##VIDEO ID:HikzWcVNxs8## wait um the one that I okay good evening welcome to the December 17th 2024 regular meeting with the Emerson governing body this meeting is being videotaped and may be viewed on your local public access Channel either 36 or 77 the meetings are also available Live on YouTube for those of you present in case of a fire please follow the fire exit signs above the doors and exit calmly um m Mr mccan would you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance to FL United States of America stand Nation indivisible and for all I would ask you to remain standing for a moment of silence in memory of Carmela Millie Dela uh fave and Mr John wellik uh both Emerson residents and they will be next thank you this meeting is called pursuant to the provisions of the open public meetings law and adequately noticed pursuant to njs 104-107 of December 3rd 2024 was noticed to the record in Ridgewood news on January 4th 2024 and published in said newspapers posted on the bulletin board in the municipal building and has remained continuously posted as required under the statute Miss D Simone would you please call the Roll Call of the governing body mayor present councilwoman arenia here councilwoman rice here councilwoman Maguire pres council president Timberman is absent this evening councilman Gordon is AB this evening and councilwoman sers here okay we knew in advance of their absences may I have a motion to excuse council president Timberman and councilman Gordon from tonight's meeting so second second all in favor I any opposed you are excused gentlemen uh proclamations and citations unfortunately our councilman commissioner is unfortunately sick this evening and unable to join us but nevertheless we want to recognize him for his six years of service and we will try to get him back here for our reorganization meeting um and if he not we'll say a little bit more about him then um good things um and unfortunately uh our hometown hero Dan O'Brien was on our agenda for this evening um Dan uh also has uh had a little accident and is not able to join us this evening and uh we hope to have him in and celebrate him at a uh meeting next year appointments and resignations there are no appointments tonight minutes for approval may I have a motion to approve the minutes of the December 3rd 2024 regular meeting second all in favor any opposed oh I guess we're supposed to do roll calls I'm sorry roll call please councilwoman arenia yes councilwoman Ray yes councilwoman Maguire yes councilwoman cers yes Z thank you okay um and may I have a motion to approve the minutes of the close session for December 3rd 2024 and a roll call please councilwoman orenia here councilwoman R yes councilwoman Maguire yes councilwoman cers yes that's passes 40 thank you um there is no correspondence this evening Financial business may I have a motion to adopt resolution number 28-24 to approve the December 17 2024 Bill list roll call please yes councilwoman R yes councilwoman McGuire yes councilwoman sers yes pass 4 and I did forget something under um proclamations and citations Ruth melu um who I hope is watching uh turned 103 years old in November but was unable to join us well today we went down to see Ruth at her home this is me with Ruth and her daughter and this is Ruth with her cake and we did a celebratory little party at Ruth's house to celebrate her 103rd birthday and uh the fire uh Chief and the police chief organized a um parade and we had fire engines and police cars and Ruth was absolutely blown away at how the town celebrated her and we told her that if she wasn't able to come in um in the new year that we would definitely see her um next November for her 104th birthday so I just want to wish Ruth once again a very happy birthday and a very healthy happy New Year one more time there's Ruth okay I'm GNA put these over here so I'm not staring at myself okay so that now will bring us to um unfinished business uh there it was a discussion that we had about sidewalks on Forest Avenue I believe we all received an email from our police chief earlier today and um I think we did ask Dave to do a little bit of research on that Dave are you ready to speak on that uh briefly talk sure and just so you know have you seen the letter from the police chief yes I got a copy of that okay yeah so I mean as far as forab I mean so obviously what you have here from the the Le chief he does have concerns obviously given the uh volume of traffic and speed on that roadway um some of the other highlighted items are really just you know it's really just the safety aspect of things uh related to the to the roadway because as it sits today uh the lighting that's within the locations where there's no sidewalk uh obviously there's no residential hom so there's very limited Lighting in those locations so there's concerns that he has related to uh for the pedestrians um and as far as the overall site itself um with the focus on the vacant land area um you know there is some guide Rail and some utility poles that will provide some restrictions um as far as as it sits today um as far as doing any improvements over there um you know the bur want look into doing something there we can further evaluate and come up with a game plan potentially for that um but it will require uh to move the guide rail back further um as we move it back further there are there's the ditch that does run through there the drainage ditch um so we would have to contend with that um to accommodate the needed space on that section of the roadway so the guard rail would go on which side of the sidewalk well we would need to go on the back side back side meaning the tree side so you have have the street the curb sidewalk and then it would be behind the behind the sidewalk so why would we do that wouldn't we want the guard rail on the other side to protect the people that were walking if we put the sidewalks in it's not customary because quite honestly what it would do is give you a false sense of security and actually could cause more harm um there were some incidences maybe 30 40 years ago where they had that situation and um what ended up happening somebody was walking behind there they thought they were safe and next thing you know a car hit the guide Rail and uh there was a fatality from it so it was determined that it should be behind um behind that area it's not really there to protect the people it's really to protect the motorist from going into no into the woods no I get that I get that that's the main purpose but if someone were like the chief I guess is saying if that guard rail was on the opposite side and it was protecting a car from going into a Ravine and someone was walking in and there was a sidewalk that person really has absolutely no protection walking there yeah there's not I mean the issue you're going to run into is there's limited what you can do for protection for The Pedestrian per se as far as the the motor vehicle it's really you know your curve and stuff in that location is what's your protection from the motor vehicle okay but obviously given Vehicles nowadays everybody's driving bigger vehicles is relatively easy I know it's very common place so we talked about this I guess either the last meeting or the meeting before that everything becomes a blur after a while um Nicole you had brought it up originally do you still feel as strongly after hearing Dave's comments and the police chiefs no so is this a non-starter now is it something we could just resolve and um say the burrow is no longer interested in putting the sidewalk in and and we will we are still investigating the um the Broadway path in order to get kids from that side of town over in a safer manner okay um that's still something that's on the not that we're working on actively but something that's still on the horizon is that it's fine sound good all right and everyone's okay with that shelving the um all right so should we just say that we're shelving the idea of the sidewalk or should we take some kind of consensus zone or anything don't okay all right good so we're just going to shelf the uh sidewalk by suggestion of the police chief um which brings us to our next topic is the drainage project um also up in that area on Jordan and Forest Avenue um Rob so Dave and I have been working uh with the county uh along with our we have Grant um and the county is looking to meet with us the week after Christmas uh they are looking to put this on their radar uh they have discussed this in their engineering department and they said that this is something that is a priority to them at the County uh for this year and they would like to see this is done uh they would like to have they would like to set the meeting up with the mayor myself Dave Perry uh along with uh that there powers that be on their side for the engineering department and a few others don't we also need paramis in the cemetery the cemetery uh has already given us authorization to work with so long as with the parameters uh on that I think Dave and I can we've talked about that so so long as there's nothing that we're disturbing anywhere uh with the graves because that was where they we cannot do anything with the graves so so they basically are so long as we can come in and show them the plans of what we're doing and and where we're going and that's not going to be the case they are amendable to working with us they've already given us the permission on that so we would just basically go forward once we get time frame and project and as allocation of money because we're going to need a study on this uh I think Dave will go further into that and I can we can explain what I mean by the study sure I know I think last meeting I was here we talked briefly about it kind of run into um I'm having my team work put together a number so we have an idea what that study is going to cost um so we can get a find certain item on that so we have an idea of where that is I know I think when we talked at the last meeting we were looking roughly between 75 to 100,000 for the study um tails is gathering obviously all the existing information there Prett large uh drainage area that we're looking at um so we want to make sure that you know everything is properly analyzed so that we're going into this once and doing it right and have all the you know the correct information so we can model it for the different storm events and come up and see what makes sense you know financially with what we have um and what we can actually do there's restrictions there uh obviously given uh existing grades and different things over there so have to get all that information which all right I would also like to make sure I go on the record so it's appropriate to um adopt the resolution that's suggested on today's agenda yeah that's for the funding yeah yeah funding and I'm going to go on the record as we've already discussed with the county that this should not be all on us this cost okay that there that's why we're meeting with the county is to share in the study that they it's obviously their County Road too so some of the where the water is coming from and what we're looking to do with to fix this is going to fix and help an issue that they're having with their roads so that is part of the discussion that we're going to needed an engineer they've used neglia we have neg neglia here as our engineer which is why it makes the most sense and so that's where they're looking to come up with the money for next year's uh budget majority of our money for this project is coming from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs that's correct okay so we need a motion to adopt the resolution uh number 29-24 to authorize the agreement with the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs for the Emerson storm waterer project second roll call please councilwoman orenia yes councilwoman rice yes councilwoman Maguire yes and councilwoman cers yes that passes okay and then we're going to have a discussion on the uh Community Development Block Grant application ROM I'm recommending that we do that after close session so we have some things we need to discuss on that which will then affect uh how we well we vote on that how we vote on that resolution so I would recommend that we do the Clos session discussion then come back and bring that resolution forward to discuss Grant really yes okay and then that brings us to the Bergen County open space Grant discussion Bergen County open space we received the grant for over a little over 84,000 uh we have to as a matching Grant we that for Rosengard Park was what we applied for for to make improvements on that um so we have two years now to spend that money and to figure out what we're going to do uh I believe that there was uh one of the council members who is sitting across from me who had a discussion on that about how we're going to utilize that and how uh what can be put in the park and who has the you know who's you know who has any input on it so I would recommend that if the mayor as mayor would you would if you would like to have some sort of of committee with a couple of council members on there along sitting with Perry uh to discuss what you would like to see or what how or what he was envisioning of putting in there based off what we had planned on what we put in for the grant along with Dave uh to to go through that then we could kind of go through figure out where we're going to spend the money and come up what we think is the best uh projects for the uh for the park um let's do that at reorg we'll put that um committee together we don't have to do any work before no we have plenty of time on that just could you put that on the reorg agenda that we're going to put together a uh Park renovation sub committee sure thank you um and now we're going to talk about the 2025 local Recreation Improvement Grant so it sounds like that's be a perfect segue then to into the same thing for next year to discuss after you have your commit put someone together for that committee because what we did last year was we worked with that Grant to try to do further with Rosengard uh to add to that that's what we were hoping that there was going to be money uh we did not receive any money on that Grant last year so we were looking to see where other Parks or potentially to add to currently the plan that we had for rosengart uh we may want to do the same thing again for next year but I think that uh should be something that's discussed again through the governing body uh based off of your decisions of what you thought uh what parks need it or if the project Rosengard uh could use I think that Long View Park could use some attention I think that there's um a turnover in that neighborhood and there's a lot of younger families and I think they have a swing set up there so there is some discussion on that but again that's something I think we could talk about I think the sub committee can go take a look and see where the um money should be allocated yeah that's why I said I think that we do that once we have put the PE committee together and we can discuss that for how how you would like to put that for next year where we would uh to apply okay that brings us to new business so I just wanted to talk about um these drones that everybody's seeing or some people are seeing up in the sky um I personally don't think you're crazy because I've seen them too um the federal government believes that um this is not interference from a foreign country um that it's no threat um I think everyone is uh at Liberty to make their own opinion the one thing that we do ask is that you do not shine any red lasers up into the sky because I do think that some people are mistaking some of the drones for passenger airplanes and that puts the um pilot at risk as long as the pass as well as the passengers on the airplane if it's not one of the drones um and also people on the ground um I did attend a meeting with the um white house yesterday it was a zoom meeting it was the department of intergovernmental Affairs the US Department of Homeland Security the FBI and the FAA um and everybody stands by that um there are some recreational drones that are up in the air um but nobody seems to think from the government standpoint outside of New Jersey or even inside New Jersey that these are anything to worry about um but I would uh caution you to make your own decisions based on the information that's out there that is the um information that's coming out of our federal government and our state government um I did see them over Emerson myself on two or three different occasions I've seen them over the reservoir um and they seem to be in the same pattern I did report it to the police um I do know that people are upset that I'm not posting about it on Facebook I'm not looking to get into arguments I do think that this could be something of a concern and it's best dealt with um with our Police Department or the FBI and um trying to report and see what the um patterns are because I do think that there's patterns I know that the drones don't come out um behind my house until about 9:30 at night um and right Nicole and uh I have some video of them going straight up in the air and it's been sent to the FBI um but like I said the main piece of information here is don't mess with them leave them alone don't shoot them down don't shoot lasers at them because just in case it's it it's not in fact a drone um we could talk about that later if everybody wants to anybody want to say anything about the drones no anyone down here no I'm not even going to ask you because I'm sure you have a lot to say I just think if there were something dangerous they would have been shot down already by our military it it's I think it's a we live in confusing times I mean we've already been through covid and now we have this this drone thing going on and uh you know I I like to say to people that you know don't worry about it until there's something to worry about but I I do think that people have to do what they think is best for themselves and their family as it relates to really anything that's happening out there in the world um and I am we were remiss in not remembering um the children in the that passed away in the shooting in Wisconsin and the teacher um and I forgot about that um that was in current events and uh our thoughts and prayers go out to the individuals affected by that but we as I said live in crazy times where things are are happening and uh I think it's it's best to just always follow your gut and do what you think is best for you and your family and your own livelihood um let's move on to because the federal government's not worried about us right yeah not for another couple [Laughter] weeks okay so that's all we'll say about the drones for right now but what it but that does lead me to um is that uh some towns are were saying well our drone ordinance says this and our drone ordinance says that and I called up Michelle and Tria and I said do we have a drone ordinance because I didn't remember one and we do not have a drone ordinance so I do think that it's probably time that we have a um recreational drone ordinance in town do you find that a lot of towns have them Dave do you deal with that at all does that come into your perview at all I haven't seen it myself it's FAA no but some some towns do have them in terms of recreational use does matter FAA TRS whatever the town does it's so if somebody's has a drone over their Neighbor's Pool and there's children in the pool and they don't want it there the FAA would get involved the FAA is the jurisdiction for the for that not not the municipality so it supersedes anything we do the FAA has jurisdiction you don't okay so we do not need a drone ordinance you're telling me it would be irrelevant okay would be in fact it would be improper okay you heard it here first it would be improper so that means we are going to move to the Kinder KAC Road discussion on the speed limit evaluation between the county and Westwood I understand Westwood is trying to get the speed limit lowered in on Kinder KAC in Westwood and the county is asking us to also um pass an ordinance to lower our speed I know that at our last meeting that our um burough attorney said that we needed the um study and I don't think that we received a study I think we might have received some comments but I don't think it was an actual study so I'm not sure if it has the speed limit they gave an a valuation based off that if you know from what they're and basically what they're saying is Westwood is going to lower Theirs to 30 on the other side of hours it already is 30 and so what they're basically by they do this so they want to just lower two tents in the one spot to make it consistent the police chief has recommended that we do lower it also so that we stay consistent so um he has sent he sent us an email on that that to to forward that he was in uh agreement with the with what they're looking to do what to make problem are they fixing well basically what they're saying is that they feel as if there's what problem speeding are they fixing is there a problem with speeding is any evidence of that any study to support some people's belief that it it should be does it have something to do with buses because on the top of this in yellow no oh no Biz New Biz that's new is the the question still stands well what's the reason for it again I can think that you know I want a blue Christmas tree you know why do I want a blue Christmas tree so it's just typical government actions for the sake of doing something I I think that westw asked for the um lowering of the speed limit in their town and then if more I would ask what problem if we were going to do it if we were going to do it um I think that the county wanted us to do it so that it was a um understand one rolled into the other I'm not saying that we should do it all I'm saying is all I'm saying is they're not providing you with yeah there's no study I just have a letter here so reasons what they were claiming from when I spoke to them ask them for some hard data on if there's accidents or something and then we revisit this that in the letter it does that's what they I was just going to say the DAT was recommended that the speed limit from West but can we have the data need the data I don't another municipalities like our office prepared a report basically we went out we did traffic counts checked the speed limits and make sure that everything sided that it made sense to actually lower the speed you in another municipality so so there was data to be looked at we would like that same data of I'll reach out to get the DAT have the um before we make a decision yeah like was there a rise of seding tickets was there a rise of accidents was there any threat to Public Safety outside of you know I mean what problem is are they are they fixing because you know a traffic count doesn't isn't the type of looking for you're looking for when someone says we're going to in we're going to you know lower threshold for a fine on on a busy road you know you want to want to know why if if if there's any like real danger or is it just perceived danger do does the governing body want to see the data yes all right so Rob please request the actual raw data that they so that we could make a informed decision the West letter that was provided that one has a little more information than what the erson letter was so I guess the sheriff's department some information they gather all the traffic and accident dat so it sounds like they did their due diligence they're just not providing us with all that so we just need it in a nice package so that we could look at it we don't have to go searching for info that would be nice all right and then that brings us to um the discussion of Emerson's 1998 American LEF France pumper fire truck so from what I understand um there's not a need for this firet truck anymore by the burrow because they received a new fire truck purchas we purchased a new fire truck um over the summer um and it's already in use and from what I understand everybody's trained on it so a burrow resident um approached me and asked if we would be willing to donate this fire truck um to the people that were affected by the hurricane in North Carolina that they don't have any um fire equipment and he's also collecting um any kind of fire gear any kind of fire apparatus now I believe that he is on the Westwood fire department he's a former Chief in Emerson and he's now on the Westwood fire department and um he is doing humanitarian runs down to North Carolina in order to support them and help them so I reached out to Westwood to see if they were donating a truck and they are evaluating it um first what they're doing is putting get out the bid to see or auction to see um what it's worth and um I think that maybe we would like to do the same thing what does everybody else think and first find out what the worth of what the price tag on it is um I know that um one of the council women in Westwood that I spoke with had said that she did attend down at the league a course and it said told everybody that because it's taking so long to get fire trucks that a lot of these fire trucks that maybe at the end of their um life were only worth $2 or $3,000 are more are worth more money because it's so hard to come across fire trucks that in you know places not like Emerson that are so busy that need a brand new fire truck every 30 years people are happy with a 1998 truck and maybe it would Faire better at auction um so my recommendation would be to put it on gov deal gov deals is that it and then see what it gets and then we can decide after we see what how much money it gets right at auction yes we can we can evaluate it that way we can we there's a couple of ways we could do it yes okay and if it's not going to net us you know a considerable am amount of money maybe we look at something like donating it to one of these towns that are in need um but we could talk about that after we see what it's actually worth everyone okay with that yeah okay um calendar year 20125 dates so originally we were thinking about doing reorg not on our usual date which is the 7th um because the 7th is the last day to legally swearing our new Council people so um it did not work with everyone's schedule so our reorg will definitely be on um January 7th and if um the need arises the council people will be sworn in prior to that date in case any official business is needed to be attended to um and I will take care of that for them if there needs to be some kind of special meeting or emergency meeting prior to the 7th um we also I think you have a list of dates um to look over does everybody have these yeah everybody has these in their packet um and I just want to point out that like we did last year just because we put a meeting on the schedule it doesn't mean that we're going to hold that meeting so um before Jane D left we thought that it was wise in some of these months that we knew that there were elections and whatnot that we wouldn't necessarily need three meetings but for expedience stake it's more expensive to continually notice for special meetings and to change meetings that we would just put more meetings than we knew that we needed onto the calendar with the option of just canceling the meeting I just want everybody to know that we're not anticipating meeting three meetings in some of these months um it's just that we have the options because of holidays um and such to change the schedule as needed we are generally the first and third and we try to keep to that as close as possible but sometimes when you have your federal holidays on a Monday and employees take off it's hard to get things ready um in time for a Tuesday meeting so maybe we push a meeting to it um the next week or if there's an election or as I mentioned before the league of municipalities which most elected officials go to in the uh State um it's difficult to have a meeting that week because all the professionals are away um most of the council people are away and staff is away taking classes so I just want everybody to look this over and um did everyone have a chance to look it over yet it's like does anyone have any issues with any of the dates November it's a Wednesday that's because Veterans Day is the 11th of the and offic is closed it's Federal closed today was the 18th look at I i' I'd like to what's your 18th of what month November that's the league of municipalities usually oh that's the league the third week third week yeah so we thought maybe just one meeting in November so we have the election which is on the fourth that or it's on the 11th she said um the election is bumped or something no no the primary oh the election the primary election is bumped from June 3rd to June 10th most likely most likely confirmed but most likely it will be moved to right so that's why we have four dates in June right now we're not sure because the primary election could be bumped and then we were unsure about the dates for January so there's a proposed four meetings there um and if we advertise for these it's just a a simple notice to cancel a meeting as opposed to all of the work to notice a new meeting so is everyone okay with these dates otherwise if you change the one in December for me it would be fine the second one the second one to decend on your birthday so all right well rob preempts me everybody Rob's birthday was yesterday I'd like to wish our bur administrator Rob Hermanson a happy Health than you thank you very much and best wishes for a happy uh New Year in your uh New Age yes you don't have to say what it is but I know you're younger than me sry all right so everyone let's take a vote then to um adopt resolution number second and a second I said second all right and a roll call please councilwoman arenia yes councilwoman rice yes councilwoman Maguire yes councilwoman seers yes that passes for and you can continue looking at these dates so now that we've set the reorg I think at the reorg we'll set the the meeting dates for the rest of the year okay um number 11 on our agenda is the introduction of ordinance there are no ordinances to be introduced adoption of ordinances there no are no ordinances this uh evening to be adopted which brings us to reports um councilwoman rice down there do you have a reporting for us struggling all right let's see we appreciate that you're here I have um I'll go first for Board of Ed um the tennis Corp project is going great they're doing a Phenom phenomenal job they are also the board of V is also moving forward with plans for the baseball softball field Turf Renovations so that's exciting um and then for um environmental just want to let everyone know they've been advertising a lot but um you have any of your um if they're having a holiday lights drive so bring your old broken or unwanted holiday string lights and they'll recycle them responsibly for you the date is December 21st and you can drop them to to the Emerson fire department and that's me done okay Nicole do you have a report for us this evening actually I do not the Board of Health met this past week and they just did budget it wasn't anything um new or discuss is Mr aren collecting Christmas lights as well I don't want to say he burns them I heard they give off really nice col they do copper copper very beautiful green and blue when you burn it in fire um we don't recommend that though but we will recycle them yes yes we will recycle them want to say happy holidays to everybody out there um course I don't think we'll beeting again before the new year so happy holidays and happy New Year uh councilwoman Maguire do you have a report for us this evening same no report just wishing everyone a happy Hanukkah Merry Christmas and may 2025 be bright for everyone sweet um Ashley do you have a report for us I do so the DPW um monthly update report for November and December during the Burrow's um November 4th shredding day 6,351 PBS of paper which is equivalent to 2.88 tons was shredded and recycled um the DPW was also busy decorating burrow Hall in preparation for the holiday season including Emerson's annual tree lighting ceremony so thank you for beautifully decorating um bur Hall and kicking that event off for us um um thank you to all the residents who came out to the annual Christmas tree lighting as well it was a great event the DPW checked and cleaned all stream beds running off of Main Street to the reservoir the DPW replaced outlets for the Christmas tree at borrow Hall and the last day for leaf pickup is December 30th and that's all I have thank you thank you um that'll I'll get into my report now um the rec commission will start um to begin their judging on December 21st a map of participating addresses will be posted on the Emerson Recreation Facebook page and the burrow website in the coming days um and they will be giving out the prizes um a friendly reminder that Tuesday December 18th is the last day to drop off a new unwrapped toy at the Amerson Police Department for their PBA toy drive uh the Emerson volunteer fire department is holding their annual Santa around town as we speak I caught him 15 minutes before I left my house and then again um passing burrow Hall I have a video that I'll post on my mayor's page of them coming down Locust um you can follow Santa's route in real time by visiting www. Emerson fire.org santa-tracker and he will be around around tonight tomorrow and Thursday night the 19th the fire department is also having their annual Holiday Market with special appearances by Santa and the Grinch on Saturday December 21st from 11: to 1 p.m. at the firehouse there will be light Refreshments as well as a cup of cheer coffee cart sponsored by Emerson Starbucks and a winter story corner with our friends from the library we look forward to seeing you there Flyers with information on these events are displayed um in the back of the room um I am pleased to announce that the burrow in collaboration with congregation Benet Israel will hold our first Hanukkah celebration with a public monora lighting at Burrow Hall on Saturday December 28th at 6: p.m. a flyer will be posted on the website soon as we get into the winter months I encourage our residents to sign up to receive emergency notific ations and other information through our Rave alert system and as always more information on all of these events and current news is posted on the burrow website um if you need help signing up for Rave you can always call the clerk's office um or go on to ww Emerson nj.org newws or connect on the website in order to sign up the last day for mixed Garden debris as Ashley said is Monday December 30th and pickups do not resume until April 7th so if you don't get that Garden debris out there on December 30th you're holding it until April 7th um there are no changes to the garbage and recycling schedules during the holiday weeks a schedule confirming all the regular pickup dates will be posted on the burrow website just for you to be sure if you want to check and um the week between Christmas and uh and New Year's December 30th through the uh Friday January 3rd with the exception of New Year's Day from 9:00 a.m. to 300 p.m. the there's Santa Claus now the motor vehicle mobile services will be at our senior center more information is on the burrow website about that um but you can pretty much do anything that you do with the uh Motor Vehicle Commission um down there so please go down and save yourself a trip down a Lo ey or any other one of their St um we already talked about the drones so I'm going to take that out um the 2025 garbage and recycling newsletter will be delivered in the mail starting on December 27th and to all of our residents who celebrate I want to wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas a happy Hanukkah a happy K Quanza and a very happy New Year um we're going to continue with the meeting but we won't officially see you back here until the new year so um we'll see you on the 7th back here Rob do you have a report sure I'll go through mine before figure Dave first one I have is the tap Grant uh so tap Grant we just got an update uh that they have submitted their final plans to the county and local aid for comments uh we addressed they addressed the County's comments that they had made off their plans and they're waiting any comments now from NJ do local Aid they anticipate submitting the bid documents for construction authorization in January and once they are authorized they can then advertise the project and expect Construction in early summer to start early summer this is the project phase yes phase two that's going on between Etna and and the orell Border yes that we've been talking about for years yes so we're hopefully no longer be talking we'll be doing hopefully yes but we're told this is the process yes this is not just this town right Dave correct it takes this long in every town to get the federal top Grant done a lengthy process just because of all the checklist items and stuff that the state requires process anything else Rob couple things quick um we're working on our budget I want to thank our CFO for already starting that and getting that out uh the process is is a always I feel like she's always working on that budget uh she doing does always does a great job uh she has you know started to let the uh the finance committee know uh some things of where we're starting and what we're looking for for next year and we'll obviously have that out to everybody when it's ready to go towards January February so that uh but we are start the uh our CFO is is diligently working on that uh as we speak I know that she sent out some emails to the um current budget and finance committee in order to start um come in and start reviewing some documents uh I already talked about the meeting with the county that we're going to be doing with along with uh on Jordan Road so we discuss that we are also working uh there is there is work that's going on up on Erie uh at the end of Erie uh with the the uh golf courses helping us with a project um Dave has gone up and looked at that on so as the mayor uh to see what they were doing I can tell you that we were I was have been up there the last for the last couple of rainstorms uh it has done very very well what we're what we had expectation so far which is good uh we haven't seen to any issues uh there are some things that they're going to do we're going to have to put some Stone you'll see some Stone go up there um and we're going to then discuss how we make that path work uh based off what we're going to do there if you possible and um so we're we're working on that uh look forward to getting that done as soon as it gets dry again because as it's wet it's t it's tough to use equipment uh obviously in mud so that's you that's a problem um my second to last thing is the uh we're finishing up the library solar project uh they have been the panels are up they connected the they ran the wires and now we're waiting for we had a nice day today so they were working today there's only a few more days left that they have to actually put because they have to put holes in to run the wires through to connect everything uh to put for the solar uh we hopefully would like to see that finished by the end of this week we would have liked to had it done by last week but the rain came so um but we're we're looking forward to that up running so that uh the library then will be running on on solar panels uh on a project that we had uh implemented and got a grant for and worked the governing body was able to do that and work hard uh to get that done and nice a good very solid project and the last thing of course as you know every wish everyone a Merry Christmas Happy New Year and happy Hanukkah for those who are celebrating and um and hope may this be the best year for everybody thank you it's sweet um Mr McAn do you have a report this evening okay which brings us to public comment members of the public are welcome to speak on any topic by coming to the podum and stating your name for the record mayor mayor does Dave have a report oh you know you talked on so many things that you had the report I apologize I I'll keep it brief and more to talk about one one thing I don't recall if we uh if I announced it at the last meeting um so the dot did make announcements for the uh FY 25 grant award um as you may recall we submitted for Lincoln Boulevard um for the whole section of it we had put in a request for 422,000 um the dot did award us uh $171,400 fly again until we get the whole thing done correct and we'll look to start at the Westwood border cuz that section of the roadway is in poor condition so as we progress um that's how that's the game plan I'm so that's very good use for the people that live on LOL Boulevard yes and that was really the main thing I had I think the the 24 work program was a success everything got completed the B whole parking lot is beautiful it is we no long to contend with so uh but life is good and Dave don't we the psgs did some work up there on Lincoln too so we could tie could we tie in with that also yes um and then we'll have to work with them too because they're doing work on U Park uh which is part of our 24 grant that we received as well so what we can look to do is actually swap um do a swap with psng and have then do curve to curve pavement elsewhere exactly um and then we the bur will take care of the par for since we're doing it anyhow together we have the grand all right did I miss anyone or does anyone have anything to add before we move on from reports okay so we're back at public comment members of the public are welcome to speak on any topic by coming to the podium and stating your name for the record in the interest of time speakers are limited to 3 minutes in consideration of all who may wish to speak please keep your cont ments brief and concise may I have a motion to open the meeting to public comment so second all in favor any opposed motion carries I seeing no one here to with their hand raised may I have uh a motion to close the meeting to General comments from the public all in favor I any opposed carried okay um now that brings us to uh resolutions on consent may I have a motion to approve i' like one of okay ca 2764 um there's no title on that one 8723 okay um this is the oh it's an amendment for payment okay so um can I have a motion to approve resolutions uh CA 26224 through 275-2437 d24 through CA 28-24 second may I get a roll call please councilwoman arenia yes councilwoman rice yes councilwoman Maguire yes councilwoman sers yes score zero okay and may I have a motion to approve c276 d24 uh which is an amended resolution of 87-25 I have a motion to to approve the resolution oh oh I'm sorry 27624 I'll make a motion to vote on it and can I get a second and a roll call please councilwoman orenia yes councilwoman rice this is just editing for just paying the bill yes it's something that we previously approved yes yes yes councilwoman Maguire no and councilwoman sers up that's fine she has no idea what it [Laughter] is it passes on two votes right you may have to vote on it mayor you have to vote why would I have to vote there's an exstension there's a no oh that's right and there's two yeses work but that's enough to pay a bill right like okay I just didn't know if we needed to hold it for another meeting so it acquires more votes okay so we passes to majority here okay okay all right and that brings us up to um Clos executive session uh may I have a motion to go into executive session to discuss matters exempt from the public pursuant to njsa 104-1 at SEC and adequately noticed by resolution 28124 second roll call please councilwoman arenia yes councilwoman rice yes councilwoman Maguire yes councilwoman cers yes that passes 4 Z thank you um we are now going into closed session members of the public May remain on YouTube until we uh return to open session at which time formal action may be taken I would like to make a motion to put in a resolution to uh confirm the appointment of an independent hearing officer Gian Carlo G uh in the amount not to exceed 8500 at 250 an hour to conduct a personal hearing for a Personnel matter so moved and a roll call please councilwoman orenia yes councilwoman rice yes councilwoman Maguire yes councilwoman cers yes the passes 4 Zer all right and that's number 26-24 that one is 28224 282 this is for okay and is there any other business yes I'd like to also make a motion still not to endorse for the 2025 2026 Bergen County Community Development Grant application for senior transportation and entertainment second and a roll call please councilwoman orenia yes councilwoman rice yes councilwoman mgu yes Council yes pass all right very good but these had both the same number on them this is all same okay um do we have any other business I don't think so so you know what that means good night see you next year happy Christmas Merry Christmas Merry Christmas Happy New Year and we'll see you next year Happ Hanukkah happy Han second all in favor I Mar