good evening my name is Paul Woodburn I live at 66 North Irving Street Ridgewood New Jersey I've come in front of you guys a couple times to complain yell and just like I did to everybody on the wall over there before you town council's before you I just got informed this afternoon that you are planning on putting up permanent lights on vets field which I am totally opposed to before you what we have right now on vetfield is you have uh generator lights and the only times you really need them out there is for when these peeee teams play soccer or um their little league little things they don't use them in the summer for baseball they do not use them in the summer for their their camp or anything like that you are trying to put up you're spending over 700,00 ,000 to put up permanent lights on vets field which is still by the way hasn't been fixed vets field if anybody looks out this window tomorrow they can see that it is still completely covered with mud as of where I live on North Irving Street they just started cleaning up Stevens Field and this is the other thing I want to say my wife my wife Dorothy my lovely beautiful wife dot she says why don't you spend that money $700 $800 for for lights put them over on Benjamin uh Franklin Field where it's dry why do you want to put Fe why do you want to put lights on a field that is flooding every the last time I was here and I talked to you Paul I said look since I talked to you in O October these fields have flooded twice Stevens Fields flooded three times I'm sorry three times Stevens Field flooded three times yesterday you know what they did to to fix that bridge problem I was telling you about that little foot bridge by the high school you know what they did they took a couple cans of white paint and put white paint on the bridge that's the that's how they're solving this problem this is a major problem where that bridge is so low that every time the debris comes down it clogs that bridge it all backs up here everything goes underwater I've been telling you guys that for 20 years now no one listens to me but you know what they did yesterday somebody was out there with a can of paint painting over that little Bridge making it look great and they had a guy scooping all the dirt into the river yesterday the day before scooping with a back ho pushing the dirt off of that AST turf field that these kids are going to play on like two weeks from now that that doesn't solve the problem and all they're doing is they're pushing all that dirt into the river go look at yourselves guys I mean come on this has been going on for for years and I've been trying to ask you guys to solve the problem so before you spend $700,000 for big permanent lights that everybody in this Village has to pay to keep them going all all night long I mean till 9 o'l at night when you have to turn them off which is only a couple hours but still you taxpayers have to pay for the electricity if you could finish your thought Paul okay so this is all I'm trying to say please I am opposed to you guys putting the light lights here put them up on um Benjamin Franklin High School up by the by Valley H by Valley hospital because it's dry up there you're not going to have to a problem thank you very much thank you guys and I hope I don't have to come here again you know all right hi there clay Fisher five mayor court uh and Ridgewood here um I'm the president of the marun soccer club and uh I wanted to to come here on behalf of the club to express our excitement for the shedler project uh and re reiterate the vital importance of acel accelerating the shedler turf field plans uh the recent flooding of maple Stevens uh and rhs turfield has once again Illustrated uh the need for a durable sustainable field that our community can count on uh this limited field space that we have the situation we have in the spring will cost our nonprofit with over 600 players in the club and and our really our only uh limitation right now in terms of growth and serving the needs of this community has actually been field space and lack thereof um but the current challenges will cost us tens of thousands of dollars as we have to rent Fields outside of town uh it it will also Force us to uh play the majority of our games our kids have to travel the families have to travel uh out of town for most of their games uh this spring as well so I do want to thank the mayor and Village Council here uh for their continued support for this project uh and their willingness to develop a solution for all parties I've been really impressed with how this process has been handled in transparency uh and uh openness to hearing everyone's opinion so I want to thank you for your continued support and addressing this long-standing issue that has limited our community and our club for a long time now so thank you thank you clay good evening Ann loving 342 South Irving Street So I listened to the budget meeting on Monday night and um I couldn't believe something that I heard so we had to go back and replay it a couple of times regarding the lights that you're proposing to put out here on vets field I'm not offering an opinion on the lights although I certainly have one but I was shocked when councilwoman Reynolds said and I paraphrase shouldn't we send letters to the neighbors in advance of this you know expenditure and first of all speaking of Civility councilwoman winegrad literally jumped on Reynold on Miss Reynold and interrupted her saying this is a good project that has to go through anyway the mayor then said and this is what I had to relisten to he said we don't want to send out the letters in advance and I'm paraphrasing but I did listen to it two or three times we don't want to send out the letters in advance because people get all antsy when they hear lights what we'll do instead is we'll send out letters and invite everybody to come here a presentation after we have the contract contor in place and apparently you already have the name of the contractor that you're going to use for this that is the dead opposite of transparency that you're going to inform the neighbors afterwards instead of beforehand that's not happening on Clinton on Clinton everybody's there you're having meetings people are getting to talk it's very collegial why in the world would you not tell the Neighbors in advance that you want to spend almost 3/4 of a million dollar to put up lights which as Mr Woodburn said will affect their quality of life because he's an immediate neighbor why in the world would you not want to do that I was shocked and I sure don't want to hear the word transparency again because that is really really doing something under the table sorry to say it thank you an uh good evening Boyd a loving 342 South thuring Street the budget hearing on the 21st contained a presentation by Ridgewood waterer uh concerning what their plans are for the upcoming year one of the slides shown during that presentation was a comparison of water rates in the state of New Jersey and how Ridgewood water compares to other water utilities quite frankly after I took a closer look at the slide when I downloaded I see that we are comparing apples to oranges there were only two two other Bergen County communities listed on that slide that came contained about 15 bars in the bar graph one Community was fairon and the other community was Linhurst I would be interested to know to compare apples to apples what our current rate and what our proposed water rate is in comparison to other towns within the north northwest Bergen area who also operate Municipal Water uh facilities hocus has such such a facility Waldwick has such an operation Ramsey has such an operation and Mawa has such an operation if the water department could please provide to you and you could provide to us what our water rate is in comparison to communities that immediately s are surround us it would be better than knowing what the water rate is like in Newark I don't think anybody here no offense to Newark has any interest in knowing what people in Newark pay for water but we would have interest in knowing what people in the communities immediately surrounding us pay for water additionally I believe we purchase water from the burrow of Hawthorne it would be interesting to know what the people in hathorne are paying on an average yearly basis for their water bill so again if the water department could kindly provide that information to you and you could let us know when it comes time to um disseminate that information that would be great also on another subject of the water department I spoke to Mr calby this morning and I was quite quite surprised to learn that there is a project scheduled for water main to go right down the middle of South Irving Street which I'm a resident of I never heard that discussed before this Council apparently it's going to be quite an extensive bit of construction residents will not have access to their homes at certain times of the day while this is going on and quite frankly I'm wondering why a new water main is coming down the middle of South Irving Street when the public service right away is less than 200 ft away from where we live and I'm wondering why isn't that right of way being used this is apparently a water main that is in interconnecting facilities in Ridgewood to a new station in Glenrock why are the residents of South Irving Street going to be totally disrupted and why hasn't the council been informed of that when this construction is scheduled to start in May and why haven't the residents been notified of it thank you very much thank you Boyd Cynthia o'keef 542 West Saddle River Road um I have a couple of comments and then a few questions um I wanted to first thank Marsha staltz for her article in the um New jersey.com Bergen Record um she did talk about the application and what she said was that opposition to The Village's proposed multi-purpose Sports field on the historic zisy shedler property accounts for half of The Village's 1200 page application to the state historic preservation office the full application was submitted earlier this month um and she said the biggest surprise is that all of the appendix part three 310 Pages the first 118 pages of appendic part four are petitions followed by 167 pages of letters in opposition to the project it's a total of 595 pages so that's half of the 1,200 Pages um you know that's um pretty interesting as you know and I listen to this gentleman say you know you were all open and listening and compromising um again the shedler neighborhood doesn't feel like there were any compromises made um you marched in and told us there was going to be a big field and that's it there was no discussion there was no reverting back to a earlier agreed upon plan um and you know we we took our time we spoke to you we told you you know how we felt and it fell on deaf ear so it's unfortunate and you know all of you except for Lorraine who voted um no on the large field to cut down almost 300 trees on the property um if the plan goes through and it's approved by ship B um you know you're you're going to ruin that property you're going to compromise the Integrity of the air quality we are already dealing with safety issues we've told you two children have been hit by cars I'm sure the sports people who are bringing their a families are coming to the park are they should be concerned with safety West Saddle River is going to be very dangerous whether you have parking bump outs these are all culde saacs that lead onto West Saddle River I would hate to tell you I told you so but I do think no traffic studies were done since 2015 so if we care about safety and we care about our residents that should be Paramount um I guess you know the questions that I have would be probably for Keith um if you could give us an update on the soil contam potential soil contamination with the njde and the status and whether it's going to start where it's going to end or and where it stands I'd appreciate that also um quickly add that I know there's been an ongoing discussion on social media about um the numbers of children playing sports and I would like some answers um we'd like to review that spreadsheet that you were putting together if possible thank you thank you Cynthia hi guys um I'm Karen ch I live at 251 lot Road I'm here not only to represent a lot of the children that play sports in this town but also the adult athletes um we're always especially the soccer players we're always trying to find a dry field so I just want to say great job and thank you to the council and everyone for pushing the beautiful plans through um and I also want to say thank you for the transparency on this um the timeline that you guys published and all the other Communications have been really helpful when explaining it to other people as well so as clay said our town obviously really needs another large-sided field the state of the High School Stadium Field Maple and Stevens is really uh it's stun like horrible that we're going into lacrosse season another soccer season and other sports and we can't even get on a field right now or know the status of it um but I'm really hoping that when this all goes through we can make shedler a turf field and also one day install permanent lights so we can use it past 4:00 in the winter and I really look forward to playing on it when it's done thank you guys thank you Karen hi I'm Christine Corbett I'm at 405 Heights Road um I just wanted to talk about the lights for a minute I'm not a fan of spending $700,000 on lights for vets I feel like there's a lot of outstanding um risk to the Village right now about the field flooding and how that's going to be resolved and how much that's going to cost so why put put more lights on a field that floods it doesn't make any sense to me and also I just feel that there's not enough fiscal responsibility in the council there's a lot of huge expenditures that I think are nice to have but sometimes it would be nice if we didn't have to have maximum tax increases every year my daughter's graduating high school I don't plan to be one of the people that leaves because taxes are too high but who knows because I really feel like every year the tax increase is you know maxed out it would be nice to see not spending money and I I don't know the hab nickel Barn came down and there's some I don't I don't know what's funded what's not but there's a pavilion picture I see I mean there's many nice things in the future we could do I just don't think we need to do them all at once and I don't think we need to put money in a field that we don't even know the resolution of the flooding issues right now thank you thank you Christine and forgive me we have uh we only allow 10 people um no not um to speak at the mic we have another seven people coming coming up on um on our hybrid access so we we we already extend our our um public comment period from 40 to 50 something minutes so that's why we have to limit it forgive me and now we'll go to our hybrid access Dan you're up thank you uh Dan Joya 447 Fairway Road in uh Ridgewood uh I'd like to speak on the shler concept the shler field project um wanted to thank you at the council for continuing to uh do the Yen's work that uh I think 15 years ago when I was coaching baseball and if anybody you know who I am I have boys who play lacrosse and football it's been that long that uh we were uh approached uh about purchasing the shedler field to put up some uh additional field fi um faway Road as you know is kind of right in the middle of all the other fields that are going on down near pets and high school at Maple and I will tell you we are in sore sore uh need of additional field space so I think I applaud you for pushing through a a full- sided field the town daily needs that um as it relates to uh transparency I think you're you guys did an excellent job putting that uh put putting that that that uh uh application together it thoroughly goes through everything including David Fun's comments to the to the uh people saying if we're town is going to pay money for this which we borrowed every cent for uh you know I don't want you hear I don't want to hear you're coming back because quite frankly all you people who live over there that place should it's going to S what going to cost us about6 s million in total right we would have been making money Revenue off that if if it turned into a gas station which it probably should have if not for a few uh strategic conversations uh 15 years ago so we made the decision as a town to buy it uh We've invested way more money than we expected so now let's get it done uh the way uh it was originally anticipated to be and uh thank you very much for uh for for hearing me and for your efforts on this uh on this project thank you Dan next up Robert you're on mute Robert oh there you go so Robert Lynch 40 Sherwood Road and Ridgewood uh I'm calling in primarily on behalf of the Ridgewood Lacrosse Association and our over 700 uh players and families um you know each and every year uh first I just want to say thank you to the council uh for for the their diligence and attention to this matter each and every year Ridgewood has more and more and more programs uh to get people outdoors and be active and I think I haven't heard anybody in the community do anything but applaud that um you know last couple years the high school added a a girls flag football program this spring the youth football program as adding a youth girls Flag Football League that's great but if you've been at any of the Village Council the the field committee meetings or paying attention to Youth Sports over the past decade there isn't a whole lot of excess capacity on the field side for people to play in in particular excess capacity that is outside of the flood plane that regularly gets damaged um so I think it's great that we have more programs I think the village needs to just recognize as a whole that if we're going to have more programs we need more places for these people to go um you know the uh and I also want to speak to the quality of stuff like I don't necessarily just think that we need more Fields I think we need better fields and we should be looking at identifying other things and other options that are outside the flood plane we need obviously a comprehensive plan to deal with the fields we have that are in the flood plane but it's important um for the for the you know the vibrancy and the extracurriculars of the community that we have reliable places for people to to do these things if we think they're valuable to the community which I for one do so I just wanted to call in and say thank you for your hard work I know it hasn't been an easy Road I know it hasn't been without its obstacles and its ups and downs but uh I just wanted to call in and say thank you thank you Robert Ellie you're up next I good evening uh thank you very much giving me a chance to call in from far away uh yes I I do applaud you on your posting the entire application on your website it makes it much much easier for us to read it so I do thank you for that I'm going to be differentiate from some of the comments of course um I just want to say and I sent you a letter and I don't think everyone knew what was in the letter that it was quoted last meeting that the change from the ad hoc report was just a very small change it was stated that it went from 50 to 75 yards which is large and now it's only 60 by 110 as if it were a small difference well looking at the numbers it's not a small difference it's 76% larger closer to the house more trees done Less open space less percolation you know the field is much much larger but to say that it's only a small difference that everything else that the committee wanted is not true for example two pages of the ad hoc report a gloss over Pages 18 and 20 page 18 specifically calls for applicable studies conducted by independent experts Traffic Safety noise and Environmental Studies that should be performed by professionals contracted by the village of Ridgewood to date the only traffic study I know of was formed by a Richard policeman a while ago I'm not sure about the noise study but I don't think any Environmental Studies have been performed and of course I'll be corrected if I'm wrong on page 20 a very very important measurement has not been publicized enough when I saw the stakes out for the accepted size field over a year and a half ago the field looked very large and in fact I see the report says clearly there is a five yard boundary and fence around the the field so it's not just 50 by 75 it's a lot more and to insist an enormous field will impact the house the road that it will not I'm sorry makes no sense that report that we did was a real compromise all the people calling for more space for their children to play there was going to be a lot of space for the children to play on this Committee just keep in mind different than what your Council has done we had Sports enthusiasts we had people like the people speaking tonight we had the parks department we had the mayor we had a council member we had neighbors we had representatives of the house we all got together to do what should be the way things are done everyone gave something up the neighbors knew their responsibilities as they live next to an armless empty treelined 7 acre area which had to be used for the benefit of the town they knew this they gave up a lot everyone gave up a lot the sports enthusiasts gave up a lot they wanted originally a 90 foot baseball diamond with a large large Outfield they gave up a lot we all gave up Ellie if you could finish up I will I just want to say the mystery is why this council is spending so much money so much divisiveness for what the kids could already playing on a field and I thank you very much for your time I really mean it thank you thank you Ellie RI you're up uh excuse me roric halbe one Franklin Avenue uh a couple of short comments on shedler uh I I want to commend The Village Council and the village manager for your work on sh for years this potentially wonderful piece of property languished as a dump that did no one any good it was of no use to anyone excepting perhaps for Bond holders who enjoyed clipping the coupons after more than a decade more than a decade we are finally beginning to see progress yes a park that will serve the needs of all of vud stakeholders young and old and I'm mean a park that serves the needs of all of Richwood and not just one neighborhood there are many things that I admire about you including the way you you gracefully stood up to the Sound and Fury signifying nothing also to the way you're able to Bear the truth you've spoken Twisted by naves to make a trap for fools uh the old Greeks had an expression that beauty is Grace Under Pressure and I can tell you that you are beautiful people uh lastly I want to commend shabon Winograd for being the only person Ridgewood to come up with any ideas for a use for the shutler house where are all the historians who have been clamoring for the restoration of the house why couldn't they come up with one idea for the use of the house thank you Shaban anyway thank you very much and by the way thank you for introducing uh the hybrid meeting I'm away from Ridgewood and I can still make my opinion heard and this is thanks to the four of you who work so hard to restore the hybrid meetings thank you thank you rurick and I just want to say we only have time for three more callers so we take we take 10 people in person and seven people online we've heard from four so we're going to hear from three more Kevin you're up next hi um Kevin W 147 West Glenn Avenue um I want to first thank the council for putting the West GL sidewalk on the agenda again I urge the council to approve the funding so it gives um the residents a peace of mind um recently I've noticed a few kids um walk that stretch of Westland like every day after school dismissal um maybe they're new to the neighborhood as um I don't recall seeing them um walk uh there before um they seem to come from the bus stop uh at the intersection of um Glen West Glen and Monroe I believe so they must walk the entire stretch you know from Monroe to Heights I believe and uh it really makes me nervous when I see um you know some of them uh balancing balancing themselves basically uh on the curb and um as they as they try to avoid incoming traffic and U what's worse uh I've seen a kid or maybe different kids on their phone while walking that dangerous stretch um which is pretty terrifying if you're a parent um I mean look it just takes a few seconds from a careless care Careless or a careless driver um to make a tragedy right so a sidewalk uh you know can significantly reduce that risk so I would urge the council to you know please um make the sidewalk on Glen West Glen a reality and um you know don't make the tragedy a reality you know if you know don't put up those Dr for lights on w fat field I'm also against you know the artificial tur fields at the sh property I urge the council to take the money and put into the sidewalk project thank you very much thank you Kevin Susan you're up you're on mute Susan um hi can you hear me all good all right thank you um I'm just saying um Susan Ruan 705 Kingsbridge Lane um I have a few topics Susan if you could speak a little more directly into your phone can you hear me better so much better so much better thank you all right yeah um uh I want to begin um Begin by thanking um the council for putting the foot bridge on the budget I saw that thank you as well as West Glenn um sidewalks um I just want to confirm and um that you received my email and understood that the flooding um that the foot Bridge does not cause flooding um for anyone at the um on the proper along the river I know I sent videos as well as pictures uh um the next topic is the expenditures I just want to make sure because there seems to be a lot of expenditures on the agenda um such as lights at fets The Pavilion at hubo that the Footbridge and West Glenn will be actually the priority things that get done because we've been waiting for so long to do that and um and it is a safety issue versus just a convenience issue um such as license vets and the Pavilion these are safety issues and kid kids um have actually gotten hurt um the next is the Billboard I want to confirm that the people voting on the billboard or the people that have heard the arguments for a while because yesterday there were a lot of new faces at the zoning um board and I you know was a little bit um dumbfounded on who's voting and who's not um and then lastly is shedler um I want to bring up that the um New Jersey Department of environment um had has concerns about contamination at shadler soil and that it wasn't really advisable to Turf um also um and um there's a town wish to follow the you know the guidance that was laid out also um I know I spoke to Residents along um the H hocus book and they believe that the turf field at the high school has caused flooding for that so um I'm you know we're next to Saddle River and I don't want what happened at shedler to increase um runoff water down to Saddle River and cause our homes to flood even more now um which is you know again that's why I've been asking for the arm US Army Corps of Engineers to look at the possibility of flooding to increase of currents of it and lastly um you know um thank you for publishing or posting um the application online for shedler but the timeline was incorrect with the um you know because it excluded the ad hoc committee's plans for shedler which should have been also listed in there because it was a compromise and lastly it was very concerning just to hear that lights are being added to vets and then someone from the sports Community um trying to say that she wants lights at shedler which is something that this Village Council has said repeatedly that they weren't going to do but is that something that we Susan if you could finish your final thought please that was it thank you thank you very much and this will be our last speaker for public comment at the beginning of the meeting anyone who would like to stick around um there will be a public comment portion at the end of the meeting Alex you're up um good evening everyone um thank you for the time I just wanted to call to express my gratitude towards the mayor the council and Siobhan in particular for championing uh the shedler effort for the last several years it feels we've had the proverbial 100-year storm hit Ridgewood three or four times um our field situation is a challenging one um we're both poorly maintained and poorly situated I feel for the thousands of Childrens that have had their games and activities cancelled each year due to unusable Fields I feel for the many high school sports that have had their Seasons canceled shortened moved away um to other towns just to be played I've seen the scramble this spring toine fields for our teams we are better than this this is a step forward towards creating a solution that we can be proud of and that serves our community this is not an issue that is plag plaguing our neighboring towns it's time to come together and create viable solutions for far too long we've done nothing this pertains to both long-term and short-term options in action is an active choice and we've paid for it the benefits of shedler I hope will be orders of magnitudes greater than the cost I just want to thank everyone for their time and commitment to pushing this project forward thank you and have a great evening can you just give us your name and address for the the record Alex vinston 150 Brookside Avenue ridard thank you thank you Alex and thank you Aileen and with that I'm going to close public comment and we will go to our village manager's report oh wait does anyone have any responses anything they'd like to say I do I I want to say a couple things because the public is here and this is an opportunity so this is a workshop this is videotaped we have public meetings where we vote and those are videotaped at the beginning of the year we have uh budget sessions where we talk about strategic long-term planning and Staffing we discuss our operating budget which is how we run the business of government and then we discuss our capital and several times tonight um that was referenced Capital discussions are strategic you know what are we doing are we improving a park and the lighting outside on vets was referenced one all of those meetings and all of the discussions referen they're completely transparent they're on video so all the conversations that we're having we're well aware the public is watching but with respect to vets right now that's an idea and for us to in in take everything on the capital budget and involve the public at that point would be like trying to do your annual plan with everyone involved so I I want to just clear that up what will happen is if a project survives the budget and moves forward as capital it then moves into its next like life step would be in a work session where it would be discussed that's typically the point where neighbors are sent letters um because side walks and safety have been such a big issue and because I do believe lorine and I are very civil to each other and get along and have a good time we had several last minute items come into capital and we you know we didn't send letters for all of them at that point either and we're discussing are they going to move forward in our Capital plan and if they do the time where we would contact neighbors and do all that is when they moved to a workshop shop so we could discuss them that's number one number two with respect to shedler um shedler is fully funded one of the most interesting things here being new to the council in addition to what we've done with shedler it's fully funded there were plans in place there was allocations from prior year you'll notice this year there's no Capital discussion of adding money to shedler because we have a fully funded plan that has just not been executed and then there was one more thing oh I think he left but while we are the Village um we couldn't take lights and shift them to BF because While most people don't understand this there's two owners of fields in town we own village fields and the Board of Ed owns that so it's not sometimes when we go through these options to the general field user it seems like take it from here and put it there but some of the concerns referenced tonight are related to Board of Ed Fields and we have no authority to go over that so I just want to make sure that I you know the budget meetings are recorded there would there's no way we couldn't be transparent on it because we're on TV and two I think when you're having a strategic plan it it's it's the wrong time to do the granular work that you see done in a work session so I just wanted to explain that because it was important and that's it Keith did you have anything you want to say I do uh I I really shocking shocking huh um and and Keith I actually wanted to ask you um we set up a night where everyone can come and see a um uh an illustration of how the lights will work at Maple I'm gonna talk about I know you are I know you are and we want everybody to come and Keith's going to talk about it it's I think it's this Monday well that's for the council but there's going to be a subsequent session so yeah before there's been nothing approved nothing done yet so you know once we once we go further into this we're we want everyone to uh get involved and give us their opinion so that they can see what's going on we believe that these lights um if if ultimately approved will create a better quality of life for the Neighbors because the uh the technology behind lighting has improved so dramatically um there's something called that I've come to learn called spillage and spillage in older lights means that when it's focused here the light spills everywhere with newer lighting when it's focused here it stays here so we believe ultimately that when everyone sees what is being planned there that it's not only going to be better for the Neighbors it's going to be cleaner because we won't have um the portable uh lights that run on gasoline powered engines that are noisy and smelly so we think that's going to be a better thing um secondly I just wanted to point out um I know several people spoke about the sidewalks at on West Glenn and um and the bridge at Kingsbridge Lane in just a few minutes we will be suspending our work session to go into a public meeting so we can begin the process of bonding for those projects they're not only a reality but they're going to be reality very soon and with that anyone else have anything no then now let's go to our village manager report so mayor if I may I'm going to start with just some responses to public comment and then I'll transition into the villager village manager report first I want to say I I've been here now um just over seven months and I I continue to Marvel and I just want to commend the the folks who live here in Ridgewood um for your incredible engagement um in coming out and participating in Council meetings um I I served in my previous position um part-time then full-time uh for 22 years um and we do not have this type of Engagement in other municipalities in New Jersey so regardless of where you fall on some of the pertinent issues that face this Council um I just want to commend everyone who takes the time to participate either in person or remotely uh to put your position and your opinions on the record for the council and my office to consider um with regard to some of the capital items that were discussed tonight um first to Chris on East Glenn um we are also going to have a subsequent presentation a week from tonight by our engineering department at our next work session uh to talk about the concept of placing East Glenn uh sidewalks on East Glenn uh there will also be presentations that same night um for West Glenn which as the mayor indicated just moments ago the adoption of the bond ordinance to fund the West Glenn sidewalk project is on for adoption before Council this evening and we'll also be talking about the potential installation of sidewalks on one side of Clinton Avenue which we are able to fund through open Capital from prior sidewalk projects where all the dollars were not expended so that presentation by engineering for all three sidewalk projects will be a week from tonight on March 6th as part of our next work session with regard to the two other Recreation projects that were discussed during the capital budget um I I respectfully disagree with any type of lack of transparency uh this was discussed at the budget meeting on Monday evening um and there were questions that this Council continued to have with regard to both The Pavilion at habernickel and the potential for New Field Lighting on Veterans Field and what was done was director beos from our parks and recreation department is actually invited to attend our next work session again a week from tonight to explain those projects more in depth talk about the benefits of them and answer any questions that the council may have um I think continuing the conversation about the contents of the capital budget for 2024 is imperative not only so that the members of the council can have confidence in what they're approving but so that residents can have input on how they feel about these matters as well and I think we've taken a step forward in that respect tonight um I also want to Echo the mayor's comments um Paul who I believe left and I know there were a few other members of the public who spoke about field lighting um the technology behind Athletic Field lighting has changed dramatically in the last 20 years um spillage glare any type of effect on adjoining property owners that spillage has been greatly reduced because of the type of technology that in our case we're speaking to musco lighting their state contract vendor um and they're they would be able to be utilized by The Village to install any type of New Field lighting should the council decide to go in that direction um this will reduce the amount of lighting and glare that affects the residents who live around Veterans Field in comparison to what is out there today um musco has come in they have done an internal presentation um with Parks and Recreation and the manager's office um they are willing and they will be scheduled if this project moves forward to come in and explain that not only to the residents who will be invited to the meeting but to the general public at large um I can tell you that field demand is a significant issue um Miss O'Keefe brought that subject up and I was going to address it tonight under the manager's report and I do apologize I was out late last week ill um but I do have some dated material um which I want to add is an appendic in the shedler application so for those folks who are on social media asking about these numbers this was included in the appendix for the shedler application so these numbers have been available since it was published on the website two Fridays ago but I did mention on a social media post that I was somewhat taken aback by the amount of Youth athletes that we have utilizing these facilities both on the village side and the Board of Education side here in the village um Ridgewood junor football in 2022 and again we're I'm seeking some updated data here um which I'll provide at a future meeting had 726 participants that breaks down to 75 to 80 flag football teams that operate here in the village they have seven tackle teams most towns have four tackle teams in Ridgewood we have seven tackle teams and now junior football has sent a letter to the Village seeking additional field use for a girls Youth Flag Football League which would operate to service students in grades three through eight so now we need additional fields to accommodate uh the girls flag football group that is being organized here in the village um Ridgewood lacrosse 2022 numbers um 711 registrant in 2023 Ridgewood lacrosse had 686 uh children for the season um rbsa this is our baseball and softball league third 135 registrants for kickball baseball softball and t-ball I met with Scott Mueller on a completely separate issue the other day I asked him how many teams they intend to have for this this spring season 135 diamond sport teams will be operating here in Ridgewood this coming spring um with regard to the soccer association fall numbers 18890 registrants spring numbers 838 registrants and that's not to mention the fact that Ridgewood High School utilizes Village facilities primarily for baseball and softball but every softball and baseball game that Ridgewood High School students play home is here on Village on Veterans Field behind Village Hall so this just gives you a sampling of the demand that exists on these Ball Fields And while shedler will proceed um based on the process before the state historic preservation office another strategy to try to relieve some of this high demand is to be able to better light Veterans Field um as an outsider it is striking to me that there is not a lit baseball or softball diamond in the village of Ridgewood which means that none of our kids who play here can play at night um that is a unique situation in 2024 when I challenge you to compare that to any youth organiza youth baseball or softball organization in Bergen or pay County or for that matter anywhere in northern New Jersey so I bring those numbers to you just as a point of reference to illustrate the high demand that this this Council continues to hear about from active parents and active Youth Organization participants um and we are going to formalize this with updated numbers and actual team um Team counts once all the registrations are complete for this the uh spring season um Keith just on that note how are we looking on getting our Fields ready for the opening of the spring season so the equipment was delivered at Maple today um the intention is weather permitting uh that they will start and work there tomorrow and Friday potentially Monday and by the end of next week um Matt and drula our supervisor for Parks is confident that by the end of next week Maple Avenue will be ready um with regard to Paul's comments earlier tonight on Veterans Field I want everybody to know that we strategically waited to do the restoration both on the turf at Maple and on the natural grass um and Clay areas here at vets and the reason we did that was because number one we were concerned that having three successive floods there could be another one before the spring athletic season began um but number two we had some freezing of the um of the fields and we also had uh periods where it was snow covered so we made a conscious decision uh with the vendor to hold off and do this right as we were ready to get ready to open up our spring season in the middle of March yeah that that's really amazing given the uh amount of flooding that we had that it is looking like we're going to be ready for the beginning of the spring season and I commend everybody involved in this the administration the staff um the grounds Crews everybody who's out there uh working very hard to get this ready for uh our kids so just a a few other responses uh Mr loving Mr calby is here I'm going to pose those questions that you ask to him when he gets up for his presentation um with regard to um I just want to mention that we are in communication with the um Bridge engineer uh we're trying to get a um a um revised estimate for the repairs to Kingsbridge um we are going to have some discussion with them about you know the flooding concerns that the residents of East Saddle River Road brought up in the immediate aftermath especially of the January flood uh to make sure that this is does not become a catch point and who better to opine on that than the actual Bridge structural engineer who's going to be working on this project um and one other comment to Susan um with regard to the timeline I look I looked it up as we were sitting here um but the assertion that the small sided field which was recommended by the ad hoc committee was intentionally left off the timeline that's not true um on the right hand column 2017 the council rescinded the 2015 resolution decided instead to reanalyze the proposed plan for shedler and appointed an ad hoc committee to propose a Redevelopment plan and then subsequently in 2018 The Village approves a plan for a small-sided multi-purpose coolplay turf field the 2018 project then stalled but the ad hoc committee is very well referenced in the timeline uh that she spoke about earlier and finally um with regard to the soil testing um so we were prepared to to to go on that and then we had the snow SN storm um so I know Chris ruteshouser in engineering is in the process and he may have done it already we just haven't spoke about it and I was as I referenced earlier I was out for a few days last week um but um I will get a a date for that soil testing to commence and I'm sure living in the neighborhood you know you'll you'll see some activity over there uh very soon with regard to that okay all right let me quickly go over to the manager's report um first I want to report that at the end of last week in the beginning of this week uh the Hackle Barn um was raised up at the um habernickel Park um I do want to just let folks know that we had both a um pestech company come in uh to do an evaluation which was required for the building department issue to be um for the building department to issue the demo permit um but also we had an asbest survey uh there were some concerns that were expressed about whether or not there was um any type of Leed or any type of mold um there were no indications that either one of those were going to be a challenge there um so the only requirements that we had uh was for a pest inspection and an asbest inspection and both of those were done before the permit was issued um at this point as I said earlier next week we will have a presentation um on the proposed Pavilion uh that's under consideration for the capital budget I mentioned the field restoration at Maple uh will commence the end of this week and continue into next week um we spoke about shedler already this evening um I do want to mention the timeline for the shedler application so it was submitted two Fridays ago um it was received the following Tuesday after the holiday that started the clock ticking for the state historic preservation office to review the application they have to determine whether or not it is technically correct and whether or not there is any encroachment on the historical property um we've already conceded that there is an encroachment on the historical property uh but that review takes 45 days or less at that point uh once we have a information back from shipo if there's any amendments that need to be made to the application they will be made um and once they have ruled it technically correct we will have 75 days to go before the historic sites council at a public hearing for their review in light of the fact that there is an encroachment on the property um in the plan that was submitted to shipo um and to the DP uh we went over the sports numbers already um I do want to mention that on April 14th Valley Hospital will be moving their operation from Ridgewood to the new facility in pamus um our OEM team fire department and police department have continually been meeting with Valley I think we've had three or four meetings now with them uh they have contracted a private Ambulance Service that will bring 55 ambulance and 15 Critical Care units into the village on that day they will be stationed out of grade in north and grade in South uh there will be no athletic activities on maple field until 100 PM that day uh we will have Athletics at vets field however all parking will be required to be here at the Village H Hall lot and not on the other side of the ball field um and those Communications will go out through the park and recre Parks and Recreation Department um but beginning 6:00 a.m. on April 14th um the emergency room and all of the traditional Hospital functions will be moved over to pamis uh the existing offices and Facilities here in Ridgewood will be primarily outpatient services um and as they begin to make decisions about what offices and services they bring to the Ridgewood campus will continue to be part of those conversations um as some of that will be um impact will impact our building department um I want to congratulate our Recreation Staff last evening in Atlantic City at the at the um Parks and Recreation annual conference um they were awarded the Daniel M gelber excellence in Recreation program um and that is recognizing the village for the annual giving thanks Ridgewood Elder dinner I want to thank Nancy beos and her staff at Recreation they do a great job and they certainly deserve that recognition and award um the budget meeting uh the next budget meeting uh will be next Tuesday I believe it's the 5th at 8:00 pm um here in council chambers and then those presentations regarding the capital budget will be at the meeting the next night at the regular work session on the 6th um and lastly uh tonight we will be having a presentation uh from Green Ridgewood uh they are in partnership with students from Columbia University who will be looking at the effects of climate um and flooding here in the village and I look forward to their presentation uh just a few announcements Ridgewood Parks and Recreation Department will be holding their trip to the Florida to the Philadelphia I'm going to Florida tomorrow morning pH Philadelphia Flor that's where my head is Philadelphia Flower Shop on Tuesday March 5th uh you can register online through Community pass the health department along with Valley Health System will be hosting the med Mediterranean diet workshop um March 19th from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. at the Ridgewood Library uh to register for that program you can call 201 6755 extension 2312 uh the next Council chat will be held on March 3rd from 9: to 11: in the caucus room right across the hall here on level four reservations can be made at 20167 5500 extension 2207 walk-ins are welcome however reservations do have PRI priority and our Village Council upcoming meetings uh the budget meeting as I mentioned is this Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. March 5th March 6th is our next Village Council work session March 13th is our Village Council public meeting and March 27th is our Village Council work session all three of those meetings start at 7:30 and that concludes my report thank you Keith and I I don't have a calendar in front of me but I think um Saturday is March 2nd if I'm not mistaken no it's the third I'm coming back on the fourth on Sunday no no oh no you're right you're right you're right you're right you're right I'm coming back on the thir he's already on vacation just a little bit I'm just saying you know my my head's on the airplane already okay I got it my first vacation since I've been here all good and also it's the flower show in Philadelphia not a shop right that was a typo on my on my right here so he's having a rough night thank you thank you Keith and if after all I said those were my only two to screw up something you you yeah you and and you said a lot of things so it was all good um and now we'll go to our Council reports Siobhan would you begin sure so um last week we had our access meeting and I'm so excited chief judge is here because um the access committee welcomed two um firemen TJ Ben bened and Ryan Romero and they took a class on their own called autism shield and there's several reasons why with the new housing in town we've welcom welcomed um many more special needs members into our community and our this has an impact on our First Responders and a lot of them were looking for more information on how to handle this from the fire perspective and from the police perspective as well for deescalation and they went and they came back to access and gave um a very informative uh information filled report so autism Shield um approximately 5.5 million Americans are living with autism um and there if you have this um people with Autism are 40% more likely to die of a physical injury and they're at a 30% in increased risk of interacting with EMS First Responders or police um typically they're known for wandering which causes a lot of if people go missing and there was a lot of discussion of technology to help with that and then the number one cause of death for children 13 and under is drowning because during the wandering process water is attractive new since I want to thank our fire department and our Police Department um often when we give these reports they're just very informational but you have to feel lucky that you have people going out and doing community fire community policing and Community EMS and these two officers were very interested in taking the program and extending it further um so thank you chief judge thank you to the rrid police department and everybody who made it happen I know that the entire access Committee of which our chair's uh father was a fireman was very pleased to see this happening in our community and um it was just a really lovely meeting and there'll be more on that and a surprise for my Council regarding Fire's Next Step that you all are going to be so excited about um in addition to that access held another sensory friendly dinner last night at puos uh mayor Paul and I went it was lovely it's a chance again for the special needs Community to have um a night where the lights are a little dimmer the service is a little more accommodating and these events are wonderful and they're such a great Community developing effort and they're win for the business community puos did great uh both rooms were full and again thank you to our police and fire who showed up um we're going to be doing these every month um they're typically on a Tuesday or Wednesday and I would encourage every member of the community whether you're part of the special needs or not to attend it's really wonderful and for everybody on the council who hasn't been you're forever welcome and I would just really uh like to thank Jamie Davis because she took this idea and made it happen and I'm very grateful to her for that um with respect to shat Tre we did not have an official meeting because of the snowstorm but several fun things have happened we have officially announced that adop a sapling our area is going to be the Somerville area and we met with Federated and I want to say thank you to Federated which is the board of boards where if you're president of a local school you sit on this board and we talk to them about two things one inspiring adoption within the Somerville district and then two inspiring volunteerism especially amongst the council to dig holes and plant them on October 19th um we then partnered with Somerville where we're going to be doing a whole host of fun things and I'm pleased to say that the Somerville book this year is big tree and it's written from the P perspective of um two Sycamore seeds and their journey and you know they they they're around during dinosaur times and they fly all around and their brother and sister and it's interesting because we have a big tree program here in Ridgewood and we have the adopted sapling and the president um of Somerville connected us with the the principal and we're very much looking forward to that um I want to thank Dr Lorna oats and everybody at Somerville and if anybody wants a copy of this it's not just a kids book it's a really quick read and really cute and Whimsical and great so thank you to Federated and Somerville for all of that and of course shade tree and separately I did just want to give a shout out to Caroline jacobe who's been our chair for the past year she's exploring um other passions and so she's going to no longer be the chair of shade tree but she is thankfully going to remain as subject matter expert as a member so a big th thank you to Carolyn for all the work I know that everybody up here Echoes that as well and um congratulations to Adam and Nancy Brenan Hill who will be assuming the role of chair um um and then lastly uh Keith and several resident uh several business owners and I met on it was yesterday and we had a discussion about a particular element of business which is new we've had several new businesses open and they have a unique set of hurdles that are new I'm going to say it sort of like if you watch any of these shows about startups opening a business is not just about the business plan but about how you navigate interfacing with the government and we had a very successful awesome meeting with them and I really want to thank everybody who put that together for their availability and it seems like there's some things that we can do where we have a couple sets of problems that replicate across each like many times so it looks like we have many problems but we might just have three or four and we need to address them in addition to that after that I went to the soft opening of the spice and Tea Exchange which is down on the Arthur groom side and I want to say congratulations to them and encourage you all to go in and see this cool shop and what they're doing is sort of um Whimsical and fun in Main Street so they're selling Blended spices teas accessories and other things but then they're selling their premium curated sugar to the Cookie Shop so it's a completely ridd combination of a product they're going to they have a little Mixology set if you're into making drinks and they're going to collaborate for their spices to go to restaurants and a very local approach so I want to say congratulations to Lynn and thank you for having me and encourage everybody to support all of our businesses but be incredibly supportive with the new ones so that's it thanks Shon Evan yeah I'll I'll be somewhat quick um so I was double booked on Tuesday Paul thank you for covering library for me rard Arts Council was uh the same night um went to rard Arts Council we're doing some really great things um we're going to be doing Museum talks at um at the library on March 27th and April 3rd we'll be getting out flyers and you'll probably start to see it on social media and then we're going to have an artist talk on April 11th as well at the library in the evening again a lot more to come on that but really um kudos to Ridgewood Arts Council for really really reinvigorating themselves and I think sponsoring some really really great events um also Keith want to thank you and your entire staff for the budget process so far um I know I can be a bit of a tough grader at times um but understand that I fully appreciate the professionalism um I know we'll be talking a lot more about it but the edition of the sying fund um the addition of of of having multiple years listed out for when we're going to do other Capital expenses I think the professionalism that has been brought to the process this year has been absolutely fantastic I want to thank you and everyone else involved with the with the budget process with that I do look forward to giving every one of your people a ton of grief in the coming days um but um understand that um I really have a ton of respect for the work that's been done so far um also want to thank you Keith as well as the entire staff for getting the reigning Court ordinance on on the agenda tonight in the special session as well as the kingberg bridge and the Westland sidewalk project um I have learned in my year on the council that um municipal government does not move quickly um however this is being uh moving about as quickly as can be possibly done legally largely because we're we're doing uh everything that we should be doing and pushing it through and again um really owe that to you Keith as well as all the other folks that um go through the extra step of letting us have the special meeting having everything ready to go um you know we could have waited to do this after the budget was approved or we could have waited to do this in the next session we didn't do that and I know all the residents for um around those those three projects are really super appreciative um as am I so thank you again Keith thanks Evan Lorraine I'm gonna be really quick um I'm just going to say Tuesday is our last budget meeting at our previous one there were zero public comments none at the beginning none at the end this is going to be your last chance to speak speak up if you have something to say about what we're planning on budgeting we really would like to hear you it's kind of a let down when there isn't even a single comment um so please you can go back we've already had three budget meetings you can watch them and see if there's something that came up that you want to speak about but Tuesday at 800m is the last budget meeting we'll have public comment at the beginning of the meeting and we will also have public comment at the end which we are hoping will end around 10 or sooner um just so you can plan uh that's it thank you well said Lorraine um there was not a single person in the audience that night and um and I know that at the beginning of this we asked everyone to join in and so we've still got one more please come Pam with regard to the awards that our the award that our Recreation Department got last night in Atlantic City I was privileged to be there and see the supervisor of recreation Katie fry received that award along with Deanna Shick who who who does an incredible amount of work putting that annual celebration together uh it was and also to um Stacy anen at the health Barn Foundation who does all the purchasing and cooking with all her volunteers and the serving of the of the meal by younger people um from the Civic Youth Corps it's just wonderful all these different groups coming together every year it was inspiring to see what other towns do in terms of recreation swim programs Trail building um Zoo education it was just really um very gratifying to see what's going on in in our state I'm not going to say much about green Ridgewood because we do have a presentation this evening but I wanted to let the public know that with regard to the daffodil festival and Earth Day Fair we are running a poster contest in the in the elementary schools and your children can drop off their artwork at the at at the library and um we will be awarding prizes 1 second and third on the day of the event April 21st uh the central business district advisory committee will be meeting on the 7th in person this time in the senior Lounge at 8:30 a.m. and uh the Northwest count Bergen County council members meeting is going to be March 9th which is a Saturday I believe at 9:00 a.m. in Mawa and I've been it's very interesting to see to meet our colleagues in other towns just as the Mayors meet every so often is it monthly um this is now an effort to have Council per uh members meet and I would urge you to attend it's going to be at 475 Corporate Drive in Mawa um the open space committee will be meeting on the 21st of this month month we will be scheduling our um Park walks in most of the parks in town throughout this the spring summer and fall uh the planning board subcommittee uh on the master plan continues to meet we are tracking cataloging uh and uh as to what action items from the master plan have progressed have been accomplished and we hope to make a presentation to the public in late spring say April or May that's all I have thank you thank you Pam I'm going to be as quick as I can so uh the community center Advisory Board uh met last week and the main topic of discussion there was that they're planning a fundraiser uh and they will be selling Ridgewood emblazened uh beach towels and water bottles I urge everyone to jump in and get get one because it's something you're going to keep for a long time and it all goes to fund our community center which is um on the first floor of Village Hall and hosts a variety of great programs uh I also had the privilege of stepping in for Evan uh at the library board where um uh for me it was all about the renovation um it is an absolutely spectacular um renovation there it is beautiful uh again I urge everyone to go there um and see our um reconditioned library that is lovely um and I was kind of um stunned that um 51 minutes after the meeting started it ended and I'm saying how do they do that I was very impressed um I also want to thank puos uh for hosting the sensory friendly dinner last night again it's something that is done every single month puos as have other restaurants done have opened their restaurant on Monday nights when they are normally closed and it is only open to the families of uh uh who want to attend who have children with sensory issues um I commend these downtown businesses I urge you again please they support our community please support them um and I also want to thank uh the fire department and the police department Department who always come in uniform the fire department brought a truck John I don't know if you knew that but they did and it is just it is a wonderful thing that the kids and the families all really enjoy um I want to Echo Evans comments on the budget meetings I have to say that this year's budget meetings have been so smooth so good um the presentations have been excellent and we really appreciate all the effort put in by every everyone on this and finally I also want to want to thank and congratulate the parks department and especially Dean Katie and Stacy an teen for outstanding work for making Ridgewood what we what I always say it is which is the Greatest Town in America so thank you everyone and with that let's move on with our agenda I believe we are ready to suspend our work session and convene a special public meeting have have a motion so moved second mayor vaganos yes Deputy Mayor parin yes council member Reynolds yes council member whites yes and council member winterr yes good evening this is the Village Council special public meeting the date is February 28th 2024 the time is 8:59 p.m. 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 by submission to all persons entitled the same as provided by law of a schedule including the date and time of this meeting roll call Mayor vaganos here Deputy Mayor paron here council member Reynolds here council member whites here and council member winegrad here and we will begin I move the clerk read ordinance 3991 by title on second reading and that the public hearing thereon be open second vagianos yes pin yes Reynolds yes whites yes and winegrad yes will the clerk please read the title of ordinance 3991 Bond ordinance providing for various Capital Improvements in and by the village of Ridgewood in the county of Bergen New Jersey appropriating $159,000 therefore and authorizing the issuance of 1,4 $33,500 Bond or notes of the village to finance part of the cost thereof the public hearing is now open seeing no one I move the public hearing be closed second I move that order I'm sorry got vaganos yes pin yes Reynolds yes whites yes and winegrad yes I move that ordinance 3991 be adopted on second reading and final publication is required by law I second the motion mayor vagianos yes Deputy Mayor Pon yes council member Reynolds yes council member Whit yes and council member winegrad yes and we will move on to our next ordinance I move the clerk read ordinance 3992 by title on second reading and that the public hearing thereon be opened second vagianos yes parin yes Reynolds yes whites yes and winterr yes will the clerk please read the title of ordinance 3992 an ordinance to amend chapter 265 of the code of the village of Ridgewood vehicles and traffic at section 26567 parking prohibited certain hours and section 26569 time limit parking the public hearing is now open seeing no one I move the public hearing be closed second vaganos yes pin yes Reynolds yes whites yes and winterr yes I I move that ordinance 3992 be adopted on the second reading and the final publication as required by law I second the motion mayor vagianos yes Deputy Mayor parin yes and council member Reynolds yes council member whites yes and council member winegrad yes the following resolutions number 2475 and 2476 will be adopted by a consent agenda with one vote by The Village Council there is a brief description beside the resolution to be considered on the consent agenda the resolutions will be read by title only 2475 award profession Professional Services contract Hydro geological Consulting Services well maintenance and testing program programs not to exceed 109,000 2476 resend and replace resolution number 23- 388 authorize execution of settlement decision Richwood water versus 3M at all so moves second mayor vaganos yes deputy mayor May parin yes council member Reynolds yes council member whites yes and council member winterr yes motion for adjournment so moved all in favor I I anyone opposed and we will now resume our Public Work session agenda May first on the agenda tonight okay thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight um I will be discussing a few things related to uh key initiatives from Green Ridgewood uh like Keith I've been uh suffering with the cold but uh I should be able to manage it you'll do great thank you for coming David there okay so just in terms of the key topics obviously flooding is a major concern and we have been as a group uh several of us have been spending the last three and a half months on a range of solutions we'll talk about that we have the great privilege of working with 11 graduate students from Columbia University we'll get into that uh we'll tell you about something called climate fresk which is pretty exciting uh the storm water ordinance Court a newsletter that we're working on Project Thousand Acres the m planned aidil Festival Earth they fair and a few uh a few other thoughts CH is it too away table okay all right we'll give it one more shot so I'm sure I don't need to remind everybody about this picture it's happened three times in the last 3 and a half months if you look at historical numbers for whatever they're worth about rainfall we're supposed to get one one 3in storm every two years we got three nearly 4in rainstorms in three and a half months and the reality is this is the new normal our systems are not designed to handle 4in rainstorms and we all know what the results were so starting back in uh September with some uh with a little push from uh George wolson several of us got together the resilience flooding and storm order subcommittee uh a large group of us have a meeting regularly for the last three three four months to come up with the range of solutions and we presented our initial recommendations to uh to Keith and to Chris Rouser just a few weeks ago so we're going to get into those let's see how this works okay there we go so by 20 by by 2100 it is predicted and this is according to ruter uh the National Association of atmospheric sciences Etc that we will have a 25% increase in annual rainfall that's significant um we're going to go from high 40s to low 60s in terms of inches a year uh the 100-year storm will go from less than 9 Ines to TW to greater than 12 in I don't even want to think about what impact that could have but a 36% increase and 1.5 times the number of days with greater than one inch of rainfall so we are dealing with some real serious issues here with increased rainfall and the number of heavy rainstorms we have risk to our habitation to our residents and to and to our infrastructure so what we've designed on the right I realize the print's a little small is um we're going to try how can we reduce flooding and it's several elements there is not one solution to this it's going to be many solutions and the major categories are are decrease in slow runoff hitting flood zones improve the quality of runoff increase temporary water storage capacity try to restore to flood plane move water out of flood zones faster and expand the water capacity near flood zones I'm going to quickly go through and we'll certainly be happy to talk with you about this in more detail um about a 20-point plan that we've put together for consideration and for study it needs more work it needs more analysis it needs more data Columbia students are working on that among other things clearly prioritizing hocus Brook and Saddle River are keys and first thing we want to talk about here is exploring the capability to store water or expand water capacity during these very heavy events so quickly to go through the list here how do we increase Wetland capacity I mean even if our storm water pipes were twice as large it needs a place to go and we don't have capacity for all that storm water subdivide properties and purchase floods prone portions of those properties the program New York City is doing currently uh purchase flood purchase homes in flood zone with existing programs such as blue acres and the and the flood acquisition plan look at detention and retention basins build a dam to reduce volume during major events look at a Bergen wide County Solutions up and downstream we've been talking with Folks at Bergen County uh and and then Engage The Army Corps of Engineers which I know that our village manager is already doing the second part of this is utilize green infrastructure and these are based really on best practices that are being utilized throughout the state and other communities green infrastructure slows down the speed of the storm water reaching our local waterways and improves storm water quality so look at storm water velocity reducers installing rain Gardens and bio retention basins that accept storm water runoff expand the tree canopy throughout Ridgewood which has multiple ven benefits stores water reduces absorbs carbon and shap shade which will be critical in the future when we live in a hotter World repairing buffer zone Restorations for the brook and for the Saddle River including its their tributaries and then des snagging and desilting the brook and the Saddle River although that's been done in the past and frankly that only lasts for one or two years and then it has to be done again so it's not the most effective uh and then last deploy storm water friendly pavement and a couple of other ideas so the rainwater filters through the payment which reduces runoff by 80% and improves water quality it gets into the groundwater which is important helps recharge the aquafer also so we want to as part of this the state of New Jersey D has is putting out an enhanced Water Management control requirement so a new ordinance will have to be approved um I'll talk more about that later but there's a real opportunity there Target Village owns facilities for peral a able Pavements such as parking lots Village Hall other locations look at streamlining the permitting process for perious Solutions look at disincentives for increasing impervious payments create a dry well campaign for residents and incentivize the adoption of permeable payment maybe through tax credits or other Financial mechanisms uh improve the storm water flow by launching and adopt the storm drain program and then frankly education is a key part of what needs to happen so I know I went through a lot there in a very short period of time but we are working on getting more data expanding this talking about it with various people in the uh in Village government and uh we think there's some real opportunities again multiple Solutions we have a big problem and we need to uh find the solutions so let's talk about Columbia University we are very very lucky um one of our members of the Green Team uh is a recent graduate of Columbia's Graduate School of International public affairs they all the students have a Capstone project we put in an application to work with us we got voted the number one project by the students 17 of them voted for us and 11 of them are working with us for 11 weeks it's their Capstone project at least 10 hours a week do some rough and dirty math we're getting about $250,000 of free Consulting from Columbia University it's really an awesome opportunity um and and who and by the way if you just go to the website for columia and look at who the graduates are of sea and who the professors are at Sea it's just extraordinary uh there's our team there's our 11 students I think nine of them are uh eight or nine of them are from overseas it's an extraordinary Bunch very bright and they all came here last Saturday to spend a day with us took them all around town and showed them all the important places related to flooding and potentially decarbonizing our village uh and other opportunities uh really in group good group of people and I know some of you have already been interviewed by them uh and they may be doing that in the future if they haven't done so yet so they've broken up into project teams we have a flooding team which is headed up by of all things an environmental engineer how do we prevent people's homes and businesses from flooding we need more data we need more analysis we need Solutions we also have had access to one of the national experts who's a professor at the Earth Science school at Colombia we're looking at decarbonization how can we expand our renewable energy initiatives while reducing carbon emissions uh also as part of that how do we reduce fuel usage uh and where are the best opportunities I'm going to show you some data in a second and then on the right funding comparison how do we assess best practices in New Jersey measure our success how do we pay for these programs uh and then they have one other assignment which we'll talk about in a sec so here's some of the information that they've been able to put together so far I know there's a lot on this pie chart I'll try to the big Parts this these are the current greenhouse gas submissions for Ridgewood and of the greenhouse gas emissions almost 50% of them are vehicle emissions which 70% are from Passenger cars the rest 30% are from trucks uh only 27% of our carbon emissions are from natural gas how most of our homes are heated and about 16% is from electricity so this is just the beginning this is I just want to give you an example of some of the data that they've been able to put together from Sustainable New Jersey uh we do have less CO2 emissions in the average US Community that's probably mostly based to PSC and G's fuel mix a lot of nuclear however 22% of oil of energy is actually coal that we use from purchases that PSG has they don't have the amount of energy they have in their own facilities is not enough to Supply New Jersey so they buy a lot of power and they're buying a fair amount of coal surprisingly so what's next for the students um they're going to refine the recommendations they're about five weeks in they have another seven weeks to go things are moving very fast here there's an army of people to manage we talk to them at least twice a week uh we want to refine the recommendations based on the existing data they're getting a lot of that from the village and other organizations and then the ultimate goal is to develop a sustainability road map a plan that will look at flooding resilience decarbonization and developing an implementable sustainability road map so a hands on these are the things that we can do to make a difference the project is due to be completed April 17th and we might have an opportunity to work with them again more on that in a sec um climate fresk what what in God's creation is climate fresk all the cards are in your hand well this is a game and the long and short of it is that a professor in France was teaching his students about climate change and they were all sleeping they were boy so he said I need to make this more exciting so he created a game and this game has become a really big deal in France and throughout the world over a million people have now participated in climate fresk around the world it's a big thing in Paris but and there are climate frisks every night of the week all over the world um and we are doing it here in Ridgewood we are only the second municipal government that they are working with in the United States only 15,000 people in the US have been through it so um it's playful it's collaborative ative it's visual it's creative simple and scientific so how does it work you sit around a table about this size six people with the facilitator first they hand you seven cards it's causes and effects of climate change and you have to put them in order then they give you seven more cards and seven more cards and they give you 42 cards and this actually gets pretty complicated and difficult but uh we it's interactive you learn a lot you spend about half the session doing this learning and then you go beyond that and you can see us here on January 30th we had 18 people from Green Ridgewood the Green Team and a few other folks participated in the climate fresk um we got a common understanding of what the issues are and you know like most groups some people know a lot some people don't know a lot just kind of elevated everybody to a certain level of knowledge um people expressed their feelings and their situation and discussed what are the challenges what are the opportunities so they we tried to focus on answering three questions how do we collectively reduce our carbon emissions how can we adapt to climate change and how can we do this in a way that is transform that makes the transformation joyful and enjoyable and that's a key focus of what uh Alexi who's the US CEO is trying to do so we came up with 67 suggestions one of our subcommittees is going through all of this now so that we can help come up with an action plan and obviously all of this relates also to what the Columbia students are up to also so uh there we are uh at the end we stood for three hours and we're still standing um and again we're only the second us Community to partner with them we are hoping planning on doing another climate fresk in the spring for key influential people in the village and we'd like to invite all of you to that we're working on putting a list together and in the future a few of us have talked about becoming facilitators and maybe quarterly having this for residents on a quarterly basis they can engage in a climate fresk it's a lot of fun so uh let me just mention a few other ongoing projects that we are focusing on and a big one here is is the enhanced storm water recommendations from the state of New Jersey so D put together a minimum requirement plan they are urging stricter requirements so we so the village has to approve a new storm water ordinance no later than July 16th a group of us have been working and going through this and we will be meeting later this week with the recommendation um we do think that having stricter measures which relate very much to the challenges we're facing around flooding are appropriate and we'll be discussing that with the with the engineering department most likely next week uh one thing green Ridgewood has not done a great job at is communicating on a regular basis and we're going to have our first newsletter go out we're working with Carol and Keith staff meeting with her on Friday and our goal is to get the first one out in March uh other things project Thousand Acres um last year we had no M we had over 300 people sign up it really raised awareness just the signs so we wouldn't get fine for letting our Lawns grow too high raise so much awareness that people would talk about it um and this year we're thinking about slow mow May which really the goal here is that we should be mowing our once every other week that's really what's best um for for for the pollinators Etc um as opposed to letting it get too high um we're also thinking about developing something for the fall called leave the leaves especially around trees and flower bushes where the the material is actually helpful and also talk with about pollinator Pathways uh last um or one other item is implementation of the master plan the um green Ridgewood has worked really hard to take the 214 recommendations bring them down to about six that are absolutely the most critical you can see maybe the list over there Green Building checklist create a timeline for RS encourage renewable energy expand recycling resiliency planning and emergency response and preparedness and Community resilience and I have to say it's been great to see how the communications on emergency issues uh has dramatically improved over the last few months so uh Keith thank you for that um but as Pam mentioned before um we are working on trying to make sure that as many of these recommendations as possible have been implemented and um just so you know don't worry about reading all of that but green Ridgewood set up six subcommittees around the master plan and we have a chair and our members meet in between our monthly meetings it's an amazingly committed group of people so we have we have a subcommittee on Resource Management on Green Building and sustainability resilience flooding and storm water and of course we have a subcommittee on Earth Day because that's also a responsibility of ours along with the conservancy and of course that will be April 21st and uh we have big plans for that so I just wanted to uh say all of this work would be impossible without having a great group of people um who are passionate knowledgeable they really care it's a diverse group of people also and uh it's really been wonderful working with them and I want to give a shout out to two people on the Green Team who have just gone above and beyond um both of these women joined the green team last year and the passion enthusiasm that they brought has been extraordinary Joie bertis has become our flooding storm water expert I cannot even imagine how many hours she has spent doing research putting this all together she's done great work and Alina morkovich um who is uh my neighbor and actually her house was was damaged by a tree and she's been out of her house for months despite that she's made the whole Columbia thing happen it was her idea her recommendation and uh she works very closely with them so uh really two amazing people but really a whole group of amazing people so some final thoughts um and the first is a call for Action I mean it's obviously painful to see the damage that the flooding does here to our infrastructure impacting our people our businesses our Fields everything clearly we need to do something different we can't keep on doing the same thing and as I said before it's not going to be one Silver Bullet there's a lot of different things that we can do it may not be all 20 of those ideas but it's probably going to be you know a dozen of those some are shortterm some are medium term some are longterm and sadly the situation is getting worse I mean there are fires raging across Texas in the middle of at the end of February because it because of of climate change and it's obviously affecting our weather in so many ways we had the fires here last summer where you couldn't breathe um so we have to we have to deal with this reality sadly key opportunities um we're going to work on building the recommendations from the Columbia students um and we look forward to the next climate fres where we can work with you and other Bridgewood residents uh to uh educate them about climate and develop real um Solutions building Partnerships um I hope we can build a partnership with Bergen County um had some initial discussions they've been a little disappointing to be candid um maybe there's other organizations that we can uh that we can work with uh Pam just sent me something today about the paic River Basin group so maybe we can work with them and if all goes well with Columbia we might be able to do it again next year with them so U so we obviously want to make them happy as well as uh they're making us happy um so lastly uh I just want to thank Pam and thank all of you for your support um you know I've I moved here less than four years ago and um it's really been a lot of fun seeing this all come together and working with you and having a chance to work with some amazingly talented people so thank you David let me be the first to say thank you so much for this really important and outstanding presentation I know that it was the entire green wood team and I know that Pam is has been um a a motivating force behind that I I personally know your background your incredibly strong background in sustainability and it's by doing these things that you raise awareness and I know that I'm I'm only going to be the first to thank you for this thank you Mr Mayor appreciate it absolutely thank you David I mean it was I I really came here thinking no this is gonna be boring I'm not GNA learn it it was good it was good it wasn't boring it you know it was excellent so thank you very much and uh I look forward to hearing more and learning those in the sustainability world I used to hearing things like yeah no I have my kids talking to me all the time you know we you know don't don't you know put any more driveways and don't do this don't do that and it kind of goes in where in one ear and out the other but you know they really do care about the future and I think your enthusiasm will spill over to all of us yeah and it's it's been great you know we have uh two student aison and uh it's really great to hear what 15 16 year olds have to say also and uh one of our members also was you know in her mid 20s and you get a different perspective you hear about climate anxiety and other challenges that uh that young people are feeling around this and you know we want to make sure that there's hope that there are things we can do here in the community that will make a difference so thank you Dave I also want to say thank you I just wanted to say the most impressive thing regarding interacting with the community was the noo May um um in my house you know my mom is local my kids and it sparked the conversation every single day you know every single day multiple times a day um you know my my son's friends from college saw it they were calling they were checking in on it you know we took pictures with the dog and I think that's one you're very impressive committee um Frank always reports back to you in parks and I think the more Community engagement we can do that where there is no one answer but you're amping up the awareness was awesome and I felt like you know I was one of the families that did and there were 300 families but there were probably like 30 thou 3,000 people at least discussing it and I thought it was just so nice and I'm going to do slow M this year um because that's that was like sort of where my whole family ended up last year but it was great and I just think everything you do is great and thank you for your time thank you it was you know I where I work in my house I look right out on the street and I can't tell you how many people walking their dogs would stop right in front of the the sign and talk with somebody else and it just led to so many discussions and conversations yeah with the dog my dog did look like a lion we put him in the no at the end and we took pictures and even that was a huge discussion cool okay and obviously as we uh continue to move forward please uh let us know about questions comments Etc one part of Outreach that you failed to mention uh oh is the Grant application that the that biology teachers at the high school are making and part of their Grant application and it's for $32,000 um for Environmental Education is they have to uh collaborate with a community organization guess what that Community organization is it's green Ridgewood because there are so many people in the in the community that are interested in what we're doing and it's because of David's leadership so thank you David thank you thanks mayor I just want to add that um you know as we've been talking through some of these flood response um actions that the village is taking in addition to contacting the Army Corps and and things of that nature this is another layer of Resident involvement in trying to come up with sustainable um Pursuits to to mitigate flooding so um in that space and with the sustainability aspect of it and I did attend the climate fresk um night it was uh it was exciting it was fun how' you do um we learned a lot well I was in between that meeting and the meeting you were having about the movie theater so they were they were quite different tones in those meetings by the way um but I just want to thank uh David and his and the group at Green Rouge would for all they're doing it is it is yet another example of what I always say which is many hands make light work um five or 10 people can't can't get this town to the place where it is now it takes everyone and uh green W Ridgewood is certainly pulling more than its weight so thanks again so mayor moving on to um item 12 on the agenda uh we have our work session agenda I'd like to call up uh representatives from Bridgewood water uh director Cal's here uh Mike Kors our business manager um Lonnie mccolm one of our engineers and Matt Jessup uh legal counsel and Rich you're free to go in any order you wish thank you I was I was going to make that request thank you so much thank you okay good good good evening mayor council welcome thank you for having us we're going to go out of order here we're going to take items 12 A3 and 4 first um they both go together um as some of you know we've been working diligently over the period of last two years with all four towns to develop a lead service line replacement plan this is a requirement as a result of a state law that passed in 2021 requiring that all lead service Lines within the state of New Jersey be replaced this includes both those lines that are owned by the utility that run from the the water m in the street to the curb and also those that run from the curb to the building that are privately owned by the residents or the commercial building within the four municipalities we've been meeting with all four towns because it's necessary to build a coalition relative to this project the state law allowed two options for the program one by which the utility would pay for the entire Improvement including the one on private property and then charge the ray payers the cost of that the other option was that the utility would pay for its portion and then assessed the cost of the private portion onto the property owner that latter option was chosen by all all four municipalities unanimously based on the inventory that was completed for lit Services lines and the feeling from all members that it wouldn't be fair to place the cost of a private lead service line replacement on other consumers within all four towns that don't have a lead service line so we're proceeding along the path of the assessment model and before you is a document that that summarizes as that and we're going to get into the details of of that unfortunately when the law was passed um it did two things it it did have these two options um if it land laid out a mandatory only option it' be easier to go about this process and get it all done quickly but it allowed for the assessment option and at the same time it it expanded the definition of lead service lines uh prior to the law passing rid water had about 200 lead service lines throughout all four communities when the law was passed they included in the definition of LED service lines galvanized lines that upped our account to over 2,000 so now we're faced with north of a $30 million project estimates right now about 39 million um that will be put out in terms of the necessary funds for doing both the private side and the Utility side of the line but again half of that will be recaptured in the form of an assessment to the property owners all four towns have agreed based on this model moving forward we've gone to all three towns are ready and introduced it and discussion next steps are for them to introduce the necessary ordinances shared services agreements that will be required and then necessary public hearings around that the team here will be attending those meetings in all four towns as well so we're here tonight to kind of sum up where we're at what steps it will take for Ridgewood to be a part of the program and more importantly the role that Ridgewood is going to play beyond what any of the other three towns do because Ridgewood the village of Ridgewood is going to be bonding for the entire Improvement and all the three communities and and Ridgewood itself are responsible to pay back in the inform of the assessment money they collect back for the uh private portion so with me tonight um to my right I have Michael cor is the business manager um as Keith introduced Yanda McCullum is our new senior engineer and she's running lean on this project uh to her left is Christine uh Kristen Epstein from The Firm CDM Smith they're the higher consultant help help us put together the plan for this uh Improvement uh they are known for their work Nationwide and they were the ones primarily responsible for the work in Newark uh that was speedt tracked and completed very quick thousands of Leed service lines and lastly we have Matt Jessup as you all know for McManaman Scotland Bond Council for the village he's here to answer the difficult questions that I cannot answer so now I'd like to turn it over to Yolanda to kind of sum up what you have in front of you and then we'll move along okay hi everybody um so everyone got a packet that's up there right I didn't miss anyone okay so just wanted to tell you real quick what's in the packet that you're looking at um the first thing is a January 26 letter that was basically came with an advanced copy of the ordinance and the resolution and the shared service agreement so um that's just kind of a it's a bit of a a preview of the program um the next three items are the ordinance itself the resolution and the shared service agreement there's a couple items missing that will finalize the final dates and the the number Rich was talking about the 39 million that we're going to completely bond for and then um there otherwise it's it's intact it's ready to go those there's only a couple items missing um and then after that is exhibit a which is a part of that which is the benefited properties Ridgewood water um has or sorry Village of Ridgewood has the bulk of the properties because we're large and we have many old older homes um so there's a summary after um it's a long list of known lead service lines there's 947 of them um and then the next list is the ones that remain unknown that we will be determining in the next year um and there's 402 of those these are on the customer side after that there is a summary that looks like this that shows you all the the towns in the service area um and those numbers there were're estimating that the unknowns will will be 75% probably lead so we're estimating the the 2190 uh total on customer side and 1943 total on Utility side all that comes together with a very conservative cost estimate that we we don't know the actual cost of the each replacement yet but we had to make a conservative estimate to come up with the the 39 million because we need to we need a bond for is the maximum we can't really underestimate there so um the property addresses are listed there um so and then the very last thing is the customer notification letters we're going to be sending out people notifications of these ordinances that they're coming up we want to get those out right away we ordered prints of them um we want them to to see this and they can they can um there'll be a link to the ordinance or they'll they'll know where to find the ordinance if they want to see it um because then we're anticipating the first reading and then the second reading um in April and then final passage in May so then when we'll have the sign up period and then we will develop construction projects based on you know how many people sign up and we'll go through the process of of you know doing a competitive bid and and doing the actual work in the next you know several years um and as more unknowns come on we'll we'll be adding you know future construction projects um and we'll bundle things you know by area by maybe maybe where we're going to be Paving and things like that um they'll be targeted areas and we'll probably try to have the most efficient um implementation plan that we can and CDM Smith is um guiding us along the way um One Last Thing Before probably Matt will talk is um the we are launching a new website um March 4th and all the things on our Rood water website now that have to do with lead will be on this website and it will be kind of a One-Stop shop where people can sign up for the program they can watch a video of what a lead Ser service line replacement looks like um and they can get information and communicate with us um through that interactive website site so it's a lot of information hopefully um the packet the notification letter explains a lot of this it explains the options and then Matt will explain how the ordinance actually works um as far as um how it affects the the property owners thank you thank you good evening mayor council members um property owners that have confirmed lead service lines basically have three choices mat if you could speak into the mic thank you so much um property owners who have firm lead service lines effectively have three choices the first one is to not do anything with their lead service line the second is to replace it on their own call their plumber their contractor arrange to have the work done pay for it out of pocket directly to the um to the to the plumber or contractor the third is to voluntarily choose to opt into this lead service line financing replacement program for those Property Owners across all four towns that opt in their construction cost will be funded through the issuance of bonds by The Village to the New Jersey infrastructure Bank the New Jersey infrastructure bank is a low interest Loan program set up for local governments to finance Water and Sewer Improvement projects including lead service lines generally speaking the any any loan is funded 50% at 0% interest and 50% at the uh njib AAA Bond rated uh interest rate so 2025 the ngu goes out to sell bonds uh they get 3% interest rate it's a competitive sale so it's whatever the prevailing rate is at the time you effectively have 50% of your loan at 3% and 50% of your loan at zero for a blended rate of approximately one and a half percent right so that's the structure of the loan that ultimately the property owners are getting as I mentioned earlier the village will issue all of the bonds each of the four municip pales are obligated to pay their share of The Debt Service so the shared service agreement that you have before you and the resolution that authorizes the shared service agreement is between you and Midland Park there's you Glenrock and you and woff and the other three towns are all agreeing that under any circumstance they will pay to you including through the levy of Advil arm taxes they will pay to you their share of debt service on the bonds that allocation is based on the the customers that are in that Bond pool that are having the work done right in the easiest circumstance all four towns have 100 lines in the pool they're all equidistant more or less from the property everybody would each town would pay 1/4 of The Debt Service right it won't be that simple but Ridgewood water will run that math for all four municipalities so the other three municipalities have to pay you the villages the issue of the bonds under any circumstance whether they get the money from the property owners or not but the plan and the other document you have is a special assessment ordinance each municipality will adopt that ordinance and it will authorize each municipality to assess the property owner for their allocable share of this cost so effectively the loan from the ibank will be divided amongst four proportionately um in accordance with the number of people in the pool and then that debt service will be allocated to each of the property owners who have participated in the pool no municipality will be paying costs of another municipality no property owner will be paying costs of another property owner it will all be allocated out that special assessment runs with the land to the property owner it's paid back over a 30-year term which is the term of the bonds issued to the njib it is a fixed amount so once we issue those bonds every property owner will know whether the payment is made annually or quarterly that's your choice they will know exactly what they owe for the next 30 Years it does run with the land so if I'm a property owner and 5 years later I sell my home legally that special assessment continues onto the next property owner unless the property owner I decide to settle it in some other way as part of the um as part of the term of of the sale um as I think Rich mentioned earlier all the the other three municipalities are fully aware of the program they're fully aware of their obligation to make Debt Service payments to the Village as basically the conduit issue they'll make those payments in advance of when your payments are due um and then they have an obligation they assess they don't assess from The Village's perspective we need money from the towns right but they're they're obligated to uh to assess to their property owners as well thanks for that very clear explanation Matt I just have one question so when the property is assessed does that mean it goes assessed onto your real estate taxes that's essentially exactly what it is think of it as an added tax on top of the traditional if you do a bathroom addition you get a new similar concept correct yes that's a usually a one-time assessment right that gets added on this is um this assessment will be one time but it obviously will have a 30-year repayment schedule attached to it so pay um recorded similar to Conventional taxes if not paid on time you charge interest similar to Conventional tax taxes um so it it acts like a tax in every way so if somebody had that and then they're selling their house and somebody looking to buy looks up goes to the tax assessor and looks it up it'll be one number for the taxes but then there'll be a special assessment it'll say correct yeah there's a separate line item so it it's not blended into the tax bill okay right with your land and your improvement piece it is a separate piece and often actually a separate bill so that the tax bill gets mailed the special assessment bill either in the envelope or separately gets mailed sometimes do sewer charges that way right you have a separate bill for sewer charges it can be done that way so a lot of people pay their taxes through their mortgage so this wouldn't be paid through a a mortgage monthly mortgage payment so it could be certainly a new property owner who's buying a property that has the existing special assessment already it'll be known the mortgage company may require it to be paid through the mortgage company some property owners have a mortgage they don't pay their taxes to the mortgage company correct those who are getting it a new they'll have to notify their their e they'll either have to pay it themselves or notify their mortgage company if they want it folded in okay and then one other thing you said in the beginning they have three options the first option was do nothing I didn't think that was an option I thought this had to be done by a certain date yeah those weren't options in preference in order of preference the top the the preferential option would be for them to join the program what if they do do nothing so the state law the New Jersey state law applies to the water system not to individual homeowners um so the water system is obligated to offer to do the replacement and to offer at least four times if the the but the homeowner has the right to refuse that replacement okay and if they say yes the the the water system has to so only the addresses that are on the known and unknown list will get a letter yes everybody else it's known they don't have it or they've already replaced it the so if you get a letter you know it's not a mistake so I guess two quick questions the first is I'm assuming when somebody buys a house this would show up as part of the title insurance so if you're buying a house you know this is coming once it's assessed it will be on the title report yes what about if you're buying a house and you've opt it out so I understand the assessment is transferable with the land and that makes sense and that would be disclosed but what if you receive all four notices and then you sell your house is the responsibility to disclose that you've done nothing yes when the CH when the the home changes ownership that count of four starts over again so how do we keep track that was my next question actually was my concern is somebody does nothing 10 years passes somebody buys the house somebody gets sick from drinking water with lead in it and on top of they've suffered an injury they now Sue The Village or Sue Richard water so how is it that new owners will find out that the previous owner chose to just leave the lead pipes there so there there's two two things that are possibly happening um one is I believe the state or the federal government's going to make it mandatory at some point between now and the end of the 10 years second um a lot of local municipalities ities are putting forward um ordinances requiring that it has to be done at transfer ownership but Matt Matt can also check it I don't think there'd be if we follow the program that's designed by the statute we're not going to incur any liability we be cleared administratively from the by immunity but um there may be other things that might go back to the prior homeowner if it's sold and somebody gets sick in your example that they would have to worry about but as long as we follow the program and and and and make sure that we got our eyes cross our teas we're fine they're not so I would I I would I mean I don't want to go down a rabbit hole tonight but I would like Matt if you would mind giving us an opinion on passing a statute similar to what rich just said where we could potentially mandate that at the sale of a property it would have to be done um I think there's a safety issue that comes that I can work with Rich and Matt Jessup with regard to any type of a position on that the other thing I want to point out um I'm on the list by the way so I've got to De did you just look yourself up so this is this is a learning cve for all of us just did the same thing by the way sorry I won't sue you though even with the existence of the law rigid water has had treatment in place since 2015 to prevent lead corrosion we provide a corrosion inhibitor that's put in the water it's a food grade product and since then we've had levels of lead from non- detect to five parts per billion the Action level is 15 so there there is treatment and protection in place currently that corrosion inhibitor aligns the pipes it prevents to scaling but the state law still requires us to replace all the the service lines also every house that has a known lead service line um since 2022 um receives an annual letter notifying them that they have a lead service line and it includes health risk language in in that letter and ways that you can um um uh reduce your risk of exposure to the lead one only one of which is replace your lead service line there's other things like run your water use a filter um things like that that know my concern would be somebody moving into the house who's not had the benefit of that and the old owner just didn't bother to tell the State Assembly I believe is cons has considered um legislation that would mandate like uh the paint notification the lead paint notification they've they've considered doing that as well so that might be coming down so I'd be interested in not waiting on the State Assembly so again Matt I'd reiterate I'd love to hear any thoughts you have in the coming weeks my legal opinion is to opt in which I think no no I mean about something in add I'm good with this and again I don't want to go the rapid hole but about something where potentially we would make we at the Village level would make new owners aware or mandate that it' have to be changed over um in terms of the cost um I imagine the cost per per if you do opt in will vary on how many people actually sign up because I'm assuming we get get benefit of of of doing this a lot just in case we get a lot of folks that don't want a piece of this I mean is there any way to ensure that we're not sticking a handful of residents with a much higher Bill than they could otherwise appreciate because we wind up just having a lot less people sign up though maybe we we'd Envision they will still have an option to opt out but they don't up two x weeks before the actual replacement happens at that point they will have an estimate so they'll know the price before they become liable for it correct great that's what I wanted to know and the contract will be based on the number of properties like each contract that gets bid that'll be done in tranches I suspect Will based on the number of properties that that contract is going to cover so you'll know right at that moment uh the contract price isn't going to be for 2,000 and then there's only going to be 200 but the contract price stays the same right the contract price would come down or would never even be up because it's going to be big based on great I just wanted to make sure and to be clear I I would urge everyone to opt in I think this is a great idea I think you've gone this you clearly you put put a ton of thought into this this makes a lot of sense to me my hope is most of the folks on this long list do opt in I just want to make sure we're looking out for everyone else but um again really nice presentation and and this looks like a great a great idea and again I'm just to clarify all the other Villages or towns that have heard this they're on board with it uh they're doing the same thing we're doing over the next couple of weeks we we've gone all three towns ready to do a work session um they've asked some great questions we've answered every question and Next Step would be there for introduction we first or has this been there's a little chart EV in the there's a schedule on the on the back you're actually the last of the four in this work session setting we've been a traveling Road show for the last two weeks together it it was important that we got the Buy in from other three towns CU without that the program at the Village level wouldn't exist we'd have to think of an option um my current curb toeter pipe it was installed in 1947 and is not LED um the new material that's going in what is it and how long do you expect it to last the new material is copper copper I know copper should have um you know making an estimate here um about 50e lifespan you said 50 yes that's really not that long isn't there anything that well those lead pipes or galvanized pipes also had the same uh lifespan or the you know ones that were installed in 1947 had the same lifespan so many of them exceed that the bonding will be for 30 years your material that was not LED and soall in 1947 was it copper I don't remember okay remember I'm not that old but other questions anyone ladies and gentlemen thank you so much for this presentation we really appreciate I know that there are other parts of this but the lead service line aspect of it I know that um I was uh involved in several of these meetings and uh I know that this you simplified it and it was not so simple trying to figure out the path forward um I think you did an a really commendable job so we really really appreciate it thank you thank you thank you for your assistance my pleasure shall we move on to the next part of yes so want if I if I can I'll keep working backwards and I'll get to the uh the rate ordinance last um item 1282 is the award of a soul Source contract um for the 2024 exchange of granulated activated carbon media at the two active uh P treatment facilities this is a natic seed contract with Calgon carbon it's for municipally um reactivated um carbon C we're taking the carbon we already have and reactivating it to not put it to waste so the price um in this snx seed contract assumes two changes um at boat treatment plants through the year which has been what we've seen for the past year based on the usage of of these two plants so it's a recommendation for not toce contract of $270,000 to Calgon carbon of Moon Township Pennsylvania uh the funding is ADD of the village operating a water operating budget not a village sorry I I appreciate the sustainability aspect of this that we're recycling here as expensive as it is we're recycling yes any questions questions anyone well good if I can if you're welcome to stay there's one more item um all right stay stay um so the the last I thank you thanks guys uh 12 A1 is is the annual establishment of the um water rates and P treatment charges this is the ordinance that you have in front of you as a requirement um as part of the budget cycle to meet the revenue requirement that was presented at the budget presentation last week this looked familiar it's the same thing we talked about the other night right correct yeah required by ordinance to adopt the new rates so rich this might be the opportune time um before you ared tonight acknowledging that you and your team were in Glenn Rock making a similar presentation to what you just did to the Glenn Rock mayor and Council um Mr loving had some questions about the rate comparison slide that was in the budget presentation last week um can you can you just speak to the fact that that was a comparison to combined systems um and what the justification for picking those water providers were as an illustration in that slide sure so we we try to pick uh water utilities that are multi-district utilities and what I mean by that is serving more than one town certainly there are multiple utilities surrounding us right here in Bergen and you know neighboring pay County that have local utilities but they only serve their internal Community they do not serve other communities like we do three others in this case total 61,000 people 21,000 customers so that's why we chose those um you know certainly if the council wishes we could you know research any other utility in the State uh the ray consultant that we hired um you know put those on the chart prior years we've had others on the chart as well um but you know timing wise you know those are the ones that were produced and could certainly expand that if you so so you you would describe that as an Apples to Apples comparison based on the fact that they're serving multiple jurisdictions yes there's there's operational differences when you have to operate outside of the borders of your own town in this case we're dealing with three different communities three different governments different you know Community needs requests relative to what the water department does and for rigid water probably one of the most complex systems in the nation 52 groundwater Wells 31 treatment plants and four five distinct pressure zones there's not many utilities that operate like that and and if I may by comparison in in Woodland Park we're a town of 12,000 people um we buy water wholesale from Pake Valley Water Commission and we redistri we dist we um redistribute it but my point in saying that is there's three water providers in a town that's three square miles there's M Valley Water Commission there's New Jersey American water and then there's the burrow water provider our infrastructure there staunchly different to what rich and his team deal with here in Ridgewood each and every day so when we talk about Apples to Apples comparisons um I think Ridgewood water did their due diligence in providing an effective slide uh to compare it to comparable systems I'd be curious to know how we compare in terms of rates to other water utilities that are burdened with posos because not every water system is and this is what we have this is our Albatross sure yeah the majority of the ones that are affected area are those singular utilities talking about B of hathorne U hocus Waldwick Mawa you know Allandale you know faon you know so they're dealing in a singular nature like Barrow horor I believe is five Wells and we have 52 um so you have to kind of look at the economy a scale of that comparison okay thank you but but it's widespread throughout the whole area and once the EPA you know makes their regulation at the much lower limit we're going to find it's the whole state New Jersey pretty much any other questions for water um can Rich answer I think uh Mr loving had one other question you're absolutely correct councilwoman if uh Rich there the other inquiry was about the um the Irving Maine um which there was a question about whether or not that why that was not being done on the psng RightWay right so there there currently two projects that involve Irving Street North Irving and South Irving um there's an active project um that is in the pacng right away that runs from Ridgewood Avenue down to Spring Avenue um we've been working with pacng regards to that work it's planned to go in the right away um you know as an alternative um the local streets around the area could be considered but that decision hasn't been made the second project I think um the resident might be referring to is a a recently awarded project that is to run a raw water main that is a water main that we're going to put in the street to connect satellite Wells to the posos treatment facilities that are being built um that's to take some wells that are in the vicinity here in Ridgewood pipe them down to the prospect treatment plant that's loaded at located at the water pollution control facility and that route will go down south Irving Street we didn't choose the pacng right away because it engineering wise it wasn't practical um and I have to tell you from our dealings with psng on the other project not easy as much as they will give you permission to be in the RightWay they will not guarantee that the line can stay there at any point that they come in to do work they will ask you to remove it so in in terms of us installing Mains it's best that we stick best possible to within the rways or lands that are owned by The Village or the other town and Rich the secondary project that was mentioned what's your um what's your process to notify the residents residents will be notified at least a week before um I know there's a bit of a mixup um I spoke to one resident about um the contractor got a little ahead of themselves and went out and did some video Recon reconnaissance because they videotaped photographed the area to make sure after they do their work they're not nothing gets damaged or nothing gets blamed on them that they didn't damage um but they're planning to start end of March prior to that notices will be hand out to any Resident in the area the good part of this raw water main work it doesn't involve any service connections it's a linear project down the street it's a pipeline goes in and we don't have to come back no service connections or or parallel perpendicular crosses to the curb or to the and and Sans the connections the disruption will be similar to PS NG laying a gas man like they have been up on the hill correct yes coming down one trench keep going and not coming back right so other other than the connection valves which don't aren't part of this it's very similar to the trench work in the center of the street and and this is a vital part of the p5's master plan without the raw water mains the consolidation would never exist or be able to function you know we're taking 31 treatment plants consolidating down to 12 building miles of roll water main throughout all four towns so the the contract here in Ridgewood is one of the first of three uh we have a second one that's actually coming in front of you for award that'll do several miles of main within Midland Park and woff and a third one later this year that will complete projects throughout all four towns for probably another four to five miles of water I mean the good news is on top of all of this um this year is uh Pinnacle um we are working Beyond any dream that we had that this would have been in the beginning um we're breaking ground on almost every single project we have two that are in operation two under construction two more that you're going to be awarding in the next two weeks about five others that are be going out to bid probably by August and then one by the end of the year so constructionwise people are going to start to see the uh the fruits of what's been presented to them over time and everything that we've engineered and work very hard to get to this point and we had an hour and a half meeting about how to communicate that to the uh to the customers in the service area today so any other questions does that mean our agenda is going to be totally unbalanced at the end of the year you might not see me for months I'm have to put my boots on and get out there it's going to be that busy but but you're right it's it's going I me these are Big projects yeah it's awesome it's it's groundbreaking work for the village and the utility thank you for educating us on the council I mean I need to hear this stuff three and four times before really get a handle on it now we thank you all for your support um your support the other three communities the Coalition that's been built thanks to all of you and your your efforts um it we couldn't be in a better place to get this done yeah we couldn't be in a better place to get this done because of your leadership on this issue Rich it's really been uh amazing you know this this problem that um has created um an issue for Ridgewood water um in just a couple of years rwood Ridgewood water is going to be the Envy of every water provider in the country uh because of that leadership so on behalf of the council and the residents thank you so much thank you and how early can we call you tomorrow whenever you need to some some people have a pre9 a.m. CL yeah that's a good idea thank careful say Rich you have my cell phone number good thank you mayor we'll move on to uh the um budget section and uh as I go over the first um item I would ask chief judge to come forward to handle the next three uh but the um we have a memorandum from the village engineer declaring an emergency repair uh the history here back on February 7th there was an order of natural gas that was observed by staff at the streets and Fleet Services building the fire department was requested to respond and investigate it was determined that the boiler for the building had failed and needed significant repair uh signal division responded and um ascertained that the boiler had failed uh we were able to um get some local parts from a vendor U they developed the attached list of parts that are needed uh additional materials for the repair to make the boiler safe and to restore the heat in the building um the award of the purchase of these materials and supplies uh so that the traffic signal division can do the repair inhouse um and the vendor is Sachs and ziter Supply Company uh total amount is 85954 any questions no okay um items two 2 through 4 I'll turn over to chief judge uh good evening we try and make this quick I know it's a late night for everybody Welcome Chief thank you uh number two is awarding contract requests for two triband portable radios for actually it's for OEM for the two Deputy coordinators which would be myself and Lieutenant Jay Chuck um unfortunately as we have mentioned the costs of these things are astronomical and I'm almost embarrassed to bring you a quote for $18,350 for two radios and that's the reduced of what we got the first round and we actually cut some things out it's just it's a state contract price through Motorola you're kind of locked into Motorola and you're locked into kind of the pricing and it's just it's for two radios so it just kind of is what it is unfortunately so that one's that one um any questions on the radios are there any grants out there for them so it's interesting because Motorola there could be some grants potentially there could be maybe like uh I don't think afg does it but there are some grants here and there but it's for all different projects like if we were try to go in for fire police needs it you know other agencies need it I'd almost wonder if there is more of a General Grant for off First Responders for this but as we look into the projects we be coming forward with to you guys over the next couple years for the infrastructure and the police department replacement of radios we are looking at the bigger PA because we understand those are big numbers we're going to be presenting to everybody and I'm sorry I know it's a late night but it's okay $18,000 for two radios yes what do these radios do for $188,000 so the only benefit of them they're called they triband radios which means you have the ability to talk on UHF VHF and uh the 700 frequencies which is the county frequencies now um our radios are UHF VHF only which means we can't really talk to the county count uh for OEM we need to talk to everybody and unfortunately the radios literally are just the cost I mean even if you cut out the ability to get out of rid of the county you'd save like maybe 1,200 bucks a radio at the most and I thought we as part of the budget I thought there was like 120,000 for radios for the police and I thought there was another budget item for more radios for OEM will those do what these radios are doing so that is this purchase is coming out of that account yes so it's not addition money it's just utilizing but it's previous capital capital it's not it's not it's not proposed capital for 24 there are line items from previous Capital to spend from previous items some of that money the new radios are going to do everything these do but there's leftover money so you're using that leftover money this is from 22 Capital right so what I'm saying is these the same type of radios we're now buying we're just using money from 2022 that we happen to still have right it's actually going to do more than probably any of the Police radios could do or any of the fire radios can do because that's where we need to be going it's just that project to get everyone there if you if you're do the police right now you're talking almost 450 Grand just to get the police to get our radios up to where they need to be you're talking almost 100 Grand and ours are almost end of life already the priority here is that we have two new uh Deputy directors of OEM um and we need them in the absence of Jeremy to be able to communicate um you know with all these other agencies including the county and neighboring police departments fire departments and the like uh second item is just for the continued purchase of turnout gear this has been an ongoing uh replacement nfpas every 10 years and this is for the most recent purchase of it's 39306 which covers I sorry I should have known this 10 sets apologies it's replacement of 10 sets uh the gear does go up every year usually by 3 400 or so uh so this is just that replacement this is also Capital as well from 2023 Capital this is the allocation for that and that is our need for right now on the turnout gear questions anyone I'm sorry I'm sorry mayor questions anyone just between um just so we're clear the this purchase if it were to be consented to tonight and then your proposal in the 24 bu uh capital budget that should bring you to where you need to be correct so yes and no I will say yes for the immediate needs of today there are a couple things to expand to I just went through everything today looking at everyone's expired helmets where we are with gloves where we with boots this just keeps going um I've put in for the American Rescue plan again as well because I'm hoping that will help balance our needs so I'm hoping between the American Rescue plan Grant the money we ask for next year we're kind of where we are now I was just talking to one of the captains tonight that I'm thinking moving forward it might not be the worst idea to in capital every year almost like the radios start asking for a small amount of money because every 10 years you have to replace but also a a single helmet is $375 a single pair of boots is almost $400 that's aside from the turnout gear of 3900 is it possible that for the 25 capital budget requests you could put a um a rotation plan together to rotate the gear and equipment for for all of your staff so that we can sort of put that into the the fiveyear out I was started looking at that tonight actually before this about the The Continuous needs you know with the grant last year we bought 15 helmets and we were like that's great and we actually need like nine or 10 more right now already we're behind so it's just I'm G to try and start forecasting this out a little bit more to see our every year needs for this for Gear replacement okay all right uh the next one is the request to approve a new ambulance billing vendor um as you know we haven't been perfectly happy with our current vendor uh it went out for bid in 2007 hasn't got up a bit since uh we put it out in De October apologies October we got return of one vendor we had found that we spoke to a lot of parties that do this and no one had heard of our request I realized after the matter one of the reasons being is we call it basic life support services and a lot of these vendors are searching for like ambulance billing or some other keywords we didn't put in our RFP so that was why we originally didn't get a lot of feedback um second go around we got officially two proposals here um and the one I'd like to go with which I'm requesting to go with is uh cronis Health uh cronis Health used to be Revenue guard Revenue guard um was very well known in the industry for it unlike a lot of other building companies that do medical office and private doctor everything else Corona solely does EMS billing this is all they do they bill for a ton of um about 130 agencies in New Jersey they bill for Holy Name Hospital and Robert Wood Johnson and hackin Sack they bill for Jersey City Fire Department and Clifton and Patterson and West Orange and Asbury Park and it just goes on and on and on I think they say they build about 300,000 EMS claims last year for like hundred million dollar in total over all their agencies they also build little agencies that do 200 calls a year so they do the whole range of everything um I actually was able to uh see a presentation from them last week by the person I'd be working with and it was fantastic I couldn't believe the things she was proposing that are billable that insurance would cover for a very simple example if you go on a medical call and you need extra help to lift the patient we always call additional firefighters to come that's billable that's a $300 billable charge that insurance will pay for just assisting on that call and she gave a laundry list of things we could actually bill for and that's a discussion I've already brought to the manager that they'd be willing to come up here and we could sit and talk about what we consider billing for what we wouldn't consider building for the different options so I love their focus I loved um everyone I talked to their reviews were like consistently very good for this company it's what they do so and their percentage is 7% we're currently paying 6.75% if they don't improve our Revenue by 10% in the first year they'll reduce us back to 6.75 and they will also do a review of 2023 to see if anything was missed and rebu anything that wasn't pushed through for 23 that they can improve our John it's safe to say they were confident that they think they can boost the revenue correct absolutely 100% questions I feel like I want to hire them for my family plan I'm sorry I feel like that those are some pretty impressive statistics it's I was reading this I was very yeah they were great yeah impressed by what they have to offer good anything else for the chief thank you sir uh moving on to the final item under budget item five uh this is uh 2023 um budget transfers um there are only five actually as listed on the last two pages of the memo there's no questions on that we'll move to operations um first we have a um Memo from the village engineer requesting the release of a performance shity bond for 657 Franklin Avenue any objections okay and we have two Surplus property memos uh one is for the sanitation division uh various Vehicles equipment and solar arrays uh and the second is a surplus items from the Ridgewood fire department any objection to each oh good okay mayor that concludes my portion of the agenda thank you Keith and now we will return to our public comment portion of the agenda oh it's coming she's coming it's coming uh good evening again uh boy a loving 342 South Irving Street not to belabor the point but I just confirmed this with Mr Cal before he left there are two water departments that are on that chart that serve one Community only faon and Linhurst so it was said that the comparisons were made by the uh water departments that are serving multim municipalities that is not the case for those two just don't want to belabor to the point uh the other point that I'd like to make is um one of those slides I believe contains a photo that I took and I wasn't credited don't know how that happened but uh I would I know that I have a a release form that Mr Roger signed so it's perfectly legal but I just don't like the fact that that was done without my knowledge will advise Mr rkin thank you very much thank you Boyd Cynthia o'keef 542 West sadle River Road I just want to make a a few quick points um when I get up here and speak and and talk about the shedler neighborhood and how people feel and maybe they didn't feel heard and listened to um this does not mean that we are anti Sports I want to make it very clear because we talked about the US and them mentality that still pervades today just while I was online here um a little earlier the woman I don't know her name she came up and talked about soccer and she said I can't wait to get those permanent lights over at shedler and while we were chatting I said no there's not going to be any permanent lights you guys all agreed to that and she said we'll see so see it's not going away um but again we are not anti- Sports um we are not anti-open space we just didn't want you to cut all our trees down 300 trees and put artificial turf on the property um that being said you know I think that it's too bad David left um I think he's doing a great job with green Ridgewood and Pam you know it's a great initiative with Colombia um and I think if we're truly you know being transparent as a community as a municipality and we really want to walk the talk that we talk to these young individuals and you put it all on the table and say we're doing this at shedler this is our biggest project we're you know planning to you know put this field in we are you know we do want to move forward with Turf so to you can't talk about sustainability and take grant money and then be completely the opposite like kind of hypocritical I hate to use that word but it really is not walking the talk you want to really be sustainable you really want to be green put your money where your mouth is I'm sorry that's like that's where the rubber hits the road so you know we keep keep replacing flooded Fields with Turf in this town I do not understand it it doesn't make sense to me um many communities in New Jersey are moving away from Turf and there was that gentleman who was here I don't know anything about his product he talked about Aaron brovich and the Sierra Club um we're you know there are people in the community that are working with the Sierra Club so I'd be very interested to see I doubt a plastic product doesn't have chemicals that's really all I have to say thank you thank you Cynthia and we have a couple of people on on our hybrid axis Susan you're up okay hi hi again um Susan Moran 705 Kingsbridge Lane um thanks for taking my call again um I want to thank for the approval funds for West Glenn and the repaving of the I mean repairing of the um foot Bridge unfortunately my phone cut off L Keith was answering um my questions so I did not hear any of it answers and um I just um so if he can just repeat them I apologize I tried to access for my computer and I um missed it so um also I just want to stress that the foot bridge is an arched bridge and really doesn't cause any damn like effects um which I showed in the pictures where hurricane Ida hit and there's a branch flowing underneath the foot Bridge even and that's before it went over its banks um also the the the bridge for Route 17 is the one that really causes the Dam lake and I know a house that was flooded and she repeatedly talks about um that particular Bridge so um I think that's unfortunately one that has to be looked at cuz I know that brings in the the highway department for that the New Jersey um on a separate topic and this is for hupper nickel The Pavilion that will be built there or proposed to be built there um I'm hoping that that will be managed um by the parks and I really do hope that there's some sort of service fee that goes into organize events for the um um for the Pavilion I grew up in um lanaster County Pennsylvania and they had several Pavilions so much of that at at their various parks and they were all managed and it took into accountability then that no one abuses The Pavilion and it also added extra Revenue um so I think that's just um something that Ridge would should consider for that Pavilion all right um thank you byebye thank you Susan Mary Lou you're up hello Mary louy 695 Kingsbridge lane two things um and hearing the presentation earlier about recycling indirectly mentioned as one of the items in the slide I wanted to say I have so much more recycling then I have garbage and although I can't say I've listened to all of your meetings throughout the years but has there been any consideration about adding an extra recycling day each week and swapping it out with the regular garbage because I know from my lifestyle and many of my neighbors we seem to have a lot of recycling and a little bit less garbage each week so I just wanted to throw that out for food for thought if I've missed it being discussed I AP apologize but it might be something to consider in the future okay and my second point is the Kingsbridge bridge I want to thank you all for remembering to put it in the budget this year and we look forward to a um a repair and being able to use it to be connected to the other side of town one of the concerns that I do have is that um I live one house from there and I have witnessed myself that this bridge is an arched Bridge it does not cause any blocking of water spilling through it I suspect maybe the Route 17 um portion where the water the river Saddle River goes underneath it might be more the culprit because the water that flooded our basement did not come from the Saddle River at the end of our block we watched it rise where it happens is when the Saddle River is coming from Hocus and parts northward there it fails when it gains speed with extra water coming it fails to navigate the curve along Howard Road where I used to live by the way but I don't live there now and it jumps the curve and it comes straight to my house on Kingsbridge our house became an island in Hurricane Ida with water rushing on either side that seemed to be our bigger problem of water because it comes from such Force fails to make the curve and just spills over spilling over towards the river as well as maintaining its egress it dies off by the time it hits Kingsbridge because it does go into the um drain the drainage system so I want to mention that I don't think that it's a cause of a problem or blocking I never saw the water come up because it was blocked it spilled out after the bridge and I just don't want any exorbitant charges to have it inspected nor delays to have the bridge repaired and given us full access again but again I want to wrap up and say thank you again for keeping this on the radar and please whatever you can do to expedite this repair will certainly make a lot of kids very very happy including the Ridgewood High School track team thank you again thanks Mary Lou Scott you're up hi I'm Scott meller 118 John Street here in Ridgewood I want to thank the Village Council Members that are supporting the shutler Athletic Park project the decisions you are making uh are making a difference with the overall well-being of our youth of our village we purchased that property in 2009 and it's been dormant ever since my daughter was was 10 at the time my son was 12 they are now 25 and 27 the acquisition was for Athletic Field facility that would take the stress off of our overused Municipal Fields it will not only support Athletics but also provide wonderful passive park for Walkers and uh historians if they want and nature lovers the 1200 families of the Ridgewood baseball and softball Association thank you for your efforts and totally support the park we also applaud you for the Pavilion at Hackle not only for its safety purpose but also for um putting in restrooms in a much needed area I want to thank you guys and uh we totally support you thank you thank you Scott Leo you're up hi good evening uh Leo Ruan 705 Kingsbridge Lane um so I listen to a lot it seems like the Ridgewood Sports Mafia come out in force tonight um but they to me they're like fair weather supporters they're only out on the big nights whereas the people from The Shed Community will be out week on week so we just want to voice our continued opposition to the extremely large uh field that that you're putting on that Park which will give no access to walkways or anything and the safety issues for the kids around our um around that location with the increased traffic uh hopefully nothing happens um I do like to thank the council though on the budgeting for the kingsb Bridge um look forward to that uh project getting completed uh soon because it's been several years so I use my time thank you thank you Leo and seeing no one else I'm going to close public comment anyone have any yeah I I want comments about the comments I want to say just a couple things one of the things about generously listening and with the comments about lighting is as the field in the Parks SW I I want to tell a story the first time I brought this up with a friend um he said this is great we're going to have concession we're going to have lights we're going to have a sound system and we are going to play ACDC at maximum volume while we warm up and I was really kind of shocked at all of that but I have to listen to that people the lights was an exchange the conduits was an exchange and some people on both sides feel that they can still want those elements of the plan that we're not moving forward I'm I want to be careful clearly it's a delicate project but the sports Community week after week after week has been advocating for what they want and they have left things the lights are a big issue and the way that they feel the lighting they'll see people feel other elements of the park will say the other thing is when when people who coach our children and Advocate and these organizations show up I I'm really concerned with some of the statements calling them you know they're out and force they're here advocating for something they believe in and they volunteer in and we have to be careful not to vilify them when they show up so I I just want to say the light thing Cynthia I hear it all day long even with this there's disappointment on the sports side and they express that to me a lot I hear it about concession I've heard it about literally a sound system and so what was said to you online is how somebody in our community feels and they want to revisit it and trust me they revisit it with me all the time we can't control that we're not putting lights the plan does not have lights I do not think shipo would approve it because of the lights obviously but I can't I I think it's very important for everybody on both sides to hear they left things as well and the last comment I just anybody who calls up we need to be mindful we need to listen and you know the sports groups were rather excited with the submission and they came here to express that and I think that's a good thing the same way when people are disappointed that's a good thing too so I hope that makes sense anyone else mayor just I'll take 30 seconds um just to reiterate because Susan didn't hear my response earlier tonight with regard to the foot bridge and the potential for flooding we are having the brid engineer just take a look at that um because there have been concerns expressed by the folks on East Saddle River Road I hear Mary L's comments by the way Mary Lou was so welcoming and nice to me back in July when I went out there and met with the folks over there um but I think Mary Lou I think the residents of East Saddle River Road who have been infiltrated with flooding are looking for reassurances that the bridge is not going to become a choke point and exacerbate their situation so we're going to do our due diligence in that space and make sure that we speak to the bridge engineer um and the other comment I made earlier Susan was with regard to the timeline for the shedler property uh the adhawk committee was referenced in there both in the 2017 site and I believe it was the 2018 site but you can go back to the recording of this video to confirm that that's all I have mayor thank you Keith anybody else and with that we'll entertain a motion for adjournment so moved is that all in favor I I I anyone opposed nope