Wednesday April 10th at 7:30 p.m. on Zoom join the shade tree advisory committee for the regular meeting as we discuss upcoming Spring Tree plantings rain Garden maintenance and more uh and I also just wanted to Echo um counil Count's sentiments regarding the gratitude tree I was I was there for that as well um as well as the kite coloring with cops uh which was also a fun event uh and um you know I I I missed the last council meeting because I was away for um for for work at a national conference with a lot of uh Community Economic Development corporations there and uh you know really just it's really it's it's always eye open to hear what other towns are doing to um to bolster their downtowns to improve their Economic Development prospects and the strategies that they employ and I'm really proud of just what we're doing in Highland Park I just wanted to make that uh you know really clear we're Forward Thinking and Progressive and we're doing all the necessary steps to make sure that remain strong and comes and can be even stronger post pandemic um I know the mayor's F to talk about this but I was so happy to see that uh Super Fresh sign going off over the grocery um I also just wanted to welcome back um councilwoman Kim Chan we miss you um um we know you have your hands full but we are still here to help you every step of the work so thank you that's thank you uh B attorney oh I have nothing okay and then I'll just um attorney has nothing either and my report is very brief yes I was super excited to see that sign up yesterday as I was I pulled up in the parking lot while they were while the sign was being hung and it was like really really good to see that a supermarket is finally coming we've been saying it for months but that sign just verifies exactly what we we have been saying and I'm really excited to have our very own Highland Park Supermarket coming back so stay tuned I will I think I'm going to do a quick little video over this but you see the progress report of what's going on so look out for one of my mayor's minute video I too was excited about the kite decorate the kite the police department kite decoration last week there was so many little ones there and they were so excited and it was just a great time to be around and hopefully one day soon they'll have a kite flying somewhere maybe Donaldson park Chief hint hint they can go fly those beautiful decorated kite over at Donaldson Park and the Gratitude tree was also great so we're doing some really good things for the Gratitude don't forget to put your get your notes of gratitude wherever you see the signs for the Gratitude tree it's going to be a big on in pretty so um speaking of school I was at B school um last month for their women's History Month event and they were just spectacular the singing the poetry reading the dance they were just it was amazing and I just want to thank all those students from Bara school who invited me to come to be a part to see their performance again Kudos Kudos Kudos they were just amazing and that's my very brief report uh now it's time for public participation 21 minutes total 3 minutes per speaker limited to items on this agenda comments from members of the public attending in person will be heard first followed by those who are attending on Zoom okay um anyone in the audience that wish to speak you may come up and say your name and address hi mayor Lois leing nor Second Avenue and others um this is not on this agenda but it's about the report that I heard last Tuesday from hman Phil George who I see is not here I wanted to make my correction there is no leads that I could find in my first edition of this current development plan it discusses at the way at the back of your development plan discusses describes green buildings VC energy star it was in this 2005 somewhere that has um Redevelopment plan it has leads mentioned many times on page 17 and described what was to be to me that's more important than it's in the front of the Redevelopment and not hidden in the back and then in your curent which is my copy could be very outdated I mean it's one new issue for this year for 2021 but it was right after the graph but so after the energy explanation for building construction then you have accessibility which to me is then lost in the sauce so if any of those can be moved to the front I I guess you're finished with it but I have more to comment on about the master anybody else here okay there are three people on Zoom somebody's raising their hand um Carl pre you unmute yourself state your name and your address for record nothing from hello yes okay um it's Mary forsberg um Dennison Street Highland Park um Hannah Hannah shac and I have spent a little bit of time looking into um the issue of Superfresh and it's um relationship to highum Park New Brunswick and Tan Mall and some other places and I today Ju Just today read a letter that Hannah sent to all of you um and um only two Council people and um the mayor responded um the person that um the burrow is working with with about Superfresh has a history of um not being a great um long-term tenant let's say in some places uh specifically Tano mall and New Brunswick um and he also has a problem of a um uh a problem in um New York state where he has um been um found guilty of um uh cheating on loty um taxes and uh and dealing inappropriately with his um with his employees I'm I'm curious how much of that you he went into he um applied for a um the DL urban renewal thing in May in June after the store closed in May um and then got approval for DL urban renewal in um August so you've known a long time about him and you know that he's going to be the supermarket guy and I'm very curious why or if you did do any do due d diligence um about H what how um how appropriate was to actually have him be the person bringing our Supermarket to town um so I would like I know that um uh the mayor responded and um uh councilman um Carnival responded and uh one other person responded um and I'd like to hear something from the other people who never bothered to respond to Hannah's Hannah's letter any other um persons raising their hand at this time I move to close the public comment of the meeting and um Lois I can follow up with you I will follow do a followup on the things that you mentioned the leads the ad uh ad and the Redevelopment plan so we'll do a follow up on that um in regards to the phone call from Mary I'm going to ask um attorney Balman to address those but before he does there's two things I want to address the supermarket that was in new bronswick it's called Fresh Grocers the other supermarket in Tano mall is called Fresh Grocers so new bronic was Fresh Grocers Tan Mall was fresh gr that is not true point point of order ma'am um we had set some ground rules before that once the public portion is closed you have to allow individuals to answer the questions so please refrain from that if that's the case we you know we're gonna have to unfortunately continue doing this but Super Fresh was EXC ma'am excuse me out of order again the mayor is speaking and she's responding to the question questions I've asked everybody at the beginning of the meeting to follow the rules can you please allow the individuals to answer the questions and if you have any additional questions we can take it offline and you also have a second public portion to speak at you cannot speak during the time when the public portions closed can you please respond if you heard me I've heard you and you and thank you that's it thank you can you please allow is not a very no it's not ma'am ma'am ma'am we have already established that you had your opportunity to answer the questions we made a motion to close the public portion I do not understand why we continue having this issue now and also the last meeting you're at why why are you being disrespectful to the governing board they're answering your question thank you okay um attorney Balman could you answer the rest of the question um regarding um the the uh the question that um Miss FB asked about why this particular developer we're working with or has chosen to work with us sure May um first my understanding is that they do not own the store in New Bruns he owns Five locations in New Jersey Lyon poan middlex Belleville and Rosel which are facility that was uh damaged by explor and is about to reopen he's been in business about 30 years he has 4 uned employees his various grocery stores uh he's investing $6 million he did have an issue with the state New York um he he wasn't found guilty he settled with them without admitting without admitting um liability but he did settle for significant number 4 million bucks or so um Mr Lee uh came to us through the landlord so not unlike unlike perhaps our other Redevelopment projects where we own the property and go create RP RQ process and we have much more to say about who will ultimately develop that property or say in this property which is privately owned was limited um we offered a pilot to help the property owner attract a grer who was Will to invest in a grocery store that was frankly outdated and need of substantial improvements they struck a deal with Mr Lee um Mr Lee and they did an eliance on our consideration of the pilot uh his application was filed in February so not August of last year um and at this point it's up for adoption but we do have a limited ability to make decisions about who that land or Mak um find with their tenant uh our role is simply that we offered to entice a tenant by providing pilot U which we think was successful we as you know mayor I think you have Community me meeting I looked it up February 28 2023 and you said to the public that we were going to find a grocery and over the past year we spoke it to lots of Grocers uh individually we reached out you did personally proper own did um I mean proper own frankly not our choice that on this grer um which again they they have an issue with in York but has also has 30 years of experience for United employees and five stores in Jersey and is going to invest 6 million and I also want to say that in our borrow we do have a theft a wage the ordinance in place yeah clearly if there's [Music] issues he'll be account thank you um now we're going to move on to ordinance requiring a second reading um this is this is the uh the Super Fresh ordinance but no formal action will be taken tonight and it's ordinance number ordinance number 24208 three and um no action will be taken it's it's a long-term tax exemption authorizing this financial agreement for d for DL urban renewal which is Super Fresh May I have a motion I'm sorry may I have a motion to continue the public Hearing in our next in our next meeting April 16th second councilwoman can yes councilman H yes council president her yes Council ktim yes and now we move on to our consent agenda may I have a motion to adopt or reject the following consent agenda items A2 through F7 it out here is not is not going to be can can you um you move person move yes thank you okay okay okay may I have a motion to adopt or reject the following consent agenda items a12 through 12 I mean 12 a through 12s motion second councilwoman can yes councilman ha yes council president H yes and just thank you to Terry h's not here tonight but for exhaustively walking us through several of these uh things especially 12 energy absolutely yes councilwoman kimun yes uh resolution required requiring a separate reading that's 4-24-1 21 resolution to amend the 20 2024 Municipal temporary budget may I have a motion to adopt or reject motion to adopt second roll call Council can yes councilman H yes council president H yes Council yes and now I'm moving on to appointments and to the Council of a on agent Francis bur Shad re advisory committee Kenneth cast may I have a motion to confirm Francis B to the Council on aent and Ken to the shade tree committee motion to confirm second Council can yes Council yes council president yes Council Kenan yes now it's time for the second public participation three minutes for speak on any topic subject to close at 900 p.m. members of the public attended in person will be heard first followed by those on zoom and just as a a reminder all the questions will be taken in and then we'll close public participation that we'll answer the questions later thank youen so while I was looking for leads in your 2021 uh Redevelopment I also searched and thought maybe I saw leads in the 2019 master plan I'm assuming since I can't ask you that that is the newest I believe so no leads could I find oh in rment and the master plan says New Jersey statute well as Municipal land use law 40 55- 93 preparation every municipality the stage of prare of storm water management plan and control ords and in section 95 it talks about detention bases and U development flooding during new development so it does not when you come back to me and say this pertains only to short towns it does not and it was written in 1981 and I don't remember seeing it ever in any of our Mas plans now the Mas is though apparently in your code book because you have dog waste on the C the cler that says it's in code book 365 the code book is not the master plan which is the invitation for developers so now I'm wondering why we didn't ever have it in for the Cleveland Avenue Mass development and other ones that are planned it has to be every shall prepare every town shall prepare you prepared it but it's not in the master plan this says it should be in the master plan also in your master plan and the historic page you have no mention of what historian Jean Cola told me many years ago that she worked diligently to get H Park in both the local um historic district and as a state histor district so you have protection from State funds coming in the entire town is is a historic district and historic district um also in the r development plan where is the this coing foror that should come through the middle of town a line of trees not just for animals but for pooling people I know you've got one down at the river where two former Ms but it needs to be in the center of town even in the 7s when friends would visit the minute they got one block off and parked on Dennison Street one block off the Avenue it was 10 degrees cooler I kept hear it it's 10 degrees cooler off around 27 so where is the cooling Corridor of trees for your future and and do we only get one question now if I step back and two people come forward I get three minutes twice a month we do is that my freedom of speech okay can't answer okay I'm questioning this than do we have anyone speak there are three people on Zoom Carl FR is raising their and also middle sex County organizing the power so they're going to go second Carl pre can you state your name and address for the record Mary forsberg Dennison Street Highland Park I want to correct the record here there were two stores in New Brunswick that went out of business each of them owed almost one owed a million dollars to the um uh New Brunswick Parking Authority one owed almost about 800,000 to the new brunswood parking authority one of them was Super Fresh one of them was fresh direct so Super Fresh does not have a great have a great record and in uh in Tano mall I'm pretty sure that was super fresh as well that walked away um the um the other thing is that uh DL urban renewal applied to um renovate a supermarket um in June of 2023 it's in the information that you that you had made available um they were then approved for that in August of 2023 none of that happened I don't know what happened in February 2024 but both of those happened um you know halfway through the year in 2023 so the information that Mr Bowman is giving is not the information that you provided in the packet of information that was available able when this whole thing became um an issue in town I would like to see a supermarket in town but I want to be sure that this is a supermarket that will be here for more than three years um and will not leave um either the town or the um the owner of the property with a giant uh debt so I I I feel like you know Hannah asked about whether you did any due diligence and I think that's a big issue that should be that people should think about so thank you I just wanted to correct the record on that sorry keep looking that way yeah Jessica hunon can you unmute yourself and state your name and address correctly well done thank this is Jessica hunston and oh okay great I wasn't sure if I could speak um I did have a couple questions um first of all I don't it hasn't been raised but I did send the mayor and counsel um an email in support of a resolution that I believe was introduced to all of you um that rejects that urges um uh middlex County Clerk um Nancy pinkin to reject um the to to to not essentially to not um it's the word I'm looking for I'm so sorry to not um not go ahead with the uh um I'm so sorry I didn't know I was G to be talking tonight but um to to ensure that the the county line stays in place and I know that there has been a court case um ongoing and that it was there was a ruling and that Nancy pinkin is using taxpayer resources to um stop from that injunction from coming into place so I just want to say my support of that I hope that you got other emails supporting um that this County Line um the ending of the county line is actually that ruling is upheld and then the other question I did have is um I been to the last two Council meetings and I um have noticed that the calls for the public comment mention I totally understand the need to have um you know rules in place and and to engage respectfully from the mayor and councel but I'm a little concerned that by um shutting down and not responding to the questions as they're asked doesn't allow members to community members to kind of have an engagement and maybe ask clarifying or follow-up questions and so I just wanted to raise that because I've been coming to Council meetings for quite some time and this seems to be a new policy and I'd ask that the mayor and Council really consider um what that means to community members and also the previous engagement um with the attorney and community members just didn't seem to value and respect our community um input and so again really I I I totally understand the need to respectfully engage with the mayor and Council but I also would like for the attorney to respectfully engage with Comm members seconds anyone else on zo okay um I appreciate having more time a second chance to express our opinions to our Representatives so you can address our grievances as is written you know where um until different subject oh no wait let me stay with the any grocery store that comes in is there is it possible in the contract to put a clause that if if the business goes under and taxes are duee somewhere property tax whatever they pay I guess it's not property taxes rentals finances is are due can there be some sort of a finding for I want to hear from him um meaning ocean um can there be some sort of protection this is all that citizens are worried about you have so many residents that don't drive and we need more bus shelters PS because of that and this is advertised as a walking town but you have so many counting on this we don't want everybody get their hopes up and be happy for two years and then the thing is gone if this pattern that has been set if that continues so yeah right now it would be wonderful if we had grocery store for 20 years okay totally different question lithium batteries um are they only the rechargeable batteries we see and hear about starting on fire or are they also the lithium in your bathroom scale or in PL that's you can't answer and I just want to say I had asked months ago that for those of us who are home when we're home at a meeting could you please tell us the count so if you won't I'm gonna say there's seven people plus the police chief who I assume is always here plus the videographer so you tell us that there's three on the computers but you don't tell us on the phone or computers how many are here when indeed you might have zero or you might have a full house we're curious too thanks any other public comment seeing that there's none I move to close the section of the public comment comments um attorney Bowman could you clarify about um oh I'm sorry a motion to close public commments so move second all in favor thank you okay now we're going to move to attorney bman could you please explain what the process that the agreement that this the grocer has with the property owners so as much as you can there's two agreements there's a lease of the grer to the property own tenant lease and we're not a party to and we have nothing to do we didn't negotiate it the financial agreement that's under consideration of the public hearing does to your question require them to pay this taxes and if they don't pay their taxes the same result as if you didn't pay your taxes meaning they would be lead on their property and ultimately their property can be taken from them and sold so the real estate taxes out to pay to the burrow uh will be protected the same way that anyone else has to is protected against anyone else not paying their tax so we're covered there lastly if the grocery store does close the contract and we negotiate for the payment low taxes terminates it's only good for as long as there's a grocery store and then it will go back to normal taxes um Mary mentions this August date I figured it out um I think she's referring to the date that the entity was created in August so it was the date that we were dealing with them their lease is not assigned until November and then they don't apply to Payway so I think Mary's referring or Miss horberg sorry um the day when they organized I'm guessing thank [Music] you question to do you recall how long the lease is between the super fres and it's a 20 year lease any questions from U members of the Bas regarding the supermarket okay good um the other question was asked um by m husband about the county clerk um or attorney anything that you want to add to that uming the lawsuit yeah the lawsuit um you know as many of you know uh the lawsuit came in um and there's been filings that was done actually on the Easter holiday uh we are all sorting through the information and once um and I it's my understanding the additional filings of up to midnight last night and today um I will advise uh the mayor and the council um and any Next Step that they can take however as everybody knows this case is moving very fast and there's there are many many parties in it so there is no response for today because um there were a lot of document production over the Easter holiday thank [Music] you I think we answered all the questions there was something about historic I will discuss that with Lois offline because I really don't know and then the lithium B battery one I I don't know the answer to that either we we'll do some followup and get back to you where the batteries are concerned in um and Co C I think that's more shade Tre you're talking about but that's it um may I have a motion to adour Mo all in favor I hi our next schedule council meeting is on April 16th at 7M be safe everyone out there in these W roads thank you