##VIDEO ID:45LSJY3ccY0## good evening everyone if you could please take your seats this is the Ridgewood Village Council regular public meeting on uh on August 14th 2024 adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by a posting on the bulletin board in Village Hall by mail to the Ridgewood news the record and uh by submission to all persons entitled to same as provided by law of a schedule including the date and time of this meeting roll call Deputy Mayor perin here council member Reynolds here council member whites here council member winegrad here and mayor vaganos is absent please join me in a salute to our flag I pledge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands andice and now we'll go to acceptance of financial reports uh I move the Bill's claims and vouchers and statement on of funds on hand as of July 31st 2024 be accepted as submitted second parin yes Reynolds yes whites yes and winegrad yes next we'll go to approval of the minutes I move that the Village Council minutes of February 26th February 28th March 27th May 22nd 2024 having been reviewed by The Village Council and now available in the village clerk's office be approved as submitted second pin yes Reynolds I was absent on March 27th I'm yes for all of the other dates and oh yes and uh wad yes now we'll go to our proclamations uh councilwoman wagad would you like to take the first one sure so whereas ovarian cancer is called the silent killer because its symptoms are often vague or subtle making ovarian cancer a leading cause of death of cancer among women and the leading cause of gy gical cancer death in the United States and whereas almost 20,00 women in the United States will receive a diagnosis of ovarian cancer and about 12,740 will die from it in 2024 and whereas the Kaleidoscope of Hope Foundation a local nonprofit group founded by Gail mcneel of chadam Township who is inspired by her own experiences raises funds for ovarian cancer research and increases awareness of the disease and its symptoms and wishes to remind the public that September is ovarian cancer awareness month and whereas the Kaleidoscope of Hope Has partnered with national ovarian cancer coalition to support the quote turn the town teal campaign and whereas there is no early detection test for ovarian cancer which is truly why turn the town's teal campaign is so very critical in promoting awareness about the symptoms of ovarian cancer fighting the disease and supporting the women who bravely carry on now therefore it be resolved that the Village Council of the village of r r calls upon citizens to raise ovarian cancer awareness which will help Americans live longer healthier lives and here PR proclaims September 2024 as ovarian cancer awareness month as we rededicate ourselves to the pursuit of new and better ways to prevent detect and treat this devastating disease thank you uh councilwoman Reynolds would you like to take the next Proclamation thank you whereas National preparedness month creates an important opportunity for every resident of the village of Ridgewood to prepare their homes businesses schools institutions of Higher Learning houses of worship and community- based organizations for any type of emergency including natural disasters and potential terrorist attacks and whereas investing in preparedness can reduce fatalities and economic Devastation in our communities and in our nation whether the emergency is large scale or a smaller local event and whereas National preparedness month is a part of a governmental effort to have federal state local tribal territorial private and volunteer agencies working to increase public activities in preparing for emergencies and to educate individuals on how to take action and whereas emergency preparedness is a personal responsibility and every resident of the village of Ridgewood is urged to make preparedness a priority and whereas this year the ready campaign's 2024 National preparedness month campaign will focus on preparing Asian-American native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities for risks and disasters which continue to threaten the nation and whereas the Asian-American native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Community is a large diverse group that spans across many cultures languages and unique circumstances that must be considered When developing strategies to prepare for a disaster and whereas locally disaster preparedness response and Recovery requires the efforts of the entire village now therefore be it resolved that the Village Council of the village of Ridgewood Bergen County New Jersey hereby does proclaim September 2024 as National preparedness month and encourages all residents and businesses to prepare now for future emergencies and to work together to create a better prepared Community for all thank you I'll read the next Proclamation whereas September is known around the United States as National Suicide Prevention awareness month and is intended to help promote awareness surrounding each of the suicide prevention resources available to us and our community the simple goal is to learn how to help those around us and how to talk about suicide without increasing the risk of harm and whereas Suicidal Thoughts can affect anyone regardless of age gender race sexual orientation income level religion or background and whereas suicide is the 12th leading cause of death in the United States the second leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 10 and 14 and the third leading cause of death among teens and young adults ages 15 to 24 and whereas in the United States over 49 ,000 people died by suicide in 2022 one death every 11 minutes which is a 2.6% increase over the number of deaths in 2021 and whereas it is estimated that 22 that in 2022 there were 1.6 million suicide attempts and over 90% of the people who die by Suicide have a diagnosable and treatable mental health condition although often that condition has not been recognized or treated and whereas the village of Ridgewood New Jersey is no different from any other community in the country but chooses to publicly State and place our full support behind local Educators mental health professionals athletic coaches Scout leaders police officers and parents as partners in supporting our community in simply being available to one another and whereas local organizations like Suicide Prevention Services SPS and National organizations like the National Alliance on Mental Illness Nami are on the front lines of a battle that many still refuse to discuss in public as suicide and mental illness remain taboo topics which are not spoken about and whereas every resident of the village of Ridgewood should understand that throughout life's struggles we all need the occasional reminder that we are all silently fighting our own battles and whereas The Village Council of the village of Ridgewood encourages all residents to take the time to inquire as to the well-being of their family friends and neighbors over the next few days and to genuinely convey their appreciation for their existence by any gesture they deem appropriate a simple phone call a message a handshake or a hug can go a long way towards helping someone one realize that suicide is not the answer now therefore be it resolved that the Village Council of the village of Ridgewood does hereby Proclaim September 2024 National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month in the village of Ridgewood and asks our residents to open minds save lives and restore hope through prevention and intervention through the use of Education advocacy and collaboration and now we will have swearing in of three new police officers I call up first officer Lucas Adam kowitz stand on Bible your right please repeat after me I Adam Lucas no I Lucas Adam ktz I Lucas Adam do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States stes that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will faithfully impartially and justly and I will faithfully impartially and unjustly perform all the duties of the office of police officer and perform all the duties of the office of police officers according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God very [Applause] good for [Applause] next I call up Adam [Applause] Kora okay all right ra raise your right hand and repeat after me I Adam Kora I Adam Kora do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will faithfully and that I will faithfully impartially and justly impartially and justly perform all the duties of the office of police officer perform all the duties of the office of police officer according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God [Applause] [Applause] next I call up Joseph Miss missel [Applause] Mary and before you all leave I did want to say that I know you three officers are anxious to serve honorably on the police force and you're really privileged to work with this police force because it is so well-led so well trained um it is a total benefit to our community and we welcome welcome you to this community all three of [Applause] you all right just place your left hand on the Bible and raise your right hand and repeat after me I Joseph ml Mar I Joseph mistl Mar do solemnly swear do solemnly swear I that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will faithfully impartially and justly and that I will faithfully impartially and justly perform all the duties of the office of police officer perform all the duties of the office of police officer according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me [Applause] God e [Applause] was it car accid it up and now we'll go to well we're going to wait just till it's a little quieter okay and now we'll go to comments from the public uh good evening mayor and Council boy a loving Ridgewood um I'm here tonight to give a shout out to Mike Juna there's been a major pothole on Grove Street for years I've lived in the Grove Street area for a long time since 1979 and there it's been a major pothole uh in Grove Street near kennworth Road for a long time it was a depression caused by a public service manhole and uh I finally realized that my car was taking a beating and gave Mike a call and it took him about a month to get public service to fix it but he did fix did get it fixed so i' like to give a shout out to Mike to that he went above and beyond because it was not a Ridgewood problem it was a public service problem and he did get straightened out so thank you very much to Mike thank you Boyd anyone else here in the room uh weic hbe uh one Franklin Avenue a couple of short comments one I want to thank the village manager for his the letter that came out describing the situation at the burm and uh giving us comfort that the village hall is on top of it now as far as the next step I'm praying that the DP will come and say tear down the BM and then let's start all over again having a nice wall but Keith thank you very much also a comment a question I have about the uh the athletic playing field the fact that uh tur it's Turf and and all this fear mongering about it's going to be poisoning the wells and everything else I wonder if the county has or the DP has a position about about turf fields one of you must know or one of you can find out quickly by calling up the uh the county or the DP but in any case I again want to thank Keith for day after day after day we are kept totally informed with what's happening in the village Communications at its best and I do love the website because because I spend a lot of time on it and it keeps me posted thank you very much Keith and thank you thank you R anyone else good evening and loving we were away last week but we had the opportunity to watch the meeting on YouTube after we returned home and I have a couple of comments about the meeting last week all of which relate to trees and global warming and I also have a suggestion the first comment about last week's meeting is that when councilwoman winegrad said and I quote progress and development take out trees unquote global warming is real the whole earth is feeling it we were in Barcelona on the hottest day in their recorded history trees help mitigate global warming every tree counts it is not ress councilwoman winegrad to take out trees it is a polar opposite of progress Miss winegrad also turned to councilwoman Reynolds and said quote your sidewalks took out trees I found it very interesting that Miss windrad referred to the sidewalk project as being the responsibility of councilwoman W uh Reynolds all of you including winegrad voted for the sidewalk projects such a gratuitous swipe at a council colleague as is well beneath what we would hope from our elected officials also last week councilwoman Reynolds was boning the planned removal of over 200 trees to be replaced by less than 100 saplings and she said it was not going to be an even trade in response to this councilman whites accused councilwoman Reynolds of trying to make political hay on the shedler issue this is not the first time the council councilman whites has accused councilwoman Reynolds of trying to make political hay as he calls it the one person on the de who is absolutely not a politician is councilwoman Reynolds again such a gratuitous swipe to a council colleague is beneath what we should be getting from you but it's starting to become a pattern finally I have a suggestion I've learned from someone on shade tree that 60 small trees which are supposed to be planted are proving difficult to find apparently the larger ones like the Oak and the London plain trees that can be planted on the side of the street that doesn't have wires are plentiful but the smaller ones are in short supply a number of years ago a gentleman named Ted slesinger worked for the village and he was a tree expert he told me that there was some sort of tree farm in Ridgewood I don't know where where trees were being cultivated specifically to be planted around town I remember being at a store in Ridgewood when Ted came with one of those trees that had been cultivated by Ridgewood to be planted in CBD my suggestion is that you consider making such a tree farm at shedler clearly trees love to grow at shutler because there's a few hundred that have been growing without any tending or assistance so this would be an ideal spot to grow whatever trees are needed I just have a couple more minute moments this would be an ideal spot to grow whatever trees are needed to plant along the street Scapes of town children could be involved with their cultivation as could adults and senior citizens who are also adults School groups the whole plan of the artificial turf field has got to come to an end we should take advantage of the property on shedler to reduce global warming in any way that we can by growing trees not by taking them down thank you thank you an Cynthia o'keef Ridgewood so last week I made a few comments at the end of the meeting as I often do um and I'm glad this time I'm actually going after Mr halabe because he usually has something to say about what I have to say so I actually that's flattery in my opinion uh we don't always agree but he's welcome to you know have his say too so what I wanted to do is address some of my comments and um one of them was my um heart went out to the woman who talked about the Clinton Avenue sidewalks and you know a few of you made comments I wasn't bashing Ridgewood I was just saying I think sometimes we need to get all on the same page and I don't find that that happens all the time so take it for what it's worth maybe that's a constructive piece of criticism for your inbox I get constructive criticism at my job too and you know I think it was more than fair that the woman came here and expressed herself she's got a special needs child and I'm never going to stop caring about people in Ridgewood ever okay and that includes my neighborhood and so when some of you say that you object or you felt insulted guess what there's been a palpable disdain for the shedler Neighbors on many occasions and we haven't said anything so that's all I'm going to say on that topic um I never said that shedler was purchased for the East Side residents so let me clear that up right now what I said was there were a number of applications where Ridgewood went out and solicited grant money from various organizations one being the historic preservation fund where on and it was Janet Frick assistant Village clerk who signed it in 2021 it was a Grant application of the village of Ridgewood submitted to the historic uh trust and it supports the historic significance of the house and property okay and property not just house given the proximity to the church and the crossroads and she goes on with you know some historical context she said when Route 17 was constructed the residents on the east side of the highway were cut off from the center of the village as a result they feel this dramatic change in the landscape and the loss of a local school in their area and there is no place in the village they identify with this is on a Grant application where money was received so please don't ever tell me that I'm making things up and that shedler was purchased for the East Side never said that what I'm saying is in most of the grant applications the there was a nod to the east side residents so let's not go back and try to reinvent history and if you want me to pull them up I will come week after week and I will read them all so I want you to go back and educate yourself for those of you who said whatever you said that was negating my comment there was a nod to the east side residents we didn't have a park on the east side and you've all gone and in your on your Merry way and you're probably giddy thinking about the new plan you're going to drum up for shedler but please consider the residents in that neighborhood and when we talk about you know Shaban you talked and MJ agalar was here and this is my last point you said inclus inclusion doesn't work if everyone doesn't feel included okay so we're not feeling included and I think that you need to put a committee together to discuss whatever new plans if the plan is going to be uh revamped and the clock is not going to start ticking on the old plan then I think you need to include Neighbors in this any kind of decisionmaking just like the ad hoc committee otherwise it's unfair to this neighborhood thank you anyone else for public comment okay we'll go to um hybrid access Denise you're up good evening everybody it's Denise Lima 319 East Glenn AV briwood um haven't seen you for a while so I'm few quick updates first thanks on the proclamation for the ovarian cancer I think you all know that I'm a a survivor of that going on 12 13 years now um any any discussion about uh how Ridgewood would demonstrate the support of ovarian cancer by way of maybe putting ribbons around trees of vaness um I think that demonstration would be great um in the news um since last time I was here the billboard was voted down by the board I think they did the right thing uh really encouraging and refreshing to see when we talk about the burm and the soil and being removed um there are rare local Red River Rocks that were thrown in that burm or on the side of the BM which is now covered by weeds I'd like to recommend that we save those rocks and maybe build something thoughtfully because they're rare there's only a few houses that have them mine is one of them the the shedler house as well so maybe we just be careful when we're removing the soil to save those rocks um hybrid access has now been around for a year thank you because it allows me to dial in but I'm curious to understand what's been happening over the last year and whatever improvements have we done I know we've talked about putting the sunshine binder online or expanding hybrid to the zoning and planning board of adjustments I've written a few times about meeting minutes uh there's about 45 meetings five additional minutes approved tonight there's still 30 that are not posted I know that there's issues uh with people process but I I think we have to do a better job of getting those out there quickly um Pam still waiting for an overview of the master plan who's on the committee things have changed what are some of the updates um Evan as far as HPC where are we with adding uh the corridor to the pramis church area that's in the master plan I went back and looked at all the HPC agenda items and there's not any conversations in those meetings about the master plan plan and then last is our Waters worth it conserve and protect Public Health go above and beyond to improve drinking water I'm embarrassed that we are accepting this award when over 14 quarters quarter over quarter uh since 2021 we have had water levels that are exceeding the minimum requirements uh allowed I I don't know how we can stand up there and be proud and accept this award it's honestly been going on since 2015 when there was recommended levels of 14 and 15 particles and we were at 70 granted it wasn't regulated and we were doing it voluntarily but this has been going on for such a long time I don't understand how we are sitting there and not explaining to the public what's really been going on and accepting that award it's really it's embarrassing it's it's not professional and any sense of the way and I will continue to advocate for that because I I don't understand how we can do that um can you wrap it up Janise yep and speaking last about the water and the lead sample we have 28,000 households but the sample size is only 35 I'd really like to see more on that as well thank you uh we have no other um commenters remotely and so if somebody would like to respond to any particular matter that was brought up here Deputy Mayor may may go first okay thank you um first of all to Mr loving if if there's ever an issue that you detect and we've uh I've learned very quickly being here that you're not shy um but if you do detect a pothole whether it's our responsibility or some other agency the county or psng by all means send that to us and just like Mike did just like Mike did I'm sure uh we can be get a get a positive response for you there uh Mr halby um thank you for your compliments I I always appreciate that um with regard to your question on Bergen County and NJ D's position on turf fields um I don't know if they have a formal written position but what I can tell you is that Bergen County open space uh the trust fund allocations and also the njde Green Acres Program continue to this day to fund turf fields through their application processes throughout the state of New Jersey um I I don't know how easy it would be for you to to find that information um I think Bergen County does list all of their open space Awards on an annual basis but I can confirm that both Bergen County and Green Acres do fund turf fields throughout the state um if that information is helpful um Miss loving I'll I'll yield to uh council member winegrad on on your comments um Miss O'Keefe um I think some of your your comments were directed at me um I I don't take anything away uh from your compassion and your empathy um which I've recognized from the first day I walked into this building and you stood at that that Podium um what I said I resented was the implication that I didn't care um so it's no reflection on you it was a reflection on how I felt your comments reflected on me and the other members of this stas just to be clear on that um to miss Lima um I'll let Heather respond to the um the inquiry about the minutes um I could tell you that we have had conversations about expanding hybrid access um it does come down to resources and Staffing because we need it staff support uh to televise these Council meetings so therefore if we were to televise zoning board meetings or planning board meetings we need to have the staff available to be able to operate from the back room here and that's been a challenge uh but it is definitely something that is on our radar and something that we are considering going forward um one thing I want to point out about the Ridgewood water award uh first of all we didn't ask for the award the D decided that we were going to be the first recipient of the reward um but if you want a crystal clear visual reason why we received that award go on our social media outlets and see the posts that we put out today where we received eight vessels at the prospect treatment station down by the water pollution control facility where you have this massive crane installing these posos treatment vessels there could be no more clear reason for njde to select Ridgewood water than watching that reel on social media that is the work that rich calby and his team at Ridgewood water are doing every day with our contractors to build out a state-of-the-art water treatment facility to take posos out of our water by 2026 so I understand that there are folks out there who wish this happened more quickly and I respect that actually because one of the one of the um challenges one of the boundaries to to or barriers to getting this project complete was Co this was authorized pre-co but because of the difficulty in getting the equipment and the materials and the building materials to be able to build these facilities out that was the delay in being able to do this more quickly and the D and Ridgewood waterer worked out a schedule to complete this project in light of the challenges that covid brought to this project so again if you haven't seen it yet go on social media take a look at that reel that Carol posted earlier today and you will see exactly why Ridgewood waterer receive that award and is deserving of that award if I can just be brief and respond to one or two points um to to my friend an about your comments about the conversation we had uh on the D last uh last time um you know please don't um don't confuse cander and directness with disres I have the utmost respect for Lorraine uh I consider a colleague and her friend friend um but there are times when we're going to disagree and we owe it to the voters to be vocal in our disagreement and advocate for our positions and I don't believe we ever cross that line of getting to the point of disrespect um I hope we never do um but I'm never I'm but I do think hand or directness is is a virtue and I know all of us are going to continue to do that um my friend Cynthia um similarly you know you did say that we have disdained for our shedler neighbors I I I it's there's nothing that could be further from the truth um again we just disagree reasonable people can disagree on soccer fields and what to do with the park that we bought um to say that we have disdain simply because we didn't reach the the position that you advocated for it doesn't mean that we have disdained for you it doesn't mean that we did not listen to you it just means to be have a difference of opinion and again reasonable people can disagree on topics such as this um and so when we talk about words like having disdain or saying somehow we're not transparent and not involving folks I don't want the people at home or other people who are listening to this to really credit that simply because we just have a disagreement um and finally to to Boyd and to roric always great to hear um you know nice things um you know normally we have the police officers or other folks get sworn in I say this is my favorite part of the job and certainly when we get compliments for our wonderful staff uh we appreciate that as well along with the negative feedback which we also deserve so we can make things better sioban sure so um with respect to a couple things first of all uh we have a a great dynamic as a group up here and so similar to what Evan said I know Lorraine knows this but I do think of them as her sidewalks because she is a consistent advocate for walkability for incorporating that element of the master plan during the budget lorine advocated for it where are you over there I'm I'm very proud of her for that I think we all joined her in that she made us that look at it differently and so they are your sidewalks and I think you should take a bow and I think the rest of the council feels that you really pushed us to consider that and fund it and make it a project priority so by no means was that an insult it's a good thing um I'm really pleased with the gap of sidewalks you know when we talk I you know sometimes she says my shade trees I say your sidewalks it was meant as a compliment and I think everybody should join us and congratulating Lorraine um with her initiatives because you did great and you took a lot of our budget for it which is good um the second thing that I want to address is um I was going to bring this up in my Council report but the word sapling was used uh all across the board there we are not planting saplings at shedler we are planting trees a sapling is a lowcost very young tree right it's not a whip it's tiny it's it needs extra love and attention so we are not planting saplings at shedler we're planting expensive bigger trees the sapling costs about $35 and a tree costs about 275 when we buy it in bulk um what has happened with our sourcing in shade tree and we had a discussion last night is that um within Somerville we have 90 saplings and they we go out and we say which area can take which sapling um the large trees that will be yielded from the small saplings we have no sourcing problem because we have 60 small sites we're having a little bit of trouble of finding those 60 saplings across five species we did send it out to a larger audience we are hopeful that we'll get them um it's a very good problem to have that people want 90 saplings the 30 large are there and I'm confident we're going to find all 90 um the other thing is that the 90 saplings just because we're talking about it are not demonstrated right we might not 90 sites might not yield 90 saplings because they might be boxed out so feel I know that news to the council 30 are secured they're good and the remaining 60 we're working on um Sim similarly Cynthia I mean I totally agree with Evan but I also want to Echo that one of the primary parts of my campaign in Evans was that the failure to develop shedler has left your neighborhood isolated and one of the primary reasons we purchased it as a town and invested 2.6 million doll in the house was to integrate the neighborhood into the community there's always been that sense of loss since 1986 when they closed Glen I remember that and one of the primary purposes was to integrate it to get people from you know the other side of 17 to go over there and see it and the failure to develop the park has made us unable to do that because we can't bring them into the house we get we don't have any activities there so we fully support what jenet fricky wrote the need to integrate and I really appreciate your advocacy and I just you know we disagree on the turf and and we really do and I just want to say that but the integration has been a long-standing goal for the community and lastly um with Denise with um enhancing hybrid access we we also have the outstanding issue from the disability crowd that we would like to do close caption so the more that we spend on hybrid access to increase other boards the less robust this one comes um hearing is the invisible disability it impacts a large portion of people so as we dis discuss like enhancing access I really think we need to discuss um close captioning and that's it yeah uh through you deputy mayor uh Carol in my office has been researching that um and she's been working with Dylan on that so I'm hopeful that by the end of the year we'll have some recommendations to make uh I I would like to um reiterate what an said we did at one time have a nursery for trees I can't remember where it was but ideas that have been kicked around since are um at the recycling center or uh over by the Belair tennis courts um so uh anyway so we'll talk about that some more uh Denise um I like your idea about about saving the Red River Rocks um but I do disagree with you that on the um our water is worth it award Ridgewood Water Works around the clock to give us potable water and please remember that the nightmare of posos was foisted on us by Third Parties by corporations who were making a profit who knew what they were doing um and we had rid water had to clean up the mess and has done an excellent job they are brought in to instruct other towns other counties other parts of the state as to how to do it like we did it and imagine building a City Underground that's basically what they have to do to connect our water system and to ensure that these 12 12 new facilities at the cost of $150 million will work to deliver clean potable water uh without posos imagine if that bill of $150 million were foisted on taxpayers all at once um this is a long-term project and the award I believe was very well deserved um let's see oh the uh planning board subcommittee um that tracks the the um accomplishments in line with the master plan consists of Richard Joel Diane O'Brien myself uh and Rob Willis when one person can't attend um David rekin steps in and um so far as I know there has not been progress on the historic Corridor mention in the uh at in the master plan so that's all I have with regard to public comment let's go on now to I I just yeah I just wanted to say one thing that's okay I kind of just a ditto on what you said with Ridgewood water it really it's amazing what Ridgewood water has done and it's really sad when I hear people say something negative about Richwood water because Rich Kelby has led his team and done a phenomenal job I mean we are so far ahead of other towns and that is why we got the award and it is welld deserved and it is mostly due to the efforts of rich calby and you know his his vision and I really before people say anything negative they should really do some research and see how well Ridgewood has taken this on and done such a great job that's it thank you Lorraine uh we'll go to the manager's report thank you Deputy Mayor um first I want to begin tonight by congratulating Lucas Joseph and Adam on their graduation from the Bergen County Police Academy and their formal swearing in tonight I had the opportunity last week to attend their graduation ceremony and it was absolutely beautiful uh they are joining the ranks of an outstanding Police Department as was said earlier by the deputy mayor here in Ridgewood and I wish them the best as they begin their careers I want to remind everyone that property taxes were due back on August 1st however since the bills were delayed this year there is a grace period until August 26th if taxes are not paid by August 26 the interest will revert back to August 1st uh please know that by sending out only one tax bill this year rather than the estimated and then the regular tax bill uh the village saved about $5,000 in printing and postage costs today we released an outline of the next steps with regard to the soil testing at shedler uh testing found exceedances as was discussed at last week's uh work session uh the reports are now online both the burm report which was completed um and put up back in June and then the grid testing that was reported on last week uh both of those reports are available on the Village website under projects go to shedler and the link is right there um with regard to the next steps uh soil delineation testing uh will begin if approved tonight by the council within the next 30 days results will be provided to the Village upon completion and those reports as well will be posted to the Village website once the results are received Matrix will provide conclusive recommendations as to the remediation that is required on the site with the approval of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection it should also be noted that the village has been advised that there is no need to close off access to the property I want to stress that the village unquestionably takes the health and safety of our residents and our employees very seriously we have as we've stated previously this Village Council will do everything in its power to to address the soil remediation issues that have resulted from the creation of the burm starting back in 2019 if anyone has any questions regarding the soil testing please do not hesitate to contact me via email and the village staff or our professional team from Matrix will provide responses to specific inquiries regarding this matter should also be noted that we are working uh through filing an insurance claim with the environmental GIF on the issue related to shedler also in regard to soil in preparation for the Pavilion project and the plround work at habber nickel Park and following the removal of the barn structure we conducted soil testing recently there as well there was one isolated exceedence of an arsenical compound we tested eight total areas in Hackle the preliminary recommendation for the one exceedence is the removal of a 5x5 ft area everything else tested clean including the garden and the area closer to the playground delineation testing just as we have to do at shedler is now required um and I'm awaiting the paperwork from Matrix which I anticipate receiving Tomorrow there's no reason to coordin off the area the compound is not at the surface level and there is no reason to restrict any access at the park nor will it deter the installation of the Pavilion project or ultimately the new playground the village is working closely with Matrix and following all njd requirements to address this issue as well uh yesterday we held a meeting with Conley and hickey who are contracted for the improvements to The Pedestrian tunnel at the train station uh it was a great meeting and they plan to make a presentation on their concept plans at the September 25th work session to the Village Council I want to welcome uh our new court administrator Erica will um Erica comes to us with experience uh she was the court administrator with the city of hackin saac she'll be managing all three towns Ridgewood Glenrock and woff through our shared services agreement she's off to a great start and we certainly wish her well a few announcements the Ridgewood Guild continues to hold their music in the night downtown on Fridays through Labor Day music in the park on Saturday evenings from 7 :30 to 9:30 continue at vanis Square the summer concert series uh at CASRO shell uh continue through Labor Day 8:00 pm on Tuesday nights and 8:30 on Thursday nights the Ridgewood Guild is sponsoring free movies in the park uh Wednesdays at 8:15 tonight was the day after tomorrow and next uh August 28th is Batman this coming Monday there will be a demonstration of the new voting machines that started to be used here in Bergen County during the primary election uh through the efforts of uh Deanna who coordinate a lot of our senior coordinates a lot of our senior programs here in the village uh she's been able to set this up through the Bergen County Superintendent of Elections office uh they will demonstrate from start to finish what the voter will experience on Election Day or if they participate in early voting uh space is limited for this program so we are encouraging people to register through Community pass or call the recreation department at 201 6755 extension 5560 the senior bus will also have a special run on this particular day uh to bring folks who are interested in this program here to Village Hall and you can call Beth and my office at extension 2203 to make arrangements for Transportation uh the Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce continues their Farmers Market through October 29th from 8:30 to 2m at the train station on the West Side uh Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce will be hosting their 29th annual car show in the CBD on Friday night September 6th starting at 6 PM Village of Ridgewood offices will be closed on September 2nd and observance of Labor Day there will be no sanitation recycling or yard waste pickup on that day please check the village calendar for the adjusted garbage Recycling and yard waste collection dates and our upcoming council meeting uh uh September 4th is a work session September 11th is a public meeting and September 30th is a work session all begin at 7:30 that concludes my report Deputy Mayor thank you uh Evan would you like to give us your report yeah I could be somewhat brief um most of my committees are still out for the summer uh historical preservation committee did meet earlier this week um we actually had five applications it was a busy night um really great group really privileged to be part of it and you know always thank them for their service um rard Arts Council has off but we've been emailing and doing some um reaching out to um other groups to see about planning events with them in the fall and the spring um very excited about some things that we've already got on the agenda which I'll probably put in my minute um in my comments as we get closer to this uh to the fall but Richard Arts Council has been active as well I did just want to direct everyone's attention you know in preparing for tonight's meeting I was looking over some of the um consent items that we're going to approve tonight um you know just looking at you know installing the structure at uh nicl Park um you know we're awarding uh uh money tonight for the lights to go over vets field um we're authorizing a shared service agreement something all of us really support um for the sty styrofoam densifier which is not only great for the environment also gets us some money back for some uh infrastructure enhancements that we made um but this is sort of the not very sexy kind of boring really great government work that I think we've been doing and this isn't partisan this isn't one versus the other it's just the stuff that doesn't get as much attention as it should but it really should because this is the stuff that really affects most people lives dayto day and I'm just really proud of some of the stuff that we're doing that sometimes flies under the radar um with that on a personal note I bought my late season pass for Gren uh spent part of the weekend last weekend there is really really beautiful Keith nany's doing a wonderful job and the whole parks and Rex department is doing just a wonderful job water was super clear everything was clean it was packed um really well done and now that I have my season passed I'm going to make sure I get my money's worth I plan to go back several times before Labor day but really really really well done finally as this our last meeting before the end of the summer I want to wish everyone in the deas everyone here everyone at home have a great Labor Day and and the rest of your summer thanks Evan sioban sure um so last night we met at shade tree and it was a very productive meeting I want to thank Nancy Bron Hill and Adam for running it um just for the council and for the public we one of the discussions we still have is implementing and addressing better policies and procedures for weeds and that was Cynthia inla weeds and the tree Wells um so line and I have been working on that together we're going to be reviewing it with the council because now that we've invested so much time money love and attention in the wells we want to make sure that the findes are consistent and they're even for the first time and then a little bit heavier so um they've made some recommendations and I know uh Lorraine and I are on the same page with this that that's going to be forthcoming in September in addition to that I'm thrill thrilled to say that um we received our report cards on our big tree nominations and all of our trees made it to the registry and um what ends up happening is you get a report card and I won't read all of them to you but the tree that Matt Rogers um report nominated which I think is great while walking his dog and he mentioned it and it was also echoed by shade tree um is the largest pin o in Burgen County so we are first in Bergen County on two species and it gives you the estimated did it also gives you its Latin name which is fun if you know my daughter loves Latin and how many gallons of water they drink so we made it onto the registry officially as a municipality with five trees and the board of EDS one tree at Somerville who as you remember was reading big tree the story of the seedlings they're tree made as well so I want to thank njd and the Forester and shade tree particular Cavin and Tim Graham for making that happen if anybody else has any trees they'd love to nominate please send them to us and Shay Tre will review them um it's just really cool and if you guys want to see them you can see their statistics it's excellent and we'll be calling them out on social media and giving these trees their place on place online so that's it thank you councilwoman Reynolds thank you um I haven't had any committee meetings since last week but I wanted to say I recently found out that I am going to be having an opening on the citizen safety advisory committee so if you are interested in that you can go to the website download the what is it called citizens volunteer leadership form um and and apply we would love to have you um and then I just wanted to bring up I spoke with the village manager this afternoon about the money that we're spending on uh remediation and the archaeological dig at shedler we had bonded three 50,000 and after tonight's vote we will have approximately 990,000 left so I wanted to start the conversation in my opinion it's going to be more than 90,000 unless we do get money back from insurance claims which we don't know but I want to start the conversation about what if we need more than the 990,000 that we have left where are we going to get that money from the last time when we bonded the 350,000 and I was against it because we took the money from the capital budget of 2025 right is that where we ended up taking it or did we just have an emergency appropriation I I think the direction of council was on both let's say unexpected Bond ordinances that were introduced and adopted this year which would have been the the monies for um the water pollution control facility and then the testing archaeological bond for for shedler um that that would come off the 7.5 million that we traditionally try to earmark for capital projects in the ensuing year so we we would we would essentially take that off the top of what we appropriate in 2025 right so I don't want to take anything more off of 2025 what I'd like to I'm hoping that maybe we can have Bob Rooney at the next work session and he can explain to us if there is a possibility you know I misspoke once before I don't want to Mis misspoke spoke again but I think there is the possibility of taking some money that's already been earmarked for shedler and if we need more than 990,000 there is the possibility of doing something with the 1.9 or close to 1. .9 million that we already have earmarked um so I just want to get the ball rolling because I don't want to get into a situation where a couple months down the road we need 150,000 and everybody's like we got to do an emergency we have to we don't have time to do anything else like we need to be prepared if we're going to need more money and know what we could do and I don't want anybody saying you know I'm grandstanding it's a political nothing against you Evan but that will be said if I hold my tongue until that point comes so that's why I'm speaking out now and I really would love to have Bob here at the next work session to see if there's something we could be doing to plan if we need more than the 990,000 and and through you Deputy Mayor after um that discussion was had the last time before we appropriated the $350,000 for this purpose uh Bob and I did seek uh written clarification from both Bond Council and from our village auditor so we have those documents that we can we can share with the council as well as to the process um and I'm curious to see what Matrix says about the delineate what they find on delineation and and all that and what D has to say which is also important I'm sorry do we know when we'll have a decision on the insurance proceeds or an idea from Matrix what does it all going to cost so what's before you tonight councilman uh with regard to the delineation that needs to be complete um we're actually going to expedite that testing because I can't submit the full claim to the environmental GIF without an estimate as to what the costs are going to be to do any type of remediation we know do we have an idea for Matrix we would if if if we approve this if you approve this resolution tonight and we sign off on the contracts tomorrow which is what we anticipate to do uh we'll have results back at 30 days great okay or less okay could I just add to that I mean I fully think we need to get ready to be ready but until we have the insurance information and all of that in uh I mean I support that line and we should be thinking about what we want to cancel out if it exceeds but we don't know if it's going to exceed I mean should we wait to we have more information before we put it on the workshop in addition to that could we get because I think it's 11 bonds AC shler I mean if we're going to start canceling it we should all be versed in what's left open I mean clearly you know it everybody has a priority for Park development and I think all five of us would agree the number one priority now is remediation right so then we'd have to start scorecarding you know what what's left in each bucket right there's different buckets you know clearly you know I'm just speaking out loud here but um you know we we need to get a parking lot in there because the house is in accessible particularly to disabled people so we need Bob Rooney if we're going to have the discussion to give us each of the outstanding ordinances their earmarking and what's left and I think that's a good idea but I don't know if we're ready to have the discussion because if we get it all covered by insurance we don't need it well I I think having the discussion about how much money is there and in each bucket and just a possibility of what can be done if we need more money I think we need to start that that conversation I think Bob Rooney will tell us when we can start the conversation um okay I'm G to give you my report uh it is that the open space committee will be having its next parkwalk on September 14th Saturday at 10:00 a and that is going to be in vanis square Matt lindenberg will be our member who has been doing a lot of research and he'll be giving the tour so it should be very interesting again that's September 14th at 10:00 a.m. at vanz Square the uh residential flood advisory committee is is still taking well I should say the clerk's office is still taking applications the volunteer forms for people who have been flooded in their inside their homes um if they would like to join this committee that we are forming to give voice to the people who have been flooded um also I just wanted to let you know that the special improvement district steering committee continues to meet every other week and sometimes more than that uh as part of the feasibility study and we are closing closing in on the end of phase one and then we'll be going on to phase two of the feasibility study and with that we'll turn to our agenda um we have no ordinances for Ridgewood water but we do have a consent agenda yes so the following resolutions numbered 24251 through 24254 will be adopted by a consent agenda with one vote by The Village Council it will be read by title only title 59 approval water service line main to curb Replacements award contract water service line main to curb Replacements award Professional Services contract LED service line replacement program implementation phase award contract soil disposal for rid water projects I have a motion so moved second Kon yes Reynolds yes whites yes and winterr yes we'll go on now to the introduction of uh ordinance 49 I move the first reading of ordinance 49 Second aaren yes Reynolds yes whites yes winegrad yes so ordered will the clerk please read ordinance 4009 by title and ordinance to amend chapter 145 of the code of the village of Bridgewood fees at section 145-year I move that ordinance 4009 be adopted on the first reading and that September 11th 2024 be fixed as the date of the hearing thereon second parin yes Reynolds yes whites yes and wira yes I move that the I move the first reading of ordinance 4010 second parin yes Reynolds yes whites yes windrad yes so ordered will the clerk please read ordinance 4010 by title an ordinance to amend chapter three of the code of the village of Bridgewood administration of government Article 5 departments at section 3-43 Police Department I move that ordinance 40 be adopted on the first reading and that September 11th 2024 be fixed as the date for the hearing thereon second parin yes Reynolds yes whites yes and want grad yes I move the first reading of ordinance 4011 second parin yes Reynolds yes whites yes grad yes so ordered will the clerk please read ordinance 4011 by title an ordinance to menend chapter 190 land development of the Cod of the village of Ridgewood to modify standards for site plan exemptions and cert certificates of continued OCC occupancy I move that ordinance 41 be adopted on the first reading and that September 11th 2024 be fixed as the date for the hearing thereon second parin yes Reynolds yes whites yes and winr yes I move the first reading of ordinance 4012 second parent yes Reynolds yes whites yes and WRA yes so ordered will the clerk please read ordinance 4012 by title an ordinance to amend chapter 265 of the code of the village of Bridgewood vehicles and traffic at section 265-276 5- 72 schedule 22 loading zones and section 26572 schedule 23 taxi stands I move that ordinance 20 sorry 402 be adopted on the first reading and that September 11th 2024 be fixed as the date for the hearing thereon second parin yes Reynolds yes whites yes and winterr yes we Have No public hearings no resolutions the following resolutions number 24255 through 24277 with the exception of resolution 24- 263 which will be considered off of the consent agenda all those others res resolutions will be adopted by a consent agenda with one vote by The Village Council they will be read by title only title 59 approval Cottage Place parking lot tree planting program award contract under State contract computer equipment for the village of Ridgewood and Ridgewood water award contract under State contract tough book replacement for Police Department award contract under State contract purchase of polygon structure for Hackle family park award contract under educ ational Services Commission of New Jersey Cooperative purchase and contract installation of polygon structure at habernickel family park award contract under Educational Services Commission of New Jersey Cooperative purchasing contract permanent lighting at Veterans Field a contract under Source well and Bergen County contracts purchase of mini loader parks department or a Professional Services contract phase two archaeological study of property around John Al AB brisy house site uh authorized shared services agreement styra from densifier with Fair long resend and replace resolution number 24-1 198 award contract Police Patrol motorcycle police department name change of vendor authorized settlement agreement on Q Technologies Inc authorize application acceptance execution and expenditure of American Rescue plan firefighter grants accept 2023 annual audit approved 2023 corrective action plan endorse Community Development Block Grant application share Inc 130 Prospect Street remove and replace patio declare property Surplus it equipment declare property Surplus sanitation vehicle appoint members to shat Tre commission appoint members to Green Ridgewood appoint member to Green Team advisory committee and appoint member to Sid um special improvement district um searing steering committee may I have a motion so moved second par yes Reynolds yes whites yes and W grad yes okay hold on one second let me just get to these resolutions whenever you're ready resolution number 24- 263 whereas the village of Ridgewood has a need to acquire the Professional Services of a licensed site remediation professional L SRP to address the requests of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and GD regarding the soils at the shedler site 460 West Saddle River Road Ridgewood New Jersey block 4704 Lots 9 10 11 and 12 to include deliniation sampling of nine former soil sampling sites which exceed ngd soil remediation standards SRS as a non-fair and open contract pursuant to the provisions of njsa 19 colon 44A 20.4 whereas the Chief Financial Officer has determined and certified in writing the value of the Professional Service will exceed $17,500 and whereas the anticipated term of this contract is from September 1st 2024 through August 30th 2025 and whereas Matrix New World engineering land surveying and Landscape architecture PC 26 Columbia Turnpike Floren Park New Jersey will provide the Professional Services of a licensed site remediation professional for the shedler site soils delineation for the Village of Ridgewood for an amount not to exceed $50,000 and such funds are available in account number c-04 d559 dg- 692 and whereas Matrix New World engineering land surveying and Landscape architecture has submitted business entity disclosure certifications which certify that Matrix New World engineering land surveying and Landscape architecture has not made any reportable contributions to a political or candidate Committee in the village of Ridgewood in the previous one Year and that the contract will prohibit Matrix New World engineering land surveying and Landscape architecture from making any reportable contributions to the term of the contract now therefore be it resolved that the Village Council of Village Ridgewood authorized and directs The Village manager to sign the authorization to proceed with Matrix New World engineering land surveying and Landscape architecture for lsrp services for delineation sampling of nine former soil sampling sites which exceed the ngdp soil remediation standards and the notice of this action shall be printed Once In The Ridgewood news pursuant to the local public contracts law as set forth in njsa 4A coling 11-1 at SEC be a further resolve that the Chief Financial Officer has certified that funds are available and be a finally resolve that the business disclosure entity certification and determination of value be placed on file with this resolution may I have a motion so moved second pin yes Reynolds I'm going to vote no because the cost for this is $43,000 we the village is paying an extra 7,000 to expedite it that's a 177% charge I know it doesn't sound like a lot of money but it's it's a few weeks probably I mean I I think Matrix would probably get it to us as quickly as possible anyway but even if it's a a few weeks we're already like like going into the fall nothing is going to happen like it's all going to the shedler thing is all going to be paperwork as far as I'm concerned at least through the next six months um and I think we need to be more careful with our money and paying 177% premium to have it expedited a little we've paid Matrix a lot we're going to pay them a lot um I mean I think we could have done better than a 177% up charge so I'm voting now okay whites it's actually a very reasonable Point Lorraine um I disagree um but it actually makes a ton of sense and gave me something to think about but with that I do think we need to get this done as soon as possible it is a safety issue um again obviously we want to get the park done in whatever form you know it is um but I am a yes vote although um to the to the folks who say that I I don't give luring credit sometimes a great point but I'm I'm going to vote Yes tonight wad yeah I too am G to vote Yes I I think the sooner we can have all the informational available for us to be decision makers and to you know address the public concern it's worth the additional Fay I think Public Safety comes in many shapes and form and the neighbors need the peace of mind to understand the full extent and its money well spent the faster we can return factual information to the community and most importantly the neighborhood the better yes okay whereas the village of Bridgewood is um sorry resolution number 24- 279 where is the village of Ridgewood is a municipality organized pursuant to njsa 40 colon 7623 more commonly known as the fauler act and established by referendum pursuant to the ACT known as a council manager form of government C njsa 40 69-92 in which the Village Council appoints a professional manager to exercise the functions of the municipality and act as a chief executive and administrative official of the village Village supervising all departments and negotiating contracts for the village subject to Village Council approval and whereas The Village has recently become aware that pursuant to 28 CFR 35107 a coordinator and 28 CFR 35107 B grievance procedure the village is required to have a disability coordinator and a disability hearing procedure in place in order to be compliant with title two of the American with Disabilities Act here in after ada8 and whereas to further compliance with the act the village manager has decided to appoint the village manager's position to be the disability coordinator to comply with the ADA requirements to oversee any investigation of any complaint communicated to it alleging non-compliance with the Ada or alleging any actions that would be prohibited pursuant to the Ada The Village shall make available to all interested individuals name office address and office telephone number of the village manager so designating serveed at the time of the complaint and whereas to further comply with the Ada The Village will adopt and publish grievance procedures providing for prompt and Equitable resolution of any complaints alleging any action that would be prohibited by the Ada now therefore be it resolved by The Village Council of the village of Ridgewood County of Bergen state of New Jersey that the position of Village manager shall be the designated disability coordinator pursuant to 28 CFR 35107 a and that the village manager shall direct the preparation of AG grievance procedure compliant with 28 CFR 35. 107b and subject to the review and acceptance of the village attorney may have a motion so second okay pin yes Reynolds yes whites yes and winegrad yes all right now we go back to public comment uh good evening again mayor and Council boy a loving Ridgewood uh with respect to the announcement this evening that contamination has been discovered at Hackle I'm wondering when complete information about that may be posted on the website so that people can view it and also whether a map could be posted so that people could determine exactly where on the property uh this contamination was found since it is a 5 foot by 5 foot parcel I believe that's what was said uh it's not like shedler where it's everywhere there's a particular spot that people might wish to steer away from even though the manager assured us that there is no danger some people might feel as though they would like to avoid that area so I'm just wondering if a little diagram could be posted indicating where yes yes and yes yes yes and yes okay great and when will that I just so I don't I don't have the report yet um and you know I struggle with this because I want to be transparent and I want the public to know what we know but I also want the public to have accurate and factual information so I made the decision to bring this to everyone's attention tonight um I don't have the full report but once I do just like we've done with shedler we will post this on the website as well for transparency and there'll be a map that indicates what the area is and my final uh it was not revealed tonight to use the word revealed but I'm just wondering if there was any indication from Matrix new world as to where they think this contamination may have originated the compound that's been detected Boyd is in New Jersey soil so I don't believe there was any specific act or any type of deliberative act that would have caused this to happen I think this is a consequence of living in North Jersey um you know I I I talk to Matrix more than I talk to any other professional right now and um you know we live in a a highly dense State we live in a place where this was a historical you know there were historical buildings on this on this property that were removed you know that Barn even though it was aluminum sided later in life was you know was there for a long time um who knows what happened on that property decades ago okay um and quite Frank Tech Al once we did the initial round of testing which was five locations we went back out because you know there's a garden there and there's a playground and there was you know there were no exceedances on the the second level testing so that gave us a little piece of mind that this is you know just one specific area uh the 5x5 foot area as it's been explained to me is actually a little larger than you know the area that is tested underground um so I think this is a quick fix in the grand scheme of things but you know this is this is a a um it's public park and we will certainly post the uh report once it's received uh and my last comment about the habac is there was a comment made about the bathrooms where the bathrooms needed to be located um I guess I have a concern about excessive digging that may take place to get a sewer line in there I don't think that you can put septic up there so I'm assuming that wherever these bathrooms go it's going to be someplace that we can get a sewer line in easy and and there there are some sewer lines up at the park already I mean obviously have home there so we've we've actually taken where the sanitary lines are into account in sort of projecting where the restroom facilities may go okay thank you very much and congratulations by the way thank you sir I appreciate that anyone else in the room good evening again An Loving um couple questions one is regarding the railroad tunnel I was very happy that those two convex mirrors were put up after I had asked about it but um I had mentioned subsequently that there really needs to be three more um and uh nothing further had happened on that because from the three staircases you can't see when you're coming down the three staircases and apparently that those since they were up there before and now two more have been put up again that doesn't impact the uh historic work that Connelly and hickey is going to do um another thing is I appreciate as always that councilwoman Reynolds is looking out for our money and I was interested that um councilman white said that he really thought the $7,000 was worth it because it's a safety issue when we heard earlier in the meeting the village manager say there's no safety issue we don't have to put up signs you know around the park warning everybody so I I don't get where it's a safety issue um I don't understand why when one council member asks for something to go on the agenda at the next work session specifically um a request that U Bob broney could come and talk about funding I don't understand why one council person doesn't have the right to do that and why two people basically said no that's not going to happen I thought everybody was equal up there and finally regarding the insurance for shedler I sure hope we get it but it seems to me that there was um you know that it's kind of our fault that contaminated soil is there you know whoever was overseeing it Village engineer or whoever when the soil was delivered and I I don't I don't know if we're going to get insurance for that if you do something wrong why would insurance pay I hope they do but it's a concern of mine thank you anyone else okay we'll go to the uh people who are on by remote access Denise good evening Denise Lima Richwood New Jersey um two topics to just circle back on hybrid access uh jaman just so you know uh and Village manager also that zoom zagit and um YouTube all have audio visual settings that allow for closed caption so somebody you know we just need to give instructions on how to go into the settings to do that it's super super simple I do that when speaking to people overseas that have heavy accents um um and it's available on all three of those software applications um thank you Keith for looking into or thinking about expanding hybrid to at least at least this year one of the other boards um you know we could take baby steps but I do think that we should continue let's not slow down let's continue to make progress and offer hybrid um there and more importantly the sunshine books online because it's really hard to understand what some of the changes are if you don't have the sunor books and last um I'm going to circle back about uh Ridgewood water um because I'm talking about facts of our water first let me just say for the people that don't know I spent multiple years as a director of The League of Women Voters and spent a lot of time talking about tap into Ridgewood water made bumper stickers um supported Mr calby went to his open houses I'm I'm all I'm all that um but just because I'm stating facts of what's on the Ridgewood water site about not having uh water that is below the requirements for over 14 quarters over three years and violations this year in January and may of missing our reports on disinfectant missing our schedule and sampling to New Jersey d is don't construe that with something negative again just because it's different you don't like hearing it but it is facts our water quality has been suffering for years in 2022 in a September Village council meeting Mr cpy said all the P will be eliminated by 2023 and here we are in 2024 I it's difficult I get it's you know third party contaminants um but you know we're still waiting for this to happen and so when I look at the the newsletter and uh the quotes about and and and the in all due fairness right the award was twofold one was a conserving water which doing a great job 20% decrease I think we're all in and understand the importance of that the second part of the award which is the controversial thing is all about the cleanliness of the Dr of the safe drinking water and and here we are saying you know Ridgewood water is a national leader maintaining the highest level of Safe Drinking Water I don't understand how we can say that and not be sued and stand behind that when we have 14 quarters of excessive chemicals in our drinking water i i i i somebody has to explain that I we're going to be sued one of these days by going out on a limb and saying that when it's just false I mean anybody can go and read the um www site for water. rdwood nj.net read the water um uh violations and and what we've been submitting they're all truthful all transparent but um yeah I mean I don't know how we can do that so um just my feedback it's not negative it's just the facts um you know people may differ I don't know how you could differ when I'm I'm just writing about the facts thank you okay we have no more public commenters and uh does anybody want to respond I do um I just want to be clear I did did not and would not say to a council member they can't have something on the agenda what we have an agreement a professional agreement amongst all five of us and Heather will attest to this is that when it comes on the agenda we need to make sure that in our packets we have enough information to draw upon and the information that we needed was enhanced from Bob bruny we need the balances in each 11 bonds so we would not block an agenda but what we would do is if we didn't have information and this has happened before where we weren't ready we've taken it off all five of us want to make sure when the discussion comes out front we're not drawing a conclusion or hearsay or anecdotal information that we have all the numbers and the figures in front of us so I I just want to be clear we also are sensitive to um asking our staff to work overtime late into the night uh so for that reason we want to be careful uh would also like to respond I don't think Ridgewood water ever represented that all the water we deliver would be posos free by 2023 I think at most uh Rood water represented that the car facility the first one to open to treat for posos would be up and running and delivering posos free water um and that's all I have anyone else uh through you Deputy Mayor um again I don't want to I don't speak for any of the council members but I just want to um give my perspective on the urgency of the test results on the delineation uh soil testing um I don't believe that this is a public safety issue what I believe is that there is growing urgency amongst the community because they've reached out to me um they have questions they're seeking answers through variety of means um and that was one of the reasons that we talked to Matrix about Expediting the soil testing because I can sense that there is an urgency amongst folks most of them live in and around the shedler property not all um but they're they're interested in hearing what the future is going to hold um and what the remediation is going to look like um I also just want to stress and I didn't get a chance to say it during the vote um um but the additional fee is for the lab to expedite the test results it's not Matrix marking up the cost it's the additional lab fees that are associated with them moving the testing more quickly than they do at their normal pace so I just wanted to to stress both of both of those things um I agree with with the deputy mayor um I wasn't here in 2020 well I was here at the end of 2023 I wasn't here when any prior commitments were made I've never heard of a commitment other than that on other than other than the completion of car um the number the year I've always heard has always been 2026 um but I can tell you that the the major delays as I said earlier I think had to do with covid and it stalled this project because the resources were just unavailable I just would like to also respond with regard to Ridgewood water um you know I've been working with Ridgewood water um in a number of projects including the P project the submitt of the overall plan by Ridgewood water actually occurred um and and Bridgewood Water started on uh a plan to treat posos before the most recent um restricted numbers came out in terms of the permitted particles and what the exceedances were uh long before that and that's one of the reasons why Ridgewood water has been at the Forefront of this there was a systemwide plan provided to De that was approved by D and that was a requirement um ahead of schedule that we met and uh even though we had an approved plan to treat posos and D accepted the plan because this is a systemwide plan they still required us to send out notices that we were they they gave us they gave everybody one year to fix and clean up their water and if you didn't do it then you were forced to send out notices on a regular basis that you hadn't done it yet our plan was always 2026 that was approved by D back in 21 or 2 2 so I I think from a factual basis um if Denise wants some of the documents with regard to that I can certainly help her get those and uh and maybe we can straighten that issue out because uh Rood water has been at the Forefront even providing information to other water systems on how best to treat for posos and um and was always way ahead of the game so maybe I can help her out and I think Matt brings up a great Point um even during the buildout out we're required to send exceedance notices that's that's state law you're if you have if you do water testing and you have um materials in the water that exceed the standards uh not too different than what we've been talking about here with soil you're required to notify the public it's no surprise that those notices continue to roll out but if there were no plan in place if the buildout wasn't occurring the criticism would be warranted but to say we're getting notices when we've invested $150 million in treating water so that in 2020 after 2026 we no longer get those notices that's where I think there's a disconnect um you're we're going to continue to get notices until the treatment uh facilities are all up and running and the wells are Consolidated to the 12 plants um and then at that time will you will no longer receive those notices um unless there's an anomaly because the water will be treated uh for all the concerning chemicals there is a timeline on Rood wat's website and they also put out a weekly notice that uh lets you know where they are in their timeline and what progress they're making and at this point one more thing oh yes Keith can we ask um the signal Department to see if we can get a few more mirrors yeah I I'm I'm sorry and I missed that one um I I had talked to Charlton about it I'll I'll follow up with him in the morning are we ready to have a resolution to go in to close session Heather be resolved by The Village Council of the village of Ridgewood that the Village Council meet Clos session on August 14th 2024 at 7:30 p.m. or soon thereafter as a matter on the agenda can be reached and the said Clos session will be held in the caucus room of the rdwood Village Hall 131 North Maple Avenue Ridgewood New Jersey be a further resolve that the matters to be discussed and closed session um is limited to legal matters to include the Town garage this matter is allowable under njsa 10 colum 4-12 at second B further resolve that the minutes of this meeting shall be made available to the general public when such matters have been deemed completed by resolution of the Village Council may have a motion so moved second all in favor I I opposed okay thank you