good evening everybody it's December 7th 2023 7:30 p.m. this is the mayor and council meeting for the buau of Allandale Linda please call to order the meeting in compliance with the open public meetings act the notice requirements have been satisfied the meeting dates for the year are confirmed at the annual meeting are posted on the public bulletin board in the municipal building and on the burrow website published in the record within the first 10 Days of the New Year and copies are sent to the Ridgewood news and Star Ledger notice of this meeting by the November 21st 20203 Sunshine notice was sent to the record The Ridgewood news and Star Ledger and has been posted on the public bulletin board in the municipal building in burrow website councilwoman homman absent councilwoman lvas solo here councilman oconnell here councilman OU here councilman Yaro here councilman deliso here mayor W wski here everybody please rise flag I flag United States all right next we have approval of minutes do I have a motion to approve November 9th combined work in regular session so moved second second councilwoman homman absent councilwoman Lis solo yes councilman oconnell yes councilman UL yes councilman yino yes councilman Dela yes all right next we have agenda review we have two ordinances this evening that our second reading and they are um basically just cleaning up some language in our code for some positions and then we have our consent agenda consent agenda are um considered routine but we've done a lot of work so I'd like to go through some of these the resolution um 244 is um the date which is January 4th for our Cadia and our reorg meeting so we've been working pretty hard on that we 245 were adopting some new Personnel policies and procedures in our employee handbook getting that all ready to go for the New Year resolution 24 six is our we're adopting a civil right policy which is affirmation that the buau is respectful and conduct conducting business without any discrimination we um are also on resolution 248 appointing an interim Department of Public Works superintendent Andy welcome um next we have construct engineering that we'll be appointing Tyler you talk about that in your uh yeah I'll mention it in my report in your report y okay and we then have a interlocal agreement for our courts between the Bureau of Allandale and the buau of Po Focus resolution 251 we're appointing Chris B as our new municipal judge oh that's going to be super as well um let's see what else we have here we also have our list of bills um I look through that Suzanne I did all right and we are also awarding contracts of the lowest bids we're getting a lot of our contracts out for some janitorial services and as well as some uh buildings and grounds and uh 257 resolution we're endorsing a resolution for a cdbg grant for $80,000 for roofing for a senior housing and that's it all right so now let's go back and um read ordinance 2317 to amend supplement revised the code of bur of Andel officers and employees of chapter 53 will you read that please the following ordinance published herewith was first read by title only on November 9th 2023 and posted on the bulletin board of the lobby of the municipal building in burrow website ordinance 23-17 an ordinance to amend supplement and revise the code of the burough of Allendale officers and employees chapter 53 okay as I mentioned this is just Tiding up language and clarifying the position of clerk um I'd like to open it to the public does the public have any comments on ordinance 23-17 not seeing anybody um do I have a motion don't move lello second please second oconnell R councilwoman Lis solo yes councilman oconnell yes councilman OU yes councilman yerino yes councilman delso yes next we have ordinance 23-18 this is tiing up some language in um our for our bur administrator Linda will you please read ordinance 23-18 the following ordinance published here withth was first read by title only on November 9 2023 and posted on the public bulletin board of the lobby of the municipal building and burrow website ordinance 23-18 in ordinance to amend supplement and revise the code of the burrow of Allendale officers and employers chapter 53 I'd like to open it to the public does anybody from the public have anything to um any comments on ordinance 23-18 not seeing anybody do I have a motion so moved happily L solo second please second R call please councilwoman Lis solo yes councilman oconnell yes councilman OU yes councilman yino yes councilman delais yes okay next we have the consent agenda which I just reviewed is there anybody from the public that has any comments on any items in the consent agenda not seeing anybody we'll bring it back do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved second councilwoman Lis solo yes councilman oconnell yes councilman OU yes councilman yino abstain 23 256 yes on the list please councilman deliso yes all right next we have our Council reports councilman Ed oconnell do you have a report please yes thank you mayor I have no report for this month but I would like to welcome Andy to the Allandale family be happy working with you good luck c m delaia uh mayor I don't have a report this month our committee will meet next Thursday morning on a regular time so I'll have a report for the following meeting but I want to Echo Council M Connell and wishing Andy good luck and welcome aboard I do have a little report this month it's on three different devices so please hold on one second um first of all I want to wish um all of our residents and everyone across um the state and the country and worldwide a very happy Hanukkah I know it's a very Bittersweet time for our friends so I just want to say that our prayers are with you during Hanukkah um I have some things to report let me start with my one um so so uh we we've had a really busy couple weeks and um some of the things we touched on even in the um consent agenda uh our Personnel policies and procedures handbooks and employee handbook was kind of revised and streamlined thanks to our new burough administrator Allison so I want to thank her for that um we happily interviewed lots of really wonderful candidates for the position of Department of uh Public Works superintendent and I'm very happy to welcome Andy Aero yeah Aero here tonight um Andy lives in Waldwick um he is a very um seasoned professional he comes from the county and we are so happy to welcome you to Allen so thanks for being here um also our CFO sent out a um capital budget request sheet to all of our departments um as well as the library this year so they're responding with their Capital um request for the upcoming year um just a quick thing uh the green team has been up and running with some wonderful brand new ideas I am the liaison to the Green Team thank you Mark for being here tonight um one idea that they're floating for next year and if you're like me who has her pumpkins by her garbage bin right now I'm not quite sure what to do with them they are proposing for next year something for all of us to think about a pumpkin smash where the Green Team would come and collect pumpkins and gourds and corn stocks and what have you um and just charge a minor fee for the collection is that right Mark uh after in a little bit yeah um say smash yeah check it would it be fun I guess where it's anyway you can you can explain it later um and uh and then also just as a reminder the green team is still selling composting bins and um rain barrels they might make a nice Christmas present or holiday present for someone and then just a few updates on behalf of the library I'm going to give Library reports just a very quick overview at the first meeting uh of the month of the mayor and Council um so on uh December 11th uh the library is having a Hanukkah celebration and craft for children on the 19th they're doing musical munchkins and on December 20th it's adopt a stuffed therapy dog event um there's also some programs for our adults uh this one sounds like fun Matt I think it says up your alley um it's a program about funny programs the greatest sitcoms of all time that's going to be on December 12th at the library um as always they'd like you to join them for the regular logo classes meditation weekly movie matinees and book clubs and that is it super thank you very much to all yes indeed uh first I'd like to welcome Andy welcome the board congratulations uh the Public Safety Committee has not met as a committee uh since our last meeting due to everyone's packed schedules in December had a few phone calls uh but that doesn't mean that things aren't happening it's very busy all the time uh as we sit here the fire department avac APD andert are sitting at the fire department uh attending an electrical system safety training class taught by Orange and Rockland uh the APD and the fire department are working with the CFO and with us on the council to develop fiscally responsible operating and capital budgets for next year um Chief Dylan recently attended the countywide Candlelite vigil for DWI victims and while we were down at the league of municipalities uh few weeks ago Chief Dylan and I met with various vendors uh to discuss new Public Safety Technologies um I was asked via Mark uh about the status of our grant for Ev Chargers in town which was something that uh I think is is a great opportunity for us um we were not uh awarded that Grant but our grant writer tells us that in 2024 there will be many more opportunities so when they come up she's going to let us know and we'll apply for them again and uh finally this afternoon I received an email from the New York blood center Thanking us for hosting the drive uh back in October and asking because there's such a need for more blood if we'd be willing to host two next year so they'd like to do one in February and then one in the fall so looks like we're having two next year that's great so excellent are you gonna give blood tce uh possibly she laughing at your not possibly might be I actually got my blood donor card today and found out that my blood went to Harlem not a far away to go no all right that's all I got I'm up all right mayor I'll keep my report uh short this evening but one thing that I wanted to highlight which is on the agenda for this evening is we'll be officially awarding phase one of the concession stand project to construct um as I've noted at previous meetings we're very happy to be working with this vendor it is an Allandale resident who are members of Crestwood lake so they're very familiar with the Crestwood facility their family regularly attends Crestwood lake so it's nice to have somebody working on the project that has a vested interest as much as we do so we're really excited excited I'll be meeting with him in the next couple weeks is to make sure the project is up and running now that we're officially awarding that um we have not had a facilities meeting since our last council meeting but I'm looking to have something next week before the end of the year um and also checking in with Ron before he sails off um to make sure that all of those uh loose ends are tied up and to check in with him with regard to certain matters um other than that I will have more to report the next meeting thank you very much thank you very much all right stff reports uh Linda Shino or clerk thank you mayor um I want to thank John Gil Amanda Richards of the clerk's office and also Alison Alano for participating in the Bergen County's Winter Wonderland in vanon Park the theme of allendale's tree is Crestwood Christmas John Gil posted the picture of the nicely decorated Christmas tree on the burrow Facebook page uh so everyone should check that out they did a beautiful job and I also want to welcome Andy to the Barrow Allendale Don Gil our director of communication welcome Andy looking forward to working with you uh just end of the year tidying up with the uh biggest being the garbage and recycling guide which I know is always eagerly anticipated uh going to the pr probably early next week with in mailboxes the following perfect always for attorney Ray West thank you bear Andy welcome aboard um a uh I'll say a robust two weeks in uh in terms of things that had to get done uh crash course on Tuesday in reviewing vid specifications to uh make sure that they were on this evening's agenda um but I do uh as I as I I think I've already mentioned uh want to complement the the preparation of the specs themselves um they were very very well done it made my job easy um even though let's try not to do it on the Tuesday before Thursday meeting but at least we all got it done U some ordinance revisions some of which are on this evening's agenda uh and a couple of others that will be introduced uh in January during the the uh the new term um preparation of some contracts that are pending U for review by the committee uh as usual busy couple of weeks both with respect to the oia and working out the the balance of the easements uh we are supposed to receive tomorrow the appraisal uh on the uh uh for the Green Acres purposes hopefully we will get that at least it's been promised U working with councilwoman homman on the U the Saddle River sewer uh issue which uh uh we're going to continue to press we've got to get some closure on that and then uh on this evening's agenda you saw some tidying up of uh developers agreements going back to the 1980s uh which apparently had been sitting around uh and working with the council for the developer and finally getting them cleaned up and off the books that's it ex thank you very much um okay I'll give my mayor's report um of course uh thank you um welcome and to the allelle family I Echo what everybody else said we had long long weeks of interviewing and you really stood out and are a perfect fit so we really look forward to working with you um happy Hanukkah to everybody um I Echo what uh councilwoman loisel said this is a very um important year this year considering um the horrible acts of Terror that happened on October 7th so um our hearts go out to our Jewish Community we will be having our manora Lighting on the 13th however we're trying to see if it's okay if we actually light it earlier because 13th it's kind of far away so I wrote the rabbi today we'll see probably not going to answer my email this evening but maybe tomorrow um 210 West Crescent so I signed the contract for the community center um actually on October 31st so um you know this has been a very long project it's technically been going on since 2015 when we were going to um have that we're going to take the the property Thea eminent domain because it's a very very important piece of property for the bureau um fast forward we had um issues with environment with the environment we had covid and each time we were going to close like on the back building in the front building we were going to have a celebration and something happened and we just never had the the celebration the money wasn't in the bank in time or somebody had covid or something like that so now I finally have the opportunity to S to sign the contract and the lawyer calls and he wants me to meet him at B Hall in 4:30 on October 31st well I'm in one of those neighborhoods where you cannot get out of your house at 3 at past 3: so I had to instruct him to come through my backyard come into my kitchen I'm in a witch's costume and I'm sing it all by myself in my kitchen so that was like the basic how this all kind of ended and it's just very funny the whole entire thing but um it is signed we had a preon uh was that last week or this week last week so um we're ready to go we met with the new developer right now they're in the process of inquiry there's been a couple of rfis come in and they're basically ordering um all the equipment so as soon as that starts they were hoping that we're going to be done sometime in the summer so I look forward to seeing the progress on that and I plan on posting it so follow us on Facebook so it's going to be very very exciting the 70 units um are almost done and they said by January February they should be actually uh renting the m so they're they're actually advertising now and the units are directly behind our building our building is going to be attach to it um psse uh psng and violia has been in town for a long time and uh ripping up streets they're actually on my street today however their infrastructure upgrades it's all good we're going to have no hopefully no lead lines in Allandale and we have we're going to have new steel bare steel pipes um under the ground for the gas it's just the perfect storm that they're doing it all at the same time um we are trying to get as many streets paved as we can I just really want to thank the residents again for all of their patients through all of it we've been trying to put our Communications out there but sometimes bestel plans the things change um in the moment so um residents have been wonderful APD has been wonderful adapting so I just wanted to put that out there again um we went to the AC Convention this month um we saw a lot of great speakers it's always uh great to get everybody together always learn something there is a big floor that we always pick up either something new in equipment or in software so um it was a really productive um trip as usual um I also want to extend my um condolences to Larry Morgan he was a fighter fighter in town um he's also a longtime Allen resident and his whole entire family is the epitome of you know what Allen is all about they all volunteers they're both on the Ambulance Corp as well as uh Lowry being on the fire department I think for what 30 almost 40 45 years my gosh both of his boys worked at Crestwood um Lauren their daughter was also a dispatcher so they're just one of those families that um is uh just in the fabric of Allandale and we just really wish um his family um our condolences so finally um we're thinking about some new changes for next year we're trying to always make the burrow run more efficiently so we are looking into adjusting our committees right now we have six committees um and in order to do that I need to appoint us special committee and this committee that I will be appointing um is going to consist of council president Liz homman councilwoman suzan Lis solo and councilman Matt otoul so they are going to review some options with our uh different committees and they're going to report back on the December 21st meeting and that is it for me so I just also wanted to I think because we all most of us attended the um tree lighting in town so I just wanted to thank our Police Department our fire department our ambulance Squad um Chris kunish and the kunish family as always um who am I missing the Chamber of Commerce the Chamber of Commerce for organizing it and our Merchants for for um opening up the ones that were open that evening it was really great and I got a wonderful compliment from one of the women in town who um is a manager and one of the businesses and she says you know Allandale has the most polite children she said everyone comes in here and they're so polite and they ask if they can have a cookie and it was just really nice to hear so once again thank you everyone and um it was a great great night very rainy but great night all right okay anybody else have anything any um unfinished business any new business I'd like to open up the meeting to the public for any item to comment on come on up Walter state your name and address for the record please Walter wood 30th Hamilton uh two things I'd like to I don't know about the tree service in uh Bor Park I want to thank you for doing that did you see it no not this year okay I saw it two years ago it was horrible oh well they weren't around they didn't do it two years ago they just started I mentioned it to to Mayor and council at time thank you for that off was a lot going on Allen's the first tree oh I if it isn't decorated it looks like it terrible well did you see it this year go do it this year and come back I don't go over there too often okay you have a picture of it out of my world yeah you have to show John will show you the picture I'll show you the picture I think I think we should say a few words I wish were a public speaker on this issue today's December 7th Pearl Harvard we should pay attention to the fact that a heck of a lot of kids died for us so that we could be meet here J as a free Nation 100% thank you so much for bringing that up Al again I wish I could give you give you a nice speech in that but I I'm not that was just perfect but thank you thank three cheers for the USA amen thanks Walter anybody else from the public wish to speak mark on up Mark savastano 22 Breeland place um quick question before I mention about the P smash um if we wanted to add more street lights like at at night is that something we talk directly with orange and Rockin about or does that go through the mayor and counsel to have that it's a public it's probably uh something with Public Safety is there a specific area that you're well yeah I walked here and uh as I got to the intersection right um in front of Crestwood Lake it I don't know if there was ever a street light there or not but it was so dark that I almost got hit by a car even though I pressed the button uh for the flashing lights to cross so um well we can asky committee sh a couple of different Comm yeah we'll start the conversation in in public safety okay um and uh in reference to Matt's comment um we are starting to get more and more interesting questions from the residents directed to the the Green Team and I passed them along as appropriate yeah I saw that EV one yeah and thank you Matt for resp responding absolutely um it yeah it was a very well- worded question and his response is is genuine and is concern yeah yeah I love when I get those questions it shows that people are starting to be aware of the Green Team and use this as a way either have an answer or pass it along to the appropriate person um and again Andy i' would like to welcome you I did mention in our our past meeting which was on Monday that uh I would like to have you join a green team meeting to talk about sustainable issues and maybe share ideas so when it's appropriate got feet wet snag him yeah well just want to put that out there um he's our first yes he is um And in regards to the the Pumpkin Smash this was brought up as part of one of the Hub meetings the uh sustainable Jersey they've already done this in t neck I believe in um um in hackin sack as well but they gather all of the pumpkins and I not quite sure what the Smashing is about I want to get those details but um the idea is to keep that weight out of the trash stream if you think about it pumpkins and gourds you know they're used for maybe a week or two maybe three and then it just ends up in a garbage truck yeah so since it's something that can be easily compost um and the uh company that has proposed U sponsoring this is one of the companies that uh are willing to pick up from the the residents that I spoke about earlier yeah um but also I thought it might be a good idea to speak to Home Depot and maybe some of the garden centers and ask them if they'd be willing to promote it and that would help keep a great deal of unnecessary garbage out of the TR so that's what it's about thank you again thank you thanks mon anybody else from the public wish to speak come on boy scouts come on up are you boy scouts right come on up I'm Joshua I'm Joshua b i 108 M AV um I was wondering who would be the correct person to talk to about um doing an internship at the um police station um because I'm a junior at the high school and there are senior interships next year and I was wondering if I could get an internship um in like dispatch or something certainly get you in contact with Chief Dylan right yeah we'll put that on the agenda y do you are you going through what's her name Kim Kim hay yeah through there is that or is that oh you are Miss hay yeah okay perfect yeah now we've actually had a lot of interns uh come through Northern Highland so we're always happy to accommodate them when we can so we'll be happy to pass that along and when will this be for um senior year next year oh next year okay great we'll have a lot of time to get it in in order excellent thanks all right anybody else from the public wish to speak anybody back there want to come on up state your name for the record you'll get credit you [Laughter] know it's on the record no all right not seeing anyone I'd like to adjoin the meeting all in favor motion to adjourn so so move all in favor