evening I call to order this regular meeting of the P Council on Monday March 11 2024 at 7:00 p.m. Madam FL would you please read the open public meetings act inance St the notice requirement of the open public meetings act be satisfied with respect to this meeting of C Council time so long with the public telephone call in information said notice and meeting agenda was posted in the building and St time the agenda j.org counil meetings a public comment instructions on how thank you madam Clark would you please call the ball here Council M here Council here mayor pres mayor May um it is Township manager attorney Bri ship manager Kev Selvin myself clerk thank you m cler please stand the flag indivisible liberty and justice for alling I'll start with theor rep today um first off um it was a pleasure to attend the state of the county address um two weeks ago a week and a half ago uh executive St senzo did a great job outlining projects that the county has embarked on and is planning to embark on in the future um we're of course pleased that he announced the improvements to The Rona Park uh Recreation facilities with pickle ball courts something that I announced uh that I have I suppose in this meeting uh so thank you every member of the council was present um so it's nice to provide a good showing and uh the county was appreciative of all of us being there um it was a pleasure last week to participate in read Across America that's one of my favorite things to do I got to read to uh Miss Graves and Miss Ellen Ban's third grade classes at Forest Avenue School um which was a phenomenal experience I got to answer some questions uh afterwards the Highlight was the student students significant disappointment that I did not make $2 million a year or have a private plane um but they will be voters soon enough um so it was great I appreciate Florence for inviting me for that and bringing us out um I had the joy also of attending the Boy Scout Troop 2 pancake breakfast this past weekend at um the Presbyterian Church the scouts always do a great job and it's pleasure really seeing everybody it's a it's really one of those community events that's up in this councilman Rome and I were treated to a tour of the Presbyterian Church Thrift Store after that uh which is a musty if you've never been there um thank you to Verona resident and uh friend Sandy Crawford for uh making sure that they were open for us to go do that and suggesting that we do that so please check that out uh they do great work and we will have them in a council meeting future to talk about detal the work that they're doing this is women's history month this month so uh just a it's great to recognize all the women who make a difference have made a difference continue to make a difference uh in our lives I especially want to recognize my mother Andy Huber who was the consumate um public servant and volunteer in her community and all of the the women in Verona who make our town great uh um it is also Irish American heritage month and I was pleased to participate in our flag raising immediately before this meeting and thank you to the representatives um from several different agencies and organizations uh and to our bag Pipers participating tonight that was available on live stream you can always go back and watch the the film of that and happy St Patrick stage everybody on Sunday I will be participating in the uh northy Chamber of Commerce uh meet with the mayor's event on Friday April 5th at the Willshire Grand Hotel uh it is a free event with pre-registration breakfast is included with several sponsors so if you um would like to attend please do there's still some space uh from what I understand um next at our next meeting uh we will be having presentations of two of our remaining Street that honor um Fallen veterans in Verona the Verona Heroes program Rob cruso was coordinated that program for many years will be here we're going to have one family in person they get a duplicate street sign of the one that is is actually displayed in town and then we'll be doing a presentation virtually for family who lives in Florida so I encourage everybody to be here and I thank uh Mr cuso for his assistance with that um I had a wonderful call with last week with Hannah Mory who is Senator Booker state director um to discuss our Public Safety merch Services complex building the Senator's office was very gracious in providing us time and support um and Senator bucker as sponsored many mer Services related projects in the past um Miss Mory and her appropriation staff will'll be meeting with the administration and myself and the deputy mayor uh tomorrow to assist us in making the project as attractive as possible to the Committees that could potentially be presented to um so I thank them for their quick turnaround on that meeting and for their support and I look forward to that our ld40 Senator kado assemblyman baras and to Phillips have agreed to write letters of support a joint letter of support for the project to pass along to our federal legislators uh that can be attached to the application and as they've seen the project this is very important they are also in BO with that and we keep moving along with all of those things reaching out to anybody we can for support on that as final note since we have quite a few things on the agenda tonight just wanted to remind the Council of parliamentary procedure that requires everybody who wishes to uh speak to be recognized by the presiding officer uh and also that we direct all comments to the presiding officer and not to one another and that includes my report Mr P would you one more thing after Mr P evening mayor and Council um rumor is that there may be a plane in your budget you know so uh if you do I can use a ride somewh once in a while just jokeing and that's on record now I know it's so I just said I was joking otherwise we would all be in trouble and you did steal my thunder about the state of the County uh thank you all for coming and participating uh it's always good to see uh local government at our events and speaking of events uh this coming Saturday there is a job fair at the zoo from 10: to 2 uh pay is $153 per hour and you must be 18 uh your old to participate they do have volunteer uh positions for people who are younger than 18 so hopefully um we're going into the hot season of parks and everything else that's going on so I just handed out the Cherry Blossom Festival and it starts on Saturday August 6th um a I'm sorry August April 6th it's the chry Blossom bike Challenge and it's from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the oval in the north of division and then a very nice uh run is Sunday April 7th at 10: a.m. it's the cherry blossom 10k run and uh we did mail these out to a lot of the citizens throughout the county and uh please put it on the website if possible the other thing is uh I just ran into the chief at a swearing in to your Chief and um we were discussing at a meeting with the county executive today the parkks director and the County engineer discussing Veron entrance way to Veron Park so uh they are discussing I don't think uh anything has progressed but at least there's discussion on it and also um I think the County engineer has applied for couple of Grants which is a long time coming and uh hopefully in the future we receive those grants that's about it for me this evening any comments or questions questions for count comments am please thank the county for that looking at act Verona Park and any work they on it's greatly appreciate I think when the the chief gets back to you you may have a couple of points to discuss with you thank you very much thank you on the last item um so we started with mros joining us um I believe the the township has um we are committed to supporting our National Guard and our reservists um we have a statement our support and I'll be reading our clerk made it into Proclamation as well our statement supp will be hanging downstairs um by the uh wall of Honor down on the first floor of the building and uh there's signature and um it is I'll read the proclamation that is associated with it whereas the township Council the township Verona hereby recognizes the guard and Reserve are essential to the strength of our nation and well-being of communities whereas the highest American tradition the Patriotic men and women of the guard and Reserve are voluntarily in an honorable and vital profession whereas the men and women of the garden Reserve train to respond to their community and their country in time of need whereas the Brave and selfless men and women of the garden Reserve deserve the support of every segment of our society whereas if these volunteer forces are continue to serve our nation increased public understanding is required of the entral role of the garden Reserve in preserving our national security and whereas we join other Employers in pledging that we fully recognize honor and comply with the uniform services deployment and Reemployment acts us ER R will provide our managers and supervisors with the tools they need to effectively manage those employees who serve in the envirment reserve therefore be Proclaim that I Dr Christopher Toro mayor of the township Verona on behalf of my fellow council members employees of the township residents of Verona appreciate the values leadership and unique skill of service members bring to the workforce and encourage opportunities to employ Guardsmen reservists transitioning service members and Veterans as we continually recognize the small country service members and families in peace and crisis and witness whereof I he on to set my hand and Clause the official seal of the township Verona New Jersey to be a fix this 11th day of March 2024 thank you Mr diaro for ensuring that we uh show our support and I have had several friends from Verona who have participated in uh the National Guard who have been deployed to combat zones recent years um so hopefully the family of our employees are in that situation uh we will obviously support them and so transition user yeah um and and thank you Council mayor and Council um as veter I do appreciate that support of the garden Reserve that takes care of item 19 on my agenda that we now can um e field um is is in final edits um Kevin will report on the grant applications that are in and pending and and progress on that that's on new the section sen Department natur working with Millennium on um friends of Aron the park I I had a zoom meeting with Mr deal uh it is officially formed we discussed uh the support of Verona parks in the future U and applications for Verona parks and did discuss support of every field um a 501c3 for the public information and they can generate funding from private and corporate supporters which should be excellent the Emergency Services building um public information is continuing with that on the 19th I didn't attend the county exec meeting because I the team was at the clarage during your presentation on uh the entire complex the same thing you saw here and at the public store publicly uh that was uh very well organized by the clarage and Copus Zoom meeting with all of the residents we fed in a number of questions and gave us some insight into questions that we didn't think of at the time and and we're making some adjustments uh which will be preceding uh our final total public meeting that will start to arrange at the community center the next meeting that the team has is with Bon Lions which will be there tomorrow night uh going through the the process a little abbreviated U rather than the hour presentation um we we'll go through with the Lions also um item number five will be discussed by the council I will stay on my agenda Uh Kevin will handle a number of items in his report to try and save time I'll just keep skipping through items uh the street Paving report complete study was done by baso engineering we now have it it's a plan to handle the streets and an organized Mana based on their U deterioration age Etc and as you're aware we'll be doing infrastructure underneath first before we do the r you should be doing and that will be also published on the website once it's finally accepted by the council so comments by the Council on that report would be appreciated get it to those comments of is Engineering also um cdpg project applications are in budget is tonight so I'm going to read through my report um and uh I did send to the superintendent of schools uh the draft uh uh inter local for lack of better term of shared service agreement and the list of items and attachment and those that went over to the superintendent um and hopefully we'll we'll get some answers shortly I beg your pardon if I may yes I have not seen a copy of this agreement that was circulated to the superintendent is is it has have my colleagues seen this agreement so would it be possible for us to see a draft I will it was drafted up your previous agreement so I literally sent it to the board of had first the superintendent so because I had a pre meeting with them I get their comments then we'll have their comments in your in the report for you to address but I will send it out to the entire council with the agenda that would be very help I'm sorry that was item number 23 I'll get that to you um if there is another meeting coming up on a flood control Advisory Board you do have an appoint on tonight um that is moving well the two other communities little F and Woodland are anxious to get their resolutions passed also little little FS yeah yeah I just said little fer did and I put that way in my report that's moving by why don't you just test to make sure everybody's it's agenda list and unless you have any questions on any specific item in there please do with regard to the flood control board if I have not been advised of any public meetings so this is okay thank you okay yes coun H thank you um thank you for the update on the Emergency Services complex and the socialization and the mayor's report about additional meetings with Cory Booker's office I would like us to talk further about this in new business um about the process I do have some questions and concerns and I just want to make sure we making sure that the council is where those points of contact where the council needs to make decisions are in the process so I would like to discuss that business thank you else the second question on the pavement condition report that has not been circulated the council yet that's it was circulated well um we'll resend it again I'll thank you um mayor yes if I may I think um Mr oin did circulate a draft of it but then the overlay of what is the infrastructure work we need to do under the ground given our um condition of our water pipes was not so it was just on the street condition I think the next step was kind of an addition the last meeting I will also try to be quick with my report I know there's a long agenda but I will touch on a number of items they're all important items though I think uh we do have our water and sewer rate study which is wrapping up we have an ordinance uh for public hearing tonight uh tying into the sewer infrastructure we have uh BOS well scheduled for the March 25th meeting to present their findings and their assessment of the treatment plant uh based on that presentation and the rate study uh the rates being uh scheduled for adoption tonight there will be a number of other uh subsequent steps and and capital projects that should launch off of both of those uh those actions uh there was a recommendation on residential uh uh zoning fees and Commercial zoning fees it was circulated to the council there was a recommendation made by the zoning official and an assessment of all the neighboring towns uh there was a recommendation to uh adopt zoning fees all the other surrounding neighboring towns have zoning fees it is a a a labor intensive U process to receive and review and approve zoning applications or deny zoning applications so uh there was a recommendation to the uh mayor and Council uh on that if there's any thoughts or or comments I'd be happy to answer those otherwise we can look to schedule that for uh an ordinates for introduction at an upcoming meeting we could just put that on new business first for meeting sure and then before they introduce it we then I'm sure there be some discussion on that the uh the Water Well projects are both advancing Lind Drive well should be starting on about April 1st the contractors is getting ready to mobilize to the site uh we are also advancing the Fairview Avenue well project that project should be going out to bid uh within the next hopefully the next 30 to to 45 days we should be receiving bids in May or June which should line us up for for an award of contract sometime in July uh the competitive bidding bidding market and the principal forgiveness offered by the ibank are expected to be benefits for that project as they were for the L Drive project as well simultaneously as we advance the the posos well Rehabilitation project for Fairview AV well we are working with Green Acres on a a diversion application for the Fairview Avenue well uh currently Green Acres is working through some process decisions on how to apply certain legislation that's been adopted so we're currently waiting for feedback and direction from them before we can advance our component of the diversion application uh and then on March 7th uh we sat with special councel regarding ongoing claims related to peos class action settlement uh we continue to provide documents that are necessary for uh support of the original good faith estimate for that uh class action settlement there is another Pool of funding that is also available for additional expenses incurred by the township so we're we're pulling all that information providing that to uh to special counsil for those filings shifting into storm water we have the number of storm water ordinances on the agenda for tonight uh we are also simultaneously advancing discussions with uh subcommittee of the planning board for the municipal storm water management plan which is an element of the master plan we'll need to uh schedule that for introduction and adoption at some point in the coming months we continue to have discussions with blue acres and climate res he office of climate resiliency so we're still advancing our conversations with uh both of those departments uh we also are uh continuing to move forward and and uh push forward on pekman River stabilization we're trying to do that in coordination with the uh flood prevention control board and uh the other neighbor ing towns to make sure that we have a joint effort with both those towns and any state or federal representation that is assisting with that so we are continuing to to advance the pekman river projects as as we can uh parking meter race we have an ordinance scheduled for adoption public hearing and adoption tonight uh there's a number of uh ongoing discussions regarding energy Supply we're we're advancing our West for local government energy audit we provided some supplemental information to the BPU for that additionally we're going to have a meeting with a solar consultant on March 26th to review potential solar projects uh sustainable Essex Alliance is also preparing for another round of electrical energy Supply bids later this spring uh they've been on Hiatus just based upon the market but uh they are anticipating that it may be uh a beneficial time to go out to bid for for the electrical energy Supply through that program um the community playground is another April 1 Target date we're looking for contractor to begin mobilization and they will be looking to break ground in the the coming weeks uh we have a number of road projects that are advancing I know Mr diarco mentioned the road assessment uh we we will look to get that finalized with Boswell and circulated and then uh have that placed on the township website additionally we have a number of projects that are already currently underway are about to uh at different stages of of advancement we've got the durent Avenue project the sewer repairs are complete we are working with shade tree commission for revised tree recommendations and we are working with the contractor to get a Paving schedule it should be M and PID within the coming weeks as soon as asphalt plants and and the temperatures warm up to the appropriate temperatures um we have Boston Whitney windir we have a community meeting scheduled for March 20th and we have notices going out to those neighborhoods uh to notify them of that again that is another contract with the contractors looking to mobilize honor about April 1 uh Douglas place is we uh is going out to bid we received approval to uh advertise bids from dot so we'll be receiving bids April 2nd and we should be in position to award at our April meeting which would line us up for construction through the summer and completion this fall and then the last road paving project is Lyon Avenue we've discussed that in the past uh we are we have that listed on our capital projects and that will require uh Capital bonding for the completion of that project uh we have a number of Grant applications that are either out and we're waiting for responses or are being drafted and and submitted to varying agencies among those are number of applications for Everett field we have an application for cdbg we have an application to local Recreation Improvement Grant and we also have a Green Acres application which we had a public hearing on uh Green Acres did get us comments back about a week ago or a week and a half ago they asked us to expand our application to now include the ADA Compliant restroom as part of our Grant application so there's a modified resolution enabling that Grant application uh on tonight's agenda which uh expands the uh the the dollar value of that Grant application but uh I would imagine that is a positive sign from Green Acres um there are a number of other Grant applications that were submitted uh and and listed in the report if there's any other questions I can answer them the only other item that is on the agenda tonight which uh we I don't know if it's listed on the agenda but uh we do have our planner who has completed a study of Bloomfield Avenue who will be presenting there's a resolution on the agenda for tonight that uh she will need to present on prior to the mayor council considering that resolution Roman uh just a couple than you reported if does appear you say that Veron PD is ordering parking meter kiosks yes um are those do we have a time frame on one of those will be up and running uh I don't have a delivery time frame from them yet but there there is a sizable um lead time it is usually an 8 to 10 week lead time at the very least and then it will require coordinating installation but I'll get you a more specific installation date from the the CH than sorry stay on this one but that I feel was like that's just a adjust do it so I keep asking so I appreciate the effort on that um also on the um on the road projects the big thing I'd like to ask is if there obviously we're at the very beginning of the season now if there is any risk I mean we want you know we keep running into times when our road projects run past the shutdown time and we see the amount of um public displeasure when that happens and so since we're getting started on these projects I don't need to say it but I'm say if there is any way we can possibly at least know in advance if a project is ever at risk and do everything we possibly can to get these completed within the work year so that they don't hang over the winter season because we've had that happen the last two years and really resid quite rightfully or get concerned with that just please keep us in the loot as to project schedules as those laun yes we'll do any other questions or comments May one with d are we done with the sewer lines that we were replacing there the sewer line replacement is complete uh the trench is it should be receiving a base Paving of the trench this week and then the milling and Paving schedule when we have a contract will be in a few weeks and the coordination with the shade tree we will have those as well thank you uh thank you I'm happy to report I just came from the shet tree meeting they will be sent you a recommendation for shade trees that can fit in the planting strip recognizing that it would have been better had we cut the sidewalk so that it could have accommodated a larger diameter because they have very limited on what trees can be planted there and recognize that these are trees that will not have uh 50e lifespan they're going to have a 15 to 20 year lifespan so this was kind of Miss strategic opportunity this is before you joined our organization um but it is an example of you know um I think we have to look to the past and make sure that we do better in the future and Durant May unfortunately be a case study on that so the shade tree commission is really rocking and rolling I think with their new leadership um Carol Thomas was appointed as the uh chair and I thank them for all their hard work and volunteerism so they should be in contact with you shortly okay thank you thank yes s um we will do the introduction of the budget Mr F I believe you practice this and recommend it and see here good evening uh before we can do the introduction of the municipal budget we have to do the cap index uh ordinance that allows us um so municipalities are allowed to um increase their previous budget um this year by two and a half% that allows us to do an additional 1% and if we do not use it we can bank that per that percentage so we would have to introduce that cap or uh cap index ordinance before we can do the introduction of budget um for the purposes of saving a little time here I'm going to open for public comment on all three of the budget related resolutions first okay and we'll introduce one by one okay do we need to move we INR I think I'm just going to call for public comment first and then we'll move them because we got to do so we can do them all at once otherwise we do I'm ordinance we should have a separate it is an ordinance we should SE separate that's fine so then we'll do that's fine then we'll we'll all right uh was somebody like to move e1a the ordinance to approve the c Index MO is made by Council Loman is there a second no second second is made by the deputy mayor at this time I will open for public comments on this item only Madam Clerk would you please read the public participation statements from the public wishing to speak on this ordinance for introduction please raise her hand by pressing the raise hand button monitor calling in by phone star9 they approach the Lector and once recognized clearly state only C of residents for the record you're not required however if you not that these meetings will be posted on the Township's YouTube channel and addresses will not be react cus we'll have for to address the they can be during this public hearing the council May address toose close at this time any Council discussion on the C none Madam CL would please call sorry a ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap Bank fora 484 45.4 thank you CL the RO please counc Holland yes counc M yes councilman Broman yes Deputy Mayor maoy yes mayor Timo yes mayor ea1 is 20244 a public hearing will be scheduled for March 25th and it can be published according to move to b1b which is the resolution certifying the comp compliance with njs 4845 somebody like to move this resolution so move motions made by Council M gra there second second second by councilman wman at this time I will call for public comment on this resolution only same public comment statement the no public comment I close public comment any Council discussion on this resolution see none M clerk call the rooll please councilwoman Holland counc yes Council yes may yeso yes may resolution e1b will be number 20240 53 thank you the next item is resolution e1c which is the introduction the 2024al budget if somebody like to move this very expensive resolution move the motion is made by councilman Roman is there a second I'll second it um at this time we open for public comment the same public comment statement applies on this resolution I'm going to close public comments Madam CFO do you have anything to add I do not no well that you spoke enough the last couple there any Council discussion this just like to thank our CFO auditor our department heads and every management everyone else that goes into preparing this uh budget season is a several month long Endeavor at the minimum it's a lot of work and just really appreciate everything that goes into us thank you and I reflect that those thanks and I'll have more specific comments on adoption night but um I think you've done an extraordinary job in putting this together despite the rising costs over the past four years uh inflation compounded has increased prices nearly 20% plus which is significant um when we're talking about municipal government we can't raise that much more um and I I do like to credit this Council for trying to make everything as affordable as possible for our residents um and I think this budget is commitment doing that so thank you thank you uh mad clerk you call Go please counc Howard yes Council yes Council Roman yes Deputy Mayor maoy yes mayor Timor yes mayor E-1 C could be number 2024 054 passes 5 to Zer it will be published in the March 19th edition of The Star Ledger public hearing will be held on April 8th 2024 at 7.m see you there thank you thank you madam CFO um Mr this time let's do h2m because we don't really have another easy place in the budg in the agenda for Sam to come up good evening everyone um so I I hope all of you have read the rehabilitation report that had submitted um last month um I'll make it very quick um just hit on the main points um so uh uh I think when it was here in December we discussed uh whether um you know that will conduct an invest investigation to see whether the Bloomfield Avenue Corridor uh qualifies as an area in need of Rehabilitation as per the local rment and housing law um we went ahead and um got um you know uh contacted the township engineer your tax assessor to get all the data um to see that and I'll just um give you a brief overview on how the process is as per the Redevelopment law where in this case um it's assigned to the governing body to prepare a resolution um along with uh the supporting report which we've uh We've prepared both of this and submitted um and which would um declare the identified properties as an area in need of Rehabilitation and then this gets referred to the planning board for his review and within 45 days uh the planning board submits his recommendation they may uh which includes any modification um the governing body by law is not bound by these recommendations and may adopt the resolution with or without uh modifications and once the proposed resolution is adopted it the area entire area gets designated as an area need of uh Rehabilitation now um uh the you know we we have Redevelopment areas in the town um that has a higher threshold a rehab area has very separate criteria sub um as per subsection 14 of the uh rment law and um I'll quickly go through those um uh the first criteria is a significant portion of structures are in a deteriorated or substandard condition uh criteria two is more than half of the housing stock in the Del delineated area is at least 50 years old um number three pattern of vacancy abandonment or underutilization of properties um four persistent aage of property tax payments uh fifth uh environmental contamination which is dis discouraging improvements and uh number six is majority of the water and sewer infrastructure in the area is at least 50 years old old and in need of repair or substantial maintenance now as per the uh statutes you just need to satisfy one criteria um in this case um you know we uh surveyed the entire Corridor and um we it satisfies two criterias number one the housing stock majority of the housing stock 85% of it is um is more than 50 years old and actually the range is uh the your built range from 1980 uh 1884 up to 1969 uh that's 85% of your housing secondly we reached out to your Township engineer who mentioned that um both the water and SE infrastructure uh was um more than 50 60 70 years old um uh and in need of uh uh repair so we attached that as a documentation you do need to include evidence and then um it's my professional opinion that um the entire bloomfi Avenue Corridor um satisfies criteria Criterion two which is more than half of the housing stock uh in the delineated area is at least 50 years old and uh number uh six where majority of the water and sewer infrastructure is at least 50 years old and need of repair or substantial maintenance so the next step would be that once it gets designated um the township uh there are the township uh Council can uh Grant exemptions and abatement under the short-term 5year tax um uh exemption and abatement law which will encour which can encourage Property Owners to rehabilitate or reinvest in their properties um the other thing too is that nothing uh precludes uh the governing body in uh directing the planning B to um conduct area need of Rehabilitation for certain portions and adopt Redevelopment plan you could adopt it for the entire area or in a peac Mil basis so I for this evening uh my presentation is um basically saying that uh the entire Bloomfield Avenue Corridor satisfies the area in need of Rehabilitation criteria thank you any questions for planer uh first off I just want to say thank you um both to all council members as well as to S h2m um this is something that uh I wanted to see happen for a very long time and I'm glad that this is on table now um this has a lot to do with economic development in our community I've always kind of been of the opinion that one of the things that's holding back the Bloomfield Avenue Corridor within Verona when you look at some of our neighboring towns that um have more you know more activity in their commercial district is our buildings um there are some buildings that are in fantastic shape I'm glad to see that there are some buildings that simply have been underinvested in over the years um there are some that are underutilizing their sites and this is way of of encouraging Property Owners to upgrade the structures in the corridor uh without overdeveloping the corridor so that's why I've uh been in favor of this method of getting there I'm hoping that this puts the conditions in place to where people are willing to put money into into existing buildings this could be something as simple as doing facade Replacements or renovation of the commercial spaces or addition of apartments above or other you know other alterations to the buildings that could potentially improve them rehabilitating existing housing any number of things that I would hope that they would do to improve this housing stock um I think would improve both the residential aspects of the corridor as well as its commercial viability so this is a great step forward um what I would say is that simply passing this is not um the end of the battle that I at some point we need to engage with property owners we need to let them know that this opportunity is going to be out there we need to be continuing sort of our Economic Development uh efforts here and hopefully we can see people start up with these buildings it'll happen a little bit at a time you know people take advantage of this designation but I think that this is going to be a very positive uh effort for that Corridor so I really appreciate uh this starting off here today thank you C thank you um mayor to start off with I think just in a matter of transparency um I think members of council if they own property in this particular area that's going to be an area of need of Rehabilitation it would be good to disclose that now for the public and then I have some additional coms no council M owns land uh as a matter of fact within the Bluefield Avenue and I believe it's C2 zone so yes this uh thank you so um mayor I um I am also very glad that uh we did this study and thank you your analysis was very clear I have some different opinions of what was just expressed first of all I think this is the fact that our housing stock is so old is really a symptom of the fact that our zoning is not working along most of the corridor as identified by our master plan and so while I am supportive of this effort going forward we really need to and and my question is really to look at the underlying zoning because Property Owners will likely not invest in their properties unless we fix the zoning issues that were identified by the master plan and so mayor as a governing body we really need to put that in what I would like to see is a project plan on when this goes to the planning board when it would come back and when are we actually finally going to address some of the zoning issues that we have within some of zones to your excellent point we could make also areas of Redevelopment and then redefine the zoning in there that's another option but we can also just fix our zoning as defined by the master plan so that's my first uh major Point um my second point is I think it's while this is great analysis and I know we have a resolution on the agenda I think the average public when they hear all of Bloomfield Avenue is an a you know the council saying oh Bloomfield Avenue is an area of need of Rehabilitation there is going to be kind of a knee-jerk maybe emotional reaction and so I do wonder if it's best for us mayor if we uh delay the introduction or the passing of this resolution at least for one meeting cycle so that we can allow residents to ask some questions before we officially take action and send it to the planning board where the public will be able to make a lot of comments and ask a lot of questions at the planning board would you agree that the public should be directed to the planning board if they have questions um so first off this is a public meeting right um I've expressed that area in need of Rehabilitation has a lower threshold um I can emphasize now because I'm hoping this is recorded right so if any members of the public hear it they would hear me say and repeat again that having a rehabilitation area does not do anything to your property or your ability to enjoy your property the governing body is not proposing to come and take your property in fact what the area need of Rehabilitation does to any property owner is gives them an additional tool to improve their property so I my personal opinion I'm not a governing body member I defer to all of you but I think that expressing myself in this meeting in a public uh presentation I think we have uh given a members of public a chance should they want to say something once it goes to the planning board I'm sure this whole thing will be discussed there as well so that it would be a second opportunity for them and then the third time when you do uh it comes back to you guys um that would be a third opportunity so I think my personal opinion is that we have given three opportunities to the members of the public and uh also so there is nothing in the Redevelopment uh statute um that has specific um I would say specific um requirements the way it is for a Redevelopment study where it there are because the threshold is so high they have very stringent noticing requirements um so my opinion is I leave it to you but I think we have three opportunities for the members of the public to comment um and in fact most times when people comment it's more because they don't understand then once they understand it's for that you are doing this for their own betterment and Improvement I think um you know uh I'll be happy to answer if anyone has questions at the subsequent meetings okay great thanks I I tend to agree uh with s on this I think one of the things that we can do is use our public information officer to coordinate with s's office to put together a brief uh public statement to C on what this is this was on the agenda the resolution and not didn't get any comments or questions about this um I think at this point there are three meetings to access um and it would be helpful to get this done soon I agree that obviously we uh with Council MCG in that we do have zoning issues to fix we've had those meetings that's in the progress as far as right in the zoning code this is a first step um as well something that we can do immediately that doesn't have take the amount of time um and that the rewriting the entire zoning code does um and may give us an opportunity to get boomf Avenue property owners more interested in investing in the property and then figuring out some of those zoning related problems as we doing that um I am very supportive of and this is something obviously we would have to adop by by ordinance um but doing a eight minuts obviously for improvements um because we have a not only is our our building stock aging but the their facades are too signage facades and things like that so I would like to uh get that moving as as quickly as possible um but I appreciate your analysis and your work um I think that you do a great job s and very clearly explaining the impact on the uh go ahead um thank you mayor um I guess my followup question on your statement and yours is what is the exact timeline on the zoning changes is there and maybe it's a question from Mr diarco do we have a project plan for making the changes to our zoning code and how we're going to approach that because again I while I'm hearing very clearly there's an appetite to do property tax abatements I am very interested in fixing our zoning code per the master plan rectifications I can put that in motion staff to drafts for you if that's the council's desire I think we've communicated that pretty clearly that that's that's our desire I know that we've spoken with our planner about we hired s firm for that reason as well um and we had had a pretty substantive discussion on what phases we wanted to do and so forth but I I agree I don't think there should be anything holding us back at this point in in getting that done provided we have all the data analysis necessary to do it effec the only thing I would clarify is I don't know if we're all 100% agreement in blanket adopting every single recommendation in the in the reports simply but we do need to get legislation in motion to adopt those of them that we are in favor of and that just may be a discussion as to what goes in and what doesn't having draft and going from a draft it'll be easier to piece of legislation is is obviously the way to if I may on a comprehensive draft from the council to add it than okay uh de May first s thank you very much for your work and this this detailed report I think is very helpful uh and I will address the fact that I do own a property uh within this entire Zone uh I don't think it's any different uh and I'm not conflicted in any way because it doesn't benefit me personally uh it's the same thing as once we move forward and uh get a zoning ordinance put in place but that would mean that every all five of us would have to refuse ourselves on the zoning ordinance because we all live in town and we all own property in town so uh just just to want to clarify that but thank you very much for your work and just so that I'm clear to cman um I'm not recommending anything in this report all I'm saying is I'm setting forth options that the governing body uh this report is very technical it talks about what the statutory criteria is and uh my analysis says how it satisfies two out of the six and then evidence um supporting these claims that's all I'm saying I'm there are no recommendations to a b c d but this gives a wider option um so there are different ways that the governing body can go about a you may want to adopt a Redevelopment plan uh on portions of this area or you may want to do um as we had mentioned in the master plan some changes to the underlying TC Zone District so there are different ways of going about this is will not stop you from doing any of these uh the different options respond um I think just clarify my comments I'm in favor of adopting the rehabilitation plan you know given the you know for that entire Corridor what I was um talking about was more the the the entire change the master plan ultimately that there are a multitude of recommendations for things to do with different zones in the master plan and opportunities we have and we may choose to do some or fewer of them but I just you know we do need to go down that legislative effort but we may pick and choose which of the recommendations we implement or alter the recommendations but I agree that we do need to get to implementing recommendations from within the report there's just some debate that needs to go on on the council during that process thank you s thank you very much anything else for you Mr thank you mrco we're gonna move on to council member comments Deputy Mayor thank you Mr Mayor uh I do Echo some of the some stuff but uh the Boy Scout uh TR to uh pancake breakfast this week was uh I attended it this past week uh I appreciate all the work they do for even their little projects they do in town help the Town of Verona and and all their volunteers and which is which is fantastic and great to go to because the way they run it and they sit you down and they take care of you I think it's a good interaction with uh you know the Youth of our our Township uh I also as stated the entire Council tended state of the county it's always every year it's something I I really try to get to because you really find out a lot of the work that the county does that you don't realize uh and it's really amazing to see all the projects and all the money that our County Executive spends uh throughout the throughout the county uh on on really really good projects that benefit all the residents of the County uh I do uh want to thank Mr Deo for putting Proclamation together and reading a proclamation tonight especially after the events uh in Texas with the helicopter crash over the weekend it shows you uh the the risks that those people go through on a daily basis uh on a uh happy note happy St Patrick's Day to everybody uh I want to mention uh next Wednesday not this Wednesday uh the 20th at 7 pm the uh Verona environmental commission and sustainable Verona have uh joined up once again and they're going to do a recycling webinar uh it will be on Zoom uh and the town will hopefully be sharing info uh in the coming week on that and lastly uh those celebrating Ramadan Raman Mubarak to all those and enjoy the holiday that's all I have for Te thank you de May counc Roman to be overly repetitive but I'll just also briefly mention both the Boy Scout pancake breakfast and County Executives uh state of the county the pancake breakfast as the deputy mayor said one of the great things about going to that is getting the chance to interact with all the Scouts in particular they're you know such nice young men and they they do a wonderful job of putting that event together it's it's nice to be able to spend some time with them and their families it's a great turnout for that um and then likewise the state of the county address the county gets a lot done in an average year and the amount they reported to us the number of buildings that they've put up the number of community centers they've built the amount of Public Works jobs they've done um it's very impressive uh and it was nice to see that the county executive sort of pays attention to every every corner of what is a very vast County with a lot of different needs in it uh but he did an excellent job of summarizing everything that the county does for us everything that's planned for the year ahead so that was a great event very Happ held here nearby and Grove and that all us were to make it thank you coun um thank you um it was honored to uh be recognized yesterday for the second annual women of Impact Panel event um the other honores that were recognized of were Christen Donahue Alison Macky Serena Rivera and Kate Hartwick uh this is an event that was sponsored by our Multicultural inclusion accessibility advisory committee and the pr the public library um for weeks they solicited uh nominations from members of the public for women who lead in volunteerism and in their careers and in service I was very honored to be on this panel we really had a fantastic conversation about the opportunities and challenges that women face in leadership and volunteerism in Verona I want to thank um councilwoman Holland for her attendance and the deputy mayor for attending um mayor we missed you there and we do hope that you can attend in the future it really is a fantastic event um I attended the Shay tree meeting as I already mentioned they discuss at length the durwent project the upcoming windir um and um windir project in terms of which trees sheade trees excuse me will be planted we talked about about friends of the Rona parks and about their Capital requests tomorrow at 7:30 there is a meeting of the neighborhood traffic and Safety Committee and that's my report thank you thank you just because I was called out by name by the councilwoman do want to respond at first my schedule was not checked by committees that plan events before the dates were announced and I did have a pre-existing commitment um so thank you when I can attend I certainly will like every other Municipal event that happens in this Township Council and on to councilwoman all thank you um I would like to start by acknowledging that we recently had the bmac family night um and it was moved from its typical Thursday night to a Tuesday night to accommodate some of the board of EDS um Family Planning and Dei programming that they had in the community I hope everybody enjoyed the evening out with their families and or dinnertime conversations I do think it is a worth while initiative and I do think that more needs to be done to make sure that the family night process is actually observed I know that there were different meetings and events that did take place on that Tuesday night and I really hope that that that can be avoided going forward it is a really good opportunity for quality time with your family I too read after for Avenue School for read Across America week I was able to read a book to the fourth grade classes Mrs bade and Miss King at for avue school um we read the book Miss Paul and the president all about um the cause for women's suffrage in the United States I thought that was a particularly relevant book given the children's focus on New Jersey history um and and actually one of the girls in the class had recently done a uh project on Alice pa um and it's also as we know women's History Month I want to congratulate the uh councilwoman for being nominated and participating in the women of Impact Panel I personally found it to be very moving and um and I was very impressed to see the female leadership on display and like the great resources that we have in this Comm Community for raising up women and girls um with that in mind and given the uh numerous accolades for Boy Scouts this evening I do just want to remind everybody that this is actually Girl Scout week and tomorrow is the 112th birthday of the girl scouting movement in the United States of America in Prior years our Township had honored the Girl Scouts at Verona with proclamations we have actually over 450 girls in the girl scouting program between Verona and Cedar Grove and the vast majority of those are in Verona so well over 200 girls in the township of Verona are actively participating in the girl scouting program I think it's an incred incredibly important female leadership program and there's a lot of community service that goes into it so when we do talk about Eagle projects I think it's also important to give equal time to Silver and Gold Award projects that the girls work on and really recognize the female leadership in the community and hopefully the girls will be back for a future year for a proclamation I also want to acknowledge the state of the county meeting because I too was in attendance as was stated earlier all of us were there I was particularly moved by the discussion of recreation investment that the county has spent a tremendous amount of its time and energy focusing on Recreation assets um not only is the focus um not only is there going to be investment in our own brona park with the pickle ball courts which is something that our community has desperately wanted there's been a lot of Resident feedback about pickle ball courts over the years so I'm very grateful to to the county investing in that but was also really meaningful for me to hear as the Leon to the rec committee the importance of investment in your recreational facilities and Assets in the community recognizing that not all wants and needs really fall to being like Recreation falling toward the want side sometimes Recreation truly is in need and an incredibly valuable um investment for the community that being said the rec committee is meeting uh next week and we will be discussing a number of projects um there is a very loaded agenda because the last two meetings were cancelled due to snow um uh tomorrow I will be attending an EV charging seminar with the State Bar Association of which I am a longtime member and a consulter for the public utility law section and with that in mind I do just want to remind all residents that the winter termination program is concluding this Friday so if you have any need for utility assistance at Ur you to get that assistance now uh the winter termination program uh limits the time period with which in which your utility provider can perform shut offs but after that time period they can discontinue service um and they will do so if you do not seek assistance so please Avail yourself of those resources and thank you that concludes my report thank you we are going to move on to the hearing adoption or amendment of ordinances mam CLK the next item on the agenda is an ordinance on second reading which the title of ordinance g into the record repealing 55 storm water management go to the township and and replacing with a new article 25 storm water management controls and requirements Within chapter one with the zoning code of the township thank you m cler would somebody move the ordinance so moved before M tonight uh just asked the planning board had written uh a letter about a change on page n that change made it was just a simple addition this is repealing the existing ordin oh okay the motion was made by Council mcra for a second I second thank you Deputy Mayor now it's time for public hearing on ordinance uh 20244 anyone from the public wishing to speak on just this item only please raise your virtual hand if by ra the raise hand button on your monitoring by turn you'll have four minutes to address the council and just this item only please inv you provide your street address um meeting will be put YouTube channel and it will not be reacted for speak has been heard the council May address your comments and our questions it's open no public comment I'm close public comments Council Roman um uh this actually the title of VI this is actually a repeal and replace so so this is a discussion of the replacement text for for this as well Asal um I agree with C with the deputy mayor's comments about um that yeah that one addition there was also one thing that uh came up during the planning board hearing that um didn't make it into the memo that I didn't want to bring up um the way that this ordinance is drafted um there is a requirement that a minor development which is something as simple as like a 20 by 20 foot Pao that does have storm water mitigation measures um requires the homeowner then to deed to restrict by conservation easement or deed restriction or other acceptable legal measures that mitigation area and I had expressed a concern during the planning board meaning that in my opinion that's sort of unduly burdensome to a home owner um to encumber their title essentially with a with a deed restriction for if they would take the patio out for example didn't fire the mitigation in the future I'm curious as to you know to what extent do we want for a minor development you know I'm I agree that there should be the mitigation measure but to what extent do we want to require administrative measures on top of that that was something we discussed at the planning board and some of the consensus on the planning board was yes that is unduly burdensome for a minor development um and I didn't know you know I wanted to bring that up before the counsil because that was that didn't make into the memo just Kevin worked with that there is flexibility in that in the the manner in which the ordin of drafts that provides for other alternative legal measures which could be an administra check within the zoning discussion the some other other measur see yeah that did come up as to whether or not that you know leaving that within the administration I was i' ask her attorney you know as to an opinion as to if you know if we didn't feel like that was Choice number one goes and puts patio in and storm water mitigation and we'd rather the township say okay well you just have to register this with us or you have to you know agree to put this in place you know we but the power for the C to enforce a deed restriction is in here you know which direction do we go with you know you have any thoughts on I prefer which I think is what you're saying one or the other I don't necessarily like the flexibility where you sure whether there should be or should not be a restriction so if you don't want the deed restriction I would uh advise you to take it out I we have clear guidance on who has to have a deed restriction who doesn't see so my question is you're talking about something smaller you mentioned 200 square foot but in here it says uh in the minor development section that wanted to I asked about if we added the line any development planning board asked to add other than major development uh that results in it says 400 or more square foot of new interor service so if someone's doing a smaller patio then uh it seems like they're not subject to it um yes I'm looking at 150- 25.7 management requirements for minor development storm water require requirements applicable to minor development are as follows um and then under that list uh number seven under that list says the th Water Management future future development by conservation easement deed restriction or other acceptable legal measures now I'm in I'm in favor of some sort of means by which someone can't you know build the the mitigation measure and then just go rip it out after they get their final approval so there needs to be something there I just again whether if you report this on your as an easement and then you sell the property and the next person takes out out the patio then how do they get rid of that deep restriction for example the direction looking at this agree I agree with that the flexibility is a problem because we treat different applications differently so somebody has some reement here and somebody can do something administratively over here uh that that enters us into major problems as well so I think that for the small developments we should have a very clear uh clearly stipulated way of hand this Council I'm sorry can we just can you um Council and rollman just go back what exactly do you want to change 150- 25.7 A7 page 23 bottom page 23 okay so you're saying deep restriction yeah because again the net effect of this if if you build a a 20 x 20 foot 400 foot patio you'll trigger the reement of a mitigation which I agree if you build you know 400 ft of of Hardscape you might need it but the question is do we want someone who have to go and record this just forting that read for moves that bir need restriction I don't love it because it's still not specific what it's reiring I'm yeah and I'm I'm just uh I'm fighting with myself on what what you need in there because you're you're looking to protect something for a long period of time um and a deep restriction would certainly do that but I understand the councilman's point that is pretty honorous if I'm just going to put in a patio that the next person might rip up a lot of people do the you know patios on the on the ground and the next owner does rip them up sometimes and makes a nice you know a grass backyard um so that deed restrictions dead and if I may also the the point was made that the chance of the township doing a title search during the course of a building per application where was relatively low and you know actually the township discover this restriction by means of it being recorded on title is I think maybe the I'd have to speak to the building department I don't know enough our building department records but if you did a recorded restriction within our records on the house right property that something like that I'm just not sure how that whole process works if the property part will work or there's another method or something like Tom would say no we can't do that for whatever reason we don't follow along Cil I would say basically the m ation measure shall be you know shall be registered with the township with the Township's engineering LA office or Building Law Office and shall remain in in place shall remain undisturbed so long as the construction requiring it its installation exists or you know something along those lines my I could live with something we'll work with the building department the language but we certainly know the idea so at this point do you have a motion to table this then this this is first reading as long as you have is ad apolog May so applying upon this fin that I would agree with that Marilyn because it does have what call the flexibility that this point that earlier other acceptable legal measures the administration will interpret that to me you have to register with the building office as we're discussing and once we get that process in place you'll see probably for first reading of the next agenda an amendment to amend this so we can adopt now and just yeah we'll read it twice in Amendment with that process okay any further discussion Council well I just want to follow up on the deputy mayor's comment so what spec can you just point us specifically on what recommendation was to change from the planning board uh it's on page five under minor definition there of minor development we have any development that results in planning board suggested that we add any development other than a major development just to make sure specific as to each development and May I a minor development is yeah that's minim that's the Minimus clarifying language we can put that in there and there was some concern that basically there was some there could be some it could be twisted into some sort of a loophole where somebody could say okay well I have to do this but I'm complying with the minor development standards even though this is a major Dev over the other way around so it just was not sufficiently specific one thank you mayor um mayor I would suggest we did get a letter a very brief letter from the planning board I would just make a process Improvement suggestion that really if things are discussed at the planning board level they really need to memorialize some and send them to us in advance uh this was a great conversation but it was not contained in the very short memo that we got and it would be better for us to really like absorb some of these things um before we get to the day so that's just a process Improvement suggestion matter that I'm making thank you s to call the rooll please before are we making amendment to change the um to adopt the boarding in the planning board attorney's memo so um let's made the motion who made motion originally I did you care to amend your motion to reflect it uh your original motion to reflect theic well I think we just didn't we just say it was Dom Minimus so do we have you don't have to again he just asking the council make sure they're all everyone's happy with it langage I amend my motion to reflect that and who seconded original motion mayor will you second yes okay all right so we have the motion to adopt this as amended with that text will change and the other one brought up by Council Mor Roman will be addressed in a future ordinance Madam cler would you call it all pleas Council yes woman mgra yes Council inome yesy mayor B yes mayor Tor yes zero thank you madam Clark the next item on the agenda is an ordinance number 2024 on second reading Madam CL the title of this ordinance the rec of the Cod article one in chapter 455 water quality of the Cod thank you madam CL will somebody please move the ordinance mov by the deputy mayor second second made by councilman this point I'll open for public comments on this item we have not seen any change in the public participating so we will on statement reread public comment is open see no public comment I'm going to close public comment at this time is there any Council discussion on Madam cler would you call the please Council yes councilwoman yes Council Roman yes yes may yes may um 20245 passes 5 Z and it will be published La thank you the next item on the agenda is ordinance 2024 D6 on second reading Madam clerk would you please read the title of this ordinance 65-1 schedule of fees of the Township Code thank you madam Clark will somebody move the ordinance please so moved motions made by councilman McGrath is there a second second second is made by counc Roman this time I'll open for public comment on ordinance 20246 only same comment State appes seeing no public comment it's Council discussion he none mad you call all please Council Holland yes Council mcra yes counc yes yes may yes May it will be moving on to ordinance number 202 24-7 on second Reading Please read the title of 2024 07 to traffic article 14 parking section 1468 there permit parking zones designated chapter A5 5651 schedule of fees of the coded Township of Veron increase the meter parking rate to 25 cents for 20 minutes and Saturday to the day's parking meter payments are required CL with someone move please so moved motions made by Council M Holland as there second second seconds made by Council McGrath at this time I looking for public comment on this ordinance only the same public comment state of appes see you no public comment I close public comment on this item is any Council discussion Council M thank you um I just want to thank the administration for leading this process and putting together very detailed and thorough analysis um I am looking forward to the new parking kiosk being installed and I'm looking forward to more reviews of our fees this is one of many many many examples where we are under charging and we really need to increase our um revenue and these small fee increases are um one way to do it I want to thank uh the mayor for bringing Saturday into the conversation for these uh fee increases I think to do it all at once was a strategic uh move on our part and um also for bringing in the business Community before this was introduced so thank you thank you councilman mayor yes I just want to point out what I did uh at the last meeting when we introduced this just make sure that after this is done we go back and review the street that are listed on here and and Revis but uh thank you very much to everybody who can work on this thank you I just don't want to address a I got a question about adding the Saturday um we meter parking for two reasons the first as councilman M pointed out is to raise revenue um and also to pay for improvements to our parking lot to P for various other things so that we can offer public parking um most of what we collect goes right back into the improved facilities to buy parking meters but the second very important piece of metering parking is to limit the amount of time that people Park in one of our very scarce parking spaces in the downtown um and that's why I suggested adding Saturdays this is common in the area um but we do have a busy Civic Center um and a busy downtown business district on Saturdays and metering will ensure that our enforcement officers and our Police Department um Can ascertain who has very easily who has been working beyond their um uh their welcome at that point and to free those spaces up um so I hope that that serves a dual purpose and I think that the um the Chamber of Commerce was supportive of an increase um knowing that that could benefit them as well and knowing that the parking um Lots will be better maintained and we'll be able takeen care of but uh I do appreciate their support on our and at this point for RO Council Holland yes Council yes Council yesy mayor yes yes um Z thank you madam CLK the next item on the agenda is ordinance 24- 08 on second reading Madam clerk would you please read the title of thisin ordinance to thank you madam cler some new please move the ordinance move the motion is made by councilwoman Holland is there a second the second is made by the deputy mayor this time I will open public comment on this item only the same public comment no public comment I will close public comment I would like to address uh this quickly um thises a pretty significant increase both in our water and our Sol rates um and it is going to be one that hurts for a little while for sure um however at the same time we face in this Township infrastructure that needs repair um we have been faced with uh regulatory changes that have been out of our control as far as pay up bfas um fortunately on some of those projects uh we will be getting um principal forgiveness loans which is good which decreases the amount and my whole is is that the SE charges for the pfoa pfas will drop off of this when we see parts of them at least um because the projects have actually come in less for the first time ever in government uh we had a project come in less than we anticipated uh Mr diaro was so surprised in 55 years the municipal administrator that this happened uh that he is ecstatic as you can tell um so I uh I do want to point that I that I understand for folks that are um going to be paying more for this um but it is a necessary increase it will not be popular uh but in this circumstance and from this chair we really have very little choice I encourage everybody when you have an opportunity to read the entire um New Gen strategies report it was very informative and extraordinarily well done um and I uh am basing my vote on its validity the other nice thing that I think we need to recognize is is that we are making one ordinance this one if for some reason that we see the report was not as accurate or conditions have changed we can alter our structure um if our fund balance gets too high we're running uh very high surpluses you want some amount of fund balance for the utility but if we're running very very high in fund balance we can potentially uh look at these things again with the help of the consultant see the longterm effect and that is my comment Council first sure um first of all I want to thank the administration for the thoughtful deliberative process that went into preparing this ordinance um we had previously um or the council had previously over my objection voted for very large fee increases without the support of an asset management plan which is really a strategic document that helps a utility and guides its um approach to its infrastructure and its quality of service um and we had never done a rate study before um so it was tremendously helpful to have those documents prepared prior to seeing this ordinance I do um agree with the mayor that this is a shocking increase and I think that it will be stunning to a number of residents and for for that I am very sorry but I do also want to comment on the fact that this is the cost of inaction because while water rates remain stagnant for many many years our infrastructure was deteriorating and there wasn't new investment in that infrastructure earlier this evening we heard about one of the bases for declaring the entire stretch of Bloomfield Avenue as an area in need of Rehabilitation is the poor state of our water and sewer infrastructure this was the topic that I ran on three and a half years ago when I presented myself to the residents of the township of Verona as a utility professional concerned about the state of our aging infrastructure in this community we simply were not investing in our pipes and in our services and as a result we were constantly plagued with water quality notices telling us that there was some new contaminant in our wells we were given the township of Arona was given notice that the pfoa standard was coming online but the lack of action until after we had violated that standard is part of what drives the significant costs if we had done some of this work earlier it would have cost less money but again this is the cost of inaction so we are coming online now we are remediating our wells and I really also want to applaud the administration for taking some of the feedback that I had given about going through the ibank to ensure that we did get those principal forgiveness loans so that we did get some of the additional grant funding and that you have leveraged all the grant funding that you can to really make these projects come in cheaper but it's still not going to be so cheap that this isn't going to be a suning increase for our residents that is very dis appointing but this is also rightsizing our utility rates for the present and also establishing a Cadence going forward where we will not have these shocking rate increases year after year after year because we now have a structure we have an asset management plan and there should be a strategy so long as the administration maintains it going forward so that this won't continue to happen and I finally just want to include with unlike your property taxes right you're not really able to constrict the size of your house or the size of your property when property taxes increase you can help to manage your water usage so I do really want to encourage residents to consider conservation measures especially as these rates are coming into effect to help mitigate some of the shock of this increase you can manage your water usage we've had an incredibly wet winter I do think that we don't probably need to be watering our Lawns as much uh this year as maybe folks had in Prior years and really consider those conservation measures as a way of mitigating the rate increase impact so thank you for the opportunity to comment but that concludes my thank you councilman thank you and I'll sort of disagree with the characterization that uh we haven't been investing in our utilities here we've rehabed every water tank in the town um the wastewater treatment plant we replaced the trickling filters um we repaired the emergency generator we uh replaced the mechanics bar screen rack you know it's we are a small town and we are a small town that is in the business of operating public utilities and we operate sort within our within our limits of what our budgets are and what our project management capabilities are do I wish that we would do more yes I mean I look at these systems and uh I know that they need maintenance but I'm not going to be so sharply critical of the Township um I do think that we are doing what we can for a Township of our size I mean I'd rather see us in a regional utility I think it's very challenging from the structure of a New Jersey government for a Township of this size to be operating Water and Sewer utilities own essentially um and that's some of the challenges that we face but we do invest a lot of money in these utilities I am willing to support this because of the amount of data that has gone behind it and the in-depth report that's produced uh I agree that this is going to be a very large sh to a lot of our residents um am I happy about it no uh not the slightest we try and run every service that we can in this town at the lowest reasonable cost possible to try and you know keep the expenses down for for our town because we're not a for-profit utility uh but in this case it's been demonstrated quite clearly that we do need these revenues here so I'm going supported for that um the wastewater treatment plant is my largest concern I mean that we have done some work on there but I do feel like we' sort of only scratched the surface and I really think that that's you know once we get out from underneath the P remediation at the Wells uh that's going to be our next Big Challenge and I really do hope that this gives us some of the resources to address that plant because you can go there and you can just see that the infrastructure there is rusting to Pieces yeah we we can't do it as best we can but that plant does need investment so hopefully this gives us the ability to do it thank you Council CL pleas yes Council yes councilman yes Deputy Mayor maoy yes mayor yes mayor 202 mad CL the next ordinance on the agenda is 20204 d09 on second reading would you please read the title of that ordinance an ordinance to event chap B of the cler please move the ordinance so moved motions made by council is there second second it is made by councilman Roman this time will open for public comment on this ordinance only comment seeing no public comment I will close public comment any Council discussion see none councilwoman yes councilwoman mg yes Council Roman yes yes mayor Tor yes mayor ordinance 09 passes 5 thank you m clerk the next item on second reading is ordinance 2024 d10 CL would you please read the title of this ordinance an ordinance move the ordinance please motion is made by councilman Roman is there a second I'll second it um at this time I will open for public comment on ordinance 2024 d10 say public comment save applies you know public comment I will close public comment I would like to start the discussion off on this item um I I first want to say I think that there is definite room for improvement uh in our process as far as deciding these fees um and I think having some economic data to support these things would be very helpful as far as really figuring out what maximization point is um and what are marginal revenue cost um think that this is one of those items that it's always difficult to figure out where the street spot is um I did just want to note that cedar Groves post or their adopted pool fees came out their family pool fee membership is $69 versus our 65 um their individual is $435 or our $397 our couple or parent child is a little higher ours theirs is 519 is 547 their what they call Babys membership is 160 to our caregiver membership 150 their senior membership is 208 to R15 the thing to note about C grow pool is is that it is not nearly as nice as a facility as ours um they do not have the offerings that we have they don'ts say it is one basically large po only been there once forestal but um so I think that for what we're providing the high quality of our facility it uh we're still very competitively priced um so you know we're charging for a Mercedes what another dealership is charging for Chevy and uh I think that is important to not uh the other item I would like to note is is that uh I did ask the discussion or first reading for any council members who plan on taking full membership this year to disclose uh which level membership that they would be taking um In The Same Spirit as councilman McGrath asked anybody to identify any property that they own in order to be fully transparent to the public so I will renew that request since it was not the last one um so every council member would care to share if they're planning on taking a pool membership or not I will sort out that I am not taking a pool membership I am entitled to a free membership as a member of the rescue squad I do not even take the free membership um but I will share that any other discussion yes well as I stated mayor at the last meeting I am a proud pool member um family membership for the last uh 13 years I really love going to the pool and I know the utility intimately and I even took up um swimming as exercise so I uh really love this pool and this asset and I am very excited to join again um I had the following comments um you know for uh my peers and the administration but of course directed to the mayor um I too agree that we do need a more robust rate setting process next year I thank the administration for already thinking through that what that may look like last year we asked that this timeline be brought forward so that we weren't up against tight deadlines but yet here we are again I was disappointed that our new interim director was not brought in to talk about the pool with with the CFO I understand this was a very tough season with illness and that may have been the reason but we really need um the head of this facility in lock step with our CFO in all conversations um because I think there was some confusion by not having um that individual in the room um as part of that uh we there have we have received very pointed feedback from the public both in the survey and now through um members of the public that wrote to us as we were talking about the pools about the cleanliness of the bathrooms um that absolutely needs to be addressed in addition um the recreation advisory committee which I'm so excited is actually really gaining some steam here they made some great Revenue recommendations as I have also made some to uh the administration so in lock step with this we really need to think outside the box on other Revenue generating ideas or the pool this season and I know they're underway with the administration at our last meeting there was some rate changing on the de um by uh members of the governing body was passed over my objection I am really concerned when we overrule the administration and make adjustments it is my understanding of the senior citizen pool membership that they could have afforded an extra $7 and we really should be focusing on that family rate though as mayor as you've already pointed out Cedar Grove did release their rates and we do have a much Superior Pool but as we've already discussed publicly this is step one of two years of what we anticipate to be significant increases I will support uh these pool fee increases tonight we have to basically because of the revenue situation that we are in but I am really looking forward to more compreh ensive conversations on the schol utility in the future thank you thank you councilman thank you um as I previously said in conversations regarding this ordinance I have come to be very uncomfortable with the pool rate setting RS so I too did see the article where Cedar Grove did recently pass their rates and I think that maybe there is some comfort there that there is comparable there is comparability um and perhaps there's an argument for affordability for the fona pool because it is such a valuable asset and it does offer so many amenities but I remain uncomfortable with this Fe setting process because it doesn't have the support of data because a lot of it is temperature taking and guesstimating here on the deis rather than being informed by a strategic analysis of a forward-looking plan for how the pool will be managed um right now it appears that you know it's a sizable property that's left fallow most of the Year and that we are trying to generate Revenue within two months to support that that property um and perhaps there's opportunities throughout the year that can be utilized to support the pool utility perhaps there are more strategic opportuni ities in terms of recreation and the assets that are there however and and while some of those were were touched upon by the you know ambitious Rec committee subcommittee you know they haven't really been fully explored nor are they really part of this Revenue Generation Um and you know discussion that we've been having over the last several weeks um as a result all of the revenue concerns get concentrated into the membership fees and it does just keep driving that cost up and up and up for families and it and I am concerned about the affordability piece as we are going to be welcoming more low and moderate income residents into our community about whether or not we're pricing people out of that pool or we're setting up a situation where the pool will be scaled back in Future years and that's really kind of a disappointing conclusion also for the residents of the township of Rona so what I think is really important is that we take a more strategic Focus I do appreciate that the Administration has heard my prior comments on this and that you are moving forward so perhaps next year I will be in a more comfortable position but as of right now I am not willing to support these fee increases um I do not think that they you know are adequately Justified nor is there really kind of any indication of a strategic plan going forward for the pool so that we don't keep finding ourselves in rate shocking our residents year after year after year um because there was a sizable increase last year and the quality of service apparently has not kept up with that cost um so I would really like to see that addressed as well um and I think uh Council woman McGrath made a valuable point about the cleanliness of the facilities we have heard that from various residents um and it was a point that I did ask during the budget presentations but again this evening I'm not comfortable with the r setting process that we have before us and so I'm not suppar about this Elance Council thank you uh first off in response to the mayor's request for disclosure I generally do not get a pool membership I've considered getting an individual or Twilight membership but I'd only be able to use it on weekend and it magically seems to rain most weekends so I have not been doing that um in regards to the rate setting process and the overall rate structure of the pool this is an inexact science um I've always said that our our goal here is our success is is profit maximization not So Much from the revenue point of view but because it means that the largest number of people within the community are able to use the pool and we're able to operate the standards that we um so we do tweak the rates up and down um there is the concept of dynamic pricing uh in attractions and and other things that have capacity restrictions we're just doing this on a much slower scale we're not doing it on a daily basis we're doing it on a yearly basis where we evaluate the results of oper options and then we make adjustments you know we've seen you know situations where we feel like pricing adjustments may may not deliver us more revenue and that's always a concern I would like to see a better data driven approach and some economic theory here as to how we try and profit maximize and make sure that the pool is accessible to as many people as possible while maintaining the maintenance standards and paying for its uh Capital debt so I would welcome seeing something more in depth next year and earlier in the year um but again I I recognize our responsibility to operate this utility for this coming year we have to pass pool rates that uh will allow us to operate the pool um this is what we have here I think the adjustments we made were reasonable um in light of our own you know personal thoughts on what might help make this pool most accessible to each category of membership and I'm going to support this as it's in front of us depy mayor sure uh I would first like to point out that I believe hopefully moving forward uh towards the end of the season maybe late August or even right after the pool closes it's probably the best time we should put a survey out and Survey all the people that used the pool uh I don't know how soon after we did it last year uh but I just think you everything's fresh in their minds uh you know we just got an email today about the cleanliness of the pool so it would be nice if we had them earlier uh and we could reach out to these people and have discussions with them uh I I just think that that would help us uh and maybe somehow get a feel for for raising fees the next year where we can do it where we can't and see what what group of people are happy or unhappy uh I think when it comes to this fee schedule uh I do agree that you know maybe there's a better process and better information we can get uh I think moving forward we make sure that we had data on people that come in and out uh I think I've spoke with the the director of recreation uh about focusing on that where people are he says they do a great job but obviously we get emails saying the opposite uh but when it comes to this Fe schedule schedule that we created for this year uh it's to me driven by spending uh we basically overspent we did the splatch pad and we did the baby pool at the same time uh we probably should have split those projects and I know in the long run they cost more but we just spent a lot of money all at once and now we have to pay for it and that's why these things are going up uh if we split them we could have spread it out uh and you know it's kind of when we talk about our infrastructure and we don't uh look at we don't see the pipes underground we go back a couple years 10 12 years we spent I I I don't even think there's a final number on what we spent on Liberty and freedom Fields uh to build them I think it was 10 million doesn't count what we spent on purchasing the property up there I think that was the same amount so you know those were the things it's driven by the public this is what they wanted that's money we could have spent on you know a new police station at the time or a new Rescue Squad building or fired a fire station uh but the councel at that time chose to do two new Fields uh so it's that that's a lot of times that's where it goes and that's where money goes because they see the the shiny new car and they want to buy it uh so I think that's exactly what happened here and that's why these fees are going up because the the entire Township can't be paying for this pool it's a separate utility and that's the way it should be funded and it hasn't been that way so I think moving forward you know we adjust ourselves and and make sure that we keep it focused on that utility uh if things work out and fees can go down next year great uh I I just I have a question to the administration uh what happens here if this doesn't pass you don't have any time your pool needs to open you need to start registrations and fees and you're literally at a time on new fees um not sure if the fire ordinance carries and it does so you'll be working on fees that are not sufficient to carry your your PO so the utility could close if we as a council say or a majority say the town's not funding it it has to be self-sufficient actually mayor if I may may um actually your decision would be the pool is going to close what'll end up happening is that you're being a deficit the deficit the deficit transfers to your operating budget in the overall taxpayers get that issue and if you're running out of money in the local budget which was pretty efficiently run if I can say um you will be looking at an emergency that will impact on the 2025 budget so I really would strongly recommend that you address this and there if I can just cover a few more items for unfortunately the superintendent was sick and that's why it wasn't have a budget to H here but he was at the budget meetings with myself my team on the CFO as we doing the budget together I did hear your concerns about data and more efficient data as as we did with with water uh we are Contracting with a firm as soon as we get the proposal in to do that study on the pool utility that should answer your question will'll be done now not after the pool closes I really need to have it in place in a relative short amount of time for you to start looking at digesting where this pool is going I did have meetings with the superintendent and staff relative to the concerns of the residents at the pool and the plans that are being put in place for monitoring the registrations of the people coming to the pool based on concerns that the public had about people that were getting into the pool that should have been in the pool uh also the concerns about the bathrooms and loneliness of the grounds that is being addressed by the superintendent with all the staff going on and my direction to the superintendent was literally staff that did not perform their jobs they need to be issued one warning and then terminated if necessary everybody has a job to do everyone must do their job so Dave is obviously your new superintendent he's putting a number of pieces in place and as councilwoman Holland said the next meeting is an extensive agenda that is being driven by Dave and meetings I've had with your superintendent to put that that part of your organization in place so those concerns are being addressed thank Mr yo Deputy Mayor so the reason I I I pose that question is because I I am a little uncomfortable with this uh uh councilwoman mentioned that the senior raise in this is $7 or the difference is $7 and they can't afford it uh I a different minion it it's actually a $22 raise per senior uh because last year they were only paying $175 so even at $195 I'm I'm not real comfortable with it so I I I I'm I'm worried about this and worried about the pool because it's a very uh good asset for the township I think that all have and I'll close the conversation uh with just a couple points um I I'll let you go see um I think there a few items first we hear comments about the pool being clean or not at this stage in the process that is several months too late like nine months too l so my recommendation to any members of the public who are pool members who have a concern goes the pool managers there's always a manager on duty anytime the pool is open there's a manager on duty um I go there several times a year to inspect and walk around with the managers um I talk to Residents people are using the pool um those concerns were brought to me as I'm walking around I even wear my town TR brona shirt the whole thing to be to be visible I brought Mr diarco there with me on one of these little tours um but I I would absolutely recommend going to the managers all of our pool managers are phenomenal people um so go to them if the pool manager is not responsive to your concern go to the the director of community service if the director of community services is not responsive to your concern call Mr and Mr Dio um that is how you're going to get your concerns about cleanliness dealt with when they happen telling the council later is all we're going to be doing is saying we will be concerned I have no evidence I haven't been able to I didn't see any problems when I was there of course I obviously didn't ENT the women's room um but really we're going to pass back to mrco who's going to pass it back to the superintendent of recreation who's going to pass it back to the pool managers so talk to the people um when you see them I think that's important um second comment is I think we should have a midseason survey or some midseason Gathering just to get some ideas of what's going on maybe not about fees but I'd like to know like how many guesss have you brought in um you know what are you feeling about that how was clim this like not something huge I think the pool survey that we sent out was actually maybe too long and people got survey fatigue so we may not have gotten as many responses as uh we probably would like um but I would absolutely suggest a brief how are we doing type um type survey the uh my my third piece is and I agree I I take the deputy mayor's Point very well if we don't to anything our existing pool fees stay live expressed my concerns about how the PO fees were arrive um have to have new fees so we can offer the pools utility there was a comment um that I would also like to address where there was concern about not agreeing with the administration on the recommendations uh our Administration does exactly that is they make recommendations to the council and our Township manager has said multiple times that it's really up to us in the end our job as elected officials is number one to hire the best possible manager that we can get of course we have that in Mr zaro and the second is to be that that uh protector of our residents before we legislate pass legislation so that's exactly what should be doing in fact that's really our job here is to make sure that any fees come before a fair to make sure that our fees are not disproportionately affecting our senior citizens to make sure that everybody is represented in the process so I I really I think my perhaps my theory of representation is different um but I honestly based on my sense of knowledge and understanding of representation political science and and teaching it I I think I'm pretty well in line with uh with what the standards of representation are um and I give our Administration credit for presenting us recommendations that are just that uh in recommendations and not only that but responding to and enacting the policy when we adopt it in a mun so thank you all for that Council prayer thank you mayor um I just want to um just put a couple things on the record so there is a pool survey that has turned sent out at the end of the pool season fairely quickly um every single year we actually got hundreds of verbatim comments I and hundreds of residents filled it out and I believe we got a copy of those results in October that pool survey was actually started as as my initiative when I was elected I felt it was really important to encom Encompass feedback um and so that is an important part of our process I just wanted to make sure we clarify that um and I also just want to correct the record um as I see it on the rate increases and how they tie to increased expenses so our budget went up 140,000 uh from 2023 budget to 2024 budget as presented by our CFO so $40,000 of that 140 was due to increased depth Debt Service due to the addition of the splash pad and the renovation of the baby pool which made it Ada accessible an additional $440,000 is due to increased salaries largely because of increasing minimum wage 30,000 of that increase is due to the Skyrocket cost of chemicals for that pool and the 30 the final 30,000 were miscellaneous expenses which included us making sure that some of the costs of the pool that were actually in our general fund were being appropriately pulled out into the pool utility so yes we did do a very expensive project yes it is did result in additional 40,000 of costs but the total 140 it's only a propor portion of the total cost of $140,000 that are increasing so I just want to put that on the record because there are some broad themes chemicals wages Debt Service getting the pool utility to be an all-encompassing and financial entity finally I just want to reiterate of course it's the job of the governing body to take the administration's recommendations and and put our own spin on it but I do think it is a responsibility of the council to try to incorporate our comments as as possible and especially when it comes to rates and rates introduction to avoid making changes on the day as well we are allowed to do so um upon introduction I think that's where there was a little bit of a surprise but thank you very much mayor for allowing me to have a second um speaking time thank you thank you Council Madam clerk would you call Council Holland no council yes rany mayor yes mayor K yes mayor 2020 I'm sorry 24-10 passes seven and it will be published the lawk you at this point I'm going to relinquish the chair and recuse myself from discussion on ordinance number 20241 as I am a a member of the on a rescue squad though I do not take the complimentary membership the deputy mayor has the chair thank you Mr Mayor uh and now the next item on the agenda second Ro for second reading is ordinance number 202 24-11 Madam clerk can you please read the title an ordinance chapter a56 of the code of the Town volunteer members someone like move this or so moved someone like to second I will second it moved by councilman Roman second by myself okay now is the time for a public hearing anyone from the audience on Zoom raise your hand seeing no one we will close public participation any comments from Council I'll just reiterate um my prior statements um as this is a new hearing on a separate ordinance but also related to pool feeds that I have a general discomfort with the calculation of fees for the pool this season um I do think that some of the fees could be calculated on a more reasonable basis um utilizing data in a strategic plan approach um and so I will be objecting to this ordinance as well um for the same reason that I objected to ordinance 20241 anyone else on the we just make a quick comment uh I've actually spoke with several members of the rescue squad on this uh and the fire department uh and something brought to my attention that one never thinks of we're dealing with a utility where there's a lot of water and therefore a lot of accidents and I know speaking to some of those uh members of the rescue squad that there's been accidents there while these members are present and they're being present when something happens the response time obviously is cut down uh one of the people I spoke with actually uh he and his wife attended to somebody he actually left his family got in the ambulance and took this person to the hospital uh in transportation so there is a benefit to having uh these members there present uh during regular hours of the uh the pool being open so uh obviously another reason why I would uh gladly support this importantance so and seeing no other comment Madame clerk can you please call the rooll councilman Holland Council McGrath yes Council en Roman yes mayor yes 20241 3 to one thank you madam CL I'll and the floor back to the mayor thank you Deputy Mayor you're a natural like you've done this before all right the next item on the agenda is ordinance 24-12 on second reading not could you please read the title of this one fixing the salar to compation of the paid officers somebody move the ordinance soov the motion is by councilman Roman is there a second I'll second it thank you the second is by the deputy mayor any public comment now is the time for the public hearing on this ordinance same public comment statement appes No public comment not is there any Council discussion on the I would just say um I did you know communicate previously with the township Administration regarding the ranges of the salaries presented in this ordinance I objected on introduction and I will be objecting here on second reading thank Youk you Council uh I just like to thank all of our Municipal staff for their hard work and um and I think the solid ranges is proposed by the manager are fair and a recognition um of the work that our staff do if only we can pay them more than make that work would you please call R CC no yes C yes mayor maoy yes mayor Tim yes mayor or 202 4-12 passes 4 to one will be published according to law thank you madam clerk the next item on the agenda is ordinance number 2024 -13 on second reading would you please read the title of this ordinance parks of recreation move so moved made by councilman Holland the second is by councilman McGrath this time I will open the public hearing on ordinance number 2024 D13 SLE of comment applies hearing none the public hearing is closed any Council discussion Council Mand um yes thank you I just want to acknowledge um the tremendous work that the rec committee has been putting in um these are very dedicated individuals and the wre committee has existed for a long time but the Paradigm has certainly shifted um this organization this ordinance is one example of that that change in organization to the committee um they developed subcommittees for the first time they came forward with written recommendations and as we stated earlier they do have a robust agenda coming up so I just really want to compliment those individuals and compliment the new chair of the rec committee um and thank them for their service thank you thank you madam call Council yesc yes C Roman yes Deputy Mayor M yes mayor yes mayor orange 13 pass thank you m CLK at this time I'm going to I myself from H one the deputy mayor H thank you Mr Mayor the uh next item on the agenda is ordinance on first reading Madame clerk can you please read the title of the ordinance reserve for future improvements for the resue S Special Operations vehicle in town Verona New Jersey thank you madam clerk I will actually move this ordinance would anybody like to Second it I'll second it second by councilman Roman uh and any comment on this Council woman MC yes um I had sent a question to the administration on this over the weekend I didn't get a response I would like to know how this Capital ordinance was or why this Capital ordinance was put on the agenda when we just went through a very lengthy process where we saw lots of capital requests we have a lot of capital needs a lot of safety issues ues so why is this particular ordinance being FastTrack I'm May sure oh mayor um unfortunately this was approved um in 2023 uh I had believed it was in motion um when that vehicle was acquired um through a it was when I first came here I was advised it was acquired it was in discussion in 22 and three it was approval it was approved to do a capital ordinance and um I literally missed it it never it never moved forward the funding was there the CFO had a question relative to um the equipment that was being donated that went into it and some of the equipment was purchased already and they were trying to hammer out the exact number through the emergency squ and I completely lost sight of this project so that's why it it ends up now yeah the vehicle is here we retrieved it when it was donated it's been at public works and it was supposed to be moving forward and it didn't until the question came up about where is that emergency vehicle there was also a period of time when the rescue squad was discussing with the police department and the fire department a joint use of the vehicle but it was more uh driven to the rescue squad and the president of the rescue squad clarified that with both both the other two agencies that it would be solely their project or their vehicle and and that's that's the only only answer that I have very honestly that's why it's coming up so early because it was previously approv I think for my purposes I don't have nearly enough back ground and I also just have concerns with the process especially since um you know there are individuals on the council who have stated on the record that they're members of the rescue squad uh the mayor is also the deputy coordinator OEM coordinator and the fact that this is being pulled out and there was no background information for me I have a lot of concerns uh questions so I would be open to considering this in the future as part part of a larger package um and personally I feel if this is really of importance to the rescue squad I will need for me to feel comfortable going forward a touch base um directly from them and we need to have some offline conversations thank you so I will add to uh manager's explanation uh I have spoken uh to the president of the wrestling Squad and the captain about this uh this has has manager stated it's been ongoing it's been sitting up in the public works for quite some time uh it has to be known to the rest of the council this vehicle also came with about $100,000 worth of equipment uh that was one of the main reasons why they got it they have for a couple years now been using that equipment uh if this this was some of the reason for the uh the moving this forward right away is that if this is not uh finalized and used by the rescue squad or the Town of Verona then the vehicle will be asked to be returned and the equipment that came with it would also have to be returned uh when listening to the explanation it's also a vehicle that they wish they had uh at a time like the clarage fire at the beginning of July when uh our EMS workers are out there in 100 degree weather and practically having heart attacks uh it's a cooling center it's a command center uh it's a very valuable piece of equipment for the rescue squad and the fire department and the police department uh so for $42,000 uh and $225 uh I think it's a minimal amount of money for piece of equipment that would greatly benefit the township on uh so that's all add to that any other councilman Roman yes deuty mayor um I've had similar conversations with the rescue squad about the use of the vehicle the equipment that was supplied with it the need to put it into service or the risk of losing it um and also when this first came up I believe this was actually at a higher dollar amount I think 70,000 roughly sticks in my head but I think they were able to get the radio for the vehicle and some other parts of it uh in the inter room so I think dollar amount on this might have actually gone down since the last time that we talked about it but the clarage incident um made it obvious that a piece of equipment like this is fairly valuable to the town these are extremely expensive of assets to buy if you have to have them built new we would not be able to uh put one of these into service without the acquisition process that happened with this and it's a relatively small investment behalf of the township for the capabilities that it gives us uh in the event that we should need in the future so I'm in favor of allocating this out coun um thank you uh while I appreciate that my gentlemen colleagues um have had the opportunity to have the discussion with the Rescue Squad leadership um I have not had any Outreach um from the rescue squad regarding this Capital ordinance I was also surprised that we were moving forward on capital projects because we did just conclude the budgeting process and there were a number of wish list items that were presented by all of the different department heads um this was one of the projects that I do recall the rescue squad mentioning but again number of other wish list items were also presented including leaking roofs um and and other significant Investments um so um I also just want to point out that we are out of our process um so it has been our established process as a body to discuss these things in new business before they're brought forward for introduction so that that did not happen here that would have been a great opportunity for the rescue squad to te to speak to the entire body about this item but also for the administration to present your larger Capital plans to us um um and that's really what my concern is I I I don't disagree that maybe we could afford $42,000 um but at the same time I would like to understand that in the larger strategic context of what are we funding with capital so I don't want to just look at this one project and go $42,000 this makes sense it's over $100,000 worth of stuff and our Rescue Squad does a tremendous job for us this would have been a valuable asset I completely agree with all of those statements but but just looking at it in that vacuum doesn't give me the bigger picture of what you know what are the tradeoffs and what are your other Capital plans um what were the things that made the list and that what were the ones that didn't when we had our directors come to us I mean clearly this is making the list for you but like what were the ones that didn't I would like to have that understanding certainly before I voted on a second reading um I'm not opposed to moving forward this evening with introduction however you know in order to move past a second reading I would really want to understand the broader scope of where this fits into our Capital plans mayor I sure Mr I completely understand your concerns and the unfortunate aspect of this is that it's a 2023 project that was approved and just got lost in the shuffle and that's partly my fault I was 22 I knew nothing about this vehicle being donated to the town but was discussed in a meeting and I said okay I'll go get it yeah I didn't have the entire background on it either but it was prior to me getting here we did get it we did get it with the equipment and in 2023 it was supposed to be capitalized um I'm not sure how I got lost in the shule as there were many many St in so I apologize for that delay but it's not a 2024 Capital 2023 Nation Roman thank you I will agree with the manager that this was definitively supposed to be in in 2023 so this has been discussed and you know we are late on the project but that do need you know we should kill it we see reason for this go forward and secondly we did um have a couple other capital item spefic had the inar cameras for the police vehicles and we had a couple other things that are out of the budget process that have already gone through this year so to say that you know we're out of process but we do look at things as they come up with in so I say that's a blanket reason to shoot it down any other comments so you no other comments Madam clerk can you please call the roll Holland yes uh Council no council R yesy May maoy yes um number 20 2415 it passes a vote 3 to publish to law March thank you madam Clerk and I will turn the floor back over to the mayor thank you I may turn it back to you Deputy member State president the rescue squad came inally speak uh should we go into public or speak first reading so we don't comments All right so I'll open up public comment if anybody from the audience or on Zoom would like to make a comment please raise your hand or step to the Lector give me your name not address just Township you live in apologize name and sound uh Fred tempesta 99 lwood Verona just I can trust everybody it's all good just come to speak on a operations vehicle I know there's some unclarity of like it coming up this has been I can't kick down the road repetitively for a couple years and we've been constantly asking the council for the funding for it and for one reason or another it's been falling through the cracks and it happens so unfortunately bureaucracy is bureaucracy it is what it is but the real big take home is the $100,000 of equipment we've got missing fans tents fire rehab equipment having a closed air conditioned command post when you're evacuating you know a 12 story apartment building building on a 90 something degree day and you're all suffering medical issues because it's hot and it's impossible for the responders to focus and make decisions we just you know commoner the senior bus but it wasn't really efficient go over planning Logistics operational periods all the stuff that goes into a long-term event because at some point whenever you have an acute incident you need to make the decision are we going to close the incident or are we going to go into operational shifts which is we ended up deciding was we've rotated out the dayr brought in night crws and trying to like logistically coordinate that basically on a fold up table in 95 weather was painful so having air conditioned space where we could have rolling communication scribes writing all the information down I understand in ver we think of these big incidents but we've had several of them over the last 20 years that have been on the squad and in years past we used to use the old rescue truck because it had a command area set up for that wasn't great but it got the job done but we really don't have that ability and honestly all command posts aside all each back aside the biggest take them is it comes with hundreds of thousands dollars equipment that s the council Time and Time and Time and Time Again on multiple multiple multiple occasions both individually and as so the value both the township the responders and the citizens is Paramount and there aren't many organizations that can tout our numbers and because the relatively fresh off the presses I mean we turfed less than five or less than half a percent 0 five% of our calls to beo last year and we provideed Mutual aid over two 300 times so I mean we're paying back in surrounding communities 61 conservatively 30 to one pretty easily so having that resource is just useful to have but it also opens up to the state task force so our members can get more experience more knowledge free at the cost of the task force and bring it back to Rona to further Pride you know support to the township and it's just it's kind of irresponsible to not forward promote the volunteers as all the squads throughout the state are closing on a regular basis but I appreciate your support for it thoroughly thank you so much thank you Mr T you were one of the several that I was worried about on that day at clarage when it was 97 yeah you and everyone else people to mind their businesses respectable I'm my will do better thank you it's all good and you guys want to hear from me we're done with uh this I will turn it back to the mayor thank you very much um you had our general public comments um so time it is time for the consent agenda um I can move the consent agenda we have two items of two minutes we have four resolutions and agenda s I'll agenda um this time I'll call for public comment on the consent agenda and we have Miss Pearson Miss Pearson just name and town of resid please peon good evening uh Verona um I am calling in this evening to support tonight's resolution opposing Senate Bill 2347 um I've done a great amount of research on this um I spoke with Mr Frank Marshall from the league of municipalities who also expressed that the league did not look kindly or favorably upon this bill because it undermines a locality's ability to set their own parameters and protect their Community um this model or is very unclear he agreed with me on a number of the provisions that lacked a great deal of clarity but the one thing that really upsets me is the new impervious surface that this will add in light of this council's just passing an enhanced storm water Control Ordinance which was customized for the needs of our flood prone Town um last year this Council also sent the state uh resolution against overriding a more strict Pro provision for storm water in our town um and that was sent to the entire New Jersey legislature as well as uh I believe the league um if you look at the numbers clearly and Mr Marshall agreed with me this does increase impervious surface on our lots and quite I'm going to break it down really quickly um in Verona the definition of buildable space as is provided in the bill is 20 to 25% of each lot depending on which residential Zone you're in so in an r100 lot if you have 12,000 square feet 2400 is 20% and then you take % of that 20% and you're adding an additional 10% of impervious coverage but I just want to be clear that percentage Rises as each property becomes smaller until you get up to a minimum of 18% increase on the smaller R40 and R50 zones in town that's it close to a 20% increase in allowable coverage and the ordinance itself or the the model Bill does not say that we have to limit how big that buildable space or the percentage that 60% of buildable space it clearly says that uh municipalities aren't held to limit the Adu to 60% of buildable area it says that they may allow a municipality to limit the maximum size of an accessory dwelling unit separately from the primary to that square footage that is not an excess of 60% so you may and this does not include any off street parking or turnaround space on any lot so all I can say is um very much in favor of the resolution and I really hope that this Council who just took the time to read through quite a few documents on storm water to uh strongly consider voting yes for this resolution and I thank you here Mr Ryan you do have not did yes it looks like it there we go there we go thank you uh just a quick comment uh on the resolution regarding the area of need of uh Rehabilitation uh uh I would hope that at some point uh uh you would be able to maybe ask our public administration admin information officer to sort of clarify the difference between difference between an area need of Rehabilitation in an area in need of Redevelopment this stuff gets quite wonky I will use that expression uh when when the presentation is made and I think it would be helpful if a sort of a more General explanation uh could be put out to to the public just a suggestion uh as you go through this process uh the the second thing there I I think this is part of your consent agenda was the appointments to the uh uh the planning uh the planning board uh I do notice you had one appointment down there but there two vacant slots still left open uh I just wanted to to point out that the planning board is going to be going into a sort of very very active uh next few months and uh you know I think we're sort of dangerously close maybe to not have a quarum at certain meetings so I would encourage you to uh to really consider making uh the additional uh appointments uh as as ASAP and uh that that's my suggestions thank you Mr Ryan any further public it's mang I just want to say one brona New Jersey I just want to comment on one quick thing the uh deed restriction with the storm water uh I'm surveyor to deal with a deed and restrictions on that is very hard to get off uh right now you guys are dealing with a resident in town who has a conservation easement on their property that was put there by a previous homeowner and uh if you put a conservation ement in you cannot fence it in so if you were to put that patio in and the runoff there and you have a fence you not have to take that fence down because we're not allowed to fence in conservation easement so that would impact lot then in order to remove that deed the restriction on the deed you need to do a whole bunch of paperwork a whole bunch of title research that is just ridiculous for the homeowner to put in something on their deed uh when you finish a or a pool patio anything usually you can get a final as Bill and that goes on record with your survey which goes on record in the town which you should have um there are many ways to record infrastructure and how it is people are putting their drains out um I know right now the new ordinance is no sub pumps draining onto the streets now you drive up and down the streets it's all over so um basically the storm water it has to go somewhere but but if you make conservation easement and a deed restriction you're screwing yourself and you're not going to be able to sell your home it's going to be just hurt the resident more and more so I think there's other ways to get around that that's it keep it short think no further comments I will close public comment at this time I just did want to uh spot Miss Pearson's comments in a second but I did want to um Ryan's we did receive two applications for this Zing Board of adjustment and we'll be discussing those appointments can um do buiness uh in response to miss Pearson um I with you um on your statements and I appreciate the time and energy that you put into researching this as well I'm going to provide a little background on uh well actually I'll ask if anybody has any specific response first to any of the public participation I'll take that um just had a comment on adus in general so I've researched this quite a bit we've gotten some public comment on both in favor and against um it's kind of interesting every time that you know we hear that New Jersey is a home rule state and every time State wants to make some law um not to allow us to control zoning ordinances or otherwise with things that are the opposite um and with looked at adus we've talked about them Verona offers a huge variety of housing types we have highrise Condominiums we have older Garden style Apartments we have town houses we have single family homes there's duplexes there's plenty of older and new rental stock um I don't see a a solution that adus are creating specifically in Verona itself um I do see them creating more problems with uh parking in particular as you'll both end up with more cars on a lot and you people trying to convert space it's currently used for parking into livable space um and we have a challenge here I mean we have you know a rapidly growing population um you know we've had a lot of people push back against a lot of multif family so I know some people see this as a financial opportunity to make some more money off of their own property but you know if we want to consider adus we should consider them at the Verona level I really don't like the concept of the state mandating them but just in general uh it would be a big hurdle for me to consider adus something that's right for I'm uh proud to support this opposition in our our resolution thank you C thank you U mayor I actually request that we remove K3 from the consent agenda so that we can vote on separately the consent agenda was already moved so that's out of our process uh but we can certainly do that remove the agenda with poit um and then we can we can discuss that but um new future anybody who would like something remove the that done before the motion occurred mayor thank you for that um if you wouldn't mind them pausing just a moment I just wasn't fast enough before things were moved and seconded and I didn't want to interrupt because I know that we've also been spoken to before about not interrupting and so I I just lost because it went so quickly so thank you for that clarification council members let me know in advance that they to pull a resolution and that's a very easy way of doing that as well okay great I would like to make a comment on K1 um I think the dates in the whereas are possibly reverse or incorrect um because it's saying that we referred the study report to the planning board happened after planning board return the resolutions the first one January not feary just want to make sure we get it right you know these These are the last yeah these These are wrong it's supposed to be today well yeah supposed to be today's States right because you're passing a resolution now weering the study back to to the planning so whereas on today's dat the Govern refer the study and his resolution and draft and dra well draft for for comment the first one while he's while he's looking at that I just want to make a general comment on Art process for this area in need of Rehabilitation I just I would have preferred we talked about this in new business and let it marinate in the community for a two week period of time before we then officially pass this resolution and send it to the planning board I think you know again this is going to generate some questions so for the administration um be ready I think when they hear that we are um declaring all Bloomfield Avenue as an area of need of Rehabilitation it does generate like a lot of chatter so um in the future I would have preferred a little bit of a breathing room pause and also a heads up to our um Chamber of Commerce many of whom own these businesses because they're going to have some questions so maybe a proactive Outreach to them so they understand and so that they're aware of the planning board process so that they can participate there um so I don't know yeah so this this resolution is actually the resolution that you come that you do after the study goes to the planning board there was another resolution that's supposed to be on right now the only thing you're doing is resolving to send it to the planning board for their review and comment they have not yet seen the study yet so this in this form it should be passed what should be passed is I'll call it the top half of the resolution and today you are referring the study which is this six where right two4 six where on today's date March 11 2024 the governing body referring to study um and this resolution and draft form to the planning board for review and comment so what you're doing now is you're sending the study to the planning board for review and comment it will then come back to you and then you'll pass the resolution um that is in in the form that you have before you if you am I saying we're taking so we're taking this whereas out you're taking that where the second one with the DAT the sixth one taking out the seventh you're taking out the seventh the sixth one is today's dat because today's the day that you refering it to the well I make sure the resolution read properly but the action you're taking today is referring this to the board they have not yet seen it yet Council I mean the way that the way that I read this resolution the resolution actually meets the area in need of Rehabilitation so we would we should not you we should essentially draft a resolution from the floor here to refer the study of area need of Rehabilitation to the planning board with this attached as a proposed resolution and have let them return it with cl that's correct so it doesn't look like that resolution we have to rewrite that resolution completely do resolution referring this to the planning board is all you want to pass then um so the consent the consent agenda is already been we want to exit the consent how proced so who move the consent agenda I I did if you want to amend my motion amend your motion to move the consent well basically K two and K4 as the consent agenda we do a separate motion for walk on of referral to the planning board and and we'll discuss K2 I'm sorry um K3 separately as well so if you would like to amend your original motion to adopt only K3 K2 and four I will amend my resolution regarding the consent agenda to only include the minutes K2 and K4 and we have no license thank who second to the original motion uh you did okay thank you I will um second the revised motion any further discussion those topics just basically K uh two and K hearing n Madam I don't even know okay Council Holland yes yes counil Roman yes yes may 24s two number 24-55 K4 be number 20 24- 56 can't recognize this Council mayor I'd like to make a motion to refer hqm associate study the Bloomfield Avenue Corridor is a potential area in need of Rehabilitation as well as a draft resolution uh to be considered for passage um to the planning board for their consideration and uh thank you I'll second that motion is there any discussion on this motion not I'm sorry well we already had public comment on this so Yes actually I'm sorry we didn't have public comment off the walk on so open for public comment at this time any public comments on this resolution very n I'm closing public comment now Madam CL hold on I already voted okay uh yes C Romany yes may Toro yes do i number this sure a draft no this a real resolution they just had I'll send you the resolution in the morning number it yeah it gets a number it's a regular resolution we just passed I'll dra the words may if I may i' like to uh move resolution K3 okay I will second resolution K3 now it's time for public comment on resolution which is the posing Bill s 2347 n close public comment make some comments on this first um I appreciate this being on the agenda um this is a probably one of the worst um pieces of legislation that has been proposed in Trenton in a long time uh for several reasons and I think they were very well captured in the origins so I do want to go through a couple of those concerns let me just respond to some public comment that uh that'll we've gotten the the first is that effectively what the legislation as proposed is suggesting is that the state once again can circumvent local zoning regulations by having as all zoning that gives municipalities very little ability to decide um what happens in their um local municipalities elect councils for the purpose of adopting zoning laws to represent the council um so structurally this bill is problematic uh this Council on multiple gages had to hear and vote on required ordinances from the state uh which I consider a pretty drastic overreach on the part of the state on many things um the r zoning ordinances do not allow for accessible accessory dwelling units to stand when the master plan was designed accessory dwelling units were specifically excluded from the master plan uh those who have read the master plan will note on the public comment and public survey part of it that a majority of the residents of the municipality were against the inclusion accessor Welling needs Verona is a small town with a major flood problem um certainly people changing existing structures wouldn't cause that as much but some you decided to build a structure um under certain regulations that we did not agree to could potentially cause a significant problem as far as drainage additional cars and parking um we're going to create that as well problems in our neighborhoods um and as the resolution points out it does put another strain on Emergency Services by increasing population uh we are pretty densely populated as it is we are building large uh structures including a completely affordable housing structure building another large apartment complex and there's all more in the works coming out we do not have a shortage of housing in Verona that this would solve um and I'm not prepared to abdicate this council's responsibility to be responsive to our residents as far as ensuring that they live in a town uh of the character that they are looking to Esta um so this is incredibly structurally flawed and creates major problems uh within our areas and I am deeply concerned about this happening um I would like to respond just a couple public comments that were sent to us by email uh somebody brought up that other municipalities do this like prinston prinston town as a combined municipality well the lot sizes in Princeton are much higher um and people sent us comments about accessory dwelling units this resolution does not address the question necessarily of Verona accessory this resolution addresses the question of the state forcing Verona to allow for accessory dwelling units against our own zoning code um and that is problematic and I would find it difficult as a member of this governing body who was elected directly by the um sents of this town to not contest this overreach by the state government um and frankly I would be very deeply concerned of any of the members of the governing body um not supporting uh this rejection of the uh of the bill as it has been the will of the Town not only clearly through the master planning process but also this was a a topic of signant significant conversation in 2021 election um as well so I think the the ordinance is well stated uh in its opposition um and I think that we really need to exercise our rights as a governing body to be heard by the state level officials all of them uh I am forward with uh with that as well Council r i Deputy Mayor sure thank you Mr Mayor uh I think I wish I saw this resolution prior because I would like to add another wear ass to it but I'm going was to State it rather than try to change anything uh one thing that should be uh noted here is that adding additional dwelling units that are market rate will increase our need for additional affordable units in future rounds adding adus to the township will only exasperate every single problem that we've we've have and everything we talk we talk to Residents about uh I'm I'm kind of shock that people would be in favor of this uh I mean we have severe rainstorms and you know houses on dirw Brookside and peret and East Reed flood and we go out and we help those people and you know we do our best for them uh being there the day of a flood it may help them a little bit it really does nothing for them this is what and this is how we can protect our constituents is to not allow some of these things happen I'll go to some emails we got uh well if you you added uh impervious surface you can require a rain Garden well in this bill it actually says you can't impose any Financial burdens on anybody who wants to put it in so obviously someone can argue with their attorney that oh I can't put a ring because I got to build this unit and I'm not going to be able to afford a r c uh I have I actually went through this probably three or four times I'm not going to bore everybody I have a whole page of notes uh I can start right from the beginning on page two uh accessory dwelling units are a valuable form of Housing and pres present a way to expand the state's housing Supply I agree with that that is both cost effective and consistent with sound planning and environmental principles it's not consistent with sound planning it's not consistent with environmental principles as stated in the resolution there are many things in there that just go just are in the face of sound environmental principles and as stated already it's it's in our master plan so it doesn't go it goes against our planning that many people in a town actually participated in and we're against uh I can go on and on every single paragraph on this first page uh accessory dwelling units provide housing family members the elderly inhome Healthcare Providers individual disabilities yes and others often at below market prices within existing neighborhoods and at no cost to municipalities they're not nothing in this ordinance States it's you have to make these units affordable so if if I'm going to change my garage into an apartment first of all it's going to cost upwards of a h 100,000 maybe $150,000 to do it if anybody does that if you think they're going to put a a a low income house there and not get Market rates for that apartment that's crazy and and the way this is written I can go on and on I'm telling you every single paragraph I wrote notes for everything uh I'm not going to bore everybody with it but if you really pick this apart it it's just it's it's a very very not well- written bill uh and let's say we get we get do we get emails oh well mon Flair has them Maplewood has them Monclair passed them last year South Orange I believe was one of the emails these are towns that have a rail system that go through it their mass transit is far better than what Verona is and yeah then maybe you can put one of these units there uh and I looked at montclair's Monclair actually limits the unit to 800 squ foot where this ordinance and I actually kind of want to if I can find it and go to the right page on page nine of this bill uh I really I wish someone proof RIT and and really change things in here uh line 43 and 44 yeah I'm going to take time to do this uh the minimum floor area required if any shall be no greater than 300 feet I don't that so you're make an apartment less than 300 square foot and then 45 46 the maximum floor area requirement if any shall be no smaller than 12200 square foot okay they probably should be reversed but let's say this this this is the law then Monclair we know really probably researched when they did it they put a maximum of 800 square foot so they'll have to change and increase theirs there's all these things throughout this entire bill that I am just totally against uh so I will end it there so I don't bore people further but uh there's so many things in this that are just not good for the township thank you councilman thank you um thank you mayor um again there's been constant theme of tonight I really feel that this resolution actually should have been in new business so that we could have had a thorough conversation obviously there are certain members of the governing body that are really upset with this introduced bill I do know and I did see that the league of municipality opposes it um as do I on the fact that it overrides um uh home rule and overrides our zoning but the league opposes many bills and generally we follow League of municipality recommendations they are not focused on this bill if they raise the alarm for us on bills where they want us to pass sample resolutions in fact they write them for us um they have been doing webinars on Oprah reform on the general affordable housing legislation that was actually today having testimony and other matters this has actually not risen to the level of the the robust conversation that we're having today um I do want to thank the residents who um sent us M comments I thought they raised really good points but I know from myself from knocking on thousands of doors in Verona and speaking in particular to our senior citizens they are very concerned about staying in Verona and having a place to live they will not qualify for the new affordable housing that we are building and there is actually not enough housing stock in our community to have flexible options in addition I want to thank the uh Kate Kelly who um is an expert in her field on housing um in New Jersey for specifically highlighting how this can also help families with a disability um and so you know while I'm not for this legislation I'm certainly not going to sign on to this very lengthy ordinance that I don't see being backed up with studies and research now if those studies and research are out there I would love to read them but instead I've been provided with a lot of information on the benefits of adus again it's not in our master plan I'm not saying I'm for this bill but I'm not going to sign on on being against it and I think we do in the future need to follow our processes by discussing these more complex matters in new business first thank you councilman sure I would just um make note just for clarity that municipalities only have the authority that has been delegated To Us by the state legislature um we do not independently have our own powers so to the extent that earlier statements regarding home rule were to indicate that somehow we have greater power and that the legislature then takes it away from us it's actually the opposite in the state of New Jersey um that's why we do have all of these leg all of these laws that govern what we do whether it be the local public contracts law the municipal land law or any of the other different statements of law in I I believe it's title 4A um that governs what we do as a municipality I particularly agree with several of the statements that were made about this legislation being bordly drafted um I do think it is potentially an overreach but I do also recognize that that there would have been a value of more robust discussion I I think we've actually talked at length tonight but like I would have liked to perhaps had an opportunity where the two experts that did comment to us in writing um had an opportunity to perhaps talk to you know our representative from the environmental commission so that there could perhaps have been a Meeting of Minds and maybe that would have contributed to the drafting of this resolution um because we didn't have that opportunity and because this is still in process um I'm not really comfortable with moving forward with this resolution this evening um and so that that's really all I want to say thank you thank you I appreciate the comments from councilman Holland and and grath about process and about so on but legislation moves quickly and through committee um and in legislature often when it is that project of our powerful people in um trending so thus addressing this matter quickly is of the essence um I I I have to chle a little bit about um a statement that we didn't have a robust discussion when we've had a significant discussion during this meeting with Council comments uh on this resolution and uh so I think we absolutely did have a robust discussion I'm not sure how more robust it would have been in uh new business um but at the same time it doesn't require really anything beyond a simple understanding of government to understand that this is bad legislation that will badly affect our residents and I'm deeply concerned that uh we do not have full Council support on this um especially when council members have made STS they can agree with it but they also won't say that to the state um and what all that does is it undermines our ability to influence legislation on the state level uh when people can equivocate in such a manner um and honestly I think our residents deserve Madam clerk to call Ro please counc M no M no coun Ro Roman yes Deputy Mayor maoy yes mayor Toro yes right K three will be numbered uh 20 24-58 okay thank you madam clerk at this point we do have one we have an agendum um okay this is for our Council appointments uh on the agendum for the first is the Verona C Gro BL control Advisory Board do I have a motion on M1 a motion is by the councilman second I'll second is by the deputy mayor um this time I'll call for public comment on the council appointment F the comment I will close F the comment any discussion was that read name the name is for John Lao as the cand is the um Council design and Mr sits on the ver Mr Mr as well as our yeah see no discussion cler please yes yes C Roman yes mayor ma Boy Yes mayor Tim Boro yes zero the next item is the Zoning Board of adjustment commments um we have three vacancies at the moment uh it would be two public member positions and uh one alternate position Uh current member and former mayor Kevin Ryan who was currently alternate has request to be moved to a public member um a voting member for the unex term ending 6302 had two uh requests that came in from um community members uh Bill cortus and um Dr edth Reese um at this point one would fill in the public member and one was F in the alternate position um I'm going to put forth uh Mr C I will move in for the public member just a second second okay the second is by the um councilman Roman is there any discussion on well I guess we'll leave it there until we them all one time um yes councilman um I'm just um wondering since Dr uh ree has prior experience why she would not be a good um choice to be the public me member she has prior experience on planning board for multiple years any other questions or comments right um I will put forth Dr Reese uh the mayor has the appointment apparently for the alternate so I'll do that separately uh we'll hear a um any other discussion on the public for Kevin Ryan us please Council Holland yes counc M no coun Roman yes Deputy Mayor yes mayor appointment and as mayor I'm appointing Dr eth Ree to alternate number one to the on expire term ending 6:30 2024 okay and sorry moving on to um any other items of new or finished business c m previously requested an agenda item Emergency Services comp Council thank you um so um I had received I I I received a phone call on Friday um sort of as a byproduct of the clarage meeting and I realized as I was talking to this ARR resident um I was really confused on the process I couldn't answer all of her questions and I couldn't even really answer her questions on what the process is that the council is following in order order to get this building approved where I'm a little I understand the public so socialization of the uh building and we sort of I guess implicitly you know agreed for that to happen in fact I see A really lovely physical brochure that was created and it really does explain the need quite nicely we as a governing body have not actually taken any formal action to first of all agree that we're moving forward with this combined building we we really only had one public meeting where we saw the design we haven't commented actually um at all on the design as a governing body we haven't made any adjustments and I'm confused when that's going to be and so my request of this governing body and the administration is that we between now and the next meeting we do kind of delineate a process because I feel like and then we're also not discussing the costs at all with the public and that's troubling because the costs are really significant in fact hman Roman earlier in this meeting said we are a small town and this is actually a really big building and while I appreciate it's good to get some feedback early from residents I'm a little concerned with giving the impression that the governing body is like ready to move forward with what was presented once to us when we didn't actually have any follow-up conversations so I do have I I I have transparency concerns I have concerns about a lot of these meetings that are happening and when we are what the iterative process is going to look like I uh alter mrco in a second I think the I'm just gonna touch on transparency just for a second I think what Mr dico is trying to do with having these meetings is be transparent and bring the issue to people um as we know our c meeting attendance is white um it's fall and some folks at home and I really actually applaud I wasn't aware of the clage meeting um and that may be something to work on letting us know when these meetings are going to be and if we want to show off we show off um but I think it's important that uh and it's actually very proactive mrco for you to bring this to the public to get feedback my understanding of Mr de's process based on what he explained to US during the uh manager report was that he is bringing this out sharing the concept plan which is what we have at this time and getting resident questions that we can act on in fact Mr diaro said that there may be some recommendations moving forward so at this point we have heard a concept plan we are in the process of looking at funding sources we have met with legislators and anybody that we can talk to um as far as getting some funding uh um but part of the the deal is before we can decide what we actually want to move forward with we need to have enough feedback on the concept plan in order to do that and I think that's the stage we are in um but I thought that was very clear Mr J's presentation I'll let you go forward if you have any yeah that was the intent we we had the council was to approve the purchase of property which we did uh purchase the property uh after a year of looking property so reaching out to the public as your meetings are and questions that come in are are limited and part of this approach was to reach out into the community as best I can to let the entire Community know what you're actually planning Claridge reached out here with a specific request not not to offend the council but specific request was for the administrative team no politicians allowed trying to fill delicate way to say that it's like a sign on a tree house yes and and they they literally asked for management uh wanted to understand the purchase of property they want to understand um the issues relative to the buildings how it's going to impact their neighborhood they refer to the CL which as their residential neighborhood um questions that came up and and I did speak to a lovely lady today of 10 14 years old lives there um and some questions are questions coming up that we may not have thought of that would come up and and now um we're addressing those questions from the the Clarance the process moving forward would be more Outreach to the public obviously the council has to make their decision moving forward of what what you're actually doing but we've kind of paved the way for I asked the the council to reach out to the elected officials I don't do that administrations and elected officials are normally normally Set uh I ask you council do that you did uh we've had them in because we're asking for ear marks like every project I've done so far is what should the project look like public needs to have input on it then we get to a a number it could be um I already have a a breakdown on that project was different than what was announced by our uh architect but then that'll be a session for the council and cl session but I'm also putting together um The Feelers in in reaching out into the corporate and what kind of financial support can you get for this project which is pretty unique in the state to say the least and staff is now working um the next meeting is with Unico I mean with Lions the next meeting is with lions to go over it'll be a condensed version not the hour long one a meeting with lions so they'll reach out into the community that they know in town on what the project is where we reached out for Uno well we quite didn't get that meeting yet there's a number of other organizations and then there will be a townwide meeting at the community center and then we'll see what we may be missing or not missing I think by the time I get to that meeting we'll have almost every question that we didn't anticipate anticipated and then we are amassing the staff is amassing the uh corporate sponsors that we can uh literally sell sponsorships within the building there's a lot of opportunities sponsorship uh We've added a sponsor board that was a suggestion be a digital board for sponsors there's a potential of sponsoring specific rooms um example the virtual the virtual firing range is a very real possibility that can be sponsored by number of the companies that involved in that that would be on the wall in the sponsor you do have some Community rooms in the building which would with public space so we're looking at alternatives to drive your quest down like the other projects we've done with r that we can get the grand team and staff is working aggressively uh at that the solar uh is being explored for the roof in talking uh on that point the solar on a building that's going to be built is literally could incorporate the roof itself which would take a piece off of this project uh I've already met with our representative in psng so that we can incorporate it Energy Efficiency and see what support we could get out of psng um it's a very accelerated schedule needless to say but until I can really comfortably tell you what we can bring in that drives the cost down that would make it more attractive to you on behalf of the public taxpayer that's the stage on that public meetings going forward um we need to reach out into the community more thank Mr you want I just had a question counc um sorry you mentioned some some of the different organizations are the Women's Club or the junior Women's Club on your list okay thank you sorry they hadn't been mentioned and I was just is every organization that I know of that's in town through staffs those are the ones I want to reach out to meet with them so it just keeps spreading through the G no that's great thank you they really need to understand how severe your problem is also thank you uh mayor H thank you Mr Garo for outlaying that process I think I would like to see a quarter by quarter kind of estimate on when certain Milestones are going to be meet so right now you're in the meeting phase you're also looking at sponsorships I that's where I felt uh and you know whenever you talk to a resident and they're asking a question in in the back of your head like I should be able to answer this but actually I can um it's not a great feeling but she was lovely uh the resident from CL had a great conversation with her um but I think a quarter by quarter estimate on when certain new phases of the project will be um be reached and where are their decision where are you anticipating at this point decision milestones for the council a second draft maybe of the building because again we had a robust conversation I also would say I think this is the time to do a block meeting for the residents that live near the building and flying them and reaching out to them specifically I also would encourage you you could do an open session yes at the community center but also at the Verona Public Library which is another great space so I totally appreciate all of the effort but I would like before the next meeting to just have a greater sense of your thoughts on the timing and the Milestones are kind of brushed together working on multiple pieces of the private staff all at the same time and with the architect we just adjusted the U presentation slides because we added what was missing we added came out of the clarage meeting we added that SL me slide where the property exactly is in proportion to the clar and and the distance from that Ro going in um there there's it's almost sometimes you're working on a project so much you don't see the trees from Parks so as we have these meetings and more questions come up and and literally I'm going that's a great question question came up about uh the sirens reaching all the way up to the hill which that lovely lady pointed out she would like to sit at a pool and not hear the sirens but the pool for clarage 2 is behind the building so I don't think it's going to hit but it's important to be able to answer those questions intelligently and I couldn't yeah but we are going to run some tests so that we can accurately answer the questions of Doubt SS even though we'll put procedures in place they'll be outlined as we go forward and I I'm sure I the rest of the governing body agrees we would love a short memo each one of your major meetings because then as we get resident feedback we know real time of this was discussed um so that we're not blindsided as members of the governing understood thank you hopefully we'll shake out most of those questions so the when I give you all that information it's it's not floating it's more concrete thank you my concerns have been addressed so thank you mayor for adding uh for having this conversation fling business thank you sure will prepare report on the stages it um is there any other business I do just want to address one thing before we open public comment uh there's a comment made in Council M Hollands uh Council comments about you can time for silver and gold awards for the Girl Scouts in my time as mayor I've never been invited to a silver or gold award ceremony um in facts on the council and by to a silver gold orward ceremony uh so when that does happen and we are notified of them the any Girl Scouts achieving the Gold War distinction which is the uh R comparable to the eagle scout uh would of course be treated in the same way receive Proclamation so I encourage all Girl Scout leaders to reach out and let us know just as the Boy Scouts do when their members are achieving such high distinctions because I still have to celebrate with them as many of them are my students um and one of the best things I think I can do as a mayor or council member uh is attend to those mileston at this time I'll will call for public comment on any item same public com statement applies my computer dies so some know if anybody come home in Mr Ryan myself good evening Kevin Ryan Verona New Jersey uh just a couple of quick comments uh regarding uh the issue that you just discussed regarding Outreach to the community uh uh over the possibility of building the public safety building uh I will say that uh it my experience on the council very early on was when we were building the famous Liberty uh and freedom Field Complex and uh it was very uh contentious there was a lot of uh misinformation floating around there were certain Community groups that had more influence in others so I would like to uh compliment Mr dioro on uh accepting uh informal meetings with uh different Community groups uh just to outline Where We Are up to now I I did have the opportunity to uh listen in on the first presentation by uh Mr um by the uh the engineer the architect uh it was very informative it was very long I'm hoping that uh over the experience of time when you go before these uh individual groups uh Mr diarco and company that you can condense the uh the presentation as much as possible and just give folks the broad outline of of where we're at and what you know what we're trying to uh to accomplish uh by doing that I think you will save yourself a lot of uh uh time down the road when you finally get to the fact of actually putting numbers on things I mean that's the you know that's the the uh the the fly in the room here everybody I've had questions asked to me because from my prior experience on the council what are they going to tell us how much it's going to cost and I can appreciate the fact that you don't know yet and hopefully uh you know by taking this incremental approach you will you know uh ensure that that you're being as transparent as possible with the public uh everybody loves the fields now or not everybody but a lot of people do but that was the last project that uh it came even close to this uh uh this scope in terms of money and I think back then maybe 10 or 11 years ago we were talking about maybe 1213 million it it it wound up costing a lot more than that I think councilman Roman uh launched his political career uh as a result of his involvement in in trying to figure out the cost of putting that complex together so the more people in the community you can get to uh you know to inform the better so uh uh hopefully uh your internal Communications issues can be uh can be uh resolved and I I would hope that you would continue to take this approach towards educating uh the public on the need for these uh this building and uh you know the uh the long-term consequences of not having it which is just as important as uh what it's going to what it's going to cost uh to put it together thank you see no other public comments I will close public comments at this time uh we have a resolution that we have already approved to go into executive session will any official action be taken Mr no action will be thank you thank you we will see you all on the 25th of March same time same station