yeah all right this is a workshop meeting of the burrow of Bloomingdale June 11 2024 I'm going to call the meeting we salute to the flash to the flag of the United States of America and to repblic for it stands one nation under God indivisible liy [Music] roll call Mayor deato here councilman Catalano here councilman Dela here councilman Graziano here councilwoman Hudson here councilwoman Hubert here councilman Yi here okay we also have our municipal clerk with us Brianna Smith business administrator Michael SRO bur Attorney D sullom um this is a meeting called to assuming of the provisions the open public meetings law adequate notice of this meeting was advertised in the Harold news on January 12th 2024 copies were provided to the local news media and posted continuously in the municipal building a copy of this notice is available to the public and is on fil in the office of municipal clerk as per state fire code I am required to acknowledge that there are two emergency exits in this council chambers the main entrance which you entered 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 if there have any questions please raise your hand we do not have any um non-agenda items tonight so I'd like to open the meeting up early public second go ahead you can do now before we before we do that just wait one second you want to introduce our finance department Mike yeah we have our CFO Heather our treasurer jmin and our B auditor Joe okay all in favor okay yours um for ordinance resolution 20 24 69 you're saying that there going to be ENT into a contract public hearing for the development additional 12 acres and up to additional 74 senior housing units and 3200 32,000 indust off unuse my question is how many Senor housing do you have not including this what you just ask me there are 74 age restricted units yeah total this is going to be an additional 748 restricted unit how many do we have prior to this we had none prior to that um we added the 74 into it so it wouldn't affect the schools and we want to have a place that seniors have an opportunity to go to so how many housing units are there going to be on this property not including this not including this including everything together with the sen with the senior housing not including the 426 so more 320 100 more than we were required to do it was 426 for about a year two years ago that went two years ago to the the courts 42672 it was actually it was actually 360 originally 3 original was that 368 whatever it was we went back about two years ago in December and we went to 426 affordable housing units 42672 right the affordable housing number did not change when we went to 426 it still was a 72 but now we want to add some place for seniors to have enough so we're going to a total of 500 units with 74 the additional 7 for will be age restricted okay and the additional 20,000 office how Z zero that's the other 12 acres it's 320,000 s ft where exactly is that going to be um partially um if it's on the the remaining 12 acres that we were keeping they are buying that from us and whatever portion doesn't fit on that will go on the existing property that they're originally directly behind the salt shed at D the other question I have is on for number 14 2024 that there section one says development plan attack to no attack two after they introduce I can send you the plan sorry John thought that was published you we all got that right you got counciling yeah but that we'll get we'll give you a copy of it okay okay anyone else wishing to speak seeing no motional close second all in favor I I report of committees um I have a the numbers for the uh the main numbers from gaale and uh they had 170 calls in May year to date 711 um the county uh took 62 calls they covered n uh we covered 97 calls and missed um 11.89% um they had six Mutual Aid calls 72 were Butler lale were 53 kelon 39 um the month of June they're going to be training the Tactical EMS um they also have a um the tri first aid Squad pres is presenting an evening mediumship which is uh Friday June 28 at 51 Morse Aven Butler um and it's from five the doors open at 5:30 uh the program starts from 6:00 to 6 6:00 to 7:30 3 $5 a ticket and uh they'd like you to uh pay the tickets in advance for this uh fundraiser for them uh for the the senior center their June calendar is up and as usual it's very busy with their um aerobics uh they have movies night their book club their walking Club is still going on every Wednesday um definitely encourage people to go online and and look that up um and their up upcoming special events uh June 19th it's uh Joey zza at Casa Bianca and June 21st they're going to Mammoth Raceway June 27th is paper mill Play House a play called Beautiful um and there's uh other events on there a turtle black zoo trip that's not until September um for uh just a a reminder for fireworks uh they're on June 29th um at Walter T Bergen they start at five um there we have a couple of uh vendors that are said okay and they're good to go kettle corn cona ice hot dogs House of fudge a panata lady an Angelo cofire Pizza um another um ice cream person and a um Aaron balls which is uh an Italian delicacy next we have uh for BBC they have a lot of um stuff online you could still uh register for football but they actually already have practices start um warmup starting it's not actually practices their practices don't start till August 3rd um but there is a dine a Wendy's uh DME tonight uh at at the Wendy's in Butler it's from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. they have summer workouts at Memorial Field 6:30 to 7:30 and all kinds of other strength training and things that you can find at the BB YC uh online next I have uh the the library uh yesterday was their meeting their next big event for the um their the trustees is their uh Paint and Sip which is not until November 3rd but before then they will be attending a celebration day September 21st and and Holiday Stroll and of course um they have a lot of events online um including read a book with a puppy and um baby um there's always um story time every day and there are book clubs uh they started a Stephen King book club that's starting July 1st um and they also have um a murder book club which is the third Tuesday of every month um and there's a cookbook Club that's that's going on uh the first time was May 22nd July 24th is the next time Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. where you could share recipe fees and of course the summer reading kickoff is June 27th which for kids in town that are interested in doing this there's actually going to be some prizes this year so um they're going to be advocating your book club uh summer reading with a incentive of a prize that's all I have okay uh okay um um as Eevee already stated uh July 4th fireworks Saturday June 29th I also wanted to take an opportunity to thank everyone that came out for Town and River cleanup day it was a really successful event um so thank you to everybody uh also the town wide garage sale uh Bri and um Amy did a wonderful job thank you guys very much for getting everything together uh and making it a success um John and your career did an excellent excellent job at s Park Fest I want you to talk about that but Bravo to you guys it really was lovely um I I can't even I couldn't get over how many people were walking through it was great so good job um we have absolutely nothing until Saturday September 11th and that is the 911 Candlelight uh ceremony and walk we take typically July and August off for public events uh then we also have um I'm going to remind everybody as I always do for um recycling information if you go to the main page uh blooming Del nj.net and you click on the button that says recycling information that is uh a wealth of information for everyone uh it not only shows the couple days that we do the confidential shredding that seems to be a Hot Topic on social media um but the other really nice thing that and I don't think a lot of people realize it shows all of the burrow holidays so when the DPW will not be picking up and when burrow offices are closed uh burough offices are going to be closed July 4th that is a Thursday um let's see and again I you know I'm always going to tell everyone please sign up for our recycle coach and um our reverse 911 Rave they're on the main page uh bloomindale nj.net um bottom right hand side and they you know again a wealth of information especially for recycle coach I it amazes me how many people I'm telling every day to use that um so that's another uh really great thing one of the things that John and I have talked about many times um also on the website which we um will be doing some type of video on is um if you go to the main page Bloom nj.net there is also a button there for service requests that's a great opportunity for people uh residents to go on there and request certain things instead of making a phone call so let's say for instance you want you have something large that needs to get picked up by the DPW like that's a perfect uh place to to put in your request um I'm trying to think if there's anything else oh I'm sorry June 18th Butler kelon veterans wreaths group is having a dine to donate at the taste British 163 Union AV from 4: to 7:30 excellent organization um you know I really encourage everyone to go and attend the Board of Health we do have some um ordinances that uh we will be um amending and bring to the board for approval uh one of them in particular is pretty exciting um I'll update everyone as that comes along we're in the midst of it kind of that's it okay joh yes um sloom Park uh I wish I could take the credit for it but it would be wrong it definitely belongs to a group of individuals led by Linda Bennett including Sally basil and Gail Lal who really do um basically all the planning all of the footwork and really making it into what was a truly fantastic event so I really want to send a special thank you to them as well as to Mike sandmire for his help he was out there with me at 12:30 directing vendors where to go in the hot sun the chaos um and then of course the DPW the police the fire department Bloomingdale wreck um all were were big contributors to the event and then I think it was the best slone park Fest we've had yet and I feel like I say that after everyone and that's because it's true it just keeps getting better and better um also special thank you to a lot of the bur employees that I saw there they were there with their families right enjoying it it was nice to see right it was bringing everyone together people that live in town and people that work here and people from other towns too so just a fantastic event on the economic development front we have a ribbon cutting this Friday at 4 o'clock this is for Di dive um it's a kind of like a 3D printing business and then 3D pets where they do prosthetic limbs for Animals uh they're both located in the same place same owners so that's why we're doing too it's on the corner of Maine and Reeve um going backways it's former Loren's transmission um technically still is Brothers Auto hunt I suppose in the back so that's the location Friday at 4:00 for that um and then last not least I would like to thank on behalf of the budget committee so on behalf of rich and Ray and myself um I thank you to Heather Jasmine our Auditors as well Joe thank you to you thank you to Mike and and all the department heads that helped us to put together this year's budget to think through it to make difficult decisions um and to arrive on where we are tonight so thank you all for that one thing about this L Park event and walking around talking to people closing the street was huge we got so many compliments about closing H and closing hambur Turnpike for that long period of time and even though it kind of made a mess of traffic for everybody else it made a great event because people can walk back and forth they didn't have to worry about traffic being stopped buses going through even though four buses went around there you know they were all notified that we're doing this to change their routes well they didn't which is okay but um a great idea doing that and a lot of compliments for that bands are great and Bloomingdale wreck Matt Sone um Aaron worked and played with kids the whole time they had so many different games going on for the kids and kept them all occupied and they had a blast um it was just you know it was great and the police department had also a bunch of toys that the kids could play with and taking pictures in a frame you'll see that that's all on Facebook or whatever but kudos to everybody that was involved than that and it was a great day I mean long for you guys but um it was a nice event so anybody down there aland upon the for a couple extra comments obviously they did a great job compliments to John the team and everybody else on SL P day I know the uh environmental commission was there as well really playing with the kids having a great time and brought out microscopes and set up a little science lab so overall Just Awesome event for our town uh but to expand upon the recck uh summer camp is starting shortly I encourage anyone who is going to enroll to try and enroll this week the price will increase next week so get your enrollment in early save yourself a couple bucks um and uh that's about it okay Rich anthon no you go Mike Bri nothing to report thank you nothing okay um I think we touched on pretty much everything that's going on um with that all right okay item eight resolution number 2024 6.1 a consent agenda have a motion to approve the consent agenda rich and Rich and right okay um roll call please Catalano yes Dela yes Graziano yes Hudson yes Shubert yes yassi yes okay item nine Municipal budget second final reading and public hearing ordinance number 10224 index rate cap Bank ordinance public the statement please yes Mr Mayor this ordinance was posted in the municipal building published in the heral 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 some move second all in favor I bough Bloomingdale calendar year 20124 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cash cap Bank sorry njsa 40a semicolon 4- 45.4 okay c a motion to open up public hearing second all in favor I anyone wishing to come up see no one a motion to close second second all in favor I I motion for adoption second roll call Del Ripa yes Riano yes Hudson yes Shubert yes Yi yes patalano yes okay Item B budget presentation uh public hearing adoption for the 2024 Municipal budget um yes we'll do the present okay all right um turn it over to you guys yep why is this hi thank you as Mike had introduced earlier I am Jasmine I am the municipal treasur I will be given a presentation on behalf of the finance department today if we can get adap Jasmine can you pull your the mic next to you either words there you go is this good okay no problem every can see the way apologies I not thank you I had to try it too okay so these are the discussion points for this presentation this year we're going to be discussing our goals when putting together the budget document we're going to be discussing some of the budget challenges that we face this year we're going to be talking about the tax breakdown our year- toe over overall expenditures and revenues as well as our capital projects and expenditures so every year we have roughly about the same goals we want to always achieve a budget a balanced budget this is primarily to be in compliance with the New Jersey state statute we are also interested stent looking for and establishing additional streams of Revenue and to reduce her debt also alongside New Jersey statute and local Finance notices we are also seeking to continuously fund our accumulated advances the budget challenges for 2024 this year we did have to manage a decrease in Revenue due to some terminations of our share service agreements we also were faced with um the unavailability of additional funds that were previously given to us under the local Finance recovery program during covid there has also been a decrease in state aid in Grants this year alongside an increase in Vendor cost as well as some earlier employment retirements that we were not anticipating what does this mean in general it does unfortunately mean an increase in taxes this year this is the breakdown of where your tax dollars are going 55% of all taxes collected this year are going towards your schools 1% is going to the library 19% is going to the County taxes 1% is going to County open space and 24% is going to our Municipal operations this is a multi-year revenue review I wanted to Showcase where revenues have been trending for the last four years um 2021 we were still in the midst of covid as you can see in 22 we had a very generous leap in Revenue that is attributed to the local recovery fiscal funds as well as additional shared services that we had entered into that year 23 there was a slight modest increase from the prior year and this year there's approximately a 1.5% decrease in overall anticipated Revenue we I'm just stop that one we we've taken in more Revenue with our share Services correct but the 400,000 that we did not get this year from Co is why that's a decrease correct that is correct in the past absolutely similarly we're doing a multi-year review of our expenditures there has been a modest increase however from the previous year to this year there has been a less than 1% increase in our overall expenditures this year this is the percentage of total expenditures so what do our expenditures make up this year 69% make up other expenditures the remaining are statutory expenditures which includes our pension payments for police and fire and other employees as well as our dcrp and unemployment obligations make up 12% our insurance which includes general liability workman's compensation health insurance and the likes are 11% and then our overall Municipal debt makes up about 8% of our total expenditures this I just should talk about some of our Capital Improvement projects that we have going on and ones that are planned hopefully this year or early next uh we talking about the senior million that's currently going on now uh they're looking for the shed to be delivered sometime mid July now pad is PR and ready to go we received the survey remembers we received $60,000 from a cdbp grant from the county off of the cost of that facility forun and Wallace is 90 99% done we're in a punch list base right now they got a couple of signs they have to put up and then we just did the uh that you approved last meeting was the pavement uh sample so that'll be wrapped up that one again from the dot we received about $275,000 uh salt shed they are currently they working uh building shed for fings this week uh that one is fully funded as you see the little there that is we do not get any grant that that is fully funded bond from the vality because we had a uh it was declared we had to from our engineer that the previous Shel was failing uh future projects that we've talking about so B playground that's a big one coming up hopefully this year uh we know we received 450,000 from open space Grant two different grants 1 for two 1 for 250 from the county uh we have gotten word that uh we have been recommended to receive 750,000 from the Jake law grant that we apply for uh as soon as that gets approved which we're hearing from the the Millennium that does our grant writing that we're 99% sure we're going to get that uh once we hear that get that word that we received there we'll start that project uh and we'll demo the old one and put the new playground in Catherine and Bailey that's the one we put on it's on tonight for a second hearing for the ordinance that we received $466,000 from the do Grant and the project is going to be roughly uh maybe $700,000 because again we're not doing the sidewalks on that road we're only doing curbs and Paving on those two roads and Dage and Dage yep and and El that one we applied that was a last year we Grant we applied for which we received uh 375,000 for from the dot that one will be the next street uh for drainage and water and obviously curves and pavement that'll be a 2025 project uh that'll probably I imagine it' be somewhere I would think maybe help out in a million $1.2 million range kind of like orchin in uh yeah quite a bit work do there but we found those on um in and El we believe there's two water mains running down that street our goal is to move over to one 10in water M that's there so that'll take all the services but in any project we do we do go in and make all the uh curb stop changes we upgrade all them and that's also part of our um lead pipe yes investigation which we have to do x amount a year so that will help us there we fix some of the drainage up there because we have a we have a flooding issue up there so we know there's drainage problems up there which we're trying to figure out how to resolve to get the W to flow freely to um Oakwood Lake so that's that'll be one of our bigger projects in 2025 right yes yep next one is senior cator FL uh again if you recall we had two different cdbg grants we got that we had them reappropriate the county for us uh so we currently have $150,000 uh in grant money uh and we also applied this year's cdbg we hear sometime in September October what we got to put towards it as well uh to hopefully start that project either late this year or early next in 2025 uh waly Bergen exercise equipment this one we just heard heard about this is one we applied for a grant about maybe about two months ago we just heard we received $65,000 uh we don't think the project going to come in at that it'll probably be well below that so that'll be a fully funded by the grant which is a good thing for us and then the delayer playground that's one we appli for we have not heard that was a this year's open space Grant with the county we appli for $200,000 and we'll hear about that one at the same time frame in the cdbg September October time frame so those are capital approv CS we have on our radar right now that are going and will be going in the near future we have additional Capital expenditures that we would like to make um some that are required by State Statute and by other governing bodies like our body cameras for police department and our alcohol test um and there are others that are kind of wish list items that would be beneficial to us to eventually fund either via ordinance um with bonds or fully fund yeah of that I think when Jasmine and I Heather sat down there's two of those we can fully fund we have money that we can do without bonding money for that would be the AL test for the police uh and the gas boy upgrades for the software uh for the DPW uh the rest the the body cameras the storm water management fencing and turnout year would have to be um some type of a bond we' have to one at the other and then bond that money uh this year to try and get those things cameras have to be done so we know we have to get 125,000 for that that's mandatory that is all for today thank you thank you hey Mike what's gas Bo gas boy is the our gas and diesel tanks and we have a software that tracks when because we we also sell it to Pompton uh and ppon Board of Education and our Board of Education so the software upgrades allows us to track that they don't upgrade it's it's falling behind and it's it's old it's old we we put money into maybe two years ago we did $40,000 the gasway to update the tanks and to reseal them and paint them it's just a double wall tank they did stuff to to maintain it for the next 20 years uh and now we got to do the software software the software has to be upgraded y it just tracks everybody that goes down and get ask whether be all of usbody has aicle fire department police they all come in it's all so we know who's using what when and when they're in the DPW okay thank [Music] you stick around I'll Stick Around for questions yeah there'll be questions I'm sure okay okay item C public hearing adoption for 2024 Municipal budget public notice statement please mayor this is the time fix for the public hearing on the municipal budget and tax resolution for 2024 the budget was approved by the governing body on May 7th 2024 and was advertised as required by law on May 14 2024 together with notice of hearing for this time okay okay adoption of resolution number 2024 6.7 read budget by title do I have a motion so Mo second I can do all in favor let's just do roll call okay roll call ciano yes Hudson yes Shubert no yai yes Catalano yes delar Ripa yes okay all right okay before opening this hearing I wish to outline procedure each person desired to be heard will rise and give his or her name an address before speaking I will recognize one speaker at a time and in order of R uh in order of rising as nearly as I can determine addresses or address all questions to the chair where necessary they will be referred to individual members of the governing body or the municipal officials questions must be confined slowly to the mpal budget before us school or County matters are not proper subjects for for this hearing and cannot be discussed or answered here tonight okay C motion open up public hearing second all in favor I anyone wishing to come up please come up come on l [Music] sure I asked a number of questions at the last meeting and I just wanted to get responses to it okay bring it up here for the um assessment of taxes that it went down 158,000 27,000 page please what page May sure okay so the office previously had a full-time tax assessor clerk as well as a part-time tax assessor we no longer have a full-time tax assessor clerk that position is vacant we have an assistance to the CFO that is currently helping the tax assessor on a part-time basis so there was a decrease in that salary one person doing two RS correct I had question about the salary wag for the police and 575,000 and informed that was of 42186 the co money Co money but I just want to make a comment overall is that when I asked the question that couldn't be answer was a little bit Champion me because you're presenting a budget that's already been approved you guys and nobody me why that happened we introdu the budget we didn't approve it and we knew the answer just didn't want to jump in and talk because all the questions go there all the answers come from there we're not supposed to jumping and throw L that's notary to Jumping you can believe what you like to believe let's just okay okay I also question why for the street and Road and repairs can you give us the page just to making sure foll thank you maintenance 400 and the salary W is for the tra mover also went down I understand the trash mov but my question was that because the service we have for just for tra not for the roads and repairs why would that come down it's like the S being moved around good hi so part of the shared service with the other towns in addition to solid waste it also includes street sweeping vegetative waste and other things that are accounted for for our laborers in the streets and Road salary so this year we're receiving the full amount of our shared service so we're able to move some of that salary to the shared services whereas last year we started a little behind and so we weren't able to properly allocate for the we always have the street we was yes but we had two additional we had a street sweeping we added Oakland Oakland 4 $40,000 and we added one few ways [Music] by and is that due to the new employes I believe that's due to increases of insurance the premium employes partially an increase in rates employ I don't have that information but I can get that for you plus we have um employes that are getting married having kids oh family plans family plans a lot of young people yeah 17 59 to 72 we redid our whole website folks it was but we still have to maintain it I mean El includ including in our Web Master is also Our IT professional so we have a vendor that is in charge of all of our cyber security there's been an increase in cost V our cyber drift and so we were required to add additional services to our previous agreement to ensure that we're compliant with the state [Music] requirements statutes put out there that require this are there statutes so we have to comply with our insurance policies Jeff because it's tied to some reimbursements that we can potentially get in the future and so we want to make sure excuse me I'm sorry and it also helps our deductible yes and so we want to make sure that we are as complied as possible but also it safeguards us against potential rent somewhere which would cost us much more money in insurance payout than paying a vendor to make sure that we're properly covered do you want me to speak to that no I was just going to say because that is actually kind of my corporate thing these days um uh just because I mean I I can just sight I won't site them because it's embarrassing but I know of several major companies who have had cyber attacks and they've had to spent I mean um you know they they wound up spending millions of dollars in in like it you know cryptocurrency um just to get their information back um the amount of hacking and the amount of counter intelligence that has to be done on a security standpoint is is astronomical these days which I guess is good for me because it helps pay my salary but um you know it it's just going to keep growing just because it's you know it's always a cat and mouse game you know people are constantly blocking one thing and then finding something else that you then have to walk um yeah it it's just going to be a mess I mean I'm mainly in the backup realm and they figured out you know because it used to be for years people say well we don't care we'll just restore our backups you know from 2 days ago or whatever but then they figured out that the best thing to do is to break in and erase all your backups um so you know like I said they just keep going wider and wider you just have to sort of come up with more and more calter measures it's it's really a race okay thank you um she 17A consy increasing from, 1500 to 55,000 correct and that as I told you we took from the library uh the line because that's where they put contingency in the past so we just added it where it belongs in the contingency line that's in the budget okay [Music] uh our interest that we p on our bonds and notes is significant and we were told as a taxpayer when we had gotten this pilot program that it was going to pay all our debt that another packet now we're going to go into another pilot program and what are we going to use that addition are we going to pay up any we just going to continue keeping it down the road well first we have to sign a pilot program okay they have to go into contract there but the pilot program that you're talking about helps set offset our taxes for the past since it's been in how long has it been there 10 years and growing at 2% so that's helping keep our taxes I'll call it almost stable or stabilized all right with with very little increase so it is keeping the taxpayer um cost down so that that pilot just goes into the general fund um we do pay some debt down year to year correct Mike oh we do 100% you pay debt down and every year we add debt also because we have capital projects that have to be done with things I mean we just bought we just bonded for what $25 million with the fire trucks that we have we're going to have to pay off um once these new pilots are in place then we're going to have to work with our finance department and see how that money is best allocated to help the taxpayer whether it's added right into our regular budget every year and come in as low as possible in taxes pay off our debt or buy equipment that we need without bonding anymore which we've done a pretty good job in the past three years um two two or three years buying trucks that we no longer pay they're gone and we're still paying for them we're just buy buying them out right so I believe does so you still yeah but we're not paying it for 30 years they're paid off in three years so 7 years whatever that is all right so you're not paying it for 30 Bond that's not a bond it's a different type just debt it's debt it's an exp get counted towards the same equation you can credit any you want still dead I'm just talking about a counting treatments yeah so then you understand what I'm saying so so once we get the development and everything and the contract sign and all that stuff that we have to do and then we start getting money me we can't count money we don't have I just don't believe in it so once it comes then this body whoever is up here will have to make a decision where that money is going to go and be allocated and work with our finance department and figure out the best way and to to use that money to utilize and help the taxpayer that's what it's all about thank in closing I hope you don't pay as bu I don't taxpayers will to afford kind of an increase this at this time well nobody can afford a tax increase at any time losing bus people having a hard time I just think it's TR to do that okay thank [Music] you anybody else okay have a motion to close public hearing second all in favor I okay three you're up they I'll read section two of the municipal budget so being resolved by the council members of the bur of Bloomingdale County to say that the budget here and before set forth is hereby adopted and shall constitute an appropriation for the purposes stated of the sum therein on the the sums therein set forth as Appropriations and authorization of the amount of 8,216 1,697 17 for municipal purposes 82,83 for open space Recreation farmland and historic preservation trust fund Levy $389,000 $632 for minimum Library tax Okay Okay resolution number 2024 6.8 adoption of the 2024 Municipal budget do I have a motion move second roll call please John yes I say something sure um I just want to say I mean I've put on the budget committee you know all 11 years 12 years I've lost track because I missed one um and this has probably been one of the most difficult budgets we've ever had um certainly um the loss of covid money other GR you know there were a lot of things going on um you know am I happy with this budget no I'm not happy with this bu obviously I would rather pay less and get more just like every other human being um but um you know I think it's kind of the best we can do in this situation we have and I would certainly like to Echo the thanks to the finance people who guided us along here um just because I know it was a very very tough road that they had to to travel to get to this point so just wanted to say that thank you I I'd also like to really thank the finance department and really the the budget committee as well I mean this this is a tough job I give everyone a lot of credit um this was an incredibly tough year and as I asked questions along the way um you know I was a tad surprise but but I surprised and not surprised but it really is a very difficult position that everyone is in to make these decisions for the all of the residents but to remind everyone that we're residents too we don't we don't like this like it's not you know I don't want to see anybody's taxes I'm sorry nobody wants to pay more nobody wants to pay more um I'm in the same position that everyone else is up on this day is and it's not a good position to be in when you have to tell a resident that that their taxes are going to be up and you know when I got to go home and tell my husband too it's not like you're like sorry um so but really everyone did really an excellent job and uh they deserve um a lot of credit because this is not an easy position and and I'll tell you something I don't want to be in your position I don't um these guys know numbers like there's no tomorrow and um it's impressive to watch um and thank you very much and uh one last one last thing is that I would also really encourage people when when you look at Jasmine's graph where a lot of our money is going and a lot of our money is going to the school system go ahead I just want I have a comparison I just brought my tax bill here tonight okay but I wonderful but but what I find he's going complain about its own taxes complain to myself but what I do find is people come to us all the time and they say you know why are my taxes going up and I can answer some of those questions but go to a school board meeting too ask the questions there that's what 53% Jasmine 55 I'm sorry this year 55% nobody ever goes up there nobody ever asks any questions and I ask people that are on the board I'm like does anybody show up and ask they're like no so I really encourage everyone you want to know where 55% of your taxes are ask them as well and please ask us that's what we're here for so um again thank you to everyone that works so hard on this yeah appreciate that I'll I'll Echo because I always make the comparison and having conversations with council president John and rest of the budget committee no one wants to sit in this position and have to charge any of our residents more money for the resources that they get but I think that we should be commended while we're all saying that it's a challenge to increase you take a look at what they've done versus what's happening in the public sector day-to-day with inflation and with the cost of goods and services that you're receiving whether it's a gallon of milk or a cup of coffee as I know uh the bottom line is the increase that they're putting forward in your taxes is substantially less than the increase that you're seeing in your day-to-day operation and while that is tough to swallow because the cost have increased everywhere we're doing everything we can to make is the small as possible um and I I think that's what makes this budget a success so while it's a tough pill to swallow it is still a strong budget and I happy that happy that these guys did the job that they did and and one more thing I want to add as well sorry is everyone should also be commended for bringing in all these new uh shared services that are offsetting a lot of our expenses and if we didn't have some of that we' be sad state so you know Mike sandmire you know John uh some of our departments good for you and keep going because they deserve the credit as well and I I'm sorry I didn't say that earlier I actually have a question or just a statement I I can't be happy about it um and I did ask Mike some questions and um I have been to school board meetings and I and and and I know that you know we we we have the two you know schools that we do have three three three and a lot of children are opting because we don't have a high school whatever they're opting not to go to you know they could go wherever they want because we don't have the high school and I just feel that where um and you know we just sold land that you know for like we gave like for some reason like I feel like we gave away some land what land is that the Glade project understand with the road there's a right there's there is a history before we go into anymore we're talking about the budg so I don't want to go into Glade Road but there's a little history behind Glade Road that I don't want to go into here just feels like we we're kind of falling short we also just voted to resend that the consent agenda well not it but Forfeit of Road oh no that's Road open my um forgot about that you know so you know we're we're we're we're I mean I I we're focusing putting money in some places and and not in other places and um so I understand you guys are working hard and I commend that as well but you know um our taxes are you know well let me just I'll give you I like I said before before we vote on this we're going to do that shortly I'm going to do a comparison I put my taxes down okay 2020 School tax was $694 right 2023 my school tax is $ 7,218 pretty big increase in in a few years County tax went up a little bit municiple tax 2020 my taxes were 3121 2023 is $ 3164 $40 increase in 4 years that's pretty darn good for this body to keep the municipal side of the taxes at B that's pretty good that this is anybody can see I show anybody all right so we're doing we and that's everybody here and the pive people here since we've been involved trying to do the best we can and keep taxes as low as we can so I think for $ in 4 years that's pretty darn good County went up like $30 in four years school went up $600 and that's just me I never used schools my kids never went there but it is what it is and I understand education is very important and all that stuff so I understand that they had the biggest part of our budget and that's up to them to maintain our budget I'm not beating them up they're doing it the best they can that's their job but our job here is to make sure we're controlling the money on the municipal side and I believe we have we have with a $40 increase in four years that's pretty darn good so and I'm not the average house so it's it's really not too bad okay John can I say one more thing you only have one shot okay well I I I did want to say I appreciate my councilwoman H me coming up and asking question nothing I think it's great yes I mean because to the point you know the councilwoman what Don said before um was it's true at least you're here you're asking questions and I think that keeps us you know focused more absolutely I respect it yes so I just want to say I don't always enjoy the questions but I do appreciate them I mean I get phone calls I get emails questioning stuff and I I answer as quick as I can and if I can't have the answer I go to Mike or I go job go wherever I need to get the answer from it's sometimes the questions are hard but sometimes you just got to tell it the way it is it is what it is so okay okay any other questions before we okay none roll call please Hudson yes Shubert no yazzy yes calano yes delar Ripa yes Graziano yes okay okay where am I item [Music] 10 yeah um you know there Heather Jasmine you guys don't need to stay if you don't want out yeah yeah you guys can sther out but Joe I appreciate you coming out thank you thank you very much thank you very much I appreciate it okay pending business second final reading public he and bond ordinance 12224 reconstruction of Katherine Street in baad public noce 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 you have a motion to read by title come second all favor I I refuse myself on this right I'm just going to step outside until it's done okay you refuse yourself okay from the whole thing it's I live you can stay there you don't just I just don't want anyone you step out do what you think you should do you can do whatever you want to doain okay that's fine makes sense [Music] fund ordinance providing for the Reconstruction of Catherine Street and Bailey Avenue by and in the burough of Bloomingdale in the county of pic state of New Jersey appropriating 85,000 therefore inclusive of a state of New Jersey New Jersey Department of Transportation Grant in the amount of 416,000 130 and authorizing the issuance of 108,000 bonds or notes of the burrow to finance the cost thereof okay have a motion of public hearing second all in favor anyone wishing to C up budget presentation I heard they side was on C we don't feel that it's necessary we talked to some actually we wanted I wanted to remove them for some people so we did a kind of a survey over there and some people want them some people don't um we don't feel that the sidewalks are in that bad of shape that we should assess them and rip them out so does everybody have sidewalks there there sidewalks that really go to Nowhere sidewalks all right the sidewalks come from the Warren AB side Elizabeth Street side and they go halfway down not even um P they go do you know where War Matthews lives yes right they go to his house that's where it stopped because originally that's the old side of Catherine Street the other from there up is new they never put sidewalks so it doesn't make sense to run them all the way down we're just we're just going to do what we have the grant money for this which is the um Paving and curbs curbs and the paving and we're doing some drainage because we do at times have flooding is issues over there this was a question I had a long conversation with Mike about and I walked out there and checked it all out and the I pushed like wait a second I'd love to have lale be a walking town but when you get out there and take a look at what exists on C bail now what the budget allowed us to do on these projects and then not having replaced only the sidewalks that exist and not having them continue on throughout the remainder didn't make sense right you're for not for by the town no so you're so you're only going to assess the six homes that currently have them and those sidewalks don't lead to continuous sidewalks on the rest that have finished curbage already and walkways to the street that only some of the houses had sidewalks some them didn't and because some did did everyone so sidewalks sidew connected sidewalk sidewalk if you would go to the other side and there was only two homes on C it didn't have I would have pushed very very heavily but it dead ends and then the entire remainder of the street no longer has them and the same holds true to on Bailey all the way down to uh there's the history of ba out because obviously I lived there is when I moved in there was no curbing there was no Road there was no water all right so the projects in past councils they put water and then they paved and put carbing in Catherine Street is an extra wide Street compared to um your street or my street so the sidewalks are there I believe I don't really particularly care for sidewalks personal opinion because you know you have to you got to show them you got to maintain them and if they go bad you have to rip them out and put put new U but there's several people on Katherine Street um that already did their sidewalks so we don't want to come in and you know they paid a lot of money for it but I can tell you I put a level on some of them they don't form to dot spec so if you start taking them out out those people are going to have to pay for it again I just don't feel that's really right to do that I reviewed I reviewed them as well I I I went to the site as well and to me it made no sense to put in sidewalks to Nowhere like I was like this you walk off and you get in the street so the budget the well there's been other areas there's been other areas that we did just Paving um I can tell you Clark Street uh Walter Drive Walter Court um Jeff Drive Jeffrey Drive uh Roy a be honest with Roy AV I walked at the other day somebody sidewalk is assho so if we ever did that again we would probably make that an assessment project because it's needed and it does go somewhere it goes out to to uh to Glenn wild that but it just didn't make sense to put an extra burden on people when they really decide what's going nowhere okay we are probably going to do the um aprons to on that we crack up yeah the ones we have to make it work cuz some of the aprons are out of tilt if we Mill and pave we don't want people bottoming it out so we will be doing some concrete work over there for that [Music] okay okay um have a motion to close public com public hearing second all in favor I any other questions from the council motion for adoption so move second roll call shert um okay I U just have a question is there another um as far as uh like in the capacity of what's coming next like if you're going to do this like is there another one in sight that's that's worse off or this is the worst of them when you apply for a grant for those streets you have to when you apply for that you have to be you have to name streets that you're doing but the dot won't give you anything so when we apply for this grant we did Catherine and Bailey for Paving and curving and you have two years to award the project and that award date is November of this year has to be awarded to a contractor just like next year we we got a we got 300 something thousand for NL um that will be our next big project um this year we didn't apply for right we didn't apply you can't you can't take with M say you can't take this money that we got from dot that's $416,000 and move it to re that has a bunch of potholes in it not you just can't move it it's dedicated to the street you went for the grand yeah we've done probably now I would say 75% of the roads in town we've no one paved or did upgrades to we're getting close to the point where it's a it was a 10year plan where this all started right now half a bav is rippled um because it's hasn't been done 20 some years Catherine Street we did water lines down on between Elizabeth and and Warren which we completed a loop we took out two in galvanized pipe part of our our lead pipe program and we ran new water lines there so if you drive over you'll see that's all ripped up it just passed so we thought that would be a perfect place to do cing Street and and it's definitely a thorough fair for kids in walking to school and and to Quick Check so it's a quick it's a cut through to get to turn yeah yeah so yes okay calano yes delar Ripa yes Hudson yes for the record Graziano and yasi stepped out so I'm considering them as recusing from the vote Yes okay okay right you want me to go I keep looking for that clock they are coming okay no I know that but my eyes just for so many years I've just been looking up there I just see a [Music] screw can I just put a sign up this it's time to [Music] adjourn okay new business adoption of resolution 2024 6.9 authorizing the application of Bay County Superior Court to amend the affordable housing consent order as it is relates to blocks 515 and lot 14.01 do I have a motion so Mo okay roll call Yi yes patalano yes Del Ripa yes Graziano yes Hudson yes Shubert yes okay okay Item B reduction of ordinance number 13224 chter 2-8 Municipal fees overnight parking permits um I have a motion to read by title so second all in favor I I an ordinance of the burough fdale in the county of pic state of New Jersey amending chapter 2 Administration article 8 policies and procedures section 2-8 fees charged for municipal Services of the code of the bur of Bloomingdale okay I'm sorry Mr Mayor second and final reading will be on June 25th item you good yes June 25th item C introduction of ordinance number 14224 adopting Redevelopment plan lock 5105 lot 14.01 53 55 58 59 and 61 do I have a motion to read by title so move second all in favor I an ordinance of the bur of Bloomingdale County of pic state of New Jersey adopting the Redevelopment plan for Block 5105 Lots 14.01 5355 58 59 and 61 Mr Mayor second and final reading can be on August 20th as this ordinance will be referred to the planning board okay can have a motion open up l public comment second all in favor you're good no more questions you're good all right seeing no one else do I have a motion to close the public comment so move second all in favor I okay we do not have anything for executive session our next meeting will be June 25th 7 o' um and then July 16th 2024 for our July meeting and remember July in August we have one meeting each month okay and we forgot to say uh congrats to the mayor for being your first time grandpar congratulations and it's not a dog so this really I do appreciate that it's uh really need experience need experience it's great to see my son going through what I went through um have a motion to adjourn second all in favor I thank you all d