##VIDEO ID:dSEfJPUlAjk## e e e e e e e e e e e excuse me good evening everybody Madam clerk go right to city manager thank you mayor uh on number one on for tonight is a shared service agreement with tck for the health officer um tx's uh Health officer has resigned and they in a search for a new one in the meantime um they've asked for a shared service service with us uh to let our health officer provide their services for them uh several days a week so that's what that's all about uh also number two is the grant for inclusion Recreation opportunities and number three uh I'm going to call up uh our CFO Mr Jim Mangan uh is going to do a presentation on the financial status of the city thanks um I wasn't able to make the uh the July 15th meeting I had some uh uh personal things I had to take care of uh but when I got home that night about 8:00 I I I turned the uh the meeting on on YouTube and there were a couple of concerns and questions raised by members of the public regarding the finances that were answered by the deputy mayor and by the city manager and and answered very admirably you know while I was sitting on my couch um but one thing you have to understand is that uh mayor and counsil or the city manager you're not expected to know all the details of our finances off the top of your head um you know that's why I tend to try to uh attend the meetings so what I'd like to do is just just add to the answers that you gave uh the last meeting not going to repeat anything that you said because doesn't have to be repeat it's already been said but um for example on the subject of debt okay the question was asked of of how much debt do we have uh debt is measured in terms of a percentage of our valuations and our debt percentage is 1.99% last year it was 2.12% okay and it's a it's a it's a very difficult concept to grasp I don't know if you remember but in the summer of 2021 uh we had members of the public also wanted to know about our debt and in at the at the June 15th meeting in 2021 I did a presentation on our debt management policy um you anybody can can view that presentation it was the June 15 2021 meeting and at that I outlined what our policy was and our policy as the deputy mayor explained is that uh in contrast to the prior Administration prior administration's policy was debt should never go over 1% myc our debt is almost 2% okay we don't follow that policy we rehashed that policy completely our uh just so you know the state limit is 3 and a half% our total debt is 139 million if we wanted to we could borrow another 104 million um as Allowed by the state but our policy is not to hold our level of debt to some AR arbitrary number 1% mhm what we do is we borrow money when we need when we need it for the infrastructure okay as long as we don't have to raise taxes to pay it back that's the barometer you know U I said back in 2021 that the debt isn't the villain it's raising taxes to pay the debt back that's the villain that's the thing that we're trying to avoid and that's how our policy works if you hold your debt level to a certain level just an arbitrary number you won't pave your streets you won't fixtion Parks because they'll be over your debt limit instead we do sewer work we do uh Park Renovations we buy equipment we fix streets all without raising taxes to do that now a couple of things the policy like I said if you look at the presentation it's a lot more detailed but our debt level because of our policy also includes UD things like principal forgiveness we've got roughly around 17 million in principal forgiveness with the source separation that's similar to a grant principal forgiveness means you borrow money for a project you pay the contractors the projects done when you permanently Finance part of that principle is forgiven you don't you borrow it but you don't have to pay it back right and and we've got roughly about 17 million in principle for giveness right now same thing with grants uh when there's grants we borrow money inclusive of the grants and then what we do is when the grants come in we reduce the debt we have about $5 million in Grants you know that we know that when we get the grants we're going to reduce the debt okay but the thing is that U it's our policy is it's important to understand that uh debt management is very big um and it's allowed us to improve the infrastructure and not ra taxes at the same time which has always been the goal in fact U I'll speak to this in a second but uh standard and pors uh just rated the city's finances this past May and they noted in their report that our overall debt limit is low um it is low uh for you know for our per capita uh in fact in 2021 when I did a study of the 20 municipalities in South Bergen County uh we were ranked 18th in in debt per capita um along those same lines just so you know there's a resolution on for tonight uh regarding the ply Park project now the ply Park project is a project that we were doing to alleviate flooding flooding coming off the school that was flooding ply Park and we did the bond ordinance and we said we were going to finance it through the ibank it's a storm water project not a source separation so there's no principal forgiveness we use the ibank because 34s of it is interest free um and that savings alone made it worth us worth it to do the ibank well what happened was the D recently expanded their categories of principal forgiveness and shortly after they announced these new categories we contacted the EP to see if our poly Park project qualifies which it does and that's why there's a resolution on now tonight to amend suburban's contract to handle the ibank coordination that project now has 80% principal forgiveness um we incur the full debt when the Project's done 80% of the principal will be forgiven okay um mov there was also a question was raised the question was asked if the city was in the red um and the deputy mayor did an excellent job of answering it uh but I just want to you know um just wanted to add to that that basically nothing could be further from the truth okay um our Surplus level Surplus is always mentioned is always measured at the end of the year so Surplus at the end of 2023 was $23.7 million now just to put that in perspective 10 years ago at the end of 2013 Surplus was at $ 2.03 million 2023 Surplus was 20% of our operating budget the um Credit Agencies you know like you to have between 23 to 25% 2013 it was 2.2% of the operating budget and again when we um when standard and pors measured the Ci's U finances back in May in the report um what they did was they gave us uh they affirmed our doublea plus rating as the deputy mayor mentioned uh that's one step below AAA and in the report they said the city's consistently strong operational performances and very strong reserves underpin the rating cities reported six consecutive audited general fund surpluses largely the result of conservative budgeting practices and strong property tax collections the positive 2022 performance resulted from strong payment in lie of taxes pilot Revenue among other Revenue not anticipated in the budget we note that as part of the budgeting process the city looks to maintain debt levels and fund various reserves outside its unassigned fund balance in its current fund which provides the city operational flexibility it needs um long story short is that um we budget conservatively uh we maintain reserves to uh to make sure that we don't incur a deficit deficit is the opposite of a surplus okay uh which is why I said um we are anything we are as far away from being in the red um as possible uh there was also concerns about and questions asked about the hiring freeze and I'm not going to rehash that because you explained all the reasons regarding health benefits Etc but there was a concern um raised about uh summer camp and uh and that needs an explanation okay you explain the the hiring frees why it was necessary to avoid void the layoff and why the increase in health benefits cost caused us to uh you know to enact that policy in the first place well also to get the spending down because of the health benefit increases one of the things that we did was we changed the finance structure of our recre programs we pulled them out of the budget completely and they're all now funded completely by the recreation trust fund uh that means that the hiring freeze has no effect at all on any Recreation program okay so when a city manager said that we we increase the number of counselors based on the number of of uh respondents you know participants that's exactly what we did you know uh that has nothing to do with the hiring freeze because it's not hitting the budget at all okay um and and finally um just wanted to bring up one last thing there was um there was a comment made regard regarding uh the DPW employees uh pay um uh the comment was something like uh you should pay your DPW employees a living wage and as I said mayor and councel are not expected to know the details of of everything um and especially not the DPW uh labor contract uh but I can say because you know I've been negotiating the contracts here pretty much longer than anybody the DPW contract that we negotiated and we settled on uh last year is is one of the to me it's one of the greatest accomplishments of this administration because what happened in that negotiation wasn't your standard negotiation where the union asks for everything we offer nothing we settle in the midd in the middle and everybody goes away angry um in this particular case the employees asked um and not the unions and not the lawyers the employees asked for a path in the contract to better themselves the old contract that they were working under had one salary guide for all employees regardless of your title everybody got the same increase you know a sanitation employee uh making $30,000 got the same percentage increase as a signal technician making three times that at $90,000 so if an employee wanted to better themselves um and they did they would still get the same salary increase as everybody else uh we recognize that you know and we yeah that's that's a valid concern you know and we work with the unions you know what do we do about that and what we did was we came up with a three separate salary guides based on skill level okay and in those salary guides the lower paying um positions have higher percentage increases and the higher paying positions have lower percentage increases to try and Achieve parity among everybody and with three salary guides um just give an example an employee gets hired as a laborer on the lowest of the three salary guides who then on his own gets a commercial driver's license and he can then move into the second salary guide and get paid better and if he continues with that and he wants to be a heavy equipment operator maybe he wants to be mechanic he can work his way up onto the third salary guide and make even more money now in order to do this um city manager and I uh went to the mayor and Council we talked about it in closed session I can talk about it now because the contract is settled and we said that when you create a new salary guide you have to place everything everybody and when you place employees you always place them up you never place them down and then you have to give them a step increase so in the first year the increase was more than we were authorized to to offer we told the union that we said we will go to the mayor and Council we'll explain everything we'll advocate for it and you approved it okay we went back to the U to the next negotiating session and we agreed um from what I understand it went to the union it was uh it was ratified overwhelmingly okay and it is it's an it's an excellent contract it's it offers not just a wage um the question was raised what did the starting salary go to and starting salary in the old contract was 30,000 in the new contract it runs through the three salary uh ranges of from 37,000 to 41,000 um and as I said it's uh it's expensive in the first year because of the placements but the budget problems we had this year if you remember from the budget presentation was not the results of of at all of salaries it was 100% the result of health benefit costs um so it worked out it long story short is it worked out better than we thought and I really really do believe in my heart that that particular cont contract and the way it was negotiated and the give and take of the union and the fact that the mayor and Council was receptive to you know our to our additional ask um is is one of the best accomplishments of this Administration it was truly a win-win okay and I don't think it's fair to categorize that at all as not paying a living wage and that's that's my opinion yeah okay um that's everything that I wanted to cover as to what was um what was talked about last meeting and if anybody has any questions be sure you know be happy to answer I just uh you know you see stuff on social media this week somebody was stirring the pot you know again we're so in debt and and this you know we take upon ourselves to like like the sewer separation the storm water stuff down by Railroad Avenue and all that stuff if we didn't do that if we didn't borrow that money but we did the project taxes would go through the roof through the roof and and property values would go down and property values would go down so you know we're it's a quality of life issue absolutely MH absolutely yeah again our debt management policy Scare Tactics out there trying to stir people up saying we're we're we're in bad financial shape when it's like you said it couldn't be further from the truth so yeah if U you know is the debt level up you know from the prior Administration yes it is it's but we're not we're not raising taxes to pay it off it's managed exactly somebody else is paying it off for us that's really the answer and a lot of it has to do with Redevelopment the hospital addition the additional what you're looking at between the hospital and Redevelopment just this year 10 and a half million between the two of them so and then the the pilots were cited in the uh in the standard poor um uh report yep and not to mention we have $20 million more in our reserved than previous administration yeah yeah yeah Surplus is is in excellent shape yep okay well it enables us to be proactive so that should we should we be in that situation we're not hurting our residents and that's I think what the most important thing is is to manage manage the finances and you do a great job Jim thanks so much yeah it's important for people to understand you know that it's it's planned and then it's working the plan okay and everything is working exactly as we plan mhm sometimes it works better than we think and sometimes uh those reserves are a godsent you know when you're hit with things like a global pandemic for example yeah yes thank you J thank you great job appreciate it thank you thank you Jim uh next up is our CSO and storm Warner and Parks update I'll ask our city engineer Chris weaton to come up evening everybody ready sorry uh just getting into our overview of major projects um the list has shortened a little bit doesn't mean our workload has reduced but um uh yeah it's good to see projects moving along uh there are no major change there are no significant changes to our major projects moving into our CSO separation projects again we are currently in the uh the six major project with the Anderson Street drainage area uh which is diverting water away from the Anderson Street um CSO facility into the Court Street CSO facility and new storm water outfall that was constructed behind the Toyota dealership the Anderson Street project is well along we are expecting completion of this project in uh late fall uh late October into November the sewer remains on Clay bdan James Barry and Stanley are complete and uh halfway complete on Railroad Avenue the storm culverts have been installed on bdan clay and James and we're currently working on Barry Street and Stanley place will follow after that the utilities loc uh relocation uh that has to support this project by violia and psng is significantly complete with the mains completed as we complete the storm water CTS there will be some uh a final completion of the service connections uh for violia and pscg occurring on Barry Street in Stanley place and railroad AV as well and it's nice to see that we are able to uh start restor start site restoration uh on Clay Street as the project has been completed there so we are in the process of uh of installing curbs and sidewalks on Clay Street one of our other projects is called the various sewer improvements project we have completed a sanitary sewer uh replacement on Liberty Street a new manhole on Moore Street a new manhole on Union Street and we are performing a repair of the sanitary sewer on Hudson Street this week we're also in the pipeline is the East Kennedy emergency generator East Kennedy Pump Station emergency generator and um uh that's it's there is some minor work occurring there but uh we won't be getting that generator until early next year the other major project that we have going on is our FEMA uh post post daa flood Hazard mitigation project again this project is shown in red and it's uh encompasses some of the lowest elevations in the city it's going to add 80 acres of storm water uh management and um uh and combin Sewer separation to our uh already significant acreage of storm water projects it's about a 5-year implementation timeline line we have completed the CCTV of the sewer service area and due to um due to features that we found and some connections uh that were that were found with those investigations we are now able to look at the addition of the South Newman Street uh uh drainage area storm water pipelines uh to this project so we are presently studying that area and seeking its inclusion with New Jersey office of emergency management and the other part of this project will be a major Pump Station and that preliminary design is in progress along with the Interceptor sewers in Parks we are wrapping up polyfly Park the contractor has completed all of the drainage uh improvements except for the tie-in at the bottom of the slope and uh in poly Road itself uh we're just uh finishing up with a fence installation at the at the top uh adjacent to the school and uh meeting with the county presently on uh scheduling and coordinating for that tie in to the drainage pipe and polyfly our other Parks project is Johnson Park Sports or one of our other Parks project I should say is uh Johnson Park uh Sports Complex we did receive bids a couple of weeks ago uh there is a resolution uh on for this evening for for that project cini Park we did work through the uh the wetlands issue that uh D presented us with way back um it it took a lot of discussion with DP to work through uh the requirements for mitigation as well as to point out that there was another way to uh uh to look at what they were falling Wetlands so we were successful in those negotiations and an updated permit package for fishi has been submitted to DP and now we're awaiting uh their review in roads and traffic the prospect AV pedestrian Safety project uh which runs from Beach Street to Essex Street and includes a flashing pedestrian beacons that project will be starting uh after Labor Day with cban sidewalks installed and then after that we'll have underground conduits and Foundations uh laid later in September the signal equipment is uh still as we've discussed it it is a very long lead item it's expected to ship in late October and will be installed as soon as possible thereafter and just to alert you to some uh non City projects that we're also involved in um coming up this month and into next month Bergen County will be Paving Main Street which uh uh Main Street from Anderson to Johnson and Johnson Street from Main Street to kinder KAC and we ALS also are working with hackensac AV and coordinating on uh the project that will install a new turning lane at uh the buron countyy uh and widen that that road easement uh of hacken sacv and I just wanted to make you aware of the status of emergency repairs in the city to date uh we have had five uh repairs to date for a variety of reasons I won't get into the details but feel free to reach out and I just wanted to you know last week was a heck of a week there was it it rained all week um and we did field a lot of calls I know the city had calls um uh you know City Council Members as as well as uh our our department and um just wanted to remind people that the infrastructure that's going in it's not going to handle every storm um the infrastructure is sized for a 25e storm um and it's not possible to design your infrastructure to handle every uh possible storm and the storms that we've been seeing are more intense uh more rainfall occurring in a shorter period of time and um so just you know people should be aware that the infrastructure that's in is not going to eliminate all flooding but it is going to reduce the uh uh it is going to reduce flooding and also make the time for draining that those flood waters quicker so that's what the the infrastructure the storm water projects are are accomplishing for the city um um and really we're taking up um just about as much space as we possibly can uh in these streets when you look at the the size of the culverts and the size of the pipes that are going into uh James and berdan and Barry it's a very large pipe and we're we're really maximizing the amount of pipe that we can get within within the easements that the city has so um that's that's something else to bear in mind um and just a reminder if you're if if you have a basement in your house there's a check valve or a Backwater valve um uh on your on your Sewer Lateral that connects to the public sewer in the street uh so there is a there is a that valve is is required by code uh for several decades now and um it is important that you keep an eye on those check valves that you inspect them regularly and make sure that they are operating uh properly and of course I know all City staff you know respond as quickly as possible when uh you know when we receive calls and concerns uh from residents about flooding issues uh we we do get out there and inspect as you know as quickly as we can and and try to and respond with uh with with what um with what actions uh residents and uh and uh and customers can take and just again a reminder I mean what you put in the sewer again talking about flooding um all these things that don't belong in the sewer that go into the sewer they contribute to flooding if you pour grease down the drain there will be grease backups uh in the sewer system you Flo you throw wipes and uh and personal products down the drain uh those can accumulate as well and and block the sewers so uh really you know everybody please do your part to uh help help to uh keep the system operational any questions I I'd like to just add a little bit to the flooding and again I want to thank everybody in the city that you know was out a lot of the most of the night a lot of the city employees that were very proactive and going out before the storm because we knew it was coming and you know clearing catch basins and checking um uh all of the pump stations I mean that again a lot of hard work and a lot of good work that was done by our city employees and I think you know as as a council and as residents we really need to thank them for that um I think a couple of things you said are extremely important you know there a the amount of rain that we've had there's no way anyone can prepare for that and you know we saw flooding not only throughout the state of New Jersey but pretty much throughout the entire country you know the weather that we're having is something that uh no matter how much reinvest is never going to handle that type of volume in that short a period of time I think that key Testament to proving that the work that we're doing is truly working is in the areas where we have gone in and and completed work such as River Street the recovery time by the next morning River Street wasn't flooded now a few years ago River Street would have remained flooded for a couple of days under that type of deluge yes it's unfortunate there's areas that South Newman Lo ey Street we haven't gotten there yet our plan for Green Street which we're receiving a considerable amount of grant money working with the state you know that is next on our list and you know we're going to be down there and that will be helping that area as well but the key is the recover to see if this is working the key is the recovery time when this happens is the system in fact handling it or is it staying like that and taking days for that water to dissipate where these changes have been implemented and I know it's not fun folks um the mayor and I both live on Brook Street because we foolishly didn't realize 50 some years ago that it was called Brook Street because we're built over a brook okay so I know mayor's basement too gets it worse than mine but you know I know it's it's very aggravating it's very stressful um and I think that the council and the city has you know gone way out there to try and at least have a plan that can remediate this peace meal one by one I mean we can't it would be wonderful if we could just snap our fingers and say you know we have hundreds of millions of dollars right now that we can work on the whole city together we'd love to do that what we're doing is tackling we started by tackling what was identified as the worst place in the city what we refer to as the Clay Street area for flooding and just by fixing that area and diverting the water there is actually helping some of the surrounding areas as well because we've separated it from that so we're seeing results that I think definitely reinforce the positiveness of these changes and folks were we're going to keep at it we're going to keep from one area to the next until we get these problems solved and I think this whole Council has proven their commitment to that y I just want to speak to and we didn't bring even bring it up but we live on a tidal River all right hackin saac River's tidal we have a high tide um you combine that with a rainstorm uh like we had this past week where that that cell wrapped from Anglewood around tck into hacken sack dumped over four inches in one hour that's like biblical rain it was really you know I'm here 47 years that's probably the hardest I've ever seen it rain in this city and uh and it was it was tough I get I got hammered I know Hudson Street people got got it pretty bad we had to evacuate some people out of there um Newman Loi Street got it really bad they they they have the biggest trouble with you know getting the residual water out of there it sits there for days I went back the day after it rained it was still 3T down by Lo and Newman Street um and I don't have anything on Railroad Avenue was was wasn't good but it was nowhere near as bad as it used to be Pake Street was actually closed the water was up into the Dunkin Donuts lot but when you get that volume of water and such a short period of time just absolutely you know and you have a high tide and full moon you're you're in trouble a perfect storm so Vinnie kuso our city manager was a Loi police chief and also the city manager in Loi for years years Loi always flooded they got the Saddle River Runs right through they got nothing they get hardly anything they're literally a mile and a half away from us so I mean it's you know Mother Nature just really got us good this time at when she live in W she have nothing there yeah it was sunny out so um thanks to all the city employees uh you know fire police DPW sanitation everybody that was out there uh trying to help people out we appreciate Vinnie Vinnie was here working late at night but uh my hearts go out to everybody they flooded um I know it's not fun it's not easy so thank you for your report Chris appreciate it anything else from the council can I just not about this but can I just add one thing from we had our we have um Stephanie and myself meet monthly with um the new Superintendent at the board of education and we talk about you know shared services and things we can do and concert together and I don't know how many of you remember but prior to covid we used to have one night a week of open swim for the hackin sack residents at the pool and then that stopped primarily because of covid um and the the the Board of Education was amable as long as we pay for the lifeguards which we will we always have that they were amable to starting this up again now in the past we could only do one night a week because they were leasing the pool to other uh swim teams so this year they said they're not so we could start with one night a week and if it's really popular and this was all year round that the way this program worked for those of you that are not familiar we could even look at expanding it the hard part right now is making sure we can get some lifeguards so you know the all you need to do is be a licensed lifeguard it's only a few hours a week and the best resource we have are our own students I know when my granddaughter was still in high school she's in college now but when she was in hackensac high school she did it she life she's a lifeguard so she lifeguarded the one night a week she enjoyed it and it was a little bit pocket money for her so anybody that you know has a child grandchild Etc that you know is a certified lifeguard certified CPR of course you know they can apply at the rec at down at our recreation center and I think we could start that back up what I remember of the stories of my granddaughter telling me it was something that everyone really enjoyed that you know it was always had families there and it was a fun few hours and if the school is willing to do it with us I think it's a great opportunity and we should you know so you know anybody who's a lifeguard have them submit something down to uh to the rec CER thank you okay that's all I have that's all I have so need a motion to open to the public please second all in favor I I None opposed anybody from the public who'd like to speak please come forward good evening I'm Paul Nichols is this General comment on anything or specific okay thanks anything General related to the business of the municipality right um there were supposed to be a bunch of veterans here tonight from uh 70 poly because it was brought to my attention about a year ago or eight months ago I had um uh was was it was told to me that the elevator didn't work and there were um a lot of other things and I called the buildings department and they said I can't remember who I spoke to but they said they would take care of it and I just got a call last week that um and I guess I couldn't make it tonight but they were supposed to be here a bunch of disabled people in that building and there's a lot of different stuff going on what building is it pull 70 ply 70 ply yeah and I I I was shocked to hear after eight months that it I just thought it was taken care of um and matter of fact the Veterans Administration was supposed to be here tonight too but um so if you guys could look into that uh that's basically it other than uh I didn't know I was going to walk into something about the sewers and since we're talking about that I don't know if you remember a couple year like a while ago I I've said a couple times I had meeting with the the housing authority and the D of New Jersey and they said that you know this ain't going to stop unless the Army Corps of Engineers was going to do a study in the metal lands and put the dikes and all that like they did down New Orleans but nobody said anything recently about um and I always keep forgetting the best way to reduce flooding dirt water dirt trees and grass and stop overbuilding that's what absorbs the water you can put all and this last rainstorm proved you can put all the the um sewers you want it's not going to stop the flooding but I agree with you I remember when River Street would be flooded for a day two days whatever after but since times are changing and like say it's raining more and heavier we're always going to have that title coming in while water's coming down the hill and it's going to go up um so I'm still against all these overbuilding um all this overbuilding that we're doing and not enough grass parks and it's really not good for the environment let me chirp in here sure can you tell me a building that was put over a lot that was grass in this city I don't know took in per surface built a new building with green green infrastructure underneath it with water storage and water retention and many of them have green roofs so technically you are Greener now than you were with what was there before what was on the record Property right by the river there's tons of grass in in perious areas there now okay now I also heard and I I I actually was just curious one day I Googled it and I just simply Googled um how many trees do you need for one person to breathe and just out of curiosity and it said 7 to8 it said 7 to eight although obviously we know that it's not just oxygen that we need and carbon dioxide which is trees I agree with you 100% we're planting a lot of trees we have plans to plant a lot of trees in the near future with some some funding that's coming in especially the new grant money we're working with is these build that you the Jefferson's a perfect example those PE the drainage and everything up in that area since these people put that building in it's much much better it's funny I had a council person from Maywood who owns property in that area I actually wrote on social media Eric uh Derek D Derek Eisenberg saying the amount of infrastructure that they put into the bottom of that building that whole building has tubes underneath it to hold water and then it has a catch base so that was that was a DPW junkyard for and a police station for for years so and not only that the funding provided by these buildings through Pilots you would we there'd be no sewer work whatsoever in this city if it wasn't for these pilot programs because the taxes would in order to pay for it would be astronomical even bonded it would it people's taxes would go up every year and that particular building the Jefferson and that time when the DPW belong to the county that particular area they don't pay a penny in taxes now they pay billion how did Johnson Park area Faire during that flood I'm sure they got hammered but there's a ongoing project there we're funding a project that redo the whole park raising it putting in underground retention outfalls to the river moving the fields around we're not going to invest all the money to rebuild the park if it's still going to flood so we're going to do our best to stop it that said when you live on a river you know what's going to happen right going to stop it 100% it's not going to happen you live on a river low-lying areas are going to get hit it's just it's Mother Nature you can't stop mother nature you know people say stop my flooding yeah how do I stop rain I think any like the new um like uh what's going to go over whatever's still going to go over there at uh what do you call that park over the not the park the Walgreens right I think if you keep all that lot open and just put a small building and the rest so so the man pays 15 million for that lot why would he lose all that money to build a small building why why no I I get it but something's got to be done we got to stop getting population in here we don't underground retention when they build the building that's really the the key you make them you make them build it so that the water's stored underground and then is released over time into the river that's really how it works and it would be good to have a what's what's it you show me there's less than 500 ft of green space on that entire lot right now nothing and the new the new if I as if I remember correctly because I missed the planning board meeting that roof had a completely green roof and you have to realize that no matter the height of the building has nothing to do with the environment as far as rain right it's the footprint so these were all impervious surfaces you know these were all slabs of concrete Madam Etc with no storm water requirements every single project that comes has a heavy duty storm requirement our storm requirements are more Vig than the DS we got a lot of fol speak just because I'm sure a lot of people here are interested in this real quick the D requirement is such that this is what they would ask for anything new built we go beyond that ours are strictor so we've really you know put our foot down here as to to to how these buildings are being built and what they're doing to help and that's important I'm Sor sorry for going over thank you and please look at the 70 ply if you could next person please thanks good evening Bridget um I'm here Christine I'm so glad you're here because we received those letters back in November 2023 about the projects of Stanley place and James Street and so on and so forth all the way down to Central a I got pictures and pictures of people who constantly were like saying what is really going on here I don't know how many crews you have out per Street fixing the street and simultaneously as they're working but um from what you said um Kathy is the base part of the um DPW doing their job I had to actually call because bake Street was so bad to get barriers put up between First Street Railroad on Stanley place when I say the young lady come from pade Street and went down the street and her car conked out the water was like say to the mid of her car door she had to climb out I had to call the fire department tell them that a person was stuck there so you guys are saying that you know DPW did their jobs and people were out doing whatever but they never think the cut off the streets that flood so badly never before that rain started to come down everybody knew they was a storm coming no barriers went up so everybody from Pake Street was coming down Stanley Place thinking that they were going to get to Railroad only to get stopped by the water that was like a river so Miss Christine I would like to know since this project started November of 2023 and the paperwork did set approximately a year to be completed and done can you give us a more definitive answer of when this will actually get done in November by November she just she just spoke will be complet by the end of November so I can tell everybody okay so are we working on the streets simultaneously because I don't see no one on Stanley place I see them on Berry Street the people on James Street are Furious I sent a letter to Vinnie and to Ryan letting them know that you know a family who has a daughter that's disabled lost all her medical equipment all of it so my thing is how do you tell these people that you know this is happening but look what's Happening Here we know we can't stop mother nature everybody knows that part of it but the part that we're trying to see here is the big the biggest part they're having this Rucker is the infrastructure that's already under the ground right is trying to find placements to put in the underground retention and run the pipes through all this Maze of stuff that's under the ground that's one of the large if I'm not mistaken Chris is that one of our issues that they're having that's yeah have to work with it's slowed up the process quite a bit um but is that the same for Stanley place it's same it's she just mentioned before actually and when she was speaking to us in her report that they're you they're running into there's a lot of stuff under the ground I no I understand that part but I'm saying is that the same for Stanley place what you're finding in on other streets like I know Barry Street and James Street because the people that were on Jam stre she had already complained about the manh hold on a sidewalk so I got that so I know Barry and James might be different but is that the same on staning I would I would have to look specifically at the design plans Mr okay um because yeah I don't I don't have it right in the top of my head okay Chris I mean one of the other issues Bridget to with this whole thing is they all the work that's being done there hasn't been connected yet right and once it's connected we you will see a vast Improvement you know that's the plan like so far so good for me because the water has been you know less than what it was on the North so that was a good thing but when you're talking about getting down Stanley right in that dip where it becomes that pool River that is those are the people that are I'll be the first one to would that we kind of got caught with our caught on this one cuz it was so fast no I got and that's probably why they didn't get stuff out right away cuz I always say Where's the barri I agree with you we should have had barriers up I tried you had bake Street closed you had Central was closed Essex Street was closed there's no way to get from the north of the city to the South if you were west of Anderson Street standing in the middle of the street telling people to go back I understand but people don't listen so the other thing we tried to tell it you know you said it was a young lady but you know when I was a young guy I tried to go through the water too with my car I wouldn't do it today right exactly so I'm just trying to figure out when those kind of storms are already brewing and everybody knows if we can just get back areas you know to cut off the street until it gets fixed right okay thank you so much that's a good suggestion I spoke to the person that doing the job the company new Prince joh myano he promised that everything going to be done by the middle of November everything the no I know because I see the date on my slip it says November 23rd so I already know that's proximately the year and probably when they would be fun I just wanted to know the whole thing the sidewalk the cup everything so I was just trying to figure out like a timeline you know like a timeline to say middle of November the only thing you got to got to if if we get another stretch of bad weather it could hold things off but fingers crossed no problem thank you next please good evening Hi how are you good evening we represent Newman and leh High Street okay all all those people we hear because we really concerned about what's going on there we have a lot of people that they don't live there but they hanging out by the stair in the street and they doing a lot of stuff that we can see is on camera and we've been complaining every single time and we call the cup like more than 10 times a day and nothing happened and we are really really scared to go out even when we go up to the building they don't move and when you tell you ask them to move they give you attitude and we don't know PE those people so I don't know what had to be done because we complain with the manager with the own and all that and nothing happened and as you can see we have people for every age like we have teenager we have older and we really scared I'm scared to go down to go to the garbage to throw the garbage out because they they they don't care they don't have I feel they don't have nothing to lose but we want to be safe already okay I'm I'm on this so I actually receed the time for a second Deb on them I actually received some calls today and I contacted the city manager and please don't hesitate to call us when it gets to the situation so maybe just before yeah I we'll let you continue we'll let you continue let just answer the question I actually I received a call today from the deputy mayor who got a call from one of the residents over there okay um I soon after I spoke to the deputy mayor I contacted the Police director and the captain the officer in charge and sent them a lengthy email specifically saying what you guys are just saying there used to be at one point there used to be a walking post there where the police would stop get out of the car and walk around um and now they also have things what they call tasks so I have requested that they put a new task there where the officers will you know go to the location disperse anybody that's there um that doesn't belong in your neighborhood and uh you know keep an eye on it and have a police presence there constant police presence there so we're working on that like I said they just said it today um to them so hopefully by the next day or two you're going to start to see a lot more police presence there um the other day happened a shooting in front of my building it was a shooting M the other day was one of them was St um um the Star by a night and they always fighting they always and of our b or our C I have a teenager I have autistic kid she too all these persons they all old people I want my son to go outside and play they don't let them they don't leave there none of them leave there we scare when I get out of my car with my kids they arrest me if I say something to them they curse me out and I'm scared to get in my house it's a lot of the times that I get out of my the my car with my son and I have to call the Caps because I don't see feel safe as a mom with my specialy kid I don't feel safe the same as then and we are here because we are sick and tired of them we are scared and nobody do nothing so please we need help because we are here we people that work they are kids that we not in the Treet but we want our kids to go outside to to to buy a bike to have a better life well we scared they always shooting at each other it's a lot of then parking in front of our car they leave in the car they don't leave there and they don't leave there none of those people outside leave there because we leave there and we don't even stand outside we come from work school go home and that's it what are what are what are some of the addresses that that you are facing this I mean I know the deputy mayor told me to say it was Newman and Sussex yeah no is um Lehi and Newman specific specifically right on that corner there 15 Newman Street 15 I also heard about Newman in Le high and 10 I those people that are the police know who they are they know who they are and it's unfortunate that you had to come here tonight to tell us this but please please these older people cannot come here they come here because we scar please Vinnie we got to follow up and when you see this you have to if you're not getting the results a lot some of you call me please I have no problem you can continue to call me okay because I immediately call him and say we're we're going to fix this or you know or call the city manager directly um we definitely this is not this is not a quality of life this is not the quality of life that you folks deserve and Vinnie we have to address this situation but we did have this problem a number of years ago and the walking police was a huge deterrent okay cuz they got they can't just stay in the cars getting out and walking your streets was a deterrent years ago it helped now I don't know if that's going to help again but I think we could at least give it a try I'm sorry I know my time out but sometime we call the cop and they go there and they just say hello to them and they don't let them move they just like you know God you're not supposed to be here and they just leave yeah no they have to so and we had to call again then when they pick out the phone they give us attitude because we call back and say hey I just called 10 minutes ago and they be like oh we sent our office and say yeah they was here they say hello but they left they tool with them yes and they know that they don't need to be aggressive but they have you know we don't want them there we want to be able to go out whenever we feel like and not be afraid to go down even to throw the garbage thank you thank you thank you thank you for coming and we're sorry that your experence exping this we are next person please anybody else want to speak Mr Smith good evening Marty Smith Prospect Avenue uh for the past three or four months now we've been bringing up the issue of the speed limit on Summit Avenue between um Bic and Spring Valley at the June meeting of the council when we brought this up Mr Caruso said to me that he had an update for me the update was that the council or Mr Caruso's office had authorized a traffic study well from my personal point of you no traffic study was really called for and then I wondered to myself what was the motivation for the Council of Mr Caruso's office to authorize this traffic study and my feeling was that you were looking for a reason not to lower the speed limit on Summit Avenue there could be no further reason than that so let me give you the facts here number one the fact that uh Summit Avenue between pic and Spring Valley is under City jurisdiction fact number two all streets in the city of hackensac that come under City jurisdiction call for a 25 mph postage speed limit and fact three is that currently Summit Avenue between the two points in question currently have a speed limit posted of 35 miles an hour now you know I think basically we have kind of beaten this issue to death here uh we you have the facts in front of you so my final question to you and I'm not going to bring this up at any future Council meetings is this are you going to lower the speed limit on Summit Avenue between the two points in question to bring it into compliance with all streets in hackin saac that are under our jurisdiction or aren't you it's a yes or no question so I'm going to say this the Traffic Division of our Police Department is the one who performed the traffic study and I'm not going to go against our police department on what their recommendation is so I'm going to defer to the city manag to explain it we actually discussed this in close session tonight uh Mr Smith and the recommendation of uh the police department's traffic division is to not lower the speed limit on any of those three sections let me say this well you know what that's the uh answer I expected to get but you know it's not the job of the city council to pick and choose the rules and regulations that you are in office to enforce your job is to enforce all the regulations in the city of hacket saac now if we have a rule that says all streets under the city jurisdiction call for a 25 mph speed limit that's what it calls for personally I don't care what the traffic department said you are in violation of the rules and regulations in the city of hackensac I mentioned to you a year or two ago that New York City with a traffic uh uh traffic volume and pedestrian volume a, to 2,000 times more than we have has a Citywide speed limit of 25 miles an hour you know why because their traffic department knows what they're doing so I think you're making a big mistake in not lowering the speed limit if an accident occurs where a serious injury or a fatality occurs this city could be responsible in a big lawsuit in addition to which as far as the speed limit is concerned eight intersections between pic and Spring Valley Avenue have no crosswalks so you're going to be out on a limb in two of these situations I think is a very poor decision on the part of the council and the traffic department and I don't think the traffic department is doing their business right I'm going to defer to Council on whether that is an issue legally for us so just so you know all right um also Mr Smith I just wanted to make you aware I know you question the speed limit on County Road River Road by theems and that there was 40 mph speed limit and nothing to lower the speed limit during by the schools but there are two posted lights there blinking lights with a 25 mph speed limits that are active during school hours from what it wasn't school hours when I went by because it was in the middle of summer but when school's on there's a blinking traffic signal both uh north and south of the academy is lowering the speed limit to 25 so I just wanted to bring that to your attention uh next person please good evening uh Bill wasley 464 Kaplan Avenue I spoke at the last month at the council meeting and uh after attending the the Anderson streets uh planning thing the few days the week before would have run that and uh um and I got a little explanation about what was going on and stuff about I guess why we do certain things in the city mostly seems to be we're doing a lot of this building the Hope R just about I guess taxes sort but I guess as a homeowner you know we all like load taxes I'm not going to deny that you know that works you know um but I also mentioned a couple other things about some difficulties I was having downtown I think what I said was taken as kind of a personal thing like just personal difficulties and I was kind of complaining about that and I I wasn't thrilled about the response I got back from that and I want to be clear about that is that it wasn't that at all I'm a big consumer of Hack and Sack I David Liberty does my taxes John and xan at all state have my insurance um I have my haircut used to be on Anderson Street uh George unfortunately gone um now it's uh Maria on there uh I've seen more shows at the hack pack probably then besides uh the Twins and what's his name Greg and the twins probably than anybody else in terms I paid for more shows there and that um and 11 years ago mentioning downtown which you said I don't know what it's like 11 years ago it's a 21 year resident I do um my daughter was with the Royals and uh and she bought everything every possible thing we could buy at birk andm there we spent every dollar we can I'm a big consumer and big supporter of downtown and so the comment about just a couple of difficulties I having about parking was just about trying to make think let you know that somebody who's went out of their way for years to come downtown and spend money is struggling to still do that anymore that's all and only that I don't come down anymore I really drive back from tck three four days a week up Salem Street and I said I don't get I don't get sandwiches anymore I don't stop at the deli the parking is uncomfortable there's double Park things there and it just the whole General nature of it's uncomfortable in terms of a lot of things on that this uh the buildings I'm going back to the original point about the building being built and why Anderson Street was maybe knocked down because it wasn't not just because it wasn't there good for the neighborhood but every seemed like every bit of that space was there to be monetized for the Builder and maybe then for our taxes too but to be monetized it seemed like there's nothing there left for the people out there like extra trees oh with 12 parking spots but we're gonna probably cut them off in a few months anyway you know um and I guess my problem with the revulation plan up real quick is are all our buildings done like that with basically every square inch is done demonetize for the developer or is it some of it actually done maybe with some benefits here we one building has a restaurant outside I when it was open I thrilled about going there even if I didn't like the food because I was supporting downtown um anyway I just want to say we don't really have the buildings that are coming out now no space right up on the thing I'm just not sure what direction we're going with on the town on that and people like me that want to spend money downtown and come down we're not your enemy none of us here that come here are your enemy okay we're your constituents we're supporters we're your voters on that and we should be considered that's all thank you thank you thank you sir appreciate it anyone else like to speak at this session motion to close offer all in favor I I None oppos okay so need a motion to close the executive session but Steve did you Steve you got anything to say to say anything before we close yeah um well I don't have a list we did talk about a number of cases um dasz dardo talked about Vasquez dardo the Donell Prince litigation ongoing litigation involving theba and un labor practices grievances Fire Department fire department yes fire department litig flsa litigation I think that's it but if I forgot I'll clarify I think that's it I think so too any motion for ex motion to close the executive session offer second all in favor I I None opposed motion to close the council the whole offer second all in favor I I None opposed 10 minutes so we're going to take a few minute intermission bio break then we're going to start the next e e e e e e e e e e e e e e everyone thanks for your patience uh Madame clerk council member V rudenberg is absent Deputy Mayor krino here council member Paglia did here council member Carol was excused May Russ here this meeting is being held in accordance with the open public meeting Act njsa 10 colum 4-6 SEC notice of which was sent to the record in the Star Ledger and was posted on the municipal bullet board and I did that backwards now we're flag salute flag salute flag salute I did the roll call before yes would everybody please rise for the flag salute he had me messed up I pledge alleg to the flag of the United States America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all okay very good we do have one prop clamation tonight which I will read real quickly no one's here for this res said right there no so it it reads whereas the city of hackensac does affirm and acknowledge the harm and hardship caused by drug overdose and whereas we recognize the purpose of intentional International overdose awareness day as remembering loved ones lost to overdose and ending the stigma of drug related deaths and whereas the 2024 theme of international overdose awareness day is together we can highlighting the strength of coming together and standing a support of those connected by the tragedy of Overdose whereas we resolved to play our part in reducing the toll of overdose in our community in 2023 there were 691 suspected overdoses reported by law enforcement in Bergen County claiming the lives of more than 130 Bergen County residents together with countless more effective forever and whereas we affirm that the people affected by overdose and our friends and families sons and daughters mothers and fathers brothers and sisters and deserving of our love compassion and support now therefore be it resolved that I John P Bross Jr mayor of the city of hackensac along with members of the city council City First Responders the hackensac municipal alliance against drug and alcohol abuse to hereby Proclaim August 31st 2024 is international overdose Awareness Day in the city of hackensac and join us in Remembering those we have lost to this EP epidemic by placing 15 purple Flags in front of City Hall representing the number of over overdose deaths in Bergen County each month so very important uh day when that the end of the month we'll be recognizing that they'll be presenting that Proclamation then um it's turned into a Scourge in this country overdose has always been a problem but now it's worse than ever with uh all these new drugs out there especially um fentel which is just touching it can kill you so um need to get this stuff off the streets and away from our kids so with that let's uh go to the city manager's report no I have a uh approval of minutes for June 25th 2024 for the count executive regular meeting you can do them both together okay well I wasn't here for the 15th but that's okay all right so the July 15 2024 Cal executive regular meeting as well offer second all in favor I I I I abstain okay y so now we go to the city manager report okay thank you mayor I was out for what right you left you 15 I was gone so it was Leo gone I was the only one that was here I was out July 15th yeah he was both out was the only one here for the July it it's it doesn't matter it's okay okay the city splash pads are open seven are we good the city splash pads are open 7 days per week from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. due to last week storms National Night Out has been rescheduled to tomorrow night August 13th at Atlantic Street Park from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. there will be fun for the whole family including Touch a Truck games handouts food crime prevention and safety exhibits and a dunk tank and more summer fund continues at Atlantic Street park park with sunset yoga Mondays Thursday night movies Under the Stars featuring The Ninja Turtles movie this week and Wonka movie on August 22nd the sounds of Summer concert at Atlantic Street Park features big house this Friday August 16th and Gotham City Latin band on Friday August 23rd I remind you that all board and committee meetings are open to the public to attend check the city website for planning board zoning board condo board Recreation board shade tree environmental commission and green team meetings in recogn in recognition of Overdose Awareness Day on August 31st City will be be placing purple Memorial Flags in front of City Hall to remember those that have lost a loved one to the opioid epidemic hackensac Junior comments Football registration has been extended to August 16th hackensac Junior socer registration is now open and congratulations to our 202 24 youth outdoor track team as they qualified for state and Regional qualifiers last but not least I'd like to thank you uh a thank you to the city DPW our project management team the police department and fire department for their hard work and response during last week's devastating storm that's all I have mayor okay thank you on with new business resolution 28-24 this SA fin resolution for final adoption of ordinance number 26- 2024 and ordinance to amend chapter 170 of the code of the city of hackensac vehicles and traffic to add a new handicap parking space in section 49.2 parking for the handicapped on Franklin Street this ordinance has been published according to law and now calls for public hearing need a motion please offer second all in favor I I None opposed anybody who'd like to from the public who' like to speak to this ordinance and this ordinance only please come forward seeing no members of the public motion to close to the public offer second all in favor I I None opposed okay need a motion need a motion to adopt the ordinance offer second all in favor I None opposed okay be resolved by the city council of the city of hackensac County of Bergen state of New Jersey that ordinance number 26-22 24 has passed its second a final reading and is hereby adopted thank you resolution 29-24 this is a resolution for the final adoption of ordinance number 27224 and ordinance to amend chapter 170 of the code of the city of haac vehicles in traffic to add no parking on Union at Meyer Street this ordinance has been published according to law and now calls for a public hearing need a motion to open to the public please offer second all in favor I I None opposed anyone from the public who like to speak to resolution 29-24 please come forward seeing no members of the public motion to close offer second all in favor I I None opposed motion to adopt the ordinance offer second roll call I'm sorry all in favor I I None opposed fear resolved by the city council of the city of pinac County of Bergen and state of New Jersey that ordinance number 27-22 24 has passed his second and final reading and is by adopted resolution 26-24 this is a resolution for final adoption of ordinance number 28224 and ordinance to amend chapter 119 of the city code peace and good order to clarify language in section o this ordinance has been published according to law and now calls for a public hearing need a motion to open to the public offer second all in favor I I None opposed anyone from the public who' like to speak to resolution iion 26-24 please come forward seeing no members of the public motion to close offer second all in favor I I None opposed motion to adopt the ordinance offer second all in favor I I None opposed fa resolved by the city council of the city of hackensac County of Bergen and state of New Jersey that ordinance number 28- 2024 has passed a second and final reading and is here by adopt thank you resolution 26124 a resolution for final adoption of ordinance number 29224 an ordinance to amend chapter 170 of the code of the city of hackensac vehicles and traffic to add Stanley Place Second Street Berry Street and haes place as resident only on street parking areas this ordinance has been published according to law and now calls for a public hearing need a motion to open to the public offer second all in favor I I un opposed anyone from the public who'd like to speak to resolution 26124 please come forward hi Blan Stewart 2523 street I'm Hack and Sack I am a member of the Elks on Barry Street we allow the residents on Barry Street to park in our parking lot at that section of Barry Street right um because Els has been there for years and years and years right and then they built the houses next door which was a commercial building before that um but on on we kind of coordinate with the neighbors on that part of the street so is there anything that we can do with that section of the street when we have events sometimes we have to park on the street people come they have to park on the street and we have visitors from out of town or whatever bring buses um and sometimes our parking lot is full because the residents on that street are parking in our parking lot so is there anything that can um done about that didn't we talk about this last time and we talked about the hours right isn't it over at what time 6 7 7 to 7 7 to 7 seven s i i we talked about this last meeting and we told and you said that most of their stuff is in the evening is that still true yeah it is but you're saying is from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. or is it from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. okay that's what I I got it the S but you know if you ever have a lot like an event that's in an off time just call the city manager and and and we'll accommodate it but I think in general you should be okay then right at 7 yeah all right good okay anyone else good evening Reverend Davis 192 styling place um regarding the um parking on Stanley place for residents only um how is that notice going to be sent to the residents so they know what's going on how is that going to has that been discussed with the residents I know cuz I come here so how the pres is going to find out how do we usually do it have to put notification on Alison do you how we typically done that in the past usually they'll do a mailing yeah we'll probably do a mailing okay and that'll be given them enough time I think they also go I think they also go door to door I think they go door to door they put the um they'll put the little letter on the door and how much notice will they have I hope not 24 hours meaning no to get the stick no no you'll have plenty of time to get stickers okay thank you and now the stickers free yes yes per as long as you're a licensed driver at that address so no matter how many cars are in a house they all can get a stick as long as there's the license it's per licensed driver with that address one vehicle per licensed driver so you know you've got you know two kids with licenses you know you could have up to four um you know if you have the husband wife whatever and two kids you have up to four for example okay I just want to say thank you it it' be very very nice to see people who live their Park from 7 to S but thank you very much you're welcome okay motion to close to the public offer second all in favor I I I I I we all s he's so quiet I'm like next to him I can't hear them okay so motion to uh adopt the ordinance offer SLE all in favor I I I be resolved by the city council of the city of hackensac County Bergen state of New Jersey that ordinance number 29224 has passed a second and final reading and is hereby adopted thank you resolution 26224 say resolution for the introduction of ordinance number 30- 2024 an ordinance to amend chapter 170 of the code of the city of hackensac vehicles traffic to prohibit the parking of vehicles on sidewalks in section 17-6 General parking regulations need a motion offer second this is an introduction correct yes yes so all in favor I I None opposed be resolved that the above ordinance being ordinance number 30224 as introduced is now passed on first reading and that said ordinance shall be considered for final passage at a meeting to be held on SE September 10th 24 at 8:00 p.m. or as soon thereafter as the matter can be reached at the regular meeting place of the city council and at such time and place all persons interested be given an opportunity to be heard concerning set ordinance and that the city clerk being and she is hereby authorized and directed to publish set ordinance according to law with a notice of its introduction of passage on first reading of the time and place when and where set ordinance will be further considered for final passage thank you resolution ction of ordinance number 31- 2024 an ordinance amending chapter 90 of the code of the city of hackensac food and drink section 69 fire permits required for certain operations need a motion offer all in favor I I None opposed be resolved of the above ordinance being ordinance 31-202 24 as introduced is now pass on first reading and that said ordinance shall be considered final passage at a meeting to be held on September 10 2020 24 at 8:00 p.m. or soon therea as the matter can be reached at the regular meeting place of the city council and at such time and place all persons interested be given an opportunity to be heard concerning set ordinance and that the city clerk being she is hereby authorized and directed to publish set ordinance according to law with a notice of its introduction and passage on first reading and of the time and place when and where is that ordinance will be further considered for final passage thank you resolution 26424 this is a resolution designating redeveloper and authoriz in Redevelopment agreement with CBD hackensac developer urban renewal LLC for the Redevelopment of block 402 Lot 12 360 Main Street Lot 16.01 374 Main Street and lot 16.02 375 River Street within the 360 Main Street YMCA Redevelopment plan area need a motion offer second all in favor I I oppos none you good yeah I'm good resolution 26524 this is for the introduction of ordinance number 32224 ordinance authorizing Financial agreement with CBD hackensac developer urban renewal LLC an urban renewal entity authorized pursuant to the long-term tax exemption law NJ sa48 col 20-1 etc for the development of a residential Apartment project upon block 402 Lots 121 16.01 and lot 16.02 need a motion please offer second all in favor I I None opposed be resolve of the above ordinance being ordinance 32-22 as introduced is now pass on first reading and the set ordinance shall be considered a final passage at a meeting to be held on September 10th 2024 at 8:00 p.m. or as soon thereafter as the matter can be reached at the regular meeting place with the city council and at such time and place all persons interested be given an opportunity to be heard concerning set ordinance and that city clerk be and she is hereby authorized and directed to public set ordinance according to law with a notice of its introduction of passage on first reading and of the time and place when and where set ordinance will be further considered for final passage resolution 26624 say resolution for the introduction of ordinance number 33- 2024 an ordinance adopting Essex Street Redevelopment plan consisting of block 66 Lots 26 27 28 29 30 38 41 43 45 and 48 need a motion please offer second all in favor I I None opposed we resolved that the above ordinance being ordinance 33-2247 at the regular meeting place of the city council and at such time and place all persons interested be given an opportunity to be heard concerning set ordinance and that city clerk being she is hereby authorized and directed to publish set ordinance according to law with a notice of its introduction and passage on first reading of the time and place when and where set ordinance will be further considered for final passage thank you resolution with greater Bergen Community Action acting through 251 railroad Place LLC for the Redevelopment of block 356 lot one within the 251 Railroad Avenue Redevelopment plan area need a motion please offer second m in favor I I None opposed resolution ratifying recognition oh sorry resolution 260 I started reading resolution 2 well you're getting you can tell your voice is getting tired resolution 26 8-24 it's a resolution ratifying recognition agreement with re RFB urban renewal LLC and Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance company for phases three and four of the print house project need a motion offer second all in favor I I un opposed resolution 26924 this is a hang on I turn the page this is a resolution authorizing tax refunds for state board judgments duplicate payments and overpayment need a motion offer all all in favor I I None opposed resolution 27-24 this is a resolution for the state of New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Green Acres Program enabling resolution for Columbus and Carver Park improvements need a motion offer second all in favor I None opposed resolution 27124 a resolution awarding Bergen County Co-op contract for the purchase of surveillance equipment for the hackin police department need a motion please offer second all in favor I I None opposed resolution 27224 a resolution awarding National Co-op contracts for the purchase of 500 IPL 95 gallon Refuge containers in the amount of $3,534 need a motion offer second roll call I I I I not oppos all in favor I all right resolution 27324 I'm still in shock over the cause of the garbage cans resolution authorizing Award of contract to Suburban engineering for geographic information systems GIS data collection phase four which is the final any motion please offer second all in favor I I unone opposed resolution 27424 say resolution awarding contract for Engineering Services to Suburban engineering for ply Park drainage improvements additional construction and ibank coordination need a motion please offer Che all in favor I I and opposed resolution 27524 a resolution requesting approval of it items of Revenue and appropriation njsa 4A col 4- 87 New Jersey Department of Community Affairs neighborhood PR preservation program Grant need a motion please offer second all in favor I I None opposed resolution 27624 a resolution requesting approval of items of Revenue and appropriation njsa 4A colon 4- 87 New Jersey Department of of Environmental Protection and the Garden State preservation trust Green Acres Grant Columbus and Carver Park improvements need a motion offer second all in favor I I un opposed resolution 27724 say resolution rejecting all bids for the Johnson Park Sports complex project need a motion offer second all in favor I I I None opposed resolution 27824 res resolution of the intent for the city of hackensac to form the ACR Health Insurance Fund with the city of Union and the City of planfield need a motion offer second all in favor I I un opposed 27924 this is a resolution of the city council of the city of hackin authorizing the execution of an agreement to resolve open issues with North Creek LLC relating to the sty Park Improvement project any a motion please offer second all in favor I I none opposed resolution 28024 say resolution authorizing payment of bills need a motion to pay the bills offer second all in favor and I abstain okay okay anybody have a conflict with the consent agenda it's little lengthy I'm good no everybody's good okay well the um the first one resolution 281 d24 that one one has to be pulled I was called after I had made all the copies and stuff the um the person who submitted it was told by the state that they need he needed to pull it and revamp it okay so that one's going to be just pulled so you're starting with the resolution 2822 282 yeah so there was nothing else that nothing that needed to be pulled no I don't see anything okay okay this the following items are considered to be routine in nature and will be enacted in one motion any items requiring expenditure are supported by certification of availability of funds any item requiring discussion will be removed from the consent agenda and consent agenda items will be reflected in full in the minutes including any exceptions Andor additions it consists of resolutions 28224 through 29324 28224 is a resolution authorizing Recreation refunds resolution 283-2426 authorizing submission of New Jersey Department of Community Affairs for inclusion recreational opportunities resolution 28424 is a resolution to adopt shared services agreement with the township of Tink for health officer Services resolution 28524 is a resolution authorizing a leave of absence for Maurice Coston truck driver from July 18 to September 18 2024 resolution 28624 is a resolution authorizing settlement of of workers compensation matter filed for Lorenzo Le pending in the New Jersey Division of workers compensation case number 2022 -1977 resolution 28724 is a resolution authorizing acrw time payout of $7,795 to fire captain Michael brancato resolution 28824 is a resolution authorizing leave of absence without pay for n Mara's police officer resolution 28924 is a resolution authorizing release of escro funds for 74 claran street 29-24 is a resolution authorizing release of escro funds for 231 powerly Road resolution 29124 is resolution authorizing release of escrow funds for 42-46 Main Street resolution 29224 is a resolution authorizing board appointment resolution 29324 is a resolution authorizing settlement of the workers compensation matter filed by Charles Redstone pending in the New Jersey Division of workers compensation case number 20 22- 111900 and with that we need a motion okay need a motion to adopt the consent agenda as it was just read offer second all in favor I I None opposed that I need a motion to open to the public offer second all in favor I I I None opposed anyone from the public like to speak please come forward give your name to the clerk you'll have three minutes again Reverend Carolyn Davis 192 Stanley place as we all know um we're waiting patiently I understand there's a lot of work being done another year at least in the project but as you know our street was flooded again um and along with that um the issue that came up was there was a car that was stuck the water was above the fire hydrants again on our block car got stuck fire department could not get down my street I saw them at the end of the street because of a car park there I brought this up many many times I realized they're not going to change that yellow line until all this is done but I want to make sure everyone understands this is a crucial issue that yellow line I have gone around town myself and measured other yellow lines at other blocks ours is nowhere near as far and I know the owner of the business on first street so if anybody's concerned that he has an issue with it we have spoken he also is concerned he doesn't want anyone getting hurt on that corner so at this point I I don't want to sue anyone I'm not a person that sues but God forbid myself or any of from my family gets hurt on that corner and that fir truck sat there they sat there and could not get down the street to help that woman who's trapped in her car so I just want to bring that up again um question what past City projects have used the Green Acres Grant and what future project are scheduled to use the Green Acres Grant can anybody answer that the city projects a ton of them I mean I guess Chris maybe could get the information to you I don't know if she has it on top of her head but she reports in the C Committee of the whole on on the status of those Green Acres projects we have many tonight there was a few that were mentioned tonight agenda that for me thank you many of them um and my last question I have two questions something that came up just now talking about Hippa I'm surprised that you put up there so the public can see who is uh filing suits for whatever there were two people's names that are mentioned when you put that up there Mr Le and also a fireman so part of HIPPA I'm surprised that you put that up it doesn't describe their injuries doesn't describe the injuries but still their names are mention still legal lawsuit it's so in order to settle any lawsuit um which is what a workers's compensation claim is we are legally required to do that um you know believe the filing should probably be public record um you know once you um once you bring your health into uh question in litigation there there's not a a HIPPA violation as a result of that Hippa is involves privacy of medical records maintained by medical professionals so you know if we have information you know relating to to our employees because we're self-insured we're subject to Hippa as as a result of that but if you know some employee you know sues us or even somebody who gets in a in an auto accident sues us that happens all the time or slips and Falls their medical records become part of the case so there's not a hip of violation there um so I I don't see an issue of that I mean we do try and not uh do anything other than mention the names of the individuals whose cases are being settled but but there's not really a privacy issue with that and we are careful to deal with you know employee medical records and and handle those sensitively and appropriately okay one last quick question so what are their rules and regulations for you as a council with voting when you don't have the majority of your people here still a quarum at uh three is a quorum of three quum of three if a council's five it's three if a council's seven it's five council's n you can't pass an or you can't pass an ordinance without all three um you can't pass a resolution with two of three with a Quorum in place um you know certain things require addition so if we had like a bond ordinance tonight we only have three we couldn't have passed the bond ordinance we'd have to let that um you know we'd have to let that sit so it depends on the type of legislation right ordinance require for okay thank you have a question on that when you pass the motion for those minutes of the previous meeting and the Cal meeting I'm sorry glan to it um one of you abstained two of you approved it two people weren't here if one could abstain because he could he wasn't here for those meetings how could that be approved I'm going tother because I was questioning it's minutes as long as they're readed you don't physically need to be at the meeting to approve minutes okay they're voting basically it's not a quorum if only two of them vot because it was actually hold on let me finish if two of them are voting there's only three here one have to abstain and a quorum is three how can so so a quorum require a there's a minimum of three people on the council that have to physically be here to do business if one of these three individuals stepped off the deis then you know we wouldn't have a qu we would not be able to to do that but since there were three for you adoption of the minutes a majority of the Quorum present is sufficient for at least that type of legislation the requirement is that we read the minutes before we come even though we weren't at the [Applause] meeting next person please I guess I'm the next person Rich serbo uh uh Spring Valley ab and to answer the uh young lady that was just up here you can sue anybody any time of the day every day of the week you can file a suit for anything you can so uh and you could represent yourself probably the truest thing that you've ever set up at that day okay and you can represent yourself so you don't even need an attorney okay uh so U if you got a a a squawk something to squawk about a file a suit it's no problem uh the county the uh the state court in hackens sack at the uh courthouse uh you can file a suit tell you want okay so look the this um this uh planning board that uh the project that was knocked down uh in on Anderson Street now how long is that going to last and until you get your way or the the developers get their way how many times does it have to be uh you know voted down until it's voted down uh you know completely what's that all about is is there a that's a a that's a a a law question so maybe Mr kimman can answer it it's how many times is that have to be voted down the planning board uh the project for it to be dead in the water okay what's that anybody know nobody I don't think there's a limit on it as long as they come back with something in its current state it was denied if they come back with a new application or a revised application well they're going to challenge several times certainly not going to speak to however the planning board chooses to handle its proceedings they are an independent to be clear the planning board is an independent body with independent counsel so depending on the circumstances their attorney would advise them what's appropriate what's not all right so they can challenge that several times uh continually to uh get their way and and be able to go forward on that project correct well if if someone had a disagreement with it as you so wisely stated before they have every right to take a question to court if they believe that something improper okay whatever I mean that's sort of talking around things and I guess that's what this is all about and and I'm I'm I'm ready to say that even this meeting now it doesn't seem to be enough okay this is not enough to tackle the problems of this city it's just you know hey let's run through this and get out of here we get paid and uh that's it as a matter of fact figuring out pay now because you're your pay has been upu I'm going to love this one go ahead yeah you you must get about a thousand bucks a a pop to come here you know if because there's a couple you get about $1,000 a meeting so how many let's stop his clock please just approximately because she puts in a lot more hours I do I do because I work full-time she's retired how many hours you think you work a week well I mean I used to put in more than 40 I'd say now in the summertime maybe 20 40 hours many time no no but on top of that many times 30 hours a week plus we're on multiple boards so I attend plan board meetings um I represent the city on the Chamber of Commerce uh Leo and I are on the finance committee Leo and I are on the budget committee we attend all we attend all of these meetings and we prepare and we we we react to those meetings so you poor thing I'm not saying I wouldn't be here if I was a poor thing okay okay I'm here because I I love our city 000 a year she's definitely overid yeah I think so okay very good maybe dollar hour good answer good answer okay all right other things of course uh the city kind of insulting rich I gotta be honest with you it's not insul people to put in the hours they put in for 1,000 a year we it was made public that you're you're stiped you're stien or your salary or whatever it's called was increased to $188,000 now you're not here I make the big bucks yeah yeah yeah but still that's like you can pay your taxes with that and and go out to eat and good so when you go to an event that we have to go to events and stuff who do you think pays what do you think that pays for you go to a dinner you got to go to some dinner and give a proclamation or something it's $250 to go sit there where do you think that money comes from all right you sound guilty John that's not guilty at all you you sound guilty we're all underpaid as far as I'm concerned you're all underpaid oh well don't don't let's not start that okay we don't want to go through I didn't bring it up you did we don't want to go through what people are earning here okay all right quick uh before my time is up I guess it's up already you get one qu go ahead finish one all look uh the um uh the problem with um uh traffic okay I I always mention it a Spring Valley Avenue plus that cutting off of of Elm Avenue you is is was a bad move okay I agree that thank age that move to shut that down so that little piece of elm is and my wife would agree with you 100% because every time we drive past it she's pissed off that she sees Elms and one good for her tell her thank you so much okay tell her tonight when I go home and talk to her Mr Sero if I if I may mayor um regarding uh Spring Valley all right and the speeding we we the police Department did uh over the last month did five enforcement details in other words they were there running radar on the thing okay the results of that were four speeding tickets were issued okay and there were 11 warnings issued now when I tell you 11 warnings you know what that typically is I'm not saying that's what all of them were but you know what 11 warnings are that's typically the people who live in the area we're speeding okay all right so just just so you know we are looking at it and but speeding is one thing but the weight of the these These are Industrial Vehicles coming down this Avenue I mean come and sit and watch what comes down the Avenue it's not just cars and buses it is just industrial uh I swear it's crazy it is okay so come and look all right one other thing there's a little piece of Johnson Avenue okay that you're going over your limits sir no I'm not over my limit because you interrupted me you did you didn't get another three that's right no there's a little tail end of of Johnson Avenue okay the and it goes right to the River Edge line and what's going on there there's two houses that they have to be abandoned there those houses are in Riveredge I believe no technically the restaurant is in Riveredge as well right but before that there's a little piece of hack sack Johnson Avenue and those two houses next to that little apartment building they're abandoned they have to be it just it looks like a you know a movie set of Some Kind real quick if they were abandoned it would have the red designated taxes sign on it they're paying their taxes it's not a band yeah but it looks check it out it looks so bad go paying taxes and we will look at it Johnson Avenue the end of it before you get to the uh River living there because they leave the house because we floring anyone else Bridget um I'm coming even though I spoke to Vinnie earlier about the situation I know you guys don't have any control over once the buildings are built once the buildings are built in the leasing management companies take over but there is a young lady who has an issue with the print house and this is about an air conditioning unit and the unit has mold and she has put pictures all over of what her face looked like she's been sick she had almost had septus and almost died my thing here is she went to your City's health department and she spoke to Gladis Swanson I believe her name is and Miss gladus wrote up a false report that it was just dust so my thing here is what can be done for this young lady because this is pretty bad and I had praised the prin housee because I said it was the only one that had a community within a community but if you got the leasing people not helping the situation of this young lady and I mean when I say she's giving out warnings she's telling people not to live there she's been threatened by the releasing people the police department was involved because the security called the police which she never said to do it's um it's a lot going on here and this young lady for a studio that is only 512 square feet pays $2600 that is alarming and you're not getting any help from this leasing company at all like she went there she made her complaint she's taking pictures she's even had her own lab come in and do the testing of the unit and they found four different types of mold so I'm hoping that the city can help this young lady she's reached out she said to the council she's reached out to Vinnie and he said she did she reached out to him I'm hoping that this young lady can get the help she needs to rectify this thing how do you have have air conditioning units in studios and one bedroom but your two bedrooms are central air makes no sense that means that was just cheap building across the board because in that kind of units or that kind of luxury as they call it everybody should have central air conditioning so my thing is I would like to see the city help this young lady with this situation because I am going to do a followup with her to find out you know what has taken place I'm hoping that Miss Miss uh health department will get her tushi down there and let us Rectify this because if she don't I will be at her door okay so I'm just letting you guys I I have an update okay yeah as well goe go ahead Ben anything else I I after you left my office this afternoon I did a little more research on it again um and I was able to locate that the leasing company or the Russo management um actually hired a company that went out there cleaned it I saw the bill the invoice and they also took samples and sent them to an independent lab I have the P yeah okay she put it all on she put it all along that all the this was done by the leasing company has like ah something uh Labs or something envir environmental health investigation is the documentation she put it all out there so what are they going to do for her the all the test results came back negative that would not be the case well here I think here here here's what the issue is is do you see this girl's face have you seen this yeah look all are you going to tell me this is negative I don't think so I mean here here's what I can tell you which is the the the the leasing company has provided documentation we've spoken I have spoken he's spoken because we got the complaint from this woman it was copied to a lot of people and obviously when you see see that you get concerned is this the lab is this the lab you're talking about right now no I mean I can you got to go to the association nothing to do with like private [Music] entity la so just want to so it's a different company and and I guess what I would tell you is this which is drink water we have the documentation from this company saying they did all these things and and I'm saying I I don't have that documentation so so what so at that point it's a difficult situation when you know they say they've checked it out they say they've done these things I mean it's the kind of situation where I think if she's really that personally concerned you know we can't just simply ignore what they're saying she should be maybe talking to you know legal aid if she doesn't have that or talking to her own attorney that is who she's about to talk I would recommend she does that press because I've gone to their Google site you know how people put reviews and every review was a beautiful review that I know would not be the truth because I know D on well across the board there are other people in that building and she said it there are others that want to complain but are scared to complain for retaliation so my thing here is if youve got this Google uh reviews and everything is beautiful and the owner is answering that everything is thank you for these reviews but you got people who are living there and are subject to this and then they don't you know they don't put those bad reviews on there because they don't want those bad reviews but I will be the girl that will go down there and give them the bad review and show them this because somebody needs to do something all all I can tell you is I I personally haven't seen whatever document all that I have seen and that he has seen is we we we followed up we reached out and we said what's going on here they came back and they said we cleaned the air conditioner we did mold testing there's nothing there so you know obviously we're we're we we don't have a stake in she said maintenance claim no h professional said massive building and does not look good but I'm saying we we're referees when it comes to this you know what I'm saying so so we can't just simply say ignore that know I understand but I'm trying to get this rectified let let's take this offline yeah but uh maybe we could talk if you can hang out we could talk a little further after this is over all right thank you anyone else from the public seeing none motion to close offer second all in favor I I None opposed Mrs canestrino yes um first I'd like to thank um our CFO Jim Mangan who stuck around in case there were more questions for any of you who are here at the last meeting that had some questions about the financial health of the city Jim did a a short little talk at the committee of the whole kind of I know Vinnie and I tried to answer best as we could at the last meeting but I think Jim just expanded on that so anyone that's interested you can watch the committee of the whole and you could see Jim's explanation of that and also you know thanks to Chris who came and gave a little bit addit to her agenda items and talked a little bit about um the storm and what we were faced with and thanks to Chris for doing that as well and if anyone here did not see it you can watch it on the committee of the whole meeting just quickly you know I like to talk about the things that I'm personally involved in and there were a few items here having to do with Redevelopment so just to run through it very quickly um basically two of them had to do with the YMCA and you know we've been talking about the YMCA development for a while one of them was just designating the developer the developer there is can Brook and the other was talking about the financial agreement with them um we have this Council has upped the initial payments on the pilot you know State recommends starting at 10% uh over the last year we we started having our new project start at 12% so this YMCA development will be starting at a 12% pilot so you're looking at um a piece of property that was nonprofit which was basically paying nothing as the YMCA and then once the YMCA sold it as an existing piece of property they were paying $54,000 a year on that property as exists and and we're we're looking at once it's it's uh pretty much um least like 90% least 92% least we're looking at that growing to a revenue of $1.1 million a year for the city so and in addition a little bit about the project they are it's only going to be seven stories um it'll be basically four over two parking what you see on on the Main Street side if you know that YMCA property it drops down on the River Street side so it will be a third level of GR garage on the on the uh River Street side so say 4 over3 uh in addition they're doing about 254 units there and they're also providing in that corner the city wanted if you know that property corner of Main and Pake street where the Y is that that kind of like juts out that piece of property a little so we asked them to put a plaza there so it looked open and inviting so they're also putting approximately 6,000 square feet open Plaza there so I think it should be a very attractive project as well so that was on um another one was uh one Essex okay one Essex is so now you're looking at the corner of I'm going to call it um I'm going to call it Maine and Maine and Essex okay so it's that it's on the southern side of Maine and Essex intersection so you're looking at like that Big Empty lot that's been empty for quite a bit of time now uh so they are going to be doing also only a seven story um they're going to be Building 250 units now they are this is the second project that we have that's in the overlay zone so of that 250 project uh 250 units 25 of those will be affordable units so that's part of that development as well and that that developer were in we're in early stages about the finances and they're also looking to do a community commitment um amounts of money that we could use to uh to enhance some we're looking at trying to get the greenhouse back so we're hoping we can take get receive some type of a donation from a number of these people to help us reinstate the greenhouse that we had over at Johnson Park uh the other one was uh on Railroad Place we've been talking about this for a while where they're going to put uh 24 um all affordable housing on the railroad place where we're looking at it Central and railroad uh down a little bit where the city had a um a parking a strip of a parking lot there that was basically underutilized um to have 100% affordable the city always makes contributions to support that so we will be um selling them basically for free the property which was recently reassessed at $298,000 so we will make the donation of the property to that developer and in addition I'm sure we will also be giving them money from the from the um trust fund that's set aside for affordable housing trust fund uh that number exact number I'll let you know when we know that's in the in the process of being negotiated but again that's 24 fully affordable units going there um the other one to do with Redevelopment was really very simple it was about the record properties it was about the prouse phase three and four all they're doing is refinancing so in other words whatever they whoever their Finance person or the finance um institution was they're just changing to another one so that and again they have to do that and it's a public record so that's the only reason that that was on here as well just very quick I think think there was two Grant issues that were worth mentioning um the Columbus Park and Carver Park Grant um at one point we had a million doll grant that we received for the work there and this is an additional we received an addition $843,000 that we're adding to that Grant so that's good that we'll cover we know we had some overruns doing some of the work there and we'll cover some of that and whatever is left I think we'll make good decisions is what can be done to either or both of those parks and the other one is we talk about about Anderson Street the neighborhood preservation grant that we received a few years ago so for 5 years we're receiving $125,000 a year to do work on the Anderson Street the business district of the Anderson Street we've done a number of things over the past couple of years and once they come in and present to us what their plans are for this year we'll again present that to the public as we always do just thought it was all me worth mentioning and thank you for coming and have a lovely evening B well there's not too much to say about the flooring because everybody know the reason is more nature and we are doing the best we can with the with the infrastructure to try to alleviate the flooring problem my recommendation is that we should install this uh valve that prevent from the water to come from the lateral into the house they go like a for th000 between the B and the labor or deployment I did it I don't know who other the people they know about this they prevent the water to come into the basement the D we reject the the buing because we're too high by November we will finish all the work around styling Barry cly James and everything going to be finished maybe by the middle of November then we're going to go to Second Street we got the money already but uh we are on the d review and then we're going to put some cver in Second Street and we're going to pay all the way from P all the way to American Legion Atlantis Street right now the water company is installing new valve and then it's going to get paid in the next two weeks and I got a problem with the PE uh with the people from psng and Verizon that they putting all the cables all over the city and the workmanship is really bad so I got a meeting with then and I told him that I going to put my communicate problem to the B of utility so they asked me for 30 days and they're going to start doing like a repair in all these areas so I going to get a report maybe in the next few weeks about that all the sport they are now under the recreation department and they're going to have better control that we got before the paying program for 24 is already set up and Mr manone going to get me the money and that way I can pay the three that we got in in in the particular order and the only thing that I got is when we talk about money that people have to remember that 62% of our taxes go to the schools you know and the city like a I was looking to the like a the street sweeper right we bought like about two or three they go like a 300,000 a piece we got a vacuum truck that was 450,000 the garbage truck we got like six that's $300,000 each then we got the bucket truck that way we can go to the higher trees that's another 350,000 then we got the police car I think in our time we bought like over 20 cars and every car when they mount the lights and everything else about maybe $60,000 a piece so we are spending money in the recreation building that was like a $9 million right then we got car part that was close to three Columbus part was close to three part 1.5 you know the D may be going to cost in the end maybe going to be around 14 or 15 million so we are putting the money that we got from all these buildings back into the city if you look it around look at engl they doing the same thing that we are doing look at Bora behind pay boys how many unit they got there I think over 6 the units so everybody is doing because the only way we all this building we got the revenue that we can upset the taxes right so my taxes went up too my taxes went out like a what $700 okay so we are in the same boote thank you guys thank you Leo I want to start up by thanking Jim for his presentation um really appreciate it uh threw some light on on the subject and hopefully people watch that and see what shape we're in financially in the city because I know you're doing a great job um I want to thank all the city employees that was a uh heck of a storm we had last uh was it Tuesday Tuesday night it was like I said I'm here a long time and I know a lot of you folks are here as well a long time that's about as hard as I've ever seen it rain 4 Ines in one hour is like I used the term biblical before but it was yeah it was you imagine getting two or three hours of that and uh it it was bad I tried getting across the city and like I said before Essex was closed Central was closed bake was closed I was lucky to sneak over Anderson Street good enough and I have a pickup truck but uh I know Hudson Street I feel bad for those people we we evacuated about 30 30 or so people out of there brought them to the Civic Center um called the Red Cross but they all decided to offend for themselves and go stay with friends um you know we have some houses over there that are so low there's not even like a step up to go into the house it's like 6 Ines so you can imagine right by the river what that's like and a car will drive by and it's like you know Making Waves go into your house it's it's brutal and uh it's a tough thing and that's a going to be have to be a focus for us on what to do with that um it's not a good place to live um only because of the way the houses are built I mean most of you know most of my neighborhood and your neighborhood that you walk up a few steps to get into your house at least you have some buffer from the water these these poor folks are like at ground ground level so that's a problem um I wanted to Deputy Mayor reminding you should forgot to mention that uh we're working on starting the swimming again at the high school open to the public um hopefully that'll work out pretty soon um I'm sure you and Stephie will be talking to somebody over there getting that started um yes if anyone has children grandchildren knows anyone that wants a small little part-time job being a lifeguard um the city you know pays for the lifeguards as we always did to rent them from us and the school is is amable to having us do that again and people I know everyone enjoyed it poting and we had to shut it down the school shut it down at Co and and I think it's time that we can restarted so plus it's year round yeah it'll be year round year round so you in the middle of the winter you go swimming that's a good deal um tomorrow night National Night Out it was cancelled uh last week due to that storm um believe it or not the concert did go off last Tuesday night because they moved it into the hackpack they actually you know was they had the abandon there playing and they had about 150 people show up I was amazed I don't even know how they got there but because it was tough traveling um National Night Out tomorrow night fire department all our different departments will be there police fire Health um all the emergency services will be there um and it's great stuff for the kids bring the kids down there's all kinds of good stuff for them too giveaways so with that I want to thank everybody for coming and we'll see you in uh couple weeks motion to close offer I'm sorry uh no it's at the Atlantic Street Park I'm sorry yep yeah I forgot to mention it offer second all in favor I I None opposed thanks everybody for coming