I 30 seconds s over this meeting is called to order in accordance with the open public meetings law adequate notice of this meeting has been provided this meeting of April 1 2024 was published in the curer news and Star Ledger and placed on the bur's website notice of this meeting was also placed on the bulletin board at B Hall a copy of this notice is available to the public and a copy of the statement shall be included in the minutes of this meeting uh mayor Gallagher is excused this evening council members Teresa boner here Glenn Dene here Tom Mitchell here Randy pittz here Janus traic here Roger ver here please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you I have a motion to approve the minutes of March 18 2024 so moved second council members Teresa boner yes Glenn Den yes Tom Mitchell abstain Randy pittz abstain Gina straic yes Roger V yes uh we have no Department reports or notices so we'll start with our committee reports Teresa I have nothing this month so far all right sorry Randy I have the same I have nothing to report this time all right Tom okay assemblyman Joe Danielson is holding a job fair on Wednesday April 24th from 10: a. to 2: pm at the Imperia on eastn Avenue in sumerset Paul suus of the Wallace house is requesting a letter of support from the mayor and Council for his application to the New Jersey historic Trust for a preservation plan for the Old Dutch parsonage the historic advisory committee strongly supports this that's all I have thank you Tom Glenn I have a couple things uh quickly the summer set Ron Valley sewage Authority is uh continuing their discussions on plans to revamp and update their facilities on pus Lane that's all from them and then for environmental commission we're very busy here um we don't meet until next week but there's still a lot of updates so uh the application for the J Scott Community Garden is still open until April 15th um also uh you can apply for Street trees if you'd like uh they provide shade and they also help absorb water um anywhere from 10 10 to 150 gallons given the size of the tree and also they've been shown to reduce uh Peak temperatures in the summer anywhere from 2 to 9 degrees Fahrenheit so go ahead and try to apply and we will uh it's an ongoing application for Street trees as as well if you're not if you don't get a street tree you can always come to many of our Earth Day activities on April the 20th um if you come to the town cleanup at 9:00 a.m. at the high school parking lot there's also a Seedling giveaway and we also organize people to go to different areas of the town to help clean up areas um after after that is the green fair being held on Division Street from 11: to 2 there'll be many different educational booths as well as vendors there so you can uh lots of kid-friendly activities so come out to the green Fair on division on that same Saturday the 20th and that whole weekend we'll be having a townwide swap where you can put out gently used items in front of your house for free for people to pick up we just asked that at the end of the weekend you take everything back and either donate it to another organization or find another happy home for it um if you need any details for any of these you can go to our website uh the government website at Somerville nj.org go to boards and commission and then go to environmental commission and there are tons of details there on all of these different activities um you can also find us on Facebook and Instagram so hopefully uh oh and also if uh you'd like to get more information you can come next Tuesday on the uh Tuesday the 9th right here at 7:30 for our monthly meeting thank you Glenn thank you so the Board of Health met on March 20th um they uh will be at the green fair and they also uh were in the process of renegotiating the contract with the count County so we have a separate meaning to do that of many of don't know that we don't have our own health department we contract it out to the county so we're going over that uh also um the uh first aid Squad had their uh Easter egg hunt uh Saturday and it was a great success over 250 uh youngsters plus the the parents and everything and uh they also had a separate um egg hunt on the uh on the basketball court for kids who had limited Mobility so that was that was really uh a special thing um so um we we grateful for their good work they had the uh trucks out so kids could see the ambulances talk with people about safety and all so it was it was overall a great morning um so that's my report thank you Gina uh the wreck uh commission would like to remind everyone that uh we still have registration available for adult pickle ball youth tennis and youth soccer um limited space but there are are still our uh our spots available again you can go to community pass umnet Somerville and register there again check out the sumerville recreation website uh for updates and programs that we're currently running that's all I have so motion to open the meeting to the public so move council members Teresa bonor yes Glenn Den yes Tom Mitchell yes Randy pittz Gina St Havoc yes Roger V yes so the meeting is open to the public please approach the microphone and uh address myself please state your name and address seeing none motion to close public session second council members terresa boner yes Glenn Den yes Tom Mitchell yes Randy pittz yes Gina stvi yes rer V yes public session is closed all right we have uh two ordinances for public hearing and adoption uh the first one is 2730 amending ordinance number 2726 d24 0116 establishing a salary range for employee titles to be paid to certain officers and employees of the burough of Somerville a motion to open public hearing so moved second council members Teresa bonor yes Glen Den yes Tom Mitchell yes Randy pittz yes J straic yes Roger yes open to the public seeing none motion to close so move second council members Teresa boner yes Glen Den yes Tom Mitchell yes Randy pittz yes Gus traic yes Roger ver yes motion to adopt so moved second council members Teresa boner yes glenan e yes Tom Mitchell yes Randy pittz yes Jus traic yes Roger V yes the next uh ordinance we have for public hearing adoption is 2731 it is an ordinance providing funding for various Capital purposes for the burough of Somerville and appropriating 2,132 th000 for such purpose a motion to open up public hearing so moved second council members Teresa boner yes Glen Den yes Tom Mitchell yes Randy pittz yes Jus straic yes Roger ver yes open to the public seeing none motion to close so move second council members Teresa boner yes Glen Dene yes Tom Mitchell yes Randy pittz yes Gina straic yes Roger ver yes can we uh get get some sort of a list of the uh uh improvements that are going to be made to the streets Lincoln Avenue Cleveland Street Altimont and the say fry School some listing of what what are they doing are is this just just Paving jobs or the these are uh dot grants that we've received so the portion that um we have about $480,000 worth of Grants so usually usually within the grants there's it doesn't cover the entire amount so that that basically is Milling Paving and and in some cases reconstruction on those roadways okay yeah the grant seem to only cover about a quarter of it yes I mean we we obviously we apply for a greater amount and and usually accept what's afforded to us from from the uh from the Transportation yes this is this is a much poorer response from do than we're accustomed to we usually like see better than half of the uh funding come out of do yeah yeah I can't really speak for them but I know that we've applied in different areas so this year we actually did receive some granting opportunities that that usually you get one of the three grants so I agree with you Council councilman um in this case we've gotten peace meals of Grants so it's it's you know it's just like the obviously those roads need to be done anyway um so collecting $480,000 from the granting source is is obviously welcome and they're going to be doing milling and repaving or correct Milling Paving in most cases if they require if they require um you know replacement of of the sewer grates for bicycle safety grates in some of the cases it may need some minor reconstruction as well okay none of those streets were affected by the PSG work so so what happens just so the public fully understands if there's work being affected by PSN work that we're doing we get a credit for that those streets and the the funds are used on different streets so um if PSN does do work and we're fortunate to get coverage on a grant we still get paid by PSN as if they're doing that project or what they do is they they apply it to another project um but we're made whole by them when it comes to infrastructure so some of this might be paid by p and g depending on um looking at those streets I want to say no um because I'm kind of familiar with their project and I don't I don't know that those were the ones that were affected but in either case if they were we're made whole by PSN G so if we see again when we price it up we we advise PSG this is how much they have to pay us um there are some pending credit opportunities with them that we just uh met with them this morning actually um to discuss but usually that's not a it becomes more of an accounting matter but because they do pay for anything that that's that we're getting a benefit of because obviously we went through the effort of getting these grants or else they would have had to pay that but I I couldn't tell you for certain um but I I don't think they are by looking at the street names okay motion to adopt so moved second council members teres bonor yes Glendon e yes Tom Mitchell yes Randy pittz yes Gina straic yes yes Roger ver yes all right we have a number of consent resolutions uh we will be pulling number 117 does anyone on councel uh would like to pull any others 118 okay so we will be pulling 117 and 118 uh so we're going to vote on the remainder right now number 111 accepting the resignation of John melli effective April 1st 2024 112 approving Somerville Fire Department application for Austin Lada 113 approving Bridgeville ice cream truck as a renewal vendor for six months 114 awarding a contract to Modern office systems a distributor of space saver through sourcewell National contract for furniture to be installed at the emergency services facility 115 awarding a contract to for build dirt through Omni Omnia Partners cooperative purchasing system for furniture uh to be installed at the emergency services facility 116 authorizing parklet to be placed on Davenport Street in front of nine Davenport Street 119 awarding a contract to America American Pools for pool management operations uh one one approving Somerville Fire Department application for Robert scanniello 121 authorizing the Award of a non-fair and open contract for engineering design and contract Administration and inspection services to T andm Associates for services for the 2023 Carol pager Ada playground Expansion Project 122 approving the hiring of Jennifer kuchi as receptionist Administrative Assistant effective May 13 2024 123 authorizing the return of escrow fund balance in the amount of $543 for $976 6 Route 22 LLC for project at block 554 lot 3.01 124 supporting New Jersey Senate Bill 2865 establishing the voter convenience act 125 appointing Dave Myers as construction official 126 authorizing the execution of a shared services agreement by and between the burough of Somerville and the buau of Ron for Chief Financial Officer Services 12 7 approving salary adjustment to Paige ster during the term of Chief Financial Officer shared services agreement with Ron burrow who Moved second council members Teresa boner yes Glen Den yes Tom Mitchell yes Randy pittz yes G EST straic yes Roger V yes uh 117 accepting the resignation of fire chief Dave Fone senior retroactive ly to the end of business March 20 2024 so moved second I'd just like to take the time to thank uh Chief alone it's a lot of time spent um as a uh as a fire officer in the buau um our our structure is uh second assistant chief first assistant chief Deputy Chief and then ultimately Chief uh and that's a long time as a chief so again thank you to to Dave and his family uh for their support and we know that be seeing Dave on the fire grounds um but again thank you to uh chief vone for his service roll call council members Teresa boner yes Glenn Den yes Tom Mitchell yes Randy pittz yes Gus traic yes Roger from Yes uh 118 approving the purchase of professional shallow water aluminum boat profile as model from Hillsboro Volunteer Fire Company number three in the amount of $20,000 Motion in a second so we can discuss second discussion uh discussion regarding last year at this time we approved a vote purchase by the fire department um and I I'm wondering why we're P appr approving another one I think last time it was only like a dollar this time it's $20,000 I believe last year the boat needed work so I don't know what happened did we put money into it did it get work worked I also know that we have a a boat at the rescue squad I also know that the rescue squad nor OEM was informed of this purchase and I know that there's a collaborative plan that's in place so I'm wondering why we're being brought this before this has been worked out with the rest of the other two parties and what the condition of this boat is um is it another boat that needs work um and what is the training behind everyone to and implement this this this rescue um and coordinate with the other parties so a lot of questions that I have basic you know I'm I am the squad liaison um and and I have talked to the the other party so I I'd like to hear where this is where this is at so I can tell you that the uh boat from last year was a donation uh for a dollar from the uh Somerset County um that boat did need work and it has had the work performed it's I think it believe that it's still getting work done on it um for a few things that need to take place uh as far as training goes uh the the fire department has been working with the rescue squad we've done joint training uh so far we've done um awareness and operations and there's a plan to do a um the technical uh aspect of that training coming up um but the the goal is to have members of uh the fire department trained and proficient in swiftwater rescue as uh we've seen in the burrow uh we've had a few new flooding things that have happened with just some rain that we've had um so the fire department is making it a goal to have uh their members cross trained and having this boat which you're asking about the condition the condition is is uh is in terrific shape um I know that the uh that the boat was obviously looked at by the uh uh by the Chiefs before it was brought before the board the uh Council here um and that it is in functional condition um I believe uh speaking with the fire department that uh Hillsboro is getting a boat for each one of their firehouses uh and so this was I think a collective boat and that is that was why they were getting rid of it for basically no other reason so it it's uh again a great boat and the uh trailer that it comes with be is also fantastic it's got two it's a double-decker trailer and the boat can be deployed from both uh the top and the bottom so we're going to have three boats in town the fire department will have two and the rescue squad has their boat correct so we're going to have a fleet hopefully hopefully we won't need them but yes always prepare right prepare for the worst and hope for the best the Navy's Fleet is coming down and ours is going up you know when are they going to meet we'll see well I think there was there was a commitment uh a couple years ago for the Swift water rescue and I think this is just part of the you know process of of putting of that Swift swift water rescue team I know we've applied for M multiple times for grants that we were unsuccessful with on this but this is again just part of that so this is going to be paid for from a grant no it's not being paid for by a grant but I'm saying we we we've applied for grants in the past to to add voting to to as part of that Swift for rescue so this wasn't a budget expense then either um it was expense that that the fire department identified that they would spend out of their budget yes oh so it is part of their budget yes that's correct any further discussion roll call council members Teresa boner yes Glen Den yes Tom Mitchell yes Randy pittz yes Gus traic no Roger ver yes all right we have uh bills and vouchers I make a motion to pay in the order of 2,850,000 second council members Teresa boner yes Glenn Den yes Tom Mitchell yes Randy pittz yes Dina straic yes Roger V yes Mr Mitchell move for adjournment second all in favor I opposed thank you very much have a great week