good evening the notice requirements provided for in the open public meetings act have been satisfied notice of this meeting was proberly given by transmission to the ASB Park Press in the Two River times and by posting at the bur of Highlands municipal building and filing with bur clerk all on April 30th 2024 items listed on this agenda are subject to change no formal action will be taken please stand for the pledge of legance I pledge 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 svantes Council M chac here Council Melnick here council president sheski here mayor bruan here thank you so the first and only item for discussion is the US Army Corps of engineer flood wall project updated plans public information meeting okay it's been uh I know it seems like a blink of an eye but it's been seven years since the Army Corps was last year in 2017 um we did have an update in 2020 but it was a big formal meeting uh such as this one um there are people that don't know um about this project if you haven't already I would pick up this little fact sheet it gives you a whole history um the core has been studying Highlands on this project since 1990 uh so we had our 34 years in the making to get to this point where we are nearly finished with well we are not they are nearly finished with uh with design so from time to time I like to have these meetings to get public input so before every all the design elements are are worked out that we can engage with the public and get your opinions it's your town it's my my town our town uh that we should all be involved in this decision-making process and that's why we are here this evening um I think uh it might be best if uh we can start over at the end Rob if you could uh introduce yourself and um and where you work with which entity and what your position is sure uh hi everyone my still can't here testing testing okay lean into the mic and put it all the way up dusting hello I think we're good now uh hi everyone my name is Rob Von breel I'm with the njde office of Coastal Engineering uh our office serves as the non-federal sponsor to to this project with the Army Corps of Engineers uh to my right is uh Kelly stfy she's a bureau chief with our office and to the right of her Dennis reck he's the uh director for our office and then uh I think we should hand it to the core hi I'm Bethany mclenan I am the project manager with the Army Corps of Engineers I'm also a resident of Atlantic Highlands so I may know some of you here um but if I don't I'm just frequent resent or participant of Highlands restaurants and everything too uh I'm going to let my staff introduce themselves as well uh good evening Jason Shay core of engineers I'm a civil engineer and I was the Planner on this project uh in the recent years post Sandy uh arono Donal I work for the core and I'm the technical manager civil engineer Ariana stimle Fernandez I'm the project archaeologist for the environmental Branch can't hear you you have to bring Clos to [Music] yourself Ariana stimle Fernandez I'm the project archaeologist and part of the environmental Branch Oh Me Oh I'm I'm Karen chellac I live on Washington uh Avenue and I'm on the council here um Carolyn Bon you're mayor and I live on Miller Joan elesy the president of the council and I live on grand tour Don Mel councilman live in twinlight [Applause] hares are done Brian shabar the municipal attorney for the bough Islands Beth if you'd like to kick us off [Applause] hello hell can everybody hear me really no microphone's hello there you go here we go so thank you all for coming up tonight this is um presentation on where we are in the project on the arore side um so it's just a public information meeting we are going to take some comments towards the end but hello it's very [Applause] low this is ours our old one [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] all right so thank you again sorry for this um confusion on the mics so the the purpose of today's being you guys can read this but we're going to discuss the pr construction engineering design that's are currently in for the project right now constru data Gathering and design uh project as you all know stor that impact Community preser infrastructure Community welfare and your [Music] economy and pleas all questions to the end we might answer them as we go through the presentation [Applause] so I cruised your Highlands website and I thought this is a great picture this is the old Highlands the old bridge going over as you all well know and then at the bottom right here next courtesy of bars you can see how how low it is and how wet it was so it's always been a water log Community even before all the development I just thought these pictures were really and to show uh so your finle partnership is the Army Corp of Engineers in New York District the nonfederal sponsor New York New Jersey D and the project shold High you stolder so our agenda loely today new J D is going to present some of their information uh we're going to go through the project Authority what this project is um under project area project objectives Alternatives were considered back in the feasibility report what the recommended plan is some draft renderings to visually see what we are proposing for Veteran Park in sou Harbor only and then the current project update [Applause] [Music] Dennis then so as I said earlier the DP Serv as nonfederal sponsor to the project uh we fall under the state newy [Music] govern govern uh our office also within the d fall under the uh division of resilience engineering and construction over there our director [Applause] so our our office is funded through the protection fund um it's it's a a $25 million annual appropriation uh that is funded through the transfer tax it is used to fund prote products throughout the state and also meets nonfederal shares on so as I said we are sponsor a lot of the arm projects that you're famar with mainly each FS but also a lot of uh flood contr projects such as the Le flood wall Beach project Beach that's currently under construction the C project in P um and then a lot of the beach restoration projects throughout the state R Bay as well as the and we also use the theun theun products at the state level um those those can range anywhere from hhe heads to Jes groins uh SE walls that sort of thing and also within our our $25 million annual appropriation um some of that goes towards uh stens intitute of technology for various research efforts for tri protection um and then also we did some of it to stoping for survey effort to monitor R products in State uh as well as certain money going to theal division as well as uh so as the nonfederal sponsor uh we are a cauer partner with army Bo of Engineers this project is funded 65% of federal 35% nonfederal and 75% of that 35% for construction will be funded through each state um as far as um our our our overall role goes um we also task with requir real estate for the project um uh to as well as Technical and professional assist with the uh [Applause] St uh so once we get to project implementation um we will be all to ex State a between the state and the uh the a um that that process comes after we as the state not sponsor signed project partnership agreement with army for engineers um as said after that's all after all those executed we put the real estate acquisition um we work with the core to finalize the pl specifications and then the core will sub advertise various contracts for the construction process um and then ENT the construction phase once the construction pH compl oper now get into the [Music] legis thank you so the Army was directed by Congress to implement the project stage and through construction so you guys can read this this is just some of the legislative Authority that has transpired throughout the year to the project and to have this um currently go to the P study right now so the P study is currently 100% Fally funded once we get finished with this pet phase which is preconstruction design that will go into thear G so this the study location you all know where you live uh the blue here on the right that's the project area so it's basically everything from Shore Drive to the water so why are we here flooding Dat Back to the early 1900s and it doesn't just flood on nice weather but in I se water so that's why we're here um recently February 2024 March 2024 blooding again so that's kind of why we're here um in 1992 you had the big nor Easter that transformed the town and again in superstorm standing in 2012 20 years later it transformed the town and that really kicked off um the army for involvement and Congressional authorities to implement these projects and to study them so the problem again you know we're here because of the flooding um you have a history of devastating blood damages um due to not just storm but also rain events hurricane Ida wasn't a poal storm it was well it wasn't St the majority of AR here which we all know the islands SL down back and he had flooding on the roadways uh as you can see here um all lower part of Highland is flooded the orange greater than 6 ft above ground then were 6 to 9 ft above ground of flooding in that orange the yellow is 36 ft above ground and then you have pockets in the red 9 ft plus which I know a lot of you have experienced during San so our project objectives reduce the damages we're not going to completely take away the that's kind of impossible um but we can reduce the damage that occur reduce the life safety um we don't want anybody to get hurt die that's a big part of a big problem during rain events or SL events and support Community resilience you guys are part of the bore Community umur Fort Mama Beach we all have projects going on Sumer in construction right now um that's part of community resilience keeping that B Sure character alive what's going to happen to high without the future project the long history of Love D will continue this is an iconic photo you see you have upper Highlands we have lower Highlands unfortunately lower Highlands is where all the damages occur without project implementation you're still going to see the flooding and then with see lwi storm intensity storm increasing what going happen previous public meetings we've been out before um many years ago as the mayor has said uh we heard you want 18 water from access it's very important as somebody who chose your beaches it's important um and what will the project look like you have a lot of resolutions on the water you know what how is this going to impact you what is it going to look like so we hear you and we understand so we're going to try to answer your questions and try to make you feel comfortable during the feasibility stage uh phase of the project which is the report online we looked at several alternatives that would non structural ey out home elevation green Walls flood proofing R your equipment up or hard structural measures seaw walls bulkheads alure closure structures agation segregates um and flood walls the seaw walls are basically it's a combination of levies concrete structur but mainly they slow down to the beach flood walls are a wall any height above ground usually from three feet above and it's a wall usually concrete so these were all considered during the feasibility phase and then the recommended plan is what was um authorized so from here the orange line is an ey and two tyght flood wall alignment you have pump stations we're going to try to address the flooding that comes down from the water W area uh you have a detention Pond up on the left hand corner there and pressurized pip and helpfully that the rain blooding as well and in the bottom right hand corner there's a Floodgate that will go over the roadway on May Avenue which will connect to a ground all this will connect to High [Applause] Ground so the next few slides are some of the renderings that we've done for vet Park and smug Harbor again these are just renderings for draft we don't have enough information to accurately depict what's going on it's currently in data gaing base for topographic information so what of a ground is so these are just some ideas of what it could look like so this is Veteran Park we all know it well and looking at the alignment for vetan Park that red line is the m County SE line we have to stay away from it so the flood wall that was in the previous ability stud went right up against the marina there we can't have it there due to our foundation from the blood ball and the existence line we can't move the SE line so that's one of the um complications we have this area so in looking at that and keeping away through the sewer line we looked at keeping you see the grain line on that outside of the park um so the park itself is not within the flood wall it's just to the outside again the alignment is just rft it could change depending on the survey col so you'll have two openings to get into the park they'll be with roller beats um and then you have roller gate structure that goes across Bay aenue there and then it'll tie into Shore Drive on so then again this is just an idea uh this is the street view so you can see from the street the middle of the park is already elevated but again you'll have the openings to enter the park those will remain open 99% of the time they will all be Clos during the storm event we'll get into the operations and maintenance later uh another option we looked at is pulling the wall keeping the park within the flood gate structure or the flood wall structure this presentation will be online as well so I see all taking photos it will be online um so we pulled it back again keeping the away of the sewer line This does impact the basketball courts in the playground feature but then it does keep the park within the blood wall out of the again you'll have theu on the left hand going over B Avenue right in front of the ch is the street view or in the Park View you can see the blood wall that the [Applause] room uh this is another option expway the one thing bad about this option on the bottom right you see where little green um just walkway stock area the town currently has proposed a wetland mitigation Wetland area for there so this would impact that we have to work with the town to keep the FL ball out of that project another option again would be bring the flood wall closer to not affect basketball courts and minimally affect the playground so we were just playing with certain locations of the FL wall again these just ideas the drops but just something where it could look like and then in the corner there we could have potentially a r platform so there's there's things that we can do further down we get into design again street view the next location we did was St Harbor so from here you see the Gray Line This is not depict what's going to happen at the private properties the residents so this is just an example but again the flood wall where the community center is Harbor it's back up against the building on the deck until you access it from this the parking lot there it giv you Max of each [Applause] area just another aerial [Music] view again we did not look at how the private residents will access beyond the flood wall that's going to be in the next stage so do not take this to Heart yes I know we all know that but we're not at that stage yet so once we get to the next phase we would have to work with the whole owners to figure that out uh the ground this location maximizes the beach [Music] FR another option is moving the FL wall closer to the water so this is about the halfway point aial view ground View and just another option for location it's in between so some examples here uh this is just your typical B you guys see this you have this existing already water front access examples that's a little walkway over on there um you have some beach walkways that go over so all the all the public beaches would have access to them not being cut off we would provide some type of walkway ramp Etc over that over the [Applause] fure one examples U the three on the right are from for mon so that was under construction from the top middle and then one on the right is so this is what the p m looks like the two on the left are from Greenbrook um not local but you can see on the bottom that's what the flood wall looks like on a dry condition flood wall on the top it did a job they kept the water out from that warehouse [Applause] facility uh Road G road closure G again this is example this is what we were considering for Islands basically it stays open 99% of the time an operation maintenance schedule when the storm comes it's closed this is IM manual closure then once the St passes it opens up uh some of the Interior drainage structures we're looking at so bottom left top R duct Bill structures so when the water is pressurized water can't go back into the pipe water can come out based on pressure the top left is a flood flap so again water cannot get in the pipe but water can come out the pipe it's coming down the bottom right is a pump station these pump stations can be aesthetically designed to fit the B of the C they don't have to be they can be Cedar shapes so we would work in that footprint not have them stand out for not being them so where we are in the next steps so we're currently in P which is preconstruction engineering design that is for the first constructible element which is the flood closure gate um across the Avenue at Veterans Park uh we're currently getting rights of Entry to do topographic survey and utility surveys that's so we AC pick how high we have to be so the blood wall going to be at plus 14 n it's hard to say how high that is above above ground without knowing the height of the ground level so that's currently where we are now so we basically data collection uh that's going to take the data collection take about a year and then construction of that flood gate closure gate about a year year and a half and then as head moves into completion we'll work with New Jersey P to with for a project partnership agreement so that will basically move us into the construction phase the construction phase of the remain of the project take about approximately 4 years and will'll be done in phases so each of the reaches each of the Highlands will be done in a reach to make it a little bit easier and during the design and construction we will work with the homeowners and the town for Access we're just not going to go in there say hey this is what you get that's not how we work uh the project cost so this current phase is 100% Fally funded we got $2.4 million in some funding to complete this phase the construction phase is estimated right now it's subject to change it's 129 million and then it's c535 that Rob had explained earlier uh project contracts mayor myself Eric Doyle who's not here but again this will be on the website so you can um download this information as well and feel free to reach out to anyone thank you so I'm going to open it up to questions for about a half hour [Applause] [Applause] here if you just give us your name and address so the clerk can my number one question is why are we still talking about this 7 years ago or whatever it [Music] was we determined that in some those plans we still seem to be the same plans would maybe the blood key is the same the town voted that they did not want it resolution was the town did not vote the resolution is right here I'm just voted a public vote whether the okay there was no formal vote on the ballot the residents that were in the room gave a vote but the other 3500 voters did not what we are doing is we are going to put this on the ballot at this November's presidential election where all registered voters will be able to vote and if it's Ved no what happens then it won't happen so my earlier comments from years ago was that theography that is in that plan does not support what you're proposing at least 80% % of the property is privately own I would estimate so unless you plan to do em domain for 80% of that property it won't happen and where your number one initiative goal on the first page was remain retain access to the water firm and it's in your literature that that's key to the those plans absolutely cut off access to the water not just in a general way but literally to where people would not even be able to swim in the water without climbing over a cement wall I don't understand how this is even quite honestly and I'm not clear on the town's portion of the cost I know previously there was a big portion of cost for construction but regardless of the construction maintenance from there on in and it seems that the town did not and probably still does not have the money for that would be great if we could maintain what we already have I.E the bulkhead which was redone and is already back to basically rusting away and the concrete is cracked and that project from well over 10 years ago for the flood valve from just a rainstorm some of those pictures were just a rainstorm not from the river flooding we just the rainstorm because we don't have a proper drainage that project's been being talked about for well over 10 years at least and has never happened why do we not focus on these things verus something that is not even [Applause] feasable hang on hang on we actually have had uh a list that was given to the clerk ever since we noticed this meeting that I just want to quickly go through some some of these questions as well and I will also answer your questions um I know um uh that uh Bob and Bethany went through this but I I will make it I hopefully more clear um in that of of the cost of this project which uh is on this piece of paper is in $ 2020 so you would need to multiply a120 to these costs to get the adjustment for inflation um the uh you know I know it's it's confusing 75% is this and 25% is that and 65 is this and whatever so I'm just going to give you a number and that number is adjusted uh for inflation and that is Highland's number in 2024 is over $13 million which is more than we rais in taxes in one year how that uh even becomes a feasible number to throw a rock at I'm not certain of this um this is not the that the council's been trying to work with the Army Corps and with d to make things more feasible but this is not our plan we didn't come up with it like I said this all started in 1990 with players who are not here not in the room in fact from 2017 there are only myself Jason and our attorney Brian sh bar are even still at this table um I and I agree with you it hasn't really changed much but it has changed uh there are some folks that that want this there's some folks that don't want this this is um again adjusted for inflation this is over $156 million that is going to affect half of the 2800 households that we have in this town of roughly over 5,000 people it seems quite a bit of dollar per capita uh for an area that uh demands commercial fishing other things we hear you we just want to get everything together put together this presentation I will make sure that these dollars and cents are put out in a very readable way so that you don't have to sit here and do math about what's what's 25% of this 35% of the cost share from whatever I understand it and I'm I'm sure that we can put this all out in a way that's a lot more uh easily digestible um I do want to get to some of these questions and if I can't get them I will pass them to whomever um will you provide us a sufficient not notice of how many and which pieces of properties are going to be impacted by eminent domain prior to any votes or decisions I believe that's in a prior uh PowerPoint all of those properties that um that line the shoreline from pretty much not inclusive of one Willow to um all the way to Veterans Park so it's pretty much every every property that is on the water in that area area yes easy I like easy answers we would work with all those properties to determine access access to PE access to the water you talked about a 10 foot halfth hang hang on hang on we're going to go through this first and then you'll have a chance we just want to so yeah so we there's a lot of private problem you know we would work with you to maintain your access it may be different access than what you're looking at now but change is not necessarily bad so just you have to think about Community what do your community how does your community speak your future kids future grand kids you know are you going to have a community left you know so think about that too not just well I'm not going to be able to swim off of my P head where you don't really swim now um people swim at the beaches if guys if we could just please hang on if we could just please remain respectful of each other everyone will have chance but we have to let other people speak and if you're too if you're busy speaking then we can't hear the question nor the answer okay we can do this uh the next one is I'm a homeowner and a taxpayer but it's not my permanent home how do I make my voice here heard you write in and you come to the meeting and you tell us your story and that's how you make your voice heard and you encourage your um your neighbors to hear your voice and try to get them to carry up your their cause will taxes go up now or over time to maintain the wall I'm not going to lie to you that's a yes is you Army Corp funding 100% of the project no we already explained that with the weird math that I will explain in a much simpler fashion is the town responsible for any additional cost for the project I don't know what additional cost this person's referring to so I really can't answer that question unless I know what the additional cost is general maintenance general maintenance is uh is if you want to I don't know what those percentages are do they still have that 7525 that's that would be the state but once the project is constructed we hand it over to state operate so there is going to be a cost we just don't know what that cost is would that be fair yeah may I think that would be fair we have to negotiate we would have to negotiate that okay with you as part of our uh State a agreement but normally it is 7525 75 okay so okay next one is will the wall ever be managed maintained by the town County or the state and how is that funded Rob maintenance is from the state that is still also to be to be determined million million be responsible oh mayor I'm so sorry when we were talking you were so up right on 75 35 65 35 I'm so sorry it would be born by the town for M I apologize on the town for o m and do we even have a rough idea of what that number is not at this [Music] stage thank you mayor thank you um hang on hang on one second let me just uh 16 will the town carry additional insurance and how would that be funded all of our insurance goes through the GIF which is called The Joint Insurance Fund where uh many towns and counties band together to get lower insurance rates uh as to what something's going to cost I can't answer that question I don't know what my insurance bill is going to be next year on my house I can't answer it um I'll give this one to our attorney if a lawsuit was brought up involving the wall who is respons responsible for court cost lawyer cost and any awarded payments how will that be funded that's determinative of whether the uh Army Corps and D would defend and indemnify the town in any such suits and I'd ask the D that that is correct okay yeah I could hear your microphone that's determined by whether the Army Corps Andor the D would defend and indemnify the town in other words they would cover the cost of any such litigation I'd ask the d d that question and they may not know the answer right now yeah I believe and I could be corrected if I'm wrong but I believe typically we do not identify um anybody as part of the project okay uh the next question is will Highlands need to hire staff and workers to manage the wall if so how will that be funded and that would be funded through taxes the town forced the homeowners to raise their home the town did not force homeowners to raise their home FEMA and your flood insurance company did that um and move public buildings to Higher Ground we did do that how what do we gain from a wall uh we gain I would imagine wave action uh that's uh coming from the bay well yeah you you g you get protection from the wave wave action but also you protect cars you protect the um the homeowners that cannot raise that cannot the businesses that canot um you protect your infrastructure utilities so you protect the [Music] community okay and the last question that is Town SL D um specific is how do you put a value on the loss of a community from a wall a the parks and beaches will no longer have a water view B the beaches will become OB solete C restaurants businesses will be inacted so much income is derived from visitors to our restaurants and bars who comes for the views and the atmosphere um valuation is a very tricky thing there's got to be at least 20 ways to Value property um but I don't know if uh Rob is there anything specifically from D that you have that you generally use in these types of projects uh it's similar to what you said than that it does vary from property to property as far as the valuation process that would be done as part of the uh easement acquisition phase um so each property is different and we cannot give a general Sense on what that number would would be on a property by property basis at this point okay so um some of these other questions that are not highlighted than the blue question sorry [Applause] oh okay um but for the first and second pages that you've had for some time um like what is the annual maintenance we already answered that one [Applause] yes you taking questions or you just ask [Applause] M May or do you want them to answer those questions yes please before you go these these questions might answer a question that you already have so we have already had it here people wrote in their questions ahead of time so that we could prepare for answers uh so I just want to back up just a little bit about why we're here y um Army Corps we don't choose our projects Congress authorizes us and funds us to do projects the reason reason that you were chosen for projects from back in the 90s on was based on storm events and the federal government coming in here FEMA and spending money here and there was a time when the town wanted us to come and see what we could do a comprehensive solution I was here for the history um and it is true the Town Council voted to stop the study at one point then rescinded it want us to complete the study not commit the town to anything for that um and why we're back now is because Congress came out with the new infrastructure bills and it's based on you know Congressional decisions uh this is I believe this is the only town in the state of New Jersey that turned down a Sandy project I'm not saying you're right or wrong but Congress saw that and saw an opportunity for funding there are some people in the town who want this project some people who don't but that's why we're here we're here to give a comprehensive large scale solution doesn't mean you have to accept it we're giving you an an an option you have a choice for the future you're going to adapt to the flooding or you're going to you could adapt to a project and we're not here to sway you one way or the other we're just here to give you the answer on what a comprehensive Solution by the federal government looks like thank you do you want me to run through these rest of these questions then I cannot yeah you can do 26 and below I can okay 26 and [Applause] below for grvy Point Beach and Road what are the structural and non structural plans sorry wall up to the of the houses so you have your property beach the beach is not effective we bring the flood wall in as much as possible there are no um projects within this plant it's just all structural so that's so it's a flood wall with a gate with a gate or is it a walkover to be determined [Applause] okay um this is asking for the timeline when we've already given you the timeline uh what happened well they're asking what's the next uh what's the next step and like I said it's this meeting uh will likely have another meeting um I believe that's in uh maybe September um and then uh this will be updated again with your feedback from [Applause] tonight a lot of this is specifically specific to gral shockingly so um that there is a private beach as well as a private road um is that also being considered for emminent [Music] domain um well any any inent domain there is just compensation that is correct I'm sorry mayor just to just to be clear um we start off seeking voluntary easements for our project and our goal is to show that the project provides uh sufficient storm damage reduction value to where the the compensation is little to To None because of the of the value afforded by the project itself so that's that's usually where we start in the in the process to seek a voluntary ement and then after that if the owner rejects that that offer then then we then we go to the next phase which would be the condemnation phase okay um and this compensation portion is done by is is that the three is that the town the D and um army Corp so the real estate process the real estate acquisition process will be handed over to the town to run um the town would be in charge of doing the title work the surveys burough attorney outside attorney however is managed um if a declaration of taking is filed the um the property owner in most cases would obtain their own lawyer Andor their own appraisal and would present that there is a negotiation phase that has to take place good faith negotiation in which we hope that that would satisfy everyone um and that would take care of the process if it does not then once the Declaration of taking and that process is complete the property the easement the property does have the easement on it and then the just compensation part which is either still continued negotiations or eventually hopefully not Court uh would take place after the easement is already obtained okay and then this this next question comes right on to dovetail on that say what if the property owner disagrees with the amount of compensation and that's a negotiation and attorneys and uh oh here's a big one is it possible for the project to move forward without graval Point Road and Beach accepting that out of the project no the answer is no okay then I'll turn the white questions back over to you hang on we just need to get through this I'm going to go the audience question that's ridiculous just state your name and address Avenue Island uh at previous meetings we talked about beach erosion calls by the wall and who would be responsible for um the beach once that happens we heard testimony from people from other towns that when they build this wall every time we get a storm comes in and Roads the beach and takes it away and now we're no longer going to have access to maintain the beach so there was some question about who then would be responsible for the replenishment of the sand and those type of things um currently where we have the the flood wall where we in the water very close to the water is where you already have a heart structure like a bulkhead the area where you have your main Beach at Snug Harbor we have the flood wall pulled back so the erosion rates there are not going to change with or without our project when you have Hurricane Sandy you had the Town come in inundate all the beaches and then go out it'd be the same thing with or without our wall there we don't have walls right on the water in unless it's a spot that already has a flood a bulkhead so you already have that hard structure but we are doing our best for the the beaches here in Miller Street to pull it back where we're trying to leave as much um of the Beach open as possible but if the but if we do get a storm and erods the beach away we'll do we'll Bounce Off the Wall now it'll be very very difficult to replenish all the sand and get was away that's we heard from people where this same project has happened in other towns and so that's you know some of my concern yeah I'm not sure what towns you're you're talking about um I'm I'm focusing here on Snug Harbor Avenue beach and where we have have the wall alignment here whether our projects there or not that won't change the erosion rate doesn't mean you're not going to have erosion from the large storm event you're going to have it with or without our wall in that place I have just one other quick question too uh so we chose to run the wall across um across the park and it seems like that left three restaurants and 12 homes yeah subject to further damage once that water follows the path of that wall particularly you know the two marinas there Chubby Pickle and 12 homes on South Bay uh which are in the same flood as everything else and at the same height and now in the path of the turn of the wall was that considered at all yeah in title flooding the the flood water is going to find its height its elevation in a river greine system that's true and a riverine system will bounce off one wall and flood the other side in a tidal system it will find its height so those areas outside the flood wall are going to are going to flood at that Elation whatever the surge comes in it's not it's not going to increase based onse right there we're left unprotective because the analysis didn't justify us um going around it we we did an analysis during the study phase of where we could tie off The High Ground and we weren't able to justify going around that far we have to do a benefit cost ratio for each of for the project so all the Alternatives that were considered and the location of them had to do benefit is which anything above one is a viable project below one is not a viable project so having that property to the South here um it didn't make it project so that's why that's why they were not uh Tommy Str grav Point um can you just explain what's this flood wall going to be made of uh what the wall going to be made of right now we have concrete okay so does concrete cement pollute the air the cement industry is one of the most polluting Industries in the world it's responsible for almost 10% of global carbon dioxide emissions it also produces a variety of other pollutants including sulfur dioxide nitrogen oxides and particular matter okay so right there there's a problem with the environment all right there's also sea life this is a sand tidal Town these Waters have sand because there have low tide and it goes up to high tide there are sea life that lives in the sand they we let's see what we have oh we have Krabs clams scallops um sand dollars saltfish worms insects and the big fish even shocks small shars sand shs they feed off of the sand they feed off of the fish and the sea life you're going to build a wall which going toop stop the rise from low to high tide and the fish are going to be trapped in front of the wall the other thing is I just drove up here I've never been up this high before are you going to have somebody sitting there to let the water out when it comes down the hills when there's a thunderstorm think about that Newell I my three kids went there with paint for their LS two professors were killed last year in the same type of very neur shell that has Hills and a water with a you know why because they died in their car drowned because of the water from the hills I hope you guys are prepared for a big action you've got to come better prepared he's showing beautiful photos of the wall distance away blue skies and clouds in the background come on that's not reality Mother Nature will find a way it'll find a way to get over that wall yes there's tornadoes in Florida right now we just had an earthquake here what are we going to do build a bubble God wa wait let me finish Tommy we hear you you've made your point but you just got to calm down just okay I I told it's going to be emotional explained it you have to understand something that it'll find a way it's like a line from Jurassic Park you can't mess with life you can't mess with Mother Nature just look at all the places they build seaw walls they build those canals they build this they build that tornadoes happen we get them here on the water the scouts what is going get in the best part about it is we got through 9/11 and we were strong and we got through Sandy and we reuil our town I just booming right now then we had the pandemic now we're after pandemic we're still doing good we have to that's what makes us stronger let other nature we raised our homes 10 ft whatever for you now you want to build it put the wall so it comes over oh don't worry the home's are 2 ft High it'll run right through okay wait you didn't raise your home for me you raised your home for you by your insurance by your insurance company not by the town that was FEMA hang on hang on thank you Tommy where'd that microphone go take all or or can some of this money be allocated into some of the problem areas well just just take know some of the problem where pump stations or straightening outage issues does it have to be all or nothing or can it be so the Au project doation h come down um if we were to change the authorized project we have to go back to we would lose the funding that we have now we have to go back to get it reauthorized to study different we are working with the Town to what they're doing um for the so it's not necessarily all nothing but you don't want to start over long two quick questions um I don't need my I don't think uh two quick questions the first time if you could please it makes it it makes it easier for the clerk when she's doing minutes Mike Marti 30 Boulevard uh two quick questions in the initial phase they said that this wall and I don't think it's changed that much would not protect us against a Sandy Level event is that still correct um during the study phase we didn't design it to a storm event we designed it to most cost effective for um stat statistical future storm events now this flood walls at elevation 14 Sandy came in at elevation between 11 and 12 correct in Kingsburg we built a flood project there in the 60s also El elevation 14 Sandy did not overtop those flood walls now we can't say that that Kingsburg project with the design to 190e storm event which Sandy was it that because you have to have a little bit of factor safety there in the elevation of the flood wall but it got very close to the top of the flood wall in kingburg but did not did not over top it so had the flood wall been here during Sandy you would have very very few damages compared to what you what happened here second second quick question uh is based on the design the way it is and the height of the wall and what I've looked at like on Snug Harbor has already the existing bulkhead there would there be any Road in Highlands where you could drive or walk down and see the water from ground level walking or driving is there any place in Highland you be able to see the water from the [Music] road correct so we completely cut off the views for every visitor in town who comes here unless they elevate themselves somehow correct okay [Applause] [Music] all the information about to find that onl also wall talking about just information [Music] and I one other question is what about all the water comes up under the [Music] [Music] [Applause] ground all the information from theil report um is found online you can also email the link the website has all those details so the flooding from the rain water that you were just talking about the town has a brick looking for interior this project also includ interior that problem so Bethany if I might I just don't want to skirt over that issue there is a storm water interior storm water component to this you saw a pump station that was up on that preliminary plan that's on there right the pump station is supposed to take the interior water get it outside the wall so that you're not as that gentleman was saying flooded behind the wall That's not the intent of the project but I I don't want to just skate over the brick grant that Highlands just got it's a very significant Grant congratulations to you all for getting this grant but it's to manage your interior storm system and I know I see your engineer M Municipal engineer over there if you have any questions you should really ask because I'm hopeful that the core will recognize the system that cers is planning on installing or designing and incorporate that into this project so I think and I hope and very hopeful based on this Grant and what the core had provided before in their plan that your interior storm water drainage will be managed sufficiently that nobody is stuck behind a wall I understand that and I understand that you're looking for more than two areas Bethany mentioned that this is going to be constructed in phases it's going to be designed in phases as well so we're trying to give the overall image of what this project will look like without having all of those features designed 100% and that's why you're only seeing those two main portions which is what we were asked to kind of emphasize to take care of most of the public questions about it but I understand that you're still left with what happens to me and it's going to be designed at a later point and that's why we don't have that right now already [Music] talking already done that right well so there's a line on a map right that's so that is what the Yeah so that's what the project is is that line on the plan what that looks like when you go and stand on one of those features that's the give and take that Bethany was speaking about earlier okay so that's Road and ofer I have a question of if was there ever a statistic that says how much damage was caused by Hurricane sanding in millions of dollars versus how and how much Gina paid that versus the cost of constructing the wall just to to see if the whole entire town was wiped out right the cost M of course the whole entire town was wiped out um and and which it virtually was just a cost comparison so people can put in their mind is it worth it to build a wall or what what are we doing are we just going to rebuild again if everything is slly wi down yeah in the feasibility study we did have to do a pretty robust cost benefit analysis we didn't we don't take just one storm event and compare that to the project for construction we take uh 50-year period of analysis so we take historical data that we have for as long as we have it and project out the same pattern um of storm events in the future 50 years how much will that cause damages based on what's happened in past events versus the cost of the project and the benefit cost ratio has to be above one I think it was more than two in this case um so yeah the damages that the the government spending more recovering from Storm events here than the cost of a project that's why we were funded for this solution uh just to go a little bit further on that the housing stock that was uh generally the majority in lower Highlands were poorly constructed old uh fishing cottages and uh and mobile homes bungalows uh a lot of um ranch style one floor you know one floor and uh the housing stock that's in Highlands now where the majority of them I would say the majority by now probably about 70% of homes are lifted on either enclosed concrete block or they're on peers or they're on um uh like I've got con like concrete peers uh there's what was once I mean look at look at graval Point what was once a little Bungalow is now a three-story home that's 14 ft BFE so you you can't really compare the what was there to what is now because it's vastly improved um she's been waiting oh do you still have it she's in the back okay go ahead Michael Point has anyone thought about so I grew up in this area my whole entire 48 years old born on that River always on the water always fishing I literally watched the environment here get so healthy to the point of every year even if you own fish you see Ms talk tons of e fish we're cing Less Than 3 mil off shore I'm sure you see pictures of beautiful blue it's not because we're good fish because the work s healthy and we have opportun my backyard has anyone thought about this wall even the construction of it of the runoff of all the material and dirt and digging up all the creol and diing into that water what it's going to do initially when they're building it and then affecting the titles FL changing the environment once again some a build like this could change the whole entire fishing ecology so has anyone thought of that part and also not letting you know us access it's it's a pretty big deal is there anyone from the Department of Environmental Protection here you are do you have any reports on what a wall and a change like that would do I could give you a couple examples I've done that I mean beautiful and nothing against it right here in town one Willow when they buil the marina it eroded their Beach um it's totally changed that whole area over by wall I am you asked who was from the DP and and we are I just would like the first part of the answer to go to the court who did all the research on the feasibility study on the constructibility he you we speaking to the microphone oh so sorry so sorry I kept hearing this one I thought you could hear me I appreciate it you asked for a DP rep I'm not punting it will come back to us but I would like the core to at least discuss some of the work they did during the feasibility and the selection of materials why they selected it but I will also tell you that we were building these projects up and down the coast um we are building them in Hoboken we are building them in Union uh Union Beach we're building these projects um and we're doing them clean organized cleaning up after ourselves letting them and keep moving we build them in sections can you hear me okay you still can't hear me you have to turn it up and put it right in front of your mouth all right how's that better yes I'm the only one that could hear me um we are building these in Hoboken we are building these in Union Beach we are building these types of materials up and down our coast and along the whole East eastern coast we we know how to build them we know how to build them cleanly organized the contractors is going to be hired by the core they're going to make sure they're building them cleanly quickly in sections making sure they're doing everything they're supposed to do to protect the environment and building to protocols that the core has written into their specifications we as the D as the non-federal sponsor also have a representative on site making sure the core is doing what they're promising so we can report back to the mayor what's being built how it's being buil but I'm also going to tell you the town actually has an obligation here the town on some of my projects is the best eyeballs I'm seeing a little dust we get a complaint immediately we're starting to react to what's the contractor doing we're going to check on it um it happened just yesterday in Hoboken um and they called our liaison officer told us there was a little dust within hours we were addressing it I'm just saying this is what we're doing we build these projects we're putting about 600 million doll in infrastructure like this on the ground right now to protect the state from our next future storm this is a I I'm the town here this is your moment for us to listen and that's what I'm doing tonight and but I will leave you with this is an amazing opportunity that's fully funded that should be considered as we move forward the opportunity should not be overlooked this is going to be a once- in a-lifetime opportunity for for this type of project here that's fully funded and the core is committed to building the state of New Jersey has committed $33 million to this project as well and it's budgeted through our shore protection fund for future expenditures I know 13 million sounds like a lot it is a lot but it's also going to be expended over time as it's installed it's going to take a long time to build and so it's just it's not a one-time one shot I'm not planning on laying out $33 million in one day I'm going to I'm going to lay it out in sections as the core needs it in order to bid their projects um I'm going to hang around after the meeting if anybody's never met me before but I'd love to talk to some of you individually but I want to go back to Bethany and let her uh maybe give a a things I might have missed just now so um I'm just going to have my project bi biologist Matthew buing sorry uh talk about the Nea process that looked at all those consider concerns that you had brought up and your what you had brought up as well hi um so all all fedal projects have to go through an environmental analysis and called the NEPA analysis and in that report that you can see up there it'll go through all types of plants and animals so we looked at reptiles fish invertebrates things that are in the sand and all of that was analyzed in into what type of impacts this wall will have on it the whole project will have on it our our analysis showed that there would be very minimal impacts and those impacts would be temporary such as um during while while constructing there might be um clouding of of the um of the water of the shoreline but th those are temporary impacts and they'll be minimized to the best possible um any construction that happens will have some kind of a uh a barrier to stop any more sediment going out into the um into the ocean um but if you want to look at at that report you'll be able to Find analysis of all different kinds of species and and what the impact was thank you thank you hi 15ce J I've been in this town 60 years I can honestly say there's a few areas in the town that have flooding problem not the whole town and I believe it's the maintenance through the town where those areas which we're [Music] getting the problem through this um sew yeah you could be correct there by that that uh the brick gr yes water coming down the hill yes Hill maybe Miller Street uh maybe the sewage is you know not flushed or maintained it's totally different sanitary SE is completely different than storm water okay so then Snug Harbor right that that's wood when the wood Rises right the wood the wood sees Through the Wood maybe a correction by the VFW is that area floods that could be corrected through something simple and that's what we're doing with this large brick grant that we got for over $12 million we need this big wall going through this whole town that is a fishing town this sounds like a very commercialized uh uh project that maybe should be put in Sandy Hook where the big problem started when the surge came surge came from okay put it in Sandy Hook go after the state you work the state go after the state keep out okay thanks J she's coming she's coming the reason we purchased the house is because we want to see the water swim in the water we love the water oh sorry um we love the water we want to see the water we don't want to see a wall um the people that live on the water most of them they lifted their houses they built pads at for over $100,000 they're not flooding so when I looked at this program I happen to live on the water you have the wall those who are yours why why and why wouldn't it if if it ever had to be why would it be built but behind my buit why do you have to have these walls blocking off things that we can't even see why can't P to live here it doesn't make any sense if I just want to we have never flooded I just want toed we had never flooded we bought the house right before Sandy and that was yes the house is room we lifted the house built the wall and we never clut my neighbor had said my neighbor had said um this afternoon to mention her mom lived here for 100 years their family lived there they our area never fled and we're on the water and she said make sure you say that doesn't come up this way it comes the other way in the middle of the I just want to reiterate my question is why wouldn't you build something behind a bulkhead instead of through a y well first each reach we're going to look at individually and determine exactly where to line it you already it no no that's preliminary the we're only fully funded right now to do the Veterans Park area which is really where we dig in see what's under see what the uses are and try to work different solutions separately to answer your question and address the other question there during Sandy the town flooded up to Shore Drive and full disclosure I grew up at 50c drift Avenue I was here in 1992 and we had water in our living room I understand the flooding here I grew up here I graduated high school here this town floods I'm not telling you you need this project but if you don't have this project you're going to have to adapt to those large scale flooding events you may have not flooded since you lived here but it flooded the Bethany mentioned earlier that this project is not just for those structures that are elevated it's for the cars for the roads for the infrastructure for the businesses for the apartments and for those houses that are not elevated for the community not individual people basically if they know that there's a problem they live going to them all right well that's not even the the point is we probably won't once we get closer so we just haven't gotten to that design phase yet that's a phase later down the road where we'll work with you for the alignment next to your proper hopefully [Music] hopefully uh we own several town I have a couple questionsall that you [Music] want again I could not hear your I could not hear your question he asked if the flood wall would go in the front of the bulkhead or be behind the existing bulkhead and that kind of depends sometimes we might remove a bulkhead and put the flood wall in its place in other cases we might drive piles just outside the existing flood wall and take out the other flood wall the the old buleta grade but that doesn't mean that that's where our flood wall is going in each and every property we haven't people B in this town I just heard it which cost hundreds and hundreds thousands thousands of dollars now [Music] you no if we if we go in front of a bulkhead on the water side of a bulkhead we wouldn't leave the old bulkhead there and we would only go right in front of it right a to it to it flush to it and then it would be cut at grade normally or removed no we be removed property it would be removed if there were voids another question I have from here flood insurance we still need flood insurance that's a question for FEMA and your insurance companies the last time I was here had that's a female answer I tell you fean is not going to give anybody an answer without a project in place they don't analyze that till after the conditions have [Music] changed zinsky 68 P Road um I'm had to slide this up here because I look at this and I see you know in the future um there's going to be different problems in the highlands if we don't do something the past 600 years it's different than what's happening now in the environment we're seeing glaciers melt in the you know 20,000 years ago glaciers melted and raised sea level incredibly you know I'm not saying that's going to happen now but we are now in a different time we we have uh sea level rising and look at that map I just love and um you know if there's a a point through here where the water come through it will and um you know as as our speaker said I think the highlands is the only town that initially turn down um the study again now we we took that back and considering um but um you know FEMA came in you know helped the town if if we're able to help ourselves when we had 13 million on the table from the federal government when our cost will be I don't know 10 million whatever um again do you think the federal government will step up and say well we help you again if you're not able to step up and help yourself and save yourself think fre guys if you want to speak amongst yourselves then you're free to do that outside of this meeting okay hi P just oneck you ched the wall around the park and that is a concern also I'm just thinking my children that are in there they fall they get hurt kids that hang out there at night you can't even see that part having the wall surrounding it just seems like it's an unsafe situation I have raised that issue with the police chief that map looks to excuse me one more time Tommy please you've had a lot to say and there are people people that have not had anything to say yetor Central um I hear all the issues and everyone has a very personal issue property by and as you move through the design I know we have to understand that sea levels are rising that we do get sun big flooding it's going to get worse um is there an opportunity to sit down neighborhood by neighborhood sort of like a charet and work with the property owners um what would be acceptable whether it be Deployable walls or going to a lower design height in some areas if it needs to be but basically put everything on the table and get feedback because every neighborhood is you go every two blocks in this town character of and I think that's really what has to be done if we're ever going to reach a plan of any Ty that could be acceptable it has to go individual byid and that's what I think needs to happen is sort of a you know neighborhood by neighborhood sit down and not you [Music] know waiting for in the back yeah oh he just missed [Music] him uh I've been in Highland for 71 years and I've seen a lot of STS and and and even putting Sandy aside I've seen a lot of very very heavy vessels washed up on the shore and this country wall would not stop H so all you need is one breach and next thing you know the whole town is is in a b so concrete war will not solve C problems and I've seen it time and time again very very very Vel day just broke it away from their mornings and they come straight in and Country last time thank you thank you my isth I do have a question for the council um I'm also the president of the beach Association and all of my community going to ask what are you voting on in November you mentioned the about what is on the are we voting to continue this to this vo for the it has not been written yet it has not been written yet absolutely every single council meeting from now until August I think we have to have it in there so by July and we would this would be a resolution so when when just like we did for uh regionalization last year we made a resolution and you said this is what we're going to put on the ballot if it gets accepted by the commissioner of Education uh the council's uh resolution was not accepted by the commissioner but the school boards was and they did the same thing they published it you have to have a public meeting uh you have to have public input just like this and then you make a resolution and then we vote on the resolution and and then it gets put on goes to the county clerk and then it gets put on the ballot all that needs to happen uh before the end of July so it's not like it's going to sneak up on you you know it's going to be there because we're going to tell you as soon as we get it together that's why we're doing the meeting now in May so we could start have a couple of months to work out wording how it's going to work and all of those fine details before anything is sent to the clerk absolutely I would imagine yes absolutely we would close the storm Gates based on large scale storm events um sometimes you could go years without them sometimes you could have four in a year I mean that's all part of the operation maintenance and there's a manual for that that's all determined later down the road um but the it's already occurring in Kingsburg and has been since the 60s okay please John 14-4 Beach uh I have two questions one I don't quite understand how you do the phases because if the wall is doesn't come the whole T then it seems like there just to to through it so how can design one phase and then go to another phase and if you have a problem then doesn't work the other thing is you had a picture of keep the microphone close to your face so we could hear you had a picture of the community center M can you bring that back up there back there you go perfect okay so you say like that's kind of done or this is just an idea okay so if you go all the way up to the right this is don't even look at this yeah so that's all private property yes this is and private beaches and you just taking those private beaches don't even look at that look at this alignment right here but that's also a private beach showing us yeah 15% of the whole project I telling us not to look at five of it we were told trying to show us just the best n Harbor Beach and Veterans Park not an individual property we can't do a rendering a property maybe both them together similar but for right now it was just Snug Harbor here so please do not look at this I'm asking you kindly I'm sorry [Music] have right across the beach you're saying well okay be there so that commity we don't know where this alignment is going to be sorry I don't know where this alignment is going to be I have not sat down if you figure that out but there will be a line there will be some of protection whether it's here here here I know okay how about this it seems like we're uh we're devolving here so um why don't we uh why don't we just stop for now oh oh Dave you want to close us out because we haven't heard from a marina owner can't hear you Bab okay all the way close to your mouth when for a lot of don't look at this we're not sure maybe so this is not aive you're saying it's answers I know you're you're looking at me I don't know Bethany if you want to do it but again you know this is all going to be designed it's the phasing right it's the phasing that everybody is not quite happy with because everything is kind of what you just said possibly going up to your deck possibly going sew of your deck but those are the finite details that have not this is the global overall and then we have to get into the finite details and it's just not going to be able to be done unless it's done in phases it's not ideal for everybody sitting out there I understand that but that's why we we So the plan is the flood wall right if you go into there you'll see the different the the te flood wall that's going in place the the part that we don't have comprehensively is where it sits on block one lot one that's what we're all questioning here where what where does it sit and what does that look like for me right I mean I would I would say for anybody who's adjacent to this area if you have your flood elevation certificate and it is in navd you're going to have your base floor elevation you're going to have your first floor maybe even your second floor those are the those are the elevations that you're going to need to use so when your if your first floor elevation is a plus 13 navd this wall is at a plus 14 navd that means if you're tall and sitting tall you'll see over it um maybe a very short child won't so that's what you need to think of when you're thinking of these things one are going [Music] Brin um I just uh had two questions one of them was I needed to get something reiterated um I Heard the Gent second geman next to our attorney uh said something about drilling on at bradle Point did I hear um no there's no Drilling no I think you might heard me say Drive sheet piles when we build a flood wall would you have sheet piles and concrete cap over them that may be what you heard oh okay I thought a resident in onity said what's going on there okay very good just couldn't hear um also my other question was um I understand at this point you made it clear that you presenting the opportunity for this and it's if we want it or not as a whole community um but since it's uh also a federal state and Community if we put the Kash on it as a community um do you see in the future that it will be um not in question the feds will just make it happen the SE I [Music] mean is it really a possibility that we'll vote vote it down and uh is there a possibility then within a couple of years that s since I sorry [Music] no we work with the non-federal sponsor and the uh D and the D works with the town you know so it's a collaborative process so if you you turn it down now we discuss internally what to do next it's not likely if you turn it down it would be likely that it would not happen so oh if you turn it down the project will not likely happen make it possible the the feds can't do it with without our sponsors so we well do the sponsors have the control does anyone have control to um just we shoot it down to disregard it and just continue F no the only thing we can leave right now at this point in time is that is not the desire of the state is to have a non-participatory partner okay so you want us to cooperate I'm sorry I'm speaking layman's terms um when I ask questions um and I just you don't mind I'll be really quick uh I just um the bike path going from Highlands to Atlantic Highlands I know some people are going to want to know when I go back and share notes uh I'm assuming the wall is going to continue all the way up no it's it stops right before one Willow oh okay all right right before one Willow yeah the B that area in purple was redeveloped after Sandy and and it was filled to elevation above 14 so the walls already lower than their ground level where one Willow is that development [Music] there bronin can when you're finished could you hand the microphone to the lady behind you okay um I'm just going to make a statement um there's been homes here that are years years old that had withstood old storms um one my neighbors did rebuild but he was a newcomer in town and the little cottage did survive uh Sandy pretty beat up but that was cuz it wasn't maintained by each generation that lived there so much and my neighbor here um so it can be managed to develop a seaw wall um we have in our community we have a lot of new transplants I welcome them uh I'm a trans plan 30 years ago but I my son was born here in Riverview and he's a Jersey Boy a Highlander uh and he grew up uh bringing his wed wagon down to the end of the street with his Bish pole and shovels jumping off the docks four-wheeling in that place they go four-wheeling I can do it anymore but uh sing in the Sandy which by the way is a nursery uh for sea life we catch a baby food baby flounder uh needle noose is it called needle noose fish um a baby seahorse we found a Dy up seahorse uh when my son was little on the beach um it's a sanctuary it's not just the body in water um it's a it's a nursery for the rest of the sea um and I it was a comment with all due respect I know um is it Bethany did say you know who we kidding we go to the beach to go to the beach I we go to the beaches in Highlands to stay away from the big uh C oh I do too my kids do they ride their bikes from Highlands oh yeah yeah so um and I think this highland was discovered because people like to get off the ferry um put on their flipflops get out of rat race they like that broken uh Robo that's been sitting in the Tall Grass uh that feed up for 30 years there's that New England kind of um I don't know I'm say the right words about okay so um anyway I just want to mention I didn't like that you said we can not [Music] she's been waiting the whole fre meeting John question if this project gets buot it down in November what is the Township's plan be I'm not talking about the storm runoff I'm not talking about any of those projects I'm talking about flood mitigation what flood mitigation we see in the future it's homeowners downtown this if anything I'm going to point you again to the FEMA brick uh project uh our engineer can speak to it more eloquently it is about a $6 million project of which uh Fina is giving us $12 million to do um it is manages uh runoff from Mammoth Hills it manage and other parts of Uptown it includes uh installing a pump station at Harbor it also includes um changing our a lot of the valves that we use and um Joe if you want to come and and speak to it and that's not even plan B exactly uh so yeah this other project we got the money uh last year it's still been pre-approval so we are in the historic Environmental right now which could take up to a year uh is in with the and with various other entities that we need from including the state uh because they involved through 36 so that is a ways away as is this possibility over here so we're working along with Army Corps so that what we do is also cable because we would likely need an army for perit to do what we're doing as it relates to Pump Station at Sun Harbor uh the goal for that project is to maintain and uh basically settle out the water that comes up from the hills and then any of the you call it the bathtub effect would be evacuated through various pump stations so again it's a lot of infrastructure improvements I know that there's already a lot of infrastructure improvements going on so we need to get all the approvals in place and we also would be impacting Comm Acres uh land which is what snow Harbor is so that requires what we call it diversion so we have to get more approvals as well so it's a process um and we're working through [Music] it when we get further rules and stuff we could have meeting on that I just want to throw in two things that hit me this week one was that I I did a lot of research last year to improve my insurance costs I was all excited CU I really got them knocked down except I got a letter this week telling me they've applied to the state and they're looking for a 22% increase and I was Furious and then I'm watching television and I I just looked at up again to make sure that I had the right numbers last year alone there were 28 different catastrophes that cost over a billion dollars to deal with so it's something to think about um for whatever vulnerability I'm I'm here I'm right down the road on gr tour you know if it comes that high I'm sending for Noah but but conceptually that you you're carrying insurance and those costs aren't going down because of all of these crazy things that are happening with weather all over the place so it's something to think about they're not saying hang on hang on hang on hang on hang on and in conclusion between 2015 and now we could do this when we wrap up okay this poor woman's been waiting here for absolutely I'm so sorry I hear you I can't hear you you have to have it right up to your [Music] mouth can't hear you 10,000 taxes we have toay what happen [Music] one how that work we have you can't you can't vote well hang on you cannot vote unless you're voting at your primary residence well then it's incumbent upon you to speak with your neighbors and other folks that you know in town okay [Music] I just want to make sure that we got everyone that has not spoken yet yes there are quite a few um Ro um I have question in regards to Tas projects like and beach in terms of materials that you use here approximately can you store them or um Locate them for the project and is there a proximity of um travel that has to be or is or is the majority of the material being used for the project hous are stored within the burrow that the projects going on in it's both so we when we do further when we get along in the process we look atav time and we look at the least impact don't want com down roadway I understand that so we do look at that at staging areas within the town um what property they have to the equipment impct on and in terms of like a product of our size what like approximately what would you um estimate in terms of square footage in terms of storage of materials that we need I don't have an answer at the that have not determined that yet I and I do think that's something that has to be considered of all residents and not just the ones on the waterfront um that there are going to be a lot of materials being stored not 1 2 3 years it's going to be 20 years plus um that it needs to be considered if we're putting this materi and how much space is going to up has anyone not spoken that would like to speak question I'm not Eng question but it's a the the option to do this because it just seems like in this stand down I I grew up here I have a little house I and look at Town beautiful it seems like every time we have a beautiful place in this town we M it up with something ug so what's the point here and access our get see them you know that's why we live here so is there any other option design are possibilities but how how much are you going to and [Music] be that's what it is ridiculous live a beautiful place why we have [Music] to sure I mean for a storm surge that reaches Sandy levels elevation 11 or 12 ft you need something higher than that in order to prevent those storm water that the storm surge from coming into town so for that purpose that's pretty much the option there also levies which are also just as high but they're they're Earth and they take up bigger footprint another option would be what they did in the purple section over there different map up there where they they started with a kind of a clean slate when Paradise trailer park was wiped out during sanity and they had nothing there so they were able to bring in fill Build It Up that's another option um the other option is adapt to the flooding Elevate everything but your roads are still going to flood clean up after storm I mean these are all there's ways to adapt to the flooding and there's ways to adapt to a flood [Music] wall pictures of other Ops be why why wall but not other materials or other options that might be more Sol problem I'm not sure what other option that you would have to solve this problem um that's cost effective there was talk about filling in the whole town up to the elevation needed but to do that you'd have to elevate all the infrastructure on the roads and still build a bulkhead to hold all all that fill back which is the same cost as the flood wall without the fill so you know cost Effectiveness that would never fly um it's a very populated Town densely populated so there's there's limited options here is great but doesn't serve the people it takes away the whole live what's the point I get it I get it we were we were brought here to solve a flooding problem um I realized that flood projects of this magnitude uh impact the town wherever they're built and it's up to the town to decide to live with that uh impact of the flood wall and figure out how to adapt with some kind of elevator maybe walkway along it make it look nice or adapt to the flooding and so far you guys have adapted the flooding post Sandy and there's been some great improvements here um but we were asked to come back and still look at this area because it's still at very very high risk of severe damages if you get another Sandy event and you could adapt and clean up again or you could accept a project and adapt to that about Sy AC we actually looked at that too in the study phase a barrier across the river I invite anybody to go read the feasibility report for different Alternatives it's very expensive to build um uh a barrier across to Sandy Hook you'd also have to have a navigation gate and Sandy Hook is actually not high enough so you'd have to continue a flood wall down Sandy Hook all the way to wear ties into the sebrite seaw wall so that cost was just um a not cost effective yeah everything the government does the Army Corp of Engineers everything we do our feasibility report is sent to Congress as a document for Congress to decide if they want to invest federal dollars into a project so it has to be cost effective that's why we do the studies that we do so we did what you're just talking about the off structure navigation we did look that look at that during it was the cost of loan was was enormous compared to the amount of damage that are experienced in town that would be shared by sebrite Mammoth Beach yeah you're correct you're correct but it still was not even close to cost [Music] effective if Congress if Congress authorizes it to pay for it all we pay for it all but Congress doesn't authorize it that way except in rare cas cases is there anyone that has not asked a question or made a statement that wants to I just to say can we have your name and address um on Lighthouse Point I just want to say the link from the Barrow site to the Fe feasibility study does not work I'll look into that so I think most of us look at the study more closely okay it did work for me today I just try okay I'll fix that I know our website was having issues today so how many years have you been doing this kind of CRM this M is for that I'm a clal engineer by education I also have a degree ininal experience I grew up in County on the water water girl beach girl Rosemary okay guys please I I know we've been here together for a while thank you [Music] everybody mayor are you any comment sorry you're closing public comment and moot I was yes I'm going to end public comment now before we adjourn this meeting does anyone here at the table have anything else they'd want to add honestly just thank you for coming out I know everybody is walking out of the room right now I know it takes a lot of time to come out and you feel like you're talking to a brick wall over here we do hear your comments we will respond to any other comments that come in via email and this will be on the website so you'll have access to everybody's email addresses thanks for coming out everyone I make a motion to adjourn second I [Applause] [Music]