phone thank you good evening to the to uh number sixth meeting of the Year this today is February 26th uh we will be meeting a meeting call to order presiding officer uh Alissa can you please read the statement please in compliance with chapter 231 of public law of 1975 notice of this meeting to be held at the criminal justice building 61 Main Street South River has been published in the home News Tribune on January 5th 2024 posted on the municipal building bulletin board the burough website the front door of the Criminal Justice building at 61 Main Street South River mayor gindy here councilwoman Ballas here councilman Cula here councilman desian here Council councilman grensky here councilman krenzel here council president olera here all rise for the salute to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all pleas standing may be seated on the agenda there is unfortunately we didn't write down that there is one award and there is one presentation I'd like to start off with the award first and then we'll get into the presentation which is going to be conducted by Christopher guda for a presentation on safety Campaign which I will come to you after this um I received a letter not too long ago and a in a act of kindness and for that matter um to be recognized throughout our town um this came from a local resident Linda Smith at 13 high and she wrote this I wanted to let you know about an act of true hero from our post office while I was on while I was out Monday February 5th my mailman Brian saved my house from a potential destruction a freakish event occurred when the sun's reflection ignited a piece of cardboard in a very large stainless steel bowl starting a fire in in the bowl that was on my front porch Brian who had already delivered my mail and was across the street delivering spotted the fire and ran over grabbed the bowl and turned it over on my sidewalk to extinguish the fire my neighbor Serena Kata and my daughter who lives across the street were there to talk to Brian after that incident I arrived home hours later realizing the magnitude of Destruction that could have occurred to my home if not Brian's quick thinking and bravery brings me to tears I have not seen him since the incident because of my work schedule but I did leave him a thank you card and I went to the post office to speak to Bridget the postmaster about the gratitude for Brian's Act of bravery and kindness I would be grateful if Brian could somehow be recognized for his commitment to the safety and res safety of residents of South River and for going above and beyond his duties as a postman all too often we report all bad things that happen around us I would love to see the spotlight shine on someone doing good for no other reason that than it was the right thing to do I believe stories like this encourage others to to do good in the community I thank you for your time and I am grateful and have such a fine mailman Brian I don't know what to tell you um well I'm going to bring him up in a second uh but from my I'm a firefighter Tony siola is a firefighter our fire chief is somewhere in the audience I'm sure they're going to say a few words uh we don't know how to thank you for what you have done um we the mayor and Council I will read this you could come up if you like con graduation of appreciation presented to Brian Tim for the heroic actions going above and beyond your duties while serving our community this is of myself and the council thank you mayor if I may Brian As A Firefighter in the burrow um thank you for your quick action extinguishing that I mean potentially it could have been a complete working structure fire for us and you did the right thing you're a hero in our eyes fire chief Craig Miller would you like to say something yes absolutely absolutely following council's lead on this being an ex-chief mayor gy being a firefighter of the burough South River your Speedy actions prevented from us actually making it there which is always a good day in our eyes y thank you thank you thank you Brian my hon to be there to be at right time well thank you again excellent thank you onto our presentation uh Christopher gond sorry he's going to present us with the presentation of safety campaign all right thank you mayor thank you council members for having me today uh so today I was invited by our local Green Team Alliance to present on a pedestrian and bicycle safety uh campaign we call Street Smart New Jersey now I represent an organization called keep middle sex moving we're the independent transportation management association who serves middle sex County and we support sustainable Transportation goals to reduce congestion increase safety and improve air quality throughout the region uh now our project projects are funded by North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority uh the New Jersey Department of Transportation the New Jersey Division of highway traffic safety and N NJ Transit so in other words everything I bring to you here today and the campaign we will work with uh all of our members on uh comes at no charge to the community now moving forward the best way to introduce the the safety component is uh T ask everyone in the room do you think a goal of zero deaths on our roadways and streets is achievable in our community then to follow that by asking if you think zero is achievable uh if you don't think zero is achievable who are we willing to lose and do we think that zero needs to be achievable in our community and last summer it was brought to my attention that there is a horrific traffic tragedy here in town and I we knew that there had had to be something done aside from what we were already doing now my organization has collaborated with your uh local law enforcement and police department here in town uh I was formerly the safe roots to school coordinator at keep middle sex moving where I presented to all of your primary school and uh Elementary School students on uh raising awareness and understanding the traffic issues when they're walking and bicycling to school and we do that every year uh before the the uh buroughs Bike Rodeo held by the police department and in my new role what we're doing is coordinating more closely to the County's office of planning and following their lead to to support their Vision zero action plan uh if you're unfamiliar with vision zero it's an in a transportation initiative that recognizes our transportation transportation system um through a Safe Systems approach so what we do is recognize that there are a certain criteria that have to be um have to be understood to know that death is not acceptable on our road roadways no matter where we go and that there are five Safe Systems elements that we should be considering highly to consolidate our efforts as safety professionals Traffic Engineers and those who work in transportation and those safety elements are uh safe road users safe Vehicles safe speeds safe roads themselves and post crash Care Now middle sex county has already developed a framework that's based off of a greater framework by the Federal Highway Administration uh and that's their Vision zero action plan where the county itself has identified pedestrian and bicycle High Injury Network corridors uh on County roadways including South River is 535 uh that goes from sville into I'm sorry sville into South River and vice versa uh what they had noticed was that there was a higher probability of crashes and higher number of crashes including bicyclists and pedestrians on those roadways so what they aim to do with this plan uh is to identify education campaigns um other safety projects and policy adoption and implementation to remedy uh what could be done to improve our roadways from a policy standpoint and our transportation spaces from an infrastructure standpoint um so moving forward what we aim to do is um support our friends in the county through their pledge to decrease traffic deaths um within half a time between now and 2040 and to completely eliminate traffic deaths by the year 2040 it sounds highly ambitious but based on the approach of the the Federal Highway Administration and the County's lead uh and the municipalities who are following by adopting their own Vision zero plans uh we believe that it is achievable and one of those components that go falls into the education is the uh education campaign that I was welcom here to present but before I get to that point uh what I wanted to promote also is at South River in 2017 uh as Doran dorianne had informed me has adopted a complete streets policy and what that policy recognizes is that uh it is the Burrow's intentions to understand that the Tre streets as public spaces should be built for everyone and accommodate everyone for the sake of safety health and wellness and economic development uh so safety is a primary goal of complete and green streets and is often the most vulnerable Road users like bicyclists and pedestrians would reap the most would G gain the most benefits from such a policy uh but these policies they do become Antiquated after some time and it is time for the burrow to um review that policy and to see if there are any necessary amendments that can be made as per the new standards by um the Department of Transportation and its model policy for complete and green streets and um again moving forward this is something that we're that keep middle sex moving is offering to um provide our Consultation Services in a way to to review your policy and help provide any uh re relevant suggestions or recommendations for amendments so that would be a great first step and you're already there in regard to uh recognizing that these spaces are for everyone and that we do want to make them safer now Street Smart NJ is a pedestrian and traffic safety campaign developed by the north Jersey Transportation Planning Authority and it has come through our work program as kmm uh to work with communities to develop uh the awareness campaign through whatever social media channels you may have or through your local businesses and as what we've done in the past was um work with the local business alliances to promote uh signage like uh here that's right next to our friend dorianne if you wouldn't mind passing me one of these uh this is one of our more recent posters to promote New Jersey's um latest safe passing law so simply it's saying to drive smart and we move over over safely and allow 4T for other Road users and depicted on the uh Graphics we have scooter users pedestrians uh people using a variety of Mobility devices and bicycles the study comes with a survey which measures how many people um or residents or or those who drive in the neighborhoods of um South River can identify what that they have seen these signs uh before the study begins and then afterwards to find out whether they were effective by doing uh traffic counts and speed counts and to find out whether there has been a positive uh change in driver Behavior Uh also with that campaign we have tip cards that are um distributed through the businesses and to the schools and uh any media Outlets uh that are able to promote what that signage is for now how this falls into the vision zero framework that I had mentioned before this is just one tool in regard to educating the public and making them more aware of the concerns for those who are walking in our streets and driving in our streets and what we can do to easily and more um uh more cognitively adhere to the traffic laws and to be more uh kind to the the people who are using these spaces as well because again the the streets and complete streets are made for everyone and we want everyone to be safe out there as as well uh another tool that we have at our disposal is the new North Jersey Transportation Planning authorities demonstration project Library so if you identify within your region uh a specific intersection or street that could use traffic calming or uh another type of treatment to to calm the traffic or slow down the cars uh whether it be to to visually narrow the lanes or to um Place flexible posts or other materials to make the lane appear more narrow to slow down drivers what we can do is a quick build or temp temporary demonstration project to test what that would be like for the drivers and their experience um and to see what it would be like to improve safety are these treatments going to slow traffic down and is this something that we would want long term now these temporary demonst ation projects can take can be placed uh and installed for about a week to about a month depending on what safety outcomes you're really looking for uh they they won't cost anything aside from possibly the assistance of your public works department to help us transport some of the materials um but the data collection and the the design for the project all comes with uh keep middle sex movings funding and our programs what I find it highly attractive is we worked with other local smaller burrow here in Middle sex County uh Dellin uh they had requested a variety of them to serve their school neighborhoods as well as other neighborhoods where um the the traffic volumes and speeds were very high near the school uh the school zones so what we did was designed um curb Cuts I'm sorry not curb cuts the opposite of curb Cuts we designed curb extensions so by making the curbs extend towards the intersection you're narrowing the intersection making the crossing distance shorter while at the same time leaving those Corners closest to the intersection free so folks don't park there and block the visibility for uh those who are turning and can clearly see the pedestrians in the crosswalks and when we proposed a specific intersection to our friends in denell and they gladly said okay we love the idea we're just going to build it straight up we're not going to uh work with the demonstration project but it gave them the opportunity to to work with us and to to see what the design would look like before actually settling on on the decision themselves so the temporary design project can go a long way in regards to just visual it uh visualizing it ourselves or to give us the the moment to experiment with how drivers are actually using those spaces once the demonstration project is implemented and uh but among the options I'm proposing to you today uh there the policy review for your current complete streets policy and recommendations for the new complete Street complete and Green Street standards by New Jersey Department of Transportation the street smart campaign by new North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority and our ability to uh work with you on a temporary temporary demonstration project uh towards the summer months of 2024 but I thank you all so much for your time and I appreciate you having me today but for any questions I'll make sure that my contact information gets to each each of you today and I will send you the copies of the slides with links to further resources if you have any questions all right thank you any questions at this time you could send the information to uh business administrator as as our chief and our uh Department of Public Work uh director excellent wonderful thank you for your time than you very nice Alissa you want to go second reading what second reading are you going to do the agenda session oh I'm sorry all right we're going to speak about agenda session discussions which is going to be on five different new ordinances that are going to be presented today I believe three of them belongs to Joe yep thank you uh I'm going to do two and I think Art's going to do one uh so the first one we have a rate change for electric and a rate change for water um we have first reading on a decrease in electric rates uh by about 5% % and the first reading of an increase of water rates in 10% and next meeting will be the introduction of the budget and the adoption of this ordinance we will be a public hearing where we'll explain more on both these ordinances and then art you got the other one the third one is a $950,000 bond ordinance to take our next step in our water line replacement program what this $950,000 we'll do uh once past on second reading and then after the stole period we will be entertaining uh proposals from engineering firms to prepare um the project for um the uh application to go to the D and the ibank the ibank is a section of the D that works with municipalities on funding um at lower rates than normally that we can get and larger amounts for a longer period of time so once this ordinance gets adopted and the stopple period goes we will be getting um some quotes from engineering firms to submit to the mayor and councel for them to choose the engineer they want to go ahead with the project that engineer then will develop a overall plan an overall inspection plan and a Target area plan which will then be submitted to the D and the ibank for approval once that's done we can go out uh and they award us the contract we're looking for $ 30 million uh we can go out for uh the project to start uh as soon as possible great to hear that two other ordinances are uh on my behalf which is on the uh commission sorry filming commission which as you all know we just uh shot a film here in South in South River not too long ago it was a great success uh one of them is um uh setting out permits for film commission or filming to be uh introduced in the town in the future to come as well as the fees uh the type of numbers that they would be uh requested to uh pay U depending on the size of their film um other than that we have no other uh first reading we will start on second reading ordinance 20243 an ordinance of the burough of South River County of midle M sex state of New Jersey amending the burrow code of the burrow South River so as to amend chapter 258 entitled Property Maintenance make a motion W the full reading second motion by councilman siola seconded by councilwoman balis uh anybody for public a motion for to pass the uh oh sorry public hearing open it to public hearing reading I'm sorry anybody from public first call second call third call motion to close second motion by uh councilman siola seconded by councilman krenzel uh councilman Council discussion anyone this get these people motion make motion to move the ordinance second second councilman motion by councilman siola second in by council president Olivera councilman Ballas yes councilman siola yes councilman desian yes councilman grensky yes councilman krenzel yes council president Olivera yes Lista 2020 24-5 ordinance 2024 D5 an ordinance of the burough of South River County of middle SEC state of New Jersey amending the burrow code of the burrow of South River so as to amend chapter 344 entitled recers motion raave to full reading second a motion by councilman kinsky seconded by councilwoman Ballas opening the floor to public hearing first call second call third call motion to close public second motion by councilman siola seconded by council president Ola uh Council discussion have a motion motion to adopt second motion by councilwoman Ballas seconded by council president alera Council Ballas yes councilman Cula yes councilman dimian yes councilman grensky yes councilman krenzel yes council president olera Yesa 202 24-6 ordinance 20246 an ordinance of the burough of South River County of middle SEC state of New Jersey amending the burough code of the burough of South River so as to amend chapter 22 entitled boards commissions and authorities motion wait the full reading second motion by councilman krinsky seconded by Council and siola uh public discussion uh anybody opening the floor first reading second reading third those close second motion by councilwoman Ballas seconded by Council siola Council discussion I have a motion motion to close no we're motioning to accept sorry right motion by council president Olivera seconded by councilman krushinski councilman ballis yes councilman Cula yes councilman desian yes councilman kensy yes councilman krenzel yes council president Ola yes list of 202 24-7 ordinance 202 24-7 an ordinance of the burough of South River County of middlex state of New Jersey amending the burrow code of the burough of South River so as to amend chapter 193 entitled vehicles and traffic motion away the full reading second motion by councilman krinsky seconded by councilwoman Ballas all in favor I iar public hearing yeah all right when you said that opening the floor to the public burn 11 to set place your environmental commission chair uh now um the commission is in full support of this ordinance um eliminating uh any ability to remove and fine vehicles on Blue Acres property uh we fully support thank you anyone else first call second call close public second motion by councilman krushinsky seconded by councilman siola Council a discussion do I have a motion I make a motion motion by councilman Dian seconded by councilwoman Ballas councilwoman Ballas yes councilman Cula yes councilman dimian yes councilman kensky yes councilman krenzel yes council president Olivera yes all right first reading 2024 d8 ordinance 2024 d8 an ordinance to amend the code of the burrow of South River chapter 155 entitled fees by amending section 15530 Chapter 30 water mayor I move that the council passed ordinance 2024 d8 on its first reading by title only and that the clerk be authorized to publish the same as required by law with a second reading and public hearing to be held on March 11th at 700 p.m. by video conference via Zoom or in the council chambers of the Criminal Justice building located at 61 Main Street South River New Jersey second motion by council president olera seconded by councilwoman Ballas councilwoman Ballas councilman Cula yes councilman desian yes councilman grensky yes councilman krenzel yes council president Ola yes 202 24-9 ordinance 2024 D9 an ordinance an ordinance amending burrow code chapter 155 fees mayor I move that the council pass ordinance 2024-the by title only and that the clerk be authorized to publish the same as required by law with a second reading and public hearing to be held on March 11th 7 p.m. by video conference via Zoom or in the conference chambers of the Criminal Justice building located at 61 Main Street South rer New Jersey do I have a second motion by council president Olivera seconded by councilman kinsky councilman ballis councilman Cula yes councilman desian yes councilman grensky yes councilman krenzel yes council president Olivera yes Lista 2024 d10 ordinance 2024 d10 Bond ordinance providing for improvements to the Burrow's water treatment storage and distribution system appropriating $950,000 therefore and authorizing the issuance of $900,000 bonds and notes to finance a portion of the cost thereof authorized in by the burrow of South River in the county of middle sex New Jersey mayor I move that Council pass ordinance 202 24-10 on its first reading by title only and that the clerk be authorized to publish the same as required by law with a second reading and public hearing to be held on March 11th at 700 p.m. by video conference via Zoom or in the C uh council chambers of the Criminal Justice building located at 61 Main Street South R New Jersey second councilman motion by councilman council president Olivera seconded by councilwoman valis councilwoman ballis councilman Cula yes councilman desian yes councilman grensky yes councilman krenzel yes council president olera yes Lista 202 24-11 ordinance 2024 d11 ordinance of the burough of South River County of middle SEC state of New Jersey amending the burrow code of the burough South River so as to create chapter 43 entitled filming permits mayor I move that Council uh pass ordinance 20241 on its first reading by title only and that the clerk be authorized to publish the same as required by law with a second reading and public hearing to be held on March 11th at 700 p.m. by video conference via Zoom or in the council chambers of the Criminal Justice building located at 61 Main Street South Riv New Jersey second motion by council president ala uh seconded by councilwoman Ballas councilwoman Ballas councilman siula yes councilman desian yes councilman krenzel yes councilman grensky yes council president olera yes Lista 202 24-12 ordinance 202 24-12 an ordinance of the burough of South River County of middle SEC state of New Jersey amending the burough code of the burough of South River so as to amend chapter 155 entitled fees mayor I move that Council pass ordinance 2024-25 video conference via Zoom or in the council chambers of the Criminal Justice building located at 61 Main Street in South Iran New Jersey second motion by council president alera second by councilman krinsky councilman Ballas yes councilman Cula yes councilman desian yes councilman grensky yes councilman kenzel yes council president olera yes moving on to reports Bruce thank you mayor good evening everyone the do projects the 2023 and 2024 local Aid pro programs we are combining the two of them we are well underway with the design and then we will be able to put those out to bid The Local transportation project grants need uh We've not heard anything on our 2023 application uh if you want to submit one for the 2024 we can on the electrical substation the contractor is doing some of the initial testing and the storm water assistance grant uh I'm going to get you Mr lensy some information on the billing for that so that you can submit it and the work product to the uh State get the additional 10,000 and Mr Zenga tells me there's another round available so I'll research that and if you'd like will apply for that as well and that is it anybody for uh anything for uh Bruce Joe uh two resolutions uh one is we're revising the all-inclusive playground resolution from last meeting uh the state reviewed it and their one recommendation was to have an all-inclusive family assisted use bathroom so this new resolution includes that part part of it and another resolution the $75,000 grant that was discussed at length last year we got approved for it and we have to do a resolution to send to the state and that's the next step that's it than for Dr guys age uh mayor I don't have nothing to report tonight all is good all right fire chief I have a question if I may sorry yes uh potholes when will you be going out with the uh fixing of potholes yes you you've been doing that okay very good no just in general just in general to pop up every day pick a street my Street Mayor and Council we are currently operating in the fire department roughly about 60 alarms for the year and currently five of these six pieces of apparatus are in service thank you nothing else to report anything for the fire chief legal I have nothing tonight mayor thank you Alysa I don't have anything all right business administrator yeah thank you mayor a couple of things for I I guess I'm sounding like a broken record still waiting for baited breath for the vendor to come and start working on the pumping station every day it's another day delay they're working on another project that has taking longer than they expected uh number two on tonight's um resolutions you will be awarding a resolution for the chemical modifications to the water treatment plant uh we open the bids and the bids came in we had two biders the low bid um was within the financial money available and we were awarding that contract just waiting for them to get the equipment to come in and start work the uh last thing is want the mayor asked me to explain um in the 5 years I'm here I've become very Adept in the operation of water treatment plant and how it works um as you might notice people might notice on the website and you will be getting in your next water bill you will be getting an important information notice about drinking water in South River uh I have learned that the hardest difficult time to maintain the best quality water during the summer and the Heat uh it appears that uh during the uh times of July and August of last year um the disinfectant residual chlorine was undetectable in more than 5% of the samples that we took we corrected that immediately um by making modifications to the system to increase the amount of um chlorine we received a notice from the Department of Environmental Protection to notice the public from July and August on December 26th the notice basically says what should I do there's nothing you need to do so we just wanted to make it clear that it was a difficult time due to the heat uh as you understand we have two water sources our water source in East Brunswick's East Brunswick gets their water treated from middle SE middlex treats it at their plant then it goes to East Brunswick then it comes to South River along with the heat and storage in the tanks the chlorine dissipates over time we have made that correction there have been no other times that um we have had a non-compliance um we had to send the notice to the state to get it approved to put into the mailer and to put on the website that took a couple of weeks so it will be in the next bill but it really was just more of a notice that there was a period of time that there was low chlorine in the water we believe that we will have a better hand on it with the new equipment and um we understand in the summer what happens to chlorine it just dissipates from the heat we try to keep our tanks at 90% it would work better if we kept them at 50% but then we could run out of water because the heat that's generated on the tanks itself and you remember we had a hot summer dissipates the storage water so um we've corrected it the new system will be even better and no one should really be concerned about the notice thank you that's all I have thank you it's like our pools all right on to the council councilman C hey um DDC had met on February 21st uh long discussions on signage and parking so I know they're definitely starting to look into adding some parking signs for the municipal lots and working with the parking authority uh in the municipal lot for signage and um the parking meters things like that uh their next meeting is March the 20th so have March 20th thank you uh councilwoman Alice um just a reminder that the free rabies Clin Clinic is going to be Saturday March 16th at the DPW building we have one more meing before that so I will make the reminder with the times and upcoming Library events I went on their website today and it's amazing how much stuff that the library offers that no one knows about they're having a leap year party on Friday on Thursday the 29th that is at 4:30 but that's a website you have to register there's some things you have to register for there's little learning little learner Story Time Friday March 1st from 11:00 a.m. at 11:00 a.m. for uh children up to the age of three Library buddies open play Monday March 4th at 10:00 a.m. that's a free uh play time for children the Dr Seuss magic show is Monday March 4th at 6: pm. keep common color coloring for all ages uh that's on Tuesday the 5th at 6th and international women's day they will be screening the movie the marel the marbles Friday March 88th at 1:30 p.m. and that is also someone you have something you have to register for um you can go on their website you can always go to the library and pick up their list of events um but they have it's amaz they have things planned all the way through to the summer earlier at our public safety meeting I asked age how we did on snow removal and we were informed that most of everyone ignored their signs to remove their cars when it's snow covered you got to move your cars you made it very difficult for people to plow and that was a significant storm you can't park under a sign that says no parking snow covered I'm sorry it just doesn't make any sense around the schools especially uh you mention mention Johnson Place nobody moved James David no one moved their cars you have to move their cars or you're going to start you're not even going to get worn you'll get the ticket in the mail that's all I have thank you councilman zian um I don't have anything to report mayor thank you council president um in terms of Parks and Recreation our winner sports are coming to end basketball we have our last championship game this Wednesday um at 6:30 p.m. um in the Middle School gym our wrestling B Team competed in its last tournament this past weekend and our a team will be participating this weekend um coach Matt Des sanis is here I don't get a really big chance to shout you out so thank you for everything you do with our wrestling program it's greatly appreciated um from a cheerleading perspective our girls competed in Ocean City Maryland this weekend we had a our 8U team compete and two U14 teams compete they both did a great job they're winding down their season they have three competitions left one at Brookdale this Saturday the following week they're at American Dream mall and then on April 5th and 6th I believe we're going to Virginia Beach for the Nationals so they are awesome they they're doing a great job we're really excited with everything they're doing representing our town uh spring Sports signups are open please visit our website we have a number of items going on one of the big things that I would I've been asked about from our residents is our summer wreck uh we're currently waiting for the board of Ved to approve our facility request once we have that we'll be able to start publicizing summer wreck and we'll be able to uh solidify the dates and the times so our goal is to hopefully have that by the beginning of March so that's right around the corner hopefully next week we'll be able to uh publicize that for the parents from a budget committee standpoint Joe mentioned uh we had our second meeting last week everything's going really well we're planning on introducing the budget on March 11th um something a little bit different we're going to do we're going to host two public informational sessions the first being March 23rd at 8:00 a.m. in council chambers and the second on April 20th at 8:00 a.m. as well uh located at council chambers as well our goal is to have our residents come out ask questions the budget it's all of our budgets so if you have a question we want to be able to explain it um I know we're implementing some things this year uh that Joe mentioned whether it's the decrease in electric the increase of water we're really trying to minimize uh keep taxes as low as possible and make sure the financial burden for our residents is low so the goal is to with the decrease in electric and the increase in water um based off the study we did I think I'm the only one Joe that pays a significant more amount because I run sprinklers in the summer all the time um but realistically I think it was what five6 dollar difference um yeah yeah and we'll be able to explain that in more detail thanks Joe um so and then our our goal is to have the budget adopted on April 22nd by state law we're required to have the budget up for 28 days um and we're going to up six weeks we want the input we want you guys to come and speak to us so please if you have the opportunity March 23rd or April 20th in council chambers we'll have our auditor or CFO and the budget committee will be here to answer questions and that's all I have mayor thank you uh councilman kinsky thank you mayor um unfortunately the Office on Aging had their not unfortunately but uh they had their meeting today and unfortunately I wasn't able to attend for uh some prior commitments but I can't say that uh the income tax services by AARP are being offered yet at uh East Brunswick Oldbridge and cville uh please call ahead and make an appointment and they'll help you out with that but that that's all I have there thank you okay K my report has already been given by the professionals so I have nothing to add all right thank you we're going to open the floor to the public you have 10 minutes state your name and your address anybody this first there's no way you guys can get out that early no Jim Hutcheson 38 Virginia Street just a a quick comment maybe a recommendation when we go through the uh resolutions excuse me the ordinances and when you get the second reading uh you go through and you always pretty much just wave the full reading I know it may have been part of the first reading previously but maybe somebody can just say once the ordinance is is is out there that this ordinance does XYZ so that if there's somebody new in the public who's here tonight maybe somebody who's watching watching the meeting on Channel 35 whatever it happens to be they know what that particular ordinance encapsulates um I think it'd be a good idea just to again just a a brief explanation on what that ordinance does um again so that it's not just okay wave the full reading because when you look at the verbiage you may or may not know exactly what that ordinance contains just a little recommendation okay thank you thank you anyone else from the fir uh from the public hi Richard burn 11 betet pleas um I'll second um Mr Hutchinson um I I do remember mayor gindy speaking earlier in the year about using the agenda session about doing like plain language explanations of the U uh ordinance on first reading but you know like a a paragraph included on the agenda published to the public would would go a long way I mean I speak code in my sleep you know she gets all annoyed when I start talking about section but um yeah that's good um I'd like to say that uh Bill meerie last year gave us a whole mess of those signs and so you already see them around town and uh you know uh like absolutely zero zero is is is the goal and um you know we as part of both the Green Team and and commission will you know work towards helping anything that you can get us um um in that vein um yeah we have no highways so all the deaths in this town are completely unnecessary speed related stop sign related um I always remember as a child Drive I grew up in Colonia Woodbridge and we drive through Raw raway and they had these just wonderful backlit blinking stop signs the entire sign would blink once a second and I I'm like wow why doesn't more places in New Jersey as a child have these and now they have really solar powered efficient ones um and I just saw one on um Dunham's Corner Road um I forget that street that kind of people tend to yeah it's it's a a ramp and it's actually a stop sign and nobody stops and um so they they put a flashing one there too so that that would be a thought for moving in the future um the other thing I thought was about um you know raising the water rate and lowering the electric rate I I I remember several times mayor krenzel talking about weaning the burrow off of diverting electric Surplus to the to the regular budget and seems to be a step and you know I thought hey why not divert electric Surplus to water infrastructure as well so wow that that it's a it seems to be a common sense thing to to take up right now doing it this way so I I thank you for that thank you right thank you and Mr burn just so you know on uh resolution 2024 D21 121 we're actually purchasing $50,000 worth of four-way Illuminating stop signs with the uh hcd beauti grant money that we received app yeah we're applying for it yep thanks J um hi my name is SAA Forge I'm 84 F Street South River obviously um I had a few of our tenants that I've called I don't know what we would do or how to do it but their electric bill went from like 150 to 500 I don't know what happened but it's multiple tenants in our building that's on wead Avenue so I don't know how to get somebody to check that or see what's going on with that that's one two the potholes when you asked about it I know it's a dead end street but if you've gone down Cleveland at the end that is so bad I mean like you're losing your car it's like sinking and somebody's got to go down there and get that fire hydrant fixed because there's a lot of water getting wasted it's like they just put a pipe to let it go out instead of fixing it so um other than that I think that's good for now give your information to uh art on electricity mayor I would recommend that she stop in and see Mr dudus what may be happening is they may not be paying their bills and the uh the company that does the billing the computer automatically Jacks it up no they pay their bills you know they all pay cash well you know as long as long as they're Bill do say estimated there shouldn't be a reason for any kind of large increase all right H can you look at Cleveland please to give you a bit of a comment and everything on uh the end of Cleveland Avenue I had been out there uh last week and everything too cuz one of the residents he had complained about his water being really bad there um it's a dead end as far as that pipe goes and what they've done is they've opened up the hydrate and they let the water flow unfortunately when you get a slack time uh during the day it's fine because people are using the water and everything too but at night what happens is they shut it off and the hydrate the column fills up with water there's an automatic bleeder there so that's a lot of times where you see the pool of water down there at the End of the Street around the hydrant that's what it is it's the hydrant relieving that water so it br brings it down below the frost level so it doesn't freeze so that's a little bit too plus the fact too that the street is actually sinking in that particular area too it's it's I I know I live down there and uh what happens is the clay is Shifting and everything like that too you could see the fell at the one end of the house he actually lost his garage and everything too because the house had settled so dog onone much there and it's the clay shifting down into the low spot into the lower section so you know to give you a little bit of an explanation about what's actually happening there we are going to address it the best we possibly can okay with that that's it thank you anyone yes you can I'll bring him up he can come back up I just want to address this Cleveland the end of Cleveland issue um because I'm working parttime in the water department also and I was out there two weeks ago um I'm actually locating Valves and hydrants as part of the uh update to the uh systemwide water distribution map and uh we've talked about putting an automatic flusher at the end of that if we can so that it would eliminate running the hydrant and it would just flush down into the uh the creek um because right now we just have basically a hose running out of there and the the hydron is uh is running um I have my own opinions uh based upon my 23 years at middle water company and as a licensed water and wastewater operator I have my own opinions um I've shared them with the business administrator and the CFO uh but I think once we put an auto flusher on there um and we do some other things um that should eliminate some of the issues but with the amount of settlement on that street and just how that street is buckled how the uh uh the gas boxes are tilted how the storm sewers are tilted um Jim Hutchinson's opinion that's not the bleeders that's not it's too much water I think there's other issues there but we'll see what happens so I think once we get an autof flusher in there and maybe we can expose some other areas I think then we'll have an answer as to what the issue is that we can go forward with corrective measures thank you thank you good evening my name is matalina Rivera um two things first I would like to commend the dispatchers in their back to professionalism because there was an issue for a little while there so I'd like to commend them I have an issue with the police department um when a resident calls in regards to ordinance violations it's not to be dismissed and just because the person calls a couple of times it should not be dismissed or oh how do you not you know how do you know and it's up to the officer's discretion how many times are they going to give um people with you know giant trucks and businesses a free pass and cures if someone calls and gives an ordinance number new slash if that person is telling you the whole thing and says hey look it up just in case or have oh it's up to the officer to write the ticket um H if you look down the line there's been a call being made and not just by me but by other people the only thing is that as you can tell I have a mouth and I use it that's a problem that's a very big problem and and this isn't kicking in the police department because frankly I appreciate their services I have always had their back because I live you know with my father he's elderly and they have had to respond many a time but wrong is wrong they wind up ticketing other people but for some reason right there on North Side they choose not to and that's getting very frustrating I will um address this uh another situation in regards to EPA violations at another time but I thank you for the time all right can you repeat your address pardon what's your address eight Norths Side Avenue eight okay thank you thank you down it anyone else from the public first call I I'm G to follow up with her tomorrow with the chief first call second call third call motion to close public motion by councilman siola seconded by councilwoman bis all in favor Lissa consent resolutions please just mention the appointment first oh I'm sorry uh I do have one am mayor's appointment environmental tree shade commission Advisory Board which is uh Richard burn for chair hi Rich goe okay Lissa please some resolutions whereas resolution 20 2401 authorizes the Bro Council to utilize a consent agenda to adopt various resolutions of a routine and non-controversial nature at one time now therefore be it is hereby resolved that the below-listed resolutions are hereby adopted by the burrow Council in whole as if the same were individually acted upon consent resolutions 2024 110 to 2024 1221 110 award contract to CME Associates for Professional Services for njde storm water discharge permit 111 permit a voluntary canning fundraiser to support the South River High School booster club 112 property tax refund for a total disabled veteran 113 appointment of Jonathan Harris as a labor a for the sanitation department 14 property tax refund 115 authorized certain utility refunds 116 approving a Grant application with the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs for daily field repairs 117 authorizing the award of contra contract for the water treatment plant chemical modification project 118 except February 12th 2024 regular and executive session minutes 119 authorize the bills and claims list 120 amended resolution approving submission of a Grant application to the njde Green Acres Program for the construction of a completely inclusive playground at Kowski Park 121 authorized cdbg submission a proposal to count to County public housing agency I have a motion motion second motion by councilwoman Ballas second by councilman dimian councilwoman Ballas councilman Cula yes with exception on 119 um stain from 23- 02053 and 23 03451 councilman deian yes councilman grensky yes councilman krenzel yes council president Olivera yes thank you uh there's there is anything for new business we're going to start off with councilman krenzel yes I had the chance to attend uh two wakes uh of two of South Rivers uh people who gave a lot to the town Bill shiter and Leon kashian he being of the auto part store but also of the Lions Club for many years he ran the Lions Club breakfast there so uh we wish them condol es to the family and may they rest in peace uh evina Herb's retirement party was nicely attended if you have not visited the library lately you should um it's quite something libraries are not what they used to be not just books there's more things going on there stop by see the changes see what they're doing uh congratulations uh to Brian and all those in South River who uh serve the town quietly and and help you know good for all of you uh one of my favorite bugaboos here the a little card here be visible at night and in Clement weather that's for all you pedestrians I have often complained about that if we're going to go with this Vision zero which is means Vision zero is towards zero deaths by uh Motor Vehicles everybody has to help drivers and pedestrians and so please please when you go at night uh wear something bright and shiny so that people can see you and uh finally remember March 10th we change times daylight savings time comes in so but just because it's daylight savings times you still can't see people at night to wear dark clothes so don't thank you that's all councilman krinsky thank you mayor um first off I'd like to thank all of our Public Service workers in the town our especially our DPW from the last storm and everything uh please residents uh we just ratified the uh ordinance and everything too saying that okay there's a storm coming get your vehicle off the road if we can to make it a little bit easier for the guys to clear the streets um you know it's not a permanent thing but just so to make the job a little bit easier to make it a little bit more accessible for our fire department or the police on a call any type of emergency um with that uh that's pretty much all I have I'd like to thank all of our other workers and everything that we have into town Robert Wood Johnson and the other departments and all thank you all thank you councilman Damian um attended evelina's uh retirement uh at the library and that was a very good showing like uh councilman um czel mentioned um and the library does have a lot of things there um if you haven't been up there in a while um there's a lot to do um they do a great job up there and this is also a very good pamphlet and it makes a lot of sense and it's one of those things where things are very basic but we all have to be reminded um this every if everyone followed this we would have a lot of issues that wouldn't be there that are there um and it's very important and yes this is going to be followed up very well and that's all I have thank you Council woman Bas hard time my name um I'm not used to calling a council woman Don you're hesitating um the weather's going to be nice the next couple of days even though it's going to rain so watch out for the kids I will now get on my rant of parking by the schools stop letting your children out on the street side side of your car this close especially on johnon place on the wrong side going down they pull into the yellow they open up the P the driver's side and let all the something's going to happen and it's not going to be it's going to be horrible you cannot just let your kids out just because you're in a hurry to get somewhere the yellow lines are there for a reason the signs are there for a re reason but people just choose to ignore and it's getting worse and worse I see it every morning I live on Fairview Avenue they're double parking it's almost like a game of chicken who's going to let the other one pass and then they decide not to so then there's like okay who's going who's not going then the traffic goes around the corner not that it's bad enough as it is just watch and pay attention to the rules so that's all you have to do we don't want to see any tragedies up there and that's all I have thank you councilman sea thank you um just to add to councilwoman Ballas um the weather is getting nicer and the kids are on the bikes and they're dotting out darting out between parked cars running across the street um it's happening not just around the schools but all over town so please keep your eyes open stay alert speed limits are 25 I find myself doing 15 to 20 sometimes when the kids are out and about because they just they don't look they just cross the street either on foot bicycles scooters whatever stay alert um just to bring back up um um malisheski funeral home is going to be having a shredding event in April Saturday April 27th from 12:30 to 3:00 p.m. on Whitehead Avenue at the at the meski funeral home so I just want to keep bringing it up so anybody that needs any shredding done it's April 27th from 12:30 to 300 p.m. demolishes funeral home on Whitehead Avenue also um our PD has been working diligently with people knocking on doors from Home Improvement companies they you need new windows your roof is going to leak um I've called myself a few times to piece to the police department and they have responded and escorted the gentleman out of town but for them to walk around town knocking on doors they need a permit from 48 Washington and the police department they must have IDs around their neck with a permit attached also to that last year we did a last year 22 22 we did a no knock ordinance anybody who is interested in that no knock ordinance please go to 48 Washington get your application you fill it out they'll give you a large decal for your front door put it on your front door it's a no knock ordinance it says right on it and if they do knock on it they will be find so again 48 Washington has the applications fill them out and get the no knock ordinance if anybody sees anybody walking around town knocking on doors going from house to house please call the police department the non-emergency number 238 1000 tell them what you have tell them where he the person is and a police car will come up there so please keep your eyes open watch out for your neighbors especially our senior citizens make sure that nobody's going in you know trying to do a fraud scheme on them keep an eye out for your neighbor on that and mayor I believe that's all I have thank you council president Al so first and foremost I just want to thank the council for uh passing on second reading 202 24-5 um what this ordinance does it allows us to have record added to our list the issue we were running into as a buau was blue acre parking semi- trucks were parking down on Causeway on Blue acres and unfortunately we had Wreckers that aren't able to necessarily take that size of a truck so by increasing the size you know we're going to be able to solicit uh different companies that are going to be able to come into town and assist us uh 202 24-7 uh does exactly what uh Mr burn said it prevents it was already a measure where you can't park on Blue Acres but we just codified it in the ordinance to make sure that um when someone does we have something that we can fall back on um I can tell you in January I think all of us were involved we went to Causeway a number of trucks were towed um the gentleman screamed uh at us yelled at us said we're not business friendly and exact words to them well if I'm South River friendly and I'm burrow resident friendly and I think it's time that these truckers understand that this is not a free-for-all um and unfortunately what's happening we want them to run their business we want them to do things the right way and what's happening right now is we've turned into essentially a parking lot especially down by the causeway and this is something that you know we'll start to see cleaning up little by little and we're taking baby steps but it's happening um and it's unfortunate that it's come to this but when you have oil leaking into uh storm drains storm drains uh people working on uh trucks in the middle of the road it's unacceptable and enough is enough and you know this is where we're going to draw the line so I want to thank everyone for taking the opportunity to review this and pass this because I do think this will make South River better uh age in terms of DPW thank you for the storm that's second storm was kind of supposed to be 2 3 Ines and out of nowhere I think we got what 9 and 1 12 Ines um woke up in the morning guys did a fabulous job I had a neighbor that was um you know struggling suffered from a recent heart attack they came out they assisted him I can't thank you enough for um just the roads were in great shape in the morning so um thank you again to all the DPW workers for everything they do um and that's all I have mayor thank you uh like council president uh spoke about the trucks um I can't tell you how much I've been pushing on this we have enough of these truck parkings in this town we're done we're passing an Ordnance we're working on as we speak today um this is not Elizabeth this is not Newark this is not Lyndon this is South River uh South River doesn't doesn't need to be a parking lot for trucks so uh you're going to see a lot of enforcement coming down the road uh with the snow removal I know it hasn't been easy especially with moving cars but not following the law is going to get your car towed or for that matter ticketed we are trying to do the right job and the right the right amount of uh snow removal that has to be done for you and it's not easy especially when you're covering a a town of 2.7 mile radius uh the guys at DPW did a phenomenal job I can't thank them enough uh I know I was pretty much driving around meeting up with some of the guys and I know they were they were very exhausted so age please by all means uh thank them for us um avalina 10 years as a library director she has done a remarkable job I had the opportunity to uh congratulate her along with Council pres councilman krenzel as well as dimian uh she's surely going to be miss our new director is going to be Karen so please come out come to the library see what you have it's a beautiful place awesome place for resources um I want to thank Brian Tim for uh a remarkable job in putting out that fire you don't hear about this and uh this is something that council is going to start working on we want people to be noticed in this town all right enough with these bad newses but we want we want to hear this um not literally yesterday as well as uh this morning or this afternoon I had the opportunity to walk around to Manu Street Hollander and reason being is because I keep hearing about brown Water Brown water is not going away we're working on it as we speak uh with the business administrator uh Bruce uh Council in regards of changing or replacing lines until that happens we're going to have issues with brown Water uh I must have spoken to at least nine or nine or 10 residents out of the nine or 10 three of them actually had Brown water it still lingers upon us now we have had several several water main breaks uh since the cold has pulled in and it doesn't stop matter of fact I have a letter from our very own Thomas dominiki and he writes this age you're going to like this on Thursday morning February 1st 2024 about about 4:30 a.m. I walked into my kitchen for a glass of water and noticed a white Ford pickup truck idling across the street with its lights on I went back to bed I woke up that morning at 10: a.m. and notic sorry 7:00 a.m. and noticed the white Ford pickup truck still there at about 8:00 a.m. a few yellow BMW track contractor trucks started arriving I went outside and determined what was happening Michael Smith a burrow employee came to me and explained for that a water leak was detected by South River Police and that he had come to the site earlier and was waiting for waiting in his Ford pickup truck for for the repair crew to arrive the BN bnw crew were very well prepared arriving with equipment for the job and a crew of proficiency workers to perform the required remediation a rectangular Hall approximately 9 by 14 ft was opened the pipe was repaired and the nearby fire hydron was open and flush to keep the water lines clear of all sentiment the hole was back filled and covered with a hot patch asphal that whole the whole job was finished before noon and everyone left the site I was amazed with the speed and proficiency of all the burrow employees road crew police and the third party being W contractors this is South River we are working hard to make this easier for us and it's not easy you think your guys I have nothing else we are going to go into executive session after that there's nothing to be voted upon we will be adjourning a meeting once we come back out if you like to stay you're more than welcome you're going to be bored but do what you got to do Alysa resolution 20 24-1 122 whereas Section 8 of chapter 231 Public Law of 1975 permits the exclusion of the general public from a meeting of the governing body under certain circumstances and whereas the mayor and counsel of the burough South River are of the opinion such circumstances presently exist now therefore being it is hereby resolved by the mayor and Council of the burough of South River in the county of middle sex of the state of New Jersey that the public be excluded upon the here andafter specific subject matter and that sub subject matter to be so discussed is as follows po potential litigation be a be a further resolve that such record of the above discussion will be made public when confidentiality is no longer required motion motion second motion by Donna second by council president Alo Council Ballas councilman suula yes councilman desian yes councilman grensky yes councilman krenzel yes council president Oliva yes sit down motion by uh councilman zian seconded by Donna I miss motion to adjourn second motion to adjourn by councilman Kenzo second by councilman krinski all in favor