mayor would you like to proceed yes please good evening this is the meeting of the bough Highlands May on Council regular meeting on Wednesday May 15 2024 the those requirements provided for in the open public meetings act have been satisfied notice of this meeting was properly given by transmission to the asire park press and the two River times and by posting at the B of Highland municipal building and filing with the bur clerk all on January 1st 2024 items listed on the agenda are subject to change please stand for the pledge [Music] allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all I will now do a roll call council member santes council member chac here Council mik here council president chesy here mayor bran here thank you um first we have Proclamation EMS week em week and this is to designate the week of May 19 through 25 of 2024 as Emergency Medical Services week whereas Emergency Medical Services is a vital public service and whereas the members of the Emergency Medical Service teams are ready to provide life-saving care to those in need 24 hours a day 7 days a week and whereas access to Quality Emergency Care dramatically improves the survival and recovery rate of those who experience sudden illness or injury and whereas Emergency Medical Services has grown to fill a gap by providing important outof hospital care including preventative medicine follow-up care and access to Tele medicine whereas the Emergency Medical Service System consists of first responders um emergency medical technicians paramedics emergency medical dispatchers firefighters police officers Educators administrators prehospital nurses emergency nurses emergency physicians trained members of the public and other out of Hospital medical care providers whereas the members of the Emergency Medical Service team team whether career or volunteer engage in thousands of hours of specialized training and continuing education to enhance their life-saving skills and whereas it is appropriate to recognize the value and the accomplishments of Emergency Medical Services provided by designating emergency emergency medical services week now therefore be it resolved in recognition of this event that the mayor and Council of the burough of Highlands do hereby proclaim the week of May 19 through 25 2024 as Emergency Medical Services week honoring our past forging our future can that to next we have approval of minutes May 1st 2024 meeting minutes I'll offer second council member chac yes counc melik yes Council pres cheski yes mayor beran yes motion carries to approve May 1st 2024 meeting minutes next we have May 1st 2024 executive session minutes I'll offer second council member CH yes Council M yes Council peski yes mayor bran yes motion carries to approve May 1st 2024 executive session minutes next we have public hearing on proposed ordinance 02407 amending chapter 3 General police regulations Section 3-7 a. 2.1 brush and Branch pickup and section 3-7 a. 2.2 pleas pickup and adding section 3-7a point7 commercial recycling oh open public portion do you have any questions regarding this uh ordinance no um okay then I will close the public portion is there any discussion at the table no no we're all good then I will offer this I'll second council member yes Council melik yes Council pesy yes mayor bran yes motion carries 02407 passed on second and final reading next we have introduction of proposed ordinance o 248 amending chapter 16 health section 16-3 retail um food handling establishment code section 16- 3.5 grease track uh this is updating our uh grease trap ordinance for the Board of Health and also to um have more people than just the plumbing subcode officer go in and perform these inspections are there any questions regarding the ordinance sounds good to okay good yes of course the more grease that we trap inside the restaurant the less grease goes into our citer sewer um so with no further Ado I'll offer this second council member chac yes Council Mel yes Council peski yes mayor bran yes motion carries to pass 0248 on First and first meeting with a public hearing to be held on June 5th next we have 0249 amending chapter 25 storm water management and control this is the latest uh update uh mandatory update I might add from d uh for our storm water uh management and control and uh we're adopting a a shorter version that just refers back to the state code that way on their next uh update which I'm sure will come soon we don't have to keep on amending this ordinance it'll just refer back to whatever the state ordinance the state law yeah so um any questions on that one then I will offer second Council M yes Council Mel yes Council pki yes mayor ban yes motion carries to pass 0249 on first reading with the public hearing to be held on June 5th 2024 next we have consent agenda mayor would you like me to read the resolutions by title um can we for the record note that councilman cantes has arrived at 7:06 thank you very much hello how are you would you like me to read the resolution T yes pleas yes so R 2413 authorizing the award of a non-fair and open contract for Beach sifting at snug harer Beach and Miller Beach Miller Street beach for the summer of 2024 R 24114 authorizing the award of a contract to Civic Plus for annual renewal of munic code meeting Sub Hub software R 24115 appointing Deputy Emergency Management coordinator to fill a vacancy for the unexpired term R 24116 call calling for the modernization of the open public public meeting U public records act and Swift passage of s- 2930 A- 445 R 24117 authorizing payment of bills r4118 governing body certification of compliance with the United States equal employment opportunity commission's enforcement guidance on the consideration of arrest and conviction records in employment decisions under title seven of the Civic rights Civil Right right Act of 1964 um before offering this I would like to thank um and I'm happy he's here Larry chessel from our first aid squad for stepping up to filling the vacancy on uh OEM I have always said I would like a member from each of our Emergency Services on the OEM team I think it just makes for a more uh cohesive team to look at all situations uh from every angle and with that I will offer the consent agenda thank thank you sir H second council member santes yes council member chillac yes Council Mel yes council president Shi yes mayor bran yes motion carries to adopt resolutions r4113 through r4118 next we have reports well we let's go to other business before we go to reports that way we can get this this up on the screen for our guest to see [Music] sorry stand by this is our lovely sanitary sewer project anything that's green is good has been tested and it's fine all the other um colors um the red and the fuchsia have conflicts with the waterm the two blue areas need to be tested the conflicts are so great with the water man well let me go back for a second way back in 1925 when this was all installed and no one's touched it since um and they put in all of these sanitary lines and the water sewer that's cast iron and the uh the manholes are all brick they're actually beautiful works of art uh but I don't know what they were thinking in 1925 uh but they have in certain areas the water man is very close to the sanitary sewer manh holds and in some cases the water man goes right through the wall of the manhole so that's when we had the big water man break by the bank was because no one was expecting a water man to go through the wall of a sanitary line that sanitary man so what we're going to have to do is regroup with New Jersey American water and they're going to have to move the water because we can't move manhole because it's you know it's we have to replace all of those manholes but it's um as I said the the the water Ms are old they're cast iron they're very heavy so there's no way to really go around around them because you can't prop them up for too long because if the weight of them would just take it all out which would be catastrophic uh to take out a line that sides so what we're trying to get done is uh it's Roman's responsibility to pay water witch Central Beach ocean and that little sliver of Bay Avenue and it is the responsibility of the county to PVE lynon Avenue that little bit of water which that runs in today and then through the completeness there and then we're just going to stop we're going to ask the county to just do a very simple Mill and pave for the remainder of the project and so we can get into phase two which hasn't even been sent out to bid yet but that way the streets will be whole what many people don't realize on these County Roads is that below the at the 6 in of mixed grades of asphalt there's also 4 in of concrete so all of that needs to come out and get redone and then it can get paved after the concrete has been poured so it's like a huge laborious process and the county said yeah we'll get to you in August and we're trying to have them get to us in June to just get that part done and then if they just do a little cosmetic no one PVE on the rest of it we'll have flat roads and so we're going to have to open this back in and fix it once we get the uh water company to scope it out and see exactly how they need to fix that problem so where a lot of people blame us me in particular they blame the engineer they blame Roman you have to blame the guy in 1925 that put this all together and thought it was a really good idea uh but I just wanted to get that on record I wanted to get it on the video so that anybody can turn to it and uh listen to it and actually see where these issues are and why it's taken so long because we have found things from old bulk heads um in the middle of Bay Avenue outside of putty Park we found um I don't know we found old Mufflers we found old Le pipes we found all sorts of things on the ground um so it's been it's been an interesting project but uh that's why it has stalled that's why it's going to take more time and uh we'll hopefully get it done as soon as possible I bet they said no one 11 know maybe maybe but that's all I have to say about that as Forest the and now to reports who would like to start I don't have anything don't have anything unfortunately I missed the the um for meeing on um the budget so I have you know like third hand knowledge okay Mr B sure sorry I'll go and try and keep my voice going with the allergy season it's a little tough but I'll do my best to speak into the microphone as prior comments uh might indicate we need to be better with our mics yes yes here we go so I'm going to focus on just one topic today is the communications committee and so the top priority for communications committee going forward to the year is this going to be an effort to raise the awareness around the army corpe of engineer project uh and so our chair John River was in attendance last night at that two-hour long meeting so appreciate his leadership on that committee but just as we speak to that project I want to call out some of my own observations on this and I'll try and keep it brief um so along with the data that was PR presented last night there were two comments that really stood out one from the Army Corps and one from the D so in the Army Corps they had a nice comment regarding adaptability so we have a choice you know to adapt to the change with the project or adapt to the flooding in both cases you know there's some change involved and there's some adapting we're not going to be able to have time stand still on this the other thing from the D was this is an option for consideration nobody at that meeting last night to my knowledge had a gun to anybody's head this is information sharing for us to make a decision so to consider it and so as we go through this Prof process we're going to have information sessions we're going to have materials on the website and of course there's Council meetings and public portion is always open for voices to be heard um Mr danan is familiar to that whole process and we'd love to hear more from those folks who are at last meeting at meetings here regularly but what's happening here tonight and as we go forward is a delivery on the commitment the commitment from the mayor a promise from years ago to make this a ballot initiative so this is a topic that's not just insulated to Highlands and so while it's nice to think of Highland as a bubble we're part of a larger events around us on Monday in the Asbury Park Press there was an article about the D proposing new regulations uh the resilient environments and Landscape uh uh regul which would require new homes to be built 5T over the previous elevation standards for podcast listeners the New York Times has a podcast called The Daily and today's feature was about the potential collapse in the US home insurance system as a result of the damages from the weather related disasters and the money that's being lost so this is not just a Highlands event this is everywhere and there's going to be good fact facts on both sides of this or good people on both sides of this including the experts who work hard to make the data available for people to make an informed decision so if you're for this project moving forward great I hope you think about the neighbors whose private property which never have flooded will be subjected to years of construction and I hope that you think about the very real Prospect of higher taxes for everyone not just those in the flood zone if you're against this project I hope you think about the Aesthetics of a mountain of debris that was piled up on shore drive the remnants of so many homes destroyed as much as you think about the view from your elevated home but as we move forward through the process anybody who wants to frame their role is victim I'd ask you to reconsider reconsider something else a participant if you're a legally registered voter your vote Voice is equal to mine the council president even the Mayors when it comes to this decision if you're a full-time resident and you haven't registered do so be a voter have a voice and if you're a full-time if you're not a full-time resident but you're a property owner get to know your neighbors share your voice with those who are voters on your on this initiative but when you share this your thoughts in person or online understand that everyone has a view and that view may be very personal in the end this is going to be democracy at its finest it'll be decided at the ballot box and the majority Will Rule and if you think despite your vote the feds are out to get you guess what you have a vote vot in that too so if you love the idea of the Army Corps or you hate it you have an opportunity to have your vote in the final tally not just in the Facebook comments so remember your role your right to be a participant not just a helpless victim uh with that don't forget there's a jamack calendar of events out there not uh least of which is the Veterans Day so uh Memorial uh Monday 27th Monday the 27th at Veterans Park and let's in turn hope this rain finally it's up we have some clear skies to watch that traffic flow into town as we Usher in the summer very good um I will say that yes I had made mention of back in um 2018 that we did a resolution that before any dollars are spent on this project that there would be a referendum um on this question and there will be a referendum on the question it's it's right there pl's day before a dollar is spent um I just don't think that we are close enough right now to do it um this November the core admitted that their plan is only 30% complete after all this time which is a little bit outrageous since it's been 100% fully funded since 2020 um and as I mentioned last night they have been here for 34 years how long does it take you to study something but we can put people into outer space but we can't figure out how to solve this problem is um really mystifying to me uh but anyway um like I said before this happens before we have to sign any piece of paper or go into any agreement with any other agency this will be in The Ballot Box um on a a good note I just wanted to say if you've noticed in front of um the corner of Miller and Bay in front of Andes our first Banner for the Hometown Heroes has been huged it was for chief py off officer Charles Wells he's also a volunteer here in town uh from his days as a uh in the Coast Guard if you uh we still have spots open so if your favorite uh hero from your favorite branch of service as a HomeTown hero get in a picture and their details uh you can go on to the website uh and fill that in and'll go right to the clerk that's great yeah absolutely um with that could we have the public portion statement individual soltion to address the council shall be recognized by theing Officer name address Al the coun encour public participation it reserves the right who ising officer to terminate marks to in or by any individual not beting with the proct of a proper and efficient meeting if any individual refuses to cond themselves in a proper man they will be REM from the meeting the council will not during the public portion of the meeting discuss matters involving employment appointment 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 3 minute time limit for your [Music] comments it's just for the it's just for the recording rosar Ry 11 I just want to thank the council for the a took out for the junior leag when I was up for the I did win this up nice well done s have anybody else they mention and I woman who 59 children that mentioned they get money for the first day that's Great Well Done wonderful absolutely and you thank you for honoring for em week taking our absolutely absolutely and a cheers for you wer born even I wasn't born in 1925 not too far keep smiling while they blame you yes of course Mr DOR do you have anything you'd like to add problem okay okay great yes of course you know where we are okay so I will end the public portion executive session executive session will be held following the regular council meeting PRI the executive session the burough 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 resolved that the following portion of this meeting shall not be open to the public be further resolved that private consideration is being is required and is permitted because of the following noted exception set forth in the ACT attorney client privilege affordable housing requirements being further resolve that is anticipated that the matters to be considered in private shall be or may be disclosed to the public at a leader date when the need for privacy no longer exists I'll make that off all second all in favor thank you motion carries to enter executive session at 7:24 thank you have a good night I'll motion to adjourn the meeting all second all in favor I thank you meeting adjourned at 8:25 abely