##VIDEO ID:uO9JrPsd7vk## good evening everybody good evening everybody who's here today and everybody who is virtually this is the mayor and council meeting October 24th at 7:30 p.m. Linda will you please call the meeting to order and read the open public meeting act announcement 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 burough 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 October 16th 2024 Sunshine notice was sent to the record The Ridgewood news and Star Ledger and has been posted on the public bulton board in the municipal building and burough councilman delao here councilwoman hman here councilwoman Lis solo here councilman oconnell here councilman OU here councilman Yaro here mayor wolinski here I don't know you guys hear everything okay everybody please stand to salute the flag all righty have a light agenda today but I think first we'll start off with a presentation uh before I review the agenda of of our best practices inventory checklist checklist uh presented by our uh CFO Alison Alano um and business business administrator um this is a checklist that is required by the States for all different various aspects of the buau budget um beir share housing Etc and we scord very well we did and uh please take over okay so the best practices inventory is required every year by the state of New Jersey its purpose is to assess each municipality's compliance with various laws and evaluate implementation of fiscal and operational best practices it's also used by the DCA to determine areas that may need attention which are generally unscored suring questions our answers to the scored questions determine if we'll receive our full final state aid payment this year's inventory was as follows there were 69 questions in total 52 were scored and 17 were unscored the unscored are as stated before informational purposes only a score of 35 or greater assures full payment of Aid and the burrow of Allendale scored 43.5 this year which ensures that we will receive a full payment of Aid the top graffics with a zero score included electric vehicle stations and lead paint inspection the areas that needed that scored a zero do not need to be addressed as based off of our score we are very compliant with the standard best practi recommended by the DC that's great how was it to fill it out because I know they kept on saying they were gonna try to make it easier and then it's getting harder it depends on the topics that they choose so this year I would say probably 70 5% of the questions really just had to do with financial compliance which had to do with due dates making sure that we filed everything on time um the annual debt statement the budget the financial statement Personnel practices making sure that we're in compliance with our contracts and we're filing them accordingly um so it was pretty good it was smooth okay yeah pleas thank you very much Al righty um next we have approval of minutes October 3rd 2024 work and regular session we have a motion second please second councilwoman Delo yes councilwoman hman yes councilwoman Lis solo yes councilman o Connell yes councilman OU yes councilman yina yes all righty next we have our consent agenda these are matters that are considered routined and enacted in one motion but I do like to review some of them to show everybody all the work that we're doing here in the bureau um first um actually is a resolution rejecting the concession um concession stand at Crest with l we uh have worked very hard to get this done however the bids came in extremely high so what we're doing is trying to Value engineer a bit and really uh tighten up as much as we can and we're going to actually go out to bid so I believe we have a schedule already going up to bed so we're the goal is still to have it completed by um by uh next year we have a resolution do do you have anything to comment on no I just want to thank Alison and Linda for all their work working with Steve and going back and forth bring Chuck I know it's been a lot of eny apprciate it we have a resolution approving the holiday walk already and we're also um have a resolution to go out to bid for our um for our janitorial services as well as snowplowing so uh winter is here um and the approval of the bill list I reviewed it amend suzan Leo very much and actually we're going to be pulling resolution 24247 which is the resolution that was uh going to approve the Ravens crop uh haunted attraction which will no longer be um happening Al righty um so with that do I have um I'd like to open up the public this up to the public for any um comments on agenda items only anybody from the public have any comments on agenda items only not seeing anybody I'll bring it back do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda don't move to second second please second roll call councilman delu yes councilwoman hman yes councilwoman liso yes councilman oconnell yes councilman OU yes Council yarin yes excellent all right next we have our Council report councilman yino thank mayor I'll keep it brief regarding the concession stand we had already touched on that even though we seem to have just closed prbly we actually started receiving some inquiries for band and entertainment for fres in 2025 so we're going to start working on that other than that next week myself director bero Andia will be meeting with liation commission regarding field so have more to rep than councilman all thank you mayor uh real quick we have the two more Scouts looking for scout projects I was able to touch Spas with Andy and come up with some ideas but mayor and councel if you have any ideas uh on projects we're still waiting to meet with the two boys and uh see what they want to do are those the twins yes super yep okay and the twins just graduated from the fire acad yes I know great all right thank you very much councilwoman lva solo thank you mayor um this morning we had our committee meeting for the land use committee um and it started off with uh a little presentation from our new Shay tree committee which is being chaired by former councilman Jim stouch and um his two committee members currently are Pete Ellis and Ryan s Senate I'm not sure they last not um and were great and um so the shade Tre Community is going to help us and help U Mikel Mata and um our um Property Maintenance team um identify the burrow owned trees in in the in the um municipality um and help inventory those trees and what they presented this morning was a little kind of rendering of an idea for the entrance to Crestwood which was really nice about the types of trees that should go in there and they also came up with this great list I don't know if I have it with me of just for for residents if you're interested in planting a tree what are the best ones um to plant um away from wires um away from buildings in your yard it was just this great list of trees once that could maybe shy away from as well um so that was this morning we as always kind of went over residential non-residential property issues in the buau um um there's a couple little code tweaks we have to make we currently don't really have anything in our code addressing sort of valet parking and the municipality so we're going to add a section on that um we're going to re we're going to change the wording of sha Tre commission which is currently in our code to sha tree committee and a few tweaks like that um I just want to remind everyone that the green team of which Walter is a part is this year going to start a pumpkin and cornstock recycling so after Halloween you'll be able to get rid of your pumpkins and your corn stocks oftentimes people are wondering what to do with them and on Saturday November 9th I think from it's 9 to 5 rosers will be taking the pumpkins in the corn stock um and then I think there's going to be another one after Thanksgiving that I think B is going to be the recipient of the collection so it's a great thing to to you know for the community to Super and I think that's it all right thank you very much oh and finance admin HR we're going to be meeting next week or the following week we start off our our budget planning for next year budget planning is already thank you councilwoman homman hi uh yes uh sewers the situation with Saddle River kind of Remains the Same um from the standpoint that Allandale we don't feel that we have the capacity currently on our West Allandale a line um and there's some improvements that even need to be done for the development in Saddle River that's 100% inclusionary fair share housing in order for us even to accept that sewage um so and anything moving forward we would obviously hear from the Saddle River governing body so that's kind of where we are with that I know people have been you know concerned about the overdevelopment of not only in allenvale but other neighbors and how it impacts our um resources such as the suem and then uh from for water we have had several meetings with legal council on the potential litigation against viia for the June 1st 2024 12.25% price increase that is contrary to the 10-year rate stabilization Covenant which it's important you know to remember that that rate stabilization Covenant came into being because Folia responded to an open public bid so we did not force violia into that 10year U binding rate structure so uh we're having a lot of meetings and um we're going to move this forward and then um on the other side with violia I know that people have had concerns about their meters and their The Meters that Allandale had had in place are uh aging they're quite aging and um violia as one of their projects when they were taking over the system was to put in new meters um what are called Ami meters and actually it would transition also to a monthly billing which is actually great because you can see during a month if you're starting to have a problem as opposed to waiting a whole order to find out that you have a running toilet or a break in your um watering system or something like that um so it's my understanding from viia that in December they will be sending out kind of the first wave of letters so you know it's a work in progress there were a lot of back orders on different types of meters but that will be moving forward and I think that will be a nice uh upgrade for the Allen Del residents when we can get our old meters changed out and um the new put in place so loore that's about it for Top Line very much Delia thank you mayor so the DPW committee we had a meeting uh was was our burough administrator Allison myself and our superintendent Andy we met on the 11th just to kind of do a uh preliminary nine-month review because Andy our superintendent has been here a little over nine months so uh we felt it was smart just to get together talk about how things are going uh what's what's doing well I mean my opinion I think the residents would uh agree that Andy's doing a great job DPW is functioning well as always uh we did just talk about some Personnel issues because we have some retirements and some people who have retired and some future retirements coming up uh how resident issues are being handled our current equipment status and budgeting uh for future repair so we we covered all that stuff in that meeting uh as usual uh Andy and I do talk occasionally we haven't had a formal meeting we are going to meet tomorrow morning we typically get together every couple of weeks just to kind of have a brief informal meeting but uh we did discuss DPW has been working on upgrading our fields which are in desperate need of being repaired they're about 90% complete with field one uh they are starting to work on field two uh this is this is with the guidance and help from professional who came and met with the guys kind of gave them some guidelines of what to do and we're handling it internally and it seems to be going pretty well right uh they're handling Leaf cleanup and continuing the closing of creswood Lake uh they started fixing fixed a couple of broken catch basins around town uh starting to prep for winter see uh checking they're going to start to check for clog catch basins around town with leaves so any residents if any catch basins around your home if you see a lot of leaves being collected and uh restricting water from flowing uh either clean it out yourself or just give the DPW a call somebody will address that I know the guys will start doing some team driving around and taking care of of those also we're starting to collect leaves in bags so any residents that put their leaves out in the paper collection bags put them out for your house DPW will pick them up you need bags they are available from DPW free your charge just let let us know that's it thank you thank you tool thank you may the Public Safety Committee has not had a meeting since our last council meeting however we've been in PR good contact over the months regarding goings on with these fire departments uh our meeting scheduled to take place a few weeks ago but with the it's involving officer Mark dun the entire department was understandably busy with other things uh we're tarting November 5th for our next meeting uh I'm going to defer to Chief Dylan to provide whatever updates he feels appropriate officer done but I'd like to let Mark go and keeping him in our thoughts and prayers we're also happy that he's on the road to recovery and we can't wait to have a back um we always refer to Allendale as a family a family we really all felt so nothing but the best very much Alison Alano our CFO ba thank you mayor um so with the year coming to an end you're certainly very busy not only closing up 2024 for in 2025 um we're currently in the process of wrapping up new leases with several providers on our cell tower uh this is going to be bringing in a much larger cell tower Revenue um in years to come which should be beginning in 2025 the interior burrow improvements are still going on we have made great progress so far and we're going to continue improving different aspects of the building into next year we have looked into getting a new website platform it's going to be a lot more user friendly a lot cleaner a lot more simple that's going to be a long process probably about six months to implement but that's something that we've been looking into lastly the budget preparation for 2025 will officially begin on November 1st when I begin to meet all of our departments and the finance committee to review this past Year's budget alongside our goals and try to look at the next five years collectively when planed for 2025 very much our clar Shina thank you mayor um the general election is uh November 5th um as you can see we got the uh the voting machines are in the back with the scanners um Baro has districts two three and vro is four district one is at the firhouse um waiting for the polling pads and other election um suppes to come in um working with the police and BPW um for the general election um I encourage everyone to visit the barough website under the um the burough clerk um page we have a lot of information on uh voting instructions there's an animated video uh that shows you how to vote on the machine there's vote by mail information dropbox locations early voting information um there's also a portal um if you don't know if you're registered to vote you could just type your name in um and your information in and um what else today um I attended an Oprah police training on Oprah um presented by Jay Harris um it mainly pertains to op requests um you know on the police side but it was very informative um my assistant Richard who handled request um was also present so that was very informative yes that I'm sure is gon to be very helpful it's ongoing ongoing all right cha please Mike Dylan thank you Madame mayor thank you to Mayor and Council and the community for their care and concern about officer Mark Dunn officer Dunn was struck by a vehicle while assisting a neighboring Police Department on Route 17 the driver that caused Mark's injury was charged with Doom Miss offenses including driving well intoxicated Mark is currently recovering from his third surgery we are hopeful that his recovery progresses well the department has rallied with the community to share messages of encouragement and well wishes with Mark in form in the form of letters gifts and handmade items Mark and his family have expressed that he's extremely grateful for the outpouring of support they are proud to be a part of our Allandale F that's really for sharing thatw super in thank you mayor just to Echo what uh councilman gso said um we've been out repairing a bunch of catch basins um creu finishing up field one and moving on to field two um we ask that you don't pile your leaves up in the street please uh we do offer uh three U paper bags they're offered at the DPW and also at the compost area on Wednesdays and Saturdays um not that we don't not that we want to talk about that for letter work snow but we're prepping our equipment for winter already and lastly the street skate project is coming along on Central H meria very nice and we have our new director of communications here Julia Moraga would you like to give us a report no pressure I was wondering I'm like did you give her a heads up Ah that's a big [Music] one Facebook that'll be great that'll be very helpful that's before me all right at my mayor's report um the fair share housing numbers came out um I don't know what else to say about that there uh yeah it's it's painful our number is 260 which if you multiply that by five it comes to to about 1,300 units they want us to build um we obviously are going to um try to uh really number crunch um uh I spent a lot of time looking at all the different buckets that they Ed to come up with this formula but I really want to um look at the data that they Ed because they obviously plugged in numbers from data that they have and they collected data some from the bureau some from like like State sites so I really think a deep dive has to be done in this uh done to this so um everybody else is reeling from it um we already had one meeting about it we have another one hopefully uh probably tomorrow at beginning of next week and I will keep everybody informed on that working um very closely with councilman councilwoman homman um with violia talking to the BPU doing everything that we think is right um for the burrow of Allen and quite frankly for other municipalities that will be selling the water system and we think almost every Municipal is going to have to sell the water system based on all of the um very stringent regulations that are coming down um from New Jersey in front of the C we actually had two meetings with students uh this week which was really fun um I was with the fifth grade girl scouts um there was about 20 of them and me so I really ran out of things to say in about 25 minutes so I took it downstairs for a field trip and disrupted the overall um no they were really cute they had a lot of really great questions uh they're very interested in the jail um I told them that you they were really really cute and then um today as well Council woman um Lo solo and I met with um some special needs um students and they were very very sweet and had some very good suggestions for the burough that we will be passing along and they learned all about um civic duty and actually had very very good questions they did a whole report on it so uh they were very well informed and they were very well prepared um I just want to Echo what um Chief Dylan said with um with Mark D it was really um just tragic and we are just so happy that he's okay and it was really amazing how the whole entire you know municipality came together and just all the the notes and and the love and the support everybody loves our Police Department um and he's he's a kid I mean he's 24 years old so we are so happy he's he's uh home and he's um he's a long way to go but he's young and he's so he's on the B so we're really really happy about that um Tyler thank you for uh the team's um the team's tutor tutorial and thank you all of you for you know going out of your comfort zone and um embracing teams I think you'll like it once you uh once you dive into it a little bit more um we will you will um I also wanted to uh mention about the haunted event uh there was a haunted event that we actually did have on our agenda today that unfortunately we did have to cancel um this was not a burough sponsored event uh but it came to our attention after it was actually publicized on Facebook so um we called the organiz iers immediately and said we have to set up a meeting the meeting actually never got set up until late September it's a very large event uh they were talking about three or 400 people um and uh it you know it was a lot of planning but we despite this all our professionals worked Around the Clock it was all Hands-On to try to facilitate this um and then at the end of the day the safety concerns that came up were were a lot and they were very very concerning and you know we still try to the very last moment and then the event coordinator decided that there just wasn't enough time to do everything that they needed to do and he decided um to cancel it safety is our highest priority and I don't think any of us felt comfortable with what we what with what was unfolding um the plans were one thing and then once they started building it was another thing and some things just didn't match and had we had months to plan it maybe it could have worked out but events like this you need months and months and months to plan um you cannot do it in three or four weeks and quite frankly it's not something we've never done before so a whole haunted maze and stuff is not something our our burough officials and our our Cod officials you know so we really needed the extra time and we just didn't have it so we tried and um just want to say everybody to thank all of our professionals thank you for all all the work because I know that was uh it was a lot of work this past week trying to make this happen or last couple weeks well thanks to all you guys me always want to have fun absolutely do and we support all of our organizations 100% um we would have loved to have been able to have but just didn't work out um okay um unfinished business anybody have any unfinished business um new business we have um appointment of a new library boards member a councilwoman of Lis and I met her her name is Lauren shub and she um actually used to work at the library prior and she's going to school to be a librarian so she's really like the perfect fit so um she yeah she's she's very very um lovely um she wants to get back involved so uh she'll be a great great fit for that board so we look forward to welcoming her motion appoint her you know they actually appointed her already but they had their I know but then they said they did it and then I they just had it on you record just have a motion a second okay sure um do I have a motion to appoint Lauren Lauren to the uh Library board so move second please second all in favor um next I'd like to open up the meeting um to the public on any comments anybody from the public want to come up come on up Walter gu so nobody else is coming up I need that thank my first request is that something be done to improve this what well it's difficult sitting under a speaker you can hear fortunately I have sufficient hearing to hear you speak but it didn't come over that thing I appreciate that very much uh next thing very quickly because I'm timed AR I you are timed thanks for reminding me did a a sword correction a hydrin wash out flushing yes right can you br briefly explain that I can I mean I so as part of um njde water law you must flush every F hydrant and it used to be once a year at least once a year so every fire hydrant must be flushed because sediment can build up inside otherwise so they must flush the hydrant out this is the first year I I personally have observed from during that very interesting they also broke one of the lines going to the hydron forcing a replacement of the hydron on Hamilton and that's one of the reasons exactly why they do it because if hydrants aren't exercised every year and you want to make sure that if they open it up and they use it that there's not a problem okay really here I hope I'm not stepping on anybody's toes I I took it upon myself to speak to the G people over over this St the veil Veil Veil Veil the gall at the desk was moderately helpful I was asking about the trees now bear with me Crescent out in front of the community center a row of graen grass with trees in it I asked a Gallow over the place sorry and she told me that belongs to Allendale it's none of their concern I went down see see of course it's very very helpful and explain that to me what is my concern this month the month of September I measure it myself even have any rain the whole month of September we had a half inch so far in the month of October which means were deficient in water watering rural the trees in that area I I I am I am concerned for the welfare of those trees okay you know what um we do have sprinklers um I will have to check to see if they're on I'm not sure yet because we're not in the community center yet but I will I will check would you do that appreciate that very much because I'm trying to observe any sprinkler system I see nothing yeah no there is there is really okay I am willing if they provide the hose and the water I am willing to treat one of those treat okay I'm not sure the hose would reach but did you have a comment there and they told me we own it watering system they might not realize it but it's on their water we could we could contact them and make sure they know that our trees haven't gotten in yet down street down well we'll double check for you we'll double check I appreciate yeah because that may sound corny and stupid but too often we plant trees and you don't pay any attention to who takes care of them they're lovely trees that really will enhance the area and I will be more than GL to water damn things for nothing if someone gives him the water okay now I will I will double check for you and the uh what their water schedule is I'll get back to you appr update not thank you you got it anybody else from the public want to come up come on up state your name and your address please for the record thank you Saddlebrook New Jersey Saddle Brook yeah um I know I'm a long way yeah I'm with animal protection League of New Jersey okay so I'm here because um we wanted to have the opportunity to present non-lethal deer solutions to the town we've been all over New Jersey we do tabling um residents want a Humane approach to de earth and so um I thought that maybe you would give us that opportunity to present our non-lethal GE presentation um I also have some information about the horrors of B hunting I have an expert Tom eand who will work with the town he'll come in he'll set the situation he'll tell you like the best approach to um the town and I was just hoping that maybe you would consider giving us that opportunity we have so many different uh Solutions instead of both hunting okay if you leave the information that'd be helpful thank you thank you anybody else from the public wish to speak state your name and address for the record please sure been B 33 East alale Road sou River um so to address that gentleman's comment about never seeing the hydrants being flushed I can attest that having that job 50 years ago working the graveyard ship from 11 to 7 is when we did the flushing so it's been going on for decades right and you're right if they don't get flushed they could have a problem yeah that was a fun job um while I was going to college so uh may I had ah you're the one with the big book I saw it transm yeah okay these are uh show my killing Tre trees never mind I couldn't help myself so I also have to have a degree in Horticultural landscape design as well which I didn't mention in my letter to you so uh Saddle River started their hunting backyard hunting and these are the police reports of wounded deer that ran onto neighbors properties and required these are police reports these required the assistance of police either go and euthanize the deer or track the deer by a blood tril so uh I also have a report which I did not with the information I gave you but uh this deals with the uh wounding rate of white tail Feer and I know that the um New Jersey ficient Wildlife do the presentation for the biologist there just neglected to answer the question of what's the wound wounding rate and this is a scientific study that's was U published um this was published at the southeast Association this Wildlife agency and this states that the W rate is 50% that means half the time these deer are shot the deer are going to either dart out into the road or run into a neighbor's property so the other document I had sent you may if you recall was the spreadsheet and um in that spreadsheet where uh analysis of every accident in s River from 2013 to 2023 and it was broken down by the uh deer hunting season so the de with hunting and without hunting the uh trend for auto accidents actually was up during the years of hunting very little difference but Trend upwards so saddle River's main um main goal for having Hunters discharge Neal weapons in people's backyard is to keep residents safe the the reality is it has virtually no effect and um a slight increase the your oil collisions now if you look at the so on that report there was also analysis of the time periods uh between spring fall when there is no hunting and that the um I'm sorry without having the spreadsheet here okay we have actually and there's a three minute limit sorry I don't want to cut you off but yeah yeah okay so I would just uh you know encourage you to invite you know give the U in protection leave the opportunity to present uh Alternatives because everybody wants to know what's an alternative and just in finishing I'll say that on my property I have over 300 species of plants okay no fencing okay what do I do I choose plants that are de resistant Ruckers has a list of over 300 of them the other thing I do is I spray twice a month the first 15 I have a beautiful garden I invite and actually I'm a member of alale Garden Club too we' hosted several tours so I invite all of you next next spring to visit my yard see that Co just have a nice Garden without killing de thanks very thank you thank you anybody else from the public wish to speak please state your name and address for the record Bary Center 46 Real vist Drive allenvale I'm an allenvale resident I'm totally against a deer hunt it's cool and unnecessary there are many different non-lethal methods and I'm here to just encourage that I'm a member of animal protection Leal in jury for over 30 years thank you thank you anybody else from the public wish to speak not seeing anybody motion to adjourn second all in favor I bye everybody thank