##VIDEO ID:cYCkdYDv6JY## this is a workshop meeting agenda of the governing body of the burough of Bloomingdale Tuesday February 4th 2025 at 7 p.m. we call the meeting to order by the salute to the flag I to of the United States of America and two repic for stands one nation indivisible liy and justice for all roll call please mayor damato here councilman Broner councilman Catalano here councilman Graziano here councilwoman Hudson is excused councilwoman Schubert here councilman yasi here we also have mpal clerk Brianna Smith business administrator Michael sire and burough attorney dor Sullivan this meeting is called to pursuant to the provisions of the open public meeting laws adequate notice of this meeting was advertised in The Herald news on January 9th 2025 copies were provided to the local news media and posted continuously in the municipal building a copy of this noes is available to the public and on file in the office of the municipal clerk as per state fire code I'm required to acknowledge that there are two emergency exits in this council chambers the main entrance which you enter through and a secondary exit to the left of where I am seated if there is an emergency walk orderly to the exit exit through the door down the stairs and out the building any questions please raise your hand so loud is that better is this on don't sound like the mic's on don't sound like the mic's on is it working no of them all right I'm going to have to talk a little louder because our microphones are not working I can do that good working okay okay um we do not have any non-agenda items this uh this evening we are removing um Item B under new business um which was adoption of the white collar Union contract that will be removed uh from the agenda tonight do I have a motion to open up early public comment some all in favor I okay anyone wishing to speak to the uh agenda items please come up see you no want a motion to close n agenda so move all in favor I okay can you hear me now we're good um report report of um committees Eevee um thank you mayor uh for the um for the first aid Squad um the tri Barrow uh we attended uh on Saturday at the Barnyard their um installation they had uh a dinner and um where they honored and acknowledg uh seven new members that they had um they also uh swore in um all the uh officers president Justin Hill um they also um awarded um uh their top three uh a uh they announced top three calls um and handed certificate to um several um members um they also had a lot of Milestones uh for many of the members um from five years to uh Diane ban which was 40 years of service and um um other their uh outstanding Awards um they also had uh for January they had 168 calls um the um CH Barrow had 131 calls they covered 113 they missed 18 calls covered 86% of all the calls handled Butler took 59 uh Bloomingdale had 57 Kinnelon had 41 um they had 11 Mutual Aid calls to Pompton Lakes uh Riverdale West Milford Montville Pinebrook and Wayne um they had an instructional meeting uh with about about patients with special needs um this February 11th they have a Wendy's fundraiser if you go to Wendy's uh they give a portion to um the trio um first aid and they also have a craft fair um at in St Anthony's that's for tri Barrow um the library has a um they have a uh porch leaner um fundraiser for uh 35 $55 per person it's a really large porch leaner that they they've done this one before it's a very popular it's at the firehouse um you could bring your own it's a Paint and Sip you could bring your own snacks and drinks and um come out with a very uh beautiful piece of art um also to check online as always for their um all their special clubs crafts and um book clubs and for the uh children's uh a library uh they're reading uh you know they're uh to go there in person um they're always looking for that um and then I had my first meeting of the Rose fund where uh they are spoke about a lot of different projects around the town that um they are looking to continue to improve to make um the town uh safer and and and better for all and as far as uh public events um the next uh February 28th is the uh Ramadan Crescent lighting uh in front of barel Hall at 6:30 um free for anybody to attend April 3rd is the unity through Community uh at Walter T Bergen and April and of course all of this is online um April 5th is the trout fishing contest um which is a Saturday and that's it joh okay um so first councilwoman Hudson asked me to read her updates she couldn't be here today but um she said the dog and cat licenses are due now they're not received by March 1st there's an additional $10 charge uh it's actually February 25th for the Ramadan present lighting it was updated a couple of weeks ago so that's now it's Tuesday um yeah February 25th uh 6:30 we usually do it right outside here in front of burrow Hall it's a fun event um burrow offices are closed no DPW pickup for President's Day on February 17th and there is also one remaining rabies clinic on March 1st from 11:00 a to 1 pm at the Riverdale DPW garage that's on Dalton drive from a Board of Health standpoint she said that there is an open position for an alternate for the Board of Health so should you or anyone you know have interest they can reach out to Brianna Smith our burough clerk um she also mentioned a new business from the Board of Health at last night's meeting um they sounds like they passed a a resolution to amend the code of ordinance of for massage bodyw work and somatic therapy so this ordinance will help in providing our residents anyone in the area with safe lawful establishments that do not put them at risk for public health threats so should anyone have any questions or concerns you can contact councilwoman Hudson or the president of the Board of Health Marco Alejandro and then last from the Board of Health uh the state county health department is offering free eye and hear uh hearing screenings and children's Wellness clinics state required vaccinations and physical exams are offered too um for those who are uninsured you can call 973 881 4396 and a reminder that it is um from the tax department that taxes are due by February 10th um just one update from my side uh so you might have seen new welcome signs going around the burrow so this has been an effort that started really last year um in partnership with the code enforcement official Mark Redfield along with the economic development commission too we've had a number of businesses in town that had uh donated those signs essentially so you'll see their names right underneath it I think it was due it's been about maybe 20 years or so since we had the last signs and I really want to thank Mark as well as the EDC for for getting this done if we only have one more to go it's Provident Bank they disagreed to it so we be put that up pretty soon and these are all the entrances coming into town whether it be warq Riverdale I believe one Butler and coming from I'll say Butler again of Hamber turn so that's the welcome sign to talk about correct right they're all been redone and Mark put a a lot of work into that right nothing [Music] put uh we had the Board of Ed meeting last week and just reminded everyone the referendum vote is coming up on March the 11th 2 to 8 at your regular and and then the people can register with the I will that's right they have an initiative on the uh dpsn J website where you can sign up for the I will vote campaign where you will get updates from the board regarding the ref comment uh nothing to report Mike nothing tonight mayor nothing to report thank you nothing reing May okay uh for me um we spoke about it at our last meeting about the referendum I just want to go over the process um where the Barrow plays a part in this and I am total support of the referendum with closing the D won't put in on an addition the way it works is obviously if the referendum passes and then there's a bunch of steps after that if it doesn't pass then we're back to square one once it goes through the school has to go out to bid and I think they they have to put their construction plans together and those plans will go out to whoever wants to bid the contract to build the school that will take I would say imagine probably 6 months or so right a little bit past that from what they pretty much have told us once the bid process goes out um to whatever contracts going to bid they have to open up those bids and accept those bids so that's a process once that bid is accepted then the process starts to the build however long the Bild takes the Donald School remains open because the kids still need to go to school until that process is done once the kids once the addition is completed and the children are moved to the new addition at the Bergen School then the board of education has to apply to the Department of Education to decommission the Donald school that can take 6 months to a year for them to approve that from what we're told okay once that is complete and the uh Department of Education approves that then they can put the building up for sale but before they put the building up and how they want to um sell the school um now this is where we play our part because I've seen things written about um high density apartments and all this stuff we have to as a bir refer this to the ordinance Review Committee to apply an ordinance and what that area can be Zone you can't develop a Zone just for that one piece of property okay that's called spot zoning that's not allowed that's not legal okay so what happens is an ordinance review they sit down and they go through it and they make a recommendation to this body on what they think that could be zoned as right now it is zoned public which it can only be a public [Music] facility if it gets change um it could become a part of our business district which is our Main Street which is pretty much from the Glen Wild split down to the Riverdale border and if it becomes part of our business district it has to follow the permitted uses within that District all right so which means Heights of building density what can be parking and all that stuff there it can't be a 20 story apartment building as it's been i' I've heard um through the Facebook Chat stuff that goes on all right so at the end of the day once the ordinance Review Committee reviews it and they want to make it whatever Zone that falls in and it kind of makes almost a little bit of sense to put it to our business district because it borders it it also could be correct me with the the RM RM seniority yeah which is residential senior senior hous it could be zoned for that um but we're a long ways for getting to that part but under the zoning rules it goes to the ordinance Review Committee that make a recommendation to this Council the council reads it and they approve it or they send it back if they want to make changes once it's approved here at the um Council level it goes from here it goes to our planning board for 45 day review they have 45 days to review it and either approve it or make recommendations to the council um whether they agree disagree change this or change that um then it comes back to the council for final approval but any any um zoning ordinance has permitted uses non-permitted uses and anybody can go on on our website and pull the the um the code the the um the ordinance for the the business district and you can read it and it shows your permitted uses what's allowed what's not allowed so there's a lot of control with that um so that's how the process work process works but it'll take time a lot of time to get to that point and I think maybe some of these have questions about that might be why you're here or not but that's okay you can come up and ask what you want but that is um the process and it's it's something it doesn't happen overnight it's a long yearly process because there's a lot of time that you have to go between the the um submitting it to the planning board 45 days for approval fit within their meetings they make their recommendations and it comes back to the council then if we want to make our changes we have to do that on our recommendations so it's a long drawn out process but the barrows time in this is we don't get involved until we know the referend is passed it gets decommissioned and then our our our part gets played right now we have no set other than then we support you know and I do support the closing of the Donald School I've been saying that since for a long time um and it we've had I put my fire department hat on we have had several alarms there in the past couple weeks going on there was one there today which was a blower motor seized up and it filled the the gym up with um with um it it was light smoke but you can smell that you know we see when rubber's burning you can smell that it was a heavy smell in the gym the kids were evacuated they were back in our classrooms probably in 20 minutes and um we actually put them in one side of school cuz it was cold out so we kept them on one side while the other side was being vented out um but that's just some things that are going on up there is it is it worth noting there I think it's a good example if someone's looking for kind of the history of it like what occurred on Star Lake and our planning board being involved with a use variance request where we reone the property and went through this entire process right on Star Road and really ultimately the decision making about a use on any given property is made by the planning board and there's scenarios that exist we can apply for use variances they reviewed heavily by a separate board not even just the council so there's a lot of members of the public so there's always going to be a lot of ISS in multiple layers and it's a good example of it it would be similar in light of changing the zone and then driving it would be you know what's a and when we accept and you'll hear it tonight when we accept an ordinance or we make changes there's always public comment that's allowed to said there's always a public hearing so when this all happens um it'll be advertised as a public hearing like we normally do within our meeting so anybody can come give their opinion ask questions it's open up to the public it is you know we're all residents here and we all should be able ask questions and get answers sometimes you like the answers sometimes you don't but it's the process that we have to go but we're in my eyes we're a long way from that on our part um March 11th is the voting of the referendum and then we'll see what happens from there like I said if it's not voted through I mean the school is over 100 years old and it's outworn it's welcome there's a lot of um work that needs to be done to bring it up to today's codes and according to the board of ed it's about $21 million to refurbish that school so do you want a new school for a few more million or do you want to refurbish what you have and you're back to to uh square one but all right so if anybody has any questions about that if you want to come up and ask once we get to open public there you're more than welcome I answer the best I can or of anything that's going on all right okay all right item nine resolution 2025 2.1 consent agenda do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda thank you any questions roll call please frur yes Catalano yes grao yes Hudson I'm sorry Shubert yes y [Music] yes pending business item number 10 second final reading and public hearing ordinance number 1- 12025 Amendment chapter 5 Animal Control public notice statement please yes Mr Mayor this ordinance was posted in the municipal building published in The Herald news and copies were made available to the public so that a motion may be made that it be read by title do you have a motion to read by title second all in favor an ordinance of the burrow of Bloomingdale in the county of cic state of New Jersey amending chapter 5 Animal Control section 5-9 defiling or damaging property nuisances running at large of the code of the Tho have a motion public all favor wish speak please come up see no one a motion to close all favorite okay this is just a simple um we're just making an amendment to our animal control as recommendation from our Animal control officer uh for what we read by title this is just a simple um Amendment motion for adoption Catalano yes Graziano yes Shubert yes y yes Item B second final read and public hearing ordinance number 32025 acquisition for a portion of 5073 71 public no yes Mr Mayor this ordinance was posted in the municipal building publ in the copies were made available to the public so that a motion may be made that it be read by title have a motion to read by title favor all an ordinance of the B of Bloomingdale in the county of C state of New Jersey authorizing the acquisition of a Fortune of block 5073 lot 71 from MNT at Union AB Bloomingdale motion open up public second all in favor anyone wish to speak please come up see no one on motion to CL all favor before we go to adoption um there's this piece of land that is in front of the health care center very small smaller within this room um which is part of the lot across the street lot across the street that is owned by MNT and they asked us they we want that piece of property they're going to donate it to us at first we said well what are we going to do with that just a small piece of property but um talking to the chief um there's a lot of times that we put a car down there doing um speed control and it's right around the bend kind of by the chiro Packer's office there down there so he said it would be a good place that we can keep a car but it'll be Barrel property so we said okay we'll take the property um so that that's how this came about we have a motion for adoption please Rano yes hbert yes gy yes Broner yes Catalano [Music] yes okay item C second final reading public hearing ordinance number 42025 authorizing the sale of a portion of poer court public No statement Please Mr may this ordinance was posted in the municipal building copies were made available to the a motion may you have a motion to read by title all in favor an ordinance of the bur of lingdale County faade state of New Jersey authorizing the sale of a portion of the property known as po Court in a motion of public care all in favor wish Lu see no one a motion of close all in favor all okay just before we go to adoption this is simply uh holster court is between nolles road and rfen road the rafkin road side that goes down to Union to Union a if you make come up Noles off of Reeves and make a right on rafkin behind those houses there's approximately 5 Acres of property back there that is burrow owned the people that live on the corner of um no and RFK I call it the freck house it's a Concrete house right there I grew up in that area um they ask if they can buy a portion of the land because they've been maintaining it and they want to expand their driveway so we said okay so they paid for all the stuff that needs to be done through there the surveying and all the feed that need to go there which we said we would give them how much that's about 15 to maybe 30 fet of property not even all right not even it's like it's a real sliver and like I said they've been M maintaining it but we also want to keep an access point to get to our property that's behind there um that is it's called holster court because the family poers that lived on NS Road they bought the property and it's been holer Court ever since so that's all we're doing is giving those people that piece of property we have a motion for [Music] adoption yes G yes gr Catalano yes yes okay new business adoption of resolution number 2025 2.8 True Green landscap and fertilizing services this is just our contractor who takes care of all the uh uh the schools and maintaining the ones we fertilizing and um and the the geese um over in the Parks to keep the geese out of there so um do I have a motion on this [Music] Dy yeah Catalano [Music] yeso yes Huber yes like I said we removed Item B so we're going to go right to C introduction of introduction of ordinance number five- 2025 amender chap amending chapter 2 Recreation fees for hiking group club and geoc geoc catching whatever that be have a motion to read by title all [Music] favor an ordinance of the B of Bloomingdale the county ofic state of New Jersey amending chapter 2 Administration section 2- 64.1 fees for recreation programs of the code of the B of Bloomingdale uh this ordinance will be scheduled for second final reading and adoption on February 18th okay um just for for just for so you guys know when we uh do an ordinance there has to be an introduction it just gets read by title and then we open up the public hearing at our next meeting or to dat it's allowed to be to be uh voted on so then we bring out what it's really about um and talk about this is just a reading of the introduction by itself to accept the reading all right have a motion of late public comment all in favor anyone wishing to speak please come up some okay motion close so move second all in favor I okay um we do not have anything in executive session tonight our next meeting is February 18th which is our reg scheduled meeting at 7 o'cl have a motion to adjourn so second Dave all in favor I I thank you all for coming out good night