good evening I call to order this regularly scheduled meeting of the Verona Township Council Monday December 18th 2023 at 7:00 p.m. Madam clerk would you please call the rooll council woman Holland here councilwoman McGrath here Council Roman here Deputy Mayor makoy here mayor Toro here mayor pres this evening are Township attorney Brian Township manager Joe diaro Deputy Township manager Kevin oan and myself municipal clerk J K thank you madam Clerk this point would you please read the open public meetings act compliance the notice requirements for the open public meetings act have been satisfied with respect to this meeting of the township Council the meeting time and date were included in the public meeting notice along with the public internet link and telephone call and information said notice and the meeting posted in the municipal building sent to the official newspapers of the township the ver City and the Star Ledger at least 48 Hours proceeding St time of this meeting the agenda and handouts could be viewed online at Bron nj.org meetings a public comment period will be held in the order listed on the meeting agenda the instructions on how to comment will be provided at the thank you every please join me for the nation God indivisible pH report we'll start with Mr CRA County Le on J good evening and I won't disturb the presentation that's in front H happy holidays to everyone and don't worry right um this coming week we have on Thursday the 21st our Food Distribution Drive at Cody Arena uh get there early there's a th000 box of food plus a th000 turkeys and um it's very very good if you can use some food or needy people within the township or within the area please tell them and I would get there early if possible uh on the same day we are we're having a Kip's Castle open which is Thursday the 21st from 12:00 p.m. to 4: p.m. and it's open to the public please come out and join us uh the castle on the first floor is decorated and very very nice um on the December 21st and the 22nd we have story time at the zoo uh at 6: pm on Saturday the 20 3rd we have it at 2 3 and 4 p.m. and that's at the also uh holiday lights are open from now until the end of the year the only two days were closed is the 24th and the 25th and uh coming in February no January January 11th 18th 25th February 1st 8th 15th and 22nd is our deer management program at the hilltop here in combination Verona Cedar Grove makeup date will be the 29th but we are also doing it at the reservation on other dates uh if you're looking for additional information the number is 6973 621-4400 and I will not take up any other time thanks does anybody have any questions our County Leon good I is it South Mountain South Mountain reservation yes good thanks thank you have a great holl there's some seats right up in the front folks come on in um our rest of the May's records will say a few items uh first of all we had a wonderful showing at our celebration it was really wonderful to see both members of the Jewish community and um supporters of that Community present to celebrate um The Miracles that happened uh that for which we canate um this special thank you to all our volunteers and our staff putting that together and to Rabbi Tobin who despite being a West Orange resident and and the clergy he is a real true friend of Rona and uh has offered wonderful guidance and support over the last uh six months especially for me the Women's Club of Rona did another wonderful job with a share your light night uh it was really fantastic um the CTIC Center looked amazing and uh I am pleased to were able to share that and have neighborhood Unity once again my shout out to Sunset Avenue for uh having a 100% participation it's one of my favorite nights of the year uh Council McGrath and I attended the ribbon cutting for Main Street cottage which was great if you're looking for some last minute Christmas gifts up on down to Main Street Cottage um and uh Chris will help you there thank you to the thron of fire department and rescue squad for doing a wonderful Santa day um it is everybody posts on social media about how much they love it it's great small town traditions we have a lot in this so thank you for doing that and for collecting donations for the Holy Spirit food pantry my dog radar thanks you because we ran into the fire department a couple times on our walk and got a treat each time um so he was very pleased with that so thanks through from engine 14 for uh keeping him happy I'd like to congratulate for owner resident Kevin Barry on his appointment to the superior court of Essex County um Kevin is a just a longtime resident a very skilled attorney will do a wonderful job and uh he joins the long honorable of members of the uh uh Judiciary that live in our town the I'd like to thank the fire department and the rescue squad for responding not once but three times to fires in the same location last week um that was very difficult to put out because they of a safe in the middle of the bacon building uh they spend hours and hours at this location all volunteer time so thank you all for that the BR environmental commission met last week they chose two Junior Commissioners this year so congratulations to CC Manis and Nia poori for their uh junior commissioner appointments they both wonderful young women and I look forward to them being there the environmental commission also provided us a fantastic annual report uh that was incredibly detailed and very very very well written it's really an Exemplar for what all of our committees and La can do finally a uh like to wish everybody a Merry Christmas a happy New Year and thanks to all those who are volunteering on Christmas Day Christmas Eve New Year's Eve New Year's Day all of our staff who work those days as well to keep us safe and my final thank you is to the entire R Municipal staff team put by Mr dico Mr O solivan uh who have gotten so done this year it's unbelievable has been a extraordin extraordinarily busy year and um they're still working they're still working this week and uh we're very very very lucky in Verona to have the municipal team that we do uh with all of our department heads and um and everybody so thank you all and U that's my report Mr um on my uh agenda items a number of things are moving over to 2024 since it's rolling up to the end of the year w six managers meetings that we started last year have a meeting on January 12th and continue to talk about interlocal Services sherff Services help other out um ever field Grant cycle is uh is in for cdbg uh the recogition is fance report we be reviewing every 's report um and providing us C the engineer tonight is the presentation of the public safety complex also um a number of items Kevin o Sullivan's agenda Ren of the Verona Park 501c3 Steve Neil will be here on January 24 to close that up for you I give you a status report where we are uh it's in his fin stage is a banking stage that ruling light priv Pro that is continuing there will be modifications to the tree ordinance recommendations on the tree ordinance in January 24 we had discussed midyear election changes that's by ordinance and the mayor and Council be discussing that again in the new year that would bring in savings for the of information of approximately 50,000 every time that election happens um business license ordinances will be up for discussion I we'll have those ready cdbg Board of Commissioners met the additional 200,000 was approved and it's waiting for um think the HUD final approval I'll have that in the applications for the ibank on on um the wells are still in process and we have our H for permits on the techh which will be in process next year and with that I'll turn it over to the deputy Township manager I go to I think we'll just make sure that uh members of the public are kind up to tell us we can't hear you you make sure your it is the one on the side okay um the first item on my report is uh continuing update on the Water and Sewer rate study uh we did meet with New Gen strategies again today uh we are still targeting a a completion of the rate study in January so it can be presented to May Council in the new year uh folded into that discussion is the Wastewater treatment plant assessment uh We've uh been working with Boswell they have their draft report on the needs the capital needs and the update U the upcoming uh assessments for the wastewater treatment plant we're also working with our licensed operator to continue to streamline the the process sees down at the plant uh regarding the residential escrow fees and the in the construction zoning department uh we are finalizing a new procedure procedure which clearly delineates the checklist and provides greater Clarity and transparency to all applicants that come through those departments that is expected to be in place for the beginning of the new year and we are also uh assessing the zoning fees of surrounding towns again for a recommendation to the mayor and Council in the new year uh regarding the the well projects we did receive bids for the lind Drive project project uh the the well Rehabilitation project on December 8th there were six bids uh they were ranging from 1.71 million to 2.92 million for the repairs uh and upgrades to the L Drive well those are currently being reviewed and documents are being submitted to the ibank with an anticipated forward project in January of of 20124 um as for the Fairview Avenue project we are currently awaiting an authorization to advertise from the ibank uh as soon as we receive that authorization from them we will put that project out to bid as well and the numbers that we're receiving for the lind Drive project will actually will be the actual numberb submitted into our rate study uh mentioned earlier as for uh the storm water items we are going through a final version of the storm water Control Ordinance we anticipate that the final version will be up for discussion for under new business for mayor and Council in January uh there's an adoption date required by the state of July 17th and we are uh well ahead of schedule to need that date uh we are also working to uh with our with the township engineer to update all the other necessary storm water documents and planning documents associated with storm water uh pollution prevention plan the storm water management plan storm water mapping a number of other elements we also have a a meeting scheduled with dp's office of climate resiliency in January we'll be discussing uh the topic of resiliency as it relates to the township of Verona and storm water impacts in Verona and again I know uh the township manager did uh provide a brief update on the pekman river stabilization project so we're all working towards uh permits and uh bid documents for that project as well uh Park meter rates we will be ready to present to the mayor and Council uh an a full analysis and recommendations in January uh shifting to discussion on energy Supply uh we did investigate the potential for reverse live auction of our electric supply to Municipal accounts the result of that was an increase rate above what the supply rate is that's currently provided by PSG so the current recommendation is to stay with the PS Supply and reevaluate in another 3 to six months and see if the supply Market softens at that time uh similarly sustainable energy Alliance which is a the the mirror program which offers residents a cleaner and cheaper energy option is in the same cycle they've uh they've identified and had the same results they are looking to rebid in early 2024 again hoping that the supply market for the residential uh Market softens as well uh we are also applying with BP the BPU to perform a local government energy audit it's a zero cost audit there's no obligations to it at the end of it but it does provide a list of recommend recommended projects which provide energy efficiency and it provides a breakdown of the return on investment uh we are also investigating potential for solar projects on on Town owned property facilities we're still early on in those discussions so we'll have more to discuss on those in the new year um as reported at the last meeting we have uh we have received bids for the community center playground and the Ada bathrooms uh there are some funding pieces that we're pulling together between uh the reprogramming money from cdbg will will coordinate all the finances and award project in January of the new year uh there's a a more detailed breakdown with the council has any questions on that um and then the last item on my report is just a number of the different Grant programs and applications that we are currently working through there's applications through the New Jersey Economic Development Authority uh there's two applications for uh CBG that we are currently working uh through and are advertised for public hearing tonight and uh there's U American Rescue plan firefighters assistance application and we're working on the local Recreation Improvement Grant which is intended to uh fund some Recreation needs for for pickle and tennis ball pickle ball and Tennis um and that concludes my report thank Mr does anybody have any question Sol one question I don't know if you if we uh for the L Drive well bit award you said was on 124 do we have a time frame after that that we might start and and uh that is there's a I believe it's an eight-month construction window on that project uh the the materials and Supply uh there there's not a long lead time for that so we do think that the eight-month construction window is reasonable so once we award the project we will get contract documents executed we'll hold a preconstruction meeting and the anticipation is that it should be completed by the fall of next year thanks when we went into this uh we were kind of warned that there would be very long times on particularly the canister or the the vessels filtration is you know has that gone away has that been so um I think the benefit of New Jersey pushing out um P standards Ahad ahead of the rest of the country is that New Jersey is is really hitting the market before a lot of other states are so at this time the the the lead time on the media and the filtration materials is not what was uh a risk or concern u a year ago the the the um the suppliers for those components of the project are telling us that it's proximately a thre Monon lead time which fits right into the construction schedule all the preliminary construction can proceed on schedule and then that that's really the last component of construction so it should time up nicely uh fast forward maybe two years from now when when the EPA has additional adoption adopted guidelines or rules we might see a different story but we're we're fortunate to be hitting the project at this time than Mr than to you Mr public hearing on Community Development I can I can just present that this is uh what I had referenced was that we had two applications that we are preparing for uh cdbg 2024 funding year uh the the first application is an application that is a result of the the mayak report which uh had recommendations for Ada accessibility at the Verona Community Center uh making the the doors more 8 A Accessible uh same thing for uh the Verona town hall and there was also recommendations in that report for uh some additional Ada walkways at the Verona community pool uh the application is being finalized this week to be submitted to cdbg one of the requirements of these applications is to hold two public hearings to uh communicate to the public what the intentions of the project are and to Garner questions or comments uh that this is the first hearing the second hearing which was also notic and the same noticing was uh is scheduled for January 8th uh but that first project again is for making the high traffic areas at the Verona Community Center town hall and the Veron Verona community pool ADA Compliant that's project one application one project two and application two is uh the a a funding request for Everett field there are a number of ADA uh elements that are associated with that current concept plan and design uh it includes Ada uh parking spaces an ADA Compliant walking path around the perimeter of the field uh it includes ADA Compliant bleachers ADA Compliant restrooms there's a number of elements of that project that we are submitting in our application to CBG and as we're receiving the comments from all the different committees and and we're working towards a final design plan I think all those elements are common elements that will still remain in the project and and is in its final version of project no matter what the changes are remember of the council any questions I do go ahead um does this include this 2.4 estimate um the playground as well or is that separate so the play ground is intended to be submitted to the NJ DP Green Acres they have a separate funding program for inclusionary playgrounds okay so that will be its own funding application which will be the next focus and will be submitted sometime likely in January so the 2.4 is really just for the the entire Baseball Field Complex improvements it does I think it it excludes the field itself but it has the walkways the retaining walls to make the walkways ADA Compliant has the parking lot to get into the field into the ADA Compliant spaces has the bleachers and has the restrooms okay thank you when when your projects are designed um after they're designed and put together and we get comments from your various committees then the staff and the grant firm look at those projects to see what grants are available will be to reduce the cost locally and cover some of the costs in the projects that's this was one of the projects that the entire team got together with the grand firm to assess the project that way and you'll see that going forward in a lot of projects thank um procedurally we need to open for all comment we don't need to move this because it's in the agenda just need to open public comment Madam clerk would you please read the public participation stage and I had to sign and she yeah let them all sign in will look great I know I you do on since people are very interested in our CD applications anyone from the public wishing to speak on the 2024 Community um block development Grant development Block Grant application please uh come to the lecture if you're attending via Zoom May raise your hand by pressing the raise hand button on your monitor you're dialing in by phone we press star n once you recognize C you state your name and Township of residents for the record you're not required to provide your street address if you do please note that these meetings will be posted on the Township's YouTube channel and addresses will not be redacted for any purpose you'll have four minutes to address the council and there'll be no cross dialogue at that time after everyone wishing to speak has has been heard the council May address your comments and our questions like to comment on this item only so can Bo at home right I'm going to close public comment thank you Mr Sullivan Mr we will have a resolution regarding the submission and the consent agenda Mr jco we are back to you once again great uh public safety building presentation by Franko of solutions architecture uh as a prelude for the public information council is aware the the project of police headquarters was on my agenda um probably in the first week I came here with the for mayor and Council and free property uh that search went on for in town for approximately eight or nine months and there was no property that was suitable for a structure even looking at a piece on the board of ed and U that was not approved also by the board that then the council indicated that I should look for property we could buy property was restricted from the downtown business the ratables putting a non- taxable building within your downtown was not something that the council would like to see and as fate would have it a piece of prop two pieces of property that were adjacent to each other came up for sale on count um I met with the Public Safety teams of police fire rescue to discuss the availability of that property and placing Public Safety complex there and we to placing all three buildings rather than you're focusing on a building because all three had demands that needed to be met um that were somewhat outdated and and there's a number of issues with all your buildings uh part of that history and presentation of the entire design complex that your construction building teams of police fire and rescue were all involved in the development of this plan with the architect uh there were revisions uh as of yesterday Sunday so his week between the rain and Frank has been a s day week thank you and before we jump into Mr MSO I just want to go over procedure for how we're going to do this um we're going to have Mr MHO present without any interruptions um at that point I will open it up to the council we'll start with Council M Hollands councilman McGrath councilman Roman just asked try to ask as many questions together so we're not going back and forth then I guess will'll end with me um if any of the chief officers who will hear from the organizations would like to make a brief statement after Mr certainly do that that I say politicians want to hear themselves talk but I really don't want to right now um so anyway we'll we'll go in that direction just to make things efficient um and if any of the two fer is actually go after we uh ask Mr M any questions that's fine and of course we would love them sure ask you some questions as well um at that point we'll open for sorry on this item only um just because it's a big item we have a public comment at that point and then the council will be considering a motion to go into executive session um there are parts of the proposal that in order to make sure that town is on a dis at a disadvantage during the bidding process but the township manager and the township attorney have recommended that we discuss in close session we will go into a brief close session at that point um in order to discuss some of those items so that if we have any questions from M MSO or there's anything you'd like to bring back to the public we can do it at that point any any questions on that from anybody go ahead mayor uh as far as plans go for this this is the original I mean this is the first time that anyone's seeing outside of council and the uh a week ago I think it was a week ago um we had a run through with with representatives of police fire and rescue they have seen pled off and on uh some of the final tweaking that Frank did over the weekend and on Sunday um he'll he'll go over that with the staff but the physical facility the pieces of the facility for exactly what everyone has seen in that in that pre final stage the tweaking that was done but I just want to make it clear when you say everyone police fire resc exactly we're not talking about the public documents that people were asking for see this is the first public review because they get the entire Council together it's a public meeting and public will see it at the same time and then we discussed U uh discussed with Brank if I me Frank iuss with Frank um the pieces is being placed on uh being prepared to be placed on on the website so that it be more public review and and more disclosure of what the structure actually is I've also asked the uh the three teams police fire and rescue um just so they have a a spokesman Opera each of the teams representing their departments also have a uh facilitate T night I it was cautioned at the last meeting not to finish up at 3 in the morning okay thank you for that Mr we still have time Mr Mido well thank you I'm gonna try to do this without having Echo but see what happens I'm this is mut this is muted can you hear me now there should now there is there is again heard now heard now so you guys can anybody hear me all right Mr Tonto can you hear hello she yes okay very much thank Mr Toronto for your your help on that and all right all right Mr Mayor M and councel uh congratul uh congratulations good evening happy holiday season to you my name is Frank MSO I am the principal and founder of solutions architecture uh we have had the pleasure of residing in uh Verona our company for since 2016 and we've had a very good relationship with the township since 2016 working on a variety of projects um I want to go through um this project and talk a little bit about what we're proposing for the project and talk about the process and how we got here this this has transpired over the past six months are this initial uh or this current uh process has occurred over the last six months but this process has been around for far longer and you're going to see that tonight so we would be the township of Barona would be requesting that action be taken to resolve long outstanding facilities issues affecting police fire and rescue squad over the years several alternative and individual plans have been evaluated uh for each of the Departments but yet little has been brought to fruition the intent here and the proposed plan would entail the establishment of a unified solution that seamlessly integrates police fire and rescue departments into a singular Public Safety complex this consolidation not only facilitates the sharing of program spaces and services but also serves as a strategic measure to control costs effectively how did we get here since 2015 Solutions architectures worked with the township to explore potential improvements to the police department the need has been here for some time in July of 2018 we were asked to review the rescue squad and prepare a qualifications package to potentially come on board and assist with Renovations in November of 2020 we were asked to review Fire Company number two's firehouse and prepare a concept and budget for facility unfortunately in each of these Endeavors budgetary concerns sidelined the efforts but this process has gone on before and it's gone on longer the township has been exploring properties for over 20 locations including Township owned County owned Board of Education owned and private facilities with little success and they're looking for properties to be able to either relocate build additions consolidate and it's very difficult obviously finding property in April of 20203 solutions architecture was cons commissioned to evaluate in Greater detail several properties around around town with the prospect of placing either the police department a potentially Consolidated Public Safety complex and those sites included 820 Bloomfield Avenue uh was former Nature's Corner nursery this is a 22,000 SQ foot irregular site including partial Street including taking over the partial partial Street it has Ingress egress challenges it requires street closer and reconfiguration and it's proven to be inadequate site shaped for any of the three departments we looked at 318 Bloomfield AB which is Henry's plus Verona aluminum which is about 36,200 square feet it's an irregular site it's bordered on Church Street it's inadequate size for the police department or a Consolidated safety complex along with the necessary parking we looked at Lakeside AB the O parking lot which happens to be bigger it's 41,800 Square ft it's a regular site uh it does have a significant grade difference on the entrance walking in makes it more difficult for longer vehicles to to get up the hill um and there's a retaining wall at the back of the property but when you see you're going to see that it's inadequate uh uh parking site for all three buildings and could potentially house one but it's it's without the parking and and all the other uh functions necessary we looked at 217 225 pompon a uh this is a a large site 118,000 Square ft it's a relatively regular site it's a little narrow uh it's significant grade change from the front to back there's about 91,000 foot of usable space and it can confit a Consolidated Public Safety complex as well as additional parking there's about 27,000 squ feet at the rear of the property that can be used as a green site so to show you what we're what we're talking about when we looked at 820 Bloomfield Avenue that's the the site that you see here it's a triangular shaped it looks like a knife blade that's taking over part of the street and it um it it's you can see the outline that you see in blue orange and red would be relative program size for the police uh fire and safety buildings uh and rescue buildings so relatively neither one neither any of the three would fit on that on that site the site to the the next site would be the Henry's uh Verona aluminum site that's the yellow dashed outline that you see and again looking at the relative program sizes of police fire and rescue uh it's very difficult to fit a building on that site as well as the related parking and Ingress egress drives Etc the O parking lot again the yellow uh rectangular shape yellow dotted line again would be very hard pressed to fit one or more of those facilities as well as the related parking you can see the relative size of parking that's been planned and then the subject site which is what we're looking at here this is showing how the relatively new programming that was prepared fits on the site with adequate parking uh and allows for a Consolidated facility on that property so how did we get here continuing along Solutions architecture whoa Solutions architecture has met with the township Administration police fire and rescue Chiefs as well as Key Personnel to explore their deficiencies their needs and potential improvements to to each of the Departments over the course of multiple meetings held at our office uh over the last six months numerous Concepts were explored and revised all at the aim of gaining consensus and compromise from the three departments on a facility that would meet their needs yet all for the consolidation of shared services while nothing herein is set in stone the concepts have been reviewed and approved by the memberships of each of the police fire and rescue squad so let's talk about a little bit about the need and we're going to start with the PD and we're going to go through the uh other agencies as well as you all know the police department is currently situated in this building it occupies about 4,000 square feet in on various floors main floor lower level basement as well as uh this level um in spite of that the 4,000 square feet for a police department of this size is grossly inadequate in terms of square footage the department lacks the adequate program space to allow it to be efficient and safe uh for the officers for the public it also lacks gender compliance protocols um you know female offic officers need to come upstairs and use the tax office there's not enough uh facilities to accommodate a a department of this size so let's talk a little bit about history because I think it's relevant here dating as far back to 1978 the Burrow's comprehens comprehensive Master Plan called out that the police and burrow facilities are presently inadequate and it would be desirable to relocate the police department in other facilities 1978 in the 80s it was discussed publicly and the quote from the leadership was that they would work with the police department in developing a cost-effective plan for upgrading the police headquarters in 1981 it was stated that the facilities rank among the worst in the county they're inefficient overcrowded their poor working conditions under which Verona finest must labor and has a detrimental effect on Mor morale and Effectiveness in 1983 it said that our facility has serious limitations in 1984 there was a move which attempted to provide additional space where the detective Bureau was relocated to the basement the lower level um there was a news article on it in 1986 two years later it was again front news page that a public safety facility proposal was being studied in 1998 we had the construction of the community center and new firhouse the relocation of the fire department from this building allowed Police Department to move dispatch and Detective Bureau into its present location present day for the past 5 years there have been multiple efforts to explore potential improvements to the department including renovations to the locker room at the lower level additions and renovations to this B building acquisition adaptation of an existing non-law enforcement building as well as new construction it's clear from all of our evaluations that the police building in its present condition falls short of meeting meeting some very basic requirements not only ours but of the police facilities planning guidelines that were prepared by the International Association at Chiefs of police nor does it meet the requirements of the Department of Corrections at some point there's only so much that can be done before doc will mandate that something has to be done in order to bring the entire facility up to up to current standards commonly most existing facilities tend to fail on criteria of inadequate space even if this facility right here was gut renovated top to bottom renovated completely it would still lack the necessary square footage to provide those program elements what are they a true sally port a secure detaining entrance we don't have that here separation of detainee and staff or detainee and public we don't have that here either safety security risk confidential interview rooms a secured prisoner processing holding and or um cell block area adequate space for Department briefings or roll call you'll see in a moment adequate space for an emergency Operation Center we just had a major storm a lot going on not one place where you can bring together all departments in one location and talk about how to manage what's going on adequate report or administrative uh writing areas no training areas or adequate locker rooms no adequate space for future growth if the department continues on its present trajectory you're going to be even more crowded than you presently are given the lack of these program spaces you're losing out on opportunity you're losing out on opportunities to take advance of Revenue producing producing or operational savings aspects that would be possible with a new facility shared fee Based Services potential Regional meetings potential training conferences if you host a training you have the ability to get up to 15 officers or any number of officers free that saves you money on paying for officers to attend training somewhere else uh shared use of a virtual firing range shared use uh potential for regional or local shared Dispatch Center these are things that bring money into the township potential shared Emergency Operations Command zone so uh dispatch is a big thing these days everybody's looking at how they'll they'll manage dispatch and what they're going to do the opportunity exists if you have the space to handle it so let's look at some of the existing conditions of the police department I'm just going to zoom in on the pictures so this is dispatch there's certainly inadequate space uh in that area gear storage and you know everything is just sitting in in various locations you know not secure not uh adequately stored in inefficient and inappropriate in not inappropriate but inefficient workspaces not enough space for desks a lot of U wasted layout space office crowding no privacy for you know uh secure calls uh inadequate work areas insuff so this is a department briefing this is you know there's inadequate space they're grouped around uh you know a column in between the middle of the room so they're making use of the space as best they can but the space is is inadequate for what needs to be done more inadequate work work areas uh processing no separ of the detainee getting into the building um no dedicated area for processing alatest is in the same room as as detainee processing so um it you know there are big questions and legal concerns about throwing off results of of testing um deteriorated building conditions there major leaking downstairs in what was an Evidence storage room um inadequate lunch break room they're currently using the same room that they use for groups uh you know office um domestic violence uh interviews uh all in the same room they're working in a space that serves as lunchroom roll call uh it has multiple uses but it's not what it's intended to be inadequate non-secure weapon Storage storage no dedicated storage everything's mixed together uh inadequate storage areas insufficient locker room spaces the locker room space downstairs is 6 foot 10 6 fo 10 tall you have some officers that are pretty large um down there and there's many of them within the same space uh inadequate locker room facilities for the female officers uh as well as in inefficient uh building and office layout space so that's the police department that's you know an image is worth a thousand words and it tells the story so now let's move to the fire department and looking at the existing Fire Company number two it occupies about 5,500 Square ft and its own facility on blomfield Avenue it too lacks adequate program space it lacks adequate clearances for apparatus which you're going to see it lacks efficiency and safety protocols and the building itself is severely deteriorating so talk a little bit about the history in 20 1922 a wooden one Bay Firehouse was built on its present location to uh house a one hose tender in 1926 a second Bay was added and this house the rescue truck in 1949 there was a fire that destroyed the H the house the firehouse um and um in the early 60s a third day third Bay was added uh to the pre the building was re-erected resurrected with three Bays two bays and in the early 60s a third Bay was added for an additional apparatus in 1982 which doesn't seem like it's that long ago but it's 40 years ago fire station was renovated to allow for arous app apparatus and addition of a ladder truck the front of the building was modified new concrete floor was added the furnace and the boiler were replaced and a new 3-in water line was run into the building in 2016 a study was conducted and explored Renovations additions and the construction of a new firehouse on the existing site this building is 74 years old and is presently not oceia compliant with present day standards the apparatus Bay is 50 ft the ladder truck is 48 ft long um and the platform to the ladder is supposed to have uh an inch and a half of clearance from the garage doors which leaves about six inches from the back wall of the bay there's no re there's no room for gear racks behind the ladder truck so all the gear racks are set on the driver's side wall which creates uh a safety issue when four or five members are mustering and donning gear for a call Overhead Doors are only 12 feet high you'll see a photo that shows that leaves only inches to clear uh for the the ladder truck to come through they're inadequate parking spaces for the facility the company may have as many many as 28 members and yet there's only 11 parking spaces in the area the facilities issues are many major Roofing and flashing issues have allowed water infiltration into this building for years it's caused facade separation exterior wall Window and Door issues cracking stucko plaster and damage major structural issues of the building due to settling um it's it's hypothesized that this building was built on organic fill after the building burnt down in 1949 they built it on that organic fill and now it's causing major settling issues floor tiles are popping wood floors are warping window frames of the meeting room in the basement are rotted and leaking there was another flood in the basement today uh steel lentils are rusted and Bowing in August of 2017 and break in the sewer line flooded the basement two some pumps were added yet they are unable to handle heavy rainstorms like we had today air conditioning unit on the roof is irreparable building and grounds had a company come look at it and they estimated it would be 15,000 to replace the heating system was overhauled in 2020 but the boiler that was installed in the 70s was never replaced in spite of extensive repairs it too needs replacement major plumbing leaks throughout the uh the facility sediment in the system the apparatus Bay floor drains don't appear to have any oil separator the basement entry stairwell floods during Heavy Rain uh the basement door is deteriorated and won't open presently not causing uh presently causing a safety problem and these are just some images of what's going on in the exterior with the water damage the stucco and The Rusted lentils major cracking uh this is a wall that you could see daylight through from the inside structural settlement and cracking continues here's an image of the front facade of the building which which is peeling away from the front uh again due to moisture damage uh framing damage and settling uh structural damage as well ceiling damage is causing plaster to fall on radio equipment water to drip on radio equipment uh a lot of issues going on uh more pictures of water damage you could see plaster just peeling off the walls um and this is around equipment ant Antiquated 1970s mechanical systems uh water damage water's going into coming through the the floors and going into electrical boxes uh recurrent basement flooding as well as you know continued uh damage to the ceilings let's talk a little bit about clearances there's so many conditions of this they it really has its own slide typically required for a fire department between apparatus is a 6- foot clearance bay here we have less than a six foot aisle so that when two doors are are opened at the same time they hit um when they're laying out gear and hose getting ready to prep the trucks if a if uh someone's in one of the boxes you can't get by you can't walk over it it's less than six six foot of aisle space if you look at the top of where the ladder truck enters the building you're talking at mere inches for that to get into the building um here's another example of how high that is right next to the garage bay door there's 30 inches of clearance between the gear racks that are stored and the back of the apparatus uh there's a mere six inches of storage between the wall and the back of the apparatus so that's the fire department's need talk a little bit about the rescue squad so the rescue squad uh occupies about 4600 square feet on on its own facility on Church Street again this building to lacks adequate program space square footage for adequate program space it lacks the adequate clearance for its ra apparatus and lacks adequate uh adequate efficiency and safety protocols and this building is also deteriorating rapidly in 1927 uh the Verona Rescue Squad was formed and is currently the oldest 24hour 100% volunteer em Squad in New Jersey the current building was a 1920s carriage house that was converted for the squad it underwent upgrades in 1942 and again in 1980 little has been done since again 1980 is 40 years ago on average 20 to 30% of the donations received fund the maintenance and utilities for the building this is 100% managed by the volunteer team in 2019 uh the rescue squad commissioned an evaluation the existing facility fa conditions to determine what current deficiencies existed and evaluate the facility's ability to handle future growth the report determined that the existing facility lacks some very essential building program elements and operationally is very inefficient the report suggested that proper planning Concepts would result in a safer more efficient facility capable of faster turnout which is critical for life-saving operations the report highlighted that if the existing facility were renovated it would still lack the necessary program spaces again similarly to the others commonly existing facilities fail on the criteria of adequate space what are we talking about main entrance Public Access ADA compliance additional future apparatus Bays to take care of unsafe clearances adequate space for a training room adequate kitchen space adequate office space watch space reporting space there there's no currently no decontamination space in the room so if there's a an incident where there's blood or fluids they have to go home and shower at home um no eyewash capabilities there's inadequate oxygen storage facilities they're stored in a cabinet in the facility um no locker rooms bunk rooms or private space for calls calls are done in an open main room which you know could you know divulge sensitive information and violate HIPPA laws maintenance or work space doesn't exist inadequate parking for members and again deteriorated infrastructure from power lighting to Plumbing throughout the facility here's a picture of that main space where Communications are done in that open area in inadequate work areas for mechanical equipment inadequate kitchen for a squat of this size makeshift storage in an attic you have to climb over duct work in order to you know find what you're looking for inqu with storage racks there's two small unisex toilet toilet unisex toilet facilities in the building and uh they're inadequate to handle the number of occupants in the building does it meet present Plumbing coat uh inadequate storage um these are Supply storage there's a drafty door nearby there's moisture it's just inadequate for what needs to be done in the space uh poor storage throughout the facility um again Communications for calls in an open work area inac inadequate work or storage space or tank storage um these are storage areas within the garage itself these are clearance issues so we have a you know an apparatus and there's clearance issues right next to it these are two unit side or this is a unit next to the sidewall getting into the boxes along the side of the the diff the units is very difficult uh walking by moving by when people are mustering for a call it's very difficult based on the clearances that are in the current space there's the communications panel that's where the calls are coming in and we're sitting in an open room here's our oxygen tank storage uh right in the middle of the space uh inadequate Locker facilities these are 12 x 12 lockers they're not good for anything especially for people that are staying overnight Antiquated Communications equipment and and you know for a facility like this there's storage again here's a rear door flooding uh older generator in place inadequate storage and inefficient Bay clearances so as we look at the three facilities and we see the fact that we've you know at one point they were they were great they were working fine there was enough people they were small enough to handle the community handle what's going on the facilities have grown the number of of Staff have increased and these buildings have continued to deteriorate and they do not serve the purpose they were intended to serve so all of the meetings that that took place between the administration the police department were to look at how could we evaluate the program spaces what's needed what's missing those spaces that I'm identified as missing how could those be put together whether separately or together but how could we do it and what would be the best way to handle it so we started to look at Public Safety complex priorities there were three basic priorities one was adequate program square footage accommodate all program needs for each of the Departments provide previously unavailable program space stuff that's not there now bring each facility up to current standards for each department and create safe efficient spaces for staff Administration and the public who are visiting those facilities the second component was increased efficiency and performance bringing the facility up to the current standards would facilitate greater efficiency it would Inc it would facilitate increased efficiency in turnaround time for calls and responses and it would create operational adjacencies between the department that would improve performance if a facility is laid out efficient efficiently as opposed to having to go up three floors down three floors find this you can increase productivity in the within the space and then the third component was if we were to do this and we were to build three separate facil fa ities how does that compare to building one overall facility shared program spaces and operational cost savings was another driving force in looking at how this would best work capitalizing on a singular facility to allow for those shared spaces eliminate redundancies as possible uh provide unified services that accommodate all the Departments and allow common areas for necessary collaboration between the Departments so a meeting was recently held based Bas on the designs that we looked at um one of the things that's going to take a while for any facility like this especially a a police building is review with Department of Corrections we've had great experience in the past reviewing our projects with the Department of Corrections before we get to a submission phase they look at the designs they look at what's going on and they give us advice to move forward in a productive manner prior to making a formal submission the meeting was held at the department of corrections two weeks ago to review the PD design layout and there was a question asked in the room of the Department of Corrections individuals and that was asked by the chief and and some of his his officers and that was what facilities in our state are the ones that we should look at to emulate what are the ones that we want to our state of the art that we can look at and they mentioned three facilities they mentioned the camon County Police facility the Ruckers police facility and the home build police facility that was prior to us presenting what we had planned so we presented what we had planned and after our presentation of the complex the doe uh the doc concluded that the submission would accommodate all our program needs would provide previously unavailable program space would bring the facility up to program standards and Department of Correction standards and create safe and efficient spaces for staff public and administration on a side note at the end they said if this facility was built the facility would become the model by which all others are measured because it met the needs of not only the police but they looked at the fire and and the rescue squad as well so let's talk a little bit about what this concept is so the site that we talked about before is over on ppon AB it was the acquired property 217 225 it's about 91,000 square feet uh what you're looking at is a proposed twostory Public Safety complex Emergency Services building uh on that property with parking uh but fire Bays uh police Bays uh and rescue Bays uh and it occupies uh 35,000 foot footprint on the site with additional parking behind on the first floor we have a 35,000 foot footprint the colors that you see on the screen blue is police orange is rescue and the reddish color is fire uh we'll walk through very quickly uh to show you the uh building and the components in the building and to show you how it differs from what exists today so the main entrance to the facility is through a Lobby here as we walk into the lobby there's a dispatch and a greeter from police dispatch on the right there's an interview or um complaint room public records a public toilet the directly in front is a courtyard so I'm going to zoom in at this point as we go into police we have a large dispatch room there is a ready room with access to the sally port there's an Armory for lock up gun uh weapons lock up maintenance and uh munition storage uh that has a two-way pass through so as officers are going to their vehicles they have the ability to pick up and pick up cleaned weapons drop off weapons be cleaned uh so that the Armory is directly accessible from that location the ready room has workstations that are Standing Tall height 42 inch high uh so that the officers can come in take notes look at what their plans are for the day there's a series of storage cabinets around the perimeter for uh supplies and things that they can uh re reload the vehicles with uh as we go into the sally port this is a true sally port now something that currently doesn't exist uh there are space for nine Vehicles there's a dedicated spot uh for the secure vestibule uh it's a gated uh it's a gated sally port so there'll be a garage door opener it will be either on a fob or on on a uh an infrared tag on the vehicles uh dispatch will would also have access to be able to let someone in or close the door as necessary uh would the door would also be on an interlock no other doors would open or close until that door closes so it would meet all the safety Pro protocols that it's required to have there is a secure vestibule that one would take a detainee and be able to enter into the processing area also off of the uh sally port would be Patrol storage signs uh you know flares uh items that they might need in their vehicle as we enter processing is there is a dedicated processing space um uh sync cabinets fingerprint ID photo wall uh there is an officer's desk uh there is access into a visual access into the sally port the sally port uh I'm sally port uh cell block rather the cell block is broken down into two cells uh an an adult cell and a holding cell and then there is a third cell that's around the corner separated from the other two for females and juveniles so that there is separation uh safety and separation between the cell block and the holding it's a Janitor's Closet there are gun lockers uh weapons lockers outside the door there are personal articles lockers for the detainees coming in there is a separate room for the alatest and testing that's being done for someone being brought in for DUI uh this way it is a separate room it is exhausted and it meets the requirements uh of the testing and there is a separate toilet in this area no one has to be brought outside of this area police officer doesn't have to go outside of this area who's working in this area to go out into the rest of the building the there are toilets in each of the cells so the any detainee that needs to use a facility can there is an interview room and there is a monitoring room just outside that interview room that that if someone's in there for an interview being questioned you'll be able to record visually see what's going on and uh be able to uh conduct that process as need be this is considered a hard area the construction of this area is superior to construction elsewhere uh because of the fact that it's for detain needs as we get into the facility itself as we walked through this door from the sally port if we were coming in uh if there were evidence there's a temporary evidence uh room where evidence could be packed tagged and then brought across the H hallway through a uh double cabinet that could be stored until the Evidence Officer can process and put it in the mobile storage units that are available to them there's a safe there are gun storage racks there is Cabinetry and and worktables for any evidence processing that needs to be done the patrol Captain's office is located uh off of the uh adjacent to the um uh evidence room in the sallyport uh there's a lot of meetings taking place in there the room is is large enough to conduct not only his functions but other functions in conference adjacent to that is a kitchen and Lounge uh for up to seating for up to 30 officers um it's a full kitchen it has the ability to handle the squad uh as opposed to them eating in various locations throughout the facility adjacent to that is a disorderly equipment or gear riot gear control closet uh for larger storage Big Racks uh associated with it as we come down the hallway uh past the M past the evidence room there is a control reporting uh uh sergeants uh room as well as school resource officer so it's an area where multiple people can come in off of shift do their reports get everything done efficiently and done there is a Patrol Division Lieutenant's office and that's directly adjacent to dispatch there is visual uh access to all three of those spaces from one to the other uh which was uh something that was requested as we get down to the lower end we have a stair that takes us up to the second floor we have a men's toilet and a female toilet we also have a Janitor's Closet for use of uh taking care of what's going on as someone comes into the lobby if it's determined that they're filing a complaint they can come into the report room private report room they can file a complaint and they can be on their way if that person needs to come into the police department and into the facility let's say it's a domestic violence uh interview they would come into the facility and there's a soft interview room here off of the soft interview room is a guest waiting room so if they were to come in with two small children or a small child the children can be put in a private room watch TV do things while they're uh the interview is being taken so it accommodates the the simplest of needs uh in separation public records again is off the main lobby if someone were to come in and want to pay a a a parking fine or something they can go to the records room and uh get into the building and and pay their fine and be on their way if one needed to enter the building they would be entered through either code access someone come get them and they would enter into the building there is an open courtyard an accessible Courtyard that can be used by anyone in the facility it's a shared uh space uh and it is open to the exterior it's open to outside uh through the roof uh as you enter the facility uh there's one last PD space we'll talk about and that is a small Corridor to a an Evidence processing Bay for vehicles right now many of the uh vehicles that are being processed are down at maintenance or down at DPW um it's not a very controlled uh situation this building this would be conditioned it would be a conditioned space so you can save any of the evidence on vehicles it's not exposed to the elements it's inside there's a a workbench uh there would be storage and processing uh equipment for them to be able to process Vehicles it also doubles as a vehicle maintenance Bay so if they did need to work on one of the Cruisers at any given time they could bring it into there as well when not occupied by an Evidence vehicle and be able to work on it from that perspective Police Department as we get into uh the next the next group the next group is rescue uh so the rescue squad uh will start with the bay the rescue squad now has a large enough Bay as you can see from the images there are six foot clearance around every vehicle there is 8ot clear clearances on the sidewalls but there are gear racks which take up 18 in so it's more than 6 in on the side this facilitates uh people being able to muster and get ready for calls uh with and still load vehicles and still be able to walk by as they're going off of the bay is a medical equipment storage room uh this is where all of the supplies ready for the for the vehicles will be there is a double-sided cabinet where they could come in pick what they need put it in the cabinets go outside to the vehicle and then pull from what they've already put put out so it's very efficient it's tied to the space it's right there there's also a standby storage room off of the the bay uh it's more of a miscellaneous storage uh storage room uh for the Department there's a workbench uh at the back of the at the back of the bay uh which would have compressed air it would have the ability to to clean and and work on pieces of equipment or or whatever they needed to do there's an area that that can be done above all of these Bays all of these Bays will have compressed air power uh and and they will have the ability to charge the the vehicles uh the uh at at any given time they'll be directly over each heater drop down electric drop down uh compressed there uh within the facility gear racks and storage racks along the side of each Bay uh properly storing all of their equipment also off of the apparatus Bay is the ready room for uh res Squad there's adequate storage there's areas for them to await the calls and do what needs to be and there's direct access into the facility at the top of theirs there's two bunk rooms uh independent bunk rooms uh one can be used for two people they could be used for single person but they are independent bunk rooms um there is an elevator that takes you to the second floor and a common toilet off of here and then adjacent to that is the office for the rescue squad uh where they will be able to to uh you know take calls do what they need to do uh within an office environment there's uniform Storage off of the office and then adjacent to that are two locker rooms showers uh uh capable of holding 30 lockers each male female uh adequate toilet facilities uh for the Department there's a SE another stair going up to the second floor and then we have the quiet room for the rescue Department um so that's the rescue Department adjacent to the rescue squad and in between the adjacent and rescue rescue squad and fire department is a shared decontamination room the decontamination room has adequate showers eyewash uh washing machines to be able to wash their gear their equipment uh as well as a sink and cabinets for the storage of uh cleaning supplies and implementations that they may need there's an ice room with an ice machine off off of the backside of that room there's a mechanical room directly across the hallway and then we get into fire fire department has two locker rooms across the hallway uh male female six lockers for the females 20 lockers for the men adequate toilet and sink facilities and shower facilities for both across the hallway as we enter the bay we enter through a storage room uh with a compressor that compressor is shared amongst all three Department Apartments there will be an eyewash and a slop sink along with work tables in the back there is a work area and an secondary storage room storage room for O2 cylinders local O2 cylinders and and hose racks there's a workbench also in the back of the fire area and then this garage Bay will house the four vehicles uh for the Department capable of housing another vehicle uh for future growth uh and with again with adequate clearances between each of the apparat atus 6ot minimum in between 8ot on the sides along with their gear storage racks that are up off the ground everything's very very efficient as we turn the corner uh there is a large fire storage room uh could be dedicated to storage could be dedicated to Mechanical at some point there is mechanical adjacent to that and then you'll see in green there is a shared oxygen storage room this room is located off of a receiving area in the back of the building it's located such so that the Police Department EMS and fire can safely store their equipment in an XP room an XP room is an explosion proof room so therefore soaring volatile chemical volatile oxygen tanks that the room is protected and has blowout panels so it would be able to survive if the and not take the rest of the building with it so it's off of a receiving area located in the back and then there's another small uh police department for trol storage for signs street signs things like that that they need or you know cones and things like that they need to store uh can be pulled off of there alongside the the mechanical space there is an office a quiet room and a ready room for the fire department located on this side of the facility there were discussions throughout our design time uh as to which department would go where every Department weighed in there were questions as to what should what should happen and this is the ultimate Arrangement that everyone agreed upon off the back of the building um there is parking and off the front of the building there are clearances for the engine vehicles to get through and get out uh and then as we go up to the second floor so again just a recap the there is 34,000 foot of space on this footprint the police occupy 13,000 of it 13.3 13,300 the fire occupies 7500 the rescue occupies 8,400 uh there is 1520 square foot of shared space and 4,000 square foot of common area on that first floor as we get to the second floor um you can see that there is a significant amount of shared space on the second floor these are spaces that would need to be redundant if these facilities were separate these are fac these are uh spaces that can be occupied by all three departments uh and uh gain a greater economy of scale uh as we come up to the second floor either through either through the elevator or the lower stair here or the stair in the back we can enter uh we come up through the elevator and there is the first room on our right is a virtual firing range this firing range is computer-based it uses the officer's weapons with a uh dry fire laser that gets put into a computer program and they have the ability to train in your space they don't have to pay to go to a range they don't have to do things to go to a range you can also use this space base if you were need to to to rent out or to be able to gain um use it as a a revenue generator uh as we get into a secure go through a secure door into the police uh space we get to the locker room the locker room is capable of holding off uh 40 officers uh the lockers are large enough size for all their gear and Equipment uh there are is power in the lockers for their radios there not doesn't need to be a central area for all the radios but uh there's the ability to power everything and do everything that needs to be done there's adequate shower space for the officers there is a adequate toilet facilities for the men adequate toilet facilities for the women shower there's a Janitor's Closet right off the front there is also a separate washer dryer here for again equipment that gets soiled on the on the job there's the ability to wash it right after the changing and getting into New Gear uh there's 12 lockers for the women 40 lockers for the men uh and that is uh directly off of that hallway across from the locker rooms there is a resiliency room um uh this is a space for officers to be able to go to have private conversations uh and there is Storage off of that around the corner from that is because the the PD's uh kitchenet is downstairs on the main level there is a small kitchenet administrative copier area on the second floor that is strategically placed directly across from Emergency Operations Command Center and or conference room so we've created an Emergency Operations Center that when it's used for Emergency Operations will be able to house and accommodate many people that from various departments to be able to strategically uh figure out how they're going to handle the current crisis um it will also serve uh as a conference room and training room in the downtime adjacent to that we have uh the detective Bureau along with Detective store storage uh there's a Janitor's Closet in the hallway uh our Chief's office is in the corner uh there's a toilet facility for the chief there there's Chief's admin the admin Captain's office there's a a general office and then there's storage uh on the end as we get below the kitchenet and the resiliency room we have a large Communications room capable of housing Communications for all the facility not just police but fire and safety as well uh there are racks and racks of for racks of wiring and Equipment everything will come back to this central location down and Below we have police records room highdensity storage files allow us to fit a lot more information in smaller spaces so we have a a file room that's capable of handling uh what the department needs to file from a uh storage a paper storage part not an Evidence storage evidence storage is being done downstairs our common stair toilet and janitor closet Hub uh remains on the second floor that was on the first and then there is Administrative copier area in this back corner uh there is also another small office on that level there's a lactation room uh that's been included in this plan along with the admin Lieutenant's office and then a video editing room uh I was at a meeting a few months ago you guys are doing an awful lot of editing of videos readapting videos so this space is something that's wasn't always needed but it is now uh it's been included in the plan and then uh the room on the end is a close quarter training room there's a mat in that space uh there's the ability to uh to train uh and have events there and have other people use that uh that room in the center of everything is a fitness room Fitness room is open to all three departments it's accessible uh by fire and and rescue from this side it's accessible by police from this side obviously doors would be key fobbed it is also open to the Courtyard below so great way to get natural light into into a building this size and to be able to have people do their workouts and look outside and see the Sun and it's a lot nicer than staring against the wall uh and then there's a gym storage room for storing various pieces of equipment the courtyard is open to below as is uh the lobby space the lobby looks up two stories as well as we move over as we come in uh off of the elevator again there is a general gang toilet facility for men and women uh there's a Jan Janitor's Closet across from that and then both of these all three of these serve what is now a training allpurpose room uh for the Departments all three departments uh the depart the training room is designed right now to have a bing partition that acts as a marker board or wall where it could be either the full space it could be divided into 1/3 and 2/3 uh and closed off so that you could have smaller functions larger functions or even the largest of functions and then across from this training center is a breakout room for the uh Rescue Squad and a breakout room for the fire department uh as well as Secure Storage for both both groups below the training room is a cafeteria shared space this is fire rescue and to be used for training functions that occur you can then occupy and be able to have training served from that space and then directly off of the cafeteria and the training room would be a large training storage where they could store any training implements whether they be defibrillators or resuscitating Annies or any bulk type storage that needs to be done and going into the training rooms as mentioned before there's a lot to be said about having a training room that can accommodate outside functions as well as internal functions especially from a revenue gen generating standpoint uh then there is a a secondary erress stair on the back side of the building on the second floor the police department occupies about 9200 square feet the fire department and rescue squad occupy about 400 uh I'm sorry 500 square feet each there is 5,800 square feet of shared space on the second floor and common areas the Carters the um the open to below and the common uh public toilet rooms is about 3700 Square F feet so that's the plan that's everything that we talked about in terms of meeting program space the square footages that we derive come from the needs of each department it wasn't something that we said okay we're going to take this and we're going to add 25% they gave us their needs we put together a plan we came up with the numbers in terms of the program spaces and that's what resulted in what you see before you now what a building like this looks like is takes the our believe is that uh form follows function so we've established the function of the building it is a very efficient building when we look at it from the standpoint of how much carer space there is to how much functional user space usually a grossing Factor they call that the grossing factor is about 1.4 in this particular case it's 1.1 or less which means the building is very efficient we're not paying for extra Corridor space we're not paying for closets and storage and all sorts of things it is very efficient every space is being used appropriately so let's now take a look at what we V Envision this building to look like so this is a view from Pompton Avenue as to what the corner of that building would look like and what the driveway could look like pulling into the vehic pulling into the facility you'll see the police department on the front in the front that secure garage uh would be located there so officer would pull in the door would open they would pull in go into their space and then they would be able to close the garage door before entering the facility there are EV charging stations there are handicap charging stations there's a degree of charging parking out on the surface and then as you move towards the front of the building the entrance is here uh there's a sidewalk and there are parking spaces and handicap spaces in the front and then as you move up the site and towards the back you'll see more parking as we go through it so this is again from the corner you know appropriate signage would be put on the building letting people know that this is the Verona Public Safety complex as we start to move around the front of the building we start to see the entrance of what the facility could look like uh we start to see uh you know this this open space this large uh Monument that says Verona Public Safety complex that that tells people what the building is and then you start to see The Bays as we go down another look at the front of the building the flag out front uh the police Bay the police evidence Bay located right there and then we start to see the rescue Bays as we F again move further along another view of the entrance and that Police Department Bay as we look at the rescue squad and fire department bays at you know away from the entrance the three Bays 14 foot height great clearance lighting over the over the Bays that people can see themselves back in protection against the vehicles hitting the building with ballards outside the front uh the ability to park all the vehicles and the requested vehicles uh on site and have them uh be able to not be outside and and be be heated and everything that they need to be done for uh for necessity as we get to the back this is really the entrance for uh fire and EMS to enter the office space or their their locker space uh with additional parking off the the front and then we continue to keep going towards the exterior as we go you'll notice a two-l parking garage or parking deck rather not Deck Parking surface uh there's a two level and that's because of the grade change if we were to continue just to go up there would be a 20 foot retaining wall so we're splitting it we're putting some parking on a lower level adjacent to the building and then we're having a little ramp up and then a ramp towards the back so that we're accommodating the grade and trying to cut the cost of retaining WS another kind of view of that parking area a little overview of what it looks like from from the backside so you have parking that's where our little covered receiving area is this is our upper level of of parking lot uh the fire the fire department pull their vehicles back their hoses out they can do what needs to be done in those areas so it accommodates uh a variety of of spaces this's A View From the back of the building looking towards Pompton Avenue so that's that receiving area the storage room and then the entrance into the building in that corner and then again you're looking from the upper level parking down you're looking at a retaining wall along the side uh to be able to hold back the grade that's on that level as we move into the facility you'll see the a rendering of what this lobby area could look like uh so you walk in there's Verona uh dispatch uh uh that you can walk in you could talk to an officer um we envision you know a lot of police departments there's um there's mirrored glass you can't see who's talking to you behind there it's a very simple solution to have switchable glass you turn it on it's clear uh you turn it off and it's opaque so when someone comes to the window you're dealing with a person you're not dealing with a mirrored glass wall so we envision this Lobby to be very open you can see it's two stories it's there's a glass wall that goes to the Courtyard but you can't see into the courtyard it's very private so that anybody in there is not being viewed as if being in a fishball another side of the lobby looking at the other side our company does a lot with graphics and murals you may have seen that at the Verona Library we did a lot with graphics and and signage so we have the ability to do a lot for a facility like this to to show branding and spirit within the facility it doesn't have to look like an institution in the way we see it this would be a view of what that courtyard could look like that open courtyard this Courtyard we envisioned to be open to through the roof it would have a cover on it but it would be open to the air so you wouldn't get direct snow and rain down in there but you would definitely be able to to feel the temperature so this would be a a concept of what dispatch could look like this is the dispatch room um this dispatch room is sizable it's capable of holding the present officers and the potential if you wanted to look at you know taking over other dispatch areas there's space for it as well future growth another view this is in uh this is the police ready room so as you saw you know standing High tables uh projection screen TV screen monitors tack boards storage equipment along the sides place for officers to come in and muster and see what's going on there another view of that uh gun and storage lockers along the entrance to be able to pick up what they need as they're coming in and going out this would be an idea of what the Emergency Operations room could look like again flexible Furniture could be created as a conference room could be as a u shape you're bringing in multiple people whiteboards along the side uh spaces for them to monitor the news monitor Drone footage monitor traffic cameras everything from a single location and a single ability to be able to do that here along with the countertop for uh to be able to to uh to host whatever needs to be done in this room um another view of what that space would look like from the other side this is that uh kitchenet copier administrative area of what it could look like in the open Corner outside that room so again it's serving two purposes it could be served as a workspace it could be served as an administrative copy and collating area as well as grabbing a cup of coffee or being able to host the anybody in the emergency command center this is the police staff cafeteria this is what that could look like um again adequate seating for everybody uh to be able to host and use what needs to be done A View From the opposite side looking towards the corridor this is an idea ofany processing so this is that large open room we talked about cabinets uh fingerprint ID machine the wall where they're going to take uh their photo uh as well as the officer station here and work station here this window uh cell block is behind that window that's an idea of what the cell could look like we don't want that to look very inviting but it looks uh it looks pretty plain Plain Jane so we can put Graphics in there too uh this a police locker room again these lockers are have a bench built in It's not taking up at ample space but they have the ability to put every all the gear that these officers need uh especially in the winter time summertime boots extra boots extra gear so that if it's raining they're wet they've got another jacket in there it's not something that they're struggling to find this is what uh the SAT TR sallyport could look like so uh as you pull in this is that secure garage door we consider this open there's a a mesh screen on the around the perimeter so that it is open uh it's not this closed in you know Vault uh but it is secure um and you'd be able to pull in and park uh weapons lockers on the outside and then you know the access as a is released there is a manand door on this front of the building so that they're released through the man door you don't have to open and avoid security issues there another view looking towards the secure vestibule and storage room uh and and the access from the ready room let's talk a little bit about uh rescue so this is an idea of what that rescue Bay could look like again rescue had the most Vehicles out of the uh the squad and in terms of the size and the the the size of these vehicles so right now this this Bay accommodates all of them with the appropriate clearances but you can see with all the vehicles in there it is a tight space um but it's it's it's what they need uh Lighting electric drops from the ceiling uh appropriate air compressors um and the work area towards the back fire department phase again um you know gear racks that show all of their gear being stored the ability for them to lay hoses out and still have room between the vehicles and the trucks uh you know these are the gear rack storage so these Bays will be able to accommodate the the vehicles that they have with the space to create a safe environment for for everybody there uh an example the fire department ready room very similar to the rescue ready room uh they're very uh similarly appointed uh but this is what something like that would look like uh safety complex this is the shared fitness center so this is what that could look like rubber floors uh minimal equipment but the ability for everybody to get in and do what do what needs to be done from a training perspective stay in shape stay healthy so that they can do their job effectively another example of what that looks like again in this view you can see the window to the Courtyard so it's letting a good amount of natural light in which is really a great thing from our perspective the shared training space uh so this is an idea of what that room could look like again whiteboard uh Smartboard uh the ability for this room to be set up in a variety of different ways it could be set up as a u-shape as you see it it could be set up as individual desking for a classroom it could be set up as a conference area the wall that you see here the wall that you see here is a folding sliding partition so each of those panels folds and slides out of the way but as you can see they can operate as whiteboards they can operate as fabric boards or they can operate so that you can get additional training for when that space is open or close the opposite view looking again towards the courtyard and hallway so this room will also have a view where there's natural light and the ability to see what's uh ability to get natural light there was a lot of information but that is the abrupt ending to my long and long- winded uh uh discussion on what this facility entails it's a big space uh it certainly meets the requirements of each of the Departments um they're all here any questions well thank you for your thorough presentation thank you um up to the council sure I I have comments you can get like a legion something I'm good VOD no I'm kidding it's a joke it's a it's called so first of all I just want to say like thank you for such a thorough and comprehensive report um it's actually really beneficial to the public to have all of this in one place in one meeting so not withstanding the marathon that you just ran in terms of a presentation which I believe I count is approximately 76 77 slides um so so I mean that's that's a lot it is for anybody it is um so I will say that when I ran for office in 2021 I was very well aware of Aging infrastructure in our community but when I was thinking about aging infrastructure I was thinking about our water our Wastewater facilities our storm water facilities you know like essentially broken pipes that had been paved over um and really just not maintained for decades um while I was running um I had the the pleasure of meeting with representatives from each of these organizations where they all took me on walkthroughs of their facilities and I learned that our pipes were not the only things broken um so you know I was really um dismayed and disappointed that prior councils had not addressed these issues for as you repeatedly referenced 40 years years or more um so upon joining the council we formed subcommittees and I was on the fire and rescue subcommittee um where we did from the outset discuss potential properties this was even before Mr diaro was here and one of the properties that did come up was the prompton properties which then um serendipitously came up for sale during U Mr Dio's time here after exploring um some of the properties that wouldn't have required a purchase um to your point in these slides this is clearly a once- in a-lifetime decision um seeing as I am pretty much the slides that you showed were my lifetime um so um I was like wow it looks like everybody stopped making these decisions sometime in the early 80s so I guess it's arer now um one of the things that I found particularly compelling about your slide presentation was Slide Five where you um I found that particularly compelling and I wanted to talk a little bit about that because I think it's very overwhelming to look at see I was able to can't just jum like nobody get like you know vertigo or anything looking screen as he's doing this but um anyway well I feel really bad because I thought it was easy for me to identify slides that you could jump to them but um I thought it was particularly compelling for you to show the size of the different properties that um yes it's Slide Five on mine but thank you this graphic I think is particularly compelling because for example it may seem very overwhelming to put all of the facilities together but to your point first of all it creates efficiencies internal to the building but it also creates economies of scale by doing one building at one time it also enables the municipality to not pick like winners and losers where there might be a property that fits one facility but other facilities wouldn't get done and as we can see this is clearly a once- in a-lifetime kind of decision to make um so I thought it was really compelling to show the size of the different properties that um were available and then to finally zero in on the pompon property um now I won't make you scroll to the other slides but one of the things that I noticed on slide 40 but don't slide don't because nobody wants to get dizzy is um so it looks like there's very little buffer between the back of the building and the properties that are on that side and from some of your renderings it looked as though there was perhaps Yes actually that one works some of your renderings it looks like maybe there's is that like a sidewalk along there and is that a large wall I clearly there's retaining walls when you get to the elevated like where the Terrace parking but like is there a wall between these properties because itly closed and I really want to ensure that those residents have adequate screening from this large facility so that you know they feel comfortable with it as well yes so is that there so it is close to the it is close to the property line and and part of the reason for that is that the trucks need so much clearance getting out we needed to take as much space as we could uh it's approximately 15 feet off the property line there is a walkway that provides egress out the back of the building for certain of the spaces there is going to be retaining walls along there but we will obviously look at what it needs what we're going to have to do to screen that area it's critical important yeah because I mean like none of your renderings are showing what this would look like from any of those properties you know I just would want to make sure that the homeowners there feel like we are part of the community like we are like entering their neighborhood and that we are not going to be burb stuff on them because like if you look it looks like maybe some of their houses are a little bit closer than than others so I would just want to ensure that there's that adequate screening screening that we're thinking about lighting and other concerns because it is like a large twostory building and that it's not just like the back of a building right you know because this is what they're going to see every single day and I think renderings of the front are beautiful but we didn't see any of the back and often times that's not what people are thinking about but that's what these residents are going to see we will um in terms of the actual layout um I think you know it's wonderful that you've done so much to again create this organizational efficiency on the different floors two things that jumped out at me um were first of all the um parity in women's and men's locker rooms um and I appreciate that right now we have very few women um and so what I noticed is that the fire department you could have the ability to increase the number of lockers there and they look to be approximately the same size that's clearly not at all the case with the police correct um locker rooms so I just want to like put on the record right now now that the expectation might be that if the women really show up then we're going to lose our OEM room uh over time because like right now you've there's no way to accommodate an expansion of that women's lock room over there without taking away that space the other point that I wanted to make is that you've provided a lactation room which is great but it seems to only be accessible to the police officers and I imagine that there are women because we're providing women's locker rooms um for the other facilities and we may want to make that a shared space right and so right now you would need a key card to get into that lactation room and as a working mother that had to use lactation room I would also ask that you consider where the women will be working and whether or not you're now making them have a locker room on one side and walking all the way over I mean that was one of the points that you made earlier in your presentation as well and especially if it's exclusively upstairs if the rescue squad and the fire department women are on a different floor this may be very inconvenient now you do have a gym facility in the middle and maybe you lose a little bit of space there maybe you put it over there somewhere somewhere where it's more centrally located and accessible to all of the women that would be working there again I was a a working mom and a nursing mother at a time before Obamacare even kicked in and I ended up like in a like broom closet with no sink so I think it's really important for women to have this kind of accessibility and it's not going to just be the police great so um those were a couple of the notes that I have and again like you're so right about pictures being worth a thousand words because like how can we not take action when when you can see our crumbling infrastructure um in all of your slides yes you visited the facilities uh yes each of the facility do the pictures do it justice oh uh no because you have to be there and actually be able to stick your finger through the walls in the fire department to really get like a full like appreciation for it or to see the the boiler that I was afraid of or like the ancient like cells or the wood paneling the rescue squad to really get a full sense of it um but like again it's a once- in a-lifetime matter and it's clearly I mean this clearly no action has been taken in by this Council in my lifetime on most of these things like minor Band-Aid fixes but like you know it gets to the point where do have to actually take meaningful action so I do appreciate this presentation um and like I said the effort to include as many efficiencies as possible and again I would like to really urge you and the administration to consider that gender parity and the accessibility of the relactation thank you thank you councilwoman MCR um great thank you mayor um and I want to Echo some of the councilwoman's uh comments about the lactation room as I also um experienced that years ago and so I think our comments were well heated um I also had the opportunity um I I see many of the Chiefs in the room to be able to tour the facilities both the rescue squad and the current firehouse and they AG coun they really are um uh kind of horrendous conditions for our volunteers and uh it's not you know normally with Verona we have a lot of Pride and I I'm staring at a room full of volunteers and officers and again while we kind of inherited these project problems um sitting here on the council this is really not the Verona way and I'm really glad that we're finally undertaking this initiative to address all of these long-standing issues um so I want to thank everyone's attention to this um one thing when you were talking about the site analysis that you didn't um mention is the need to have two separate firehouses um in particular to keep one of the firehouses on um you know this one side of the pcman for flooding and so did that come up at all as part of the discussions and because I know that the Bloomfield Avenue by Verona Park has flooded several times and the pekman floods over across several Bridges and so can you redress at all when you did the needs assessment if that was discussed why the Pompton site um is partially Superior for the fire department by keeping it on that side well it's it again we didn't really have any extensive discussions about it we know we have the company one you know up here so the the idea was it it is opposite side of town and that you know that's based on the discussions that we all had it was a suitable site okay um one thing I am concerned about what would you say before I just disc discuss my concern is how long you hope this building to last for us um like what is the plan longevity on this building and I guess my question becomes as the trucks keep getting bigger are we adequately I know we're planning for clearance and standards now will that be sufficient in 30 years or will some future Council be looking at this decision going why didn't they just add a couple more feet so we have we have the standard clearances that have been requested and required and we've actually added to that already a building like this this building does incorporate future growth not only for PD but for fire and EMS in terms of the number of workstations and spaces and square footage that's that's involved it's why it's so significantly larger if you look at all three facilities that currently exist they're a fraction of the the net programmable space that they have now so uh I couldn't give you a time frame but this building's going to last the next 50 to 100 years I can tell you that okay and how many parking spaces did you plan for and then can you talk about the thought process again testing the extremes if we have a widescale emergency did you talk with all three uh departments about again what would parking look like and with the current spots that you've allotted and if it was all Hands-On deck what happens so the site originally started out with uh 80 spots uh because of the grade and the site and the retaining walls and looking at Cost associated with those uh the site was split so it currently has 69 spots or 68 spots to be I believe that's the number uh So based upon the number of spaces that are there now that is what we fit so based upon an emergency obviously viously people are going to be double parking and parking as they need to for an emergent situation but um the facility can house 60 spots that is by and large far more than what currently exists at any facility and how many of those 69 spots are going to be having like police cars in them so we have the sally port obviously which is separate but how many or vehicles for um employees of the police department so really definitely going to be used so I mean total there's like 40 40 spots Chief 40 40 staff up not all at the same time not all at the same time right so but but if they were all here for an emergency then you're up to 40 spots that way they know that um you know and you're asking a very specific question okay um that I might not have all the answers to but uh I believe that again we've provided the total number of spaces that are here that do fit for for calls who's coming on at any any given time plus having ancillary for public to come in as well as spare spaces and I'm sure you know like I we're so um uh we're in a unique situation where we have the mayor who is on the o is the OEM coordinator he's on the rescue squad and probably has a lot of detail see I thought he was going first has a lot of detailed questions about the operations but I am as a father follow up also concerned a little bit about um kind of testing those extremes so if we have a large emergency what is parking going to look like getting to the councilwoman's point how are the surrounding neighborhoods going to be impacted um and so that's one followup question I have and then if we were to rent out these facilities for training again have we kind of thought through the parking for you for that use so again we have the virtual firing range being rented out and now we have a emergency what is it going to look like that and that might not be a question for you it may be a question for the Chiefs um that's one set how my other question is how much of the site has been Disturbed so again it's a very long site piece of it is already developed then there's a lot of wood so can you talk a little bit about how far deep this goes and how much of the site um like where the parking lot is in particular how many trees are being disturbed and what is the de slope going on in that situation so the site is 118,000 sare f feet total that is what the total total site is where the retaining wall is for the parking lot that encompasses including the front 83,000 Square fet so a good portion of the site will be housed for parking and the building the building is a 35,000 foot footprint the parking is an additional uh you know 40,000 square feet uh and there's 27 or 28,000 square feet of Green Space towards the back of the site that is hilly and completely wooded at this point so uh there will be some clearing of the back half of the site the front is pretty clear up to where the last garage is and then it gets wooded and and much steeper as we go back but we do have some clearing uh our site plan is showing the replanting of several trees and you know a bunch of trees but um it's a very scrub wooded site so it's it's not just big host trees it's a lot of scrub that's there as well so um but we you know obviously we'll evaluate it our civil engineer is here uh so he would you know we would be looking at and evaluating the site for just that purpose well certainly we want to understand the environmental impact of you know this facility and you know we have established pretty strict uh ordinances in the township so do ordinances you know are we following our own ordinances um as it relates to the development and then that lead to another question which and this may be premature but really looking at Green Design for this building um and have you we may not be on that stage but is that the standard now so everything that we do every design that we do is uh for Green Design it's lead principles uh whether you want this building to have a badge on it that says it's uh lead certifi lead accredited or lead the lead accredited building um there's a cost associated with that we typically in any of the new construction that we do we always evaluate our buildings through lead principles but given size and the cost of this building the added cost to get a badge is often not uh not worth the price um we could certainly evaluate it and tell you what that will cost you and if you so desire yeah we can go the whole accreditation process and say we have a gold standard a silver PL you know and and You' be able to say that at the end everything that we do will be you know we try to do locally sourced products so that there's no shipping and you know major fees although that doesn't work for everything because mechanical equipment and things can get shipped from overseas but uh you know efficiencies energy efficiencies all of those things that we look at are all with lead principles in mind okay and thank you for that and my final question is um you know um with each one of these rooms and I've had some great conversations with the chief so I understand there are these technical requirements we have to do certain things I think it would be helpful to have a list of for each room this is required by the state of New Jersey or the federal government this is um a best practice so having that virtual firing range is really kind of a best practice and then a nice to have because I think we will get questioned on well why why are you allowing a break room and a quiet room and this to you know and I think I I think you went through the detail beautifully in your presentation I think documenting that at some point um as we move along is going to be uh very helpful for us and the public um and with that um I have no more further questions thank you coun thank you um I would agree with a lot of what my colleagues have said here uh I to have visit visited all of our Public Safety facilities one of the first stops I made when I was first elected number of years ago uh was to the overnight shift at the police station and uh it wasn't in a whole lot better shape then um I've been through the uh fire building and seeing that it is crumbling uh the rest of squad building with wood paneling um you know ever's been making the best of a bad situation and we're very appreciative to them uh but we've gotten in of every single ounce of life out of these facilities I think at this point in time um I agree that this is very much a long-term once in a-lifetime sort of a decision and we really have to think forward here station two is a good example of lack of long-term planning I mean if they had only you know built a proper Foundation underneath that building you might at least have been able to get another 10 year back the irony of ironies the fire station burned down then we built the old one top of it um you know it's I look at this whole process and I recognize that there has been a lot of work done with needs assessment and programming uh having been through architecture projects I understand that's the basis of very good design and successful project it appears that a lot of effort has gone into this sort of needs assessment of all the Departments and the schematic design and the adjacency layout all sort of flows from that so that was very successful part of it um the concern is obviously neighborhood compatibility you've got a site that is um modestly developed for buys of the lot right now and you're going to go to a larger develop and a much more active one um I would start be thinking in 3D a little bit versus all the properties that run up Vincent and Cambridge um what does the height of the building the height of the fence look like so if someone is is someone going to be sitting on their patio and looking at you know sort of an unadorned you know upper roof section of a building sticking above a fence or how do we make sure that this doesn't turn into building this directly in people's backyards even though we are kind of building it sort of in people's back Ys and that that view from the parts of the project you don't normally render I think matters a lot because I really do think that a lot of people are going to be looking at this directly from the decks of their houses so I don't want anybody here to think that because we didn't give you a view of that back side of the building U that we're not going to care about the back side of the building it strictly was a a figure of time right you know being able to come here with this presentation tonight and put together the renderings that we did the staff worked really really diligently to put it together it's also something that we're going to have to look at from their backyard it's also something we're going to have to look at from that spot to be able to determine what can be done there is adequate vegetative screening there are things that we can employ in the architecture of the building that will lessen the appearance of what that wall might look like but yes we are sensitive to that as Architects we don't want to build this monolithic uh wall in the back of somebody's backyard and have them stare at that all day long so it is something that we'll have to work with I'm not saying not a challenging site it's definitely a challenging site uh it is the the only site at this particular point that seems to fit the requirements of the program so we're going to have to figure out how to make it work and we've even looked at again this is conceptual as well thought out as this building is if we can squeeze it narrower and make the building a little thinner and pick up more space at the backside or push it forward a little bit more these are things that will occur during the design phase and as we get into the the details we'll definitely look at the exterior of this building and how it impacts the surrounding area and then um the other things I was thinking on in terms of compatibility obviously that back parking lot you want to think about um you know what is the traffic flow you're going to get headlights facing into uh neighboring buildings what is overall light dress pass off of the site onto other proper is going to be like but on the other hand I thought of this on the positive side as well with the amount of land preservation that would go on here if this were to be a commercial or multif family residential development somebody May seek to use even more of the lot so you are going to have a significant amount of land preservation there it's not the wor thing in the world um another thing that I thought about a lot was noise um there is mainten with fire and rescue there the the apparatus typically stays there to be tested and maintained and a lot of that happens within the Bays as well as small equipment Etc um you know are they able to do things like run small ends in an area that is not going to cause too much noise trespass and otherwise as they do their just routine work on their equipment um is it possible to do it in such a way that uh the sound exposure is going to be dead that uh I was curious if there had been site visits made by either you know any of the squads or the police department or your team to some of these comparable facilities I noticed that you sort of called out some police facilities um did we look at state-of-the-art Rescue Squad facilities and fire stations and so on was sort of our unit uh that we looked at so I I know that Chief the Chiefs looked at several facilities we've done our due diligence in the past at other for for other buildings that we've done so we're familiar with some of these facilities already uh we've done some local facilities in the area but again employing the principles of design from uh police Chiefs and uh looking at some of the studies that were done in the past uh for the for the facilities we've actually uh you know expanded upon what was done in the past to come up with h better programming for these facilities and I also agree with Council MC grass comment about uh knowing the specific requirements and the needs and sort of the tiers of prioritization for space um you know we always have to be realistic that at some point in time we may end up having to do some value engineering and cost and so on and we want to go into this knowing specifically you know why everything is here and you know what reason each space has for it its layout its positioning its sizing and so on so I agree that kind of understanding the concept for each of these spaces would be would be very helpful in case that exercise becomes excent with that too de mayor thank you Mr Mayor uh Frank first I want to thank you for your presentation are you uh and I think going into the history of uh these three units is very important because I think uh the slides showed as the councilwoman said uh seeing the these buildings in the shape they're in it's and going into them really brings it to life that we need to do this uh I'm only 6'2 and I go into the basement of the police department and I hit my head officer in the back that's taller than I am and there's other better than taller than now I don't have that problem it's still a problem right through uh but a lot of my colleagues went through pretty much every question that I had here uh really and I the major question is and and you you put a number on it 50 to 100 years uh and in my mind going into this I was thinking a 75 year facility uh is my number one question is are we prepared for growth uh that's the big big one I saw like if you go through the bags at the fire department you you actually highlighted it there's room for another vehicle in there I look at the rescue squad uh they F so and I actually the lockers came up and I was looking at that I I could see in the police department there are probably these rooms where you can a room in the ladies locker room that you could add more there uh in in the other locker room not so much so would you like is this could you take a let's say in 10 years if there's a 10% growth can it accommodate that is it 10 15 20 yeah like that's the major question here so I mean py a lot of the a lot of the spaces if we go to what that police locker room looks like it is a very wide open space so yes that room could be another wall could be installed an Peninsula could be installed in the middle of the room you could pick up more additional spaces so we've thought about the expansion of those rooms uh each of the locker rooms uh the way they're designed are designed in such a way that um you can pick up more space so even fire you know the way it's set and it'll give it a chance for it to refresh so even the locker the the fire the way it's refreshed if we were to come in uh and put another Peninsula we could pick up additional Locker space losing two lockers to gain four gain five whatever would be needed um you know obviously here we could pick up you know another six eight Lockers in the in the the women's locker room uh you know same thing uh with EMS right now the lockers there's 30 lockers they're 18 by 24 we could do double Stacks we could fit 60 Lockers in a you know so we could change the lockers and accommodate the growth or uh provide more space you can see space along this wall you can you know there's other places that we could actually provide more more space in the facility for expansion and then uh another one of my top ones that really was parking yeah because yeah I mean we go right outside here we see I don't know how many police cars we have uh there's 15 12 15 cars uh you have nine covered and there's a couple outside there do we need to revisit that front yard and try to add some more parking closer to the front is it I don't looking at the plants doesn't look like it's possible it's it's do you want to have some green space you don't want to create a jungle out of this entire thing and we're doing a great deal of Paving on this site um you know as if you're looking at need it's it's there uh you know the potential may be some years down the line to look at a potential deck in the back uh building a deck but you know those are things that could be looked at in the future you only have a certain amount of square footage that's usable and if we decide to continue up the hill it only results in Greater cost so you know we're we're drawing we drew a line in the sand and said you know this has to work for now we're providing better conditions that currently exist but it may not be the be all end also and then the rear the one thing that stuck out with me this is very minor but in the in the covered spots for the police area there's actually a weapons storage outside there in that area it's a it's when they when they pull in they before they go into the processing with the det detainee they typically lock up their weapon yes interesting thank you Deputy Mayor Frank thanks again for the thorough presentation um I not going to repeat anything that my said uh which is kind of the joy of going last but um I I do want to briefly touch on my expectations we fill on will last 50 years especially if the uh future counsels are like past ones uh and they don't want to address issues the I think one of the things I was looking at when I was reviewing the these diagrams and there somebody who's been pretty familiar with the building issues at all three departments or even before I was on uh on this Council um I think it is important to that there are some spaces for growth in here um especially in the police department area with some additional space that can be reimagined the other thing I noticed is that the way this is laid out is that spaces can be repurposed uh as well and that's something that as part of the growth will we need certain things in the future um can we repurpose space that we have and I hope that that's because obviously if we had to add an addition onto the building um for the the east side of the building in the future you would have almost no parking in that area so we are in position to do that and frankly if you know one of the Departments especially Ms or fire outgrew this facility talking about building another building to accommodate that right that's only really the only option that um that we have you could build over the Baye yeah that would you could do a future second exp that my next question is that will be structurally yeah I mean we would look at the structure to design it to put a deck up there and you'd be able to get additional construction over those Bays if you needed to um it's significant square footage um there would be you know issues getting to it you'd have to have some sort of ramping or stare up there because the bays are higher than the floor level so but yes we would look at you know that's certainly an expansion for growth it's you know if you're getting there then you know it be it'd be certainly on the table the the concern always with construction when you're adding on to something is going you have construction while the building's in use and right so whatever we can do to build this building to facilitate the fact that we could potentially do that in the future would certainly helpful um we're always mindful of signs yeah you know we we you know I somebody to say you have I don't know that it's will not happen no I I know it won't happen the U so I think that's I think that's big I think the um I thank the all the members of the committee who's participated in this to to get here just a couple items that I noted um first is in looking at some of the renderings this may be something has to discuss when you're talking about the utilities and the um with the lines being run and stuff like that we're starting to think about cost is an exhaust management system for all these base it's in there okay it is it is and I didn't it didn't come up in presentation um but that is significant as a as a health concern another thing that uh I noticed is that the quiet rooms are next to utility rooms so that might be something to look at um as far as if you have those the areas people working and you have hbac equipment and stuff like that um there may be potentially a need for further sound barriers there something that can absorb some of that sound to actually allow that to happen um I think those are just a couple couple little points things that uh that I picked up um as far as a a planning piece of this um my colleagues brought up some concerns about the neighborhood and I do share those obviously build anything anywhere we would build this building there would be a neighborhood concern because we don't have many buildable locations in Verona um we I would expect and I want to put on the record now that there will be a lot of community meetings with the folks in the neighborhood like we have done with road paving projects and reconstruction projects that we will start sooner rather than later with that um because I don't want a building be designed that doesn't take into account their concerns um and I I know that's one of those things before we finalize the design and the cost estimates to really think about and to go in those backyards to knock on some doors to to talk to folks and do whatever we can um in those areas to do that um with the green area in the back of the building one of the things that I we always worry about is water I everywhere in Verona that is going to be at the base of a relatively Steep Hill um that goes up to the east the the first Mountain um I was wondering if any thought had been put into I'm sure it had been but if you can detail it how we're keeping water ahead of this building um because this is one of those buildings that we really can't have water in and uh you know be one of the we this now that we're putting everything in one place if we have an issue it now closes the higher building so if you could go into that a little bit I I'll go into it very rudimentarily if we need to go into it further civil engineer Keith Smith this year and could probably talk a little bit greater than I is I I can but there is an extensive storm water management plan for this area uh under that parking lot to you know tension and storm water um management system to be able to take that runoff off the hill to be able to drain that hill and do what necessary you know for the program it's got to be designed according to the you know dp's requirements and everything else so that's something that would occur during the design phase we're there at a conceptual level at this point but definitely storm water is part of our budgetary estimates for these for this job it's included um it's just not designed yet and that's good and I think we need to take into consideration especially the impact on the surrounding homes and things like that as we yeah as we go um from a and this is a question probably better left the Chiefs but I'll ask it now in case any of them want to comment um if for some reason this building became inaccessible it has one entrance one erress um if there were a motor vehicle accident in front of the building or um pump and Avenue was shut down for some reason or something like that um I think in part we need to start thinking about as these buildings being built what our concy plans are for that because now they're putting everything in one place especially even your emergency Operation Center going here if this is something that gets shut down having those contingency plans would be helpful um and making sure that is is there um one thing that I I would like to hear from the Department Chiefs on is um the building has some great facilities what are you planning on doing with it what can you do with the new building that you can't do now so for example the resty squad has more vehicles and we have base space in time so um like to to hear more about that um we heard about some police classes but hearing more about the firing side of that would be helpful as well um one big piece is especially with now having more Bay coverage and I think this is very positive for the building I was very pleased to see the cover parking for the police department keeping Vehicles out of the elements is a significant uh Aid to extending their life which is Big um so something to to think about as we go forward as well I think that's a real positive piece the question that we're getting a lot from the public is about the location um and about whether it's going to increase response times or not think the plan from your perspective you've done your component but as we move forward before we make a final decision on this building I would like to hear from the chiefs of departments um about their thoughts on the location in in public I had those conversations privately for the most part but I would like those to be on the record as well because we do have folks that are reaching out so um those are my when we get to response time things like that um those are the big things but I I think the building is good and I will now be the the bearer of the the tougher news and that um I think we've we commented on the concept of this now it's time to discuss in as we start close session but discuss the cost estimates for this building and um and how that balances with all of the other many many many um priorities that exist in the township as far as uh necessary things and needed things and wanted things um and even from the Departments uh that are we building building four there is a u you know that is a big piece and as a Next Step but um I was wondering Frank if you could afford turn it over to the Chiefs if they want to comment um if you could talk about what that process looks next for the public what timelines look like what is the next step if the council approves the concept and um how long do you you when would you engineer think about starting construction how long does it take Etc so uh from a if the concepts were approved and the budget were approved and we were to look at putting this thing to to design we'd be looking at a six Monon design time to be able to get engineering six to eight months for a building this size and complexity we've done a very good we got a good Head Start let's just say that you know we've done a lot more more a lot more conceptual design on this building than we would normally for any other building and that that goes to the import of this building it goes to the fact that we're local here and you know we want to uh make sure that whatever we put forward to you the council is a viable solution for this this problem so uh I I think that it is it's going to involve six to eight months of design time uh a building this size is not going to be built in any less than 20 months uh so you know that's a a relative schedule for the project we want to be out to bid as quickly as we can uh and we have to be strategic about the timing for bids as you all know uh we are in a postco world and pricing is not what it was in 2019 18 or 15 so our budgets take that into consideration you're going to see when we go through that um what's included in our budgets and how we can you know give you some assurance that uh these numbers will be will be good for the life of the of the project um I think that's all that I have for you Mr M the deputy mayor had one last question yes sir uh Frank uh discussion from from others about you talk with the Chiefs you about is there G to be a traffic light in front of this building or we have we talk with the state about controlling traffic lights at Lyon and so so that discussion hasn't been had but it's definitely part of the design process maybe traffic study maybe uh those things are going to need to be done it's not something that's been discussed that in the conceptual stage but yes it is definitely a a thought you know it's definitely something that's got to be considered um that question I could answer and explored this with our Township engineers and and communication with the state we end up with the traffic light interrupts or the traffic lights free the building F the building so basically ppon would be Shing they' have the ability in its remote disruptors so if if we continue with the the pace of where we're going then I would authorize the engineers start making applications for the remote traic Lo interrupts that was really disgusting I think that's something we started talking about for pop BL intersection okay um right you can for a second perfect and uh this point call up the department Chiefs if they have anything they would like to or whoever the spokes person is um if they anything they would like to add or respond to any of the thoughts comments Kieran is jumping in there thank you jump right up he's wearing his white shirt and tie today asking for money we get the nice you I would just like to um thank Frank and Jenny and Scott and the entire team um we threw a lot at them um Mr dioro gave us some pretty specific guidelines on how we were to go about this and we're very conscious of that um police committee the rescue squad committee the fire committee were excellent um we argued we went back and forth a lot I find that hard to believe um but we always kept in mind um how to better serve Verona's public safety program um so it was it's been a great experience so far so I just like to thank uh my fellow Chiefs Cassie and Steve and and especially the committee members who put a lot of time and and a lot of effort into it any specific questions for chief kin while he was is up just a brief comment in that vein that uh that is it's incredibly challenging to have to think strategically about your organization on this long of a time scale and to try and really you know look into your crystal wall and see what you're going to need to do this well um this far into the future so just thank you for all of the effort that uh went on amongst all the Departments your team and everyone else in terms of figuring this out because it's clear that as I commented to Frank that a lot of effort went into figuring out the program space here and what truly do you actually need you know if you looked at this a couple of years ago with the concept of a virtual firing range have even existed you know it's you you really have to start thinking you know okay 10 years from now 20 years from now what does this actually look like so I know how challenging that can be so yes thank you for all that effort it was and it was it was definitely again paired down from where we started right goes direction to uh really concentrate and and a lot of the shared spaces was uh was big and Forefront of of everything we discussed thank you right thank you thank you sorry you're up again no I just want to uh want to shut this down because we're running L iasco welcome thank you um I to want to thank Frank I mean he's been fantastic working with us we've been able to throw things at him talk to him at any time and and his team is really good helpful with this um we gave mrgo a list of probably 20 different properties around town and really none of them fit our needs uh originally we were talking just fire and then we were talking fire in EMS and never did really the thought of all three of us getting together to do this until they prop it to us so it really did work out well um the first couple of proposals we saw was much larger in scale and we took access to things oh we don't need this and we don't need that and we could share this and we could share that and we really did get together and work at this um long and hard uh to come up with something that the town could accept something that the uh Town's people could understand and I think we we accompl Lish that in our meetings could you touch on the questions of the concerns about response times and how that might change fication well looking at where our Manpower comes from they're either passing four lanes of bfield Avenue or four lanes of p in him so we really don't foresee a big increase in in response time um we can even we even discussed moving Manpower who goes to station one now to station two and vice versa so we do have that um ja you you mentioned 10% growth if we could have a 10% growth in volunteers we'll take it anytime we'll find a spot for so you know just want to be able to come so I joined the fire department when I moved into town and we had that brand new Firehouse up the street and it was my way of getting involved in the town and maybe if I didn't see a brand new facility like that maybe I might not have joined maybe we could still have that same growth with a brand new facility there on pumin Avenue and get more volunteers and rescue and fire to join us so I see it as positive councilman um Chief do you have any women volunteers today uh currently we have two great who are auxiliaries uh we've had five members that have gone through the fire academy and been full-fledged members but currently the numbers are low but we'll take them yeah well and again to uh councilwoman Holland's point I think when you build it they will come yes so with a facility that has space for all yes I think it will really help with recruiting in the future so I think that's a great opportunity for anybody the current station one does have Emil locker rooms and facility is all ready so anybody on that side of Townfield Avenue thank you anyone else else for thank you thank you and the rescue squad president yeah not Chief they done that never again just me I co was enough I didn't want to do it again so unfortunately just like my means I'm GNA be a lot more longwinded first thanks I drove him crazy personally because I just have a away with words sometimes but he really did put up with us and me more than he should have and I appreciate thoroughly as well as Chief K Chief Tesco and the Committees I'm just going to touch on a couple other things because unfortunately I talk a lot better than I write and I get Frank a lot to work with so we are one of the oldest volunteer organizations left standing they close every day volunteer First St squads it's actually not a well-known fact only like between 30ish states require EMS as a mandatory service meaning as the municipality you don't technically have to provide an ambulance you could call 91 they say here's a list of ambulance services you can find one they don't because ethically that's just not right and you'd have a lot of news about it but it's not a mandatory service and in New Jersey especially it's a hod Podge that combines between M ambulance services volunteer nonprofits that are separated from IP ality but generally work very close to mun municipality Hospital Based Services and third party services and it's a giant you know mess for lack of a better word and EMS throughout the entire country is in a death spiral it's underpaid underfunded underst staffed and it just is a constant struggle the fact that with how adequated our facilities are no one from our service died during covid I lost a lot of co-workers to co both Medics and EMTs because we bought most of our PP ourselves because the hospital systems been provided and Township as a whole did a really good job of sourcing PP and the fact that people had that much in their house is kind of a conversation for different time but I I appreciate all the donations I guess someone knew something was coming so we got a lot from the community but we have a lot of people that did long home myself included just from getting covid from the inadequate abilities to separate Decon Etc because in the Cline space it just wasn't possible and we really did the best we could with what we had we're asking for more space than we currently have because we have way outgrown our station many many many years ago we have about 100 volunteers more than that you count some of our auxiliaries and some of our retired life members that only help out when they can because of varieties of different things we have a very strong amount of women volunteers and half our board is females and actually our top two operations officers are chief cat assistant chief Karen who's not here is um also oh from City my bad I apologize my bad I don't get a white shirt thank God so long story short as president my job is maintaining our building which is basically the step child I never wanted we spent 30% of our donations on it is falling apart around us as much as everyone in the council said our wood paneling is wonderful we painted it white since the last time you were there so it's kind of lipstick on a pig has more of an aesthetically pleasing look to it but it's still wood paneling from the 70s you can feel the real ruts from Cadillac ambulances on the force but it's just it's not the fact that we can retain a large group of volunteers that we have constant Cruis on 247 365 is a rarity we're basically a unicorn as far as volunteer services go generally speaking assuming someone doesn't sleep through a call or there's some kind of radio failure if they call for a judic crew they get a judic crew even second and third ambulances 5:00 at night there was a house fire across town and we got all the ambulances out plus sufficient Manpower with relative EES and that is not how most other places operate I can't emphasize that enough the main reason for all the space we're asking for is the crew room and the ready room for the crews to hang out and do what they need to the reason for the choir room is we're trying to entice the work from home crowd and those students that need to do projects the college kids the students the PA students the nursing students have a quiet place to study away from the K because the C is not a quiet place it is not a place to do school projects take a zoom call whatever you need to do and that's really the reason for the separation space we went through categorically Space by space lining up with our current space making sure we had room for everything act and stuff we didn't need we also need to follow Hippa in our case it's a best practice not a mandate because technically speaking we don't take Medicare and Medicaid dollars so we don't fall under Hippa however civil litigation is the much lower bar so we should best practice is hippo which is why we follow it because it's just a good idea it's asking to get sued for no particular reason and the reason for the upstairs training spaces is to get a state licensed ENT class they have some ridiculous unnecessary regulations that include two separate breakout rooms outside of the main Auditorium and we separate training storage Etc and we painstakingly laid it all out so we have an in-house ENT class currently our members are going to middle sex County Pate County Warren County Morris County very far away they're high school kids they're doing it on top of extracurriculars on top of school on top of studies on top of our working parents both men and women who are taking time away from their kids to drive you know 40 minutes each way to go to NT class having it within the town is just much easier to entice people to take it also a lot of our police officers are ENT and maintaining certification is very difficult bringing that class into the public safety complex make it much easier both for them to retain their ENT as well as keep ours recertified currently we have more than two or three events we on on top of each other between sday a refresher class for our EMS we had easily 40 50 people wandering around the building interrupting the class trying to get all our stuff together it's just it's not a good way to do business and we're really trying to grow to where we need to be just to touch on your questions as far as visiting we when we did our original look we looked at South Orange and Summit and then amongst our committing it was all varying degrees of lengths of service and professional backgrounds both people that were professionally Medics EMTs nurses as well as people of all different of service and ages so we had a really nice comprehensive group and between them we had been in an EMF stations basically anywhere from Central Jersey all the way up to susus County so we kind of picked and choose what we likeed from places and got rid of stuff we didn't like from others and like I touched on before as far as the females go the reason we have the split 30 and 30 is because we do have a very strong you know membership and we really appreciate every help we can get any questions for me any questions for president actually just a quick one uh you talk about the classes that you can give uh can you offer those classes to other towns yeah large State licens an classes basically I run through the state we work with a training center we would probably get a couple seats in the class but it's a lot of political back and forth of the state because they still pay for reimbursement to these companies but they're paying in the 90s and shockingly everything's gotten more expensive so it's really not cost efficient to take the free EMT class however the training centers I worked with would take the state funding form and cut the difference off our members to a certain amount and I've already had two trainings want the faciliated teach in um do you have any concerns with the number of parking spots for your volunteers on a typical so Chef we deal with five parking spots and the daycare next door constantly takes at least two of them so we deal with three so I mean 10 is a up step up from what we have and realistically even with all the vehicles in Cru going out at some point with a large incident people are going to the scene and parking will the the chir CH fire we had a good amount of turnout to the station probably 10 15 members but another 15 members parking Kings and walk up okay so generally speaking we have a large long-term event we're not always parking at the station because people cycle in a cycle out depending on the length of the event and operational hours could you address the response time concern so the biggest win for this building is we're trying to encourage our members to stay in station currently you've all seen it is not exactly the most welcoming place unless the 70s was your hey day in which case power to you it's just not a nice place to hang out you know the bathroom is literally like 3et by 3et for the men's room the woman's room is slightly bigger but about is appetising the kitchen is the original kitchen from the 40s update and we don't mess with anything because aesus was really popular in the 40s and 50s and we just don't want to deal with any of that problem it's an old building it's unfortunately just kind of is what it is I think overall it'll be a net positive for response time you will definitely have more people willing to stay in the building because they can sleep in a bed shower in the morning and leave for work and that's really clutch because a lot of our members sleep at home because they're off duty at 6 am they get up they shower they go to work and if they catch a late call they have to run home shower cook and run now they can just shower and go and that's a huge win and I'm also trying to entice that work from home crowd because we're not super super busy so you can still work from home and take you know a couple calls yes sometimes you're going to get burnt myself included but generally speaking it evens itself out in the end so we're overall trying to net positive on the response times I'm making it a more place for people to work study sleep and volunteer Mr dico actually anything else from Mr temp pass up for U talking I I just have one closing comment I would just very much caution the council and the community about the not in my backyard type of thing because we went down this road with the temple property and like I said it was a miracle no one died because we didn't have topper facilities another pandemic will happen it's not if it's a when so just give us facilities to make our members safe I didn't sleep for a year because I was worried I was going to get a phone call when my volunteers was dead so just you know before you say not in my backyard think of the people are giving their free time to come save you and maybe protect them Mr thank you Mr Deo do you have any closing comments on you don't have to I know thank you the only thing I would like to say and very honestly the the teams that will put together the three units of your uh Emergency Services work together phenomenally to get down to Essentials what the needs were we're also taking in the 10 comments from the council tonight as Frank did and we be addressing those also and Frank and I have also talked to today and Sunday relative to information to the general public on the facility what it is and we've already discussed that so Frank's team and our public information office will been working together thank you for your time we open up for public comment second I just have one closing comment as Mr just um brought up some wording that I would like to consider uh refer to our Emergency Services I'm wondering if we could perhaps when we call this building called Emergency Services complex it's a little more inclusive of all three Services Public Safety seems to normally align more with law enforcement respectfully May of councel that your decision nobody's beating me with a stick up here so I guess that's okay um all right at this point I'm going to open up for public comments on uh questions related to the emergency services Complex public safety complex um at this time Madam clerk because we had some change over would you please read the public participation statement public wishing to speak on this matter please raise your hand if you're attending by Zoom by pressing the raise hand button under your monitor you're diing in by phone please press star9 if you're attending in person you may approach the Lector and recognize once everyone's recognized clearly St only your name and Township with residents for the record you're not required to provide your street address however if you do is no these meetings will be posted in Down's YouTube channel and addresses will not be reacted for any purpose you have four minutes to address the council there'll be no for dialogue during this public portion after everyone wish speak has been heard the council May address your comments or or questions so good thank you um we already have a hand rais on Zoom so we'll start there Mr Gardner good evening everybody um I just just wanted to uh make a comment first I want to thank Mr gner you just say your name for the record please and found what you live absolutely uh Anthony Gardner I've been a resident in Verona for the last 12 years um I wanted to just start by thanking uh you mayor um Tim Boro as well as uh the members of the council um councilwoman Holland councilman Roman who I think raised a lot of the questions and concerns that I know I have and that you know several members of of my neighborhood uh have as well about the project um I definitely think there's there's value to it um it makes a lot of sense I think especially um in our world today to to find ways and strategies for shared services um so I you know just in terms of somebody whose property is is immediately adjacent to this uh complex you could actually the my pool is actually in one of one of the renderings of the building so I just wanted to Echo some of the questions that were raised earlier and say that um you know just very interested in as the as the design concept uh moves forward and the process the planning process moves forward is just to stress the importance of that Community involvement in the project um you know just some some thoughts about you know the questions that were raised around you know how will noise be mitigated um the the setback the side setbacks from our our property lines storm water runoff I know is a is a major issue as well to to look at so just wanted to re reiterate that thank the council members who clearly are you know listening um and you know to some of these concerns that have been raised so far by the people whose um properties are immediately adjacent but um I I think uh several neighbors of mine that I know you know and I you know we look forward to being a part of that process as it as the design process moves forward um and just want to thank you for that and uh I definitely want to reiterate that personally I see a lot of value to what's being proposed here um so we're just I'm just thankful for the opportunity to provide uh input as the project moves forward thank you Mr Gardner up next we have a blast from the past Steve Neil Mr Neil hello good evening can you hear me yes hi everyone um good to talk to you again I just wanted to pop in um I have a lot of notes that I was taken but Steve can you state your name and your city of residence for the record yeah I'm sorry uh Steve Neil Verona one of the few times where no intruction is really necessary gota make everybody follow the rules go ahead Steve here nope I'm sorry I should have known that one um so I do I just want to bring up a couple things after listening I do want to say um thank you to Mr mcino that was a fantastic presentation it's a beautiful building and obviously thank you to all of our First Responders um I think it's definitely time they're they're deserving of a nice complex just a couple things I'd like to hear a little more followup on though is um you know I think we all kind of know the state of volunteerism um you know in New Jersey and just kind of all over so I would would like to hear some plans on you know if there's any type of um you know formalized plan for regionalization privatization of services you know especially with EMS and and even fire not so much on the police side but um I definitely think that is something that should really come into the conversation a little bit more you know looking at this complex it's gorgeous um but it is really it it appears to be kind of a county level type complex so I'd really like to see more plans for how we plan to incorporate other agencies and really utilize all that nice space rent it out maybe monetize some of that so just some initial comments but um I think thank you again and I look forward to some continued conversation on this Mr anybody in the room like to comment the Chiefs did a good job representing the folks in the audience else at this time I don't see any other hands raised so I will close public comment I for Mr gner Mr I know Mr and the entire Council were listening to concerns um I encourage you throughout the process to keep in touch with the administration and uh especially the folks in the neighborhood um as I so have of meetings but um they keep in touch with mrco and Mr Sullivan especially as new things come to mind because we want to plan as much this ahead as possible um and Mr Neil's point on the regionalization and other pieces I think the facility does provide for some opportunities for that but things like dispatch and uh and I think that's one of those uh pieces the the one element though I think I don't think we gave that to the services as a mandate to come up with facilities for expanding or regionalizing facilities and based on what was in there even though it's a you know long-term building I think you're um the as the Chiefs pointed out they were asking for what they felt they needed on that uh that plane so I think that's something that we have some great spaces in there and dispatch and in the training piece um and think we can PRS together to use those pretty pretty wisely but we'll leave it to the Chiefs to come up with some plans on that uh as well internally okay um this point we are going to have a well I'll hear a motion to have a a brief executive session to discuss items that would disadvantage the township should we address them in public as could affect contract negotiations fitting fees Etc Mr is that a correct statements that is correct you can also if if the council would L you can also B this if you have an executive session and as well to delay this to Mr not come out session for any decisions I believe you know so literally we'll have no official business after that run through your agenda real fast agenda short our original plan I think looking at the agenda it's not not at this point we don't really have any bu item so if our presenters are okay with that you do don't have anywhere to go no okay Mr have any wild plans continue all right we are um now onto our Council reads I'll start with the deputy mayor uh in light of time this evening I I'll make it very short uh I know I got a couple calls in the last 24 hours or so about flooded basements uh order in front yards backyard so uh although you know we can't really I just this all came to life thinking about this project uh you know when we decide on projects and we make decisions on things in town and this goes for any development uh we have to remember we have a tree ordinance we have a storm water management ordinance and Steve slopes uh we should think about them all the time and we as a town should adhere to them as much as we expect our residents and others to adhere to them so I I know a lot of people uh had a rough night last night probably a lot of these people in the audience so thank you for your time and all the help you give to the residents uh during these emergencies uh with that I just I hope everybody had a happy Hanukkah and I wish everybody happy holidays and have a Merry Christmas thanks sir joh ran well be similarly brief uh the mayor um spoke about all of the events and uh I share his opinion of just everything wonderful that's gone on uh in the township recently and I'll just uh say my thank you since it is uh you know the holiday season to our entire staff with in the township all the volunteers who serve us particular with the holidays um everybody is we still have people here on duty or standing by and ready to go in case anything happens so I genuinely appreciate all the people who are here to serve and everyone that we work with throughout the year Mr diaro M K all of our professional staff here and my fellow council members so thank you for all the hard work this year pleasure to serve with than sir councilwoman mcrath thank you you um I want to thank um Ali Dro for hosting Ali's elves um it's really a fun inclusive event I know actually many of our volunteer First Responders were there uh making cards and spreading cheer and I just want to uh thank Ally for being such a wonderful example of uh Verona's giving spirit um I really enjoyed the town Hanukkah celebration I also attended a technology presentation that the school district offered and I just want to thank them for providing that safety information to families the shade tree had a meeting where they discussed some go planning for 2024 uh the Multicultural inclusion and accessibility advisory committee meets uh this Wednesday night at 7M and I just want to wish everyone happy holidays and have a healthy and safe new year thank you thank you Council Council thank you um I just want to comment that the Verona Recreation advisory committee meeting um was held after our most recent council meeting um and that I really want to thank the volunteers of that committee that that broke into subcommittees and worked on preparing two reports I believe the council has received one of the reports um on ever field another one regarding pool fees is anticipated um and I just really want to appreciate all the effort that they put into that um I want to wish everybody happy holidays I did attend our our manora lighting and I know that we have another major holiday coming up at the end of the week so I hope everybody remains happy and healthy and as a final point I just want to note that if anybody is struggling this holiday season that we do have the winter moratorium program and that you can get utility assistance thank you that concludes my report thank you very much um this time I'm going to open for public comment on any matter that anybody would like to speak about being that it is a little late um comment is open the same to comment save and applies we haven't had any only people leave meeting so I think we're any public comment from anybody in the room see none any there no hands at home it's fine I'm going to close public comment and we are going to move on to our adoption of post ordinances we have two ordinances on the agenda this evening the first is an ordinance on second reading number 22347 Madame clerk would you please read Title 20 2347 into the record chapter 386 of the code of the township entitled privately owned salt storage thank you madam clerk would somebody please move this order so moved the motion is made by councilwoman McGrath is there a second second second by councilman Roman uh at this time I will call for any Council comments on this item no all right at this point we'll have our hearing on ordinance number 2023 D 47 same public comment statement applies but we are related to this ordinance on I'm going to close public comments any further count discussion hearing none Madam clerk would you please follow Holland yes counc mg yes C Roman yes Deputy Mayor maoy yes mayor Toro yes mayor 2023 47 P 5 and it will be published according to me thank you madam clerk the next item on the agenda is ordinance number 202348 on second reading M cler please title of this ordinance an ordinance implementing V approved increase to the Verona open space Recreation farmland and historic preservation trust fund by amending chapter 622 of the Township Code thank you do I hear a motion so Move Motion by the deputy mayor is there a second second second by Council Roman now is time for the public hearing on ordinance 202348 same public comment statement applied he no no comments on this I will close public comment my only comment uh for Council is thank you to the voters for um approving this referendum which will go a long ways to preserving open space in ver any other Council comments hearing none Madam clerk please follow councilwoman Holland yes Council MC yes Council Roman yes mayor M yes mayor yes mayor ordinance 2020 48 and will be published thank you madam Clark we're moving on to the consent agenda uh this evening there are six items on this evening's consense agenda the first is the submission of the cdbg Grant application that we had previously discussed uh we are authorizing settlement agreement on a consent regarding lane uh for some background to the public this is a piece of property Qui Lan um there was a the ownership of P was nebulous how about I it's at a fair statement Dio yes sir um and it come up when we were determining whether to improve the road uh it's currently a a um gravel driveway and um we could not in order to pave that uh and improve it we would have to make it a full-size Road and conversations with property owners the property owners have uh on that road has determined that they would like to make it a drive way um and they uh filed a a complaint to um is that the proper terms it's not exactly complaining it's just a procedural P basically what happened was the ownership of cook L was was unknown so it wasn't that we were giving it or anyone owned it so it's an action to quiet the title and the township didn't object to the current property owners actually split the property in accordance with the documents see the packet to that Qui the tit you know the title to that property will be there will be maintained as a private road so basically the gravel driveway as you described it will stay in gravel and go to those two houses who will now own the grael drive thanks uh the next item is authorizing a contract with I'm sorry Mr it's 10 o'clock you go to give me a little slack um authorizing contract with DNS media the fourth item is refunding escrow uh fifth item is a tax lean Redemption and finally a resolution to go executive session may I don't know if you mentioned there one set of minutes uh there's one set of minutes I'm sorry thank you councilman on the other page the November 13 2023 minutes uh would somebody like to move the consent agenda so Move Motion is made by councilman ROM the second is by councilwoman grath this time I will open for public comment on the consent agenda only the same public comments saing live seeing no public comments I will close public comments is there any Council discussion on any items seeing none mam Clark counc Holland yes Council MRA yes councilman Roman yes mayor makoy yes mayor tamboro yes mayor resolution 81 through T6 will be numbered 209 through 214 thank you we do have an addendum on this meeting the first is uh a resolution budget transfers this is a normal part of the process the end of the year um because we the council approves a budget at the beginning uh more in the middle of the year if there's any expenses to go outside of that the Administration has opposed moving money from one budget line to another um the second is the resolution approving the 2022 FMA assistance firefighters Grant because we do pay a we accept the grant but we do pay a pay related to that and the third is approving 2024 Township Towing contractors somebody like to move the agenda I think we can do all the resolutions at once you're moving at one two and three yes is there a second second second by councilwoman Collin uh this time I'll open for public comments on the addendum only the same public comment statement applies see how many times I can say that in one night seeing no public comment I will close public comment at this point is there any Council discussion I just have one item uh jco Towing is listed as one of the approved Towing contractors um I believe this was the contractor became before us for a public hearing um last year and I would just like to hear he it possible if they have corrected the deficiencies that created necessitated their not being a contractor um previously they went into a voluntary period of suspension as a as a own contractor uh now that it would be over that's correct they met all the criteria set forth by Mr L and Mr dioro and they've been back on the rotation any questions regarding that NOP thank you very much any other Council comments on the agenda hearing on Madam clerk Council Holland yes Council MRA yes counc Roman yes mayor maoy yes mayor Toro yes mayor M1 and M2 will be number 2023 25 and 26 as far as our new and unfinished business our first item N1 is an to our rent control board M Maria Baron they like to move this appointment motion is made by the deputy mayor is there second by councilman Roman any discussion on this appointment Madam Clark P Holland yes Council MC Grant yes councilman Roman yesy mayor mood yes mayor tamboro yes mayor uh thank you to Mrs Fon for agreeing to serve on our rent control board uh our next item is a discussion is an ordinance on lead peace fees di something we might be able to do in January yes okay all right is there any other January Mo January no for discussion I know that the the gallery would love to hear more about that paint fees but um we'll save them that for the time being any other new or unfinished business to come before the council heing none I will open one last time for public comment on any item that anybody would like to discuss see none I'm going to close public comment uh we have already made our motion to move into executive session I would just like to thank the members of the public for preparing with us for a comprehensive but very informative presentation and the members of our um all of our departments especially our volunteers for being here part the meeting tonight just know that you all get to leave and that we'll be here for quite a while have a good night we'll be taking no official action he