okay we're recording the following is the agenda for the regular burrow council meeting of the burrow of pton lakes mayor and Council and Municipal Corporation in the county of P the meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m. on February 14th 2024 in the Municipal Building 25 Lin Avenue pton Lake consistent with the open public meetings act the meeting will be open for public comments and shall be in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Burrow's municipal code and bylaws please stand for flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation indivisible with liy and justice for all please bless this may Council as we deliberate on to the best of Po in performance with the open public meeting Law Public Law 1975 chap 231 adequate notice of this meeting setting forth the time date and purpose of this regular meeting from the notice posted on the bolon board in the municipal building mailed to all requested and PID for sayb call please mayor Sarah here council president dine here councilman Cruz excused councilwoman Ken here councilwoman K here councilwoman paor here Council and V here with us this evening is our B attorney David Rutenberg and our B administrator Mich okay thank you uh the only update I have is we will be doing and help me out with times and dates for the next meeting for the dep and it's at 6:30 it's the February 28th February 28th I'm C across the street yes in the carnival Center we'll be doing honoring the firemen who when the house exploded uh for Ceremony across the street at 6:30 um February 28th our next coun meeting before the next council meeting we'll be handing out some certificates and awards to okay can I have a motion to open the meeting for public comments so councilwoman elor second councilwoman uh kilberg all favor I anyone from the public like please hello morning benen for Sunset Road I'm here tonight on behalf of flood Advisory Board um when you get to committee reports a little bit later Council woman kilberg will have some information from flood Advisory Board to share with mayor and Council um I just wanted to give you a little bit of context to those um some we at the last FL Advisory board meeting uh we passed two resolutions for recommendations that we wanted conveyed to Mayor and councel and I will let our liaison go through the exact wording and and share that information with you the second one though is a bit technical in wording because we are asking and recommending not asking we're recommending as your Advisory board that um The Bureau reached out to a specialist to look into River restoration River Bank restoration these last two high waterer events in December and in January had significant negative impacts on the banks of the Ramapo just beyond the bend Downstream of the dam and also um the Panic um I think Ron dunos might be giving a little more context on the damages along the Panic he's been out there Trails committee has not done a full inspection yet um but we have a lot of river bank erosion Riverbank damage and um we've been talking on and off at flood board about the need for a river bank restoration initiative to be coupled with our stream cleaning and this is something that we would rather see the correct type of professional brought in someone who specializes in River Restorations than have more rip wrap that may or may not make it through the next storm um this is something that I I would not want to see the money time and effort spent if it's not going to be stabilized in a way that's really sustainable you know and that's going to be able to survive repeated flooding you can see on the Ramapo where the majority of the erosion and the Damage happens where the water after it hits the bends part of the bank armor inate part of it was lost and eroded in a way that we lost several trees as well so this this is something that requires a specialist um it requires more than just the um civil engineer who is capable of doing the um uh DP permitting this is a little bit beyond that and we would like the bureau to look into contacting restoration Specialists a geomorphologist is the terminology that um was discussed for the category of specialists at the last flood Advisory board meeting any questions any additional contacts the board would be happy to discuss our next meeting is next Thursday the way the calendar Falls this year the fourth Thursday is actually next week not the week after so if anyone has additional questions you can reach out to us more than happy to discuss this and also to give recommendations of other municipalities who may be able to help in identifying the right um type of consultant for that work uh we'd love to see this done once done right because I think that's going to be most cost effective La term as opposed to putting the time and effort into uh repeating the same materials that we just lost on the rad um so that that was one um and our other resolution our other recommendation to uh mayor and councel is regarding continuing the conversation on the dam and for that I just want to thank mayor Sarah thank our her administrator our current liaison and our liaison from last year having the the level of responsiveness the level of conversation um the level of really good thorough discourse that we've been able to have with all of you about what's going on how to handle it how to move forward is much appreciated I very much appreciate the tone that the buau is taking in approaching issues and concerns and questions about the dam and I think that we are very much handling this on the right track so thank you for that um I think that was it on behalf of flood board um I have been reaching out to councilman the line and the administrator from the trails committee because we're going to need some help on repairing storm damage um we haven't even been able to do a thorough inspection um there is definitely more than I think volunteers can do right now we'll do what we can we're going to have to have that be an ongoing conversation that land was acquired through space I believe that land was the impetus for our open space committee so we we may we may need to look at Improvement projects and we may have to look at um some Cooper operation with the county as well to see what we can do we lost one bridge on the Red Trail we have quite a bit of erosion we haven't even been able to get through a a thorough inspection yet so we will definitely be in touch over the coming weeks and months as we get closer to Spring and closer to the actual hiking season but we may need some help so thank you thank you happy Valentine's Day Happy Valentine's Day to you anyone else Ron donos rale Boulevard P the lake uh just wanted to bring you a little up to date on the last Heavy Rain that we had along the Panic uh this the north south section of the panic River from rdale road down to the first Bend where it turns East um the water at that point was 8 to 9 ft deep during The Heavy Rain uh part of embankments gone uh on the yellow Trail the yellow Trail if you walk it now if you weren't looking or if you walked it at night it there's an 8ot drop off right into the river uh right at that very spot just before it turns East there's seven trees in the water most of them right now are locked on an embankment all seven trees have the root balls on them the root balls right now are filled with dirt so they're kind of anchored to the ground a little bit but they're all locked together in one Clump all six trees and it could be more but the water was a little deep when I was looking at it and I can't say any for the the trunks on the trees I'm going to say are between 14 and 18 in trees are probably taking a guess again maybe uh 50 60t tall but all laying horizontal against our embankment P Lakes embankment um down further just by Riverdale Boulevard just up River about 100 ft there's uh three trees that are coming down from the Panic side um I I looked again this morning they were we weaning made 60° just off the water um when I checked this morning one was already in the water um let me see U uh a good portion of the P pump and Lake's embankment is gone a lot of it's wash down river and just washed in the woods a lot further um let me see what we got here um I don't know this uh most of the trail is in pretty bad shape right now there's a lot of debris I haven't been down river Riverdale Boulevard yet the water was too high um it's just by looking with a pair of binoculars at the first Bend where the sh was removed on the the side uh there's a lot of trees and debrises you piled into an embankment if any of these trees on theic up at the bend the north north south uh East West part right on the corner there once the roof walls get washed out they're probably going to take off and go down river they'll probably maybe make the first Bend where the shaw was might even make the second second but they definitely not going to make the third or the fourth but the trees are just too big and um we're going to have to look at that otherwise there's going to be problems all right that's it thank you anyone else I'm just going to try and adjust that speaker again okay I hear ready 443 Monclair Avenue um reading the February 11th edition of the trends I noticed that the north Jersey district water supply commission is soliciting bids for contractors for the pump Lakes Dam update project just wondering if you knew anything about that um the specifications provide details to the contractor regarding instrumentation and controls scope including including control panel modifications and system integration work on the gates so I mean this has a lot to do with pump and leges and I was just curious if you knew anything about it or how that would affect the gate operation excuse me it's February 11th Trends it's a bid proposal notice the biders Jersey district water supply commission I can give it to you if you want to read um I had questions on resolution 2497 amending 2455 non-union salaries was I'm interested in specifically why the property maintenance officer went from an hourly wage to a salary wage um also 24107 transfer of $3,360 to where it doesn't say where 24108 the final payment on Lincoln Avenue I was called to a res from a resident at 526 Lincoln Avenue for the grading around the town tree after the handicap ramp was installed I went there met with the resident terrible from my 45 years of construction terrible grading uh my curiosity was does our business uh building inspector inspect all the road work before or it's the op the engineers that we hire they inspect it before we do final pav payment um it's a pretty ly job so I question that final payment for a lousy job 24109 a grant request on a project on Willow Avenue as that Willow Avenue project been voted on by the council to go forward is my question it seems a lot of people are negative on that whole project including me uh in resolution 24126 $10,000 for what thank you thank you anyone else from the public electress seeing no one motion close the public session motion Council council president line all in favor against uh m v thank you for helping us with CL advisor you're always very insightful on what you're providing to us we are going to address what what council councilwoman kilberg will bring up and I I do have an idea of what you're asking um the first part of your question will be I'm already in negotiations with a lot of the Mayors and I am trying to set up a meeting with with the de it's just a hard mole uh hit hit a mle can't figure out who you're supposed to talk to on this we really use this right uh the second part of your question is about the hiring of a professional we will talk about that that's something that Michael will have to investigate a little bit and see how that goes um the trails uh I'm sure councilman D council president D will help us fill it in but we understand we all have to help out best we can there and that goes for braon also you know we know there some work has to be done on those trails and there's only a maximum that volunteers can do I'm sure DPW will try to help as best they can sure counsel B to reach out and try to figure that out a little bit you know we're not going to reconstruct things not going to build things but we have to move things out of the way or put something back where not moved or you know do some get some debris out or take garbage away those are kind of things we can help out um Ron uh that about the trail land understand you know we're pretty active in removing trees here in town unfortunately these trees just keep coming I wish they would stop but they keep going um when we get a tree that we feel is in danger we send out sometimes shade tree sometimes our enger sometimes a DPW take a look if they deem it it has to be removed we send out uh our our guy to remove them sometimes it's our own people DBW and sometimes it's someone we hire I know they just removed a very large tree over on Barden onic on quic side was against the bridge there so you know we'll keep them informed and I'm sure Michael will pass this on to to the PO the be check out the trees you're talking about to see where what we're talking about uh Mr H I don't know anything about the dam update and the dam proposal there it could be just to remove the logs from the top of the dam they do put a proposal up to do with controls okay I I I don't know anything about that one but I will look into it I will try to find out and about the resolutions let's start with the first one I'm going to let Michael head administrator had the most of those 2497 that's just a nonunit yeah so 20 thank you mayor so 2497 has absolutely nothing to do with the property maintenance officer uh it's to basically bring up our year one summer camp counselor over the minimum wage threshold so it's to set new rate for the new year for summer camp it's you know a dollar increase to get them over the minimum wage threshold uh 24107 is to pay prior year bills for 2023 uh so we did have some bills that came in late and you know the way that the budget Falls uh with all the billing sometimes we have to move around funds on the back end uh 24108 is authorized a change order again that's for phase that's for the phase one project it was a billing error uh from our former B engineer so it has nothing to do with the current project whatsoever uh which we will address uh you know before we Mill and pave in the spring and we'll have the uh engineer go back and take a further look at all of the all of the uh sidewalk work uh 24109 is for the Department of Community Affairs local Recreation Improvement fund to uh both authorize a submittal and to accept a grant for the willow AV field project which would bring our grant funding up to a two- date total of a uh 470,000 for the project so that's where we would stand with that project right now and then 24126 yeah is it fire no uh 20 I'm sorry so 24226 is uh to authorize an emergency appropriation that is because our unfortunately our prosecutor uh had passed away uh a few months ago and we do require the services is of a new prosecutor and the way that I understand it our prosecutor was a enrolled employee of the burrow and uh you're not supposed to do that anymore per state statute so we had to retain a uh individual contractor to Ser as the prosecutor and we did not have the funding mechanism to do that so we had to establish a new account in our budget uh our temporary budget so that's the reason for that thank you mayor thank you so going back to Mr h concern was the engineers are the ones that do check those projects our building department and uh like he said when they're all said and done with the project the engineers will go back and take a look at that and and I'm you know some of that work I agree with you it's been shotty all along you know we've looked at some things we you together that we just not done and I you know we have to stand out I agree okay thank you m uh uh motion to approve the following minutes regular meeting minutes January 24th 2022 motion that councilwoman Kent second councilwoman gilberg all in favor I pres pres who pres I didn't hear the first okay those okay does anybody need any resolution uh does anybody need any of the resolution pull um I would like to pull um resolution 115 and resolution 120 that's it okay where is the mayor and burrow councel of the burough of pumps and L has reviewed the consent agenda consisting of various proposed resolutions where the mayor and Council of the B of P lakes does desire to remove resolution for individual action from that agenda now therefore be it resolved the following resolutions on the consent agenda are hereby approved resolution 24- 97 through 24-1 127 and we're going to call 2415 and 24120 okay and I have a motion to approve the resolution council president councilor all in favor okay 2415 what concern yeah I mean it's not really concern but um do you want me to read the title oh uh okay authorizing the issuance of a towing license to jml Inc DBA jnm Towing so it's fin understanding that we can authorize multiple toing companies to do T services do we only receive the one proposal from this one company we did we did okay that that answers my question okay moving on to 120 you want to read it authorizing the execution of Municipal services re reimbursement agreement between the burrow contat and Summit Falls Condominium Association for year 2023 um so my question was I noticed this one the reimbursement seemed to be um well above the others um do they submit audits receipts paperwork anything like that to substantiate their cost and why is this cost so much different than the other so thank you Council uh president so the way it works is uh it's the the way the statute is written it's what it would cost us the burrow to do the work so to do the work in terms of snow removal and to provide electricity um so there's a whole calculation that's Tak taken into account uh it's how many uh how many miles of road what do the what do the lights cost what are there costs for snow plowing and then we get the receipts and the invoices from the association themselves uh and basically make a calculation as to what it would cost us to do historically Summit Falls has always been the most uh expensive reimbursement out of all the associations it has to do again with how many lights they have how much uh plowing has to be done uh how much square footage of parking lots there are it's a whole complex calculation that the CFO does for us so uh it is correct uh the calculation yeah just like I said just reading through all them that one stood out more than the others okay thank you good okay okay so do you want me to do a roll call yeah okay councilwoman Ken yes which one are you doing here can I do both of them I both yes okay yes uh councilwoman kilber yes councilwoman paor yes councilman Ben yes and councilman yes okay okay intruction second reading okay uh ordinance 24-9 these ordinance have will be presented for second reading and final adoption on February 28th an ordinance amending chapter 7 section 7-33 mid block crosswalks of the municipal code of the bur of pton linkes to established crosswalks okay motion to approve ordinance 2409 for instruction Mo counc president BL Council Ben fav I'm do a roll call yeah roll councilwoman Ken yes councilwoman kilber yes coun counc PA yes councilman Ben yes councilman dine yes ordinance for second reading final adoption ordinances have been advertised and posted on the municipal bulletin board ordinance 24-7 calendar year 2024 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish cap Bank Mike you just want to mention something on this or you want to uh no motion open the meeting for public comments on ordinance 24-7 councilwoman second council president dine all in favor against anyone like to address this this order see no one motion to close the meeting for public comments on ordinance 24-4 Council DNE councilman V all in favor I motion to approve ordinance 24-7 for final Ad Council Von second councilwoman kilberg roll call please councilwoman Ken yes counc councilwoman kber yes councilwoman Kor yes councilman Bon yes councilman Yan yes ordinance 24-8 and ordinance amending chapter 2 of the revised General ordinances of the burough of palmton lakes in amending the order of business of regular council meeting to add a workshop item motion open the meeting public comments on ordinates 24-8 so council president L second Council allory all in favor against anyone from the pl like to address just this ORD please step H 443 Monclair Avenue um I know that this was posted in the hallway correct the ordinance yes right but for me that I didn't get to read it and for the public that is watching this how is that uh Workshop item going to be structured but we're going to start the meeting a half hour earlier um how are you going to how you going to do this but right now how thank you so the uh the way that it's going to work moving forward is it's going to be within the agenda so it's going to be uh after the professional reports within the agenda and the governing body members should they wish to bring forth any new topic for discussion they would uh notify me in advance that way I'm able to provide all of the backup documents that way we could have a well informed discussion as to whatever topic it may be now is this a topic that's just brought up by the mayor and counsel or can topics be brought up by the public to this workshop May so if the public has a topic they would like to discuss they have to give it to would be brought up in open S it would be what brought up an open session all right so then it wouldn't be it would be restricted to 5 minutes again and so it wouldn't be a discussion among okay thank you anybody else from public okay motion to close the meeting public comments on ordinance 24-4 council president deline Council gilberg all in favor against motion to approve ordinance 24-8 for final adoption president line Second councilwoman Bor roll call please councilwoman Ken yes councilwoman kilber yes councilwoman poory yes councilman V yes councilman Del yes okay thank you under my report I have a couple motions I'll start with them uh motion by mayor with the advice of consent Council to accept the resignation of Jerry luani as an alternate two and I do all these together all you can do yep J Lu the position of alter number one to the zoning Court motion by with the advice and can councel to accept the resignation of markara and alternate number three and to point point mark Rara to the position of alternate number two to the zoning board adjustment to fill unexpired term December 31st 2024 motion to appoint by mayor of theic council Richard devont as alternate I think that's danta Deb it's a b not a p okay as alternate number three to the Zoning Board of adjustment to fill onire term to December 301 2024 I also have another motion that was put in late I would like to nominate Dan Black to the environmental uh committee as a member so can I have a motion for all that motion V second coun 10 all in favor I okay okay under my report let's see like like our administrator mentioned we had a meeting with the court and you know we did lose our prosecutor and we talked about what has to happen and replacing him and there was a requirement that we weren't even made aware of where we have to have a backup just in case so we're working through that process and there's some uh pieces put in place by the county now so we're going to make sure we're up to speed on all that so to making that work uh I attended the first a dinner always a great time the first a dinner you know they out of their members their long time commitment to this town remember we're all volunteers at that Division I give them Credit in the world for spending the time to help protect our community I got to thank Sharon sunny and and the whole committee that put us together they always do an outstanding job dinner I had a meeting with the administrator and uh Columbia Bank about how they can help more here in town I can tell you that we have a lot of banks here in town Columbia Bank by far is the most receptive and trying to help our residents um they're always out asking what they can do to make things better or how they can donate or how they can be involved when we have Gatherings you know the river clean up they bring a team and pal they they bring a team so you know I wish every Bank in town was as fortunate as Columbia Bank that really does a nice job for us and because of that we they do have our bank accounts because they do spend a lot of time here in this community uh we had a meeting again about the uh do highway bridge uh unfortunately that information even though we tried to push hard to have that raise and made a little wider some more water would flow underneath that the county and their engineers and our expert also who we've hired agree that if they really can't make that change to make it work it won't work and you really have to make the bridge much much higher much much wider to stop the flooding so we all agreed they can move forward with what their proposing we were hoping we can get a little more water to flow underneath there we're also hoping that they're going to put some open in the side of the bridge to let some water flow through it easier so it doesn't just hit like a wave as it comes through that is something that are going to look into we had a meeting with the sports groups on uh um flooding just like with the river uh clean up and the trails committee you know they got hit pretty hard too and they need a lot of help usually they try to take it among themselves to fix it uh we determined that we can help them as best we can again offering our PW if they can I can I can tell you thanks to our administrator we have Riverdale the town of Riverdale now involved too and they're going to pick up half the cost of what we have to do there it is a PP to Lakes Riverdale Recreation committee so you know both groups are involved if you haven't been down to all the fields they've been hit pretty hard with the last two floods you know one field there's a 4ot hole you know so there's a lot of work that has to be done so we kind of uh prioritized it a little bit that baseball is the season that's starting in the next month and a half so we're try to get them up and running and then we'll address football and we'll address uh lacrosse and soccer and the other sports and try to help them as best they can these are all volunteers again putting their time and energy into do things good for our kids our community and our kids uh they can't do it all by themselves so that's where we're have to help them on that uh we had a meeting Personnel the finance committee about the budget order to follow on that we spent a lot of time and energy on how that's going to work I also met with the police department on some considerations they have in the police department along with the rest of the Personnel committee and that is my report uh council president point Thank You mayor uh I'd like to start off um again my meetings usually fall late in the month um however starting tomorrow there is um there's going to be a Redevelopment agency meeting tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. um primarily the main point is the concept plan for the P Plaza which is 199 uh to 2221 a qf new to Basin property for for LA to um again that is right here in the council tomorrow night 7:30 p.m. again it's just a concept plan there's no application being heard developers coming back talking about the the project itself um second um thank you Mrs V and thank you Mr donos for for filling in a lot of details regarding um the effect of the storm on our trail system um it's pretty clear um and if you've been on Facebook you've seen some of the photos of what's what's going on in in that particular area um while we do have a TR maintenance Day on Sunday March 17th at 10:00 a.m. the TRS maintenance committee and other volunteers do meet at the willfield parking lot I'm strongly encouraging our community to show up because we have taken a lot of damage there is a lot of garbage there's a lot of stuff that flew that um flow Downstream and and landed us um and it's but it's also pretty clear that it's like um M benon said it it's well beyond the skill of what our dedicated volunteers um are capable of handling ourselves um it's it's February 14th right now um we probably have to wait for like a spring fall to really fully understand the extent of the damage and what's out there and what needs to be cleaned up and everything like that so I'm thinking sometime early March or even after the the next meeting um I think we need to have um a meeting within the buau to discuss you know beyond the volunteer capacity what are be other ways our our Public Works our County can help us and and just something I wanted to put on people's radar about setting something up that we can um do I mean in the P you know since since the trails first opened in 2015 it's primarily been um the work of our Trail maintenance committee and we've stayed on top of those kind of things we've stayed on top of it and it's for a lot of years um you know we've avoided flooding and we've done a tremendous job of of maintaining the the trail um but sometimes you know just like the sports fields and things like that when we get these kind of big events it takes a lot more than what what our volunteers have to come come up with so again you know this is not our our our typical operating that we always have to ask for for help on these things but I think in this time in this particular case I think it's necessary and appropriate um and then lastly um I wasn't at the last council meeting I did here uh Michael you mentioned that the stop signs at L side and Van are going to be placed there that there are going to be radar flashing stop signs again this is something that we've done in the community I work in with a lot of success I'm really looking forward to seeing those r r out I appreciate you talking to the police department and getting that um getting that implemented and that concludes my report thank you and like I said you know we we understand this was a flooding event so we can help we'll try to help I forgot to mention in my uh my report is uh first of Lisa do we need another member in environmental committee or is that the one we just appoint that was the one we we just appointed so the open positions I have if anybody's interested is the library we need one position is that correct two two two positions and the trustees at the library it's a great group of ladies there that do a lot of hard work um in running that that Library so please reach out to the councilwoman kilberg or myself and we'll get you involved uh the preventive Coalition that's our drug and alcohol awareness group in town we need a parent so we're just looking for a regular parent of children in school school to be on that committee they only meet once a month and and a business which we'll work with and Trum upon the business shade Tre commission I understand we need one alternate commissioner so if you're interested in working with the shade tree committee please reach out to Mr Hinton or myself and we'll figure that out and we need an alternate for on Zoning Board of adjustment if you're interested in that please reach out we'll get you involved uh Council mckill um first I attended the first a squad dinner um I just want to thank all the members numers for the hours they put in and the logs they see it was a wonderful evening um I attended the flood Advisory board meeting um and there were two resolutions the first one is the flood Advisory Board recommends that the Pompton Lakes mayor and Council reach out to njde the Bureau of dam safety the north Jersey district water supply commission and relevant officials to open discussions of the Pomp and Dam operations and its impact we also recommend that the mayor and Council open dialogue with our bake Basin committees um resolution two the flood Advisory Board recommends that the Pompton Lakes burough contracts with the flil geomor geomorphologist that specializes in River restoration work to develop a plan to reestablish and stabilize stabilize the river banks starting at the revo River along Mathis a um also at the meeting um we viewed a partial model of the wanaku river um and um they're just asking that um the mayor and counsel send a thank you note and I I did discuss that with Michael already and we will be sending that out um then uh the I attended the Environmental Protection committee meeting um the pton Lakes Masonic Lodge would like to give back to the community by directing their efforts to the revitalization of wilderness Island Park keeping with its mission of land conservation some of the ideas discussed were natural benches made of Fallen trees the inclusion of pebble Pathways to formalize the planned paths and updated signage to draw attention to the park um and volunteers are needed for the 2024 River cleanup on May 5th from 9:30 to 12:30 everyone will meet at hershfield Park please wear long pants and bring reusable water bottles on you can sign up now at um Pompton ec. eventbrite.com or you can just sign up that den and I also have um some things from the recreation committee um the Easter egg hunt is Saturday March 23rd at 2 p.m. hershfield Park tennis cour the rain date is March 24th and that's for prek to 5th grade please bring your own basket um te tonight is Monday February 26th um at the VFW from 7 to 8:30 grades 6 through 8 um pickle ball is uh Saturdays at Lincoln school from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. it's $15 drop in Fe there's a walking Club at Lakeside Middle School on Tuesday and Thursday night from 7: to 8:00 p.m. and that is um it runs from October 10th to May 4 um the Pompton Lakes Recreation field hockey clinic will be on March 25th through the 28th from 7:30 to 900 p.m. uh Lakeside Turf for the gy that's 1st through 8th grade the registration fee is $85 and you can sign up on site at 700 p.m. the Pompton Lakes Recreation Softball Clinic is March 18th to March 22nd Lakeside turf or JY 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. grades 1 through registration fee is $90 on site at 700 p.m. and um they are looking for Pompton day vendors uh which PP day is September 1st from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. um you can contact UM Pompton day yahoo.com and the Rotary Club um is having a beef stake dinner to honor um back councilman yeah William B um and that is Thursday May 9th at the Bloomingdale fire hall and the the tickets are you can contact uh Susan Baron yahoo.com I don't see oh there's $60 per person yeah and that is thank you good first report um so Michael let me ask you a question about the having we don't have any setup in town right now where volunteer groups kind of take over an area where they can kind of clean and take care of is that something we can do we have to set up something or we can just make that happen or uh we could talk more about it uh there might be a insurance requirement that's what I'm thinking there might be some insurance concerns with that um I don't know if we we've done it in the past but if we can do we um and then uh we did address a couple of those questions about the flood advisory room which we'll try to work with as best we can and we're going to get the letter out so that that'll answer at least one of those so thank you uh councilwoman Paul Dort thank you I also uh attended the first a dinner again another fabulous year so thank you to um the individuals on the committee that put such a such a great event together just a few things I wanted to mention in regards to that dinner there were a couple awards given out that night that I think are worthy of uh being being mentioned in public um every year they do a top three on both service hours and calls this year with 202 calls uh ated Crowley 283 Amanda gosson and 402 Michael cutos for hours put in 752 um uh sorry K 1,24 Amanda and 1,44 again Michael um they did have a special presentation that evening as for 2023 there was a CPR save of a 13-month old um members of the squad that were present for that were Jorge and Taylor so thank you very much for that that's truly amazing um and also worthy of mentioning 30 years of service Jason eers who's also not only a member of the first aate Squad but also our fire chief uh and a member of our Police Department uh also 30 years Ed Crowley and 30 years Frank Dalton um I attended budget and finance meetings a personal meetings I'm sorry um and I did have a question regarding one of our finance meetings for The Bu administrator I know we talked about this and I may have missed it but we are moving forward with the amended shared service agreement for Bloomingdale is that going on for the next meeting yes I was uh waiting to receive the amended agreement back from the burough of Bloomingdale so I'm just waiting on that I do expect it for the uh 28th okay so I did want to thank you for that because that was something that was in need of looking at and I think that we did an amazing job on helping us work toward a way to streamline the process for that which will make it easier for the finance committee but I'm hoping and we won't know until obviously the end of the year but I'm hoping streamlining the way that we move forward with the billing procedure for that helps actually bring cost down overall so it'll be interesting to see how that works out um also attended the open space meeting um one thing in particular that stuck out that I also wanted to thank you for was it looks like we are moving forward with the dog park the changes to the dog park so for those of you that don't know we had throughout last year and the year before some changes that were made at the dog park and um some of it did come out of the open space budget and working with Michael we were able to find a solution to be able to maintain the dog park without drawing down on funds through open space by implementing a sponsorship program so there will be uh an opportunity for business owners to purchase signage at the dog park annually for advertising purposes which will then hopefully if um if it's successful will help um offset the cost for the dog park so that it's able to maintain itself um with its own funds um and one other question I had well two actually on open space for the Masons with the benches we talked about the possib ility of doing something on the other side of the street now that we purchased the higho property can we work with them because I know you had mentioned the possibility of doing some type of like a fishing stand or or something if they're willing to put benches out we know we can't have anything that's actually put into a footing there but perhaps we can ask them to look at maybe both sides of the street if we're looking at making changes over there as well absolutely thank you and um the last thing I had a question on is I know we have a meeting coming up to the site for willowfield and as uh one of our members mentioned in open public it seems to be that it is drawing a lot of attention After the flood now that it's it's a large expense and a very large project for an area that we basically just got washed away so is Our intention and purpose for this to revisit it with the engineer walk the site and determine whether or not it is even feasible to move forward at that point yes uh so we did schedule a meeting with our burrow engineer uh walk the site he's going to work with us to develop a new cost estimate as our current cost estimate is nearing 4 years old so we need to determine as a governing body how much more this project uh inflated to over the course of the last four years and then make a determination as to how we wish to proceed okay thank you and that is my okay thank you I forgot to mention uh thank you to the ddw you know we did have a pretty big store uh happen yesterday most part they did a great job uh I will remind our residents you do have to remove your cars off the street during a snowstorm and that's for 24 hours we have a lot of residents who move them when the snow stops and put them right back in the street and that doesn't work because they're plowing we're still plowing uh the other part of that too is you should try your hardest not to be throwing snow back into the street you know nothing be more frustrating to one of our drivers who been working 12 hours goes down and plows the road turns around and P the snow's push back right into the street again um so we should try to work with that but a thank you to everybody at DPW for you know working along and hard SL uh councilman Bennett thank you man just one small correction about Trails maintenance it's on March 17th at 2 p.m. we meet on Lincoln out uh due to potential um conflict with sports so so back away me looking at red red uh trail trail head and that's uh plug in 1878 Ling ad uh ght reation as the address of the GPS I want to Echo my uh peers remarks about the first a squad dinner it was a great great event and congratulations to class and the audience congratulations iing G those Awards as well as the rest of the members uh I also want to thank Mr dunos uh back in 2012 I want to say we brought the pictures to the Council of how backed up the U Rivers were after I R the the dams and whatnot not before my time of council but I still remember hearing about that that was the empasis to start the river cleanups that have been successful in Pon for the last 11 plus years um my meetings have not really started up yet other than the finance meetings so I nothing else to that thank you uh Council M Kat thank you mayor uh I also attended the budget meeting and we're discussing line items uh with the budget I want to thank Mike gelli and our finance uh fincial operator for presenting that budget in a very um easy way to understand and trying to keep the budget reasonable limited tax increase I met with police chief dck Clark and since I'm new to the leaon uh position as Bill begs councilman begs had that position for 12 years and he was a policeman I'm I'm pretty new at it and I'm um trying to understand you know how to navigate through the Poli police the ambulance the fire and the 1 uh people I did deal with I did meet with um Mr Evangelista regarding the OEM so I want to thank everybody for their time uh with me sitting there with me and trying to explain what's going on I'm looking forward to working with the rest of the CLS I attended the Shad Tre commission monly meeting so uh mayor council just so you know there's going to be there is a new wall now that is a part of the storm M management rules that we are required to uh meet and because we're now a tier a uh area for storm water we are going to have to have a tree removal replacement ordinance have to adopt one and that is going along with our shade tree ORD so it's not going to replace the shade tree or it's going to be an adenda the biggest difference to this requirement is that it will also include private properties which we've never dealt with before um I want to thank our administrator for coming to the shet Tre commission uh on his you know at 7:30 at night and he uh was very thorough with trying to explain how this ordinance came about and what the burrow is going to have to do in order to come up with a new format and to deal with both public and privately owned trees in backyards as well as front yard something we've never had a do before but it's a it's it's all over New Jersey and it has to do because I I didn't understand you know how you can do that with shade trees it's not it's not technically shade trees it is the requirement and I I'll read it from the um I'll read it from the regulation um the trees play this is from the state of New Jersey the trees play a critical often Overlook role in water cycle and in mitigation of stormw runoff issues such as soil erosions pollution reduction infiltration quantity reduction and thermal effects this ordinance is intended to ensure that heres are considered these undervalued Assets in the STW management plan so at in 2003 the tier a ms4 permit renewal will require adoption for an enforcement of Community Wide wens of controlled tree removal and replacement for all kind of properties within our jurisdiction um and then it goes on Michael provided us copy with a model ordinance from a neighboring town and the shade tree commission is going to take their time a little bit try to understand what's going to be with the shade tree and what might be with a new um a tree uh manager that will actually be a paid uh professional must be a paid professional in order to do this something brand new talk a little bit more about it once we have a better understanding how this is going to work but I do want to thank Michael for coming in that was a I just want to jump in I want the public to understand this was not a town decision this this was a state decision that's why we're doing this we have to follow state regulations you know I I know some people get a little nervous when they hear private property and we're going to be looking at their trees on private property but at the end of the day this is a state regulation it's not hard but what but if we don't do it then we're going to be fine as a Tamp so it's something we have to do more will come more come um we also on the shade tree was trying to put in something new pretty shade tree uh program just to get people out and about with you know the trees that we do have and uh there will be more details coming next month about that program um I am the uh mayor's alternate for the open space committee so I do facilitate the committee meetings and we talked about um the budget for 2024 um how much money that the open space budget has we talked about uh the creation of a one two and fiveyear plan for proposed projects a funding source uh councilwoman Alor mentioned the draw the dog park which is a very good idea and other projects that have been on on the back burner for a number of years that we're going to try to address this year including the Lakeside Park Aller acquisition dock enhancements fence and guard rail upgrades repair replacement of the Lakeside Park bbo and um the scheduling of the her Park phase one garage Boat House replacement project and and the well field Improvement project okay so that's all going to try to figure out how how we can get these projects moving up and running and paid for um I want to thank personally thank the DPW crew for I and outstanding street cleaning and pling from the storm that were out there very early in the morning I could hear them and uh people did get to work when they needed to get to work and that's very important um I had a a resident send me copies of photos from the downtown area again overfilled garbage collection in addition to the snow the containers they were spewed all over the place on streets um the I when I went down there to look I also found that the pond hole Lo was L and uh I contacted our bu administrator again and he contacted the property maintenance officer take to try to find out whether the Meridian construction site dumpster was either not full or if it wasn't didn't close and it but there is litter all over that corner right where the meridian gate is there's a there was a dumpster and then there's and then there's the hill going up to the high school so whether it's it and it can't just be the high school kids because I I refuse to believe that our high school kids are that bad but if they are really have to start a project with litter litter is Believe It or Not A finable offense in New Jersey we have litter walls if we cannot have our downtown buing like this and we cannot have our conf so we I want to uh thank the res pres um she comes here all the time and she gives us more and more pictures but we do have to resolve this this is just a chronic problem that is not getting interest and so I like to work with uh Council woman tberg on that with theal group and our Police Department because it is going to be a police found we have FS we should be issuing them we have to okay uh I want to thank um Mr donos for years uh Ron donos has in the eyes of the flood Advisory Board because he's one of the few people who's brave enough to walk back to those Rivers where you cannot see and he goes back there and then he takes pictures and he brings him to the group and we have a a really good way of observing what's going on and if we stop or if we don't get a better funding source for these blood for these Rivers we're going to have flooding again and there's no other way to say it I feel like we've taken 10 steps backwards we took so many forward steps but we're back to where we kind of started not exactly where we started maybe but we are back to you know we we've got a we've got trails that are in the water we we've lost trees we're losing more trees the banks are not stable um I don't know what we have to do we have to call in state but I think let's remember all these places are in a flood Z they're in a flood they're in a flood zone but they also affect our homes they do but I'm just saying you know we're in a flood zone it's a very limited you do that I would like to I would like to reach out I would like the the uh mayor counsel to reach out to our state officials and ask them for funding but I really need to I really would like to have them come to a meeting um and we need to do that because the this these areas are really over overwhelming so and C does have to be my office you have heard was a message from some person who runs aquatic flood he like to talk to me about what said I said on the news so you know the word is out we're trying to get people to help but you're right it's the state that has to really jump in the state has to jump in they they they have a big budget and we need help senatorio has off to yep so let's set up let's set up a date and time and let's get that done because the residents are looking for that and they need it um I had a question about the the uh snack stand it looked like maybe the building what had water underneath I don't know if anybody ever t look at that building stand according to baseball and soop said it's fine the building build put out so okay so the building's not going to be undermining you know just it's the only building that makes it through other tough tough buildings okay and um that is my report okay thank you thank you turn report uh no report except to say um we've been working closely with Mike for the past few weeks just getting at the speed on things underway and things to do it is hard to come in FA something melar uh for minist thank you mayor uh I have one update and two light topics of the night uh I attended a meeting with pic County and colier Engineering the county is undertaking the regional traffic signal optimization project this year which includes uh reducing traffic congestion mitigating air quality and coordinating timing through multiple jurisdictions and intersections throughout the county and as part of that project the intersections of uh Ringwood AV and Hamburg Turnpike and Ramapo AV and Hamburg Turnpike are being looked at uh as part of this project the burrow had to provide some data as to the timings uh with regards to the police department uh past accidents pedestrian incidents so they are looking at those intersections and will be making some sort of improvements to them at some point and uh we'll have a further update on that in the future um and then I do have some I have two light topics of the night uh in the first topic is with regards to our street signs so I uh had a meeting with our Public Work superintendent and we're trying to think of ways that we can be beautify the town this year um you know visually appealing efforts to the residents and one of those is to replace all of our street signs at all the intersections of our of all of our burrow streets so I uh had him work up a cost estimate for us and two designs for uh consideration uh for this project and I just wanted to say before we get into the design that uh there are approximately 430 street signs in Pompton Lakes uh the total cost to do this would only be 177,000 it's kind of in line with our current uh street sign budget which we don't always uh take the full advantage of every year as part of the budget process so the DPW superintendent and I have put it in the budget we recommended it to the finance committee um if in fact it isn't funded we will do it as a phased approach so so you know we're looking to do this either way so we did provide two designs to the council for consideration one is with the well let me back up a second they're going to be larger signs and the DPW is going to take undertake a project to paint all of the poles and to replace any poles that are slanted or in disrepair so we're looking to paint all the poles black and replace all the signs so that's keeping our existing balls that's what we're talked about yes only replacing it deep yes uh as part of future road projects we will look to replace the poles with more decorative poles like you would see in Riverdale uh so we're going to try to do that as a phased approach unfortunately uh we did get a price to replace all of the poles and it's well over $100,000 so we're going to paint them for now cheap but uh I do have two designs for consideration one is with the bur logo and one is with a cardinal and I'm looking for direction from the governing body as to which design you would like to see did you send that to us or yes it was part of your packet did you want everybody to respond I did okay so quick question um the red street sign is that is aorc yes this is from a certified traffic uh vendor obviously the question I had that's it um what happens the county streets with the county signs those we have no jurisdiction over and would remain the same you've dealt with this in other towns when the county road inter seor they change their signs or they don't in other words to match what we have uh we could request that yes we just do it or we can do I'm sure they would appreciate it well I mean I think that's something we should take into account if we're going to do this we would want all our signs look the same I would think so I would the first step would be to talk to the county and say hey look are you willing to do this and if they say no I'm let's just change them all I'm not even tell him um but I I agree it'll look better all all the same thank you uh so again I'm looking for direction from each of you as to which design you prefer so I guess I'll start with councilwoman kirth I like the Cardinal okay yeah I mean Aon Shazad did a great job with the logo but I think you know universally recognizes the Cardinal the Cardin right so that's that's where my go is okay you know if some group ever goes after Birds then we're going to have Cardinal stuff that we have to remove but I like the Cardinal myself great I like okay thank you thank you everyone uh the next topic of the night is uh councilwoman palori brought forth at a prior council meeting that it appears as if and I did confirm that there is a spelling error on all of our welcome to Pompton Lake signs that you see at most entrances of the Town um some of them are in disrepair some have been hit and some have businesses that are no longer in business so I'm looking to undertake a new sponsorship program to replace all of the signs and to add additional locations so all so to start uh we're looking for pedestal signs they're the thinner signs as opposed to the larger ones at all of the entrances of Pompton Lake so you have Hamburg Turnpike from Riverdale Ringwood app from wue kofax app from Oakland Hamburg Turnpike by CVS Riverdale Road from Riverdale dos highway from Wayne and Lakeside a at Lakeside Bridge from Oakland so those would be seven locations of the pedestal signs those cost us 1,100 each we would sponsor those for 1,500 and you'd have to do a fair and open solicitation to all the businesses in town through the newspaper so that's how we would do that and then we do have two larger signs that we would like to incorporate we would replace the one at thater McGee with a new one to keep a uniform look and we're looking to add a sign in front of and I did speak to the bid so they're aware of this the sign in front of George's Deli there is a small landscaped Island there and I believe prior intent was to put a sign there at some point so we're looking to put to put a sign there that says welcome to the the pton Lakes uh business improvement district same would apply to the one at thater McGee so those would be two larger sponsors uh $3500 for each sign and then my suggestion is uh to keep the program a little you know more classy I don't think we would want to touch the sign that's at the Liberty Bill in the middle of town I think that's kind of a historical landmark in a way and maybe a sponsor with not be in the best taste uh so again I'm looking for direction on the program and on the sign design itself which you have in your package so one of the pet pews I've had in the past has been when people hit those signs which always happens they have to be replaced right away from the insurance company that did the damage we've collected money from insurance agents in the past and for whatever reason have not replace the signs and they kind of piec mail them together and put them back up so if a sign comes down they need to be replaced with a new sign there's no fixing it there's no straightening out the metal or repainting it or any of that stuff that's where we had a lot of of damage but the signs um and the other thing would be we'd have to talk to thatchers I know they don't want a high sign they want a very low sign to the ground so you might want to talk to them first if I want do thank you uh I guess I'd open it up to the council if anyone has any objections or design changes or questions about the program I think it's great I think it's great we over good I think great so I just have to questions which I was Ure on the um fee that's annual like what you're doing with the do depart or that's a one time it's a one-time fee and is it restricted to brick and mortar or can it be residents that have businesses that are not necessarily domiciled in town or that don't have brick and mortar or some of our um committee Community groups Service Groups I've always well let me put it this way I've ran into issues in the past uh and I want to try to stay away from this where I've had applications from individuals uh so I would say you must be a uh registered business in Pompton Lakes with your sole address in Pompton Lakes um and I would I would advise against uh any nonprofit groups just for sake of uh you know I don't know I I would give priority to businesses first the other question I have with that then is to one time Fe the business pays for it then they go out of business what happens to that there is a clause in the application that if the business does go out of business the burrow reserves the right to replace the sign and solicit for a new sponsor thank you that's all I have that's all I have any questions for administration are the signs wood yes so and just while you're asking that are they signs we have are pretty large with the post but the signs themselves the same size well we'll have new pedestal signs so they're a little thinner and a little taller but the ones that are like at thater McGee would be the same any questions to Administration no okay have a motion open the meeting comments councilwoman PA Dory second councilwoman Kent all favor against anyone on the public like to address please step good even mayor of councel evangelist Rood Court to say anything until my favorite topic came up signs um just a couple suggestions if I may for the council red is not a good color on any sign and the proof of it is drive by tomorrow the high school where Mayor Katie Cole had signs made up for the Cardinals when we had the three Peak for the football team and some other sports um awards they're faded red is not a good sign if you look at every sign on Hammer turnpik no parking this side they white background with red letters faded you can't even read them red does not last okay I know it I've dealt with it for years and it's just not a good color uh unfortunately because I know it would be nice I like the Cardinal design but if you look at those two signs in front of the high school they're faded um the other thing with the signs that I've discussed this with Dan myself and before him with Ben when they order a sign a street sign it's got to be visible at night most important at night and our signs are not if you drive around and look at our different signs some have a a fluorescent background in green with standard white letters the other ones have a flat uh green background with reflective white letters the reflective white letters you can see a mile away because they jump off of the background when you have the reflective background and your headlights in it especially when you turn your high beams up on at night so you can see the street sign name a little better the background reflects so badly it's very difficult to redesign try it go out drive around town you'll see we have several different models of ss some are wider some are smaller I like the idea of the crest I know Burton County towns a lot of them have it Ram Z for one they have the ram symbol on there whatever it is thing is that logo takes up lettering space on the sign so it does is it makes the signage the letter smaller on the same background so one of the things I would suggest is that you look at the square footage of the sign or square inch whatever it's going to be and look to make the the letters as as large as possible now there is a uh traffic manual Statewide traffic manual on signs okay signs have to be a certain size they have to be letters have to be a certain height uh the name of the document is escaping me right now it's the municipal uh say that again c MC yes it is okay the mutcd it's specific as to sign engineer and what size it should be and so forth and so on so I would suggest that we consult that but I love the idea trust me I think it's great it's overdue my sign on Ringwood court and Ringwood AV I would like to save that sign because it's been at a 45 degree angle for the last 10 years and I I became very used to it so I'd like to keep that look right there on that corner all right now the other signage that I'm concerned about is the signs that they mounted on the nice posts throughout our main street with one bolt all signs are supposed to be attached with two bolts and for this reason on a windy day we get a lot of stress on that top bolt on that sign because that wind is blowing against them that sign goes through enough stress what's going to happen to that flange where it's bolted it's going to break off that sign's going to become a flying object and we stand subject to a lawsuit so those signs should be mounted appropriately with the two bolts top and bottom uh the only other issue um and and I could discuss it I'll discuss it later and that's about Wilderness Park but um you know it's about issues that come up when they built that there so I'll discuss that with councilwoman Paula dri uh just to give a little history on that but uh i' like the signage idea it's overdue it's going to make a tremendous difference in a community but uh the reflectorize on how that's worked out because if it's not visible at night especially when it's raining they're basically useless the county signs on the traffic PS they got to be standard green that's that's a that's a color in that MDC okay it's got to be that green background with the white letters so I don't think we could change we can't touch them put a sign on a corner yeah that's our sign for property and so forth thank you thank you anyone else for the public Step Up uh Randy hit 443 Monclair Avenue um speaking of the open space meeting um councilwoman Kent made a great meeting uh councilwoman Paul adari excellent at the meeting Mr Mayor you didn't make the meeting but if you don't want to come back that's all right they the two women did a great job but it's up to you um and on the resolution um 2497 was amending resolution 2455 I was quoting from 2455 what amendments was there to 2455 that resolution 2497 was taken care of um back to my question on the property maintenance office go back to 2455 2455 on my question on the property maintenance officer which was in 2455 he went from an hourly wage to a salary wage for a part-time job that's what my question was had nothing to do with the parks if you can answer that I would appreciate it um I had a question on the uh members of the zoning board the three members that were just upgraded and reappointed do any of them have construction experience or we just uh on a volunteer basis whereas volunteers we happy to get volunteers just to volunteer whether or not they have any construction experience or not um my other question was you had a meeting with the sports on damage estimates to Joe grill and Carlo field do we have a number on what those damage estimates are um how much to bring those fields back to useful use the concession standard Jo gr field there's a huge hole to the left side of the stand was that building inspected by our building inspector to see if it's structurally sound um talking to DPW when they were down there they said they're not filling the hole in and it was understood that maybe the sports people were going to fill that hole in I don't that I think that's ridiculous professionally it should be filled in after the building inspectors inspect the building for structural Integrity is that being done now you're talking about going to have a walk through with the engineer for the feasibility of that project as a whole the Improvement of Willow field with the damage you will have the estimates approximately of the damage now you're going to put another field in there we'd had two major rain events they weren't hurricanes they were major rain events and now we have costly damage to the fields there now and you're talking about putting another field in plus a walking Track just it's I'm totally against it and a lot of people I talk to in town or think it's ridiculous um also the senior field and the fine boom field back stop baseball back stops were designed with gates at the bottom to be lifted up in case of a flood event who's responsible for for that is that DPW to raise those Gates or is that the baseball association because none of those Gates were raised during those two Fort events and that added to a lot of the damage you could see by the debris that they caught who's responsible for that or people I've talked to about it all those volunteers for baseball are volunteers they come and go through the years now those G were put in on those back stops many years ago who's responsible to inform the new volunteers for baseball as to their responsibility if it's theirs to raise those Gates I inspected those Gates the other day they're zip tied quot zip ties are reason to cut you can easily cut them but who's responsible up sorry no my then I'm if my time is up then I'll ask the council for a few more minutes okay okay when you hear the bill where gets five minutes okay can I have if I ask the council can I have a few more minutes you can ask the councel but it would be fair then everyone would be asked we're trying to keep our meetings to the minum but you can ask the counsel would you like to hear morea I'll yes I'm not saying that PR yes yes no okay so to TI I break the time so it's thank you thank okay anybody else see no one have a motion to close the public session a motion Council benon second Council all in favor well yes okay um a I agree with you with the sign I'm sure V has looked into all these things about reflecting and all all that in the requirement from the state uh I I I don't think the sign is R I think just bird head is going to be red correct we had looked at red on white or white on red uh so we'll follow up again well we'll take a look at that but U you know I do agree with you in the fact that sometimes those signs do wear pretty quickly um we're paying money so let's try to keep the signs going as best we can uh Mr hit let's start with uh I'll start with 2455 answer yeah so uh thank you Mr Hinton I guess just to clarify the property maintenance officer is a uh part-time hourly employee he has a set uh he has a set amount of hours that he works every week so uh in speaking with our finance officer in payroll it's a easier mechanism to set a bi-weekly rate for him as opposed to a hourly rate so that's the reason for that thank you um we don't have a number on the repairment of fields yet uh we're working on that and uh we have to get those numbers really from the uh the the groups themselves what they pay for stuff to put down it's mostly clay U unless I'm wrong Michael you can help me with this too I thought the DPW was fixing the hall they are they are fixing the all okay um the uh Gates I did bring that up to our DPW it should be the dpw's responsibility I agree with you and and so we know we have the same person doing it every time to lift the gates and I'll remind him again that that they should lift those Gates that's why those Gates were put in place um the snack stand I don't think there's any issue but Michael if you feel concerned and you want to send our our engineer over and take a look we can do that um what else we got zoning board they are mostly volunteers I can't speak to anyone who has experience in construction except um the West when we just put on I think his I name was deante he is a a maintenance man at the school at the school system so I know he at least has some I can't speak to the other two I just don't know they may um Oh you talked about the fields that's your opinion on the fields and you say you spoke to a lot of residents I also speak to a lot of residents who welcome the idea of a walking Track unfortunately it's just the way our town is all our fields are a flood R from football to baseball to soccer and no matter what we do they will be flooded we need more fields we need more space this is the only place we're going to put them we're a three M square town unless we get property given to us from another area this is where they have to go um you know if we just open space just put in money to to uh football you know $50,000 Grant that's in a plug one you know it's just where we are it's just unfortunate I wish they weren't I wish these places weren't in the flood zone we could do better I I agree we had a better place to put them we would but we just don't okay I have something I want to add to that um I don't know how that happened so quickly that was not a tie you don't vote at is 32 that's oh I'm sorry you're right what right you voted you vote when there is a tie you don't have a vote unless there is a tie we had three to yeah I'm sorry I did I made a mistake I'm sorry that's my mistake if You' like to come up you can add something I can have more five more minutes no we you said a couple one we have doubling time either well just another point I'd like to make if I got a couple more minutes just one more point it is Valentine's Day that's true um at a conversation that we had me and you Mr Mayor and the shade tree commission we talked about at the January shade tree meeting when you swore in Pete Ori for another term and we had brought up the damage on the Morris Canal Greenway trail from the gates in the water of Russia to the left and at that meeting you had stated that you were opposed to putting in the Morris Canal Greenway Trail because it was in a flood way and this is what you had said at the meeting so then I brought up I said well it's a good thing we're not putting in a walking trail down to Joe gr field then correct and you said well or a baseball field and you said well that's different it's only grass well it's not it's 1900 plantings plus a field plus a walkway of which you said you were opposed to the one the more it's kind of greway trail at the time so what are we doing down now I know that you just stated that this is the only area we have have to put ball fields and St in but with the amount of damage to those two fields that we're dealing with now and to put another field and talking at the open space meeting with uh Mr Corelli already we put $90,000 from open space money I mean from yeah open space money into engineering and a possibility of another 150 to 160,000 in engineering possible is that what you said yes that's a quar of a million dollars in engineering ing in a project which is estimated 4 years ago at 600,000 which could be more to 800,000 to a million to put the entire project in we talking a million and a quarter for one Ballfield in forl doesn't make a lot of sense that's not just my opinion it's the opinion of a lot of people in town that I've talked with that's a lot of money whereas we could use that money for repair of all our other fields ding thank you thank you now to answer your concerned Sit Down You're making up numbers you have no idea what these costs these are you don't talk a buy don't V okay you're making up numbers and guesses of what estimates but we have to get someone to give us those numbers that's what we're doing now we're going to get someone to give us those numbers then we'll make a determination we don't know what those numbers are so you're throwing numbers out of a million dollar we don't know if that's true or not and what I said at the open at the shade Tre meeting didn't want that built because I knew the county wouldn't be behind taking care of a project that they're putting in and it would fall on our volunteers today that's why I didn't have that project if the county was coming in and saying we're going to take care of this I'm I welcome it when they come in and put a project and then it falls on my volunteers that's sometimes unfair okay motion I do motion close motion to close public session council president line Council all in favor against uh anybody have any we don't have any Clos sessions today right I do oh you do have one yes okay iove okay a motion to return close session council president counc presid Council woman Alor all in favor against thank you everybody we have Clos session so I'm going to have to ask you quick okay we're record in close session we discuss Personnel matters motion Council pres all fa okay great thank you