happy thank you Mr V good evening everyone good evening West Orange Welcome to our June 25th uh council meeting uh we're going to get started right away we have a bunch of good things on the agenda so Madam clerk this is to inform the general public that this meeting is being held in compliance with Section Five of the open public meetings act chapter 231 Public Law 1975 the annual notice was emailed to The Star Ledger and filed in the township clerk's office on November 21st 2023 and published in the West Orange Chronicle on November 30th 2023 councilwoman castelino present councilwoman gber Michel present councilwoman Scarpa present councilwoman Williams president council president Rutherford here mayor McCartney so tonight we have uh the privilege the honor of swearing in uh one two three four five six seven eight eight eight new firefighters um I U Madame mayor I know you're here um Chief Veo please do the honors thank you council president I don't know if this is uh planned in the agenda but since we're here I'd like to have everyone stand for the Pledge of Allegiance if we could I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to The Republic stand nation under God indivisible with liy Justice for All if we can remain standing for a moment like to take a moment of silence for all those in public safety and the military who have made the ultimate sacrifice and service to others please keep also in your prayers our own Captain Daniel Shelly who is currently deployed in the Middle East serving with the Army National Guard okay thank you please be seated welcome everyone and thanks for coming out tonight for our swearing in thank you to Mayor McCartney council members and everyone else who is here with us to greet our new firefighters I'd like to introduce you guys don't have to get up just yet but introduce our firefighters Frank meski Neftali Rivera Shai B Christopher Parsons Raymond Larsson venzo atista Shane kissner and Pat no one has an air horn do they and Patrick Bolan congratulations to all of you on this completion of your basic fire training uh at the Union County fire academy it doesn't stop here I encourage you to continue training and learning throughout your careers firefighting is a job that demands proficiency or the consequences are severe I have faith you all will be great additions to our ranks and wish you nothing but safe and rewarding careers I can ask mayor McCartney come up Will and gentlemen if you can come up as well we're going to do them all together save some time so welcome all thank you so much for being here we're here to honor and thank them for their commitment to protect and safe stes perform perform all ofice yeah put in the folder right so we're going to ask each of the probationary firefighters to come up one at a time and I know they asked people to help uh pin their badges on so we're going to start with Frank meski face the audience pictures the council usually gracious enough to let us take some pictures afterwards so um I hope uh next neali Rivera oh cute next up is shy berer Christopher Parsons 21 years old I'm not gonna forget that Raymond Larson I fig that was the air hor is that your son retired Deputy Chief from Orange Mark Larson f p w venzo atista Shane kissner he and Patrick ban wow okay that concludes our ceremony thank you to the council for sharing your Chambers with us and and I was gonna thanks Mom and anyone who wants to come up I Mr Fagan Mr Fagan's gonna take one General picture and then if anybody wants to come up and take a picture we'll do that right after okay council president is that okay it's an honor Chief uh to do the swearing in so no thanks needed congratulations guys congratulations congratulations conrat give him a seat congratulations keep going around congratulations congratul you guys yeah right exactly least she before I leave I also just wanted to recognize because he's here with us tonight one moment I say just one moment Chief Frank kapron is with us today and I wanted to recognize Chief kapron wherever he is have stand up well you go there thanks J has everyone does anyone else want to take any pictures with the guys yes no they're very handsome so no even if you don't know them and you want to take pictures with them come on up right okay thanks again thank you Chief thank you jemy stay safe what yeah haveck you want put this one on you want jacket watch this no I'm good like I you I love my towel in the car I'd be happy hi Anthony how you doing is this the retired Chief here how you doing sir really get it really I might have yeah yes I'm G do one 201 I'll add my comments here think I like your hair back extremely nice especially with live okay I'm not doing it till September or I'll turn God knows what colors tired still our meeting yeah appreciate you Chief the people you're leaving if you're staying grab to sleep just start our meeting no I'm going St in a minute we resuming our meeting we gotta let uh retired Chief we gotta let him have his picture yeah it's funny to me can't hear me got you councilwoman please good evening my name is C woman and Tammy Williams and I have the pleasure of presenting our proclamation to celebrate juneth whereas on January 1 1863 President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation setting in motion the end of slavery in the United States and whereas the Civil War ended with the surrender of General Lee at aomax courthouse on April 9th 1865 and whereas the news reached Texas when Union general Gordon grer arrived in galvaston Bay with Union troops it was on June 19th 1865 that he announced the people of Texas are informed that in accordance with the proclamation from the executive of the United States all slaves are free and whereas celebration of the end of slavery which became known as juneth is the oldest known public celebration of the end of slavery in the United States and whereas juneth commemorates African-American freedom and celebrates the success gain through education and greater opportunity and whereas on a larger scale juneth reminds each of us of the precious Promises of Freedom equality and opportunity which are at the core of the American dream and whereas this year we honor juneth through the art of film we are reminded of the power of Storytelling films have the unique ability to connect us to open our hearts and minds and to inspire change they offer a platform to share diverse voices to explore complex histories and to Envision a future where equality and justice are not just ideals but realities now therefore be it resolved that mayor Susan McCartney and the West Orange Township council do hereby Proclaim June 19th 2024 as a day to celebrate juneth and urge all citizens to join in the celebration and that we did over three days weekend with a Film Festival held at various venues throughout West Orange and I just want to say thank you to all of the volunteers participants um organizations committees that really came together and really um just embraced the juneth spirit and we had a very very successful three-day uh celebration where we showcased 12 different films during that weekend this past weekend so thank you to everyone oh yeah so thank you to everyone um it was great it was great and I'm still recovering thank you thank you councilman um next we have um a presentation from the public information center for 12 traffic signals and roadway improvements good evening e so are there slides for the yeah the presentation material that you know that the public also can see and uh we will leave over here and we will also go through the points that what we going to do to each location but we can have uh Anthony we can have only few of them yeah yeah you don't would it be better if we were to sit in front so we could see yes thank you yes yeah because it's part of thank you good evening honorable mayor madii and the respected council members and the public in general and uh I would like to thank all of you for giving us this time to go to the present a of this project this is part of the one of the project that the SX county gain funding in 2020 so you have for getting federal funds you have to submit the application it's a long process and we went through and we had colus engineering who help us in submitting the application getting the funding from the njtpa and also the NJ doot local Aid a lot of agencies are involved but majority of this going to be part of the seex county townships so two locations they are part of this 12 traffic signals so SX County receive around 22 plus million dollar in 2020 and this this 12 traffic signal was one of the project alog together we have four project number one was Valley Street in South Orange and Maplewood number second project is Springfield Avenue traffic signal and roadway projects that's basically in Arington and one location in city of Nea and the nine traffic sign the third project compris of nine traffic signal within the township of Bloomfield and the troll traffic signal which is we're going to talk about and we have designers on board so this is basically countywide so one location is in Verona two location are in nutly bless you and two location in West Orange and three location in mon so we said we we need to do a public information center meeting and it has to be local so we pick West Orange because we have good relations with West Orange and you know we have you know our council member she is right here and she is also the you knowas so chief of staff and we appreciate for that your time so Anthony and Adam Alam they're going to do the presentation and whatever questions you have we going to listen and we try to give answers if we cannot give you answer now but we will put it down and we will have the communication and after this meeting there's a two three week uh time will be given to the public to collect all the questions and their interest so without doing any bully I'm going to ask Adam to go over the project by you know going sure good evening everybody appreciate your time so yeah like OA said uh this is a federally funded project for the county um that essentially is intersection improvements at 12 different locations throughout the county um the funds that we are using are local safety funds so the improvements that we are putting in place are designed to improve safety at each of those locations now many of the locations are also old so you're going to get state-of-the-art new equipment and and obviously we're also taking a look at operations to try and you know uh enhance Mobility through the corridor but typically and we can go through each of these together but um our typical scope on each project is really curb ramps traffic signals uh pedestrian signals uh new high visibility crosswalks uh the um and and really state-of-the-art traffic signal system that goes back to Essex County's offices and be can be controlled by them so anthy I don't know if we want to go through one by one and just quickly show everybody the different um I think the camera is zoomed in here so if we just so this is an overall map of the 12 locations as a went through the different uh different municipalities uh hopefully some of you are represented here tonight but we'll go through one by one and kind of just introduce the intersection um all right so this is uh Washington Street and Wong Avenue in West Orange so this is in West Orange uh you could see high visibility crosswalks throughout new curb ramps uh new traffic signal um we also are proposing curve bump outs in some locations which is a safety feature that helps pedestrians get um better line of sight for vehicles um so this you'll see all these are are very much designed designed for both vehicular traffic but also pedestrians bicycles and and and the like so we'll just I'll just rapid fire go through these and if anybody has any questions feel free to jump in if anybody has any insight that they'd like to share uh we'll leave these here as well so this is also West or this is orange so this is Washington Street and High Street uh three-way T intersection um Coming Northbound we're going to have two dedicated Lanes here again new signals new curb ramps okay so Anthony was saying that uh we're adding a lead left turn movement so some of the phasing of the signal may be different to accommodate uh traffic so this this left turn is heavy and we'll get a a lead movement to try and clear some of that traffic out this is Pleasant Valley Way and Woodland Avenue uh here in West Orange again similar three section three leg intersection T intersection here um again Pleasant Valley Way obviously has multi Lanes so we're we're kind of keeping that uh that configuration there but we're enhancing pedestrian features all of these traffic signals will also have reflectorized back plates which is another safety feature that's sort of newer and something that the uh the federal uh us do is really promoting this is wung Avenue and Ridgewood in the burough of Glen Ridge um s four-way intersection you can kind of see we're gonna we're going to have a dedicated left turn lane here a dedicated left turn lane on the Northbound approach um curb ramps enhanced sidewalks um ADA compliance improvements that sort of thing what's that okay this is Wong and Grove which is also which is in Montclair these two intersections the one before this and this one are actually coordinated together so they work kind of in harmony to make sure that you know movements from this intersection pass through in the in the in the previous one um again just looking at some of the features here high visibility crosswalks curb ramps uh signal improvements so we got Valley and Mount Hebron uh in Monclair four-way intersection um you can see we're making enhancements to a driveway nearby uh by installing crosswalks and a crosswalking curb ramps um similar you know you know crosswalks ramps new signal equipment throughout yeah what's that signal so new meaning so yeah so the question was what do we mean by new signal equipment so these intersections all these intersections are currently signalized right yeah so this intersection currently has a traffic signal at it the traffic signal is old outdated does not meet current guidelines we're coming in and putting a brand new fresh traffic signal in with basically new equipment um with higher visibility heads and that sort of thing for safety so uh right to the Northwest over here there's an elementary school so we're going to be looking into providing phasing either um exclusive pet phase or all pedestrian phasing for certain times for Crossing in that area since there is going to be elementary school children around there is there anything be done to slow down traffic so the question was is anything being done to slow down the traffic so um in general traffic signals control traffic um we are in this case I don't think there's anything specifically that we're doing that doing anything to reduce speed um these areas are pretty pretty tight um there's limited things that you can do as I mentioned before the curb bump outs sometimes are are a traffic calming mechanism but at this point we don't we don't have that okay 10 different accidents that are critical where people got I'd like to hear about like so what are you seeing from from like just speed related or major accidents cars flipping over cars hitting the uh the lamp post cars smashing into the traffic signal yeah I I have evidence I can show with you right now so with all the respect we certainly do want to hear what's going on in as well but that's not the purpose for this particular presentation um let's just get through what the improvements are going be um and then let's share some contact information for follow absolutely and we as part of our process to get the the grant money and to do these improvements we are analyzing traffic crash records and and trying to find patterns so again the point of this meeting you know we we would love to hear your feedback I'm going to leave my card here if you have anything you know that any Trends or anything that you're see love to hear it all right okay so this is Valley Road and normal Avenue in Montclair uh Monclair state is up here um you can see it's kind of an odd intersection uh we are reducing Lanes here which should help a little bit with some of the the speeds this is a wide section so um but again Cur curb ramps crosswalks um the curved Island improvements here um and again just general traffic signal technology improvements yes yes so you know ASF is you know there's there's pedestrian and safety features in all of these traffic signals they all will have pedestrian countdown timers which a lot of them don't have right now um they'll be they'll some of them as as anony was uh discussing before in areas where there's a lot of pedestrian traffic we're putting in different traffic signal phasing so either exclusive phase or what they call a lead pedestrian phase which is which is basically a lead phase for pedestrians to get out into the crosswalk uh sooner did you have a question I'm sorry oh okay um so this one is fair viiew and pet in Verona four-way intersection here um you know similar improvements anything on your ending uh uh based on volumes we're going to be adding uh lead phasing for the eastbound direct or the Northbound Direction the southbound Direction in this way for um vehicles to be able to get out and make a safer moves question all right this is Ruckers in Portland in Belleville uh you can see that it's uh near a railroad track so we're we're enhancing the pavement markings in that area to uh to to make sure we outline that Crossing uh this one does have Curb bump outs to try and assist with uh with getting Peds out into the crosswalk um similar features anything on this one that jumps out pretty simple standard four four- leg inter section this one is West paic and Kingsland um this is in Nutley again this is a an interesting one uh pretty non-standard roadway geometry here bunch of Curves things like that so um we've worked on enhancing the islands The Pedestrian routes with the Curve ramps um and then again just signals from a visibility perspective we feel are are in a different are in a better place to to kind of control and and uh for for driver visibility this is Franklin and church uh this is also a Nutley uh you can see there's uh parking along these roads so you know we're we're looking to uh put a curb bump out here which is a which will help with that to get pedestrians out near the park near the near the parking the high schools down here um and then what's that we're gonna probably do an all pedestrian phase here so they have their own uh phase that they're walking in this is a new one yes yep and then finally Milburn and Vox Hall in Milburn uh again one of one of the more interesting signals uh in the county uh some odd geometry here we think we've enhanced um some of the channelization of lanes uh our signalization we think is in a little bit of a better position than what's out there now and uh again curb ramp sidewalk pedestrian improvements throughout that's everything um anybody have any sure okay let's uh let's do this one so it's Washington and there's the bump outs on all four sides or only two sides so this corner is being um this corner is getting bumped out this one over here and this one as well this one we were able to align everything well enough to keep all the crosswalks and everything in um good enough alignment here um one thing I also wanted to note about this because of GE we are going to be operating this with a split phase operation so the one approach of Wang a will go and then the opposite approach of watchong a will go one at a time it'll be a safer operation okay so like this yes and which way is orange orange is this way this way towards right right of page traffic light there as well they're gonna put okay so it doesn't have a traffic light now but it will this one does justr live stream in wa in Washington oh that's orang Pleasant fail I don't know light okay can you just re explain that a little bit slowly sure so what I described this intersection we're going to be having General traffic signal improvements brand new equipment black powder coated equipment with reflectorized back plates on there new high visibility crosswalks improved um Ada accessible curb ramps um this intersection it currently will be retaining in all pedestrian phase for the area so at certain points also will be on recall where no one will have to push the button um I believe it's during religious observance um so we will have The Pedestrian phase going all the time and that would activate for every single crosswalk all the vehicles will stop and all the pedestrians be able to go one additional thing we forgot to mention at this intersection because the fire station is right over here we are adding a signal which is going to operate with the traffic signal here to allow the um the fire vehicle to be able to exit and return um safely and you know with unmediated movement um so that's that doesn't currently exist today so we saw because of the proxim would be a good feature to add first of all thank you for being here tonight um question I have two questions particularly with the West Orange intersection improvements uh one are you also doing a lighting analysis you know for nighttime driving and everything else to see if the lighting is proper so the drivers and pedestrians can be properly seen and it can properly negotiate the roadway that's one question secondly on Pleasant Valley Way will the timing be allocated for prot we have our seniors that live on that in that intersection and down on Washington it's a heavy school where Washington School all those kids uh walk so those are two interesting you know questions that I have concerning the um the intersection improvements so I'll touch on The Pedestrian one first so the manual which we use to um generate the timings for all traffic SS in the state in America um they use a standard of three and a half foot per second um measurement to in order to time the flashing time the county uses 3 seconds which is more conservative will provide more time for that um so we and that's used to as like you said for senior citizens children like and the county use that across the entire County so uh the timing at the signals is going to be conservative for pedestrians Crossing um I don't know if you want to talk to the lighting nighttime lighting that's a uh we have the lers so behind the traffic signal we going to have the lers so that going to protect the light vision so it's gonna Vision to the upcoming traffic they will be able to see the light the all the three sections red yellow green so you know before we didn't we you might have noticed we didn't have used to have lers and what was happening is they were looking at the traffic signal but the signal itself was going away from the from the you know location so to protect that it's going to be you know if you have travel in Monclair on Bloomfield Avenue we just did about last year or so 12 traffic signal all new and they really look so nice if especially if you are traveling in the nighttime you can really see all the traffic signal they turn we have synchronization there so it turns green green Green you can actually see yourself and and you will have a long progression of green so that the traffic can go through the intersection without stopping on several locations and that's one of the you know feature we gonna have thank you uh and my concern is too is that is the lighting at night the street lighting at night are are you taking in consideration the candle lights and candle width of the street lighting you know when you're redoing these you know Corrections and improvements in the intersections because that's been very important it's been a big call out that sometimes the roadways are very dark and you know the drivers and pedestrians the the visibility is terrible so that's just another question I'm saying adding on to the visibility is that being taken into consideration any lighting improvements Street lighting improvements to the area than thank you sir you're welcome no we will not be you know uh doing the street lighting Street lighting is a function of pscg and but we will contact with them that to see if the traffic signal that we are designing does it have the enough lighting and if not we reach out to the pacg and we always work with them so in in all these cases if there is a really dark we're going to reach out to them but the just so you know pscg is also on board with these plans the traffic when we design start designing we reach out to them also we do the nighttime also and the daytime also and you know Adam and Anthony they have also also for the two traffic signals that's uh signalized right now so we put we're going to put the traffic signal how do we do that we do the warrant analysis we we we get the police accident reports from the police department we analyze for at least three years three years is preferred and then we see what what what is the trend what's happening there is that the left on traffic signals or is that the coming right angle traffic signal accident or stuff like that go ahead sir we are now at 7:26 um we are going to have to have a hard stop at 7:30 if you can get more than y thank you sounds good thank you gentlemen I want to sort of add on to what Bill Green was or what Jerry was saying um I believe the guys with the data and what I want to know from you is how do you measure safety and what can you tell our residents about the safety profile going down after these improvements are made so as a factor of obtaining the funding from the feds we have to run highway safety analysis which is collecting crash reports from each of these intersections and then they have what they call proven safety counter measures that go into place and we do an analysis basically a cost benefit analysis of what types of improvements are going to get the most um what types of of features are G to get the most Improvement so to answer your question things like high visibility crosswalks reflectorized back plates they all have a crash reduction factor in them um as it results the intersection safety so that's what do you mean the how okay to know what your estimate I can get you that data yeah very very quick um ASF I'm the I'm Laura Torio I'm the one who emailed you um I just want to know um can we get a copy of these plans so that we can think think about it and sit down with our organizations um and digest what you've told us tonight and as a second part of that question how much time do we have to make comments to you you're welcome Miss so the time the question answer or you're going to have you know you're going to send us the questions we going to answer we have three weeks two to three weeks usually is the time we collect all the information and uh as this gentleman behind you and the other one they can send us the you know questions and we will make sure we respond to them accordingly it right now it's like a we are constrained with the time so you know but but but we are here we are not going anywhere we are here thex County and Township we always work together so if we cannot answer you right now but we will reach out to you email as you know and about the plans we are in the process of Designing it's not done yet it's not the complete but this is the part of this is the part of the uh njtpa that's a requirement to do the public information center meeting so in involve everyone and and because there's a 12 traffic signal and each Township the town we reach out to every Township that's involved in this project so you know we're going to continue to work with you but go ahead so this not expl I did not know that this would for all 12 of the signals that are being so we're going to extend time a little bit more for question and answer thank you but what we do need to do is have the microphone brought to each individual so that they can speak into the mic and then BR thank you can we please okay go ahead um a few months ago in this same room I heard an interesting presentation by the vision zero project and they identified the most dangerous intersections in West Orange uh one of which was Eagle Rock and Laurel and I wondered whether you could coordinated with them did you get input from them uh how did you pick the intersections to focus on sure so uh that specific organization we haven't coordinated with at all yet this is like ASA said this is the first step in US engaging the public and the community uh groups but I could tell you that njtpa has what they call screening lists which do exactly that I wouldn't be shocked if that group got their information from them um and they give they provide the county every year a list of intersections which are problems um ASF mentioned before this is 2020 fiscal year money we there's a ongoing program from the county to continue to improve intersections throughout the county um I don't know if that one's specifically on your list yet but okay thank you that is on the list Eagle Rock Avenue Laurel Aven that's on the list to improve the traffic signal but right now we have the traffic signal there but we're going to go back and see what the timings are there is anything can be rectified at this time we're going to do you know and within a week or so we we will check with the signal timing and if any uh signal heads are missing or need to be repaired we're going to do it that's a maintenance we'll take care of it go ahead Miss thank you thank you for the presentation so I have just some observations to make um you're talking about traffic signals and it seems like most of the improvements are just traffic signals it's not necessarily traffic coming or improving in other ways focus seems to be on traffic signals but like looking at some of these intersections where there's High pedestrian activity have you considered daylighting as one of the options of improving traffic and safety for the pedestrians so instead of just like having those bump outs they have in New York City especially in hobok and in Jersey City you're seeing a lot of these intersections where it actually they'll block it off it's a bump out and it's blocked off uh and they have Planters over there so the parking spots are taken away and people can actually see and also your crosswalks become shorter for the pedestrians yeah so I mean first and foremost this is not a traffic signal project a safety Pro intersection Safety project that's what the the funds are for that's what they got to prove for so signals are a big when I talked before about Crash reduction factors improving your signal equipment and the operation of the signal is a big safety Improvement you know when you're dealing with old signals some sometimes there's not good visibility just improving all that is important from a daylighting perspective that's definitely a tool in the toolbx I would say you have to be careful comparing you know Pleasant Valley way to somewhere in Manhattan it's different like the speeds are different from a this the speeds are different and when we put planners in the roadway then you're causing you're providing you're you're now putting an obstruction in the counties right away which is a you know somewhat it's it's an issue it's something that we have to kind of balance so under 25 miles an hour so so that so we're we we would yes but I mean some of these intersections I don't think it's the right the right tool in the toolbox I think a curve bump out done correctly does a lot of the same you can delineate that you can put flexible ballards up around the curve bump out to me the curb bump lot is actually better because it provides a a level of actual um delineation and safety with the curb there so I putting planners in the roadway I I understand that that's done in certain areas but it's low speed places and I don't know that the county is willing to kind of balance the like the the obstruction part of it is something that you have to consider and when the speeds go above a certain point you have to be careful of that so it's a balance that's right what what Adam is saying also during the winter storm when the SX count you know uh the snow removal guys they go through the intersection they have a really hard time cleaning the snow and icy conditions and uh uh putting the bump out will reduce the distance between the approaches but what it what it's going to do what we are doing we are extending the timing the walk time the walk time according to mutcd it's 3.5 but we told our consultant no no no please make it three so like 60 ft from here to that door so it's going to give 20 second walk time 20 second so the more distance more they going to see the walk first they going to see the walk walk is minimum 7 to 10 seconds and then they're going to see the countdown so that will also help and all these traffic signal they going to have a new striping new traffic signal equipment he told and also they're going to have a new mil paave area but bump out in some situation they work and some of the situation where the speed is more than 25 it's going to harm thank you and thank you for giving us a little more time now I'm going to ask the questions I wanted to ask before um and I want to preface it by saying in the very beginning of your presentation when you said um we're doing we're putting in new equipment and operations to enhance Mobility in the corridor I got really nervous because in my mind that's County speak for move cars really fast through intersections but now that I've heard the presentation I I see what what is going on and I do understand that you're following the proven safety countermeasures I want to to share a couple things one I can't speak for everybody in this room but there's a lot of vision zero advocates in here who believe that um zero is the only acceptable number of serious injuries and fatalities on our roads and we really hope that Essex County agrees with us on that two um we have in Monclair um Essex County Representatives on our vision zero task force and I just want to encourage us going forward to really think strongly about opening Communications um between the county and the community so that we we feel like we're being heard um the second the third thing I forget um is in Montclair just so you're aware and I'll write this down and I'll send it to you um but the township just passed an ordinance for 20 25 miles per hour on all streets there are two County Roads that are still being studied Valley and Grove um and they passed another ordinance calling for 20 miles per hour in school zones so the one inter the two intersections on uh Valley Road by Mount Hebron and normal that's a very high-speed Corridor um and now that entire stretch is going to be signed as 20 miles per hour so we really do need to think about traffic caling not just for Monclair intersections but for all of these communities as well and I think that's all I want to say thank just just one quick question uh did you go over the timing of the project when will it start what is okay the timing of this project we have written down over here and third quarter of 2024 that is going to be like two months from now but it's under design at this time so what happens is we have this you know a a good thinking of you know how how it's going to but but we have to get approval approval from the local Aid approval from the township we need to share the plans the specs and you know all those items and get the approval from local Aid also back and forth comments we subm the plans and expects they will make several and then you have to address then we have to go back to our but meanwhile what happens is we run out of money the boss my boss he give me money a budget and he thinks that it's going to be you know done within the budget but sometime it's not in our hand but it's a federally funded so we have to uh you know look for every item and you know whatever they tell us instructions we have to follow so the time over here I I saw that but but it's it's more like you know we have to be open for that all right so I was just going to ask if um any of these intersections or um roadways um include currently um bike Lanes um or will they and what have you done to prepare for if they will right now the question is is that traffic signals on the roadway is part going to be a bike Lanes creation but right now we don't have any you know accommodation for b cs I mean to be honest so we got three here one young lady there we're still have at some point people so I saw three hands up those hands up one two three and this young lady here and then I'm thank you for the thank you for the young lady I appreciate and thank you for the presentation and the extra time um so I have a a couple of of questions um first of all uh it would be helpful for us to understand the process that was the decision making process for deciding on these intersections and I say this because some of us that are here um have gotten involved in our local Vision zero task forces so this is a new kind of era for um for those of us in town getting involved in infrastructure projects so we don't always know the engineering terms like all pedestrian leades and things like that so first of all it'd be great if you remember that we are not Engineers um when you're giving the presentations it will help us to understand the decision-making process for those I understand that these intersections were decided previously for the 2020 for the 2020 funding but coming forward we have both in West Orange and in Montclair and I'm sure there will be in other places Vision zero task forces and I know know that there is a um a vision zero uh Grant from ss4a for S6 County we're aware of that and it hasn't really kicked in yet but it would be very helpful to understand how the process for us to be involved so we don't just have one meeting because it's very difficult obviously to do this but we have on the ground experience we want to share that with you in the decision-making process and we need a procedure to do that between the county and the municipality so I know you may not have an answer to that but I'm putting that out there that we need that and just one other quick comment which is the daylighting um that was brought up was has been identified as the one of the key proven countermeasures in Hoboken not New York city that has created seven years of zero fatality so we should not dismiss it so easily it has proven to be one of the most effective things for that city which is more densely populated than any of the towns right now in S6 County that we're talking about these intersections thank you well I'll just I'll touch on the county the county has a on an ongoing list of intersections that they're looking to get funding for each year I would think I don't want to speak for ASF but get in touch with him and I would think if there's if there's the the ss4a grant action plan will help with some of that but to to that point I would say you probably want to hear from that yes yes thank you Adam so for Regan zero we have ASX County two of the engineers one is the planner David Antonio one is the engineer Rick valderama so they are on this team and they have been on the team with the Monclair and they are also with the team with West or so you know please send us your you know questions and your recommendations suggestions and we will address a you know I'm not saying it's bad but you know we have to see where we are because sometime it's the funding calls for you know certain things that we we cannot do and we will see what we are you able to do it we have the designers also that's a reason they usually come and do the presentation so the public can benefit more how many we have okay first of all I was watching the earlier part of presentation on live stream and just felt I needed to come down thank you very much for what you're doing on behalf of the County I realize there's limited budgets in every budget organization and what you're doing to spread the the uh the efforts is appreciated but you also had mentioned if there's other places that should be dealt with I'm going to give you two to consider one is the inter the both County Roads one is the intersection of Mount Pleasant Avenue and Prospect which is now a GD school there are illegal moves being made at the intersection at all time it is dangerous the number of accidents are increasing if you can build that in that's one the second is the intersection of Eagle Rock Avenue and Prospect as you probably know West Orange passed through his planning board an approval for the West Orange plausibly redeveloped the number of accidents at that intersection is huge and has been for years I urge you to take a look to see what you can do to help keep that down lastly one last thing you threw out a lot of detail information tonight and I appreciate it and so to everybody who's here and who is watching live stream if there is a way for you to put that out electronically for the presentation so people can look back at it and digest it that would be appreciated thank you thank you sir so the one location intersection of let me come here so the intersection of of uh uh Prospect and Mount Pleasant Avenue that traffic signal is belong to the ngj doot New Jersey Department of Transportation only one approach is within the SX County so but we will reach out to the we in the past we did I mean it's a split phasing every approach has its own green phas so it does delay during the peak hours but we will reach out to uh the NJ doot for that particular and Eagle Rock Avenue Prospect Avenue you may remember about like I would say not even 10 uh so we did the traffic signal Improvement at this location and Eagle Rock Avenue and which one is that wood Hull and Eagle Rock Avenue and the driveway to the Kmart that used to be there so those traffic signal we did I was the manager so I remember and and and and this traffic signal that you talking about I'm going to get the police accident reports from the police department uh be honest I have not receive any phone calls from the police department but I will reach out to them we will do the we will do the you know U crash analysis and we will see you know what's Happ all right sir thank hi how you doing I'm going to keep this brief um you know I'm new to this being a at a council meeting sorry I'm coming as a West Orange resident I'm just going to keep it brief um I live on the street adjacent to High Street Watson hav um obviously that wasn't mentioned it is a T intersection as well uh it's also adjacent to Elementary School High Street has a lot of speed bumps along it and what tends to happen on mine and my neighbor here street is uh you know cars tend to just skip past High Street they speed up Watson a and a lot of accidents have happened um the frequency of accidents has increased lately you know I was involved with one a couple months ago I'm not sure if maybe the project zero people could help me I'm not sure if maybe bill could help me I'm not sure if you guys could help me but I really just wanted to come and uh share that with you guys you know I also on Watson AB there's a little apartment complex a lot of kids live up there and there's just a lot of children activity on the street not to mention it's very narrow uh so I just wanted to put that out there uh see if anybody here could help me I'm going to continue to reach out and I appreciate uh giving me the time to speak okay hold on let me so street is here right it's Street West that's thank you thank you do me a favor I'm going to give you my business card we have the email sharing could you please put that your you know I'm going to reach out to you we're going to work with you but this is not part of this traffic signal so let's you know let's we have hi thank you can people here is that all right ish can you hear sir all right my name is Dave folen flick I okay my name's Dave folen flick I'm visiting from Montclair I appreciate uh folks here West Orange holding this I very much appreciate you're extending for a few minutes that's a generous important act given how many things they're talking about I have specific concerns but actually a broader question that you guys will probably be able to wrap up fairly directly uh uh I have a personal stake in this my mother was killed as a pedestrian uh in Montclair last last fall uh and so I've steepened myself in these issues as you might imagine since 83 years old noon beautiful day me you know walk she had the path everything see I I want to thank you for being responsive on not that crosswalk but another one in which he was able to do model what he's talking about tonight which was extend the walk uh for I believe it was 8 seconds so before uh the light turned green in any direction so that there was a much or you know people could get half two-thirds the way across before it does you know I can't prove it by numbers but it does seem to make a difference there's a church there there school there there restaurants there there's train tracks you know train station nearby it very much matters H May um uh in spending these recent months deeped in this stuff uh it has become evident that a lot of this has to do with philosophy and Outlook and that there are engineering firms and Engineers who are going by the book applying an honest trade uh being as uh competent and as decent what can imagine and still not accounting for the America that is right now that is not only the larger trucks the larger uh the the reduced range of vision the speed the fact that the more cars are funneling through these streets designed 10 20 100 years ago uh the like I would just like you guys to take a moment and talk about your philosophy in incorporating new thinking uh as we seek as I I think a a a fellow resident said here uh not simply about getting cars through safely but getting people through their lives safely in such a way that thinks more comprehensively about how we address these issues as opposed to simply saying uh we need of course for pedestrians to get through but we need for cars to get through otherwise the in the townships don't function thank you for taking my question gentlemen so yeah I'll put I'll put them up here for every yeah so first and foremost I'm really sorry for your loss um and I'm actually glad you asked that because I agree with you I think a lot of Engineers uh are by the book they're black and white they look at certain guidelines and they just do their work uh Anthony and I are traffic signal and safety Engineers through and through and and our team is really committed to providing safe passage for all users and when I mentioned the thing about mobility of of vehicles before there is a certain safety element to that that's a proven countermeasure as well if you have a poorly timed signal people get aggressive they don't so I didn't mean that as to we're creating a drag strip you know but mobility of everyone is important so I can assure you we are you know we're working on on trying to find that balance that complete Street Vision zero type balance that each do the intersections it's a little difficult sometimes at a singular intersection to implement why spread changes across Corridor like speed is tough sometimes at an intersection I I get it um so it's tough It's just the feds have given you money for one Improvement so um but to answer your question we C I certainly agree with you I think there's there's a movement within our industry to kind of think outside of the box use some new Necto type tools and things like that that that we've all learned we're very involved on the national and international level with societies where we're in with other safety Prof profal you can see he has a roadside Safety Professional certification after his name it's something that's near and dear and a pain to us and we don't we uh we're honored to be able to try to help get people around a little safer and efficiently and everything so appreciate your time Adam for the benefit of our Zoom audience I they are looking at your card and Adam and Anthony's business card and it may be a little difficult for them to read can you just recite uh your name and your email address address please yeah sure so my name is Adam Allen um and my email is adam. allenn at callers.com and I'll even give you my cell phone number 732 26786 39 thank you um let me just before you go uh contact information is we certainly do want to thank you gentlemen uh for for the presentation tonight um if you have follow-up questions that affect West Orange please include us Council West orange.org we'd like to know as well um and can we time some of this stuff to work if there are other improvements being done on the local level can we time the work so that okay so I want to thank you all very much please as you leave we are still in our meeting so we are going to continue with our regularly schedule council meeting thank you all for coming out all those pi that's spe online like got I'll G the money do and your like everyone pleas not yet all right all right you're welcome glad we can all right you're welcome want to thank you all for sticking around for our actual council meeting we are going to get started we can't hear with the a into our public meeting as soon as we close that door predeter what we this feels good to me I'm hot I'm normally with you but not today I think I think it's kind of called out you guys are imagining things I'm so glad I brought this almost went out without it all right we are going to call our public meeting to order I do want to thank you all for uh so much patience tonight we do have some very important items uh to address uh so we're going to jump right into our public meeting Madame Clerk it's okay okay this is to inform the general public that this meeting is being held in compliance with Section Five of the open public meetings act chapter 231 Public Law 1975 the annual notice was emailed to The Star Ledger and filed in the township clerk's office on November 21st 2023 and published in the West Orange Chronicle on November 30th 2023 councilwoman celino present councilwoman gber Michael present councilwoman Scarpa present councilwoman Williams council president Rutherford here mayor McCartney we already did the Pledge of Allegiance earlier this evening so we're ready to go all right so we are going to open public comment at this time uh we're going to begin we um are going to ask our public information officer Mr Fagan uh to be followed by Mr pesi from the county uh and then uh director bril from downtown Alliance and then we will open it to the rest of the the public um we're not going to call people up just uh please come to the microphone as it is available but again we're going to hear from Mr Fagan Mr pesi and Mrs bril uh before we hear from the rest of the public uh Mr Fagan the microphone is yours uh thank you council president um and I just want to start by saying I apologize to those in the zoom audience during the presentation from the county there may have been some dead air with the passing around of the microphone uh but if anybody is looking for their contact information uh please email me and I will make sure that uh you get their contact information uh this evening uh council president uh I'd just like to start with a reminder uh today and yesterday wasn't so bad but we're going to be uh experiencing some hot weather again and uh just want to make everyone aware of uh avoid uh heat related illness know the symptoms not just for you or for somebody else disneyus nause nausea heavy sweating confusion uh that's me half the time and high body temperature and this information is listed at West orange.org uh also it's worth noting we have a West St travel alert uh from Eagle Rock Avenue to Pro uh Eagle Rock and Prospect Avenue to Harrison Avenue uh work uh if everything is gone according to schedule should have already begun it's on the overnight uh so hopefully it won't affect too many people but uh be aware of it uh and there are more details at West star.org about this work being done um Mr Fagan are they allowing traffic to chitchat uh I believe what's going to happen there's going to be uh after the council meetings I will make a phone call and make sure the chitchat Diner access is uh available that's important thank you sir uh there have been some bare sightings in and around West Orange now they're probably Chicago bearss which means that they're harmless but there in all seriousness uh bear sightings could be serious uh so stay alert uh report aggressive bears and by aggressive Bears uh if you're an in attack or uh feel in danger dial 911 there is more information on our website about this uh I also uh handed out to the council members you have in front of you a report uh last time you asked uh the chief for some statistics I'm not going to go through all this um it's numbers it's pretty self-explanatory uh it's uh from year to date through May um and uh I've averaged out the amount of parking summonses motor vehicle stops directed patrols and arrests on there uh Chief is there anything you want to add to this no I think you did a good job what is the directed Patrol so that is a specific uh's known as hotspot policing if there's a specific location that we want to commit resources to as often as possible um most most of it's quality life issues so if you're having you know problem with uh vagrance beging for money or you have kids in the Park after hours you have uh parking lot with cars are being broken into those types of things so you you assigning your resources to the times and places they're most likely to make an a rtion or Sol a quality of life issue thank you uh tomorrow uh there was a gentleman in here earlier who asked about the um public hearing for garbage tomorrow the starting time I thought it was 6:30 but this does confirm it in council chambers tomorrow there will be a public hearing uh for uh the garbage Westar solid waste and recycling collection um there will be no public comment from Zoom the meeting will be covered on Zoom but a public comment will only be permitted uh in council chambers here and the zoom link is at West star.org and as if tonight and tomorrow ain't enough then we have Thursday night also in council chambers uh the continuation of the township Council budget workshop and that will also uh be starting at uh 6:30 and the same rules apply well actually different rules there's no public comment from Zoom or in in audience here uh one second sorry for the interruption I didn't want to lose the zoom feed uh mayor McCartney has open off hours uh coming up now we're still in June July is a whole month away but I want to bring this up if you want to mark your cers no appointment is ever ever necessary come in uh express your concerns your suggestions comments the mayor is uh available in uh in her office uh I'm going to skip through these next couple of slides uh because um executive director burill is going to talk about this um uh become a West Orange firefighter we had uh swearing in um um earlier and uh but there are you can apply for online for entry-level exam at west.org Westar wfd this information is online uh all the information you need there registration opens July 1st 2024 speaking of the fire department um excuse me I highly recommend it it's a cool job it's a it's it's it's a cool job yes yes it is uh it could be hot at times but overall very cool um the uh just a reminder that there has been an increase in uh offenses for parking in a fire lanane uh fire lanes are clearly marked avoid uh the violations uh and these increased fines begin July 1st uh so that doesn't mean that you should go park in a fire lane just to get a discount you don't want to park in a fire lane at any time um we also have uh our July 4th Independence Day celebration coming up it's going to be at the 10 roone Circle the West Orange Public Library uh there's going to be food trucks kids zone three great Bands A DJ a lot of fun free admission always free admission and bring your own chairs you're going to need your chairs so uh don't forget to bring uh bring your chairs to the event uh we have two events coming up at OAC July 12th Sister Act July 25 The Adams Family uh this information is on our website and um just as a reminder um you matter text call chat National Suicide and crisis Lifeline uh the number is 988 now I had this uh this is currently displayed on the eign also had this on the eign and uh 9988 is is also the Veterans Crisis Hotline so anybody um uh and it's not just for you as an individual it's if you know of anybody who might be in crisis uh you can call 988 and get um get some good advice uh on how to deal with uh with the issue um uh you can contact all council members via email Council west.org and uh council president unless you want me to continue I believe that concludes my just had one question and I think Mr smdo or Mr Abbott can confirm fire lanes for those that are uh not sure the fire lane is on both sides of the street even where it's Mar where it's marked it's both sides of the street it the answer is it depends it if it's clearly marked if it's clearly yellow a fire lane goes extends out 20 feet from the extension itself if it's marked on both sides of the Street then the entire roadway is a is a a fire lane but if it isn't in the road is a narrow road it's it it's still extends out from the curve from the yellow and the markings and if it's clearly identified with the sign that extends out 20 feet thank you so 20 feet from the yellow line is considered the fire lane please be careful because you will get a ticket uh thank you Mr Fagan thank you Mr smdo thank you P Mr pesi hi Anthony M representing County Executive Joe decenzo um Joe is going to put up some slides for me and I'm going to talk in the order that you put them up uh so starting today actually June 25th our summer concert series kicks off it kicked off in the antiqua park we have 34 dates throughout the summer and we will be in West Orange in August up at Eagle Rock Avenue uh the complete uh schedule as you see there can also be found on our website which is Essex count nj.org uh a highlight of the summer concert series is our fireworks spectaculars we do have three of them this year the first one is uh this Friday in branchbrook park followed by Tuesday July 2nd in week wake and then Wednesday July 3rd in Brookdale Park uh each event it begins with a concert and then the uh fireworks uh follow the concert so the fireworks would be around dusk which is around 9 p.m or so um and this year if you can see at the bottom we are supporting the uh New Jersey Recreation and Parks Association they have a bathing suit and goggle drive and so we're asking for new bathing suits and new goggles all of the items that are collected will be uh will benefit swimming programs in lowincome areas uh so in Essex County that would be orange Irvington uh norc and East Orange um and then finally uh uh next month um up at the waterfront in South the South Mountain Recreation Complex we have a full month of events to highlight Parks and Recreation month um so as you can see Mondays is an exercise uh program which I will not be attending um Tuesday not gonna lie uh Tuesdays are more concerts and as you can see on July 16th the West Orange Community band will perform uh Thursdays is Yoga all those programs are in the iion which is right at the waterfront um and then we also combine this with uh family nights at uh turtleback Zoo Wednesdays and Thursdays uh the zoo has extended hours until 800m and on Wednesdays in July uh we have a um movie night um which the film films begin at 6:30 uh again all this is on the Essex County website which is Essex count nj.org and just click the event section and you'll find all that there one thing I did not give Joe also in July at our Environmental Center is our butterfly tent Safari which is for two weeks in July uh you can get up up close and personal with butterflies inside the tent and then on the weekends there's a full day of programming for uh young children to learn about butterflies and pollinators and all that other uh good stuff um so again Essex count nj.org thank you for your time thank you sir Miss bro Mrs bro thank thank you all I'm Megan bril uh executive director with the downtown Alliance councilwoman castelino uh thanked everybody for coming out to the street fair uh the last meeting right after uh the street fair and I wanted to again you got some pictur okay Zoom is being being wonky tonight um but I really think that I get to see the very best of our Township and running the street fair it's insane amount of work and we had over 50 volunteers with us this year which definitely helped but from Public Works to finance to police department and fire department the clerk's office we hit the health department we hit every single department and trying uh and successfully pulling off the street fair we have um some really great uh pictures from the day we had way more cars than uh than we ever had and we gave out five awesome trophies that is a crunchy or T-rex um and he's a real life dinosaur that comes every year to our street fair the far left picture is actually Main Street right in front of the Thomas edisan Museum uh we had a bunch of volunteers from the Edison Lofts the prism ladies went up on the rooftop of The Lofts and took that picture um that showed way tons of people on Main Street that day we also had great volunteers this is in front of the beer garden um and we had uh 20 food and uh and drink vendors this year which is like five more than we did last year and I was nervous about that because we definitely don't want don't want lines but we need a little bit of lines for the trucks aren't going to come back so everybody sold out um that day and we had the perogi lady from uh Pennsylvania come and she said our shoot fair was her favorite so we're very excited about that and um I just have to say that we shut down Main Street from 7 o'clock in the morning and this year until 8 o'clock at night and um we displac all those folks that live right in that area and special thank you to edisonia and Shephard terce and Babcock that are really displaced on Street Fa Day and when I interact with all of them they really were lovely um you know it's a it's a big deal we do whatever we can to get them and groceries and anything that they need from their house to their car and the CVS lot but uh it definitely is a big deal and it does not go unnoticed to us so we thank them especially for letting us use their street for our street fair and I I guess councilwoman calino was gonna talk about this she can mention uh these two we had uh speed weight training is celebrated their one-year anniversary they are one of our new businesses down in the valley next to Guys pizza and The Dominoes um which is actually a fun place for weight training to be but I guess it works because he's celebrating his one year um and we also have a new store hiber designs which is uh located between light bulb coffee on Washington Street and yashi smoothie um so that is actually where we have a goal of trying to add more retail stores to our inventory and uh and this is one of our uh new retail stores um so she's open she's lovely she's got all kinds of handmade stuff you have to go in her name is Vivien go in and say hi um and buy something um and then lastly we're kicking off downtown Thursdays um so if you're not with the county on Wednesday or Tuesday whatever you're doing you have to come and play with us on Thursday nights uh downtown we're starting in uh at the Valley Road parking lot it's the lot that's behind Benji's and where the uh post office is so we're going to scope out that area we have a DJ we're going to have fun in games uh lots of food and um we'd like to thank our sponsors for sure and um and then we're pretty much going every Thursday till the end of August and um except for Fourth of July you have to go to the library that day um that's it that's it for me thank thank you all really needed so much help and support to pull off the street bear thank you director here have to lift that up for him we go Wonder we love you zoom um I'm here because Mike brick can't be here Mike's at the hospital dealing with an issue with a family friend but I really want to thank this Council thank you um and I name and address for the record we know wherever wherever Susan's gone um I want to thank the mayor as well um this is a small token of gratitude for this governing body um it points to the 5-0 victory that brought the tree ordinance into being it has everyone's countenance represented at at the bottom it's an Edison light bulb with a wonderful red maple tree on the inside with beautiful uh incandescent lights hanging from it and all of the benefits that the tree ordinance that you passed and that will be protecting our kids and protecting ourselves it's just our way of saying thank you you guys can hang it wherever you want I guess the mayor gets to make that decision um so uh I'll pass it off to Susan's office after we're done here thank you um Council persons thank you Joe but you you got to give the name for the for the clerk it is beautiful absolutely us your name Joseph thank you you show the zoom audience thank you so much and uh Joe's on the environmental commission who did a great job working with us to get that true ordinance done as well please uh feel free to push the microphone thank you um uh council president council members I appreciate the opportunity uh to be here I I feel a little bit like I'm rigning on the parade from that lovely presentation just made uh because I'm here to address sir can you give us your name and address for the record yes Paul tractenberg 96 Sullivan Drive in West Orange thank you um so I'm I'm here to address the proposed amendment to the tree ordinance which you unanimously adopted two weeks ago um as one of the leaders of the fight to prevent development of the West Essex Highlands site uh which implicated trees and the removal of trees uh I obviously have a personal stake in what's going on um and the sudden and unexpected Amendment proposed by I understand the West Orange Administration to the recently adopted tree orance uh in my view has to be closely related to the development application for the West Essex Highlands site 120 and a half heavily wooded acres and I want to I I did a little research was helped by some of my colleagues at weekare New Jersey which is organized to oppos the development of that large property a property incidentally which the township for 20 years or more has indicated is a top priority for open space preservation but in any event to understand the scale of the proposed development and the negative impact on West oranges tree can which your ordinance seeks to protect and even resuscitate um according to the developers 2010 uh existing tree and tree removal plan the site uh is is 94% wooded it was stated in 2010 to have 63,360 trees of 2 in or great and 20,666 trees of 6 in or greater the proposal to remove trees in 2010 was to remove 27,600 tree equivalents a tree equivalent actually is mostly shrubs and seven shrubs count as one tree equivalent so taking down tens of thousands of trees that was the plan and replacing them with some shrubs uh this time around the developer is proposing to remove at least 6,360 trees without any obligation to replace them or even pay into a tree fund uh in response to them and many more than that number will almost certainly be removed as far as I know uh we don't yet have a count as to that the sudden effort to delay the effectiveness of the tree ordinance until January 1st 2025 in my view can have no real purpose other than to permit the development application uh to proceed in the planning board free of the constraints of the tree ordinance and I think that's something that ought to catch your attention you unanimously voted for it you obviously believed it was important uh I think you did a great service by doing so uh you balanced a lot of competing views and I thought came out with a model for good M Municipal governance uh and I fear the propos Amendment uh puts all of that in Jeopardy because the main proposal that could destroy tens of thousands of trees is now scheduled at the odd date of J July 16th and 17th for hearings in the planning board uh a time when it's not likely to draw the kind of participation from the public that if it were scheduled at another time it might so uh I'm here really to to raise a big warning flag to urge you to stand firm behind the tree ordinance that you unanimously adopted a couple of weeks ago and not permit it to be delayed because in this case delay is really defeating the whole purpose or a major purpose of the ordinance it's one thing to worry about a few trees being T taken down on individual property it's quite another to have literally as many as 60,000 trees taken down in our midst the there's one little factoid I want to share with you that I think Bears on this because it's not just a matter of trees it's not a matter of tree huggers it's a matter of public safety as well you all know about Ron Jolin uh apartments and the collapse of a slope which many people attribute to the removal of trees uh above that slope um but one fact uh that appeared on a New Jersey Spotlight broadcast I think for me highlighted it it is that uh one acre think one acre of land if that land is wooded the water runoff is 75500 gallons if you think same acre same size impervious surface a roadway parking lot things that would happen in connection with the development the U uh the runoff is 27,000 gallons that's 36 times exactly the amount that would run off if this acre was tree and that's what's at stake here a lot of lot of residents of the Town who live below uh West Essex Islands uh I fear they will be the victims uh of the Desolation time is up thank you thank you sir hi everybody it's my first time here so little nervous I'm Susan Goldstein I live at West Essex Highlands and I actually face the forest I live at 31 bayowski Road and I'm going to try not to cry because I am so upset about all of this um we moved from Monclair three years ago from a very Green Town our son was 30 this point we moved to West Orange and we fell in love with the green in West Orange we fell in love with the diversity and we fell in love with West Essex Highlands our town home is on the top of the hill facing the forest it's one of the reasons we bought it um I teach science at Locker there Academy after 25 plus years of Public School teaching I have many students that are from West Orange I talk to them about tree canopies all the time I am thrilled that you passed this ordinance a lot of people don't understand about trees it seems very basic and it seems like well these people are just Tree Huggers no they provide an environment not only they give us oxygen but they provide an environment for animals for insects The Roots hold the ground together and hold the stone together it the forest behind me is going to be devastated and flattened if this development goes through and if you don't if you backtrack this ordinance why am I emotional about it because I'll lose everything that I bought for in addition I'm emotional about it because I have some neighbors below us that have flooding they get flooding because it is a water it's it it floods back there why because there's so much Rock so if they build back there and flatten the forest which they will they're not going to count one to 6300 that's not how they build a development they're going to flatten it and then they're going to drill 30 feet down into rock and then we're going to flood even more so I was thrilled that you passed the ordinance I'm begging you to stand by it not delay it it's kind of obvious why it's trying to be delayed and as a new person with my husband to West Orange I think you can feel my emotion on this and I teach children from West Orange at Locker dare Academy and I tell them how important these things are and you clearly believe it's not just about tree hugging it's about preventing flooding it's about adding oxygen it's about keeping West Orange beautiful thank you good evening my name is Phil lnof I live at 11 Mr lnof can you just hang on one second I'm having an issue with my clock here you can reset it anytime you like yeah but it goes back to zero that's the problem oh there it goes okay thank you take two yep go ahead my name is Phil it went off hasn't changed I'm at 11 Lindon Avenue here in town I can't possibly be as eloquent as Professor tractenberg was in talking about the details as to what's happening with the tree ordinance in West exex Highland however the tree canopy in West Orange as you all know has deteriorated over the past years what you folks did as a council is tremendous and I know the effort went on months and months and meeting after meeting in order to come up with the proposal that's that's been accepted and you that you voted on unanimously but this last minute change and 11th hour change to amend the effective date is a mistake and I think you should should pay attention to what the reason as to this thing it's not going to benefit the West Orange Community whatsoever there's only one party that's going to benefit by a delay of the changing the ordinance State and that's the we organization because they're the ones they don't live in town they don't really care about West orang they care about making money and they will benefit if you delay this the passage of the of this last change I hold I urge you stay true to what was passed two weeks ago and that's the proposal that should should carry into this stship thank you thank you good evening Sally manga Ridge Road on behalf of our Green West Orange our members requests that you vote no to delay the implementation of the tree protection ordinance any delay serves only the tree cutters and harms the community as it stands now the mayor has not picked up the phone and advised to DPW to stop the senseless removal of stately Street trees for sidewalk and curb repair residents can have both tree and sidewalks I'm sure someone will bring up the news that a tree fell on a home in West Orange no one was injured the reason why it was in the news is that it is a very rare occurrence but in West Orange we do not maintain our trees we do not replant trees we have a depleted canopy at 27% because of the foolish disregard of certain council members in the mayor's office where they forget that trees are the most C cost effective means to protect our community from excessive flooding and heat a street tree is worth $195,000 in property value that's according to anj the association of environmental commissions they do air cleansing habitat and flood control trees are not optional residents do not have the right to ask the DPW to remove their street trees as recently happened on Lincoln Avenue where there was a total Massacre of healthy trees that street is now destroyed thank you to those that are here for protecting the canopy that we do have and moving us forward in replenishing it thank you thank you hi um good evening my name is Danielle dep and I live at 67 lapis Circle in West Orange and I and I live right near the development and I strongly oppose delaying the tree ordinance because it is unsafe due to flooding and it is a serious health hazard due to the fact that a single adult a mature adult tree purifies 48 pounds of carbon dioxide every year and imagine thousands of trees gone that will be purifying thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide this will poison future Generations our future I hope that you could take that into consideration thank you uh good evening council members um my name is Jonathan redwine I live at uh tin Coan terce um I'm also here to talk about the uh tree ordinance and the proposed amendment to that ordinance it's item 2862-20 um the amendment would would delay implementation of the ordinance for six months to January 2025 and I'm asking the council to vote down the proposed amendment and stand by your unanimous vote to pass the ordinance that you made just a few weeks ago the new ordinance does several things that are really critical in our town um it's intended to preserve and improve the tree canopy coverage and the canopy has a huge impact on our quality of life here and I believe that we must remain mindful of the environmental impact of tree preservation and that we should be implementing this ordinance now um a lot of other speakers have spoken pretty eloquently about the environmental impact um I understand that this ordinance um does a few things that are specifically really important for our community it requires an applicant to apply for a permit and it allows the town Forester to deny that permit under certain circumstan which I understand is a change from current practice um second it creates an obligation for the applicant land owner to replace trees on a onetoone basis and where replacement is determined not to be possible it requires the applicant to pay into a new tree replacement fund for replanting um which according to the ordinance would be more than the cost of replanting on site which is estimated about $400 per tree um and it also establishes a penalty schedule whereby a person who's violating the ordinance would pay $2,000 per violation so if we delay the implementation of this ordinance um we're we're we're further harming our municipality by denying the fees and the potential penalties that we would be collecting if people are applying for permits which they should be as they are planning to remove trees from their properties um we know that the number of trees in West Orange have declined precipitously in in recent years and that's going to lead to an increase in local temperatures it creates flood risk because trees absorbed water runoff results in increased air pollution um reversing the deforestation Trend and reversing the adverse consequence of a reduced tree canopy in West Orange is a critical component to preserving our quality of life and it is critical that we begin to implement the policies and restrictions outlined in the new ordinance now um as others have said you all voted 5 to zero to adopt this ordinance um and and that was after more than a year of negotiation and discussion with the mayor and interested residents and local groups like our Green West Orange um you've acknowledged unanimously that preserving our trees is important to our town um and I agree with that but we have to start that now we can't delay the implementation of this ordinance in fact we should have started it a year ago and had we done it a year ago um we would have collected a half million dollars in fees um from the permanent application process so this is this is something that we should have done months and year a year ago or more and we should definitely not delay it further um so tonight's proposed amendment would be a terrible step backward from a process that has already taken entirely too long and I understand that there are really three principal reasons um for the proposed delay and those reasons are one contractors and community members need to be educated on the new requirements two the town requires additional Personnel to implement the requirements of the ordinance and three the town's current inability to post notifications online given pending technology upgrades that are due to go live in Q4 2024 suffice to say that I think those three reasons are ridiculous and absurd and entirely manageable um if we just can sit down and talk about it and work together um we can overcome all three of those things and get this ordinance um first educating the roughly 30 contractors could be easily achieved uh with the town public information Department making a short video that's posted to the town website and then quick phone calls to each of those contractors just letting them know that it's there and that there's there are new requirements they need to be aware of I know we need additional Personnel I know that in the budget you're considering now there are additional Personnel who are um slated to be added so if there's any backlog I'm sure that that would be um you know ameliorated pretty quickly and resolved um but the bottom line is tree shouldn't be sacrificed because of a lack of personnel and that's what will happen if you delay implementation of this ordinance and then third the inability to post notifications is not a reason to delay I don't see anything in the ordinance that requires that I think that you could use the town website to post notifications um or announcements your time is up and this is these this is your opportunity to work with the administration and really show some leadership thanks for I'm Joseph berwind 64 Forest h Road West Orange um I Rise before you also in support of voting down uh delay um to the tree ordinance implementation I stand before you as a resident um and an individual a guy who's with data for I don't know 30 plus years and the person responsible for working with Google in order to produce the statistics that others have quoted I have the 2023 satellite images it'll take me a little while to get them into numbers the preliminary code suggests that we've done about five years of damage in one year don't delay I don't know much about the West exx Highlands project but if the number 6,000 and to replant a tree it's $400 bill that's two4 $2,400,000 all of our trees need to be replanted let's get started thank you hello Lawrence Cohen linoln Avenue um just want to report on what happened in Lincoln Avenue and first first say though please please uh don't delay the the tree ordinance uh it already was not enforced on Lincoln Avenue of 17 trees uh uh there were there was a there was real good effort to save the trees uh coun Council H person bill ruffer came with Walter Kip on Friday afternoon and actually they all worked after hours going tree threee for two-hour survey and Walter Kip uh applying the the tree ordinance um decided that um nine trees out of the 17 uh should be saved by going around the curbs by not um working too heavily on the sidewalks because that was used as an excuse to say that the tree is healthy now but when we get through with repaving oh I'm sorry this is about repaving Lincoln Road that's the reason for the trees being cut when we have to rip out the curb uh where some roots are nearby and the sidewalks this tree will be severely injured and therefore we should just cut it down that's what the that's what uh the old way was and this is the Department of Public Works and it's also the engineer there's a lady engineer and somebody else they came up very strong about I don't think they know anything about the Tre ordinance or they didn't care so they actually this is like the background so Walter Kip bill rufford they they they said these trees are going to be saved nine and um on Monday morning the massacre started uh the the the engineer came and um the contractors and and uh there were some Advocates on the street uh who wanted this tree cutting and and and the repaving to be as as extensive as possible and and they they they want they they only saved two big trees there's only two trees that were saved out of 17 um then a few small trees so five total saved trees two big ones is a beautiful Oak at the corner of Roosevelt and Lincoln and another big Oak in the middle of Lincoln and uh I'm worried about these trees actually being hurt when they repave so I hope you I hope the administration listens maybe to you guys or everybody and uh goes easy on the road on ripping out the curb they shouldn't but there's not enough room to rip out the curve they should just leave it alone and the sidewalk also and they should just let this tree uh be as undisturbed as possible these two trees uh because they will actually create a a very dangerous Hazard because um the tree could have its root structure hurt and then it could become Tippy I mean this is a danger that they should understand and that's it I it doesn't make any sense to cut down nice trees um you know I don't understand what what the point was and then you have to plant new little ornamentals it took 60 70 80 years for these trees to grow ornamental is going to take another you know 50 years to get to that height so this is the damage that's done and there's a there's a sad story too of U there's a little Robin that we saw after the tree cutting um it wasn't flying it was just hopping around the road and it looks like a flon that had a nest and it it just um you know it was getting towards Sunset and you know I just got made sure to get it out of the road and um you I hope it survived the night and hope it learned to fly and hope its mom was nearby but there's living things in these trees there's bugs there's birds there's bats I mean and it's just I I don't understand why these trees were were were were massacred and uh the administration didn't care they actually that's why it's so important not to um not to uh delay this because they need pressure they need pressure uh the the uh the um engineer seems to be totally out of touch and I think Walter Kip does care about trees and I think he's got this pressure on him and I think he could be an advocate for trees because he was really trying willing to to work with the sidewalk and the and the curb and just say leave it alone and and so he's he's pressured with the with the Department of Public Works and the contractor and the engineers so that's that's really like the picture um that's it thank you so much guys thank you uh Rachel Klein how will drive obviously I think that you shouldn't delay the Tre implementation of the triance but I just wanted to mention something that we learned about today I know that the Town Council has no say over what the planning board does but we feel that the planning board is being very prejudicial in how it's handling the up coming hearings to in relation to the WS6 Highland development it's a big development it affects hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of homes in this uh Town plus three other towns and it seems that every which way the planning board is going about it they're trying to stifle public comment so they told us it's gonna be six o'clock July 16th and 17th um now it's 6:30 they told us it it's going to be in a large location so it could fit all the different residents who want to come out and speak because it'll only be in person speaking now it's going to be heing town hall and I counted we could barely fit a 100 people unless we open up these two rows and still that's not enough we're talking 300 homes in the highlands alone so if you want to talk about transparency and a fair hearing and the planning board being CI judicial and doing due diligence give us a chance to speak to them in a location that makes sense that can hold everyone if you don't want to do Zoom speaking because you're afraid of another Zoom bombing I understand then you have to give us a place to go and in the middle of the sum summer when people are away when they've already had plans that's again it seems very prejudicial it's a bad look and I know I can't um go to the planning board and Lobby them so that's why I'm coming and speaking to you guys I know you have no control over them but people should know that we see what they're doing and we think it looks very ugly um so that's that's I have to say and um I brought my daughter so we're gonna we're gonna go thank you thank thank you good evening my name is Joseph pulo I live on Holton Lane essexfells within the 200 foot notice area on the border of the town of West Orange in Essex FS I am involved in weekare and I am here only tonight to speak about the tree ordinance and the resolution before the board and I'd like to bring up a few things that few people didn't that you may not be aware of and should be aware of because the not really discussed and they actually present risk that by saying yes you will approve so just for the record a couple of things there are two public water companies that collect water at the bottom of the headquarters of the Canoa which is at the top of the mountain or the what was the natural features ordinance in town that was suspended to approve the ordinance that was passed four years ago thereabouts those Wells are closed by contamination those two water companies are sxfs water water company which sells water to 22,000 customers in six towns and New Jersey American Water Company which collects water and delivers that water among other places back into the 300 condos and will be the public water provider to if whatever gets approved is delivered it will be New Jersey American Water the Canoe Brook that starts at the top of that mountain on the second Ridge runs all the way down barl Avenue to JFK Parkway 7 mil to the Canoe Brook treatment plant which is run by New Jersey American water so they collect the water they bring it back in the plans that have not been submitted to the D for water for floodwater Wetlands fresh flood Hazard area those applications aren't pending right now there's been nothing been so there's nothing to respond to so the number of trees that are going to come down the recharge where the interconnection for sewer and water is going to go they're drawn on the map but there's no other side of that connection so it's not clear who's going to pick up the cost for how much sewage capacity which doesn't exist now because existing sewage eement of Verona is is a capacity there's 300 there now condos you're going to put 500 units there's nowhere to bring that you're going to bring it to the town of West Orange and don't know that anybody's presented the engineering to you but you're going to blast the mountain to dig the tunnels to carry it and you're going to pick up the interconnection somewhere in town at the expense I don't know who there will be trees in the way same thing for the water interconnection to New Jersey americ water they don't have an interconnection request now so we don't know where the connection is going to go what's going to have to get taken down across it and the biggest risk besides the existing flooding that's happening in the condos and we'll document that in a different time at a different venue for that reason but one of the things that's unknown is where is all of this water going to go what's taken down the trees there's no count for what's going to be taken down ordinance now was we'll argue later I guess in planning board about how that's going to happen but if you suspend this until we implement it in January I don't know how we calculate no one's presented the developers not presented they couldn't go before the planting board in three weeks there's no plan to object to there's no tree cap there there's no interconnection there's no discharge there's no numers what are we doing so we'll present those oppositions later but you have an opportunity now to mitigate and collar a risk that is unknown that is undocumented that is not presented that we already know what happens on a steep slope when the trees are taken down it happened on the first Ridge on North Field at rulin so that steep slope ordinance was amended in 2022 all the other ordinances in the town were Exempted in October 20th 2020 we're all going to have a debate about that at the planning board we will do that but there's an opportunity now to present an unmitigated risk an uncolored risk and unknown Quantified risk because the numbers aren't available so I would I don't vote in town so I can't vote for against anybody here I do have an interest I do live on the border and I would only suggest that if the opportunity presents itself for this Council to revisit that ordinance for this project if you're given the opportunity you think twice and you say no in the meantime please help the public interest the public safety and the unquantifiable unknown uncolored risk of what is not been presented that will be heard three weeks from now say no thank you I appreciate it thank you good evening everyone Deborah Salter 920 Broad Street North New Jersey trees are life and we need them so if we take care of our trees properly and keep them healthy um instead of letting developers destroy that what's giving us our oxygen and providing us the fresh air and for all of the other reasons uh it gives us life and it prevents global warming which is what we're dealing with we have hot boxes where all of these folk are doing development tearing down the trees they're supposed to be building Parks it winds up more concrete than trees you know but we need our trees so whatever we can do to keep them and to plant them we need them they are life okay it prevents the greenhouse gases and prevents destroying of the ozone which is making the Earth hotter than it's ever been so let's keep those things in mind all right so I'm with the residents on um I'm dealing with it in my own City so I know uh and where do our children play you know it's hot you know now what are we going to do put Springs of water in the concrete like we need the trees all right um I'm here tonight because I am running for the Congress seat left vacant by Congressman pay by his death I am an educator I am a mentor I am a uh coach I'm an activist I'm an advocate I'm a voice for the voiceless I also have a small business where I teach CPR first aid AED training nothing like you've ever experienced it's not a class it's an experience trust me I would love to have you there and I am running because people are my passion and transforming lives is what I do I don't talk I don't complain I do if I see something that needs to be taken care of I take care of it I don't wait for anyone else to come in and expect them to save me or save us we have the power to do what we need to do if we want something we've never had we've got to do something we've never done so if you want change you have to do something different you have to vote differently don't go with the status quo you have your own mind you know the party has who they want but who do you want who's stepping up for you right let's do uh activity over Legacy let's do uh benefits and uh tangible results over history because people try to be the first and you can be the first and the worst we've seen it right so we want who and what is going to benefit We the People actions Express priorities if you are not the priority of those that are in office then your actions must be something different right we cannot do the same thing over and over and expect different results because what is that called Insanity you keep hitting your head against a rock what eventually happens your skull breaks right so we the people have the power if we want different we take it we make things different overall most people only 2% stand up and vote people complain but they don't vote so if only 2% of the people are voting what are the 98% of us doing right so if 98% of us are greater than the 2% then let's make the change let's do what's going to benefit We the People right with one finger I could poke you in your eyes I could jab you in your throat with the fists I can break wood I can bend Ste right I can get some stuff done so when we come together and we vote wisely for what benefits we the people we have the power and we make the change so I say to you do not vote the same way and expect something different if you want to see something different happen do something different because you have the power don't go with the status quo won't benefit you right so it's all up to you again I'm Deborah Salters I'm running for district 10 in essis County that's 10j Hudson County 4D Union County 5e hope to see you at the polls have a great night thank you anyone else for public comment see n public comment is closed not too bad nine o'clock all right uh Council colleagues um we are going to go and uh reverse order uh this time we'll start with councilwoman uh Williams for response um B councilwoman Scarpa thank you council president thank you to everyone who came out uh this evening and brought us your concerns and remarks uh we do acknowledge and appreciate the time that it takes for you to come out of your home on a Tuesday night and join us um so that we can address your needs I thank thank you Mr pesi thank you Mr Fagan uh for the updates um I also want to thank the chief of police for the patrol reports um that you distributed um we appreciate the prompt response to the requests uh Miss BR again the street fair was phenomenal excellent and I appreciate the aerial view that um really gives us an opportunity to to identify the number of guests who visited West Orange uh Mr Bernstein thank you so much for the beautiful print uh showing the support uh for our tree canopy and West Orange to everyone who came out to speak about the trees and um not delaying the requests from the administration um that's really a tough seat for us to sit in um we have to certainly we understand the need need for the um and the urgency for us to implement this ordinance and it was a very very long process I think we've been talking about trees since I was first elected so we talk about it being one year but this is a discussion that has been ongoing uh with our colleagues I haven't made a decision I have listened to the Administrations request I do understand that we there is a concern that the Staffing is not there and that was the need for the request to amend And Delay um but I have listened and I understand and agree um that we just can't continue to haphazardly lose trees um what I'm concerned about and what I would like the administration to address is a lot of the concerns about delaying the tree ordinance are wrapped around the West excess Highland development um I would like for them to be able to clarify whether or not our tree ordinance is really going to impact any of their um plans because it's my understanding that this is a court-ordered settlement and that everything that is ordered in their settlement nothing that we do as a municipality is going to impact what they can and cannot do um so I do want to clarify for the public as well as for myself um whether or not those misstatements are indeed misstatements whether or not they're accurate or they're just rumors and fearmongering quite frankly from the people who just don't have the answers that they're looking for so certainly whenever council president agrees that that response is um appropriate I I would just make sure that you guys have an opportunity to you want Mr now uh so I don't know what just happened but if there Westland development planning board application be affected if the new tree ordinance is implemented I'm happy to answer that now but yeah my understanding is that there was a resolution 9620 that was approved by the township Council in that resolution it approved the settlement agreement which was also approved by superior court of New Jersey judge Gardner what year please it was approved in 2020 thank you and in that resolution and in that settlement agreement it specifically outlines the procedures regarding pre- removal and indicates that and I quote but also recognize that the Tre the town's tree protection and removal ordinance 25-7 that's the old ordinance obviously if applied to the proposed development constitute a false gener false generative requirement contrary to section 2.5.3 of disagreement light of the forgoing the parties agree that the tree removal and replacement for proposed development shall be governed by the design terms and conditions attached here in as exended SE so it essentially my reading of this agreement legal Department's reading of this agreement that the whether or not we delay by delay I mean pass this ordinance that's before the Town Council T night to implement to delay the implementation of the revised tree ordinance to January 1st I believe it is of 2025 that that won't affect the terms and conditions of the West Island C thank you for your opinion Mr jingar let's continue with our responses thank you um and then I also wanted to address the concerns of the planning board and the process and the July 16th and 17th um date as a former member of the planning board um and understanding the rules and regulations and the timetables while it may seem remiss nefarious underhanded um I just want to clarify that there is a timetable that the planning board works under and so when applications are submitted they have a specific period of when they have to hear those applications so stating that um it was done so that people would be away this is all done based on when the application is submitted um so just again want to clarify to the public make sure they're aware um that the administration doesn't have or and it's not even the administration it's the it's the the planning board or the zoning board are mandated by Tim taes of when they have to respond and hear an application so I just want to again um just dispel some of the rumors and the misconceptions um that were stated on you know by the public about how things are being done um I also am aware that as far as trying to find a location is concerned um that in order to have sound it was necessary for us to move back to town hall Liberty Middle School does not have the accommodations and the microphone and the technology so that everyone can hear and be heard and it would make it for a smooth present ation um the high school does not have in the media center that capacity as well they can't do a zoom um and and and have that and this is the SI the size of those um auditoriums it was either not do Zoom at all or move back to council chambers and those were questions that I asked um the planning department the zoning board um Department why we were doing it here and was the space going to be able to accommodate everyone so again just want to put some of the the rumors um the insinuations um and and provide Clarity on why things are occurring in the way that they're occurring in addition I'm just thanking U Miss Salos Miss Salos you were the first uh candidate of the 11 candidates for the late congressman's pay seat to approach us so I just want to thank you for taking the time out of your schedule um to make sure we knew who you were thank you I completes my comments thank you councilwoman councilwoman scar great thank you thank you Mr pley Mr Fagan Miss bril for coming out and um informing us on all the important things that you have spoken to us about and also to the public I am so pleased to see so many people here tonight um to Deborah Salter's um comment you know trees are life that is really true and my mother taught me the same thing she just spoke about when you see something that's wrong don't complain about it make the change that you want to see in the world and a lot of people just complain on social media but all of you came out here tonight to talk talk about this critical issue and support those of us who feel the way you do and I really appreciate it to Mr tractenberg I so appreciate all of the commentary each and every time you come you're so articulate factual well spoken and sincere about the all of the efforts that you care about and I want to assure you that we will stand fir behind the tree ordinance um we have all I can't tell you how much time we have spent working on this ordinance and regardless of the effect it has on the highlands and it probably will have an effect but regardless of that there are so many other reasons why we have to pass this now uh the flooding that a number of people talked about it is really really a serious problem that many people don't understand particularly people who are new to our Township um Joe Pula the unknowns are frightening the unknowns not only of the commercial development that you spoke about in the highlands but each and every time we start cutting down trees whether it's on a large scale property that's being built or residential some one's getting flooded underneath us I came out and the first time I got involved in Municipal matters it was because people in my neighborhood were impacted and were going to be flooded by some of the work that was being done at the gregy school where trees were unnecessarily coming down so I really do appreciate all of your comments Susan Goldstein um you're right the flooding needs to be better understood and they are integral to our health and our well-being and we all need to understand that um Phil we will stay true to the passage of this bill I know I will and Sally again thank you for all of your advocacy and you are so right that we need to do a better job of maintaining our trees and one of the reasons we have so much problem in our community with trees coming down flooding and all of that is because we don't do the maintenance that we did many years ago I think that department that does that has been decimated over the years and it shows it shows in the the work it shows in the makeup of our town in everything that we see um Jonathan redwine I completely agree with you because I had the same thoughts when I read the letter why we need to delay the tree ordinance any business person or anyone who has managed their way out of a paper bag could see that all of these three areas could be mitigated and could be dealt with and you had some good suggestions to do that um Joe Berwin thank you for all of your advocacy on the uh environmental committee um the five years of damage in one year is a frightening statistic that even I who sit would be on that committee had not known and um I won't disappoint you and I will not amend this ordinance we will move forward Lawrence Cohen it breaks my heart to see what happened on Lincoln Avenue the first time I met you I really expected that we would be able to SA many of those trees and you are so right it is our job to keep up the pressure and make sure that these trees are not unnecessarily cut down and I hope you will help me by continuing to rally and educate your neighbors because it's going to take all of us working together to do that especially with so many residents moving here from cities that just don't understand the value of of the trees uh Rachel Clin again thank you for coming out you're right that transparency and fairness um must be afforded to all of your neighbors and those in We Care in the Essex Highland and I think we really need to make sure that we give everyone a chance to really come out and to speak about this issue um I think I got everybody oh Danielle um Danielle Paloma a single tree equals 48 pounds of carbon dioxide thank you so much another fact that even I did not know and I really appreciate you're coming out and educating us because this is recorded this video can be sent around to all of your friends and neighbors you could cut and paste you know minutes of this video and that's going to be the first step in educating all of our friends and Neighbors about why the trees are so important so thank you so much nice to meet you finished thank you councilman uh councilwoman G Michael good evening everyone thank you uh to everyone here in council chambers on zoom and especially to those of you who spoke up tonight um you know your thoughts are really important uh during public comment and your voices are crucial in shaping our community so thank you so we've had 11 speak people speak tonight and 10 of you spoke about this uh proposed of revised ordinance um the timely implementation of a new tree of our new tree ordinance is crucial for our quality of life um not only that it's also for safeguarding the environment as many of you mentioned uh public health and Community benefits associated with you know having a healthy treat canopy um so I definitely do not support this revised ordinance and I will be voting though so I want to thank each and every single one of you for sharing your thoughts um and I I want to Echo to make it brief because it's already uh 9:18 I want to Echo uh the sentiments of my Council colleague councilwoman Scarpa she said it perfectly um so thank each and every single one of you for coming out here tonight because your voices do matter that concludes my thank you councilman councilman celino thank you council president and thank you for use of your jacket this evening it's free in here um so I want to thank all the speakers for coming out and speaking so passionately just to share a a story with you um and disclosure uh growing up in the township or actually uh after I grew up uh my family lived um right across from the recycling center right next to where we call the Rock the open space that the township purchased years ago that was a wooded property that got decimated made it when the marot came in and wanted to put um assistant living there and the project failed my um my uh parents were devastated with with that action uh we had Mr leapor there back then it was we had deer in the backyard it we had you know animals everywhere wild turkeys it was sad it was frustrating to have water in their basement so I I fully understand the impact and the importance of clearing these properties and and how detrimental they can be um I also shared a uh instance uh a couple months ago with uh my daughter's home that there was a tree that was compromised from Road repair in the street and uh exactly almost a year to the day fell on her bedroom and if it wasn't for wires would have went right through where my child where my daughter my son-in-law uh was sleeping and those wires saved them so again I always talk about balance and and how we move forward with making these decisions I'm the only sitting council person that um was here um when we um when the council at that time was hearing uh the testimony from our Council colleagues uh at then councilwoman mccortney and councilman kovak who sat in the meetings with Representatives uh from the condo association in the negotiations for the wests 6 Highlands most frustrating process I ever had to deal with in my career you just felt that you every time you ask a question it it just it kept coming back to the court and you know you know the story The wolfs teamed up with uh the affordable housing uh Authority and uh with that you know the numbers were out of hand and they they settled on this core document the town at the time you know we wanted to fight more to get a better settlement but again it was costing us ridiculous amounts of money and it was really really frustrating so um Mr Jenaro had explained earlier and thank you Council uh woman uh Williams for asking that question but this ordinance does not affect that settlement it's unfortunate but believe it or not there were a lot more trees coming down and and now um still there's work to be done and I really appreciate the we're care I've sat in a few of the meetings in the back you all are fighting so hard and um there's a lot of issues there and and we'll see where this leads but very very frustrating uh especially again I always watch what I say because it's litigation so we implement this ordinance it took a year why did it take a year it took a year because and and I appreciate all the Advocates and them crafting something my colleagues working with them but usually when we have an ordinance it comes from legal the Department's heads weigh in and then we get it because it's what they are able to produce to us and they're able to enforce this did not go uh in that direction it it it was bouncing back like a tennis match and finally the final copy my colleagues um and again this isn't this is you know I um U it all worked out well but I'm just trying to explain the process it came to us that it wasn't the final input of the department heads now we're getting now we're getting input and we'll talk about that in a little bit if count you know we'll have a debate from the administration why they need the time I don't feel that this timeline I got to hear them out I read the emails that we have I I feel that it's too long I would like to see us Implement things a lot quicker um we knew this was eventually coming um but I also know we still don't have a budget that's crafted we still we still have another budget hearing this Thursday night and we need the Personnel in order to enforce this tree ordinance so I'm looking forward to the conversation in a little bit but I am going to give Administration heads up I'm looking for a much sooner timeline and um you know looking you know looking to hear uh your comments in a little bit um but thank you all for coming out um to advocate for this because it is very important and we need and we need to figure it out um Mr tackenberg I received your email and heard your frustration in regards to the meeting and just like my colleague I to had uh made a phone call to see um why the school district um I have not connected with superintendent Moore um disappointed that they're not able to handle the zoom call but I also know that for them watching their meetings that which I don't know why because I'm from I I was a former School Board member why they don't have the microphones in the zoom I know they don't accept public comment um from the zoom audience they did not since they went back into public from being on the zoom calls uh through the pandemic that I'm assuming was probably why they they uh can't handle the meeting um but I know the intent was to have it in a bigger location to accommodate more and more folks um so I'll I'll leave it at that the planning board makes their own decisions but I know um I know Dr bagol um and the members on the board I you know they want to hear all the testimony so I don't I don't think that's going to be an issue but um you know I hope we could accommodate and get whatever line moving here with I'm talking about Administration I assume we'll have I guess someone to help them facilitate the meeting I don't know that's a question you could answer uh later on uh when Council uh president has your comment but that is my recommendation and uh I'm gonna again all the speakers I'm GNA H put a shout out to to Danielle for for coming in and and your comments and for went to a council meeting uh seeing Rachel Klein with her daughter here this evening uh just having our youth come and it's important it's it's your future so um appreciate you you you being here this evening uh Joe Berwin uh thank you for that that that picture it it was really cool and awesome and um you know we'll we'll figure this out we'll work it out um but I do recommend that we get this date mov moved up I also do appreciate that there is time that they they need so with all that said and done um the other comments this evening oh the trees on Lincoln Avenue um I appreciate my colleague for going out there and talking uh with Mr Kip and Mr Kip making that kind of decision but also a little concerned and again this goes back to Administration um because we have V various Street improvements that we're doing so you know here we had um what last meeting or two that we had um information brought to the council that we those trees and the reasons why that they um you know there couldn't be less trees removed but yet here they are to were able to be Sav so that's that that's a little you know disappointing and so we need to well I mean it's great that the trees were saved but disappointing why wasn't that thought of sooner than on on Monday and when councilman went there so you know that needs to I think be addressed um and thank you for Miss Lawrence for bringing that to to our attention did not know that and then on a positive note uh thank you um again Mr P see Mr Fagan and Miss bril for uh the beginning of the evening with that great information and just all the work that everyone is doing within the township uh for residents again uh summer are months uh there's plenty of things to do here in the township and we hope you'll all come out and enjoy them uh in between all the stressful meetings that we seem to be having so thank you council president I'm done thank you councilwoman um as always Mr Fagan Mr pesi director bril we do appreciate your timely advice I wanted to uh particularly thank Mr Fagan for uh the two shows that are going to be shown at aspac uh looking forward to that um this summer uh want to remind us uh that Luna stage is still here on Valley and um I had an opportunity a couple of weeks ago maybe a few weeks ago uh to see a play there Queen of the night it was absolutely fantastic um and so we need to certainly support um the Arts uh locally as often as we can uh so having both of those venues I think is just a benefit for West Orange um Mr berwind do appreciate your work on the environmental commission particularly with the tree ordinance and thank you as well for the poster uh Mr tractenberg uh your reputation precedes you um quite a few folks even some that are in the gallery tonight uh have uh been uh lucky enough to uh be taught by you um so we are grateful to have your voice on this particular matter um Susan I thought it was olon but maybe it was Goldstein um uh certainly as a science uh teacher uh someone who has a science behind them we do certainly take your uh comments into consideration as as well and to all of those that have made the request that we vote no on the amendment I am voting no so we'll stop the suspense uh I am voting no on the amendment um I agree we need to implement it now uh we can certainly um mitigate some of the challenges that the administration uh is facing um but I I want to say that a part of this is uh lack of trust um there have been multiple efforts sometimes at the last moment to stop the progress on the tree ordinance um and so now with this latest iteration of it uh it rings Hollow had this been the only request to stop or slow down the progress on the tree ordinance then perhaps it it would not be um as difficult to take seriously but it isn't almost every moment we had with the exception of of one where there was some confusion about which version was being pre presented almost every opportunity we had to move forward on that tree ordinance and actually vote was met with some resistance um and so this to me is just another and a long line of those and I am not um going to adhere to it um Mr adhere to the request uh Mr Cohen um I actually visited Lincoln Avenue on three occasions uh once with just residents um where you know we kind of talked about what was happening on there and I kind of got an understanding um of what the expectations were for that particular Street uh once with the town Forester and residents uh and then again on the day that these streets were to um be repaved uh I am deeply disappointed um that the nine trees that our Forester who is the hired professional responsible for making those decisions the nine trees that our Foresters said could be saved and certainly um he had some creative ways of saving them uh educated me and others uh on what those opportunities were um I was very disappointed that um they weren't all saved and um I remember I recall uh part of the conversation I had and I I think this part is important for the entire Administration um certainly for the department heads that are um directly involved with tree removal and Street repaving um the street ordinance does not allow healthy Street trees to be taken down um for Street repaving um there it's it's it's in the ordinance we can discuss it in a moment if anyone wants to challenge it um uh but they require the the uh Forester to um approve the taking down now it's it's I understand the argument that digging up the tree uh digging up the street Andor the sidewalk um may damage those trees I get it um other communities have been able to do workarounds we should be able to do them as well other communities no longer even put the the um Belgium Block or the curb they they black top right up to the base of the tree tree seems to live um so I don't know I don't know what else we can say or do we spent over a year working with the various groups in town and the entire Administration including our legal department to get a tree ordinance it took a lot of compromise um and we all five of us voted for it I don't know what else we can do to express how important it is to reverse the damage that we've been doing to our tree canopy and you know we can continue to you know make all of these excuses or we can reason things away and continue to take them all down and then we will see what the ramifications of that are in real time um we already have flooding issues in just about every neighborhood in town it's been said multiple times from this Podium and many others and trees are our first line of defense um so you know healthy trees cannot be taken down without the town Forester getting directly involved and this Council has been very clear we want to do everything we can to save those trees if it requires rerouting the sidewalk reroute the sidewalk if it requires uh a bump out uh on the street bump it out we we've discussed this time and time again um and you know at this this point it is it is it is very frustrating because we already had this is a part-time job is it it's supposed to be right no and to to get up at an extra hour early to be on site to help make sure that what we passed is honored and then for it not to be even if it was just one tree that had been agreed to be saved that wasn't saved that to me is absolutely unacceptable so um that has to stop I'm hopeful and I'm expecting that it stops now if there's anything that is unclear in the in the ordinance please speak with the legal department please let us know we've had robust debate and conversation about it and I think we've done enough um with regard to West desic Island um some commentary was made about how this how the tree ordinance uh um affects the that particular development I'm not an attorney I don't know I do know that when I read that settlement agreement which I think was not well done at all uh I know you didn't have anything to do it with it Mr Jenaro um so I'm not trying to place blame with you or anyone else I just think to exempt um anyone from the steep slope ordinance as it was or as it would be um in perpetuity uh is a mistake uh we've seen what happened and it's been mentioned in here tonight with the Ron Jolan Apartments um we we can't afford that kind of thing and there's no amount of apology after the fact that can make up for it um but I do recognize it was specifically Exempted that particular development was specifically Exempted from having to honor the steep slope ordinance as it was written at that time or any future iteration it is not my understanding or my reading or my interpretation of the document that the same would apply to the tree ordinance um now that might be for another venue another time um uh but that would be my response to um what you stated earlier with regard to the tree ordinance and I you know I grant it I am not an attorney uh but that is my Layman's understanding with regard to the planning board I am on the planning board I was hoping that that could that issue could have been handled quietly but now it's been brought into public comment um so this plan this meeting was planned recently and announced at our last meeting um this is the second this year that has been done in person in this chamber or would be the second that was done in person in this chamber um and the reasons given uh just don't make sense to me I if our goal is to increase public participation we know from our own personal experience here um and every other body that has used Zoom you get a greater participation on Zoom than inperson period and that's across the board so if the goal is to hear from more people the proper place to have the meeting is where we've been having all of the meetings which is on Zoom we don't need to have it in person um Mr f and others are very skilled Mr Fagan I I didn't I meant to say this earlier your turnaround on the business cards for the gentleman that made the presentation for the county was like minutes and it's up on the screen um we have the ability to and to use technology to share screens to to go through PowerPoints we do it right now multiple members uh that participate in Zoom meetings share their screen and walk us through PowerPoint presentations there's no need to have it in person um so the question becomes why and this gets back to something that I've been saying now for several years lack of trust makes everything suspicious it if if we are not consistent and how we approach solving problems or dealing with difficult moments people will lose trust on one side or the other and once that trust is lost then everything you do become suspicious it could be completely innocuous the movement of the meeting from one venue to another but the lack of trust makes everything suspicious so uh what I'm hopeful for and what we've been trying to establish this year or trying to rebuild and regain is trust by being fair and consistent um with all of the different matters that we have to deal with even when they're difficult even when we're on sides of an issue whatever that may be um so uh I I I will leave my commentary uh regarding that meeting uh there I think I've dealt enough uh with it in this venue especially since I'm on the planning board um I will Echo the sentiments of my colleague councilwoman Williams uh thank you Miss Salters uh you are the first person to come in person to a council meeting to address us um others have been at various events in town um and we certainly do look forward to hearing from them uh but West Orange uh for whatever reason and I I'll just say it you know maybe it's me um I feel like we are not giving the same I don't think we're given the um uh the attention that we deserve with 30,000 registered voters in this town and a high turnout I don't know where what numbers she was looking at but uh we will probably get about 70 we'll get no less than 70% turnout this fall in our November election so uh this is a town that doesn't just have a lot of Voters but our voters show up to the polls especially in presidential election years which is the same as the Congressional cycle uh so we need to be taken more seriously and all of y'all need to come to West Orange and talk to our residents um to understand what it is we need we need here um all right we talked I've talked enough I think we've addressed every single uh commenter in public comment again I do want to thank uh uh Mr Fagan director bril Mr pesi uh for all of the information um and I'm looking forward to seeing seeing that stuff on the uh website and West Orange I'll see you guys at the um fire not the fireworks at the 4th of July celebration with with with that I will close my public comment uh or my response to public comment um Madame clerk our consent agenda okay approval of minutes of previous meeting public meeting of June 10 to June 10th 2024 and revised public meeting minutes of January 23rd 2024 thank you report of Township officers none reading okay wait I directed to give uh the administration one second uh rushing through this I thought we were going to have an early night tonight clearly we're not you don't you don't have to stay but uh did you guys want to respond either to uh the planning board or the trees or any of the others so there's a couple things um I'll start with the planning and planning and zoning boards are independent land use boards the Administration has no ability to create any rules for them whether it's location time place manner it has nothing to do with the mar Administration we we can't we cannot legally impose any rules or regulations upon the land use Sports um the ask for the six months with the tree ordinance was at the request of Mr Kip he does not believe he can get this fully implemented before six months um I I found it rather insulting that it was compared to managing our way out of a paper bag but that's for Mr kit Mr Reynolds and uh Mr elani to deal with um they uh they all do their best it's going to take some time and six months is not an unreasonable amount of time I think what's going to happen is we're going to probably put a moratorium in place which would likely keep all of you very happy because no trees will be cut down we just will not issue any permits for six months um we'll have to have an emergency caveat that if a tree is rotted and it's about to fall and hit a house or kill somebody then yes that will be taken down but if we don't have the uh sofware in place and the people in playes it takes six to eight weeks to onboard people we don't even have a budget pass to hire these people and they may get cut out of the budget the final end so we don't know that we're getting them to say well there's like six more people in the DPW budget well that remains to be seen if we get them and we hire them you're already getting close to the first of the year but in any event I mean that's going to be my advice to the mayor is that we put a more torium in place um are there any other specific questions because I think I covered everything I'm I'm satisfied everybody thank you uh Mr Abbott appreciate your your thoughtful resp response um Madam clerk thank you West Orange okay uh re reading of petitions and Communications and bids none uh Bill list are there any questions on the bills no uh resolutions or any resolutions being pulled this evening yes there are um councilwoman uh well I'm I'm pulling one 98 uh yeah I'm pulling 198 and good night I question I'm pulling 2201 councilwoman celino I question s 198 all right so that was pulled anything else being pulled got it all right uh hearing nothing else we have 198 tolded by me 200 1201 pulled by councilwoman GB Michael and that's it Madam clerk okay is there a motion to approve the consent agenda second all in favor I any opposed the consent agenda is implemented uh resolution 19824 resolution authorizing the disposal of shelding council president rord pus right so my issue with this is that um excuse me there's a there's a a cost to this um to dispose of it uh can we can we discuss what that cost is zero zero dollars so it cost us nothing to get rid of this Mr Mr Albert is agreed because he's going that that's this do this shelving is in the old library over across the the driveway here um when that was um taken apart and they and they um part of the deal was that we were going to receive that that space um it's it's closer to 8,000 square feet because it's downstairs and everything else but anyway when the library moved all their equipment and their products and books and and stock and everything else to the new library they left what they didn't need anymore and that was that that shelving that shelving was purchased over 50 years ago 50 plus years ago we don't have the exact date we don't have the purchas order um so what we did was we threw a several people we've tried to have it donated sold things of that nature so Mr Alper wants to move forward with giving a spa taking a space in building he wants to remove um the shelving out of the way so he can put up the wall so we can start planning with ours and he said that if we do this before he moves out of the out of the project he will take care of it for us and we won't have it won't cost if if there was a cost we would have put it in there thank you that that is that was my principal uh issue I did not want us to have to pay to have it removed or disposed of and that that that's the reason we have an opportunity for this to go away without a cost to us and if and if we don't pass this tonight which you know that's your proga then we will be coming back to you with a cost to how much it will cost for us to remove got it our Council and then Council so is there any need for any of the shelving and it's it's it's old it's obsolete had the library thought it would they would have took it with them we actually we thought we had we our best chance was a school a private school in the Trenton area that we were going to get it to but then they just even realized it's it's big it's cumbersome it's heavy yeah and it's just it's it's really for a lack of better words stamped scrap n though I was getting right to ask same question can't we well they did price they did price that out for scrap metal right it's not we no we did get we did not get a full valuation of it what we what we did was we had our environmentalist W the fail he basically said look this is just not worth on the market these days this is not a metal that's worth any money he goes realistically he goes he goes it'll be worth several hundred dollar to maybe $1,000 and if you see in the in the resolution it says anything under worth the value of under $6,600 um we can we dispose that's that's the that's the procurement loss it's a wash because you'd have to pay somebody to come in and take it out it we're gonna have to pay labor we're going to have to pay you know we're going to have to pay all this stuff we would have to use our staff to help remove this especially if was a school we we tell them they have to come and get it but we know we've had the dedicator say so how many hours that takes I that's probably a two or three day project to get that that out of the building understood Council uh thank you so much for the explanation because I've had a few residents reach out concern thinking that we were going to take on the cost to dispose of these shelves but again we wouldn't know that unless it's written in here and it doesn't well we we said that we're just going to dispose of it it it doesn't say the reason we didn't put a number value on it because there was no number value to put no I understand that but at least if you put like dispose at no cost or there's no just to say there's no cost Associated because people started to assume I take full responsibility I wrote that that's my full life Poli it's not that it's not no you guys you guys are specific you want not to exceed I understand that but you know I I apologize I just I would like to make an amendment so if we can include at no cost just so people know that thank you second that uh where do you want to put that wherever legal sewn to the town the township okay so that you can F where at the end disposed must be removed and disposed up thank you okay thank you sir see exactly what I'm talking about quick with the draw so uh Mr jingar you got the amendment yeah and I need to take a vote on it yep councilwoman celino on the amendment yes councilwoman gber Michael Yes councilwoman Scara councilwoman Williams council president Rutherford yes okay are we ready to vote on the resolution second Okay resolution thank you councilwoman castelino yes councilwoman gabber Michael councilwoman Scarpa yes councilwoman Williams yes council president Rutherford yes thank you uh the motion carries uh 2-24 resolution authorizing Award of Professional Services agreement for National diagnostic services for cancer screening for the West Orange fire department councilwoman gber Michael yes thank you madam CL so I pulled 200 and 2011 so I'm going to talk about them together um it was just a little confused because I see that two resolution 200 we're uh giving a contract to um I guess a company it's going to do the answer screening for firefighters um but then I look at 201 and just the way it's written even you know states that we're going to be hiring a Mr Michael or Dr Michael Kelly and he's going to get paid $1,200 per firefighter to do cancer screenings but he doesn't have like a cancer specialist background um it doesn't State on here how many people um apply they were the only two applicants they were okay so they were the only two but why not so Dr the consultant to the to the firm versus an individual it just it just didn't look right you know because at the very end of this on page two there's a star and it says Township and Dr Kelly agree that West AR mayor Susan McCartney has not been involved in any aspect of this agreement including but not limited to solicitation negotiation consideration or word of disagreement so it's just little bit of we have residents even complain about this so I just I'm just trying to understand so let me first explain what it is it's state mandated legislation that we afford the firefighters these cancer screening services corre both they're the only two that put in for it Dr Kelly and this out ofate company um the atate company comes and is on site for um three to four I told them they're going to need four so they would said well we could do four contiguous days if any of the firefighters are away or anything else they're going to miss that and they're gonna have to wait they're not going to be able to get it that year because they're not coming back till the following year for three or four days again Dr Kelly could do that the firefighters an option go to go Dr Kelly some of them for reasons I'm sure you can Envision may not be comfortable going to Dr Kelly go to this I went to um the SOA president Frank noberini with this and he was very happy that we were willing to do both um B disclosure Dr Kelly's actually willing to do more testing than the minimum requirement for less money than the big firm is um in the end the state reimburses all this money so this doesn't actually cost any property taxpayers obviously everything's paid for through taxes but any property taxpayers any money to for these two services so that's why we went with tip so when did you go to bid for this and how long was the bid open for because I didn't even know that we were we're going out to bid for this uh we put out um actually was an RFQ it was a while back not that long ago but you know month or two how long was it open for um Paul would have taken Mrs Mrs Reynolds would have taken care of that I don't know what you know that's all statutory so whatever it's probably 60 days any other questions anyone else have questions on this no I move so so I do um my so what you know couple things one um I I wanted to just redo the numbers to make sure it's a $45 difference in each uh between the two um to do all of the prescribed uh testing um and you know so I was curious as to why we would have Dr Kelly as well as national uh diagnostic it's my understanding that National diagnostic does a ton of this kind of stuff for firefighters uh in particular but but for others too um and they have been approved I think or at least somehow vetted at the state level uh by the unions um that that's my understanding so um I was curious as to why we would have two I understand the logic a little bit better now and I spoke with both companies they're both willing to share it um you know all things being equal Dr Kelly would have been the only one put up if we didn't put both up because as I said he's doing more testing for less money yeah I mean it's $40 $40 $45 difference per firefighter which over you know 100 firefighters he's also available 12 months a year they're coming here for four days from out of state and that's it when they leave they're gone so if a firefighter's on vacation he's stay I mean four days is nothing it's four consecutive days firefighters away for four days he doesn't get them again till the following year and you know you got cancer in your system a year could Bean a difference between life and death absolutely so could you know two or three months um so but to that point um it just struck me as odd that we would have boarded to the two and um and this gets back to something I said earlier you know trust is important I I don't recall ever seeing uh this clause in another resolution which immediately was um it drew my attention I don't know why we would even need to have that clause in there what Clause is that uh Township and Dr Kelly agree that West Orange mayor Susan McCartney has not been involved in any aspect of this agreement is there some conflict or some relationship or something that that's not disclosed that would create the need because otherwise the assumption would be all of the all of the bidding was done in the same way that all of the other bidding has been done like and and that's not been added to any other contract or resolution that I've seen so I don't know what precipitated the need to even say that uh that that strikes me as odd I mean that that came from legal I assume Mr Jer you wrote The Resolution back Mya we should take a look at the B on a record Council G Michael's question it was advertised in Star ler on the town website on May 8 how long was it open for well not 60 I think it's 60 days it's not 60 yet it was May could have been it's RF so is it 30 no it's not a big I said that so it's not 60 yeah it just I've had a i' I'm gonna be honest I've had a few complaints about 2011 it just doesn't sit well with me can we use the other company instead of Dr Kelly you can but here's what's GNA happen you have four days I I'm not going to put our firefighters at risk if something as serious as cancer if we want to if we want to make some amendments and strike this for some reason if there's no comfortability or we want to I I I don't know for fact but I would speculate and there's probably some of the firefighters that go to Dr Kelly's their primary care physician they're definitely our cops yes so this was for you know six or seven firefighters that may not want to go to Dr gy and I had that conversation with the Union head and the union had very comfortable with both yeah so so I spoke with the Union head too and that is not my take away from that conversation when I spoke with the uh Union Leader um my takeaway was that and and I didn't want to say it I was going to kind of use same kind of language you did there's some folks that would just probably not for reasons you can understand want to use Mr Kelly uh and I don't think it's six or seven I think it's the overwhelming majority if not so do we pay Mr Kelly if we don't use Mr Kelly what's that do pay I'm sorry do we pay Dr Kelly if we don't use Dr Kelly no it's it's a reimbursement from the in fact there I believe there's a way which I have to look further into I believe there's a way for direct payment from the state to the care provider that would if we can do that I'm definitely going to try to get that done because you know that's just one more moving part to this to have this going through our financial department we can skirt that that's great can someone explain to me why we would be willing to have our First Responders at risk and not be their request that's the explanation so which is why I'm asking if Dr Kelly is not utilized if there are some that want to use Dr Kelly if he is not utilized by all are we build for him no absolutely not you're only you're first of all like I said we may not be built for anything we don't pay for this this is State legislation the state pays for this so it's either going to be a direct reimburse to us or a direct payment to the provider which there is a vehicle to do that I'm just don't know if we qualify because there's there's some different um you know whether your state health benefits plan or you're not so I I have to I have to drill down further on on that but one way or the other they only get paid for the services they provide they're not getting any flat fee it's it's per head if they treat you they get the 1250 or whatever the round number is can we go out to bid again for for 201 only not a not bid I'm sorry request for qualifications RFQ but what they're the same it's the same RFQ you can't go out for 2011 and not go out for 200 it's the same RFQ uh Council respond Council yeah I need to understand that nondisclosure statement about the mayor I I really would like to understand why that's there why that Clause is in there that's and is that something that we've had in any other no well I could say that since I've been here for 15 years we have had that in resolutions in the past okay maybe not so is there any urgency can we table this until we get a response can we table this ordinance until we get a response about the the clause about the Rel the negotiation Clause you can table it pass 200 and table the administrational both of them we're not going to deal in as people no no no no no no no so let's let's just take a deep breath um it's my understanding that this is already this has been already in the works for several months right so um what I think none of us would be comfortable with is someone having to wait another month or two at all find out they hav I'm coming to you in a second so I I you I don't know if you can unilaterally pull it um I I'm going to encourage my colleagues not to pull 200 uh if you want to pull two if you want to pull 2011 or you want to table 21 that's a whole another conversation and I I won't remember nobody has to go to either one I get it if if 80 some firef fighters to say I don't want to go to Dr Kelly not one of them goes to I get it I I get it um I'm just trying to move the meeting so I I I I am adamantly opposed to not providing this type of service for our First Responders it is cancer is cancer and it's and that's what people say and if we are playing with our First Responders lives based on Clause based on something that we're not familiar with I I really don't care who has negotiated the contract it has no merit to me if we don't pay Dr Kelly and if the firefighters don't want to utilize Dr Kelly that's one thing but for us to sit here and debate on they're having accessibility for this type of testing I think that's ridiculous cancer is cancer and they need to have full access to be tested and if this company is only going to be here for four days out of a year there is no way I sleep at night knowing that I was the reason that they could not go somewhere and get tested Celina so I I I talked to the union heads also so so let me just take this back to when this occurred um during covid ill feelings with a a letter that was written by Dr Kelly that administration had asked for and I get that and I get the ill feelings and and I appreciate the two options that they have but I'm going to share something else and I'm the first one to to to support our our uh First Responders I don't want to interrupt you I apologize but everybody remember we're involved in litigation I know so I know I know care careful what we talk about so but but again but and I appreciate that and that's why sometimes like it it's hard for me to get words out because I know there litigation and I'm very cautious of what I'm going to say so that's why sometimes I'm hesitant just so you all know um because it's tough you don't want to put the Township in a place because of something that we said at the end of the day I don't want people out there watching this to think ill of of Dr Kelly because of a certain situation Dory that time frame Co before some of you were even on the council there was folks who couldn't get a doctor there was folks it was hard to to be seen folks deathly ill at home and quite a few times myself I know the chief he was he he saw residents and and saw and staff that probably would not have been seen and would have been in Jeopardy so I remember that I just want to share that with you because that's the kind of physici he is um and again um I won't say much more to it I'm gonna support this tonight and I perfectly understand uh why there are some ill feelings but again uh qualification wise um you know I I I I remember what he's done for our community so going to leave it at that I I also would like to point out I did not have an opportunity to speak to Dan Carion I only spoke with Frank meini who who was and if you told you something different I have no objection to me me you and him sitting down over a cup of coffee because the message I got from him he was very pleased with the ability to have both of them yeah so council president I I'd like to wait I've heard everybody here I think of everybody at this table I hear a lot about different things I think I have the most experience with firefighters and cancer in this room mhm I served 30 years in the fire department 13 as the fire chief I lost a lot of friends to cancer in the fire service so I I could name them but I won't but cancer is real fire with the fires we go to all the equipment we put on all the training we have I've had friends come down with cancer post 911 pre 911 this is serious the state of New Jersey Jersy the firefighters the fnba the iff and all the other the Chiefs Association all came together to put this out there this is a reimbursable bill that we're giving our firefighters every single one of them an opportunity to go to one of two physicians at their choosing so they can survive if they get cancer you can delay this tonight I'm telling you right now I've had at least 10 friends on the fire department in 37 years come down with cancer and or pass away this is we're talking about cancer and we're talking about two services to better exp explore to better expand provide for our First Responders I'm telling you right now this is a ridiculous argument absolutely and you can get offended at me I'm speaking from a motion you speak from a motion I'm speaking from motion this is our people plain and simple that's what I'm about to say so I appreciate that Mr smdo I want us to all take a deep breath um I what I said about not delaying it tonight is because it has already been delayed four months we should have done this earlier this year right now and I didn't want to put it out there like that but this should have been done sooner this year so to delay it another night is a problem for me and I think for everybody on this Council um no one wants to remove the opportunity for our firefighters to get screened I am grateful that the state has provided the funding to have it happen every three years um honestly it should happen every year right and all over yeah I mean you know if if you if yes so it should be the the screenings should be even um more frequent than they are um but this is what we have I I think it's going to get past I think the problem is and and this is you know I'm going to say it again um we've got to be consistent with how we handle some of these things and when we're not it provides an opportunity for folks to distrust mistrust or try and find something wrong or wonder um and with to your point cancer um well I could say council president trust me cancer kills people that that is certainly not in question by me or by anybody and to the chief Point everybody else's point I get it but the one service is 4 days Dr Kelly is the other 361 that's that's around the clock opportunity for our firefighters so I I hear you I I am I'm disappointed with the tone that this conversation has taken I will tell you that um having lost someone very close to me this year to cancer and still healing from that loss is offensive to even imply that that it's not that somehow I'm not taking it seriously no I and I apologize it's passionate to me just listen everybody on this Council gets passionate once in a while subject and I think every once in a while the administration get can get a little passion understood it is it's offensive I apologize it's all right it's it's a it's a it's an issue that affects everybody deeply so I certainly do understand um councilwoman gber Michael so we hear you but we're also trying to do our due diligence because again I spoke to the same person he spoke to who said that the majority of the firefighters wouldn't go to Dr Kelly so when I hear that then it's our due diligence to bring these concerns up it is a major red flag the way this resolution and contract was written to have that asteris doesn't make sense this is the first time I'm seeing it on the council and this is my second year it has you know I hear what you're saying I hear what council Williams saying what I'm going to do is I'm going to make a motion to introduce resolution 200 and hopefully can table 2011 to the next meeting okay and then get some clarity because that's a problem and and and I would like some understanding as to why that's in there because maybe we can put out another RFQ for this year because if they're going to come and do it for these four days then maybe put out another RFQ give an opportunity you got if you're can RFQ you gotta over well real quick real quick though so before we actually get to that point uh so the other the other issue is there's you know talking about consistency when you read 200 right on the front it tells us what those yeah benefits are and what the cost is and it itemizes it and when you add it up it's $1,245 for all of the screenings that have to be done on the other one it just says $1,200 per firefighter we we it I I don't know why we wouldn't use the same format for each it I can answer that sure because it's how the responses to the RFQ were submitted the responses to the RFQ by NDS were submitted by a per exam basis responses to the RFQ by Dr Kelly were submitted as one flat B for all those SCS so for our sake and for the sake of the public because you receive information or the administration receives information you got to take that information synthesize it into a resolution that we can vote on give us some consistency that it you know you may not want to Mr Jenaro you may think that that's trivial but well all right so I'm it's only for the six months it has to go back out 2025 all right so will you please notify us when these rfqs or rfps go out you got you know Mr Reynolds puts rfqs out like badly I mean so I don't know how we know unless you want to be copied on to be copi and actually the rfqs RPS are on the website all the time you do is click on it well that's even better then all you have to do is you just go to the website and you can see every RFQ I it's not every yeah and and honestly we should be we should be copying you the rfqs because it's a public bid and it's not you guys are not so we don't know about it that's why we're asking you we are we are putting them up on the on the website every time what I'm saying is we're not I'm not getting an email saying that an RFQ is going out for this so you want Paul to write you an email every time she put an RFQ but if she's going to notice that this is going out she can send it copy us on that email why can't you look at the computer every day if you're it's there on computer right so so we've got a request to do that you may or may not honor the request asking for I understand Council woman but we just last week listened to our staff how they're overburdened it's a another step in their did he not send an email let I don't get an email that yeah it's just a cc but it's not it's not because it doesn't there's no there's no email to it's not a cc all right it's published in the paper so we're we're gonna beat this dead horse um and it's already dead so let's let it let's let it be dead um so clearly all of us here in support of our Public Safety our fire and our police and we want to do what's best for them but I'm getting conflicting information as is council president so if you guys want to table this for the next Mee the conflicting information we on 200 no let's I made to introduce 200 offer your motion motion for 200 has been offered and seconded Madam clerk Council I'm sorry councilwoman castelino yes councilwoman gber Michael Yes councilwoman scorpa yes councilwoman Williams council president Rutherford yes okay the motion is carried 20124 resolution authorizing a word of Professional Services agreement for Dr Mar uh Michael Kelly for cancer screening for the West Orange fire department I'd like to make a motion to pull this from the agenda until we get clarification table or pull a table I guess I'll second I need to know exactly what the clarification you're seeking is I would like to know why the asri the Clause that I read was put in here and I'll read it again Township and Dr Kelly agree that West Orange mayor Susan McCartney has not been involved in any aspect of this agreement included but not limited to solicitation negotiation consideration orward of disagreement it says the same thing in the NDS all right I would I would also like to know um okay I would in addition to that I'd like to know so have it in both I want to know why in both things uh you're saying it is in both it is on page three it's in the other one yes but but my main issue is I'm being told that the majority of the fire department does not support 2011 but you know you don't even have to have a reason you made an off you made a motion to Table Right was that properly seconded then let's take the vote because I'd like to to speak some more firefighters I guess and get complete clarification Madam clerk so um more clarification I texted um Mrs Reynolds to find out if she knew anything about the CLA that clause and she said um all that she can say is that the mayor did not choose the vendors maybe that's why it was in the agreement okay thank you thank you m the firefighters actually picked both of these I understand there was a lot of support for resolution 200 is my understanding but the union leadership supported both candidates and just because some firefighters want to do it some others want to go somewhere else so what your numbers are I don't know some could be two it could be there's 88 firefighters it could be 87 of them we don't know you did you guys pull them to see absolutely not no absolutely this is an RFQ we don't pull individual employees to see who they like better that is not something we do it would be totally impr so we what we're doing is debating Kelly uh I think um inappropriately I agree so the the motion has been properly offered and properly seconded Madame clerk councilwoman celino I explained my reason so this is to table no I'm not gonna table councilwoman gber Michael Yes councilwoman Scarpa yes councilwoman Williams no council president ruford yes so just again so I'm clearing I don't want to beat this dead horse as the council president said we're tabling it that means it comes up next time it's not voted down correct what changes next time when we put it on I want to do my due diligence and be able to speak to more of the firefighters I guess rain day it could be anything we don't even need I think so you're not looking for anything Administration then no we're not looking for anything I still want no hold on I still would like to know why those Clauses are in there I because they've been in there for the last 15 years from what Madam Clark said okay it's true and just to clarify they were also in the resolution that you V best I understand that but I haven't been seen it in any other resolutions this last year or this year other than now the resolution that best correct and can we can I a cop so like if we're gonna I'm sorry go ahead can we see the RFQ can we get a copy of the rline yeah it's on the computer it's online it's on the web it's on the website okay I mean it's it's the hardest thing to find stuff on that website but okay somebody just could she just send it to us it would be a lot I can't believe someone's making coffee that is not a good sign all right uh we've done those I want to offer a motion that we go into executive session it is uh before we do our um first and second read uh ordinances thank you favor I any opposed okay the motion carries thank you we're going to take a brief recess into executive session uh thank you West Orange we will be back and reopen okay I will adjourn executive session and reopen our council meeting second thank you all in favor any opposed the motion is carried okay uh ordinances on second and final reading council president uh the Administration has requested or has pulled agenda this evening thank you madam clerk so we're on 2858 correct 24 an ordinance amending and supplementing chapter 7 traffic subsection 7- 26.1 bus stops of the revised General ordinances of West Orange Roosevelt Middle School is there a motion to introduce second and final okay oh we need we public comment is that hold on I have to do a vote on that one councilwoman Celina yes councilwoman Michael Yes councilwoman Scarpa yes councilwoman Williams council president Mar K yes okay yes public comment we will now have public comment uh seeing no one in the gallery there is no public comment public comment is now closed okay um all right uh are we prepared to any any questions comments concerns or are we prepared to vote is there a motion to approve move okay councilwoman celino yes councilwoman gber Michaels councilwoman Scara councilwoman Williams council president rber yes the motion is carried thank you madam clerk welcome ordinances on first reading 28 59-24 and ordinance amending and supplementing chapter 7 traffic subsection 7- 32.2 restricted parking zones of the revised General ordinances of West Orange 52 Hazel Avenue and 122 little Avenue okay councilwoman celino yes councilwoman gber Michael Yes councilwoman farpa councilwoman Williams council president re yes okay the motion carries any any commentary before we move on to 2860 okay 28624 was a duplicate to 2862 24 okay um it was 2862 was advertised so I decided to remove the 2860 2861-20 an ordinance and amending and supplementing chapter 20 streets and sidewalks and subsections 20-1 ET SEC of the revised General ordinances of the township of West Orange is introduction on first reading okay councilwoman celino yes councilwoman gabri Michael Yes councilwoman Scara councilwoman Williams council president Ru yes just can we in layman's terms what is this doing I mean I have my understanding I I have that yeah is she on M is Miss carbello on have a question she okay um Mr Abbott Mr Jenaro Mr moraldo it it seems to me like this was designed to address the issues of patchwor being done when the roads are ripped up is you know water company PSG so this may be the one yeah you know I'm not I'm aware of what you're saying I don't know that that's this particular ordinance the ordinance that you're speaking of requires the utility companies to pay curb to curb it requires them to pay for the inspectors because we have Jimmy Williams we have one got work going on everywhere it can't be everywhere at once so we'll hire a third party inspection that doesn't work for them but they have to pay for it just like our environmental consultant and um to uh do certain um I don't know the technical aspect but we weren't real happy with the way they were Paving around the manhole covers so they're going to have to do that it's going to have to be minimum of two inches uh passport laid down a lot of good things for our roadways that the utilities are going that's not this that this may be that I'm explaining the ordinance that you think it is I don't know that disordinate but right because I'm not sure if that if that if this at least the little bit that we have here if this accomplishes that well this is for it says for General specification for contractors's excavate streets and sidewalks in the township it also outlines new emergency procedures requirements for Street openings in protected streets and introduces new penalties for violations of the ordinance this ordinance is is consistent with procedures and requirements other North Jersey towns right so I like I I just I don't know I'm I'm a Layman I just wanted to register that I'm not exactly clear if this would accomplish what uh Mr Abit and I were just yeah discussing if it does great that's that was what we've been talking about um looks like it asked for a lot of details is being um inserted into the language of this that that didn't appear to be there before yeah yes this is it and this is it yeah y curb to curb is right in there uh for emergency work excavation Street openings protected streets for new paid rways violations and penalties um a description of work to be form a reason for said work the dimension and this require and this is so so just so we're clear when it says like you no one can do it psng is not exempt from this kind of stuff American Water not if you have a ordance in place my understanding they're not okay to they can't just tearing apart our streets and leave ronal teris was yeah real bad all because we didn't have an ordinance on the booksand I've been asking for a curb to curb ordinance since I was director of so yeah finally got it you best put it in place thank you Z okay let's go I call for the a lot of detail in this I yeah introduc 2862 is next okay so what are we wait an ordinance amending the effective date of ordinance 2846 d24 and ordinance repealing and replacing chapter 25 section 27 of the revised General ordinances of the township of West Orange and establishing uh chapter 28 for Environmental Protection to amend the effective date protection removal and replacement is there a motion to introduce on first reading oh this is what we don't want okay yeah if they if I don't get a motion it fails no we make a motion it fails so you have to talk about it for an hour right I'm not offering the motion neither am I okay all right so done that's it for I I I do have to make a statement though and the statement is to Administration um obviously you all heard what we had to hear we had um and I appreciate your comments on having to get and Mr Kip you know is concerned about how he's gonna get this done and again um I know he was involved in a lot of conversations with the folks that were advocating for this so I just hope it all gets figured out um or we're going to have it we met with him he's the one that told us he's got to have about six months to put this in I know I heard you just wanted stay once again all right thank you he didn't say that I mean if I may he didn't say that when we were doing the the negotiations so or during the budget so for you to I mean I I it's difficult difficult Miss Gary Adams did she did she did make a statement it's very difficult he he may not have thought a throw maybe he didn't look at all the moving parts of this ordinance with but we've been saying that Chief I mean we've been saying that the whole time I've been arguing for so many things that we had to compromise on just to get this p and I'm not happy with I commend all five of you for coming to a consensus that's that's the biggest you had we were here for hours and hours sometimes you know the public anybody could have said at any given time anybody could have said at any given time we're not ready to implement this the whole time we've been discussing this no one said In fairness to them they were saying it that's why I didn't vote for all parts of the Amendments because I did hear they weren't ready on certain aspects of it um but again I mean here we are so I don't know how you're G to get it done but I guess legally well I think his conversation the administration at this point has to do what it has to do and if a moratorium has to be put in place do our best to yeah but a moratorium means if I'm if I go to I need to put a fence I want to get a poll whatever I can't I can't apply for a permit motion failed so I mean right motion fa right let Mr abbit have have have uh are we on track to send out um educational notices in the third quarter tax gone you know that Bill's gone already did we send anything out that they said they would the notice in the tax the yeah for the for the trees yeah yeah no we didn't we didn't have anything to send out yet what we did what we did discuss and just so you know for the record the administration is going to support this ordinance we and we have said in the past that we need to get more staff which we're in the budget which was presented by Z director Calo director Reynolds um we said that we had to get um our infrastructure with the software which we are doing and I did have a conversation with our our vendor last week to to discuss that to make sure that's added in a component um so we are working toward this goal of of making this come to fruition and one of the things we did say we said the reason we we put the date of January 1 was that we we may get this software done prior to we're trying to give ourselves a little wiggle room because we don't want to say we'll have it done by September that comes you hat and hand say you know we didn't get it done well we we have a realistic goal of trying to get that done by January 1st if not sooner I can tell you this right now we have a phase uh and well end of our second phase we I believe it's six phases we have to get through one and two were the longest we're going to start sometime in mid July with six week increments of two day a week meetings with our staff and the and the vendor to build this this platform it's going to take like I said till like November or so uh it may be sooner it may be a little bit later so that was that was the intent of the the the January 1st so just so you understand that and we're we're working working toward that goal of making sure that this this is adhered to just as you passed um but we have to get that staff and we have to get them implemented and trained so we will do our best to make sure that we implement this just you know that's where we're at now so we understand so we have a we we are here to support that thank you sir so why wasn't it mailed out you guys said you were gonna mail I I'm sorry so I'm sorry so are are so Mr Kip said you are you talking about the tree people no no what I'm asking why wasn't the tree ordinance not that was passed why wasn't I 20 days Days 20 days after passing so I understand that but if the idea was that we were all working on passing it you guys stated if I remember correctly that you were going to mail it out in the in the bills so the residents were aware that there's a new tree ordinance regarding permits I apologize I don't remember ation was going to be about the sewers which we actually worked on trying I think it was like trees and Sewer no we couldn't put but so many things in yeah I I don't I don't remember the trees being and if that was the case I don't remember that being in it wasn't we talked about I don't think was left in concrete terms because we talked about putting too much in and the way of the we put so much in so I think it was kind of left up in here I don't know where the letter in tax bills where that we didn't put any we didn't put any letter into this recent tax bill and the reason being that well after the discussion last time about the sores and we were talking about trying to figure out a mechanism to collect all the data what we're doing now right now is we're working with our our software providers so all the people that who provide their uh who pay their sore bills online with their with their credit card we're going to obtain the information from them to start building I think the chief explained last time that you know how we we can't get all that data so we're we're working that way we're working backwards we didn't want to put a letter in the envelope about saying you're going to give us a bill because you clearly did not like that idea at the time so we didn't do that but we we came up with I worked with the tax assessor's office and our it to add to our our credit card system so that when people pay by we're going to capture the data of those who pay by credit card we're not going to capture the data for those who pay in person cash or check unless they actually come forward and provide that information to us so we can ask them but we're working toward getting that solution getting all that information from the store built so can we is it possible to have like a popup when people go on to our website for the first time or even go to pay the sewer bill a popup that says hey just you know notification there's a new a revised tree ordinance this is what where you can learn more about it click it the tree ordinance was posted on there if it's not we can Mr here think that system has that cap I don't we I don't think we have the capability of popups okay it's not it's not do it on the landing page page right something big treat ordinance see summary here Bill information we could we could we could we could absolutely just take the the link to the the tree ordinance and put it under planning of development and say tree ordinance and they click on it goes right to tree orig yes but we should have a lay term summary too couple sentences if we could get the m page if how we have all of the announcements if we could get an announce about the tree ordinance that might be helpful that stay up for some time easy yeah announcement is just fine ask there has to be some way we we'll take care that way we just but that's where the environmental commission and the our Green West Orange could serve the community by getting the information out maybe if we put something on that uh digital billboard when people are driving by like new tree ordinance revised revised tree ordinance thank you revised your ordinance well frankly I think you guys advertised enough I believe you I agree you know with the amount of air time we've had in social media I think you guys are the biggest champions of this building yeah listen not a derogatory State no I know Point well V speaks volumes yeah so um so we have pending matters new matters Council discussion can we not have any pending matters tonight yeah yeah I we got ABC hearings yeah I I don't have anything I'm happy to move on let's go ABC he so I move to ad journ to ABC hearing second wait what about that representative forcb pending matter that's pending matter actually I do have a resume it's my fault now I did get the resume all right please send it because I don't have mine yet and we don't have a one we don't have a one thank you West Orange for being with us uh Until the End uh we wish you a wonderful rest of your evening um this meeting is now closed we're going to move into our ABC hearing which is not uh publish uh public good night thank you very much thank you very much everyone else congrat