Mar would you like to begin yes please good evening this is the meeting of the burough of Highlands Mayan Council regular meeting on Wednesday December 6th 2023 the notice requirements provided for in the open public meetings act have been satisfied notice of this meeting was properly given by transmission to the Asbury Park Press and the two River times and by posting with the burough of Highland municipal building and filing with the burrow clerk on January 1st 2023 in October 18 2023 items listed on the agenda are subject to change please stand for the Pledge of 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'll now do roll call council member santes here councilman chac here Council melck here council president meski here mayor bran here um first we have approval of minutes November 1st 2023 minutes council member svantes I'm obain council member chac abstain council member Melnick yes Council presidi yes mayor bran yes motion carries to approve November 1st 2023 meeting minutes next we have November 1st 2023 executive session minutes second council member svantes yes oh I'm sorry ABC main I'm sorry councilman Melnick yes council president shvi yes mayor bran yes motion carries to approve November 1st 2023 executive session minutes next we have November 20th 2023 special meeting minutes all her all second council member santes council member chac yes Council Melnick yes council president shvy yes mayor bran yes motion carries to approve November 20 2023 special meeting minutes next we have introduction of proposed ordinances 0 2323 designating restricted parking in front of residents occupied by persons with disabilities I'll offer it council member svantes yes council member chac yes councilor Melnick yes council president shvi yes mayor bran yes motion carries to pass or ordinance 0 2323 on first reading with a public hearing to be held on December 20th 2023 next we have consent agenda mayor would you like me to read the resolutions by title yes please R23 226 authorizing refund of tax overpayment R23 227 authorizing the refund of an animal license fee R23 228 authorizing submission of a strategic plan for municipal Alliance grant for fiscal year 2025 R23 to 22 29 authorizing appointment of Justin mclung as building subcode official inspector R23 230 authorizing appointment of Michael winch as Plumbing subco official inspector R23 231 authorizing appointment of Jay Everett uh electrical subcodes official inspector R23 232 authorizing appointment of Courtney Lopez as officient a zoning officer R23 233 authorizing appointment of Alicia Jones as technical assistant to the construction official R23 235 authorizing appointment of Sandra AES as Court Administrator R23 235 approval to submit a Grant application to the NJ dca's American Rescue plan firefighter Grant R23 236 authorizing payment of bills R23 237 authorizing the award of a contract to Mitchell humph and Company for supplemental software product support R23 238 providing for the transfer of surplus funds R23 239 authorizing execution of a settlement agreement between the burough of Highlands and Highlander Development Group LLC I will offer it I have a question sure okay simply on the um the appointments uh uh I guess uh 229 through 234 I was just wondering who who hires these people and how does that happen the burough has hired them the uh construction official Steve Winters uh interviewed everybody um and um he did it with the approval of the administrator okay so we will finally have our building department back as of the 1 of January excellent excellent okay that's all I need to know um can I offer can you second it oh I'll second it lovely um council member santes yes council member Tac yes Council Mel Jing out you yes council president weski yes mayor bran yes motion carries to adopt resolutions R23 226 through R23 239 next we have mayor's report uh the Bay Avenue EV charging station is now on we still have to uh work out um some some uh just dotting eyes and Crossing tees with the CFO uh but it is working it was our former employee Joe M was the first one to charge up his uh his GM automobile he was very happy one thing I wanted to make note and I'm glad that I'm going to be able to put this on the record this is a DC fast charger so it can only charge vehicles that are 100% electric if it's any sort of hybrid it's not going to be able to because this takes three-phase electricity and the electricity would be too much and it would probably blow up the the battery so we don't want any blow ups so uh if we go for another Grant and we get a lower a lower amount um of a charge then it would be able to do hybrids as well uh so that's up and running we just have to work on signage and and uh and speak with uh Patrick DeBlasio and uh I'm going to take that off my report um we have two new F water fountains that have been installed at hudie and Veterans Park that happened on uh November 20th the water will be on in the spring of uh 24 and they have uh it is a three tiered where there's a little U thing on the ground for a pooch a regular water fountain and then you've got one of these which everyone seems to have these days uh so that was done in just a couple of days great job uh water which Pump Station we're just waiting for floats I know they were there all day today shorelands and the electric uh the electrician uh but the uh backup generator has been installed uh we're just waiting for those couple of things hopefully in the next week or two we can have that done before Christmas and we can Mark yet another 2013 project is going to be off our list of things to do uh the big sanitary project um just again to put on record because many people have asked me all roads will be repaved after sewer testing is completed and before stavola closes for the season so I don't know if those things are going to happen still in this year most likely they will not I want to manage that expectation right now um the streets that have completed Mains and laterals are such Central Ocean Beach graly uh the burrow portion of bav Ralph William the county portion of water witch and North Street that was just completed uh the ones that just have Mains only completed um are some portions of Bay Avenue and lynon so the portion of Bay Avenue between Atlantic and north have no Mains completed there are a couple of areas around um Veterans Park and over near bars where there's a conflict between the water and the current sewer line so since the county doesn't let any sort of lines work happen um in the winter time we're looking at those that little area there by bars and uh that's to be done uh after the moratorium which I believe is going to be June not June uh March 1st or March 31st they haven't decided yet March 31st but um we may wait till just after the the St Patrick's little okay um and then plans for this month is uh finally decommissioning Wells at Central Ocean in the burough part of bay um and then to continual continue laterals which the county is allowing us to do on the county road at Bay and London uh they're I've been putting out um both the website as well as uh through various social media Outlets there is a link that is updated every Friday for where the work is going to be in the next week uh so that residents can plan so it comes out on a Friday we release it on Friday that well you know on Monday morning for the most part what streets are going to be closed of course if there's an emergency or something wacky happens uh that update we should probably take care of with a nixel um most people will notice that the updates to Veteran Park that work started on 11:13 so far theyve removed the beds uh the flow beds that the Garden Club has requested and they poured the concrete for the um chest table and two um picnic tables I'll call them with the little silver pads so people can plug in their phones oh yeah so that work's been done we still have to um you know get all of those in there we're going to put in some solar lighting and we have to resurface the basketball court but those uh should be able to get done within the next uh the concrete was the one thing that really had to push before the temperature gets below 45 degrees um reconstruction of Bayside and Marine that has been moved that that work which is uh storm drainage improvements and Paving we're going to delay that to March because we don't really want to be doing concrete work and Paving in the winter months uh so we'll take care of that then uh we're using a grant of over $246,000 to help us with uh with the cost of that uh for Jones Creek uh we did resubmit our CFA permit earlier in uh actually want say that was in October uh to and uh we just need to um get that dredged because water can't come out if it's full of sand um also the Portland Road guard rail we did get that Municipal grants that for Portland Road and Grand Tour and to replace that guard rail so that should be uh happening pretty much uh probably around the beginning of the year we'll let that go out to bit um other construction plan for 2024 is Overlook Park uh the environmental work is ongoing and should be uh finished hopefully before the end of the year uh Marine Place walkway East which is the sea drift side uh we submitted that to the mon County CBG Grant um and that was awarded for $167 647 uh for Frank Hall Park we um are going to go after Green Acres Grant to uh to make that happen uh we're submitting that in early February of this year so we should probably hear in the fall of um I'm not this year obviously February of 24 so we should be hearing it uh back from them on that in uh in the fall of 24 um other upgrades are for uh The Snug Snug Harbor Pump Station um and also the updates for the North and uh Valley Street stations um we were awarded that $1.3 million Grant from New Jersey local Transportation projects and we are fully in permitting with that uh We've started the permitting for the uh thema brick Grant which includes all of the above plus all of the M with hills problems that's permanent process is going to take us between 12 and 16 months um we've asked for it to be exped expedited of course but I mean it's it's a lot of money it's over $12 million in Grants project itself is uh well over uh$ 16 million and it's all stuff that we've been looking to get done for quite some time um and speaking of Grants our grant total at the end of November was 15, 347,000 598 so far this year it's a crazy number it's crazy number and our um our CRS coordinator continues to to work on uh she's got a great relationship with our new um construction official and they are working on these new programs one of which was in the uh the consent agenda here uh that'll help our building department work seamlessly with the flood plane official and um and really help our residents understand better zoning uh flood plane management and uh to get lower flood insurance and that is my report any questions did that move through that Final Phase in terms of like I think was that accomplish get through in terms of the process I mean more than one more second but it's uh it's going to take some time and we also need we have been working on what I told call the engineers to do is uh to work together at this very early permitting stage um with the Army Corps because there's all these projects that are out there that have been approved we know how Congress could be um so I just wanted to make sure that we could probably and they Army Corps agreed we can move faster on the projects that we initiate faster than the Army Corps is ever going to get a shovel in the ground so um I've been having all of those Engineers DP um having all these zo meetings so that we can get our act together quicker and then help go through the approval process FAS got and that's all I have my report is very light November us light month but passed the resolutions earlier pretty much finished hiring for the Department that will be up and running January 1st um the technical assistant will start probably around the 20th just to get everything going there and December 20th yeah and the court administrator we finalized all the paperwork with civil service and she should be starting I believe it's the 18th of December and we're good to go January back to fully s y that's all I have anyone else have anything else they would like to add then I will make a motion to does the public have any thing that they would Ty it's too cold uh then I make a motion to enter into executive session executive session will be held following the regular council meeting prior to each executive session the burrow Council will convene an open session at which time a resolution will be adopted in accordance with njsa 10 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 it further resolved that a private consideration is deemed required and is permitted because of the following noted exceptions set forth in the ACT potential litigation be it further resolved that is anticipated that the matters to be discussed in private shall be may be dis disclosed to the public at a later date when the need for privacy no longer exists I have second second council member svantes yes um council member chac yes Council Melnick yes council president sheski yes mayor buan yes motion carries to enter executive session at 7:18 and and I will make a motion to uh end the public portion I'll second I mean favor I meeting adjourned at 7:35 thank you everyone thank you