e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e it's June 19th 2024 at 7:02 I call tonight's meeting to order roll call Bennett here leosa here mey here Sasso here skara here wki here Matthews here please rise and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance and please remain standing for a moment of silence for Doug Morgan who was a past assistant chief of fire company number one I pledge allegiance to the flag the United States of America to the repblic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all thank you adequate notice this meeting has been provided by the annual schedule of regular meetings here adopted and posted on the bul board on which public municipal building in which Herald News The Gazette and G all persons interested have been requested of mailing since December 7 2023 approval of the minutes can have approval of the minutes of the regular meeting for the council meeting of June 5th 20124 so move second motion by skier second by leosa any discussion roll wki yes skara yes Sasso yes M yes leosa yes Bennett yes Matthews yes motion carries public comment now open to meeting to the public anyone desires to be heard please raise your hand come forward to the microphone state your name seeing no one entertain a motion to close the public portion of the meeting so move second motion by skier second by wki all in favor I motion carries adoption of ordinances we have none tonight but we have a presentation we have a presentation about a proposed NPP facade program and if we could have Mr John Sable and miss Nancy agnelo come forward and tell us what the ideas are give me a mic you still don't have the camera oh yeah so how many aliens did you see the other only one you need the microphone hi can everybody hear me yep better than last time right okay so hello mayor and councel as part of the this year's implementation plan we're focusing on the Improvement of the downtown area as part of the MPP Gateway District tonight's presentation focuses primarily on the signage and facade program guidelines that has been done for the businesses located in that area the facade steering committee along with our planner John Zabo have been working really hard on this and uh I think you're going to like what we have come up with um some really nice designs and some colors that um and and a great application that people are going to fill out so we are looking for a very favorable response this evening from Council so that we can get going and start this project there's a lot of layers and we can't wait to dive in uh before I hand it over to John I just want to say uh thank you to the steering committee who's been working really hard on this and I just want to say hello to them and introduce them um Heidi's not here but Heidi aan is on Annie Hull Patricia McDonald Mike Mariani and Shirley shortway English and that's all I need to say today and enjoy the show okay can you hear me I guess thank you uh it's been a great pleasure working with the MPP steering committee subcommittee on the sign and facade program um purges Associates was approach to create a program that would help to rejuvenate and Revitalize your business districts uh utilizing the MPP program funding uh I had a little experience with this uh little very involved in this in other cities that where I've worked in the past so I somewhat familiar with the process and the program and then as a planner we get into design issues all the time and so this was a good segue for us to help the burrow come up with some kind of a program that we can start enriching your down town so what we did was we created a process C of reviewing what was in town and what wasn't now the booklet was designed to provide guidance to the burrow uh business Community regarding good practices for the downtown areas or business sections and it's being funded through the MPP program which is a five-year grant program from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs and it's designated to it's designed to take a comprehensive approach to Neighborhood development and its focus uh is to kind of foster rejuvenation neighborhood Rejuvenation um revitalization so that we can then get things where we want them to be so in 2021 the burough of horor was awarded an MPP designation for what called the kateway district and the intent of the designation obviously was to revitalize and breed a new life into the Burrows downtown area and you've already accomplished quite a few things in terms of of the program itself you've renamed the Burl pool and Bandshell you've renovated the outdoor Plaza area of the Library you're adding a new playground to the pool you're commissioning a gram mural on the outside renion wall of the pool you're expanding the walkways from the front to the side of the library you're installing additional benches and you've done the decorative clock thing you know we all have to have that decorative clock to focus our our our attention on our vest pocket Parts it's a nice feature to have so you're actively engaged in the MPP process and though this was a natural extension of that to see what else can we do with the monies that would benefit the community particularly the business community now it's important you know to recognize that um the the horor Gateway district is a mixed juice area it's outlined in the uh Gateway plan and it's outlined in the guide book to show the Gateway area that's that's been designated in the yellow hash marks that's important because the funding can only be used within that Gateway area that mapped area you have to be an eligible bu business within there so that's why it's important to tie the fun in the program to the MPP area which is where the money is coming from so in the third year of its MPP funding the burough will in part continue its investment into the downtown streetcape and the guidelines are intended to assist in making decisions on what to fund and how to go about funding it the program will allow for building facade improvements related to signs awnings Windows lighting facade improvements funded in part as a forgivable grant through the MPP program and I I'll get through and explain the process at at the end as we tile everything together the district uh guideline booklet is divided into five areas we Define and discuss the uh guidelines provides an overview of the of the Burrows Gateway District the second section provides uh details concerning the design review process the third section focus on General guiding principles for the program that's very important section four provides more specific guid guidelines and section five ties the signage controls to zoning the MPP sign and facade program design guidelines provides General guiding principles that creates division in the requirements for the program covering signs and sign design awnings and Architectural building elements and it's important to to recognize the efforts of your volunteers the MPP steering uh committee particularly the subcommittee that spent a lot of hours with working with me and putting this together anal izing what was in the downtown and then coming up with ideas of what the vision should be and they were really the driving force behind it so it wasn't just my plan it was me facilitating based on what the community was expressing to me about what we thought would work here uh so you know and I think that's very important so it's a Grassroots planning effort ground up not ground down um and and their input was invaluable uh throughout the process so let's define what we're looking at um we we have to look at the elements of a building and what we're looking to improve and there are certain parts of a building and and you get to learn some of the nomenclature uh we've got the roof cornice areas we have fenestration which are the windows we have columns uh we have doorways uh display Windows all of these things go into making for a cohesive architectural design that you want to have attractive you want to be able to say this is a nice street because as you make improvements along the street way they start to take on a certain character um I believe now the guidelines there are a lot of General guidelines that that kind of help Focus the decision making on who should get funding who doesn't and I'm not going to stand here and go through all of them I think the pictures are much more valuable to express what it is we're trying to achieve here uh but you could see that there are detailed guidance for signage Windows uh facades on all throughout and lighting inside the design God book so that when somebody looks at applying they have a pretty good idea of what it is that the burrow is looking for so let's so we we give examples in the guide book of what we like you can see the picture on the left you can see the balance in the colors the windows the Planters the picture on the top left unfortunately my my pointer isn't it it goes there but it won't it's getting absorbed by the screen if you look at the top uh right photo you can see how there's different lighting elements that are being introduced here but how well they work together you have combinations of decorative lighting scon lighting and shepher cook lighting and and it works along that entire Street you can see how how effective it is in lighting the street but not in a way that is offensive in terms of glare uh the bottom photos you can see again examples of how you use awning signage and window displays to kind of improve uh what your storefront should look like and these are just examples and we try Express to the public when they apply that these are the kinds of things that we're looking to accomplish uh in our business districts within the Gateway these are additional examples that are in the guide book on how you can treat awnings different type of awning types and what that can do to a building and we give a little design uh sketch on the right that gives you dimensions on how it should how high it should be and all that's contained within the design guideline booklet but we didn't stop there I was asked by the committee to come up with you know um examples in the burrow of what we like and what we don't like so what we did was we identified a business in town that everybody thought this was a good example of of what we should emulate and you might recognize this the corner of diamond Bridge Avenue and laugh at it's the pub and what what the committee liked about it is and we we point these elements out in our design booklet you have horizontal articulation you got vertical articulation working together you have vertical column horizontal columns you have a nice cornice to delineate the roof area uh you have pedestrian oriented lighting uh you've got Planters you have gooseneck external Lighting on it this this had all the kinds of things that we thought would work very nicely for other businesses within the town and you have an example right here so we figured why not display it and say look this is something that you know we like and we should copy in some way or another we also did it before and after very simple uh before and after we didn't go in very elaborate one of the things that that we talked about a lot of is you know we could perscribe all kinds of colors and designs and everything but individual business owners should have the freedom and the flexibility to come in with their own ideas within the scope of the guidelines so that if you want to propose something as long as it meets the standards that we've set forth and the guidelines that we're talking about in terms of what we're looking for and what the policy is you know you can kind of do that this is just an example you might recognize the store it's on diamond the the business is uh it's on buiness it's on diamond Bridge Avenue just a simple mockup of what happens when you can take the signage put it into the facade express it with some a black background with some bricking and you can see the change you just a simple thing like that could spruce up your street we have another example now here's an example you might recognize on Grand the before picture the the facade the the roof line of that that roof line attaches to the doorway and then just stops and you have that blank wall that goes all the way down so here we just ex simple Improvement we extended the the roof line added a few windows and you can see the difference you know all of a sudden it takes on a whole different character and it's just an example um it's not prescribed but this is something that would work in that in that Environ it's very simple very easy uh and presumably not terribly expensive so we have elements in this design guide book we explain what the Gateway is we express what the goal is we have design criteria this is what we're looking for here's how you should handle all these things we give examples what's the process I mean that's really something that I think you all are very concerned with what what so where does it go from here well let's talk about the grant details one to be eligible for the grant you have to be a business located in the MP MPP greatway area You' got to be in that area that's the target area that's where you're you're leveraging all your funding and you're you're focusing your Investments as a community so you have to be a business now we talked about uh giving priority to businesses along Diamond Bridge Avenue that doesn't mean other areas won't be considered but if they an applicant comes in from Diamond Bridge we're going to take a hard look at it uh and if funding becomes available depending on the popularity of the program will then fund other areas within the bu that are in business areas located within the MPP Gateway uh we talked about who would review these and it was decided that the recommendation would be that there' be a subcommittee of the MPT steering committee and they would sit on these applications and then judge them against the guidelines and and review and approve them as they come forward uh and it's an administrative process um we talked about money um we we are constrained with how much we can offer so initially we looked at uh a a maximum award amount of $7,500 an application if the Improvement is less than that you would fund less but that would be the max any difference to that if if the business owner or the property owner wants to go too further that would beond them but you're subsidizing a good part of the Improvement and that that was the incentive and that we figured we could do about four four storefronts six at 7500 depending on the interest um business Property Owners Andor business owners are eligible so you could be a business owner but you could also be a property owner you're both uh eligible if it's a business owner and they don't own the property they have to have Property Owners consent they're going to have to sign off make sure that whatever is being proposed because it's their property uh is acceptable so we need that signature and that that sign off um now the program is designed to be a reimbursable and forgivable Loan what does that mean and this is where Mr Pasqual comes in because he's going to have to help devise a a mechanism for entering into a grant agreement with the a a an awarde basically what it is is you're going to get $7,500 you have to Shell out the money first there's a process where you're G have to give us quotes you're going have to fill out a very simple application give us architectural designs and then you're going to you're going to then go out and do this work once we've approved it if you've done the work before it's approved by the MPP committee it's not eligible for funding so it's very important that the message gets out there as you talk to us first and then what happens is that you will submit certain documentation and you'll get reimbursed there will be a grant agreement in place I don't know if it's going to be a lean or however we structure it uh that you know you're going to be responsible for this Improvement for exp period amount of years we originally said about five years and then it would become for given you know it'll become a grant if you leave before then you have to pay a proportionate share of the UN of the unpaid balance like a mortgage so we advertise it over five years and we could talk about the period of time and then it gets forgiven so that does two things um one uh it's free money if and two it requires some kind of a commitment to staying in the business or at least maintaining the property and there's going to be a discussion about that uh because once we submitted this to you there was some more discussions about how to go about managing that part of it the way I I envisioned it uh and and Eric is familiar with this it's like with the rehab program where uh you you could you're eligible for a housing rehab loan you get the loan you fix the property up and then it's a forgivable loan over so many years that's how we did it for example in Wayne where I ran the rehab program there there was a forgivable long and I thought that that that would have been sufficient incentive for businesses to say hey if I hang here long enough I will you know or the property owner I'm not going anywhere this will be a good investment for me and I can get it forgiven the um building improvements have to maintained for at least 10 years you know and and that's where there's a a disconnect I think that we need to talk about between um the Forgiveness of the loan and the amount of Maintenance that that you have to M the number of years you have to maintain the Improvement we all understand that after so many years it does get tired it doesn't need to be fixed up maybe there may be some more funding that you might need now you can't keep deep dipping at the wealth the way the program is structured is that originally the way we present it to you uh and again it's your decision as to how you want to do this uh that um you have to be in the business for at least five years and you have to maintain it for 10 so we could talk a little bit more about that at the end the other thing we talked about last minute with the committee is $7,500 well there are some storefronts that are very narrow and then there are some that are very big and what and at the end of the presentation we just need to discuss what do you want to have a sliding scale uh Michael Michael went out and um surveyed storefront so I have information on the breakdown of how wide they are if the council feels that it's a good idea to have a sliding scale we can develop that it's very simple to do or we could leave it at a flat rate whatever the preference is uh but that that's out there I wanted to just put that out there so and and so it's going to boil down to a grant agreement and you have to live up to the grant agreement application requirements um we tried to keep this as simple as possible because business owners are busy uh I don't think anybody voluntarily loves paperwork so we try to keep it simple and in this part of the uh design guidelines in the presentation we talk about what the application requirements are going to B an applicant has to provide two estimates photographs of the current property of course you have to fill out an application form that must include the business owner's um signature if they're not the actual applicant and then you got to give us the architectural design obviously because you want to make sure that you can review that against the guidelines that are that are being adopted uh you have to be located in the MPP area as we talked about applications are on a first come first serve basis we talked about that they should be timestamped um um and so and and if there's a deficiency you're going to be given 10 days to cure or you gotta we're going to go to the next guy because we can't hold up the process um the the project physical design has to meet the guidelines and be approved by the MPV planning subcommittee steering committee or MPV subcommittee whatever they decide to set it up as right now I think they're talking about a subcommittee uh they have to be approved prior to funding once it's approved you get a maximum of 7500 dollars that could be forgiven after a period of five years we can work out time frames for that that's not an issue the concept is what's important and that's something that we need agreement on from the council whether you think that's a good idea whether it should be a straight Grant or it shouldn't be a grant we think it should be a grant um and again the it's only for exterior improvements I can't have to slide that enough it's only going to cover signs Windows entrances facade Frontage uh awnings and exterior lighting um those are the kinds of things that we're going to fund with the program and then finally um you've got certain period of time to get it done uh if you're going to be reimbursed you're going to have to submit proof to the buau that it's been done photographs inspections building permits are part of this as well and all of that has to be done um and then if there's any changes that has to be approved by the program coordinator and the steering committee so they can come back and say Hey you know I I kind of like to change my mind about this and that well you have to get approval for that um after five years if you want to reapply you can but we want to be able to give it as many businesses as possible the opportunity to take part of the program so it's very detailed the application Pro itself is two pages um there's no fee uh for the application you just have to put the effort into getting good plans and meeting with the committee uh people are businesses are encouraged and business owners and property owners are encouraged to meet with the committee the steering committee that's going to be administering this so they can get like a preapp almost but that's at their discretion but that that's basically in a nutshell what program is trying to accomplish um I wanted to make sure that there was a process that made sense working with the committee we want to make sure that the design guidelines were were uh appropriate to the community we think it is and we think that this is going to be something that if it takes off will be a very good program for the buau and will make good use of your npt money questions sure work my yeah hopefully hopefully you'll have the actual guide book and everything that you giv proves through it yeah what happened somebody in the middle doesn't want to go along your design it's going to be store by store and and and basically what you need is that one brave soul um if we can go back to this yeah you get one or two storefronts uh our my experience has been you know hey uh how'd you do that oh the burrow help pay for that okay that's pretty decent or you may get no interest at all I we don't know um there were some efforts to reach out to the to the businesses which was important um some were kind know it's like anything else when you get approached by government it's always with a healthy sense of skepticism you know and oh please leave me alone I don't need any more paperwork or anything like that so what we did talk about was having like a meet and greet One morning uh bagels and coffee come we'll talk about the program if you're interested and send out flyers maybe kind of promote it Market it a little bit uh put it on your website hey we're going to we have this program meet with us here are the guidelines you have to kind of promote it it's not enough to adopt this and say Hey you know we got it let's you know it really needs a little a little advertising and I think you're set up to do that you have a wonderful website you have a very very capable coordinator very very dedicated MPP group uh we can get the word out um so and that feedback would be very important because if nobody shows up we're going to need to find out why if they are showing up they may have some issues we need to know what they are so we can correct this program can be amended you know from time to time just like Zoning for example you know something's not working we can fix it but we need that feedback but you got to start somewhere right you need to get out there and try to do something but something like this you're right I'm hoping that you have clu stores somebody does this somebody across says you know that's not a bad idea I like that or I don't want anything to do with it but I think the pressure will become if you get enough of a critical mass on the street the pressure will be I don't want to be the only one out you know and so that's the hope that's the goal and we'll see if we can accomplish that we just need a couple you know and and that's John you've done this in other towns planfield when I was a city planner there you have any before and after photos you could send to see obviously what you started with and where you went I haven't been in planfield in quite some time but I can try to dig up some is it within the last year if not we can go to go Google Earth and that'll capture last year or so yeah I I could show I could do that I can do that through Google Earth but I wasn't you know I no I mean we could do that too that's why I'm asking yeah there I don't have any direct connection with them as of right now for like over two decades so I just know that they did they have the uez program Urban Enterprise Zone Program they were using not MPP money but U money to do this different program concept was the committee looking for design standards like obviously yes and that's what's in the guide book I I read it somewhat where talked about where you want to put the awning in in the color not in the frames correct that's all but I mean we're looking to have a standard group of colors uh we we got in very involved in colors you've probably seen one of these I actually donate one to the committee we want complimentary colors um we we want to pick we want to limit them to three primary colors as long as they are matching now there's a preference on the part of the committee for burgundies and Earth Tones and greens they're all complimentary but my my advice has been look I'm not I would I wouldn't necessarily say it's all got to be bir tone and brown you know um because then you get redundancy and boring and you don't want that as long as the colors match and work together much like some of these other examples here you know the colors all work I mean we highlighted in different colors to highlight the architectural aspects of the light the cornices the windows and that but here you I mean these pictures kind of illustrate that here you have blue there you have Earth Tones there you have brick it can work but the colors you should be complimentary they should be secondary complim CH and they should all work together that's something that the the MPP subcommittee that reviews these will have to exercise their discretion and it's going to be you know it's going to be the one big thing about architectural standards is one person's Palace is another person's you know Plum that's why I'm asking obviously I've done projects in the two towns in New Jersey that do have Architectural Review boards which are over the top May and Ocean Grove have you been to Princeton and Westfield well they they have a historical committee it's different than the I argued for an hour over a fence that was an inch Too Tall yeah we're not talking that's the minutia I hope we don't roll the ball and have it grow into a snowball but like uh Monclair and um Gwen Rich have historical review boards to kind of see if you have you know they don't like vinyl they don't like certain materials and they don't like the the lattice that's plastic right to keep it true um like if we're going to keep a signage program or do we want like a certain square footage of signage that's similar in in like x amount of square feet so we fill up and have uniformity in size but maybe not color or design the the sign details the size of the signs defers to current zoning so as long as you can correct but not everybody like where you have black whether it would be green red but to have a similar pallette behind you on on stores because say you have a andb bakery you know little sign right but it doesn't quite fit the facade right it's the know whereas that's the right width give you a horizontal so there there's got to be some relationship of the sign to the facade yes and under the sign ordinance of the burrow it you are given certain square footages based on maximums maximums not minimums not minimums that's my point see one of the things you grapple with with this is how do you get everybody to line up and you're not going to be able to do that I because everybody's individual they these are property owners and we know from experience this is my property and I'm going to do what I want to the extent they can given the codes um it doesn't prescribe um a a minimum you're right zoning prescribes the max um we talked a lot about flexibility about lighting like if we went out of our way to do the black old style street lights say you want to put a wallcon on to I'd like your store to have something similar to his store but you know versus a mishmash of different fixtures the the program is encouraging shepher crook external lights okay uh as opposed to but I don't believe it it does not prohibit internally limitated signs preference is to do exterior lighting uh we try to we want to look at something like that top right you see how you have exterior lighting sofit lighting all that works scons are matching your street lights yeah I mean and it's going to take some cooperation between the burrow and Property Owners sure you know um but it's hard to tell someone that you can't have you know a blue sign on along a background that work it works with and then tell the guy that owns or the property on the next door they want yellow yeah you get into I don't know Mr attorney First Amendment rights colors and things like that but you can prescribe that that's why I mentioned Kate May and ocean grow they have color Petes that you can work within and we give examples it's very detailed it's almost we give examples we I encourage the MPP committee to keep it simple and as flexible as possible there's no better way to turn off a business owner than saying it's got to be brown gold and green and that's it and you got to fill out 20 pages of paperwork and you'll we'll see you in 10 years doesn't work so we're trying to be reasonable broad guidelines standards that we know can work this is not difficult to do there just has to be some incentive but uh we don't prescribe a minimum size now that doesn't mean to say that when somebody appears before the committee committee is going to look at this say you know make your sign a little bit bigger let's put can you can you take the vinyl sighting off to expose the brick underneath and we could help pay for that and you know can you can you put sopit Lighting in or can you put a Crooks neck lighting instead of internally illuminated because and neon signs are out nobody's doing that anymore anyway LED we don't allow them anyway you don't allow them I I I agree the new one's the LED flashers we don't allow them don't allow that either and we're not going to allow it under this program as well what I've emphasized to the committee is it's your money you don't have to Pro it they don't have to put it up I mean recognize that business owners they can go down to the building department and get a sign permit tomorrow but you're not paying for it they are if they want the Burrow's MPP funding they've got to do it this way they need to conform to what our vision is and that's how you get everybody to line up if the program takes off you know we won't know until we get it activated don't see we we grappled with that too what does this stuff cost and um the property owner would have to go out or the applicant who could be either the property owner or business owner would have to provide two quotes at least to get an idea of what we're funding and how much it costs and we would lean towards the lower cost estimate okay and and but we don't know what's what because it depends on what they're looking for is it an awning with Windows is am I fixing the door am I redoing a window and taking down aluminum siding to exposed brick it depends I it's impossible to get prices for that I I have a few questions for you John um you're done I'm sorry it kind of relates to what Joe said so obviously there's a lot of pieces to this awnings signage lighting um is the is the property business own are going to have an option of what how much or how little they they want to do well they're going to be applying they know what the price limit is because it's all in the guidelines it's all there and the application procedures uh part of the application uh they should tailor their applications towards the funding if they want more there is a provision in the guidelines that allows the MPP program to provide additional funding at the discretion of the burrow so let's say you need an extra Grand and it gets you that nice lighting you know the committee could say all right maybe it's worth it because he's the pris owner or the property owner is redoing the doorway putting it in the window fixing an awning costs X but they want to put the lights up they have the discretion to do that but we have to be aware that we have to stretch this money out to benefit as many businesses as we can so it's going to become a a judgment call on the part of no I understanding you have a cap on 7500 so but they can they can add more to it if they want but or what would be the minimum that they would we don't I'm looking at it I'm looking at it just I look at put myself if I was a business owner living on diamond bridge and I love the idea but maybe my funds aren't quite there yet but I want to do something okay um you know what are my options and and that's where I'm you could do whatever you want you can put up an awning and fix the lighting you could fix your door you could redo your windows uh you know you you could pick out what your priority is within your own budget okay so let's take that scenario again and now have a business owner that wants to do a project loves the idea his funds aren't there at all he doesn't have any ability got done for 7500 no but the thing he has to front the money got they have to put it up front yeah okay they have to put the money out up front because we need to be able to reimburse based on a finished product that complies to code into the design guidelin okay if you hand somebody a check and then they go and do and then all of a sudden you show up and wait a minute this is what it was supposed to be you You' already paid for it have you so you have the ability to say we're not paying for that because it wasn't approved that's the the dialogue that has to happen between the committee and the applicants have you very clear in the have you or the committee considered um having a contractor a preferred contractor that would gave you maybe preferred pricing and saying well here's somebody that you can use that's that's somebody that we found would give you know we we talked about that the difficulty there is you got to be careful you're not targeting because you can get into trouble um what we did we did talk about that and what we talked about is we could probably come up with a generalized RFP for contractors that may be interested so that they can get their name on the list and then we could give a series of names we can't say XYZ sign compan understood uh Michael have a fit if we did that you know but but any anybody can go out on their own and get absolutely another contract but if they're looking for some guide about well who who would I HDE to do this some has experience we could we could come up with the committee can then go out and get proposals we did that in in Wayne for the housing rehab we we put out rfps for contractors who would be interested in participating in the rehab program they understood they weren't going to be paid until the work was done you know that kind of stuff and they you know contractors if they're good they're willing to work they they have guaranteed money as long as they finish the job so we we got a good response from that I would imagine we could do we would do the same thing with this program that could be an internal function okay ER Eric can handle that you do run into a problem with prevailing wage if the bur is getting involved right the contractor we can only make recommend so you can only get so much done with less money okay you hire a contractor you're paying 20 bucks an hour you do prevailing wage you're paying $45 $50 an hour no I I was not saying that we hire them for the borrow I'm saying B is arranging it not even arranging it saying you contacted but here is a soon as you mention him you're referring okay that's fine and and knowing I know each project can be different what would you project the maximum out of pocket for each property business own it might be I I would even Hazard a guess it depends on what it is they want to accomplish okay and and it depends on what they're starting with and and exactly no no understand I'm just looking for some I'm trying to think of the you know putting in the property owner business owner's mind and what they're up against they're going to have to they're going to have to come up with that answer for themselves because bottom line for the burrow we only have so much money we have to divide it up and whether you know if a project is $50,000 We're Not Gonna fund it no I love the idea I absolutely love love love love the idea we GRA with this I just there's some challenges I'm thinking in my head well it's have to take some buyin from the business Community you know and that that's going to be the Outreach the marketing the the bref I mean we did this with u economic development in Wayne for example we would have breakfasts with business owners sometimes randomly just to see how is it going uh we did an annual corporate day which was also a breakfast and we highlighted certain businesses and we touted what we were doing and we all got together and we we we uh interacted you know you need zoning the zoning officer is right there the planner right over there engineer you got an engineer problem they're over there and it was just you know feel-good type of thing I think the committee can do the same thing and reach out to the businesses and what's going to be important is the feedback you get back it's not enough it's too much paperwork I don't understand the design guy we'll fix it you know that from there you know this is a this is a new program you know so we're gonna you know get it started there may be some Kinks but we can make it work because I know there are other towns that do that I understand your experience with historical commission reviews totally different animal because you're dealing with historic properties and historic commissions that are based on a historic preservation ordinance and that's the strictest standard you can have it's tough uh I ran the historic Commission in planfield they have seven districts hardcore commission with a full-fledged ordinance Fon no Yankee gutters yes I me I mean you know all of that and they I have to get them to understand we don't have the Craftsman that do the wood Milling anymore the way they did and the cost these these beautiful homes are going to collapse because no one's not maintaining them that's where the Practical end of it comes in you know where we're trying to be practical uh so this wasn't designed to throw roadblocks it's voluntary we're here to help you we'll guide you through this we have very capable folks that are very invested in this and what I imagine is going to happen is the human touch you come in you make an application you prove your first month the next door neighbor comes in now you have a record this is what we approved here how about we kind of nudge you along and kind of create this streetcape consistently and it's going to take interaction and interest you know but if you don't have the design guidelines in a process where you going he has a book that has more detailed information or the Comm to talk I didn't want to sit through 10 pages of design guidelines with you I mean you have other business to do um the point is that there there are guidelines for everything signs facades Windows all of that awnings lighting and the idea is these are things that we're looking for and the guidelines are general you know it doesn't say it has to be two feet by but it just it's it's here's the goal here's the policy fit it you know design it and and they can do that you know sign companies are used to this they they they're they're you know they're active in this area and they could figure it out I have a question Joe you mentioned I think was Nancy uh chair person mentioned there's six available is it a year it's as far as the funding can go and and uh it was for the year for thep right Eric I I I could address it this year there's 45,000 in the budget I I think the committee is prepared if there is sufficient interest to devote the lon share of years four and five of the NPP to the facade program so if you know so if it really takes off there might be 90 or 100,000 in year four and 900,000 in year five if there is the interest and and so that's that's the goal I I think everybody would love it if uh if it took off and and that's what we end up spending most of our money on absolutely I think it's a wonderful um program and a wonderful initial roll out that you're you're putting there so I'm just thinking forward let's just say your plan one or two do it it's very exciting and and it gets traction right what if one or two do it and it requires a few bit a few dollars more is it possible just thinking forward for a storefront or a business owner proper owner to add more to that 7500 in the future say they do something and now they want to do more they get excited they want to do more is that possible to add to that 7500 yeah the you can't double dip uh because we're trying to but you can come back right now was set up as five years you can come back and reapply after five years if there's money available we will continue either for maintenance or to expand but we would have to be receiving more NPP funding subject to fund funding availability and that's that's throughout the documents there's no money program goes away if there's no interest the program goes away and you're going to reprogram it to do something else yeah arguably you get a lot of interest from a few people they do what they can do there's no more interest if you come back and say instead of waiting five years we'll do it in year five of the program which is two years from now to to do more I mean I think the the the the program can be tweaked based on on what the interest ends up being and and and what there is to be done if if you could adjust the program you could adjust the program if it takes off that would be a great problem to have uh what I'm thinking now in retrospect is uh there is discretion to increase funding so if somebody wants to do a little extra and there's money available if you have a pipeline of 10 applications then you know we're going to have to stick to that 7500 but if there's two and we're getting close to that end of that program year and somebody wants an extra couple Grand there's discretion that's available to do that but I might want to put a cap in there like 10% 15% just so that we know we can't go crazy we just need to decide should it be 10 15 or 20 uh you know and I would add that to the program that would be one of my additions that's not in there now it says you can at the bureau's discretion increase but it doesn't give a cap okay uh we did 10% on the housing rehab but that's bigger dollars you know I mean 10% of a you know $40,000 project is a lot of money 10% on 7 7500 is it's only $750 but they need to understand it's a fiveyear program no matter what right well we made it fiveyear we're going to talk about the the length of the program and and the duration of the grant agreement um so there's a couple of timelines working here you have the MPP timeline which is the state funding calendar program years and then you have this program funding period we set it up as five years and then you can come back and apply and you have to stay in business for five years and we're going to talk about that um you can't just walk away you know and and there's another statement in in in the application process this is not intended to be an investment and and and turn over the property that's why we have time frames and Grant agreement in place we don't want somebody to say ah now I get to sell my bill let me get some money fix it up and go that's not the point point of the program is to encourage businesses to improve and stay in C righta okay so John um I assume that you use the Zoning for B2 in that area so just um that we have about Energy Efficiency for the lighting the windows the doors LED lighting um we did we can include weatherization as a as a external Improvement we could add that as an eligible and then the other point is um are we encouraging sustainable materials it doesn't speak directly to that uh we can we that's an easy add-on we encourage to I think our zoning ordinance has a green it has a green part not as detailed but it does have the about the lighting but you got me thinking about the doors and the windows and just what we can do Energy Efficiency and just woman we could we could specify that window windows and doors if replaced shall be of an energy efficient the Energy Star Energy Star Energy thank you it left my mind for a moment energy star because there's also programs under the New Jersey clean energy program that has the energy star um possibilities of uh reimbursement that's that's an excellent suggestion I you know the ad well we can't do that that's that's a good thing yeah but it adds the cost but but it saves in the long run and that's that is about the cost savings down the road for energy we have to explain that to businesses who have very narrow window correct correct correct and just to clarify so we're in year three four five and Eric you were explaining in the later years we may want to expand the 45,000 to more so we can get manyy businesses as possible under the program because after five years the program ends unless we do another NPP area designated in in horor and be competitive to win that second round so um okay this sounds good yeah I I I certainly think we can incorporate some weatherization comments and yeah energy star yep energy star compliant with and maybe sustainable materials if they're you know building materials and stuff we can we can do that as long as it's encouraged there's no harm and we can if it's in the guideline the committee can ask are these are these windows energy efficient are the doors made of the proper materials you know that kind of thing maybe that be that could be a criteria for expanding the dollar amount if you do sustainable materials correct then you can get uh an increase of 10% be more of a green because we do have green business I will add a green statement to the design guidelines and then incorporate those suggestions and and Eric's point to incentivize that 10 15% I think it's a wonderful idea yeah I like that 10% 15% we need to solidify some of the numbers you got to go over 10 sorry 10's not going to cut it 15 yeah 15 20 you guys decide moving forward do you want to have with the the suggestions made here do you want to send it back to the NPP committee to bring something back to the council or does the council want to um have a a special committee to review this either on its own or with the the NPP people because I I'd really like to be in a position to get this program approved at the uh July 10th meeting so they can start the marketing start the uh um because any money that's in the budget this year needs to be spent this year and so so the the frame to get it marketed get people applications in reviewed approved people start the work and and get it done we don't want to wait too upful long did you distribute the whole design guideline to everyone no it's a good first step okay so they can kind of also read that digest it um like uniformity of awning uh right size or or awning design doesn't have to be same colors but if you're creating a canopy and it's similar size uh design shape you know triangle that might tie things together versus we got some that are arched we have some that are illuminated you know do we want them illuminated or not illuminated send everybody the booklet so they can read it and then come up with questions process wise to get towards approval do you want again is this something that we'll get back to you okay you got to start somewhere I'm I'm I'm the only one that apparently has seen this booklet so I'm with that I just I just I'm trying to lay out what what what I think the committee is hoping to do um in terms of time frames so I'm I'm okay voting if you want to you get a yes from me and then we can well it's not on the agenda tonight to vote for it but no no no by the July 10th oh yeah yeah but but I'd like it to approve a a a concept I don't think that would be a problem I just would like to get the ball rolling okay with our questions that you might have I think yeah that would be helpful if we could have that L things talking about at the items that I mentioned yeah the other thing too is if people in the downtown area don't want it we can go up Lafayette Avenue because it's still in the MPP District right so that's also another Avenue that we can you know address uh if literally another Avenue clearly another Avenue yeah it's a big area it's a big area you know War Burton has you know it's like I mean there's there there are other it's primary l at after you get outside the diamond bridge but my observation is that you have an interesting and eclectic collection of buildings in your business corridors um and for most part they're standing but they need a little work they need a little refurbishment they could use a little up up Basel that's all but nothing major you know I mean some of these buildings are pretty nice actually uh this is just a kind of help incentivize things yeah it's enhancements right and in sitting in on number of the meetings um it seems like there's uh people are starting to talk businesses are starting to talk to one another and and you know saying yeah that sounds good we'll be on board or something to that effect I know there was one or two that actually said absolutely not the whole bit but somebody like that I guess the boot guy the boot guy was one of them yeah he's a tough cook so but if if if you know as what John said before if if my neighbor is going to do it then my store is going to be next door it's going to look ugly uh let me let me uh let me get on the bandwagon people people have fomo fear of missing out you know that's what we're hoping for yeah that's what we're that's the incentive we just need one brave soul to say yeah here's a nice plan prove it and we're hoping for the ripple effect who likes to leave money on the table um but we need your blessing your approvals to go forward because this is a funding matter that goes through Council through the budget through MPP so uh comments would be welcome the the documents you'll receive there are three parts to it there is the guideline booklet which is mostly what I've just shown you it's in the detail there is the application itself you'll see how simple it is and then there's the the application process forms you know it explains what you need to do and how to do it um couple of policy decisions that have yet to be made we just talked about um the how much over we can give whether we're going to cap any discretionary money that could go to a particular business we talked about incentivizing green improvements as an additional I'm GNA say 20% we want to really hone in on that so if you so you get 7500 but you'll get an extra 20 if you put you know all these nice kinds of improvements that are energy efficient and I appreciate that um there's a question of whether you want to have a a sliding scale storefronts that have only 25 ft of Frontage get X storefronts that have 100 feet get more we can do that uh that's a policy decision that we need discussion on um what's the committee feel about that about the sliding uh it was the committee that suggested it um Mariani went out and actually measured um I because I would think if I have a small front I might want to do a little bit more than just the minimum so I don't think it really matters with the gotta come up Mike Mike you have to come up come mik you got to talk to the mic you gotta talk toel while mik Lor's got a and while Mike's making his way up the other policy decisions we need your attorney because we're going to have to come up with Grant agreements we have to wor out work out the details of the 10e versus you know the reply Michael maybe you can touch on that little yeah we will uh we're going to work out all the details on the forgiveness I mean it's not it is most akin to the rehab program that we ran successfully and once somebody took money the first time it opened up that's what's going to happen here somebody's going to take the money do the project well do the project then to get the money and others will follow it's it's B to happen you need a leader uh if I could I just want to give you a little perspective on the the numbers uh there's there are 21 storefronts in that section of diamond bridge and um at the 21 uh it I broke it down into three groups uh smallest middle size and the largest there are four that fit into the uh smallest uh SI I'm sorry it's the opposite there's 11 that fit into the smallest size which is between 13 to 17 ft the storefront okay the largest there's there's four and they go from 9 to 39 ft so if you can picture the smallest at 17 ft the uh which is the high end of that scale that's less than half the size of some of these others so I felt that it it doesn't it's not fair that you know the the um the largest ones that are between 29 and 39 fet uh have the same Grant available to them as the ones that have all 13 or 17 fet uh and if you gave all 21 the same amount just to give you a perspective on the numbers at 7500 that adds up to 157,500 okay we're talking about 45 this year and possibly if it gains traction another up to 90 for the next two years so if you had the 90 for the next two years and the 45 that's 225 out of the 157 which that was that would be all 21 participating and getting 7500 now if you broke it down into three groups like I did uh I was just throwing numbers out this is not carbon and stone obviously uh out of those 21 breaking them down into three sections small medium and large I was thinking maybe the smallest get a 5,000 Grant approximately and then you go up to 7500 for the middle there are six that fit into the middle 11 that fit into the small end and four to the large end and the large end maybe give them 10 so you go 5 75 and 10 and if if you went with those numbers that would add up to 140,000 if they all did it so 140,000 breaking it down into those numbers versus 157,000 if they all took 7500 so it's you know it's it's approximately almost the same uh but it's it's fair it's more fair to the people who have the larger Starr so it's just something something to think about as a matter of policy because we have to make that clear in the procedures what they're eligible for of that 39 foot is that one store or is it one building it's uh one storefront I believe the 39 uh was the U combination of the the bar and um the liquor store that's it's two businesses actually but that's my point one owner if we're talking separate businesses I would think you're going to break it up because you have separate warnings and everything too well we're assuming that that owner would want to do both so you know I'm just saying like Mr post one owner on everything so something you'd want it to be each store that that just triggered something in my mind what we're gonna what I'm going to address in here I'm going to double check it if there are multiple stores in one building they all have to work together they all have to match I think it's implicit I'm going to make it if it's not clear I'm going make that clear okay but feed on that that I don't I don't think I'd want the same for like he used the Diamond Liquors I don't think I'd want the same exterior for a liquor store as I would for their bar retail possibly yeah no but I'm thinking in terms well but they should be compatible I agree like what you did with the uh right it's looking for compatibility separated yeah not just one a not just one it could be it could be separated like you but we don't want a purple extra yellow aing extra green aing right I get you that that's the purpose look I don't want to be a part of the minutia I'm here to help fund and then let the committee just a comment before we get into the weeds that's a great idea but we're also dealing with different facades some may take the um vinyl off of it some already have stone so we can consider the size we're bouncing around it a lot of different things but it may cost a store that is larger in footage less money because they don't have to take off the awning and they don't have to take off certain things so it is a lot of subjectiveness here so we're bouncing around a lot of really good ideas Mike came up with that great idea but I think when it comes down to it it's going to be the design and how that suits each building and how much they're going to put into it and they're willing to put into it over the 75 this grant is great be because we have a great sliding scale we can also reallocate if we see fit towards the end of the year it doesn't have to be in stone at 45,000 but pretty much this year it will be next year we will see the interest we have a lot of positive feedback and um we'll we'll do it accordingly but we're going to do what's good for the businesses and if the business owners or the building owners jump in on this is going to even make it a better project because they may have an idea idea and redo the entire facade and that'll give them and they'll get money per store for that so there are different ways to Market this and we're talking about it and there's different ideas that we all have so we just we're going to get to a common ground because we have a lot of good Minds that we're putting together here but what we what we don't want to do what we want to approve and what we want you guys to look at is yes the theory of it is good we're going to work out the policy on it but let's get these people moving forward and then we can kind of tweak it along the way so that we can start moving on something and maybe start talking to these people so we can talk about size and how much more and how much less we give based on what's already existing and what we need to go do to get it to a certain point does that make sense yes okay just want to add one thing yeah yeah uh these businesses they're all unique they're all individual uh they all have their own character and um we don't want to limit them uh to express themselves but at the same time we don't want um you know them to go you know in all kinds of directions colors and you know designs so that's that's why we're here to monitor that or you know uh guide and uh what we need is you to put your faith in us that we you know we're not going to let things uh get out out of control as far as design goes as far as colors as far as that you know we we we're taking that all into consideration so I mean that's that's kind of you know why we're here to you know make sure that it doesn't get done improperly because uh the bottom line is it has to benefit everyone and um if it's done properly it we believe it will uh and we believe the business owners are going to want to put money in because they're going to know that if they just their store up they're going to draw more business the owners of the property are going to like that because at the end of the day if they're drawing more business they can get maybe higher rents for their you know businesses of if they're you know if the business owners keep a business in business and not have to deal with vacancies exactly a big problem we want to get to the point where uh people are going to be fighting for these uh spots on the street okay I mean instead of you know wondering when is that next door FR going to get filled okay that that's that's the way that downtown area should be it should be desirable to businesses and you know it's not right now think it's that bad but could be better I I I have a quick question in in regards to the amount you're giving year one where you're focusing on the maximum of six storefronts and if the project does take take off assuming let's just for sake for this conversation that yes six want to do it they get 7500 or whatever we calculate it out based on the size it doesn't make a difference but but year two you're allocating maybe up towards 90 and maybe if that works year three are you keeping to the 7500 for years two and three because now if I'm in year one yeah well that's it year two you decide to give $10,000 well did I now shoot myself in a foot well maybe maybe on that point we can put right into the guidelines that uh you instead of having a a five-year curfew so to speak uh they can come back for the difference of what the program can offer in other words you were limited to 75 but now it's 10 you're going to be eligible for that extra 2500 so they'll be able to use a little bit more if if there funing a program decides to continue and you have the funds you allow them to do that well we can that that's this is the feedback that I think is important for us today okay I was just curious I think it's a good point and and you know we want we want to continually improve so maybe that fiveyear curfew is a is a detriment because it's discouraging and to your point yeah I could have hung out and would have gotten 2500 more and I would have to Shell it out so that's a good point and what we can do is I can build into this the provid though that should funding it's limited to 7500 should funding increase you you may be eligible May depending on what you're doing for the difference of what you received and what is now being offered in subsequent that might address that issue let's hope this is a problem that we have yeah so Nancy and John I think you hit it right on the head let's keep it simple and keep it flexible and this is the pilot for this year let's keep it simple and if next year you feel you can do the sliding you can do it but like let's just start with something so they get people excited and then you can deal with like your two but just keep it simple and basic and get the enthusiasm because maybe that smaller storefront is going to want to do new windows new door and that's all going to be expensive plus the vade you know what I'm saying so I I don't necessarily see like the because they're with they're going to be less because you don't want to have people feel like they're at a disadvantage because they have a small storefront and I'm not going to be able to do all that great stuff that that guy is doing next to me I want to make it equal and transparent and everyone is equal in the in the playing field and everyone needs to help each other and work as a team here so I'm would not in favor of the sliding right now let's just get it going and I see I've got some nods in the audience from the all du respect though I mean if your storefront is three times the size then it's going to cost at least double or not three times as much to do the same thing as the well then maybe they're going to have to do it in phases Mike that doesn't make any sense what you're saying you know so why don't we why don't we do this can we offer instead of 7500 do you want do we have flexibility to do 10 and then leave it at that with an incentive for weatherization things like that does that break the bank we we're trying to be ar we were kind of arbitrary with the can I just interrupt you for a second one suggestion you can go is not go to the bigger locations year one let's just make the pilot program that the ones that fit the 7500 well yeah well that's we that's what we looked at that's why we looked at diamond diamond Bridge you know it's it's a designated site it's it's an active business area that we could use some improvement we saw the before and afters uh that's really where the priority is right now and uh I think 75 kind of made sense we could change that feat it's a policy decision well and you ask about does it B break the bank if anything you do that causes you to to use that you know say you're going to give out grants that are bigger and then add extra to it you may only be able to do four this year and which maybe that's all the interest you have or maybe first people in the door get it and the other ones wait till next year when when we expect to have a lot more money I think that the the program has discretion to increase if we need it but I like the idea of you can come back for any additional based upon what's been awarded and what's going to be awarded in the program yeah you could do that in a second like those first round if there's extra you can put that in the second round so that you have that buffer all right so we won't we won't we won't deal with it this this we just want to get this started yeah you know once you get it started and even if you have three or four this year the grant isn't going to be given to us until probably the first quarter of next year so that's going to be a lot of time where other storefronts have the opportunity to say wow you know let me get my plans going let me see what I can do how can I do it this way as soon as the money comes in it can be allocated out and you're not wasting another another three or four months or if we're lucky we'll have a waiting list after the first year going to happen get the application out early next year also yeah then they'll start moving a little bit quicker Eric would that MPP money then be allocated as appropriated and not have to be paid out for us not to lose that money because I know it's use it or lose it each year yeah so let's just say we have we're not paying them until they're done building right you do you can encumber it that's it's encumbered but they also want to see everything paid out by the first quarter so conceivably if if we get things done and and and they don't complete construction till after the first of the year and we still have to review things we can still get it it's been encumbered we can still get it paid out by the first quarter the program that he described you're not getting paid out until five years no no no no you get paid out right away we pay the we pay and put a lean on the property which is forgivable oh the lean goes away we are putting the money out once they get going to be reimbursed thought they were getting reimbursed in the they're going to sign a grant agreement got it okay here's your money you you've done everything you did it's been inspected it's gotten a CO from the construction official zoning MPP every signed off here's your check but we don't but you have to you have to keep up the improvements you have to sign the the the but we're already in June I don't see this happening before the payout well that's my point that well the concern is the idea is if we can get it approved in July do the marketing in July and get applications in by August conceivable we can give author authorizations by September the work may or may not be done this year but hopefully it can be done by the first quarter next year and that's why another reason want a small amount this year but but next year if uh if it's taking off we can we we will get an earlier start we'll have more money we may have applications already in Pocket um that it's it's just a matter then of of finalizing things once once the grant comes through and and that's the real goal is getting this moving as fast this year so we can get this money committed by early fall and pay it out either by the end of the year or early next year that's the goal do you know what I did for my fifth year thesis project sign and facades the study of open public spaces and elements make them successful and then I applied it to the Redevelopment of diamond Bridge Avenue and I built the entire Diamond Babu out what are the elements that make it successful a canopy of substantial human scale elements of walls like like like a r cop of that uh I may it's in my attic with everything else I've ever had what what was I think I still have the model too what was the grade I got an egg oh then send it I mean it could be a good useful resource for people you know if that would be actually would be I'm very interested in critiquing I mean reviewing your work did you make the model uh yes I did where is that I think it's in my I will look please I I'm interested I went to like major spaces like Rockefeller Center p park history is a very big part of this there are buildings that have been here here for a long time they have some histo local historic interest this is good good information I'm always looking for context so that would be very helpful so just to wrap it up because I know you have business just we're looking for input and and your concurrence and your acceptance and so that we can move this forward uh it's in draft form so it's uh we can make changes and tweaks I know uh we're going to have to involve Mr Pasqual because legal aspects to this and some issues that go to the actual filing of documents and that's what we pay lawyers for planner well thank you for your presentation and thank you all for your work on the committee they were they amazing they're amazing group uh I was very pleased very and and Pat yeah uh no fisticuffs thankfully we're very very very well organized but no it was a thank you John thank you so you'll be getting back back to me right with some information with the MPP yep thank you thank you so much for we have no old business any new new business what does anyone have any old business okay Joe all right old business enforcement uh legal turns at May May and wag I see that we've put up uh now signs for the title 39 so thank you very much but are we enforcing it I would say I would say yes we we are because the police and the property owner uh got together and that's why there's a title 39 that we approved for them to patrol I know in the past they have had uh several instances in the uh back parking lot uh and the police uh did enforce whatever they had to enforce all right so it was a thank you and please enforce okay all right old uh weeping willow on North a I'm calling it old because I I think I report it every year it's it's hanging into North a again the the weeping willow branches and I don't know if it's ours and we trim it or if it's the homeowners and they trim it we in one North a it's the first house after Westervelt heading towards town so right after Prospect Park Prescott that's the house with the big bush in the front that's not a bush that's a weeping willow no the Corner House is Alex behind him okay okay it looks like a bush well Alex sounds like he needs to trim his Bush according to John no no it's not John it's next one it's the next house talk about this John you totally missed that one Joe any else no old no I'm good tonight no old no anyone else on this side no don't shoot me I'm sorry our Diamond Bridge resident a now has a storage unit on his driveway I'll report on it in our in my report okay thank you andarine new business I'm I'm good on new sir Bruce Mike one quick question I saw that there's cones along Lafayette Avenue that was for the that was for the view viewing tonight for the fire truck okay because it went all the way up to my house I was like okay I just thought I didn't know what it was for okay thank you nothing tonight n I'm asking and I know I asked last summerish and I'm asking again no this time it's different if we could please send to our state senator asking for some form of resolution senate for the scooter and ebikes they are really out of control in our town between the age of the people driving them no helmets driving on the sidewalks it's it's really out of control I don't understand why they don't need to have helmets but a bicycle Rider needs a helmet it's called an ebike why doesn't it need a helmet and even if it was a motorcycle you would need a helmet I I can't answer these questions I I don't common sense I don't understand why there hasn't been regulation to this point law enforcement's been calling out for it for a long time now now by the way I was at a funeral last Monday of a 50-year-old man who passed away riding an ebike with no helmet so I can't imagine why the state is not enforcing that they should wear helmets and they shouldn't be on the road sidewalks anywhere they should be have the same laws as bicycles it's really no different as a m absolutely I will notify our Senator and assembly people and knowing them I think they will write uh a bill thankk you that's all yeah I I'll pass turn to the administrative agenda for marene thank you Mr President today as the nation we celebrate juneth this day has long been celebrated in the African-American Community but was largely unknown to most Americans while the while the timate estimated yeah hold on while the Emancipation Proclamation was effective in 1863 it couldn't be more implemented in places still under confederal control specifically the west Western most Confederate State of Texas for this reason it took until June 19th 1865 on the day of 2,000 Union troops arrived in galeston Bay Texas and announced Ed that the more than 250,000 enslaved black people in Texas were free by executive decree this day became known as June 10 10 June 10th and was celebrate this day our health register car Carol Chamberlain will be retiring at the end of this month I want to thank Carol for 32 years of dedicated service to the burough of hathorne best wishes to you Carol your burrow and your F burrow family will miss you I want to thank Michael Pasqual and the barl bansel committee for putting together a great summer series Michael will be re reporting on this later also our hathorne fire department band is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year please join us at the Bandshell on Friday June 28th at 7 pm as they will be performing for us the pool will be open tomorrow and Friday from 10:00 a. to 11:00 PM for Adult Swim and 11: a.m. to 8:00 pm for open swimming offices are closed at 700 p.m. on the weekends it will be open fulltime for the season please have a look at our website and sign up for nixel to receive pool pool nixel two buildings in town have been designated as cooling stations our library is available Monday M through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 900 p.m. Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and on Saturday 9:00 a.m. to 5 p.m. the ambulance Corps building on gel road is available Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 900 p.m. the mobile unit of the Division of Motor Vehicles will be here on Saturday morning uh from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. to make an appointment please see the new the new section of our website for all the details or on our Facebook page or on the nixel that was sent out yesterday students entering sixth grade at Lincoln Middle School in September can give can sign up for the hathorne police Leadership Camp until Friday July 5th forms are available on our website congratulations to the lady bear softball and the Bears lacrosse teams on this on this great on this great season continue I spoke with our post office manager Apollo regarding the installation of the new mailboxes in the parking lot of the post office he will follow up and get back to me by Friday I'll I will let you know in my letter on Friday what to expect just a reminder to please keep your properties neat and clean and tidy I really don't want to see you get a ticket for your grass weeds and debris I encourage you to sign up for nixel communications please refer to your calendar on page eight for details lastly please remember that parents who host lose the most it's against the law we are in the season of graduation parties so please don't be a party to teenage drinking I want to thank our Municipal Alliance chairperson Nancy Agnello the coord orator Lori Fernandez and the entire committee for their contined support on the doing these great things now I turn it over to my attorney Michael Pasqual thank you mayor um thanks for remembering douge Morgan who Not only was a fire fighter in this town for but a member of our family here in the burrow Hall and great guy and also had a really cool little Deli if you remember on Forest and on the corner there of forest in central for a little while so uh really uh big part of our community and for those of you who are still wrapping your heads around juneth remember on July 4th 1776 when it was said all men are created equal it didn't apply to an entire segment of our nation and it wasn't until juneth that that segment of the population was able to celebrate independence so it is an important day and we'll we'll get used to it um couple of things to report rep on the spoil the matters and and you choose all of you to refer to euphemistically the property on diamond Bridge Avenue it's Mr spoiled this pigy that we're speaking of it's an embarrassment to our community it's an affront to our community and uh it just continues and Mr spoiler continues to thumb his nose at all of us and his neighbors and take great Delight in it for some reason as if he's uh standing up for some kind of important cause which is making your property look like again a junkyard um today I filed a lawsuit against Mr spoiler in the Superior Court seeking a court order civil court order to go with the criminal court order that will allow us to remove the garbage from his front yard and that will include the garbage that he has now under a tarp right and all the other other things that he is doing against the codes of our burrow he is violating every code that there is in terms of property maintenance and it's getting tiresome it's getting old and there are people who laugh and joke with him uh while he embarrasses the rest of the community so we take it seriously we will do all we can to go after it tomorrow morning I get to drive to Patterson to handle his tax appeal his is the only tax appeal that remains pending from our Pate County list and I have to go to the courthouse in Patterson tomorrow because he couldn't get there on time for the last hearing so they adjourned it um he's actually appealing his taxes because his property has been devalued gee I wonder why nothing to do with him it apparently is something else that has caused it we will take the line that there is no cause for a reduction in taxes actually with the stuff he keeps adding to it wouldn't that add to the value well if it wasn't garbage we would say yes or rubbish or trash or whatever you want to call it and there are different definitions under the property maintenance code what constitutes trash rubbish garbage um most of it is really what we call rubbish because it's not pressible so I'm told um in any event uh onto more important matters um first of all I will report next meeting I'm going to bring to you a settlement of a major tax appeal it's a significant one it's the shopping center on wag Road owned by Mr bedan um there was some cause for us to consider a reduction there not so much because the property is not doing very well the businesses are thriving it's busy but because there's a remote parking lot in the back that was assessed at a substantially higher value than we felt was reasonable was assessed at over a million dollars no nobody ever parks there um and it's it's not you people photograph too yeah it's another story for another day but in any event we're going to bring a recommendation for a settlement to you that's going to be a little bigger than most that we bring you um but we Tim Henderson and I feel that it's an important one to consider uh and now I bring uh bring to you the Bandshell events for the coming year here it is the schedule um Sunday night this Sunday joose and Friends they've opened up every year for us they were back bringing their duop in the 60s 7s Classics they are Classics in their own right they are we're going to keep having them until they can't make it anymore so that's this Sunday at 7 o'clock and then Friday June 28th as the mayor indicated uh we have a fire department B that has been around for a hundred years and so they are putting together and putting on a 28 piece free concert um for all of us to celebrate with them and really should come out and celebrate the fact that our fire department volunteers uh go back a century and what they've been doing is great work for a long time so hopefully you'll make it out for that uh Sunday July 14th is a Beatles tribute band we've not done that before but this covers early Beetle years which many think are the best Beetle years some would argue otherwise um but in any event that'll be on Sunday July 14th and every Sunday thereafter there will be concerts we will have a movie on August 25th which is in con that'll be with our uh Municipal Alliance and something special we're going to show the lego2 movie The Lego movies are all great but Lego 2 is probably the best of the of the genre and uh we'll have some interactive play things for the children before the movie stay tuned but it may be Lego related that may or concludes my report I will see everybody Sunday night 7 o'clock burrow band show uh what do they say be there or B Square I I that's a slice they have all these 50s saying but uh be there because it's a great show that concludes thank you Michael but just one thing about your report um you have to take into consideration uh Spa's rear yard also it's worse than the front yard yeah it's it's like I said the whole thing is it it's it's not a joke and it's really something we need to deal with so we're trying thank you and I turn it over to our engineer Joe burn thank you mayor the uh galvanized water service line replacement Phase 2 uh to date shoger Property Services uh has completed 78 service Replacements as of last week and 71 Services remain uh a County Road opening permit for warber and Avenue was submitted by Hawthorne on behalf of shoger uh for the Franklin Field lighting project uh the field is substantially complete and is currently being reused for recreation uh mcow has provided a copy of the operation and maintenance manual for the uh for the lighting uh for the Hawthorne downtown revitalization phase three uh the plans are currently being revised to address ngj doot comments and submission is expected back into pmrs uh later this week uh the Franklin Field bleacher improvements uh leap times on materials will push construction to the winter so as not to interfere with the football season uh bids for the project are to be uh received and opened uh July 16th and the bid award is planned for the July 24th meeting uh the Hawthorne Library roof uh work has been completed on the project and a change order is currently being considered to close out the project uh the 2022 resident assessment uh the assessments and inspection report will be provided to the bureau prior to the end of the week uh notices are planed to mail out on June 28th and a hearing on the same is planned for July 10th and that concludes my report mayor thank you Joe uh just a question when will we uh expect the report for the lighting that musco did last week um I actually have a uh copy of my car if uh I can give it to you after but I could swore it was emailed to you uh I didn't never I never got it all right did you ever get it I don't recall this is the the report not the uh the the manual for it okay um the manual contains all of the uh but they only did the they only did the lighting testing and and and the lumens 8:30 on Wednesday Wednesday evening so I'll follow up with Moscow yes you're looking for the foot candle description lumens yeah and we told them that we need that before we can issue payment so you know so I I think that we have some leverage to uh that in hand and now I'll turn it over to my administrator Eric Mau thank thank you mayor I would note that uh the font on the band shelf fer appears to get smaller year by year I guess it's because the committee so been so effective in adding events uh so you know they this this is a record number of events we actually added another from the preceding year so we are up yeah so so when you hold up that flier I don't think anybody can read anything but uh but but that's a good thing it shows that there's a lot going on um Bond ordinance uh 2345 um authorizes borrowing for phases three and four of the service line replacement program uh lowcost financing through the N New Jersey infrastructure bank will help minimize the project costs that will be funded by water rates we're awaiting approval from the njib to bid phase three and are hoping to get phase four bid by the end of the year to get caught up on this 10-year project um as previously reported our dispatchers have voted to decertify the teamsters as their negotiating rep with with no Union contract the administration proposes the Sal steps in draft ordinance 2346 um it's on the agenda for 20 uh 24 uh the memo that was enclosed explains a a proposed four-year plan for getting compensation up to a level the administration believes um puts salaries at a more appropriate level uh for attracting and retaining qualified dispatchers uh disc discussions with the finance committee raised the possibility of adding yet another step to the top of the range in 2025 something that would be addressed in next year's salary ordinance um resolution R2 9924 adopts an updated cyber security security plan allowing us to qualify with the new Cyber GIF for a smaller deductible should we have a claim we're grandfathered under the old standards through 630 and need to become compliant with the new standards um the county is proceeding with design for new bridge to replace the existing Sixth Avenue Bridge their consultant will have people on site beginning tomorrow to conduct a wetland delineation and site survey um and as the mayor mentioned about the pool opening I just want to thank pool manager Rob berer um who made the effort to train and C uh and certify uh guard applicants who could yet have lifeguard certificates so that we could have sufficient guards on our staff in order to open full-time uh we hope to have our snack stand operational by this weekend and that concludes my report thank you Eric and Mr President will answer any questions at the council have Dominic okay Marie I'm okay thank Bru Mike NOA uh question the kitty pool Splash Pad where is the status I'm sorry the splash pad right the three sprinklers the how are we is that operational or are we still going through that's operational it is okay all right they chopped up the existing they chopped up the new concrete that they put in they they had the bonding inspection then they had the total bonding inspection for the both pools and they poured the concrete everything is okay because tonight there's bills on paying that so we can go ahead and proceed with that then yeah okay all right and Eric help me out 6th Avenue you said the county there's a bridge I'm trying to picture where this is on the Metal Bridge six six Street Bridge the sixth AB Bridge sixth a sixth AB Bridge Bunker Hill Bunker Hill Prospect Park oh you're over there I'm like Hill bridge over there all right okay going into Patterson thank you the first board because I'm like Sixth Avenue is over here by fifth and sixth I'm like there's no bridge over here you get out of your ward much do you no that's that's in your section no no that's in my section your section all right so you're over there no but I was where that's brid is the rwood see you all right top that Joe I got plenty I'm going to start with the Bandshell though I had sent a list of repairs that needed to be done are they all completed so that we have a successful Band Shell opening cheat Rock I don't know I I haven't been there Joe to inspect we'll that tomorrow Joe it again there was it looks like soccer balls and Joe it'll be done for Sunday thank thank you sir no I'm just I want it to look as good as his flyer small small yeah bigger font though this is a flyer oh boy we don't have chamber money oh boy um Carol Chamberlain is retiring I know that there was an email sent around did everyone receive it for an invite yes we did I did do you want to extend it to the council Absol it didn't it didn't come from us but we absolutely the council's invited when is it it's right after tomorrow night's meeting at shortways as a thank you for yeah tomorrow night the 20th well today's juneth day after today Board of Health meeting the Board of Health meetings honestly not as long as an environmental commission meeting thank you thanks I'm here all night literally where were you at the environmental presentation fire department meeting and I were there to go together I was there you were away Park upgrade I had asked for a meeting a public meeting for the uh issuance of the 100 feet rule for those who don't know the county issued anyone who's within 100 ft of the county park that there'll be improvements made and there was I I'd asked for a public meeting maybe to have something here we we we did get a notification but we haven't received anything back as to what what the date of the meeting is we can check with the county tomorrow and find out I just don't want it to be like the fense and then all of a sudden you wake up the next day and the fence is there all the Neighbors on Brookside a also got a got a Brookside um we got seven I heard we got seven letters because we have I just want to know what's going on did the letter say what they're planning on doing yes they're going to be uh working in the actually Boswell got the contract they're going to be working in the in the brook uh cleaning it all out dredging it out um there's some some areas where uh the the property on Brookside Avenue goes like into the brook uh which belongs to the people who own the property there on Brookside uh so they're going to be addressing that also um First Avenue got notices too people on First Avenue yeah okay and I did I did talk to the county with regard to uh what what kind of improvements they may be looking at to do for the old bridge that's there on Ray Avenue and they said actually that bridge goes back to Historic preservation and there's nothing they they can't make I'm looking make I'm making it to make it wider they said they can't do it they have to go to the state in order to uh have it uh the state historic preservation because that's how far back the bridge goes because it goes to the two Mills back in the day but do they have the permits are they going to start doing this work do they have the flood Hazard permit I just want communication I don't know they never met they never met with the uh residents I don't know I can find out more information because I've asked a couple of residents did you get notice again and they said no we haven't heard anything yet so how this started was there's a resident on Brookside Avenue who's the last time chose not to have work done and the tax map goes to the center of the center of the brook and since then he has lost property because it has meandered and that was his word it meandered the brook and now he has less property because the Brook Center has moved yeah there we actually did a title search on all of the properties back there some of the Deeds say it's 300 feet deep and therefore people say well I own on the other side of the brook since the brook moved some of the Deeds say goes to the center of the brook and where the brook goes the property line goes and it's a it's a really interesting title question because you know some people do have Deeds that make it look like they own on both sides of the brook uh others do not and they're losing property so hopefully this restores things excellent the brook adds value the brook adds value but it's taking away backyard okay we don't need tax appeals coming in all right the last one I have is there's a business that has vacated and a new business has cleaned up but there's a big blue sticker on the outside of the what is a blue sticker now where what business is this the 97 lafat Avenue yes it is okay what it h the the fellow I think he's going to be in court tomorrow what is blue I I don't know what blue is John Only Knows red we know red red yellow I don't know blue once in a while once in a while I gave a green sticker but mostly red all right so he's going to be in court he well he received numerous summonses because the violations of property maintenance that he did there he has since moved now what the owner of the property did who also got summons is because of his tenant the U they they repaved it I think they rep it looks gorgeous now yes it does and I I it's a gas station with an it was called Alvarez's Auto Body fi Shell station no it's the one on wagon Lafayette GTI or whatever it is now can you let me know what a blue sticker is I'm dying in now I I will find out I I don't know how was it a small one or no the same size as your red I not your red but you know what I mean that's all I have you guys ought to take this I do yeah of course new ab and Castell no not the little red one you the red the yellow well the with the yellow red just blue what does blue mean I don't know usually water yeah right you're right but I I yes that could be a zoning permit then oh then I really want to know because then that means they don't want like for like no this build this new tenant that's going there is coming to the planning board so the planning board can and tell that tenant exactly what the rules and regulations are pertaining to that property in that District all right because I know at one point they wanted to make it like a 7-Eleven no yes no I'm positive they wanted to no the application that's going to be before the planning board is basically a repair shop not not any new business the gas station is going to still stay there for the record that's the second word you know your area any other questions no sir may that concludes a report from Administration can I have a motion to record the administrative agenda by me second by wki all in favor I motion carries introduction of ordinances I think Eric had a question for you microphone microphone that I received is for for a dinner in July so I don't know tomorrow nights might be something for the Board of Health only anybody have Shirley short way they can text please the the word was they meeting for an informal drink at Short ways and anybody who was interested let us know because Shirley wanted an approximate headamp that's all exactly okay this I got from my mother reliability that's who they were waiting for to come back from vacation your mom was the one who was going to give herid a head count my mother was working on the head C okay can we move on yes please por utility Bond ordinance 234 45-24 water utility Bond ordinance providing for the water system infrastructure improvements including replacement of the water service lines at various locations as may be identified all in by the bur of horor in the county of Pake New Jersey appropriating $5,300,000 and therefore authorizing the issuance of bonds and notes in the burrow for the financing of the same in the amount of 5,350 $300,000 be resol this ordinance has now passed first reading and said ordinance be further considered for passage at the meeting of the governing body at the municipal building 445 Lafayette Avenue horor New Jersey on July 10th 2024 and at said time and place all persons interested will be given an opportunity to be heard concerning the same the clerk is hereby authorized and directed to publish the set ordinance in the record once at least one week prior to said hearing with the notice of its introduction in time and place when and where said ordinance would be considered for a final passage have a motion so move second motion by skar second by mey uh thank you Trenton any discussion roll call Bennett yes leosa yes M yes tasso yes skara yes wki yes Matthews yes motion carries ordinance 23 46-24 an ordinance to fix 2024 salaries wages and compensation of the employees of the B P Thorne County of bake state of New Jersey be resolve this ordinance is now passed first reading and said ordinance be considered for final passage at meeting of the governing body in the municipal building 445 lafette Avenue hor Thorne New Jersey on July 10th 2024 at it said time and place all persons interested will be given an opportunity to be heard concerning the same the clerk is hereby authorized and direct to publish the ordinance and the record at least one week prior to the said hearing with the notice of its introduction and time and place when and where said ordinance would be considered for final passage have a motion so move by TI second by seso any discussion roll call wki yes skara yes Sasso Mee yes leosa yes Bennett Matthews yes motion carries cassette agenda MR2 d24 r94 d24 to R 9924 M2 is removal of a handicap parking space r94 d24 is tax certificate Redemption r95 d24 is Band Shell bands r96 d24 is resolution authorizing the 2024 NJ do local aid application r27 R 97- 24s liquor license renewals for the 2024 2025 season R 98- 24 is a chapter 159 alcohol education rehab fund R 9924 is to adopt and endorse the amended technology policy and it master plan have a motion motion by Bennett second by Sasso second by Sasso any discussion discussion discussion Joe all right I went through the policy Eric the it policy it doesn't uh I had asked for multiactor authentic authentication for all not just remoting so let's say you're working at your desk you hit the multiactor it sends you a code you type in the code you get on the computer I had a lengthy discussion with Howard about it this way it it in it limits like let's say you lock it out you're okay but let's say you log on for the first time in the day you have to get you have to get multiactor authentication so somebody else can't come to your computer login is Mike Pasqual without getting the code sent to Mike pasqual's phone shouldn't have to rely on their phones though they should get an email to their email address because even that is up to them because not everybody has a burrow phone we shouldn't be asking for them to use their personal phones at work I I will tell you the whole RWJ system it's to your personal phone well it shouldn't be and there's 11,000 employees these are the minimums that doesn't mean you can't Implement another factor to it right you can use email or phone you can do both it's usually up to so you can have a two Factor sell and email if you choose well this is what we're U utilizing the VPN and multiactor MFA for all remote connections to your network I don't think it should be only remote I think it should be all you already because this is when you're trying access without going into too far into the weeds if if I forget my phone one day is or if or if the battery dies like I tell my employee get back in your car go home and get your phone yeah well because Healthcare information Municipal information they lock down systems and then you have to pay a ransomware and in surrounding communities had it happen to them it's not like it doesn't exist we know that the I I know that those things happen but we also don't have the public randomly walking through our offices either you still need to know Eric's password to get onto his computer yeah I mean I I'll review it with how just to find out you know what querty q werty y I'll I'll review it with him because I you know I'd have some con you know I'd have some concerns with you know how that gets uh um you know what the implications of it are and know I haven't really thought it through because I just hearing about it now for this so you were sitting next to me all right we can talk offline on it okay I'm still gonna vote Yes but I would like multif factor of con cu I'm not going to throw the baby out with bath water you got to say that every once in a while no uh yes I thought it was uh the iron the irony of us uh having on the agenda the liquor license renewals and the alcohol education fund on the well you wouldn't need one if you didn't do the other I just we're making sure all paths are covered thank you so much roll call Bennett yes leosa yes mey yes Sasso it was you I didn't do it too loud um skara yes wki yes Matthews yes motion carries report to special Council committees Joe I have nothing Raina I'm good Mike nope Bruce no sir right on you Mar I would just like to congratulate the 61 students at hathorne high school who got scholarships the other night the 53 donors who annually donate to uh provide our our por Thorne residents with scholarships they were awarded over $93,000 worth of scholarships this year I'm honored to be a part of it I'm honored to be a part of the town and it's really such a great night um again I I congratulate the 61 students as they move forward in in their um college careers and uh just my hats off to all of them they're great kids and uh $93,000 a lot of money congratulations kids that's it I'm going I just congratulate our high school students who graduated last night welcome to the world all right uh planning board meeting last night was cancelled uh scheduled to another night um Chamber of Commerce did me and they wanted me to announce some dates July is the find the be contest July 7th through 14th is a and and the 14th is a craft show art show August 18th is a classic car show September 8th is the green Fair September 21st is the annual fishing derby with the best weer measurer there is October 6th and 13th is a craft and art show and October 27th is a Halloween dog costume and the Farmers Market it starts on the 23rd of the month this next weekend that's all I have if I can I add to that yes you can all right I just want to thank almost oh I think all of you who attended the feast or either worked the feast or were in the kitchen it was a huge success and without you guys being there we could not be as successful as we were so thank one and all of you all the food go all the food well there's a little bit of leftovers but they're going to use it for um Appreciation Night and they're going to use the rest of it to uh help feed uh those who need food very good the Chef Michael do a good job Michael did an amazing job I'm a sue Chef so I'm there four nights but I work two half shifts I'm not going to lie joea Tei is at the feast every morning four night four days every morning to feed everyone and prepare the food for the night then he goes home for a couple hours then comes back and he works the entire night from 4:00 until midnight every single night 4 nights in a row Joe put in in those four days no less than 60 hours uh it's amazing to watch him and work with him I put in about 30 hours and I thought I did a lot he did at least 60 it's it's actually amazing what you do for the T well done Joseph thank you go to heaven the express l Rea oh no we're done we're done sorry okay dou check bills can a motion to the bills to the treasurer for payment motion by meiling second by any discussion on the bills roll call what hey abstain on the fire department yes on all others skiar abstain on Ridgewood press yes on no saso yes Mee yes leosa yes abstain on horon environmental commission bills Bennett yes Mathew yes motion carries public comment now open the meeting to the public anyone desires to be heard step forward to the microphone need your address seeing no one I entertain a motion to close the public portion of the meeting motion by Scara second by wki all in favor I motion carries the next council meeting is Wednesday July 10th at 700 p.m. have a motion to adjourn moved Mo by with Tei second by SK all in favor we areour