mayor would you like to proceed yes please good evening this is the meeting of the burough of Highland mayor and Council regular meeting on Wednesday April 17 2024 the notice requirements provided for in the open public meetings act have been satisfied notice that this meeting was properly given by transmission to the as Park Press in the Two River times and by posting at the burrow Highlands municipal building and filing with the burrow clerk all on January 1st 2024 items listed in the agenda are subject to change please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance to of the United States of America the rep for stands I now do V call council member santes here counc member here counc Mel here counc preski here mayor buan here thank you next we have Proclamation alcohol awareness from whereas alcohol awareness month is recognized each April as a time to bring understanding and prevention to alcohol ABS the individuals and their families and friends are affected by it whereas the National Council on alcoholism and drug dependence has chosen Color Purple to represent and acknowledge the many lives that are affected by out and support individuals who are impacted and whereas the significance of purpose is its similarity to the violent variety of quarts named anus the word amethyst is of duuke origin and means without drunkenness in ancient times it was believed that anyone carrying the stone could not become intoxicated now therefore uh the G of hland joins with the National Council on alcoholism and drug repentance and their efforts to raise public awareness by proclaiming April 19th as where prop day in high April 19th sorry April 19th just I got 22 here next we have approval minutes April 3rd 2024 meeting minutes I'll offer them I'll second counc santes councilman chak yes mck yes council president sheski yes mayor bran yes motion carries to approve April 3rd 2023 meeting minutes next we have April 3rd 2024 executive session minutes ier second Council M santes councilman chap yes counc Mel yes Council preski yes mayor bran yes motion carries to approve April 3rd 2023 executive session minutes next we have have consent agenda mayor would you like you to read the resolutions by title RS 24101 authorizing shared services agreement between the burough of Highlands and the burough of Atlantic Highlands for municipal court services R 24102 acknowledging receipt and review of the land use board consistency letter for ordinance 0244 R 24103 authorizing payment of bills R 24104 appointing Lisa Nepali for to serve in the position of alternate Deputy register R 24105 ratifying Collective negotiations between the burough Highlands and the New Jersey state policeman's Ben Association Sandy Hook local number 48 effec of January 1st 2024 through December 31st 2027 call for the consent agenda our second Council M yes counc CH yes just really quick before my vote uh just thanks to Mr mcel for all the work uh on the contra and thank you to the Chief and all the representatives for the police department uh getting this contract done as quickly inun as possible thank you very much so my vote is yes Council presidi yes mayor yes motion carries to adopt resolutions R 24101 through R 24105 next we have public hearing proposed ordinance o 2404 amending chapter 22 Environmental Protection section 2 -1.2 purpose 22- 1.3 definitions and word usage 22-17 review of applications adding new section 22- 1.8 tree replacement requirements and appendix a for suggested trees and shrubs and reing the remaining sections comments [Music] okay close the public comment and mayor if I may Chim in with sure right ahead all right so I have a recommended Amendment very minor amendment to this ordinance as you know it uses the dp's model ordinance as a base and the table in section proposed section 22- 1.8 refer ref originally to an application fee um that's a bit confusing because the three removal permits require an application fee this is really a replacement fee so I recommend that the governing body amend the ordinance just to change that word application to replacement um that would not be considered a substantive Amendment and it can be voted on tonight so offer to make that Amendment I'll second council member santes yes Council chac yes coun V yes council president Shi yes mayor buan yes motion carries O2 2404 pass on second and final reading with the amendment of that Wasing and then there should be a motion to uh and then I will make a motion to adopt the ordinance all right need a second a second oops was that yes okay council member Sans yes Council M yes Council M yes Council presi yes mayor Bulan yes motion carries 02 244 pass on second and final reading next we have o 2405 Bond ordinance amending in part Bond ordinance number 02207 adopted on April 6 2022 providing for the phase one and two sanitary sewer Improvement project in order to increase the appropriation therefore by 3 million for a total appropriation of $7,500,000 to increase the authorized funds and notes be issued to finance a portion of the cost there of by 3 million for a total debt authorization of 7,659 244 Cent and to increase the allocation of the Appropriations to cost permitted under njsa 40a colon 2-20 authorized in and by the borrow of Highlands in the county of MTH New Jersey I'll second public com Mike Michael Canon Central lab um I have uh two questions on this uh one has to do with just understanding the need for the um increasing funding for the project what's driving it is you know just is it just an increase in scope or is it just unforeseen issues and the second part is I'm looking to get a little better understanding of our total bonding liability our Capital um debt uh our debt um service costs in the 24 budget is a 35% increase from the um 23 budget it's adding 18 and half% to our total budget now and that looks like it's just projected to keep becoming a larger and larger portion of our of of our budget and I just wanted to get a better sense of what the projections are going forward for Debt Service and is it just an increase in the um amount of debt or is there some change structural change in the interest rates that are driving the increase in The Debt Service well this the I'll take it for the first part with the sewer um there was a lot of unforeseen issues with the infrastructure in the town when the contractor actually started digging and ran ran into a bunch of different things that they didn't expect there were uh multiple change orders that were needed in order to to adjust on the Fly I guess you could say for the different uh piping issues they found different um I I guess different utilities that crisscrossed each other and from what I understand a lot of it happened after Sandy when we were trying to just get everyone back up to running again um and this the second part of this will it's for the next phase to which is a lot smaller scale to finish up um the part with um the um can I clarification on that um the second phase when you say is that for the paving and finished work or the phase two of the sewer project phase two of the sewer project okay and what is the do you know the total percentage of change orders just you know where it falls sort of in the expectations it it was within the expectations it hasn't gone above what it was supposed to be but it's pretty close okay um I don't have the exact numbers in front of me I can always get them for you okay absolutely that's that's fine okay not going to the of it and uh um yeah the debt service for certain things that have come back like the building we're still waiting on Final reimbursement from FEMA uh I think we're roughly about $3 million we're getting from them that'll all be placed once we get the final payment I think we're still about 900 and something thousand that we still haven't received from them yet for that so that the building will be part of it a lot of the other projects we still have grant offsets that are going to go pay for that such as the skate park um but other things that that we're adding to it that are on the books right now like the sewer project um that is also through the ibank which they could I mean saying they they would but it has been done in the past where they forgive the debt for such an infrastructure project so that's something that could happen in a few year but because the infrastructure was neglected and it had to be taken care of we incurred a lot of debt and like I said it's it's just the extent of the increase in The Debt Service is concerning so are some of those like Revenue anticipation bonds that will get uh you know liquidated once we get some payment back or yeah there'll be some that'll that'll be paid down once we get money back in for it um such as like basically like the ibank project right now we had to front the money for it and we get money as it comes in from the ibank that we used to pay down um and this building with Fe is there any are there any options to for increased costs to go back to the iig funding or is it too late to go back and get paid for work that's already done um you mean for like the the sewer project project oh no that is being done that that's part of the project had a part of it funded up front but is there any chance of getting any of the 3 million or whatever the um the increased bond amount is oh yeah definitely yeah that's something that we're negotiating we actually had a meeting with um with the D rep about two weeks ago with the engineers for it and there was other issues that that they wanted to go over and we he asked them for all the addition the additional paperwork that was for some reason not submitted for the change orders and he was fine with everything once it was submitted so we should be getting more payment from that also okay I said it just in general just the concern M with the increase in I know a lot of people I a 20 2% increase in taxes and the biggest single item increased in the Appropriations was by far dead service yeah so okay thank you any other comments on this ordinance again I offer I'll second counc mes yes counc M yes counc Mel yes counc pki yes mayor beran yes motion carries 02405 pass on second and final reading next we have 02 2406 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget Appropriations limit to establish a cap Bank okay we'll open up the public portion on this one comments from the public I'll close public question and I'll this ordinance I'll second Council memb of yes counc M yes Council M yes Council peski yes mayor ban yes motion carries 0246 passed on second and final reading next we have report so quick quick few updates here uh so just this past weekend we had our Earth dat event uh down to the community center which was inclusive of our annual or by annual uh Beach cleanup so we have one in the spring and the fall and that's in conjunction the clean action folks uh also this year we introduced a clothing swap so it was nice use of the rec center to have folks come in and basically you would have a ticketing system where you donate You' get a number of tickets and then you can use those tickets in order to get other things that other folks have donated so that was a nice uh inaugural event there with the cloning swap so that was a great way of us uh recy uh and being Earth conscious and then along with that and an ongoing event that'll last to the uh 15th of May or 13th of May sorry uh ongoing sneaker swaps so also down at the rep Center bring a pair of sneakers trade a pair of sneakers so uh continuing to reuse recycle and uh just taking care of our environment wherever we can so all in uh conjunction with their day um also this past week we had the registration for a summer camp which runs from July 8th through the 16th and at 25 bucks a kid that is a nice service for the families of our town keeping that affordable great job the on that as well and then lastly we have the uh townwide yard sale that's coming up on May 4th and 5th two-day Extravaganza uh head to the ver website to get more details on that event um quick update on the coms committee we spent the entire conversation uh this past uh month or the beginning of the April uh meeting just basically talking through what are ideas to frame up the conversation around budget I know special meeting coming up around the budget when I get materials out there Mak me a little bit more consumable I know we all love staring at the budget it's fun times but uh maybe there's more consumable ways of putting that out there so folks can come to that session uh armed with data and then like Mr Canon uh just talking about those questions in terms that make sense to everybody who's paying our taxes and then uh lastly just uh it's been a busy April uh in terms of weather events in terms of power outages uh it's been a nice uh demonstration of some coordination across both our OEM account as well as the B site and sharing updates uh and also just an increased use of nixel and it's is a shout out to hey sign up for nixel if you haven't already got a quick little bit.ly bitly SLT try nixel easy to remember uh and then just get those updates push to your mobile phone um so that's all I've got for the next busy month um I report on the elementary school I I don't get to go to a secondary meetings because they tonight yes and uh next time I'll report out on the transitional board but in terms of the elementary school if you've got nothing to do Friday night or Saturday morning they are doing uh the play frozen and they're all excited about it and um the um their a hunt was a success um unfortunately I I can't wait for them to have a better sound system or to record their meetings because there was information on the school performance report and I'm going to have to get that off the website and I'll I'll bring that next time because it was garbled I couldn't understand it but other than that um more to come next meeting okay there you go all right I'm going to be reporting on Roar on the river boat race on May 19th Chief Burton was there at the the recent meeting uh and he informed the race committee that this past Monday that the US Coast Guard based out of New York not Sandy Hook has given a quote temporary final ruling unquote that the race will be approved petty officer first class Katherine veale told the chief that the highlands Council can approve the resolution to hold the race so I hoping that at the next meeting we can have that resolution made and then just further about the race um it's bringing back an old Highlands tradition the clammers many of whom used car engines on their boats used to have races on the river the first skiff powered for a race this skiff is a small boat is said to have been built in the 1920s the last races were held in the 70s there are harling's residents that have lived in our burrow for decades and finally remember the fun and excitement they grew up to the town so the were in the river boat races will restart this tradition in this old fishing Village called Highlands than that's it for me oh I'm sorry one one other thing there was an article in the uh April 11th to 17th to River Times uh lead story from the county M County and um the rating credit rating for w county is is actually higher than the state of New Jersey uh in 2024 is the 10th consecutive year in which the county uh tax rate will drop and that the property values in the county continue to rise so I just thought that that was a good thing to tell everybody on the council and that's it next week next week okay um any we public motion individuals wishing to address the council shall be recognized by the presiding officer and shall give their name address and the group that any need they represent although the council encourages public participation reserves the right through his presiding officer to terminate remarks to in or by any inds not in keeping with the conduct of of a proper and efficient meeting if any individual refuses to conduct himself in a proper meeting manner they will be removed from the meeting the council will not during the public portion of this meeting discuss matters involving Employments appointments termination of Employments negotiations terms and conditions of employment evaluation of the performance of promotion or discipline of any specific or perspective of current employee there's a three minute time limit for your comments do have comments Michael Michael panon 10 Central LA um it's just really an update on the schedule for the paving over uh Central and Bay and ocean is there any updated timeline on that I know I did miss the meeting on that I was out of town but um we've been pushing them we're still hoping and praying I'm not going to promise that before summer um we're just pushing them as hard as we can they did finally paay uh up off Lyon at least but we are pushing them as hard as we can and what is there work they still have to complete before they can start I'm assuming they'll start Curbing and then Paving yes um basically they're just trying to um I guess grade the road is it's with the engineers right now they're trying to grade it and get the uh curbing to the right height so nothing backs up on the people's property and it actually flows and drains to the correct area because I I guess the the way it's pitched and the work that had to be done there's a little more engineering that needed to be done the road section is not yeah very crowned and right so you need to Crown it in order to get the curve reveal but that's I would have thought that would have been done with part of the original plan but it was um but then there we had switched engineering firms on this back in January and there was there was issues that they had found also where they wanted it understood and they're not going to take someone else's seal for so okay thank you any other comments por executive session executive session will be held following the regular council meeting prior to each executive session the fal Council will convene an open session at which time a resolution will be adopted in accordance with njsa 10 col 4-13 no formal option will be taken during executive session resolution to enter executive session the it resolved that the following portion of this meeting shall not be open to the public be it further resolve that private consideration is deemed required and is permitted because of the following accepted noted exception set forth in the ACT liation be it further result that it's anticipated that the matters to be considered impr private may be disclosed to the public at a later date when the need for privacy no longer exists make that motion second all in favor I I thank you um 724 exective I make a motion to adjourn I'll second all in favor I thank you meeting adjourned at 7:29