mayor would you like to proceed yes please good evening this is the meeting of the bough Highlands mayor and Council organization uh meeting on Wednesday February 7th 2024 the notice requirements provided for in the open public meeting act open public meetings act have been satisfied notice of this meeting was properly given by transmission to the asber park press and the two River times and by posting at the B of Highlands municipal building and fil with the bur clerk all on January 1st 2024 items listed on the agenda are subject to change please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I PL ALG to the of the United States United States of America I will now do a roll call council member savantes council member chac here Council melck here council president sheski here mayor bran here we have a quum first we have approval minutes January 17 2024 meeting minutes Aller them I'll second council member yes Council M yes council president sheski yes mayor bran yes motion carries to approve January 17 2024 meeting minutes next we have Journey 17 2024 executive session minutes call for those I'll second council member chac yes Council mik yes council president meski yes mayor buan yes motion carries to approve January 17 2024 executive session minutes next we have introduction of proposed ordinance 0242 amending various Provisions regarding buildings and housing throughout the burrow code I'll make an offer for it a second councilman yes Council melik yes council president sheski yes mayor bran yes motion carries to pass ordinance 0242 on first reading for the public hearing to be held on February 21st 2024 next we have resolutions R2 4058 of approving change order number two for phase one sanitary sewer Improvement projects I'll I'll second Council ml yes counc melik just just before voting just appreciative of the oversight that h2m is providing on this and looking forward to bringing this to the conclusion but yes council member sheski yes thank you oh May Mo on yes motion carries to adopt resolution R 24058 next we have R2 2459 authorizing providing for the issurance and sale of not to exceed 10, 940,000 Bond anticip anticipation notes of the burrow Highlands in the county of Mammoth New Jersey to the mammoth County Improvement Authority and determining various matters in connection there with Mike could you please just briefly review this uh transfer refi if you will basically what we're doing is we're um taking the the outstanding Bond anticipation notes that we have for various projects throughout the town and most a lot of the towns in the county pull everything with the mammoth County Improvement Authority because we get much better rates because they're able to uh to use all of the other towns with a larger amount of money for rates that come in at much lower for us so basically this translates into permanent financing for these projects moving forward thank you and with that I'll offer it council member CH yes council member Mel yes Council pres cheski yes mayor brine yes motion carries to adopt resolution R 24059 next we have R 24060 authorizing payment of bills I'll offer I'll second councilman chac yes Council melik yes Council presidentes yes mayor bran abstain motion carries to adopt resolution R 24060 next we have consent agenda mayor would you like me to read the resolutions by title yes please R 24061 amending resolution 24-5 entitling authorizing Award of a fair and open contract for Prof Professional Services Municipal auditor R 24062 amending resolution 24-29 entitling appointing fire police R 24063 authorizing the award of a non-fair and open contract for professional Engineering Services in connection with the Portland Road drainage Improvement Project R 24064 authorizing the award of a contract for Extraordinary and specifiable services Grant Consulting servic for obtaining fee mon funding funding R 24065 amending resolution 23-250 entitling appointing special officer I will offer it second Council yes Council Mel yes Council preski yes mayor ban yes motion Carri to adopt resolutions R2 2461 through R 2465 next we have have reports okay uh January was a very busy month um in Highlands Elementary news the fourth fifth and sixth graders participated in the annual spelling B on uh January 22nd and the winner so combined all three grades together and the winner was fourth grader miles gut um and everyone was very excited that the youngest guy won good um also sadly the concert was cancelled so that was going on uh over at the elementary school over at the uh hhrs our student of the month was senior Chris Pomano he's a three athlete student Mentor for others and currently weight listed at Harvard uh he and the athlete of the month was middle schooler Tim lochner who is an MVP basketball player the artist of the month Daniel n um also the highlands Lions Club raised and is donating $88,000 for a w Allen uh Visions trainer to hhrs um and lastly uh the school received a $1600 Grant to buy a 3D printer for the steam Academy so good stuff happening uh earlier this year on January six uh three Boy Scouts earned their uh Eagle Scout award the projects were all completed uh and they were all Community focused projects Kevin Connelly Jr restored cabinets at the oral pH food pantry Michael maret restored the original bronze plaque dedicated to those Highlanders who served in Parish during World War II and then Anthony martinetti martinetti built and planted flower beds over at the uh King James nursing home uh uh the sanitary sewer project uh the street that has been added has completed Mains and laterals is Lyon finally um completed Mains only are some portions of Bay Avenue that need to get routed due to the water and uh portable water sewer conflicts uh that won't happen until after April 1st uh the wells as you may have noticed from Baya from South on Bay Avenue from south to North streets have been removed finally and uh plans for February is uh water witch between bav and Marine plates and the roads are hopefully to be paved in the spring uh the Veterans Park update is um that work will continue in March and that the project includes uh removing three PL planting beds to have more seating for burough events adding some picnic tables add adding solar lighting updating the basketball court and adding some uh a stone Checker chest table um the projects planed for 2024 remain the same um and there is no update as of yet uh for the resiliency plan updates and for the community rating system update the coordinator has been updating elevation certificate information as well as ensuring that all building department upgrades are properly logged in the flood plane and building department tracking software and that's my report there we go uh I only have a couple things to add for mine um we did receive partial payment from FEMA of I believe it was roughly $900,000 towards the municipal building uh we're still awaiting other reimbursement for that um where was the other part um Jones Creek I can't remember the dragging cour I can't remember the name of what the um Joe rafy had explained it to me of the paperwork we did receive but they're looking at it so hopefully we we'll get some kind of answer by D by like March hopefully and uh that's all I have to add okay could you please read the public portion statement individuals wishing to address the council shall be recognized by the presiding officer and shall give their name address and the group of any need they represent although the council encourages public participation and reserves the right through his priding officer to terminate remarks to and or by any individual not in keeping with the conduct of a proper and efficient meaning if any individual refuses to conduct themselves in a proper manner they will be removed move from the meeting the council will not during the public portion of this meeting discuss matters involving employment appointments termination of employment negotiations terms and conditions of employment evaluation of the performance of promotion or discipline of any specific or perspective or current employee there's a three minute time limit for your [Applause] comments I see we have new engineer welcome welcome I guess I'm here again as usual for the 14-32 street Pro um I don't know if anything has transpired with regards to Mr the last couple months in touch with anybody not with me I haven't heard anything I'm waiting to hear from Mr wiers as to what he's discover he come up with regards to handling problem there um I'm assuming that Mr rapt I yes I don't know if you're familiar with the 1432 no but Joe rafy is very familiar with it Joe RAF is yeah he's just filling in for Joe for sorry okay so how long is Mr rap January 1st January y so I can't ask he knows anything about this he had we've had some meetings about it have yeah mhm good um obviously uh my concern is still the same concern I have with regards to erosion itselft and the possibility of that steep slope having a fail on some level um the uh the hay bals and the sil f are holding some of this s back now but they're they're going they're getting compromised as you get more rain weather um if we have a torrential down in a very short period of time there's going to be a problem um we've had some heavy rains where I really haven't had a silk problem but I have had water and I had damage more damage to the property behind the house up in the there um so I I called to fre soil yesterday back and to fix this in offense that's going to that's going to be breached um trying to be proactive um unfortunately everybody's reactionary instead of the been waiting for the disaster to happen and that's what happened the first time and that's why I had so Char didn't do anything he was asked to do something he's he's never done anything to secur in the proper way it's always been compromised it's still compromised regardless of whatever the RO prote is for have self can only do so much so what I can tell you Mr Doran is at our last land use board meeting last month uh we uh spoke with the land use attorney and land use engineer and told them to work collaboratively to review our ordinance to give it as much teeth as possible and we did explain your situation to them um so we are proactively taking this fite at it Joe I'd like to add to that excuse me but I I met with Mr Steve Winters the new building uh Department we discussed your situation last week he he is aware of it he also has some uh ideas about revising the steep slope ordinance as well too he wants to work with EC and then the lawyers but he's aware of it and he's very proactive so just know that uh he will be involved right um thank you for that just back to what Carol said about you know having some teeth and you know being able to compel this depart to do something because um he he's really you know not cooperate with anything that's he's been asked to do unfortunately that's that's my opinion he might argue that but I took him it took him well over I don't how many it was that that s existed like that for 6 months without any protection whatsoever made worse yes we're going around in history of this every time of here but U it needs to be restated um so the current circumstances you know this just not acceptable and it's to nobody's benefit it's it's the town is so they a new home there far who's not making any money and my property is being appreciate so it's it's everybody's benefit to get this movie all and that's all I just you know I I'm glad that we're finally trying to get get a hold of you know Joe uh I I I suggest that you make an appointment with Mr Winters I think you would be a mean Mo just you know I you have okay all right very good all right so a matter of fact I made an appointment to see him yesterday and um for next Friday um and the secretary said to um she called me back when she said she spoke to him that he's going to get back to me didn't so we're in we're in conversation yeah so so so hopefully because these things take time understand at some point virt time is up all right I'll be here you know most see so thank you thank you you're welcome executive session executive session will be held following the regular council meeting prior to each executive session the council borrow Council will convene an open session at which time a resolution will be adopted in accordance with njsa 10 col 4-13 no formal action will be taken during executive session resolution to enter executive session be it resolve that the following portion of this meeting shall not be be open to the public be it further result that private consideration is deemed required and is permitted because of the following not exception set forth in public in the ACT potential litigation TBA contract be it further resolve that is anticipated that the matters to be considered in private may be disclosed to the public at a later date when the need for privacy no longer exists I'll make that resolution Council M yes Council Mel yes Council peski yes mayor yes motion carries to enter executive session at 7:21 good night good night I'll make a motion uh to journ all in favor thank you meeting adjourned at 7:45 bye guys thank you for being theat yay I've got feedback I'll wait for tomorrow