e welcome everybody uh thank you everybody waiting patiently at home uh we had some technical difficulties but we're back on now so um if everybody could please stand for a moment of silence and salute to the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all adequate notice of this meeting was provided to the Union County Hawk advertised on January 4th 2024 notification was sent to the Star Ledger and is posted on the mun ipal website the municipal public bulletin board and filed in the office of the municipal clerk informing the public of the time and place according to the provisions of the open public meeting Law chapter 231 pl1 1975 roll call please miss Cameron mayor BL here councilwoman Bodo here councilman Foley here councilman Lazaro here councilwoman ndi she is excused councilwoman salmon she is excused as well council president Carney here a roll call of staff and professionals please John author borrow administrator here Adam Abramson burrow attorney here dou stoer chief of police here Mike disco borrow engineer here okay before we move on to regular business um I have a very a couple of very special proclamations to make tonight um as some of you may know back at the end of November uh three of our police officers were involved in a well it was a har save um and saved one of our residents life uh they have been honored by the 200 Club of Union County uh as well for this uh for this uh amazing save and tonight we just wanted to honor them and give our thanks as well to um to our dispatcher who was involved dispatcher Diana CI belan um and also officer Gregory Sanchez Sergeant Jonathan pridey and Sergeant Jonathan Wright um we are joined tonight uh by representatives from the American Foundation For Suicide Prevention because this was a save uh of a resident who was in mental distress um and so the foundation is here tonight to help us honor these officers the American Foundation For Suicide Prevention uh is a leading nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives and bringing hope to those affected by Suicide uh it was founded in 1987 and invests over $30 million each year in scientific research education advocacy and support of those affected by Suicide uh and they do that through walks and other fundraising events so here tonight is Beth Stapleton the incoming board co-chair having served on the board of as afsap New Jersey chapter since January 2021 and as the chapter's volunteer coordinator since 2020 um and she's here with Dianna fesio Who is the program manager for afsp New Jersey at this time I would like to call um the officers and our dispatcher up uh to the area by the microphone uh as well as Beth and Dean and we can uh honor them with our proclamations Beth and Dean thank you for joining us um if it's okay I I would like to read out the proclamations to our officers and to our dispatcher and then I know you have a little something you'd like to present as well um so Diana want to thank you this uh is awarded for an act perform in the line of duty where prompt and alert action resulted in Saving a life so whereas on the evening of Tuesday November 28th Garwood police dispatch received a call from a resident in obvious distress whereas Miss Diana cchi Belen was on duty as a dispatcher for the Garwood police and answered that call whereas Miss CI belan worked to obtain as much information from the distress dist resident as possible and whereas Miss CI Beltran immediately dispatched Garwood police officers to the resident's address sensing that the situation was escalating whereas Miss cchi Belen used her extensive training and experience to work with officer officers throughout the incident contributing to a life being saved now therefore be it resolved that I mayor Jen blumock honor and thank Missi Beltran for her quick thinking and her ability to keep calm under such pressure that is indicative of what dis dispatchers much must do each day to keep our community safe so thank you than and I have for officer Sanchez sergeant pridey and Sergeant right some proclamations for you as well and these are awarded for ACT perform in the line of duty which through disregard of personal safety and prompt alert action resulted in Saving a life where on the evening of Tuesday November 28th Garwood police dispatch received a call from a resident in obvious distress whereas Sergeant rright sergeant pridey and officer Sanchez immediately went to the resident's address whereas upon receiving no answer from the resident and with his condition unknown the officers decided to break the door down whereas upon entering the apartment the officers found the distressed resident attempting to take his life by jumping over a balcony whereas the officers immediately jumped into action grabbing the resident and pulling him back over the railing to safety whereas the officer Split Second decision making along with their heroic physical efforts save the life of this Garwood resident now therefore be it resolved that I mayor Jen blumenstock honor and thank these officers for their quick thinking and their Brave actions that are a proud reflection on the entire Garwood Police Department that works each day to keep our community safe thank you officers now I will turn it over to Beth andiana thank you very much mayor blumenstock the American Foundation For Suicide Prevention as you mentioned is a leading nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives and creating a culture that's smart about Mental Health um I'm honored to recognize three of garwood's finest officers here with our Lifesaver Award in 20120 we created this award to recognize those who go above and beyond in supporting Suicide Prevention and mental health awareness in their communities um in recognition you know you read heard the proclamation so we all know how you saved this resident's life and I just want you to know that in addition to saving his life you also saved his family his community his friends from unimaginable grief and pain and you should also know that when someone when someone survives a suicide attempt they are less than 10% likely to eventually die by Suicide so where there is life there is hope so your courage and your compassion and your quick response um we're very honored to be here today to present you with our afsp Lifesaver Awards Chief did you want to say a little something de and Beth for coming out tonight and again I want to Echo sen for all the officers uh and their actions that day it was truly remarkable night thank you thank you officers yeah I know I know yes we want to do a bunch of pictures John de man e thank you again officers and thank you to uh again for the representatives from the American Foundation For Suicide Prevention uh it was beautifully said um and I I I think all of Garwood uh is truly grateful for their heroics that night we will we will move along to regular business um report from our B engineer hello mayor and Council thank you for accomodating me I cannot uh attend the next one so thank you for having me tonight uh the primary uh purpose of tonight is to choose our NJ doot uh Street sections for Grant application due at the beginning of July and uh hopefully the streets committee uh considered those so I'm I'm all ears okay um I know I have taken a look at everything um and I know our council members have as well um Mr disco did provide a couple of options and as you can see tonight um there's an additional one as well we had some good news um I have spoken to our counterparts over in Cranford and they are um quite willing to put Gallows Hill Road on their do list uh and and split it and split the cost as we did uh in previous years with Fifth Avenue so I think I know I can say that's a top priority in in my book I think everybody else would probably agree that road is pretty bad um and given that Cranford is now uh ready and and willing to to go on on their side I think that should be a a Top Choice to put in our do um is there agreement on that one yes definitely okay so that was good news uh Mr disco and cranford's engineer have already linked up to discuss and do whatever needs to get done to figure out costs and everything with that to to go in for the grant so I appreciate that Mr disco um in looking at the other options on Maple Street and Second Avenue my my first uh inclination was definitely To Go Myrtle I mean Maple from Myrtle to South however instead of just doing that part um if everybody could I don't know if everybody has the map in front of them from last time or not but um the part of maple from Locust to Spruce it's dead ends it's not really onto Locust it's dead ends um that block if you look at it it's like half red half yellow if you've if you go down it it is a dead end so it's sort of something it's one of those blocks that sort of unfortunately gets tossed to the side a little bit because it is a dead end however uh when the work was done by well there was I don't even know the gas or water company years ago um it there that half of that block is pretty bad um I would hate to like just leave it there we're doing the other part of M of maple I would like to see if the council would agree to add that onto the list um to to do that one I would say I mean there's nothing else that is in the red except for that particular piece so given the fact that you know if we're trying to keep um with what we've been doing over the past several years um in making sure that the roads are you know not detering to a quality that is you know clear clearly a problem and I've walked that area before it is very that you know it is definitely very much deteriorated so and it's a small section too so I imagine also it cost-wise it's probably going to be you know signif significantly less because the length of that space is definitely less than the you know um for example the other one that we were talking about which was uh on Second Avenue so um you know and given the fact that we have been talking about trying to you know be a little bit more mindful about how much we're bonding for and start to maybe scale back some of our um you know cost for the streets um think this you know I would be in favor of of devoting uh the dot Grant to that particular Road any other thoughts yeah I've I've been approached by two different residents on that street which is probably like half of the block because there's not that many houses there aside from the utility work um none of them could recall the road ever being worked on so and it's one of the worst looking ones in in town for my walk is pretty bad yeah and uh you know they said it's rough in the winter and everything else so I would definitely be in favor of that um a lot of the little like odds and ends the little dead ends and like or like uh Gallows hill we were talking about it just um it can end up getting overlooked not on purpose but so I think this is a good time to address it especially since we're trying to keep the cost down a little bit so um if I could ask the council members their thoughts on it seems like you're green we should add that little piece into the Maple Street thoughts on second is it something we should put off well I'm just looking at this I mean if we're talking about it's not really a dead end but what about that little segment of West Street that is off of beach to Pine it has red in there too and I know what that space is it's this tiny little piece I mean I don't know if it makes sense to do cuz you know and you can can Mr disco tell me if it's um an inefficient idea to have such a small piece of road n i mean I always like the idea of being efficient you know because we have if we have a crew on doing that section of maple you know then it makes sense for that crew to also do that end piece um but I do Wonder In My Head you know if that little piece on West is is worthwhile to consider with this uh dot Grant yeah I think you can certainly add that I think there's a utility line cut in there and it's been that way for for years so um it's a missing link of West I I guess uh I'd have no issue dot look favorably upon it and I think the funding levels we've been getting you can certainly add that without you know distress to the budget did we uh did we ever get the last piece of Center the park coming it's the gas company swap okay I know that that piece is like remember but I yeah I'm looking at the map and and I every single there every single piece of red will be covered if we if we complete that Maple dead end and we complete that dead end of West for Garwood at least I mean it goes into Westfield but um but that would that would basically um complete all the red at least I'm not sure what is the I don't know if you would know offand the quality of the road going further into Westfield it's in pretty good shape it is okay so it's not like it doesn't it won't be just like a nice neat piece and then we continue on into we did Pine Street a couple years ago and the Westfield piece I forget I think there's a name change on the street yeah and it's in it's in pretty good shape from I remember uh so are we in agreement to move on that yes okay all right okay thank you Mr disca so multiple blocks of maple uh the block of West and we'll interact with Cranford how best to handle Gallows Hill okay super terrific then I think on the agenda is the award of the um uh of our contract 20241 so I will then take the formal action and share that with do and then bless our award and then we have a preconstruction meeting and we're off and then simply just updates on the other uh projects uh all three of those contracts we've started planting the trees uh through various tree contractors for the two uh main General Contractors and then we uh earlier this week paved Fifth Avenue and Locust Avenue so all the paving is complete on that uh contract 2023 -1 all the pavings complete on 20 23-2 we're just in punch list and and completing the trees at this time so all is good okay terrific I did see uh the trees on uh West Street um coming up when I walked up and they look really great yeah so thank you the trees I've seen even on second and third I mean they're taller than I thought they'd be um there are a variety of species Bill nearad gets credit for that Y and um they've been selected so that if they're under the wires they won't grow as tall so um I know it's been challenging for bill um because we laid out all the tree possible locations and then you know residents have changes to that so but I it's getting it's getting done and we'll fumble through it so thank you thank you Mr Arthur can I is everything good with the uh recording I see some yeah there was a question but I do see that people are are watching it so there was someone who said they couldn't watch it but there are people watching it so um it looks like when whatever happened with the laptop it's not on the correct meeting ID for Zoom okay but it's still viewable on YouTube okay so when you click on the link that's on the agenda it's going to tell you the host has another meeting in progress okay but the live stream on YouTube is actually still there so the recording the recording will be there for people to see it yeah okay people should watch on YouTube at this point because if we were to stop and restart it's like a 10 minute recess and yeah we've already tried your patience with that so okay okay all right we will maybe send out a note tomorrow to let everyone know that the meeting is viewable on YouTube there was a technical difficulty with the live stream okay all right thank you um does anybody have any questions for Mr disca nope okay well Mr dis I want to thank you I know it's been a long spring into summer with all the paving um but I thank you for that everything's going very well and I appreciate all of your help and work with all of the residents thank you yeah thank you so much thank you um and I don't know if you have another meeting if you do you're welcome to to head'll leave thank you thank you okay good night um at this point we'll move to our report from our burrow attorney and I know you you do have something for us Mr Abramson correct yeah so a couple of things first is there are three different ordinances that um I have on here that I didn't um send around because there's really no comments from the council they're all two of them are required by the D which is the privately owned salt storage the second one is a storm winter control and then the third one is regarding uh the playto play which um by law our code can't be in violation of it which I think it was so we are just repealing it completely and everyone has to follow the laws of New Jersey correct does anybody have any questions on those or the D ones were um told to me that we had to do by Mr disco as as he is no longer here so he won't be able to explain well I mean I can try and explain a little I did speak with him but it's yeah the storm water one we definitely discussed here we we had done a storm water one this is an additional some other year made us do a big storm water one and now they decided it needed changes right so this the these three ordinances are essentially the state telling us we have to yeah whether we agree or not agree yeah basically um also in my review of the agenda this morning and preparation of the meet meeting um I was going through everything and on [Music] um the resolution 2417 which is like a listing of employees I was going through and I noticed that there was a unionized employee listed on here um being afforded some additional compensation for everyone's um knowledge when somebody is in the Union any form of compensation has to be negotiated so we have to do that with a sidebar agreement with the union we can't just unilaterally impose it with the resolution itself so if it's okay with Council what I would recommend is that the actual resolution be amended to remove that and tomorrow I can draft a quick sidebar agreement and send it over to the union for their signature okay yes question yeah you you knew I was going to ask so delete it from the consent agenda yeah motion it separately to and amend it on motioning it yes and then pass it as amended correct so Mr Amerson did bring this to my attention today beforehand um in a short summary it's that we can't do it this way we have to go through a different channel to provide it you actually done it before that way through the different Channel like back in 2016 so it's just an oversight that it shouldn't be on this particular list does everybody understand just just to reiterate and clarify to make sure so the finance committee decided on on these salary raises and obviously was basing it on previous experience with those salary raises but it's still a salary raise but it's basically the stien sorry the stipend I apologize the stip in would then go as a sidebar and the union with Union to sign off to sign off on because all compensation if you are in a union you know your compensation is set forth in your contract not separately in a resolution okay thank you I I just want to be clear so this is still happening yes yes we're not taking anything away nope correct we just need to go through a different Channel yes the union just has to sign off on a side bar and it's done okay and and the the compensation stien will be afforded to the individual and this won't require a future resolution it's handled through the sidebar the sidebar will ultimately need to be approved by Council obviously because um I and John don't have the power to buy in the town but once side assigned by the union it will then be presented to the council to be executed we can't do it this way for we have to right okay like any other contract that we have with the Union the council and your reform of government needs to approve it okay okay okay yeah sorry I think there's just I think the finance committee just and the other council members who approved it just wanted to make sure I know we had a a long discussion about it so okay it's just basically going through a different Channel but they're getting it just a different Channel yes okay thank you no problem okay that it Mr Abramson that's it okay anybody have any questions on anything else for Mr Abramson okay thank you moving along to our report from our bar administrator good evening so we completed some repairs at Hartman park over the weekend Hartman Park is now reopened um we're also working on a variety of projects that we've discussed in the last couple months the quotes for uh cameras at the atletic Field Complex we've started to get those quotes we're kind of working with the vendor on tweaking it um trying to keep the costs obviously reasonable while also improving things for everybody same with the flooring same with the um shade structure botchy field project um we got two vastly different quotes from different vendors and that always surprises me a little bit cuz like what we asked for the same exact thing from both so um working with them to to make sure we're getting exactly what we want out of that and then I'll come back to all of you well I'll come back to um the various committees and then come back to all of you with that um but again trying to keep the costs down while also making significant improvements to the community um we have a grant for tree plantings some plantings have happened with the recent road projects but we also have some money from the county for extra planting so we got some quotes uh for tree plantings that would probably happen this fall at this point so planning for that getting ready for that um also working with the county on pedestrian safety improvements which you'll see in the agenda tonight so there's an interlocal Services agreement with the county for South Avenue and West Street pedestrian improvements I'll talk about okay the mayor will let us know more about that later and uh for the public the recreation department Summer Camp starts on the 24th for first to e8th grade students prices are currently 135 per child but it goes up to 160 this Monday so sign up in the next couple days um and we are I'm working with the rec director also to uh find new grants ideally grants that aren't matching grants if we can find them to bring new programs and events to the town that you know if we can find the grants which I've I've identified some that we could potentially apply for would be of no cost other than our time to make it happen so that's the the goal to some free fun events for everybody if we can get them paid for through some of these grants terrific okay thank you any questions any questions for Mr Arthur okay thank you thank you um so we'll move on I have a report for everyone uh I'd like to thank the greater Westfield Area Chamber of Commerce arly is on Carol Carney as well as all of the sponsors that made Garwood rocks an amazing day it went so smoothly um and a lot of that is thanks to our police department at our DPW and our crossing guards helping set up and organize and assist throughout the day also a big thank you to our fire department and first aid squads for being on hand not only as Outreach to the community uh but for attending to uh emergencies as well there was a few during that day so it was quite a busy day for all of these departments uh and I'm so thankful and proud of all of them it the weather cooperated beautifully um and thousands of people literally came out for a really successful 10th anniversary also on June 3rd the burrow unveiled its second outdoor climate proof AED at Hartman Park in time for CPR AED week uh the alra foundation organized a wonderful event with our Police Department our fire department and our first aid Squad uh where attendees actually got to see a demonstration on how to use the AED as well as on how to do chest compressions and we had a large showing by middle school students from Lincoln School so that was fantastic uh I'm so proud that GAR is the first municipality in our County with not only one but two of these aeds for our Parks uh both provided by grants from the police department uh every second saves lives and while we hope we never have to use them uh just having them there could really make a big difference so thank you so much to our first responder departments for being there and thank you to the Aliva foundation for setting up the evening uh the founder Jill Paul did ask me to say thank you from her as well she couldn't be here tonight uh but she wanted to say how grateful she is that everyone came out that night to support it you will see on your consent agenda resolution 24108 uh that's the interlocal agreement with the county of Union that Mr Arthur mentioned so I just wanted to explain for the perier of the public what that is because I'm happy to say that we have finally gotten approval to install a pedestrian a pedestrian crosswalk at the intersection of South Avenue and West Street uh it's been a long road of meetings and discussion with all involved so this is really good news uh as as South Avenue is of course a County Road uh we had to First obtain cooperation with the county for this um and discussions took a while due to the fact that the location uh is so close to the intersection at South and Center pedestrian crosswalks are not usually within so many feet of another crosswalk however the nature of this block is as you all know very unique uh with the block with the building of both rmel 1 and two obviously the burrow had concerns about residents Crossing midblock as well as pedestrians coming from West one day to partake in the retail ever meloan so the addition of more sidewalks on West was one way we looked to address the safety in that area and this pedestrian crosswalk and Signal will be another uh now as a part of the vermel 2 agreement Russo development has offered the funds for The Pedestrian signal and install so we will be working with them to facilitate that uh and it's also necessary for the burrow to add the Ada ramps at the crosswalk point so this this won't be overnight but I am happy that we are finally making progress uh The Next Step will be to send this resolution to the county where they can approve their own at an upcoming meeting and then we can move forward with the work that's needed uh and I just want to say thank you to Mr vegra and Mr disco who just left for all of their work on this uh and councilman Foley I know this is something you've been working and advocating for with the various Partners involved so thank you as well um I also want to let Council know that there has been discussions between our planners and Russo development about signing off on the co for verela 2 things are moving along um we felt there were some unfinished items are in but progress is being made on those so I just wanted to put it on your radar that this will most likely head to us sometime in the very near future uh an affordable housing update for everyone the borrow has been working with the planner to begin all the work necessary for the next round as outlined in the affordable housing Bill resolutions 109 and 110 are just officially designating our planner and attorney that we've used previously of as well to the roles to facilitate this there are various deadlines to meet to provide the DCA with past data uh with one actually coming up next week so and we are also continuing to assess what our plan the plan that we have to provide to the DCA by next year we're we're working to assess what that should look like as we obviously want it to be one that best benefits Garwood as well as complies with all of the regulations so uh we will continue to provide updates as we move along at this point I want to bring um our police chief up here to talk to the public about our crossing guards and you can have a seat Chief the police department will be transitioning the management of our crossing guards to a separate company so this is something Chief stoer brought to the attention of council members some time ago and asked the council to look into it for a variety of reasons and after much much research and working with the insurance and the company um police department has recommended we' move forward with this but I I asked the chief to um come here to explain some of this tonight and to also reassure the public that our crossing guards that we current employee are not going anywhere that was always the plan uh and the council stipulated that uh that if there was this if there was to be this transition that the company hire our guards first before making any addition so you know I know that would be the first thing on everybody's mind but yeah so I'll in and um outward facing nothing's going to change um the plan is that all the current guards they get first crack at these positions um again they're going to have to go through the training the physicals everything like that you know as we do every year but they there should be no change with that um the gwood police department is still in charge of the posts and the hours we tell them where we want our guards we tell them how how long we want the guards out there um the main the main driving force behind us was efficiency we spend on average between two to four hours a week managing just payroll time off covering posts in addition to that we last year 2022 2023 school year we covered just under 100 School posts so a cop that should be patrolling the the area or on radar posts in the school whatever are now tied to a Crossing post um this year we have 79 since January so it's a lot of time uh that we spend on these posts and generally when it happens it's always at the most inopportune times for example this happens quite frequently you know guard calls out sick no problem you know that's not the problem but the RS short and then you try to get alternate guards and it's short notice so that doesn't always work so inevitably what ends up happening is oh grab somebody from the detective Bureau hey we need you to cover this post so they drop everything they do and they go out on the post and you know it's an important de detail match I'm not saying that but they're they have a lot of other things we have to do this um looks like it will address all those problems um company's going to handle the training all the payroll all the payroll taxes workers comp shifts the liability with a lot of the issues from the town to the company um they a lot of the things that we were concerned about and our insurance carrier was concerned about they addressed all those issues uh with without issue and the best part is it's a short contract if it's not working out for us write a letter 30 days back we're we're back to normal um cost saving wise on the surface this contract is a little bit under what we had budgeted uh for next year or 24 actually into 25 but I think um I think it'll come under just under that trying to add up how many how many hours we spend managing this and then how many hours we lose covering the posts um I think this is the way to go and just for the overall efficiency of the department and on top of that the other perk which also helps them make sure that they cover these posts um if we have to cover it with a cop they're going to pay for that cop's time so it it didn't know that it really encourages them to get the post covered um this is what they do for a living constantly recruiting constantly training constantly making sure that everybody is doing what they need to do uh when they need to do it um again they do all the background checks the physical assessments the work eligibility checks um and they do everything by the law that that they need to right now they're in demerist they're in Wayne and they're in Freehold uh Wayne and Freehold much bigger than us demoris is comparable and there's no complaints there and it's working out great for the next school year they're already um signed up with nearly a dozen additional departments um Edison is they're back and forth Edison but Berlin West Stepford barany big agencies that um this this is where where we're going with this I think um for the guards all but three guards will be realizing pay raise um majority of our guards make either 22 25 an hour or 21 25 an hour everybody's going to be at 24 and hopefully the following year we'll be able to get raises for everybody moving forward the way this is set up um we're able to whittle down the time a little bit because each post currently is an hour and 15 minutes and the reason for that was the Legacy see old three-hour school days and adjusting the pay and everything this will be an hour in the morning and the in an hour in the afternoon um all eight posts will remain the five Norths side post and the three Southside posts over the summer we're going to be addressing I think I want to move one of the posts on the North side to a more central location rather than we'll get into that but that's just my brain going and then um we'll be examining whether or not we're going to put a post for Washington School uh next year at this point being that all the kids going there have to be dropped off and picked up face to face we'll see I'm I'm gonna figure that out but that's where we're at right now and I'd be more than happy to ask answer anybody's questions uh tonight stop in my office call me see me out at Sho right whatever I I think this is a good thing for the town I I think it's a good thing for the guards I really think it's a good thing for our community yeah thank you Chief I um I mean I agree I the the number of hours our officers end up on posts which it's inevitable you know people call out people get sick it's just that you know if that's something we can now avoid through this it's definitely helpful uh you know as much as you know I want to save money too and it is a small savings I think more of the savings comes for for your department in how you can now be more efficient and doing more police work rather than crossing guard work so um I I think it's going to be well and I like that the contract is a quick short one if we need to get out of it if you feel that it's not working for some reason um that was helpful to see um and then you know I I think when people hear it they immediately think oh you know we have beloved crossing guards and we want to make sure so um that they stay and so I appreciate you addressing that and they also give preference in hiring new guards to Garwood residents so any garw residents want to work look at first first crack at any open positions and I just want to add that um you know change is of course always challenging you know we you know I think that that is always uh people understandably they don't want to see you know anyone uh negatively affected of crossing guards who've been that they've trust and I think this is Best of Both Worlds we get to keep the people that we trust to to cross our kids and we also have our police officers doing the jobs that we want them to do um and and to focus on the really important work that they do you know we just saw police officers getting honored for that incredible save and you know not to say that that that kind of thing can't go on at the same time but I mean these are the kind of things that you know we really value and and we want our police offic to be able to do and so thank you also you came to the our finance committee and really spoke very clearly and specifically and um I'm in full support of this I know the finance committee is as well thank you anybody else I just want to Echo what councilman Lazaro said I mean this also passed through the the police committee uh earlier in the year and it was a concept that was discussed uh originally last year uh I know the chief has been working on it for for quite a while to get a uh a good vendor and a and a a good setup for us uh and just the amount of administrative overhead is significant in this program right now especially managing like the last minute call outs and you know I'm usually loathed to explained by anecdote but I was going to work uh one morning a couple weeks ago and I walk out my front front door and I find chief stoer on the corner in uh in his traffic vest and he was filling in for the crossing guard who had called out sick at the last minute um and I applaud his uh his dedication and uh you know no job too small for for any of us in in law enforcement but our chief should have been doing something else at that point so you know with this company essentially offering I want to call it a guarantee but if they can't fill the post they're going to pay us back back I I mean I think there's a lot of incentive there to make sure that we don't have any of our officers or our chief on a on a Crossing post tied up and if you're not familiar with law enforcement it's the officer literally cannot leave that post um for any reason they can't be dispatched to a call so it's a significant impact on a department like garwood's that may you know only have two or three units in the field while school's getting out to have these officers tied up like that so I think this is a huge win for us this keeps Our Town safer and uh I I thank you for putting in all the work into this and and showing it to us and a lot it's going be very beneficial for us thank you okay thank you Chief oh and the last thing is they also offer the current guards referral bonus so if they refer somebody they'll get a bonus oh there you go crossing guards go refer somebody we need more guards anyway let's go all right thank you Chief appreciate it um that is all I have so we will move on to comments from the council councilwoman Bodo no comments mayor councilman Foley uh just a Happy Father's Day to council president Carney um and all the Garwood fathers uh up here Chief stoer uh John um Happy Father's Day Garwood thank you and happy soon to be Father's Day for you yay uh councilman Lazar um just want to express my um thanks to all of the Garwood departments for putting on such a great um Street Fair uh that we had uh last week and for you know 10 years of dedication from uh the you from Carol Ernie uh who's been kind of spearheaded this and uh so thank you so much for all those that that put that together and then also just a a thank you to um for the AED installation that was a really incredible organization um that has been put together in a thanks to all those uh organizations that were there to support um that AED police officers were there fire department was there emergency Personnel was there so it was really nice to see those types of organizations come together in our town to support really wonderful you know Community BR building and and bringing everyone together so thank you um council president Carney uh thank you mayor uh again congratulations to our sergeants officer and dispatcher for that uh outstanding job I do have a couple quick things uh the parking ordinances uh changes that I reported on at the last meeting are still a work in progress um but I anticipate having them ready for introduction at our next meeting uh I also want to take a moment to propose uh two resolutions to the council tonight for adoption at the next meeting uh a number of municipalities in our area have signed letters I know the mayor signed one recently uh or adopted resolutions to be sent to the state legislature uh regarding a sustainable funding source source for New Jersey Transit uh the specific proposal is to restore the now expired uh corporate business tax or sech charge um I would like to draft a resolution like the one that was passed by the council in Cranford on Tuesday night uh to urge the legislature and Governor Murphy to reinstate this sirch charge and dedicated to funding New Jersey Transit uh and the second resolution is one uh at least a few people may be familiar with from my advocating for it uh for in Prior years here uh it would Ur the urge the legislature to fully restore the energy tax receipts uh they collect on our behalf and then kindly withhold the vast majority of from local government um entirely passing on this Revenue would allow local governments like ours to better control property taxes so the league of municipalities has been passing something around again but I I've drafted this one before I'm sure I have it in my files somewhere um if the council's open to these two things uh I'll get drafts circulated for feedback by email from everybody and uh then we could conceivably agenda it for a vote at our next next meeting yes um you know we weren't many towns did do the energy tax resolution and signed on for that uh last year and while we didn't get full funding back that we wanted to there was an increase in it so it did we get something we got a little you know the push did help so uh I'm B doing it again and and giving that extra push once more um it did seem to have effect specifically on the State Assembly the number of resolutions they got so it may have been enough to change the the vote on it we never know we can just keep trying so um I'm I'm okay with doing that if everybody else is I know we've spoken at length about the energy tax up here um and in terms of the funding for NJ Transit yes I just signed a you know um I spoke the last time I I met with the uh rvl mayor's Alliance and we we did um circulate a letter around and trying we're trying to push uh the state to fund New Jersey Transit through a corporate uh tax fee and it's it's you know the wealthiest corporations I feel should pay their their due uh as well as the residents so um you know we we keep burdening our residents with um raising the the cost of tickets uh and yet our you know richest corporations are sort of getting off a little scot-free here so um I do I do think this this started to move back in that direction it wasn't something that I was originally in favor of um especially because of the way it was adopted and during the covid period why it was adopted uh but when you see a a double-headed like hit on the little guy of we're going to raise the fees and then we're going to talk about raising the sales tax and dead I mean sales tax is something that hits everybody who buys things in New Jersey so and it it is a regressive tax that lands hardest on the people who make the least so I I again the league of municipalities has something out on this too that you know I'd be happy to share with anybody if they if they want it but I think this would be the way to go to urge the legislature to move as they go into their budget season yeah I'm definitely in favor I mean in New Jersey Transit I know that there was that incident from a couple weeks ago where literally I know there were people stranded um trying to get home from New York City um and it it doesn't instill a great deal of confidence um for people to want to continue to take New Jersey Transit if there isn't proper and adequate funding and you know I'm a big believer in um having better funded you know public transit we we need that it's it's helpful obviously G given the fact of people you know moving into areas where they are next to NJ Transit stations um so uh 100% I think this this is definitely in need I will circulate something through the clerk to everybody to to take a look at and comment on and I just want to close with uh a Happy Father's Day to all the dads uh here in the room and watching online and also are soon to be dad sitting to my right okay thank you council president uh moving along to the minutes uh miss Cameron yes minutes regular meeting of the mayor and Council held on May 23rd 2024 minutes of the executive session of the mayor and Council held on May 23rd 2024 can I have a motion to accept the regular meeting minutes and the executive session minutes second all in favor I opposed Communications miss Cameron New Jersey state League of municipality ities uh received and filed town of Westfield regarding ordinances received and filed Township of Cranford regarding ordinances received and filed um we have a couple ordinance uh one ordinance up for adoption tonight actually um miss Cameron can you read ordinance 24-15 by title only yes an ordinance fixing salaries and wages of certain officials and employees of the borau of Garwood in the county of union state of New Jersey do we have any correspondence concerning this ordinance we do not does anyone present wish to be heard concerning this ordinance 24-15 Mr Patterson please um Mr Arthur do you mind bringing the mic back up sorry about that uh good evening mayor ladies and gentlemen Council Bruce Patterson 325 AV um just looking at this I I know this is somewhat of a like a housekeeping type uh ordinance but could somebody just uh tell us which line items actually increased uh from the previous uh ordinance that was put in effect I don't know when that and I'm just wondering uh well I guess you also have a reso 24117 on the consent agenda that also talks about uh setting specific salaries and I guess I'll talk about that later on but I would assume this uh impacts the resolution on the consent agenda but just line item differences thank you thank you Mr pison um anybody else wish to address the mar Council okay can I have a motion to close public hearing on this ordinance so moved second um okay um so this or is as you said um a housekeeping ordinance but it it is giving ranges for the salaries which is different from the resolution which is giving specific employees raises or if they get a raise if it was budgeted for this year so this is really just setting ranges and allowing us to sort of have that flexibility um and we do it every couple of years um because you it's required by law May is it required well the ordinance is required but the ordinance is required by law so that you guys can hire people so that the public understands where the salary is actually coming from I don't have specific a at this moment which ones have changed I know a few of the one of ones that have changed but I don't have a full um accounting of each one um Mr Arthur is this something we could get to Mr Patterson yes yeah I I reviewed the changes uh prior to the meeting with our CFO um but we could easily provide the previous ordinance which would then show where things had changed so um and of course it's also available um you know online and other ways but uh yeah Mr Patterson we could just give me a call or something and we'll I'll go over which ones changed I'll I'll share the ordinance with you okay I'll find you okay can I have a motion to adopt or ordinance 24-15 so moved second uh roll call please councilwoman Bodo I councilman Foley I councilman Lazaro hi council president Carney I we have a couple ordinances uh to introduce tonight uh miss Cameron can you read ordinance 24-16 by title only yes an ordinance amending the burrow code of the borrow of Garwood by repealing chapter 74 entitled contractors do I have a motion to introduce this ordinance I moved second second uh roll call please councilwoman Bodo I councilman Foley I councilman Lazarus I council president conney I miss Cameron can you read ordinance 24-17 by tit on yes an ordinance amending the burrow code of the burrow of Garwood by amending chapter 134 and creating new article 9 privately owned salt storage sections 134 to 42 through 13446 uh can I have a motion to introduce this ordinance so moved second uh roll call please miss Cameron councilwoman Bodo I councilman Foley I councilman Lazarus I council president Carney I miss Cameron can you read ordinance 24-18 by title only yes an ordinance amending the burrow code of the burrow of garard by amending chapter 106 entitled lanu article 10 entitled storm water control can I have a motion to introduce 24-18 I'll make that motion second second a roll call please councilwoman Bodo I councilman Foley I councilman Lazar I council president Corney I okay standing committee report Finance councilman Foley nothing to report on today thank you fire and OEM councilman Lazaro I'm sorry thank you uh in the month of May the fire department responded to eight day calls and 10 Night Calls including 11 alarm activations one Co alarm two motor vehicle accidents and one motor vehicle fire the department participated in three Mutual a calls 7 750 total hours were logged in for house duties cleanups extra Duty trainings work details and community service that's all for my report okay thank you um does anybody have anything from C woman salmon okay Public Works councilwoman Bodo thank you mayor um I have some exciting news I'd like to share that the new dump truck which was orderer about three years ago it's finally built and delivery is expected next week um I would like to take this opportunity to recognize and thank the efforts of our shade tree officer Mr NAD um as Mr disco mentioned before he has worked extensively and efficiently with the utility companies the DPW Mr disco contractors but most importantly the residents there will be over 120 trees planted within the ne within the next few weeks I'm sure we can all appreciate how important tree plant in his store environment um so we really want to thank his efforts uh with that in mind Mr n has asked me to request every want to please water the trees since we are expecting a heat wave also uh the Green Team and the recreation department are sponsoring a rain Barrow workshop at 7 pm on Monday June 17th at the red complex please look at the Barrow's website for the flyer and more information uh now to the DPW activities uh the DPW in addition to the recurring duties uh perform the monthly fire extinguisher inspections prepare the downtown business district for the annual gwood rocks event and cleaned up after the event concluded including removing barricades water Johns and Banners they also perform street sweeping and water multiple flower pots that's all from my report thank you thank you uh police council president Carney thank you mayor the Garwood police department has recorded 2,094 CAD entries during the month of May 2024 uh these calls include 120 motor vehicle stops 60 parking complaints 64 fixed traffic posts which can consist of radar stop sign distracted driving Etc 18 motor vehicle crash investigations 248 building and property checks 31 medical assists 101 community policing posts 26 walking posts 20 suspicious person/ vhicle investigations and 18 criminal investigations uh I'm also pleased to report that officer Jada shukai has completed her field training in probation period uh and has recently been elevated to a step one patrol officer uh she's since been assigned to a squad in Patrol so uh congratulations to officer shukai and keep up the excellent work okay thank you congratulations um Community engagement does anybody have something from councilman uh Council woman oldi uh I I do and everybody Buckle in it's going to be a minute uh so from councilman noi uh on the Garwood partnership for arts and culture uh gpac is presenting a group abstract art project entitled Garwood celebrates Pride more than 30 Garwood artists created Square abstract art tiles using black white and the colors of the rainbow in honor of pride month the tiles were collected and assembled by members of of gpac into one large work which will be on display at the Garwood Public Library throughout the month of June uh from Recreation we have uh summer camp there are 160 campers registered as of today uh there are parent meetings scheduled uh this upcoming Monday June 17th at Burrow Hall uh that's for parents or guardians of registered participants uh there's two time options one at 6:30. p.m. and a later one at 7:15 p.m. uh if you haven't yet registered your child for summer camp Please be aware that the last day to register for the $135 per child price is this upcoming Saturday uh June 15th uh the prices I'm sorry Sunday June 16th uh the prices go up on Monday the 17th to $60 per child um also from Recreation we have the Step Into Summer walking challenge uh through June 30th uh the Garwood Recreation committee's walking challenge is in its second week already uh in the first week alone the challenge participants walked over 1 million steps uh there is a group walk at War ankle Park uh an hourlong group walk which is scheduled this Saturday June 15th at 9:00 a.m. at or ankle Park which is open to Garwood residents of all ages and not just those who are registered in for the challenge uh to sign up in advance for the group walk this Saturday please email Recreation garwood.nj at the sports complex uh you can register for that at Garwood rec.com uh our annual ice cream social will be back save the date uh Monday July 22nd at 700 p.m. there'll be free ice cream treats for the whole family during the Garwood fire department's Monday night pump drills uh so this will be at the Washington School 500 East Street I will definitely be there my kids are going to want some ice that night so uh on the topic of the recreation committee uh the committee is still looking for new volunteers uh help provide input and ideas for recreation programs throughout the year uh the time commitment is one meeting per month and also assisting if available with up to six events uh scheduled throughout the year and finally for this report uh the historical committee has wrapped up its historical fun fact Fridays with Lincoln School uh they look forward to continuing this initiative next year and the next meeting of the historical committee will be June 24th and that's all for this report okay thank you very much Library uh councilman lazro thank you mayor some of the events coming up in June uh today was actually the launch date for the new library system Garwood library has joined a library Services Consortium called Stella short for sharing and Technology enhancing local library access Stella is a Consortium with more than 47 libraries and branch locations spanning middle sex Mammoth and Union counties including the neighboring communities of Cranford Westfield Scotch Plains Clark and Fanwood after the transition to Stella Garwood residents will be able to reserve items from any of the 40 plus libraries and have them sent directly to our library for checkout this will expand the number of books and other items that Garwood residents have access to to more than 3.2 million Garwood library cards will also be automatically accepted at all Stella 40 plus libraries all paid for by a Union County Grant some of the upcoming activities uh include on June 26th the summer reading opening party the LI join the library for a summer reading kickoff event in the library parking lot with giveaways ice cream from the scream truck this event is open to those who are registered for summer reading registration is required on June 27th at 1: p.m. there join muscle man Mike for space adventure and some non-stop magic registration is also required limit of 30 on June 28th at 10:00 a.m. to 3 p p.m. there'll be a scavenger hunt view a picture of the Lost suitcase in the library's Facebook and Instagram page at 10: a.m. on Friday find the LW suitcase somewhere in Garwood leave the suitcase for others to find return to the library and Report the suitcases location by 3:00 to collect a prize and finally on June 28th at 1 p.m. you can create stomp Rockets then launch your rocket outside side this is for children entering third grade and older registration is required and a limit of 10 and also the library will be closed on June 19th for juneth that's all for my report thank you councilman I had oh no sorry school board leaz on I was gonna skip you that that's okay there's nothing to report ton that anyway uh the board's next regular meeting is scheduled for Tuesday June 18th okay thank you uh for our senior citizens we have a special event coming up on June 20th at the senior club meeting uh which will be open to all Garwood seniors that day we will be having a special ice cream social with free lunch and ice cream for all those that attend this is going to be a fun event just not just for our members but for any senior and Garwood who might want to see what the club is all about uh the event will be held at Nights of Columbus starting at 12:00 p.m. uh where there will be where there will be a short Club meeting uh followed by lunch and the so delicious ice cream truck where you can make your own Sunday so please spread the word to all the seniors you know there are also some changes to the July meeting schedule due to the holiday we will not be meeting on July 4th obviously uh our July meetings will be on July 11th and the 25th um and that is it for me and Small Business Council president Carney thank you mayor um last month's Taste of Garwood uh which is a week-long event sponsored by the Garwood Small Business Association um this year featur featured 10 local food establishments and showcased garwood's vibrant culinary scene a uh thank you to all our participating venues which were uh Cozy Corner Alonzo's Cafe Ben venuti Black Sheep bar and Provisions Crossroads Lorenzo's uh nolas Rudy's the station and Welsh farms uh for the patrons that were supporting these local restaurants and tagged uh hash Taste of Garwood on social media when they were out to eat uh they were entered into a free drawing to win gift cards which were generously donated by Rudy's lorenzos and Ben venuti uh so thank you again to all our participants and the entire Community for taking this opportunity to support some of our uh really awesome local small businesses that support our community so much and uh I already can't wait for next years Taste of Garwood thank you uh Board of Health Lea on councilman Foley uh nothing to report tonight thank you um anybody have anything from councilwoman sammon for planning board um okay I will just let everybody know we do have a meeting on June 26 um officers reports uh miss Cameron yes uh zoning enforcement officer report for May 2024 property maintenance office is recort for May 2024 chief of police monthly reports for April 2024 okay um I don't have a do we we need to motion that in right can I have a motion to accept the officer's report second uh all in favor I opposed okay uh we will move along to public comment if there's anyone in the audience who wishes to address the mayor and counsil please step to the microphone State your full name and address and please L me your comment to five minutes Johnny pit 410 Bruce Garwood and Ladies and Gentlemen of the council we must back our police officers and firefighters and rescue squad Personnel they're out there 24 hours a day seven days a week even though the fire department and rescue squad volunteer outfits they're out there serving us you need back them up in every way they're the ones you can count on they're the ones that have the attitude of I'll be there never you fear that kind of attitude serves them well in serving you and me abolishing police departments abolishing fire departments and polishing rescue squads is not the answer and Mark well what I just say ladies and gentlemen should never be the answer we must back them up in every way because they protect us day and night day and night 24 hours a day seven days a week every day of the year the same thing for our military personnel we need to back them up because some of them are from our hometown of Garwood we failed to back them up there in war in Vietnam I hope we don't uh uh find ourselves uh turning against our men because of the uh be because of the uh Israeli thing in Gaza three men from Garwood lost their lives they in war in Vietnam they loved us so every day in aund ways they told us so in honesty in affection they told us so they loved us so every day in aund ways they showed us so with loyalty and bravery they showed us so they were our Defenders and they kept us free they took an oath to guard us and fought for Liberty they loved us [Music] so and we should know for we Lov them so and finally ladies and gentlemen we need to pressure the state legislature to re to reopen some closed hospitals such as mberg what if a 911 attack occurs will'll need those hospitals very very badly the sooner we reactivate closed hospitals like milenberg the better off we all will be do I make myself clear thank you Mr Petri is there anybody else who wishes to address the mayor and councel I am Maria Maly 330 Myrtle Avenue I'm here to speak on behalf of the residents of the 300 block of Myrtle Avenue regarding burough ordinance 23-29 in November 2023 I account I attended a council meeting where I discovered that the 300 block of Myrtle Avenue was to be included in ordinance 2329 amending the current residential preferred parking restriction to a 24-hour Monday through Saturday prohibition it stated during Council discussion that the residents had been surveyed regarding this amendment and were in agreement which is required by the ordinance knowing that I hadn't been surveyed I proceeded to talk to my neighbors and quickly found that none of the residents of the 300 block of Myrtle had been surveyed nevertheless the ordinance 2329 was introduced and passed in speaking with the residents I found many were deeply upset by this change and the adverse effects this ordinance would bring to their quality of life were discussed this ordinance ordinance brings mandatory compliance which demands every resident be vigilant to ensure that all their personal vehicles work vehicles and all their guest Vehicles display parking permits at all times failure to do so has led to aggressive ticketing of a significant number of residents and their guests especially those residents who do not have access to off- street parking and those who have special circumstances such as work Vehicles rentals or new cars which make compliance with this ordinance difficult this ordinance adversely affects our daily lives because when we have guests such as medical therapeutic child care Elder Care Home Services contractors friends or family members we must ensure everyone has a parking pass and of even greater importance we must remember to retrieve the passes at the end of the visit which can be quite a stressful task if we plan a party this ordinance requires us to inform the police department and receive permission and additional parking passes a requirement that most feel eliminates our RS of privacy and all of this is required for a block where most of the residents feel we don't even have a parking Issue four months ago we submitted a petition requesting amendment of buau of Garwood ordinance 2329 to remove the 300 block of Myrtle Avenue from the 24-hour restriction and after much discussion we requested this to be on the agenda for the June 13th 2024 mayor and council meeting we are disappointed to see that it is not on the agenda tonight further we have been asked to wait an additional two months to allow more time for the roll out of park mobile but we don't want to wait any longer because as the summer season approaches and we begin to plan our celebrations barbecues and other social Gatherings we would like to spare our residents and their guests the aggravation of the dreaded welcome to Garwood parking ticket so we urge each of you please remove the 300 block of Myrtle Avenue from ordinance 2329 make our quality of life a top priority put this on the agenda and on June 27th let's get this done thank you thank you is there anybody else who wishes to address the mayor and counsel Larry Gibson 632 Avenue on behalf of Teresa nitr I'm asking for resolution tonight 24112 to pull Crossroads for further review the nitrate family has been in Garwood at 632nd Avenue for 80 years the outdoor expansion of the liquor license granted in 20120 has been a quality of life Nightmare and 2004 and 2006 the Council of Garwood denied Crossroads the outdoor expansion Crossroads then went to Union County Court where they argued against C against Garwood and they lost Union County agreed that they should not have an outdoor liquor license in 2020 with no advis them to the neighbors and no discussion and any council member that's been here since 202 voted for this resolution and all I've asked two council members that are here when I saw them and I asked about and the first comment was I didn't vote for that and then I had to advise them that they did okay the liquor license that you expanded to in 2020 includes a parking spot okay and parking number 26 they're allowed to serve liquor Tanya Moon of the Board of Health from Westfield in about 2011 did a noise survey and she found that Crossroad failed the noise just from the building alone and Teresa nitr was there alone and Teresa Moon as Tanya Moon they were told to bury it so it never came to light Westfield Board of Health has no interest in pursuing a noise complaint against Crossroads like Garwood they have no budget for litigation and have no interest the mayor and a few meetings ago go said somebody said what does the Board of Health do what's and she you said they do noise surveys they do not do noise surveys I've asked them to do numerous s noise surveys and they have not I had a two-hour meeting last November with Captain Roco I sent a a meeting to captain stoer and I give him a lot of data and went through it and he concurred with the problem I have sufficient data to show this he advised one of the steps was to go to the mayor and explain the problem I did that with you mayor in November and I spent 45 minutes with you and I went over some of the facts that I went today and more and I never heard anything about it I kind of find I don't participate online but I find it kind of egregious when you have complaints online about the council and you say I'm always open come to me and I came to you and nothing happens okay and unfortunately on March 16th Crossroad had speakers outside and there was a big party and I called the police and the police came and said it's in control and there's nothing we can do about it and they have a they have a meter on they have a decel meter on the speaker I had to file an internal complaint at the advisement of the UN County prosecutor which I believe was successful in showing that the gwood police failed to do their job in in noise monitoring I do Sergeant pretty did come to the house at one complaint that recently and he did agree that the noise was out of control just from the club and he stayed there until the club was closed which was about 10 minutes and this was 11 o'l at night last week I sent you an email mayor about something a notice that was given for an expansion of some kind of device for a amusement at a liquor establishment I asked you is this for Crossroads and I had some comments about Crossroads about my troubles there and what you did was you just forwarded it to Vincent vegra you didn't come back to me and said I'm sorry about the troubles or anything like that and we've already had issues with Vincent vagra I believe misappropriating when they have outdoor speakers he says that's okay because they have a liquor license and he has no authority to say that it's acceptable he has no authority over any jurisdiction of a liquor license and when I asked him to verify that with the attorney twice before he did not this is what we're talking about here is last weekend or this I'm sorry this Monday it was pretty terrible they have a karaoke so this is from my kitchen from 9:30 to 2: a.m. and I did call the police and the police never came this is not accept this is you understand my concern so I'm asking you to review this this is this is for till 2: amm in the morning in my kitchen inside the house thank you okay thank you I appreciate that is there anybody else who wishes to address the mayor and counsel Mr Patterson good evening mayor ladies and gentlemen of the council Bruce patters 325 Willow Avenue uh just the first a question um in a report I guess there's a police report 64 parking complaints I'm just wondering is is that the warnings that were being given out at the uh Center Street area with the parking app I took some pictures I'm sure you know that I took some pictures that warnings were given on onto the windshield so I guess a question on that uh yeah I was down at the county by the way the county actually passed a a resolution also on the uh corporate tax reinstating the corporate tax to fund the New Jersey Transit I stood up and I said you know corporations and you're talking about the richest corporations but it's not just the richest corporations it's it's the corporations that are making money yes we're talking about capitalism here but anyway but but corporations are bailing out in New Jersey that we're one of the highest tax states in in the nation and as they bail out their corporate campuses are actually being flattened and built with high density affordable housing and mostly luxury rate units so I mean this this is a ill-conceived plan there has to be another uh Avenue to uh fund the New Jersey Transit but but killing corporations and and making a move out is is not a good plan it's ill conceived um in addition you know what what's really strange is in the last I don't know say 10 years we we already have built over a 100,000 possibly 200,000 um units of high density residential and they're all considered Transit oriented development which means it's around the railroad stations you know within walking distance railroad stations and yet we're still hurting on the New Jersey Transit side uh you know that's supposed to take care of New Jersey Transit not corporations but all this high density that is being built something is wrong something is wrong in this state it it's it's just so I don't know knuckleheaded I guess just to be nice uh the um yeah the Myrtle petition that was given I have yet to see that show up on the communication section because I know letters from uh residents usually show up in the communication section I haven't seen that show up so I guess you're going to put it on the next uh agenda uh in addition for the uh consent resolutions um yeah I was talking about 117 and just some general questions on that I appreciate you were explaining about um the the sidebar that has to be done with the unionized person uh my question is who is this unionized person I guess it's the DPW Forman adjustment for $5,000 I just need a confirmation on that and from what I understand maybe it was about two years ago when the finance committee um I think it was you mayor I think as a council person brought it up that you wanted to give $5,000 to a DPW person for working on mechanical I'm just wondering is that the $5,000 that we're talking about here in addition the uh school crossing guards I guess uh we're privatizing them for 2025 so I see them still on the uh agenda here for 2024 but a couple of questions on that are they going to be getting uh unemployment through that company during the summer and also another one maybe Chief sta can answer but when an officer takes over the post of a crossing guard who is sick was that officer actually getting uh overtime which means that at least that's a good savings that we'd be uh receiving once we go to this third party let's see if I have I think there is one more here yeah Hawk light out there we we definitely need something at that corner I mean it's horrible out there on South Avenue all from high density of course the uh you have 309 and 110 is the affordable housing uh uh resolutions and and it's just that we got major issues I'm glad you actually recognize it uh there's I think there's 60 mayors that are planning to raise money and they want to go all the way up to the Supreme Court to try to stop this and again ill-conceived concept of housing with a lot of luxury rate units and we're looking at a similar uh situation with vermel Mr Patterson I'm gonna have to ask you to wrap it up all right it's it's just that I think you better join in with all these other Mayors and towns and and readdress what's happening with the affordable housing thank you thank you is there anybody else who wishes to address the mar Council 314 mytle Avenue gwood um I'm speaking in reference to uh East Street I know I ran it across many of the uh officers here um the speeding is out of control and it is an accident waiting to happen but somebody's definitely going to get killed uh I walk my dog around that corner every morning it's like a racetrack in fact they fly over that little bridge and three weeks ago on Willow on the corner of Willow and um East Street I saw a kid get hit by a car on a bicycle and the car kept going and the kid got back on the bike and left because these kids come from Center Street and they walk by my house and they're Crossing that street some of them are on bikes some of them don't stop is there any way you people could put maybe every two blocks a four-way stop street because they're coming from the park from yunami Park they're coming from unami Park straight to South Avenue they're flying so it's just a a thought let's keep it in mind thank you thank you is there anybody else who wishes to address the May and councel okay can I have a motion to close public comment moved second second all in favor I opposed okay um so 300 block of Myrtle I know Miss mey thank you for coming and and and speaking this about this um we have had several meetings many conversations um and I know we talked about uh touching base in June but when we had spoken we we talked about a little bit about the the context for the 24hour on that side uh and it was you know I know we when we did it we also talked about vermello for the um 400 blocks and 500 blocks being part of the issue on the 300 block a lot of the issue was we knew Park Mobile was going to be coming down the pike um and we wanted to get ahead of it right so that people who wanted to avoid paying for parking didn't head over to your block so um and that was really the intention I think behind your block per se um and I know that um you have the petition um I don't I don't believe the petition was attached to the email if you could resend that I didn't get that so I we can't put it on anything um so but I take your word obviously that there is one and I have for this uh past couple of weeks that there is one and while I completely understand that the feeling is that you want to move on that right away I know we've discussed that to me it would make more sense to ensure to make sure that that is not going to happen that the people who want to avoid the paid parking don't go over to your block because if we change it back and we take that away and then you start to see some of that happen I could have residents from your block coming in and saying you know what they're they're trying to avoid the paid parking and they're parking all along our block now and then we'd have to redo it it's to me I know it's waitting I know it's waiting and it's time and it's and it's assessing how things are going but to me it logically it just makes more sense to wait and assess the data and make sure that that isn't happening over the next couple of months Park Mobile just um came out on June 3rd I think we we rolled it out and so what we can do with that is we can then see if we're finding that there's any tickets being um given over on your block if we're finding people are avoiding Center Street uh on purpose and and parking on your block because I certainly don't want to see that happen this was not done to burden the the resident this was actually the the intention was really to to protect the residents on that block from having those cars move on to it now you might see that it's not and when and and I was very open with you that I'm open to reassessing it once we see that it's not I I always say like everything should always constantly be reassessed and looked at but it feels to me to do it quickly by the next meeting really isn't doing our due diligence um um and I know you're saying that there was a significant and aggressive amount of ticketing going on right now but I don't know if that's the case Chief can you speak to this at all because I know we looked at it when this first went into and there was a couple of tickets given but right and then um we're taking a reactive stance on that so Mr Patterson hasn't been is some we have responded for control if people complain about cars and we adjust those but I'm not sure and and I understand that there is a certain amount of um yes you have to make sure that there's a visitor tag or or not but again again it it to again we could have the situation where if we went and just you know re you know went back to the regular parking the regular commuter parking on that block and as Park Mobile people start to understand that this is being you know they're they're being asked to pay could end up on your block so I know we had spoken and I spoken to other people on your block to just give it a couple of months so that we can assess the data from Park Mobile and so we can assess how many tickets are getting uh if there are any summonses being given on your block I I mean chief I don't know if to me that just seemed like the best way to do it rather than just back and forth because if we it's I mean doing an ordinance isn't very it's not a you have to do two readings it's in it's in depth it does take time it's not something that we can keep changing over and over and over again so I'd rather really see I don't know if anybody else wants to to speak this I'd rather just really see that that that it's not happen before we we make any moves I may I'm so goad go um th this originated I apologize because it's we can't do back and forth we we do have public you can always come to me afterwards after the meeting after the meeting we you are always welcome to to come and do but I want to give you some of our reasoning um I I because I have spent a lot of you know we have spent a lot of time talking and there have been emails and back and forth and I know the chief has spent a lot of of time um we may disagree on the amount of time that you want to wait on this but I don't think anybody I don't think the chief or I have been um dismissive of it and I don't think the chief or I have said we're not willing to look at it it was more of a it makes sense to wait a few to wait a month or two to see what's happening so mayor this originated out of the uh police committee last year so um former council president Graham was the police commissioner last year but I sat on that committee with councilwoman ndi and we had extensive discussions with Chief stoer and uh Mr Harris the prior burrow administrator uh on where to Overlay this these parking restrictions and you know there were some tweaks made in committee and this was discussed repeatedly in the public session and I'm I'm glad to see people actually here engaging with us um but the the reasoning at a committee was just that the the concern was on the the North side or the 400 500 blocks of especially with ramela 2 at that point um preparing to open or people starting to move in you know we had had some complaints specifically from the 4 500 blocks of Willow um the chief investigated those personally and it didn't fully play out but there was enough violations to make that uh part of the zone and then the concern was for the 300 blocks um they're directly adjacent to the business area where we're now converting spaces over to paid including the municiple lot on the corner of Willow so our concern in committee was that this would push uh either patrons or employees of these businesses onto those residential BL blocks that were literally right next door it's you know one block further than they may have been walking before so that was the reasoning behind it if that doesn't play out I don't see any reason why we couldn't amend the ordinance at that point but amending these ordinances specifically for parking uh it involves legal review because of the way that the language is constructed um we are looking at that ordinance right now for adding parking on South Avenue but it's a different part of the code so we could do that but there is an expense involved every time we do an ordinance um the chief is represented that they are not out there blasting summonses at everybody um if that's correct I do think uh I just said earlier in the meeting I'm not a big fan of making decisions by anecdote um some data from from Park mobile and where the chief is observing violations you know if we're going to change the law again when we change the law proactively in the first place to avoid having an issue and just so you all know I live on a block of Center Street I've had 24-hour permit parking for over 10 years so I did find a way to to adapt to it um and the police are more than reasonable when you call or um I tend to shuffle my cars and let my guests Park on my driveway but you know everybody's got to find a way that that works for them if that's what it's going to be on your block but maybe it isn't I don't think anybody up here is not open or is is not open to changing it but considering the amount of time and effort and discussion we put into this over last year to this year I I thought there was a valid reason for putting it in did somebody else want I yeah I mean I I'm sorry I can't allow from the I I can't it's it doesn't follow Robert's Rules thank you yeah so um I live on the 500 block the public comment is closed I'm sorry it's just this is the way that the the agend this is the way and I'm also happy to speak with anybody after we we we s we stay and talk to everybody yeah you're welcome to you're welcome to speak to any of us after the meeting which I'm more than happy to talk to anybody afterwards but this is not a forum for dialogue so at any rate I'm just going to I mean I think it would be good we're trying to allow you to hear our thinking on it so that we can have a conversation again I I don't think anybody up here has been dismissive or um and I think in our meetings nobody has dismissed the possibility of doing this of of changing the ordinance it was a matter of I could I could we could say yes and and everybody could walk out happy and then in two weeks you could find now that Park Mobile is like everybody knows that they have to pay everybody's on your block and so it would be you could come back to us in two months saying please put it back in so that's just what we want to avoid and so it just is a a ma a bit of a waiting game a little bit but I don't think I I mean council president Carney said nobody I don't think anybody up here is averse to assessing it once we get to that point but rushing it could hurt the residents more and and Mar if if I may we sat here and we heard everybody out through public comment and to have a member of the public come back and interrupt both myself and councilman Lazaro and not be willing to listen to what we had to say in my case as to the reasoning of how this came out of committee in the first place and councilman Lazaro is the longest 10 you're member of this Council sitting up here at least hear us out that's all I'm asking we did listen yeah I I just want to say I mean I absolutely um I live on the 500 block of Myrtle and um I can't say that I personally really love the uh love the ordinance for me personally I you know but I know that a majority of my block wanted it and of course I know that obviously that so like I'm open to that conversation where if there is a majority of the block that seems to feel strongly about it and are also okay eventually I guess with the repercussions of that if this park you know mobile situation results in cars parking on that on your street and you're okay with that as well I mean I think that's a conversation to be had as well I mean I you know I know it's a really complicated complex issue I mean I I I I do understand and I I do recognize the annoyance associated with it like I I do feel that and I empathize with you I really do so I definitely am open to you know revisiting this um I do also understand from working on Council for nine years that it is a lot of work um and it is costly to quickly change an ordinance it does take time and money so we just want to make sure we do it right if we're going to change it so I I understand the frustration where you're coming from I do and really do um empathize where where you're coming from and the annoyance that's associated with it but um you know I unfortunately um you know uh local towns we we have to move at a slower pace so that we don't make you know uh mistakes along the way that we have to correct later on and and and obviously our town is small and so we have to be careful about how we expend money so but I'm definitely open of course to the idea of changing and I I only have one more thing to add I recall is we had a different set of residents from a different Block in here yelling at us to do something last year and my response to that public comment when I was sitting over there um was that this isn't um it was portrayed by several people in the public as oh this is a simple solution why would you guys do it and as someone who's had permit parking on my block for a decade I did point out in that meeting that there is somewhat of a burden on the residents of that neighborhood to adjust and get used to it and people were dismissive of me um later on in the meeting for that concern it is a valid concern and we're certainly willing to listen to it just uh I I do think some more data before we just keep going back and tinkering with this over and over again would be advisable okay so I I I know it's not exactly the answer that the residents that are here um want um it would it would be very easy to just make that change and give everybody what they want right now but I I do think our job is to look at it from a little bit bigger picture which might just mean a you know another month or two of seeing how the paid parking plays out and again um we've been in constant communication I will continue that constant communication I think we should I I know I I've asked the chief to keep an eye on all of that and the number of summonses and I know he is um it so we are focused on seeing whether we need to make this change in you know I mean it it began in June um my initial thoughts to you were um by like the end of August we should have a good idea of people and what their patterns kind of are so um okay and I and again we will we can speak after the meeting willing to speak with anybody after the meeting and hear and hear more um Mr Gibson um uh you're I I I'm sorry if you feel that you know that your email this week about the the zoning violation was um dismissed I just I don't I didn't have that information and I felt Mr V and I know Mr vegra did so I uh felt the best thing was would be for him to let you know exactly what that um report was I I this is a this is a tough situation because I do I empathize I hear the noise um on your phone and it's something I I empathize with it's it's a tough one noise complaints are always very tough um catching it having the police uh catch it and then also balancing that with you know it's a a business that has music and is a restaurant with with music and um supporting businesses and supporting our residents it's always a very fine line and it's there is no easy answer um Chief I don't know if you want to speak to this at all with in terms of the or if you can speak to this at all in terms of the enforcement I know you you're out there um and and you look at this and it's just it is there okay okay that's fine I didn't know if it was still open thank thank you um I I sympathize I empathize it is a tough one for us um I you know I have spoken with the with the restaurant owner I know that they have provided some different things in the restaurant to sort of muffle I know that the outdoor um has sort of been enclosed in the hopes that that would uh help as well it's it's a tough one when when residential areas butt up against uh business areas like that there's always going to be a little push and pull and we hope that we can sort of work together on it um but um I I mean I can't recommend pulling the the liquor license per se for that but I I'm you know our our discussion I know uh I I I apologize if you feel that I didn't get back to you for something on anything but I I hear what you're saying and I see I see what you're saying and that and the data you collect but it's it's a very sort of difficult issue it is it's a difficult issue for any business uh that butts up against a resident and we usually are able to work these things out um and I'm gonna I'm G to leave it out no I'm sorry we can't go back in forth again it's the same I'm sorry Mr Gibson I'm sorry we can't go back and forth afterwards we can have a discussion public comment is not a a back and forth you you can ask our questions and get and and put out your concerns and then we can give you our answers at the moment and then if there's any further discussion again after the meeting I'm always here a council people are always here so uh I'm going to move on um uh to East Street I I agree I mean look East Street's a cut through we we have these issues on cuts um four-way stops are very difficult I know the chief can speak to it getting a four-way stop is something that isn't just in our purview right Chief yeah I I'm wondering Chief if um we can take a look at some more rumble strips on there I know up by link uh sorry Washington school that seems to have really helped I don't know about in different areas how that would work okay I I do like I I I'm a big Rumble strip fan I I do feel like they have helped in the different areas that we have put them in and I've had some good feedback from the residents in the areas that they are in so if that's something perhaps we can put in different areas uh additional areas on East mayor I'm I'm intending to have a police committee meeting before the next council meeting so we can we can pull it in there and discuss it as well okay terrific um Mr Patterson I the parking complaints are they warnings I'm not sure uh council president are that is it that detailed on the rep okay chief is getting up General category okay um no this uh yes you are correct on the employee that we will be amending the ordin uh the resolution for and no this has this is not about any mechanical sty rened um the unemployment for crossing guards uh that is a state law unemployment um Mr yeah they they would be employees of the new company they wouldn't be our employees and if they're eligible based off of the eligibility criteria then the state would give it to them yeah thank you um and OT uh I officers get I don't believe they get OT for doing Crossing positions okay okay all right so I think we've covered all the questions and again we will stick around afterwards to have more conversations and we will move along at this point to the consent agenda um any resolutions that we wish to remove can I remove 24-17 yes anybody else okay can I have a motion to adopt the consent agenda as amended so moves second uh roll call please councilwoman Bodo I councilman Foley I councilman Lazaro I council president Carney I okay we have resolution 117 uh mayor I'd like to make a motion to adopt resolution 117 with the following Amendment first you have to do the amendment and then the adoption so I motion the amendment and then make a motion to amend for it to be then approved and then once amended then you can approve the actual resolution because you were saying you wanted to make a motion to approve I gotta I I did two things at once guy in All right so let me let me retract that uh mayor I'd like to make a motion to amend resolution 24-17 uh removing the line uh regarding the DPW foran adjustment so moved second okay somebody was my second I guess he's first who's the second second okay and do we roll call roll call please yes councilwoman Bodo I councilman Foley I councilman Lazarus I council president Carney I okay now I will motion to adopt resolution 24-17 as amended okay second there we go thank you Mr Abramson all right a roll call please miss Cameron uh councilwoman Bodo hi councilman Foley hi councilman Lazar council president Carney I okay um any new business from anyone um I would just like to take a moment to let the rest of the council know um skip the stuff which we have passed here uh in Garwood is making its way through many more mun IP alties including our neighboring town of Westfield so um they introduced it uh last night at their meeting uh to unanimous bipartisan uh vote so um looks like a lot of our our neighboring uh communities are jumping on the bandwagon and um it's a great push for the environment so I just wanted to let everybody know that um okay payment of claims miss Cameron be it resolved that the following claims as approved being the same are hereby ordered paid when properly signed and verified and the payment of payrolls as listed is hereby confirmed and ratified do I have a motion to accept payment of claim so moved second a roll call please councilwoman Bodo I councilman Foley councilman Laz I council president Cary I okay uh the regular meeting of the mayor and Council will be held on Thursday June 27 2024 at 700 p.m. in council chambers information for meetings is posted on the bar website do I have a motion to adjourn so moved second all in favor iOS all right thank you everybody