[Music] okay I making this notice in compliance with the open public meetings act 231 Public Law 1975 laws of the state of New Jersey adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by posting a copy of the bulletin board at bar Hall forwarding a copy to the local Source store Ledger and home News Tribune and is posted on the bough website at least 48 hours prior to the meeting this meeting was contained on a list of regular set meetings on January 3rd 2024 and as amended by resolution 202499 dated March 6 2024 accordingly the notice requirements of the open public meetings act have been satisfied in regard to this meeting please stand for the salute to the FL con to the flag of the United States of America and to the for IT stand na indivisible andice for all mayor carich here Council Bo councilman fin here councilwoman deero here councilman moral here councilman councilman Zimmerman here councilman Bo is there a motion to accept and approve the following minutes of council meeting of June 19 2024 motion councilman Bo yes councilman finella yes councilwoman Deana pno yes councilman moral yes councilman Zimmerman yes okay is there a motion to adopt resolution number 2024-the Chief motion second roll call councilman Bo councilman Finnell yes councilwoman gardano pasero yes councilman moral yes councilman Zimmerman yes okay it is my honor and privilege to uh administer the oath of office to Paul Kelli chief of police Bible I got a [Music] bre I Paul campelli I Paul Celli you solemnly swear you solemnly swear that I will support that I will support Constitution the Constitution of the United States of the United States and bear a true faith and bear true faith and Allegiance and allegiance to the Saint to the Saint and to the governments established and to the government's established in the united states in the United States and in the state and the state Under The Authority Under the authority of the people of the people I do further solom will swear swear that I will that I will Faithfully faithfully impartially impartially and justly and justly perform the duties from the duties of chief of police for the barl C of chief of police for the barl C according to to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God thank you bu line do the hon [Music] [Music] well thank you everybody for coming I was told uh should have something prepared CU I like to talk it's better off just to have something R so I go be for 3 hours uh I'm deeply honored and humbled to be appointed the she of police this moment marks a culmination of the life long journey that began right here in pen today accepting the role of a chief after 26 years of service is not just a career achievement but a childhood dream fulfilled none of this would have been possible without the unwavering support my beloved wife Christine and our children n and Anthony their encouragement patience and love have shaped me into the person and leader in tonight to my fellow officers at the Police Department I extend my heartful gratitude for your friendship support and teamwork over the years together we form a department that our community can trust and depend on I committed to Leading by example and fostering an environment of Integrity professionalism and service I also want to take want to thank the council for their steadfast support for entrusting me with this opportunity to leave Kenworth is not just a place of work for me it's a community that I am immensely proud of and to protect and serve Tech my goal as Chief is to create a lasting positive change both within our department at the rer Town together with you the residents of Kenworth I a to strengthen Community bonds enhance safety measures ensure that our town remains a place we are all for thank you everybody for coming appreciate can I go yeah congratulations Chief thank youbody congratulations congratulations congratulations what's up there's a planning board meeting that's happening at 6:30 that he needs to attend come on up Christian hey Christian thank you mayor thank you for your of course of course so uh I believe there is a resolution to approve a project for the DPW and the uh Volunteer Fire Department's parking lots on your agenda that project is going to be constructed uh this year um we're going to do a preconstruction meeting in the next few weeks and uh the only other engineering project that I'm involved in is the uh 20224 dot roads which is going out to bid this week um and it will contain patut a portion of patoo and a portion of the of Monro Avenue Christian what portion of Monroe I think we were talking before it was only a couple blocks well last year's Road job included the first three blocks from North Michigan this year's Road job will continue on from there which will'll hopefully do at least three to four maybe even five more blocks uh going for four or five more hopefully oh that's great I think we had a resident Mr Herbert was here gave his story about riding down Monroe yes from 14th Street on and it is uh the wild west yes yes so we are continuing on hopefully by the end of the year we'll have up to seven seven in uh uh intersections for that for that project for Christi is that being funded through the town or is that being funded through the utility company that was doing work no this is just do neither this neither the town or uh so Department of Transportation is picking it up yes okay and what about the two what streets on the two I believe it's the portion that has uh that's connects South Michigan to the first intersection I don't have that street uh it's behind that gas station um they did I believe a half half width as part of the gas uh gas improvements so they left the other one untouch and we're just filling in that that half Street all right could you look at from Union Avenue up to I think it's red maple red maple because they did the same thing they paved from the center of the road to the curb so the other part of the road a good three blocks four blocks it's all now it's all coming up all there's all potholes and gr keeps going out and patching it but we were able to work with some roads cuz the water and gas did did a half but um there are obviously some roads that don't get that benefit but I will I will look into that there's a water cap that keeps coming out MH and we keep putting I happen to live on the corner that doesn't need the paving but the water cap winds up on my lawn so I keep putting it back in I should have told you but anyway that's what made me think about it because right around it the um asphalt came up so the cap come down yeah I I'll take a look at that okay thanks just on that real quick uh Council Mark that is that Ordinance do we ever finish that ordinance yet where we're going to we're Paving any utility companies that do work like that have to pay curve to curve I know we had talked about it that's on books now right yeah it is yeah but this has been a while I know two years now right right is there any way to revisit that with them at this point too late I don't think they'll go back but anything B will be will be required okay so even though it's caused this collateral damage there's nothing we can do no now okay the only other way is obviously if the town pays for it or if I but you're still going to have that seam and it's still going to be uneven and like the longer you wait the more evidence correct correct okay thanks Chris I on that note I think we were we passed the the ordinance went for its second vote we were going to revise it to make it a little more strict do you remember that yeah that's what I thought pass I think we have to bring it back second we did pass it or we we pass the we Deed from three to 5 years I believe it was corre so we we we have the three years in right we want to extend it to a situation like this it may actually come into play in a few years right right right all right good thank that's a good reminder cuz I don't think we did that second part no yeah I'll make sure we um you have a question I have some uh citizens complaining um they live on red maple it's a cold sack M there's a water course back there that's eroding uh the properties to the point that uh is undermined trees and some trees may have fell already or about to fall um there was a section that do they said fixed uh by Trenton and they dredged in U that was a few years ago and they put in stone a couple years ago but uh they didn't go as far as Ral Lan so they were looking for uh what they could possibly do CU it's ering into the properties and like I said it's undermining trees and we got you know so uh you guys could take a look at it we'll take a look at it I'll send I'll either I'll go or move okay thank you you have any updates on the the water fountain or I know um I'm still waiting on another quote we got one quote but the one was another one was incomplete because we decided to add another another Fountain and he didn't get he didn't uh the person didn't give us another quote for that and he was I'd like to get at least two quotes for that yeah no definitely and then I understand for the roof we started to get quotes for which one the roof I don't know if you that Tony not yeah so I didn't know if you'd have an update no and that new email that came out Angela with the opportunity to make application to the county for this year have we decided on anything yet for which one was there a newer one that just came out not a couple weeks ago or was that just the previous award I think it's a previous oh the previous award you mean no no I thought there was another one that came out um more recently requesting uh that there there's a time period to apply for this summer the kids Recreation and the uh Greening are both coming up in August I'll dou I'll take look that is definitely that's the ging Union County and the recreation trust those are both due August 30th right so we're going to need your help to get that those in order and whatever we need to get yeah so we did um have a meeting with um you know Tony was there and Greg and um uh wreck committee to go through what we've done cuz we had money you know that's the annual one and we had a lot of money we had a lot of priorities and we were going through what we had anticipated to do we recap what's been done what's left and so from that we like you know you can see what's left and what's new and then that's the stuff they'll apply for and that one uh Tony usually does the application yeah I just know there's only one meeting in August and it'll be here before we know it I want us to get no that resolution is um we were talking about it actually um earlier this week it is um slated on my list to put that resolution in the agenda So yeah thank you and I'll follow with Tony just to make sure that yeah yeah he was at that meeting I know you know it always seems to be but we'll um and we have to have a followup to it so thank you Christian yeah just so I just don't want us to get qu where I know last time we were like trying last minute to get all these quotes in for the senior center and everything so but when it comes to these grants I'd rather stay try and stay ahead of the board yeah no AG great AG great yeah okay thank you Christian thanks CHR thank you okay uh Finance report councilman fistral uh thank you mayor um basically um taxes are due August 1st I spoke to Ken the CFO and uh he did say that the State numbers were finalized and the uh he's not far off with the final numbers with the estimate and and um same thing as what he explained before was that the uh Municipal is really only responsible for 30% of that whole bill uh 50% goes to the school 18 to the county um Library gets a percent and the open space um is a percent but if you break it down compared to last year's taxes the county went up 12% the open space went up 15% but they only went up from $71 to $84 uh school went up 10% Library went up 16% and missible went up only 8% so unfortunately uh I think a lot of cities are going to have this burden also besides kind of worked and unfortunately it's the state we live in but we got to do something uh hopefully in the future to uh resolve this matter but that's all I have to say hey thank you councilman the Department of Public Works councilman Bole uh I don't have my glasses so forgive me um I know we have one guy out on workman's comp from the DPW uh the new new garbage truck is in New Jersey and I believe we're going to get it in like a week or two all right um the DPW collected and disposed of 232 tons is that right for just it was just like $17,900 yeah almost $18,000 and um uh I know the spaghetti streets especially Lincoln Drive coolage we've had a lot of tree issues um Craig has been meeting me at people's houses and we're he's taken care of a lot in the last few days that's all I have okay thank you councilman kudos to the response time from your team on those trees being down i' watched it all over town and as soon as a complaint comes in a couple hours later you're already assessing the situation I don't think you ask for anything more thank you councilman Bole yeah great job Greg thank you y team effort is not just so Department very Department police department fire department we we all come together this good job excellent okay Department of Public Safety councilman Zimmerman thank you mayor for the month of June the count Police Department responded to 1,141 calls for service and there were 174 9911 calls for June there were a total of 2475 hours of overtime for the month primarily for scheduled Patrol overtime which was 116 hours and dispatch overtime which was 108 hours with vacations there's always an increase in the summer for the overtime on on that on our department uh the C Police Department completed 3 hours of 308 hours of training for the month which included the arrive program Firearms Union County Emergency Response Team and varus New Jersey learn online classes that our officers took the C Police Department Al also issued 193 traffic summonses for the month of June 2024 excuse me there were two sick days used and zero sick occurrence hours and there were no on the job injury uh hours or days taken for June by the officers and dispatchers June was another busy month as the cter police department was dispatched to approximately 10 calls for motor vehicle burglaries carth and attempts are still ongoing C police units responded to four stolen vehicle flock alerts and they're able to intercept the suspects before they were able to victimize korth Residents so all flock all four flock alerts with our camera system at Boulevard Michigan uh did deter those suspects it continues to be a very valuable asset to the Bur alerting the coun police department when we have actors looking to steal vehicles or commit other crimes in our town and residents are reminded to please lock their vehicles when they're not in use in your driveways in the street do not leave key fobs or any valuables visible in your vehicle that may attempt an actor I know a lot of people have a full sense of security int town and they do leave their wallets their purses laptops iPads and keys in their cars please do not do that camer police department has seen a rise in crimes that are occurring within the burrow that are posted to the face their Facebook uh page excuse me without a call to the police department so what what they're saying is please call the police for Crime so that we know where they're happening what happened and we can do something about it as a police department when we see them on Facebook and and the police department learns about them on Facebook it's a day late and a dollar short there's not too much the police department can do at that point except follow up so they're encouraging any Resident to please call the the police department as soon as possible when any criminal or suspicious Behavior no matter how minor it may seem occurs if something looks out of place please call the police department they'd rather come out and check it out and it's nothing versus tomorrow uh they find out that it was something serious or something that could have been prevented and just like to say congratulations to Captain Campanelli on being promoted to Chief tonight I have high expectations of him and I know he's going to do a great job I've worked with them and the town is in good hands and thank you to the mayor for working and getting uh the police chief back in in place in position after uh Chief Seuss retired on July 1st and looking forward to uh working with the new Chief and the mayor and Counsel on his moving forward from this point great thank you and on the topic of the key fobs um my son has a habit of throwing his keys right on the kitchen table build up to sleep anybody we breaks into the house she sees the keys right there go right out yeah and car right on the you know right on the driveway right I know C I know uh Chief campelli didn't put it in this report but there was an incident on weekend on 21st Street North 21st Street where somebody did their car was they could tell that the car had the key fob um the car was unlocked but the key fob was not in the car and the actors did go into the house to look for the key fob while they were sleeping at 3:30 in the morning and uh they did steal the pocketbook and some other stuff in the house while they were sleeping so please and it was they went through an open window so make sure your windows are locked make sure that your being vigilant with your car locking it and uh just be on high caution and if you do hear or see anything in your house that sounds suspicious in the middle of the night don't confront people just call the police so that we can get there to intercept it but this is going on not in just Kenworth it's going on in sh Hills Westfield every town around us it's it's nothing new with technology comes a lot of drawbacks for the police department and key fobs are one of them and uh just makes stealing things easier so unfortunately thank for sure thank you you know what I also want to announce because it'll it'll happen our meeting is after the kennworth carnival the fire department Carnival Carnival is um August 13th to the 18th this year uh Planning and Zoning councilman Morrow thank you mayor live report for tonight uh begin with planning board as right next door they're hosting a special meeting uh is open to the public if anybody here wants to go uh the meeting tonight is to address a resolution for solar panels to be put on top of the St Tera schools uh in addition to the solar panel resolution they will be talking about a traffic study for a separate application uh for construction that may take place on Michigan Avenue in the boulevard uh again the meeting is right next door and it is open to the public if anybody wants to sit in in addition to what's going on tonight there are also eight other applications that are still going through the process process of review with our town professionals and we'll make their way to the planning board in due time uh with respect to zoning and code enforcement as well as complaints we've been pretty steady that's a good thing right uh since the last month uh we've only had two uh complaints logged in for July I think that's very low number both of them are property maintenance related easy to deal with those types of things uh and they've been help dealt with in due course for zoning uh applications have been a little light for July not too uncommon uh we've seen a couple of new businesses apply for zoning applications uh excuse me for zoning and some miscellaneous home accessories to be built um we do have one complaint came into zoning since our last meeting relates to a neighbors above ground pool that may or may not have been built without permits uh and not meeting setback requirements in the property that is being investigated now and I'll have a determination on what happens with that by the next meeting and that's all I got for tonight mayor okay thank you uh Recreation and fire uh councilman SC thank you mayor um I have some questions on a consent agenda are we going to have a pause after reports or should we mention okay we vote on what's up I had a question cons agenda yeah a couple things so uh I don't know if I have to I should talk about it now before we vote on you can talk about it now sure okay uh before I give my report uh number 156 I was just curious the amount of funds involved and what they're going to be using for I didn't could rain that oh this is um it's a kind of a routine this is part of the cdbg grant program that we participate in and so um we we apply for several cdbg grants throughout every year with the county saino and what happens is this is just that agreement to par participate and um we just have to amend it every year to add a line for the fiscal year 2425 here okay so cvbg is part of the program um that is the grant um that deals with senior services for the senior center it's um the grant we were just talking about with Christian for the um the water fountains that's all part of cdb G um the senior center grant that we got that cares Grant went through the cdbg um it's it's every year it changes all of the curbs you know those Ada curbs that's all part of the cdbg grant so hopefully that helps this one is not doing any specific funds it's just updating the amendment we have with the county for the fiscal year okay that's good thank you um number 158 um I was wondering which public Improvement project uh they going to be working on is that that's not the bridge over the parkway is it no I think that's that's the one for that's the one we were just talking about for mon the Monro mon yeah that's that's an NJ do Grant Y and 163 looks the same as 168 I don't know if I'm looking at that oh uh yeah the difference is no the difference is the um the year so you'll see what happened is um this license had an issue with the state so if you remember um one or two meetings ago we had to resend a liquor license at the request of the state um that was this one for last year so this they have worked with the state they've addressed their issues um I was given the okay from the state so we have to do 23 24 you have to go back and um renew that license and if you notice that's why the second one is actually this one's in the consent the second one for this current year which they have paid all their fees and they're good with the state they're good with the town fees that is a separate resolution outside of the consent because they have to be approved in the consecutive um year or in consecutive order so we have to approve 2324 before we can approve 2425 okay that makes sense mhm um which which business is that I couldn't tell it's it's um it's a pocket license which means they don't have uh an establishment right now oh okay all right that's what the inactive just an FYI that's what the inactive means here no police okay um I'll move on to reports um I don't have a recreation report uh we have the meeting on the July 11th with the fire department um I was told that the carnival was on the 12th to the 17th do wrong dates is it 18th oh I have the wrong dates yeah I just want to Sure 12th to the 17th is the carnival um I don't have a calendar for me that's sorry about that I don't know it must have been last year's C I just pulled up the calendar it must have been from last year that's why um during the month of June the fire department responded to the following 52 calls two brush leaf mulch fires three carbon monoxide alarms one CPR one elevator alarm one fire and garage 12 fire alarms one first responder three medical assists or lift assists six motor vehicle accidents four mutual a responses one to Elizabeth one to Garwood one to Roso Park one to Union uh one call for odor of gas nine Power telephone cable lines uh one smoke condition one Transformer fire five trees with branches down and one water flow alarm dur these incidences fire department travel 185 mies utilized 311 man hours the Fire Department riskus Squad responded to 37 coals traveling 267 miles and utilize 98 uh manh hours additional manh hours utilized during the month of June include uh administrative 267 stien uh 1,240 fire training 26 total calls for the month 89 total miles traveled 452 total hours uh 1,942 and that's all I have to report okay thank you uh bur CFO on Cruz vation good for him F attorney uh nothing to report F administrator did did you have anything no oh okay oh jeez sorry I'm Tony I'm sorry why are you not oh Ed I'm sorry excuse me no it's not okay Council that's what I get Education Health and Human Services recognize me um councilwoman I'm sorry um I have nothing to report for the health department the Board of Education rescheduled their meeting from last Monday to this Monday I was not informed so unfortunately I don't have an update but I do know that was the first meeting um with the new superintendent and I believe he was on vacation so of course they didn't want him to miss his first meeting so it was rescheduled um the library does not meet during the summer however I would strongly urge anybody to utilize the library especially uh with this Heatwave we we have going on there's a lot of um activities going on for seniors and for children actually my niece has her one-year-old going there and they have a ball they have a lot of different things for children of all ages so when you can't get out to the park or go for a walk I would suggest um tapping into our library um the uh Town white garage sale is going to be Saturday September 28th and Sunday September 29th and I just saw on the calendar for the Historical Society they have a bus trip on Saturday July 27th going to the Tropicana so if there's still tickets available there are surely um that's a great trip to do it's a lot of fun and again it's another way to to uh get out of the heat also I urge the seniors to take advantage of going to the senior center getting out of the Heat and enjoying a lot of activities and camaraderie um with other seniors but one thing I uh on the heels of your conversation about um key fobs I see a lot of people leave windows open or they'll have a window air conditioner that can easily be pushed in on a first floor so just be mindful of that if you leave a window open with a screen down or a window air conditioner on the first floor or even just an unlocked window I think that's what this one was it was just unlocked exactly so just be careful of that I know it's really hot and people are tempted to open a window especially if you don't have air conditioning um but be careful especially when you're going to sleep at night that somebody doesn't come in and that's all I have thank you councilwoman [Music] bar administrator um I I don't I'll just say that we had a special primary election was yesterday and I will um give a shout out I would like to say to Justin is the head custodian at the schools he always does an excellent job and um is very um good at coming up with ideas especially with the construction so um we went over things had to be changed um and thanks to Greg who also stepped in with the construction we had to make some adjustments to the way you enter the building for yesterday um so it was just great I'd like to say thanks I also saw the email if this is a time and place from DNM fireworks they wanted us to get back to them they said we didn't reply to iil oh oh had I had a conversation with the uh Angel today about that and she said Greg did send a respon I'm sorry Greg uh well that our B attorney sent a a response to them correct do you remember this firewor the fireworks I don't know yeah we to do with changing the date this is um they were questioning the process we had so yes you did yes Mark Mark Mark did reply to it and then this I guess is another file one today now a couple hours ago right I instructed him direct future correspondence to me so uh was I copied on it cuz I didn't see it I think it was just sent to mayor council they want to know when we're rescheduling or what we're going to a different company a different company yeah this is this is a company that so we should we uh pick a date to reschedule the fireworks I'm talking about the one that said one we're going to reschedule nobody's got back to I saw that that email did it come to me uh let me check um you can do we want to talk about that or do you want to wait till the next meeting to talk about it I think we should get on a calendar we might wait too long and then wait too long next we'll be in we did I will say just so you all know that we are no the one the one he's talking about is from DNM not Garden State so Joe's referring to D yeah which Mark responded to so that was very taken care of well he sent another one today that's the one yeah claing that he respons so I don't know I didn't get one today yeah you know you know the order of things Mark is I got the one email I sent to you you responded to that it was after that not long after sent something he avoided you and I and went directly counsel that's the one that came to them and I think what he's going back to you all saying you never responded to him Mark you had sent you a response maybe it was a day before he had sent the original one we were just looking today I didn't know one had one had come yeah I reach out the about it today and I'm sorry I didn't tell everybody about that just to make sure that that we did send a response if everyone would like I will happily say that the proposals for fireworks companies all went through the qpa we followed the procedure and the process 100% I have all the emails everything was done in writing in email it is very trans parent I also um uh shared everything with Mark so he could see and verify uh what I was saying before he did his response to them um there is some I speak to you and I and I spoke to you again today about it so I did follow up with Angela and they did everything I just if anyone has any questions I have everything and it all went through the qpa followed the process he uses the term bid but please know that this is not not over the bid threshold we did not go out for bid there is a very big difference between the prop we went for proposals which we are required to do based on the amount we are spending we were not required to go through bid but we followed all of that procedure correct protocols were it was completely in compliance law if you like I can respond to this just let it go no I mean I just I would of course advise everyone not to resp that right because who knows what they they intend to do with right the interpretation it seems like a baited email somewhat unprofessional to send the follow-up email the way it was sent I agree 100% it doesn't warrant a response no I agree well I confuse that thinking that they want to know this the company we have the fireworks want to know what we were St now let move on to that convers two two different two different things yeah so I mean you know I know we're going to be in Fall it's not it's not horrible to have fireworks in fall but if people want I mean I I'm really open and have no opinion really about when they should or shouldn't be I mean we talked about it would be fun to have them like the last night of the carnival even but I don't think the fire department could probably handle right both of those things um you know so we give you any dates no that's and I will say that so as far that's that's all I wanted to say is we have a lot of flexibility with the fireworks we can have fireworks for the kids going back to school you it can uh actually even all the way through the end of the year they're flexible it's also though we just what we'll do is when you have some dates we'll go to the county and make sure it's in like they're good with it but other than that what about National Night Out I thought I heard someone mentioned that did that last year they don't want to move from yeah yeah they want to keep it where it is cuz it's more contained right here at ball so right so does anyone have any thoughts or ideas or input I like that lab Day weekend what do we got to for get fireworks right here like that on that that would be really fun New Year's Eve not not to like get off off key but Joe just brought up a good point I meant to bring it up National Night Out our next meeting will be before our next meeting also so National lout will be on August 6th which is a Tuesday right um at 6 p.m. so National will be in the driveway right here 6 p.m. um on August 6th okay you're that that window but yeah right here on 23rd Street yeah it'll be on the uh the Bor website once it's solidified and uh on the police department Facebook page usually from like 68 or 6 to9 AUST what date did you say that is on August 6 so was the first Tuesday would it be be terrible to have it then if it's 6: to 9 fireworks usually go off at 9 9:30 to go after I don't know it's it just throwing it out there is this a use it or lose it or can we carry it over for credit for next year no you have to use it as far as the fireworks company uh I don't know that the county was in the same mindset but the fireworks company and their our agreement with them actually goes until March 1st so you could use it any date until then they don't care when you after that it gets into their schedule for next year and that's what they don't want and so are going to cost more and they've already accounted which is why and I they may have purchased already which is why we have to use it we can't just kind of say okay we're not going to pay so the only thing I would suggest if we're going to do it if we think we might do it in do it on a weekday cuz a lot of people go away on weekends and you're not going to get the same participation a lot of towns actually did it on weekdays this year including Rosel Park and it was pretty successful so I I think a Thursday or something so what about picking um I don't want to do a Thursday but I guess we could but about Tuesday to 13th to a Tuesday night CU sometimes people go away Thursday Friday Frid Saturday that's a carnival night oh that's a carnival night yeah I don't I don't know if Carnival I'm sorry we have flexibility let's do it before how about the 20th supposed to be for 4th of July so it closer what is 20th is good I mean we could do the 20th I don't know what everybody else thinks whatever you guys a anyone have any still got half of July I mean well we have that might be hard to coordinate that we have two weeks left of July not not even two weeks well yeah first week August done May that's fine I won't be here but well I want you to be here you're the mayor well you know the thing you have flexibility also assuming the location is going to stay the same the vendors already paid everything so we have to make sure that they're good pretty sure Thursday is work for them why not Tuesdays though I don't know he told me he was free on Thursdays for the next month okay two of them well Thursday is going to be it's not a night I can Tuesdays no Thursday no I work till late all right I'll Angel I'll send you a message tomorrow is anybody not good with the 20th of August just me but I don't care oh no well what about the the 13th Joe are you good on the 13th oh the I personally like the idea of aligning this to an event not just randomly throwing it in the month Columbus Day in October Labor Day even do it right after that I just you know it just seems ungenuine to have it in the middle of a week on a random week in August the national line out piece made sense we were connecting it to something if there's a chance to do it around a holiday let's celebrate but SE 30 for Labor Day I mean I don't know what everybody's schedule is pumping it back to then it's just that that I'm just putting it out there now not a big deal for me this year but that is also back to school week right and that's well our kids go back on the 11th or the 12th something like that back on the 11th late I thought right it was supposed to be late the construction oh oh oh well then then no there was something to that this year where it was going to be a little later but then they moved the date up a little bit I can't tell you what the date actually was though I mean that's really late yeah I mean if it's back to school week I just know from years how hectic that week is but I'm not against it Angela and Pat talk to the respective people about Tuesdays in August or September and see what they could come up with because that we could sit here and decide a date and then half half the vendors we need can't make it that's coose yeah mine are are good I'll tell you he's already said to me the his his only hesitation were like the days in fourth around the Fourth of July right so um I get yeah I absolutely will but um I don't foresee any issue there now the county is a different story right um but I will definitely talk to them for sure um and see if there's any days they can't do um but I do like your idea with Labor Day or something like that being you know it's a holiday weekend it might not be bad ending it with fireworks on that Tuesday if we can if they don't go back to school until the first day of school is September 5th oh it moved up that early yeah and what day is the day have to live with the second or third third thir third I mean Tuesday yeah so you could do it Tuesday the third yeah so we'll find out and I can put that as a okay possibility as a possibility we'll see in the others but if that works see if that works be fun parents will be happy celebrating kids going back to school celebrate the kids will be crying and the parents will be cheering go teach will be crying too you got on the third so even Joe's got on the third so that that' be on R if we can get it off everybody will be there and that's the nice thing most people are back after Labor Day right so most be around um before L mention texed Jus is Teachers start on the third and like Linda said so I don't know if the teacher thing going to City we're at Black Brook right not not at the school so we're definitely keeping it there teachers is doing train I think we have a choice can't we check that's the first one we'll check on how's that and then other than that we'll see for all the Tuesdays and then come back to everybody does that sound like a plan well then if it's all good we'll announce it so for now we'll check with all of our people you check with yours and we'll Circle back talk to your people talk think your people talk to m okay is there a motion to accept and approve Barrow reports motion second all in favor I uh next for Council consideration is the consent agenda is there a motion to approve motion second third four uh the consent agenda consists of resolution 2024 d155 through 2024 D1 167 excluding 2024 164 which was pulled to come later in the agenda these resolutions will be approved by one motion all items will be recorded individually in full in the minutes councilman Bole yes councilman fistral yes councilwoman gardan pasero yes councilman moral yes councilman scarice yes councilman Zimmerman yes okay okay is there a motion to adopt resolution number 2024-the as the permanent police officer for the kenor police second roll call councilman Bo yes councilman finella yes councilwoman Gano pno yes councilman Morrow yes councilman scarice abstained councilman Zimmerman yes is there a motion to adopt resolution number 2024-the the renewal of inactive plenary retail consumption consumption license 20083 33- 06-10 Black Ops LLC for 2024 2025 LC year motion second roll call councilman Bole yes councilman finella yes councilwoman J danana Ferno yes councilman Mora yes councilman scures yes councilman Zimmerman yes uh we have ordinance 2024-25 1 Parks and Recreation Article 2 trespassing section 141-121 D12 for introduction motion second roll call councilman Bole councilman fistell yes councilwoman giodo pno yes councilman moral yes councilman SC yes councilman Zimmerman yes be it hereby resolved that ordinance 2024-25 2024 at 6:00 p.m. or as soon thereafter as the matter can be reached at the regular meeting place of the burough Council and that at such time and place all persons interested be given an opportunity to be heard concerning said ordinance and that the burrow clerk is hereby off authorized and directed to publish said ordinance according to law okay i' like a motion to open the floor to the public motion second all in favor hi anyone have anything to say for the good and wellbeing of kennor please come forward and state your name and address hi I'm Sherie Brenan um 19 North 21st Street and I was here maybe within the last six or eight weeks and my neighbor uh widened his driveway without a permit so I was talking with Billy and with Anthony and they requested him to restore this area and it happens to be an easement in my favor as well and um he did not do the job he took out some of the concrete and replaced it with um a small bit of dirt and then um he replaced most of the concrete with what is 3/4 in clean Stone which is not a Decorative Stone it's a stone that's supposed to be a base or driven on and I've seen this uh owner of property already driving on it so basically he changed it from a parking lot with concrete to a parking lot with 3/4 in clean Stone so it's not restored so what I'm asking for is for him to have a citation issued to him for widening his driveway with that permit um there's too much impervious land now there's no more grass um my property is has grass on the front lawn and if you go from that grass to the boulevard it's like 250 ft of no grass whatsoever it's just it's not the way it it's supposed to be um I would also like it to be known that he had a lawyer call me his lawyer is Harvey fror and this man has called me has texted me I don't know why he's conversing with me I'm not his client he should be um sending me things through register mail he said he would not he um he spoke to me not announcing who he was first I thought he had he was a lawyer responding to me that because I called a few for some opinions but then it turns out that he's the lawyer for that other homeowner and um I told him one of my biggest problems was that he did not call before he right and there's Gap there for sure and Harvey told me that um why would it be a problem number one he already dug and there was no explosion or number two if he dug and it did explode and kill you then he wouldn't be complaining to me so this man's ridiculous he he's making a joke out of killing me um then he um he refused to send me anything by registered mail I said I don't even want to talk to you anymore you know and I had a friend call him back um on my behalf to try to tell him to lay off of me and you know his business is not with me his business is with the town or I don't know but the the man told me Harvey told me that he would retaliate against me if I pushed this farther just the same way that the owner did 6 to8 weeks ago so I don't know what these retaliations are that these men are going to do to me as a single woman property owner who did nothing I just pointed out that they did the wrong things um and um the property was supposedly restored this past Saturday but it wasn't so I I'm not letting go of this I really him citate now to um to put it back to where it was um so he now has a building with two three bedroom apartments two Studios and he made this driveway so that he himself as a businessman can use the garage to run his business so he has like five different things going in there now this is It's supposed to be a neighborhood of two family and one family homes so it's just it's um it's something that needs to be taken care of and I don't know where we're going to go from here but it's not done so Mr Brandon thanks for coming tonight and uh I can tell you uh Anthony has been pretty diligent I'm sure he's been getting back to you as well about how he's been approaching this uh he's got to go through the motions the Motions include issuing the notice of violation gave the gentleman a couple of weeks to uh put it back in order I think you were telling us it wasn't exactly how you expected Anthony goes out there and does the inspection now and if it's warranted and uh please mark correct me where I'm going to go wrong on procedure here he issues the summons and then it goes into the courts um and that's how this goes through the next step and at that point it becomes a property owner dispute at if he's not complying with the court order for the town so I uh Mark is that process generally how it will play out from a from a zoning perspective so so your your situation raises issues in two distinct areas the first is whether or not what he did was consistent with the procedures that must be followed for improving your land sometimes it requires an application sometimes it just means applying for a permit I don't know enough about it and certainly that's what's being looked at yeah he did not the second aspect is your reement rights and that's a private issue between you and him and if he's doing something that interferes with your ability to use property that you feel you have a property have one it's locked if you have a property interest in then you need to retain the services of a lawyer and have that lawyer contact him and explain how and why he's interfering with your easement rights uh but your attorney is going to have to look at that and see if in fact that's the case and then take the appropriate action so the only thing that we could do is compel uh compliance with the code and and that's in progress and that does have a step-by-step process that has to be followed that house was built in the late 80s there's a plan Sumer here I imagine that it was purposely not concrete solid from left to right on the whole 50 ft right because he would have done that before well that's not us this governing body to weigh in on it's it's the the zoning department they they will yeah yeah we you know we're a um I saw when Capell was right here we are a society that follows rules right so the rules have not been followed here Anthony is looking at it and I uh The Next Step from chatting with him is what we can do with the courts not what Mark is uh suggesting with the property rights between the owners um and that is the next step and that is compelling um how compelled this gentleman is to fix it at that point we will find out uh but we'll have Anthony get back to you on that last email I know that he wanted to roll through he we share him with Union and Springfield just so you know so he he does a couple days here in kennworth um and I don't think he's been back yet since that last email came so we're going to do the driveby take a look okay if you look now the all the sewers and the water and the gas are all marked after all the work was done after they already dug on it and my family and me evacuated for the day because we're afraid of blowing up it is it's concerning MH we will I know our zoning officer is working on it so okay agree with Council Memorial if anybody wants to look or anyway you could go to 17 North 2 I would like to see what it looks like do you mind um I mean I'll go I'll go over there but if you have a picture I'll definitely take a look at it just generally on your point about um why didn't they pave the whole thing there is a 75% 25% um impervious to impervious uh excuse me impervious to perious requirement on the land so you can't pave over your whole property no it's not allow that area without stones those like R stones that used to all be dirt and Mulch and like lowline plants and also like this area that was dirt right here is considered an impervious coverage at some formul usually not considered the same as mam some towns have 50% so if you have 2T covered in stone they'll consider it to be one foot covered in stone for the purposes of those calculations but when Anthony looks at it I'm sure he'll look at it with respect to the imper coverage maximum that's permed yeah and this is not Decor of stone this is Stone that is supposed to be a base to a patio or driven on well this it is his property and if the impervious coverage is not exceeded our hands are ti then it's whether or not your easement rights somehow regulate this and that's why you may all personaly okay yeah and you know I might consult an attorney too about being threatened well I I certainly if you feel that your safety is in uh Jeopardy you definitely have to communicate with the police department make sure that you're safe thank you thank you I'm sorry I hope it gets resolved quickly mayor and councel you are Lis 336 coage DW sorry can you would you mind repeating that I I didn't Lewis 336 coolage drive I'm here to ask you guys do any of you guys know the town's um schedule for maintenance of burrow trees that are owned by the burrow along the roadways when you say maintenance do you mean trimming trimming pruning uh Greg would you is there a schedule for something like that Happ there never was as far back as our records at office go to 2001 there is no policy on having a set schedule it was always whatever the employees would see employees would see D employees residents would call it and then they were evaluated on call by call basis Okay the reason I asked is because I called the town a couple times and been told there's no money in the budget to take care of these trees the reason I'm here is because when I first moved into town 4 years ago there was a dead tree dead burrow tree in front of my home just had my home built there was a dead tree in front of the house took me I can't tell you how many calls to get this tree removed finally I called and I said listen my insurance company's now been notified by certified mail that the town is refusing to remove this dead tree in front of my home if there's any damage caused to the to the home when the Treet Falls you can go after the township brings me ironically after I made that call and then I believe it was prior to you starting cuz I know I didn't speak to you uh after I made that call ironically the next day the tree was taken down so now fast forward to last September a branch comes down off of a tree next to my home causes $4,000 in damage to my home of which now I have to pay a deductible fast forward again to last Saturday another branch falls off off of a tree destroys my car totals my car I'm now out of deductible again along with a vehicle I have a p piece of the tree here if anybody would like to see it this limb on this tree has been dead for years there is no moisture in this tree at all in this limb neighbor of mine have called repeatedly regarding these tree limbs nothing is nothing is done if one of these now I live on what we all call the spaghetti streets in town and everyone walks those streets whether it's with their children with their dogs their job riding the bicycles are we going to wait for one of these limbs to fall and kill somebody or seriously injure somebody if you come to my home I can show you my neighbor across the street from me will not Park his truck in his driveway because there are limbs ready to fall on his vehicles in his driveway where are the trees located they are Township trees they are in the right way of the township are they between the curve line and the sidewalk or on the inside par they are on the township EAS I I understand that but are they located between curb and sidewalk or are they there is no there no sidewalks in how many people in the Cur uh maybe three okay yeah mark down that street it's a burrow right away not a b us not to confuse it okay say it again it's a borrow right of way not a borrow East okay when I moved into town I had a dead tree in my backyard my responsibility I took it down no problem cost me $4,000 before it damaged my home my neighbor's homes my neighbor's property I took it down if I could trim these trees I would have it done myself well we know we we as homeowners cannot touch Barrow trees therefore it falls on the burrow to take care of these treats which is not being done someone is going to get seriously injured with these trees with these lenss my neighbors have called repeatedly about these lenss nothing is getting done because they're told there is no money in the budget I don't get it my taxes went up exponentially last year my taxes went up exponentially this year but there's no money in the budget to take care of a tree so now I'm out to have my had to have my house repaired I'm out of car my insurance has gone up on my home my car insurance is now going to go up because I've had two claims on the same insurance company within 8 months how is this fair to me as a property owner in this town anybody have any answers for me nobody I have a suggestion I I know Greg and the DPW and before him Mike when a complaint comes in there is a form they get the form they go out they look at the tree and they evaluate does it need to be trimmed does it need to come down I would I would hesitate saying that is being ignored although I know that must feel like that right no because I know it is because my neighbor across the street on coolage in the rear of their home they had a tree that he was trying to get taken down for the longest time and every time he called town or DPW oh yeah you're on the bottom of the list that's the answers I got right you're on the bottom of the list what who told you about money or budgetary concerns when I called the DPW years ago and when my neighbors called the DPW recently they're told that there's no M money in the budget for tree maintenance now I don't believe they spoke to this gentleman because I don't think he seems like a very professional man to me I don't think he would say that but whoever answered the phone did well I just and you know we're all being told in that neighborhood you're on the bottom of the list every time somebody calls you're on the bottom of the list you're on the bottom of the list you're on the bottom can you give Greg your address and he could have some oh we 336 Co Drive yep if you come to my house and sit on my property or stand on my front por Greg I can point out to you in front of 339 in front of 335 the house next door to me all of these my the tree in front of my home I can point out probably a dozen limbs in those trees that are ready to fall are they all the same species yes they're all they're all oats and they're all probably 75 ft High trees this is want of trees taken down don't get me wrong I love the trees and I don't want the trees taken down because then my house is going to be hotter than he it's providing shade for my home so if you could give me your telephone number I'll I'll speak to Greg that has my number and we'll get I'll get back to you uh By the time of the next council meeting my the other thing I do want to do is I do want to thank Pat cuz I contacted Pat right away about this when this first happened Angela you spoke to my wife you called oh that's you oh yeah I did speak to your wife yes and they both told me to get all my paperwork together to hand into the township for the township to submit it to their insurance company to retain to at least get my deductibles back what yeah that's great you know I'm going to get maybe $1,700 back meanwhile I'm out you know $25,000 you know um something needs to be done with these trees they they just need to be maintained they don't need to be cut down I don't want them cut down they just need to have the dead limbs taken off of them that's all we're asking and it's not just me it's the entire neighborhood I have talk to a lot of my neighbors and they say we've called we've called we've called we've called I said well now I'm going to go to the council meeting and I'm going to make it a point and I'm going to make it known to the council that we've got an issue that needs to be addressed and people are you know people are losing money it's not fair it's not fair I don't know if you have pictures of the car that I just show yeah you know um's reached out today too excuse me or he's reached out today too right to gr I think oh I don't know but yesterday or today right 339 well 330 well somebody from DPW came I saw the email I think she was going to do it herself yeah she was going to do it also you called and complained about it or 339 called actually complained about the tree the 339 is tree was the one that that was in the back of his home no no no in the front of the home the tree that H in your car no that's not 339 street it's 339 my wife is corre great ni with you and I appreciate everything you did as well so we we we received a call complaint directly from that address in September and trim the Deb from the tree in September and I mean that was we did that in house so that's where we can get some savings but these trees are actually you can tell that Tre I'm going to Linate this for my desk bring a tree yeah just just when the wings last night all the neighbors had limbs outside that have broken off the trees they're all in the curb again yeah it's common occurrence with Oaks Oaks are actually like I actually had a cafre out there we've got quite a few Tre being taken care of in the neighborhood um but caffry was out there he says they're actually 9 trees and then that's the issue the majority of tree trucks under each 75 even though the one that we are borrowing for shared service grou is 75 ft so you have to go with a tandem axle bucket dve to get that high if you just want to trim it and um unfortunately this is this is an unfortunate inate that happens with trees um there's no way to predict one it could fall it could be healthy it could be dead it could be dead inside and look healthy on the outside it's unfortunate it's very unfortunate we try to mitigate it as quickly as we can no I I understand it's my concern is people G somebody's going to get killed somebody's going to get killed by one of these LS fall um the guy across the Street's got a little boy he's always outside with his little remote control car and I told him the other night Dave Don't Go Near That Don't Go Near these trees dude look at all these branches are ready to go don't go any these streets I would just suggest he's a guy that doesn't Park in his driver because of the lands I would suggest uh getting that form is on the DPW website or the burrow website I've actually just had this conversation with Angela today we are still stuck in stone H we newspaper um Angela and I have agreed to a way of making a digital form that will go directly to DPW as soon as subm for any request for DPW not just streets right any request they want DPW take care of this way you're sure it gets to the superintendent and he dresses it yeah he took care of any no I'm just saying sometimes you know somebody picks the phone up who did you talk to I don't know they forget to relay the message and the resident doesn't feel hurt the part that was still hanging this the part that was still there that the section snapped off and destroyed my car he was there the next day and they didn't take care of it and you know and I thank everyone I think him because you spoke to my wife also everybody spoke to my wife because Pat of course gave them her number any well she she did send a request in so uh through through the website which was right and that's when I called our so it's just you know you guys are going to get probably going to get hit left and right with people filing claims with the c for damages done to their property for their deductibles and and and you know the other big thing is is now we're going to we as residents are going to incur all these additional charges me I have to go buy a new car and now my insurances are going up you know on top of my taxes raising and anything else now all of this is going up because the trees are not maintained so you guys can please do something about you know giving this don't don't tie his hand give him the opportunity I'm not faulting him his guys do a great job they do a wonderful job um and I'm not faulting him but his hands are tied and he needs he needs what he needs to get the job done otherwise you guys are just going to get hit left and right and the township is going to have to keep raising our taxes even more and more and more because now your insurance gooss going because you're going to be getting hit with all councilman do you know how much money is in the tree fund this year it's the whole year was budgeted for 35,000 and we're currently down to 8,800 and that was on top of last year's uh similar allotment so this is funded year-over-year yeah it's a year-over-year uh funding that we make on the budget in the finance committee and to Mr finish's point before uh we were very diligent this year not trying to raise taxes I think it did a good job of outlining how we were actually the lowest percentage of your bill that that went up at the municipality so we didn't take the opportunity to raise the tree trimming budget the Shady Tree budget it Shady Tree line item um something to take into consideration there is a little bit of funding left in there we unfortunately had some wins this last week that your guys were out all over the place they were eating up on that budget yeah but then this was not this week last week when there was no even no wind the tree live just SN that and I didn't even hear cuz I was in the back of my house my neighbor rang my doorbell and said uh you may want to come and look at your car I think the finance committee and I don't want to speak for you Joe but uh we'd likely be very open to understanding if you wanted to put a schedule together and how much that would cost and in 2012's budget let's look at this with eyes wide open not just make guesses on prior year spend like we've been doing so because if the DPW committee and Greg yourself if you want to look into that and Joe we' be very open need to add more if a resident gets seriously injured with one of these limbs falling you're going to have a major well correct me if I'm WR I believe Greg mentioned that this isn't your average typical tree these are 90 foot trees and right I mean it's the whole neighborhood it's not easily beautiful trees right right but I'm just saying gorgeous trees I understand but I like I said if it was a 40ft tree or 30 foot you could probably get it done it's a 90 foot tree it's a little more complicated my dad used to say to me that sounds like a you problem not no we'll take care of it but unfortunately it's not something that can get done overnight we'll get we'll get take care I understand that I understand that but uh my concern is I just wanted to bring this to your guys attention because someone's going to get hurt no nobody slouch you on we're going to take care someone someone in town is going to get hurt and you guys are going to have a major major lawsuit on hands cuz somebody if this branch that destroyed my car fell on a person it would have killed him it would have killed him it actually bent the rail along the front windshield of the car that's how heavy this tree then was that you know it shattered the windshield bent the rail you know broke off the P the whole thing vented the hood destroyed the car if this would have hit a person he would Greg if you need you need more funds we could talk to Ken maybe there's he seems to find talk to money so definitely thank you okay little jaob 119 North l I mean for uh property taxes sorry property taxes okay property taxes heard not Happ the increase I would property tax increase yeah I'm not just I know everybody else every everybody got the same race the same like that but can they explain to me what why they they go up that much last year and this year my taxes 2012 11 11,140 2021 11328 couple1 2022 11626 may be $300 and it's been I've been in canw for almost 4 years they go those $2 every year they go up all last year from 116 to 125 like 9% increase this year I don't have total yet but I the estimate you guys sent and usually the fourth quar is going to be the same the estimate the third usually right yeah that is going to go up from 125 to about 14 I mean I know you guys said that taxes the town is about 20% the rest of it is the county the state school schools up the big biggest schools by the way I'm asking this question when you get this us town the county or the state why this much this time when the economy is terrible where people can't afford to buy food how much going up like that and then they get something like this I mean that's I say my my quot is this year you estimate in my uh the second quarter to the third quarter it's uh like 600,000 more sir I can absolutely sympathize with you on this um I'm not going to make excuses I'm just going to State some facts um I'm just going to round the number your taxes go up $1,000 300 of those dollars is the increase from this governing body we are actually just the tax collectors for the county for the open space for the library and for the schools when you look at that $300 from the th000 there's your 30% Mr finella gave the breakdowns before or 50% of that 500 goes to the school another 280 or 70 go to the county and the rest wind up going to the library in open space so we become the tax collectors for the rest of those entities these other governing bodies the school boards autonomist uh we control what we control but the county controls will take control and the library by State Statute gets a percentage of the increase so when you look at it and you boil it down I'll again I'm not making excuses but this governing body the finance committee and then approved by the governing body we went went through each item on our budget with a with a scalpel we went down to one Bol pickup this year we got Flack for that but the reason why we did that because we're trying to keep costs low we had to fire somebody to reduce services or reduce Services through some other means so we could stay under the cap the law that allows or excuse me prevents us from going higher than a couple of percent uh we did not want to pass a resolution to go higher than that we wanted to keep taxes low unfortunately doing that we only control 30% of the entire ire purse so I sympathize with you I'm a taxpayer in this County in this town as well and the taxes have gotten out of control we are taxed enough already uh that's an old an uh antage from uh um pre- Obama days but it still holds true we really are taxed enough um I sympathize I'm really just stating facts I really have nothing more to say it's just that of that portion we don't control it all uh so the school board meetings is another place to go and ask the same question that you asked I can tell you that we faced a hard decision of cutting services or employees so we can remain under the cap and we chose to cut the bolt pickup um I hope it was the right decision I'd hate to see somebody get laid off uh in kennworth uh so we could have two bul pickups let's say but we have been very diligent so it is heard I understand where you're coming from unfortunately though we're 30% of that pie so the school board is 50% and then the county is another 30 they also need to hear what you're saying and the same way that your fees went up the town's fees went up right when we look at three streets to be paid in korth it's half a million dollars did you excuse me did you apply for the senior tax Frees I did not I'm toughing General I never did know now I have to do it I think you should do it of course but was not a personal thing overall say I neighbors family members they all got the same L there a program that people with kids and like that I mean like you said they can afford to buy food and then all a sudden the government or the state or the the county or whever it is like that you know you explain to us I mean they explain to why they go up that much why what you know you guys said the 30% of it all right but the county I have to go to the county ask them why why they went up 9% or 10% or 12% every year now what is it going to be now 10 years from now is they going to double up pay $40,000 a year taes we have no control over those other entities I know it's frustrating just know because you know I got you letter the estimated for the like that was this much like that and I was hoping there would be something in there explaining us you know that we realize this is it's a big ra big race from last year or in the previous year too like that you know so you said if you have any concerned in touch with the county or the or something like that I mean I I because I would like to see the B how did things change so much that the state the school there's so much more money and and whatever other things that that they needed so much spent 1% when when people like said they can get 2% razor the inflation hour thing like that this ISS well this year though the state government cut funding to our school uh we ended up getting some of the money back but it's 1 and a. half million was cut at the state level they cut to our schools that's why it's such a big jump of this year last year the Merc won their tax appeal we had to pay them back 1.3 million and we lost 1.3 million in income so I would I would I would hope and I I told Ken you better have it on the the next letter that went goes out explaining why so it's not even the school board's fault they got uh unknown knowing why they cut our Bund they said our property tax went up property values went up in town so that's they said they went up 70% and that our average income went up like 30,000 I don't know what numbers they're looking at but I definitely the state government should be uh getting many phone calls I'd like to include their number on because they're the ones that uh messed up the little towns don't forget we also passed the referendum for the school that's coming next year I think that's in this year next year next year those tax if iell my house and the guy pays whatever that is twice as much that was house think like that then you then you ta that guy like that I live there for on this house of since 2001 23 years I think like that I mean the property goes up if I don't sell the house me it's the same house why should I get pay pay more taxes because it the value of your house what to sell the house I think some you it is but the ref kick good good on top of everything else next year okay Carol sabona 35 Commonwealth Road um oh by the way they did take down a huge tree on Park Drive yesterday I don't know who did it but our neighbor had been asking for a long time to get it taken down yesterday good it was one of those really it came down and last year there was another one that was taken down it was a sycamore that fell on the guy's car first and then they got it taken down but I just wanted to second that gentleman's sentiments um our taxes went up $99 from last quarter to this so that's $1,800 I'm worried about the other seniors in town I know I know a few people did you apply for the senior tax free H did you apply for the senior tax free no we you know what that is yes yes please do that but still you know there's there's it's significant there's a lot of people that are we're all those people too I know even even the the people on a fixed income you know that's why they have the senior tax tax free is there to help you and I strongly urge you apply for it because you won't have this problem it would be nice we need a political change in Trenton otherwise it's never going to end yeah that's why people our friend just moved to Florida same reason he says Jersey's lost I hope they're mistaken but they just tax and spend they don't care they play the sh game oh we give you a homester reback and then they Cuts funding to your school get there's a lot of there's a lot of factors coming into play there it's their fault losing our federal tax deduction also was was bad you because we can take off 10,000 right correct do you know how to do you know how to apply for the tax free do you know yes okay there's a blue book okay I believe the state has a maximum amount as well that you pay in property tax before you can claim it on your state income taxes so it's not just for federal salt deductions that the state has a version of that as well um so to Mr scara's Point leadership is uh the ones that would change that um we really can't control that but it's uh it's a voting is very important very important oh you bet yeah I work elections usually that's true I knew I recognized you okay thank you thank Youk you have a good night good evening folks uh name is Bob Herbert 14 12 Street everybody uh I really want to bring up two points but before I do that I'd like to make a suggestion regarding the uh tree budget has always been an issue in town as we all know uh but maybe with this uh Redevelopment agreement and this pilot program that's you know in Li of taxes I've been to plenty of meetings where that program supposed to help our town and give us some extra spending money that we don't have to give to the school so maybe we can look at that with that project we agreed on and be able to bump up that yearly uh tree budget you know so our great DPW can you know address some of these issues that our Our Town citizens are concerned with it's just a suggestion you know if you guys could look into that you know it's maybe a way to find some money okay thank you you're welcome uh two things I like to bring up my Street North 12 street from the boulevard to Monroe Avenue about five or six years ago that end of town uh a lot of streets were paved but 12th Street between the Boulevard and Monroe Avenue wasn't address I brought it to Tony from Harbor's uh consultant I brought it to his attention that you know the utility companies came like eight times marked up my lawn and everybody around us got repaved and that section was supposed to be part of it and it wasn't so what I'm asking is if you guys I know it's too late this year because you're already at you know assigned jobs but can you make it a priority for next year to look at that street about redoing that section and I'll tell you what some problems that we're having there now when you turn off the Boulevard on the inner side of the crosswalk for 8 years we have a sink Hall and for8 years we've been filling it in and it just keeps blowing out just the other day with all that rain that we had when I tell you it's 3x5 uh it was filled with water and I've seen cars drive through there Splash pedestrians Crossing uh kids riding their bike through what exactly is do called right on the inner side of the crosswalk in the middle of the in the middle of the width of the street of North 12 I got to drive my car around every time I'll check the RightWay see who jurisdiction County or it's it probably falls under the county right and if it is we'll get them out there because it could be an underlying issue with storm dra so a pipe is collapsed that might to why keep me too okay well the other problem we have and the police did did everything possibly they could they've been ticking in the truck drivers tractor trailers coming down the block we are not supposed to be going down that section we have a truck route but what those trucks been doing our infrastructure the manholes in the center of the road the main trunk they're sunk we watch them every year sink more and more and more and now with all the work being done on the Boulevard and they're using the end of 12th Street Old National to parking lot is a staging area not saying that they caused it but that heavy truck and heavy bulldozers going up and down the street it's not helping wherever there is a plate in the middle of the road if it hasn't sunken there's holes all around the plate so water's catching there we got a lot of kids that go up and down the block they can twist their ankles in there it's dark at night or something so I'd be more than glad to walk the block with the engineer and and show them all our concerns a lot of my neighbors are concerned with it but I know we can't do nothing this year but can we please address it next year that's the only section of in that area that hasn't been addressed with you know repay I would really appreciate it well Christian from Harbor is in the back he's right there okay well I don't know SCH so he knows how to reach me can you North 12th Street so and he can talk to Tony cuz Tony's aware of it you know we talked about it a few times yeah can we get on the plans for next year for or at least take a walk and see where we5 has already been put in for right yeah but it was Overlook five or six years ago me first let's take a look at it see bur well no well I'm not only talking about that in the crossb I'm talking the whole L 12 and the boulevard when we we have a lot of s infrastructure Trump is is sink illegal track or trailers I'll take I'll yeah Christian why don't you guys take a look and if we have to horse trade something out from a road that's not in as bad shape to one that is worse we should prioritize this based on the condition of the road not just when the complaint comes in so let's be judicious about that but I think it's not just the road he's saying that they're sync that I by the road and and like I said five or six years ago it was supposed to be addressed and it was overlooked you know it just slipped through the cracks you know it happens I understand I appreciate that yeah thanks my last thing I'd like to bring up uh mayor unfortunately we were both very busy I know we've had several Communications we were going to try to get together but our schedules just conflicted uh the corner of 14th Street and the boulevard this year alone this year alone my my wife and I almost got hit three times crossing over 14th Street on the boulevard cuz at night it's so dark this time of year you know it's it's light out till 9:00 but up to June you know it gets dark early we try to walk up the town and you know uh contribute to the local businesses you know go out to eat buy you know miscellaneous things or whatever so we walked up and three times we almost got hit so my my suggestion is we need to talk to utility company about putting some kind of light on the poles that are around the corner there that lights that or something similar that Cranford does when you walk up to the intersection that we have a sensor that gives you you know a blinking light like they do underneath the railroad trestle over there on North avue between South but is very dark there and can you uh check what the traffic to see if they can look into cont it's 14 Street is a bur road but it intersects right near the county so I'm not sure how that would go how many feet off but I think it needs a light anyway because it becomes and it's right by the school yeah y yeah the crosswalk is definitely the county right away you know how many times in the years that we lived here we repaid the Boulevard and we fought even when the brto engineering was here we fought County hey paid that too they said no it's ours and it was always just back and forth but we know 10 ft in from the corners from the face of the curb on the boulevard is the county road but they don't want to do anything with it for whatever reason other than raise our taxes you know but that's the county not us but I know our burrow and all the elected officials over the years every time we repay the boulevard which I'm hoping we do now with the new gas line we're going to they told me they were going to do it it's bad I don't know if they have a round roller when they Tamp down got a flat spot on it or something you know about construction but you drive your car down in that lane and it's it wasn't infed yet that's just the regular cating and they'll probably have it INF Fred before they actually repave it but that won't be until they get to out of Counter worth yeah no I I I understand but I think the roller is a little out of round you know honestly I think just because in the fast lane trucks hit that too and and just the weight of the trucks comeing down the boulevard just well as you know that's my problem on 12 Street and our main trunk our infrastructure that feeds those families you know we all discharge into there I mean it it's bad it's getting worse and worse and there's been people there living longer than me but my big biggest concern not only for myself uh I've even brought flashlights when we walk at night at one of those times and put it on a flashing mode across the street I put a a a bright neon vest on and I've still almost got hit there that's it's that dark you know part time of the year you know certain times of the year so we can look into that and see if we can do something there September schools coming up that time of year gets dark families are walking their kids we may be able to put a pedestrian uh blinking light there you know that that you could activate by by touching it a haulk light right well the hawk is the county light and and that's that was a hard lift um yeah that's about 100 Grand and and a regular traffic signal is like three times the place it at there's a street light a blinking light yeah whether maybe a pedestrian light like we have a 19th Street in the boulevard something like that possibly or possibly something like that didn't the count give last year the blinking ones Christian do we still have them no they were for specific intersection oh we can't move oh one of them was 14th Street up by I get it I get it maybe solar walkway or something something that triggers a little bit of light there before somebody gets hit as we know 14th in row many years ago we almost got the town with a traffic light you know there there's no traffic light but these LED lights people coming down Fourth Street 14th Street people making rights and lefts they're blinding each other it's not the driver's fault that's just a dark corner right I agree and we need help we'll look into it definitely thanks much thank you to see everybody thank you nice to see you Carol Pap nor 21st Street um I have something else on my mind to talk about but because Shirley maxel is here I would like to publicly thank her for being one of the most inspiring people I have ever met a her goal is is to make other people happy I know and one small example I have a hobby I do origami that's Japanese paper folder and I ran out of paper well within a day Shirley had ordered a of paper for me you know and there it is that kind of she's an inspiration and I I feel I thank God that she has be you know that she ended up coming to the seniors I started coming to the seniors I retired N9 years ago and um Shirley joined us this past year and I feel so blessed to know her thank you that's nice Carol very nice thank good job Charley and thank you Carol he anyone [Music] else Gail Snider 27 South Michigan um the gentleman from North 12 yeah um he mentioned something about a project that has a pilot a tax reform attached to it I haven't heard anything about anything is can you share that with us what what I'm not sure what you're asking what program The Merc property was sold to Onyx and Onyx has been looking for the Redevelopment agreement that the pilot well we haven't it hasn't been negotiated yet it's not a super infancy yeah really infant we really can't even discuss it unfortunately because we don't have any facts information have no information sound like you know this project was going well at the early stages the uh we've asked the planning board to do an assessment of of the plan it it's going through the motions Mark again procedure I don't want to screw it up but this is a long one um and we've had a few resolutions that we've passed on this governing body to authorize the planning board start the study make a few hires so I believe that's what Mr Herbert was referring to that that agreement I actually think he's talking about the one from last year the 26 Street two years now 26 Street that's I'm talking agreement already negotiated that's what I thought you were talking about that that one is in the bo started yet but they do have the pilot progr he's talking about the project that slated to go behind the stage where that back there that's what he's talking there's 165 unit apartment building about to go up so that's going through that's been approved that was past years ago several years ago two years ago okay all right thank you I would like to say mayor is like we said two years ago and this pilot program the only one that's benefited is the contractor you know uh if we're going to get the money in let's use it for DPW or Police Department fire department you know projects anything to help offset the taxes let's use it to offset the taxes yeah well tax increases right it does offset it you say that you told us that was a benefit before it went to a vote but I'm seeing two years now I don't know if anybody has the answer why hasn't the project started started H I don't really know exactly why I believe that building uh materials have tripled oh for sure they did and maybe that's the the numbers just don't make sense anymore I don't know right when that project is there any language in the pilot program that that maybe we can freeze it until they start or something it hasn't started it hasn't started yeah they're still paying traditional taxes they are yes it has not started okay that's a good thing cuz I had to see him use the system in 2018 we don't see any you know yeah no they're not it's not begun thank you B can I ask you a question sure this is a topic that was brought to my attention by my super my forance in regards to that property you guys just mentioned on North 26 and anyone think about the toll it's going to take on the sewer system the sewer system was addressed single you just want to make sure because we know that's an aging Harvester system right and we didn't want that to be over taxed and over burdened and then caused issues for everybody else that right yeah they have to run a new one yep all right I just wanted to sewer water utilities and they're actually there's and they're actually going to be T pay for their flow too right it's not going to be in it's going it's going to flow on our but they're going to pay their their percentage right I was just worried about the pipes and yeah it's only a 12 in it wasn't made cuz uh so I think going have to run a new line all the way and I guess Roso Park will have to pick it up wherever that bottlenecks was never designed for residential let alone on that man okay just want to address that thank you anyone else okay seeing no one is there a motion to close the public portion of the meeting motion second all in favor who said who motion I'm sorry we have uh General business right I think Mr scarice made the motion or something I thought I second you thanks I just didn't hear Joe thanks okay can I have a motion to adjourn no no General business General he wants to oh I'm sorry um I invited uh Carman to speak um oh okay it was my understanding that this was coming yeah no no no yeah you wanted to discuss here I have it on my agenda waiting patiently we got let car speak on this Carmen would you like to come up and speak yeah sure this is to do with the uh I guess fire pit regulations thank you Carmen sorry to keep you waiting yeah so uh we're currently working to put a ordinance in for for uh recreational fires uh the town currently adopted the uniform fire code years ago which we enforce um in the fire code there is a chapter General precautions against fire which sets guidelines and regulations for recreational fire however the uniform fire code cannot be enforced at a single family home or a two family it's only for three families and up um we don't have a lot of issues in the over the past years with you know illegal burning people getting out of control with their fire pits uh we're not against it it just has to be regulated uh this year we had three calls one was about a complaint a gentleman was burning a tree stump on his on his yard for whatever reason another one was a nuisance with smoke just coming into a resident's house um the thing is we just have we don't have any enforcement right if this does happen on a single family or two family home so uh our main goal is to educate the residents when we respond after to this it's not even to issue penalties it's here's a copy of the local ordinance we educate them and like I said we already are enforcing this on rental properties in the home it's just we're looking to enforce it across the board so what is the what is the uh what does it say for rental properties now the the per code they you said you can't enforce it what are you enforcing yeah so if we get a complaint that I you know we get a complaint let's just say 123 New Street right just make that up we have a resident who has a massive fire pit in their backyard not even it's not even a proof fire pit they have a bomb fire going in their backyard or it is a legal fire pit but they're just burning construction material uh yard waste we can go there issue a violation and a penalty notice of violations to go with that if it's a private owned home we we have no M to stand so if somebody decided to like yeah if somebody tried to create their backyard Andre huge fire we can't we can't there's no enforcement it's just we go there put it out wow and uh so car why can't we educate without the ordinance and I'm drawing a parallel over to our code enforcement where same thing we don't have the right to go on people's properties I don't know why we'd want to do that so like I said sometimes we do get complaints um going back a couple years ago now we there was an older gentleman on one of the spaghetti streets was just burning leaves newspaper construction material the fire department at least three times responded out there we go there we put it out and then it's like you know how many times are we going to keep going there without any repercussion and you know he you don't give him notice violation there's nothing you know no penalties to be issued because now you have the fire department keep going out multiple times so is it that you need a mechanism to issue a notice of violation not necessarily to go on to people's problem no we're not going look and say this person has a fire pit we get a complaint that a resident is burning construction material or they're up against someone's fence which is one of the complaints we did field but it was a privately owned home and at the time the resident was no longer doing it was after the fact you know but uh it's more so when we do respond out to this we're not going investigating people's backyards or fire bits we receive a complaint we go out investigate it educate them on the ordinance if it becomes a reoccurring issue the same person just keeps buring the construction material or whatnot so I'll tell you the ordinance that was sent as a sample I found it to be very intrusive um I was actually pretty surprised that this was happening in a free state like New Jersey um there were guidelines in there about the types of fire pits it could be the inch of the wood diameter that needed to be burned I agree with you on you know you can't burn construction material that's going to create a noxious odor issue well I checked with the code enforcement there's been no noxious odor issues related to that I guess they come in through the fire yeah they call yeah a lot of them they call the but noxious odors is a violation that code enforcement goes out for so I found it quite surprising that in 5 years of the look back they did not a single complaint came in like how would you how would I know as a resident to call the fire uh uh chief of the wardens it's suppos code enforcement I just I wouldn't think that way so I I found it quite surprising but if it's just something that would allow you to go out and issue notice of violation so you don't have to go three times and say the same thing that I can I can understand uh but maybe not and I don't know Mark if you've seen the sample I think it came from a neighboring Town very very intrusive um so I think I I got a a visceral reaction to it seemed to go against my libertarian views something like that um but if it's just so you can do a notice of violation that I understand yeah that's that's the purpose of it and unions is very like I said it all comes from the fire code and unions is identical a couple words are worded differently or you know the description of it but uh Union's identical and so is granford from the uniform fire code so if I can go to whiches to to three or four three or more home sing say again so if it's a single family if it's a non own occupied the uniform fire code applies to it single family two family three family you name it if it's a owner occupied single family two family there's zero code enforcement that we could do all right so you have the mechanism now for three or more and single and we don't have three family houses in counterar so if there are any three family houses there are there are grandfathered in they're not illegal there are some permitted maybe some so but you have the mechanism to do it and we're talking about 165 unit apartment building and other things like that I'm glad you have it for the rentals I I'm glad you have it for the three or more if you need a for just for to issue a notice of violation and I hear you on that right you go to the same person's house three times the fourth time could be a fire on the whole block and then we we've uh we've missed the opportunity wasted resources what does it cost probably to get out there so I would be in favor not that I control all this but um if this was an ordinance and it was only allowing you to issue the notice of violation not create the standards that the fire department has to come and look at what's the violation a pit well the construction materials being burned it's just a fire pit that is we say really burning out of control and and it's blowing over to your neighbor next door cuz I had a situation like that down at our shorehouse and I always had this huge fire pick going and it would blow onto my property and the guy next to him that you couldn't even sit in the backyard so what do you do in a case like that well that's why I as for statistics on how often those things are happening and I didn't get anything back and you think you came here today saying there were three zero came in through the burrow uh Construction office and only three and I don't know how many numbers of years so it's almost like we have to be very proactive here and I agree with being proactive but I don't want to overdo it because this is now we're we're intruding on people's free Liberty in kennworth to be able to have a fire in fre is the people next door that have to smell it there has to be a line that we draw from the complaint to the the balance and I have some modifications to what was sent to everyone and I think ites a good balance seen it are you going to S oh yeah I'll share it with you okay and um yeah I mean I'd like to see what you I saw what was sent did you make changes to what you was s i of times and uh some parts were not part of the code like the uh uh after midnight that's not necessary that's not part of the code we're not going to put a stopwatch on it uh as long as we're quiet and with you know not disturbing anyone why not especially during the summer it's these kinds of things I think that that's going to be removed yeah we're not going looking for and this is when it's sent to our office we have a complaint we have to address it and you know like we go there hey put it out well I don't have to and you know just that's said they you I might correct me if I'm wrong you can't really tell the guy hey put this out course a nuisance yeah as of now I mean we go if it's creating nuisance you do but technically we don't have any enforcement technically they don't have to think you kind offf right now we're BL yeah unless unless it's a rental single family two well two family owner occupied and single families they have no what was the reasoning for a rental I don't understand that distinction so basically I was saying so if it's a rental property doesn't matter if it's single family or two family the uniform fire code applies to it if you own a single family two family home the uniform fire code doesn't apply to it so basically we're not enforcing the uniform fire code because you own your home we can't right but we can enforce a local ordinance so like Union and Cranford they adopted an ordinance so that when they do get complaints on this matter they can actually enforce something instead of just going there and you know telling them to do something that they really don't have to do right all right so let's that Mark review it the LA review we'll talk about it the next uh so so would you be able to send your comments to Angela and Angela You W it around to the rest of us maybe um so we can see what your balance I have it on papers scan it in yeah look and can scan it and send it to everybody that sounds good thanks for coming problem lot of questions came when that yeah you guys have any more questions just you know Reach Out always available it only be uh reactive like I said they're not called they're not going in people's yard take measures and the the measurements there are part of the code but if you have lots that are small that's where I would add a sentence that the most center part of the yard cuz obviously you may not have 50 15 ft from any structure fences or something not the yards aren't big enough but then if you're just most central part so there some of the things I would add to give us our property owners those protections um we're thinking Beyond kmen know Carmen's not going to do it but uh who's going to be after the kman and make sure that we're not sending up any problems in the future I just agree and I'll share this what every I know going back I don't know if it still goes on with people burning leaves and another guy used to burn his bread and all kinds of weird stuff like that bread yeah had a bread like five times yeah he was burning all kinds of bread and all his neighbors are upset because of all the smoke and the smell burn my bread toaster all the time I think the guy was fall as this was intentional oh was this was intentionally in his J yeah yeah I guess like you said if you keep doing it the fire but has to keep responding we'll have teeth for that uh constant usense uh one last question uh the affordable housing committee has that been formed yet or is that still something it hasn't been conformed yet okay just was curious about it mayor I have one thing for General business I think last Saturday um unfortunately we were watching TV and some of us may have seen uh an attempt on our former president Trump's life and I think that was Despicable and I'm going to use my Pulpit here to say God bless Donald Trump and I hope yeah that was I'll keep my hope uh to myself but God bless Donald Trump I I agree with that remind you who is the actual threat to Freedom or democracy I just like one one I just want to Quick comment and say congratulations to Paul campelli again on uh achieving police chief here in Kenworth I wish him the best and the best of luck and success in his new position I'd also like to congratulate Sabino on his son's permanent appointment to a police officer here in korth tonight on a job well done I know he does a great job in Kenworth I've only heard great things about his performance and his buy into our community and all that he does for us I know he's got his Ultra ego as an MMA guy there or a wrestling guy and and it was it was enjoyable watching him do that too so uh two great great things tonight with the police department and I wish them both future future success and and luck in their all they do absolutely yes I congratulate uh Paul and yes my son Anthony I think I could do that congratulations good day and everyone else have a safe summer and uh well we're going to Summer's not going to be over when we're back so not over yet but until we meet again until we meet again happy trailers motion can I have a motion to adjourn motion second all in favor good night everyone [Music] f [Music]