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 e e e e e e e e e his car still running okay it's 7 o'clock I call tonight's council meeting to order for July 24th 2024 roll call Bennett here leosa here mey here Sasso here skara here wki here Matthews here please rise and join us on the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to The Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by the annual schedule of regular meetings here for adopted and posted on the public Bon board at the municipal building emailed to The Herald News the record The Gazette and all persons who requested mailing as such since December 7th 2023 approval of the minutes approval the minutes for the meetings of June 19th and July 10th 2024 and the bid minutes for the Franklin Field bleacher Improvement project sove motion by Bennett second by withi any discussion roll call hki yes skara yes saso yes mey leosa yes Bennett yes matthus yes motion carries public comment on open meeting to the public anyone desires to be heard regarding agenda items please raise your hand come forward now to the microphone state your name nope seeing no one I a motion to close the public for to the the meeting second motion byki second by skira all in favor I motion carries we have a discussion planned for our 2023 audit report and we have Mr swisser here from s cloan company sir the floor is yours there you go uh good evening I'm here to present the 2023 audit uh first I'd like to thank uh Eric and Lori for all the help we have during the audit uh it's not an easy task and everybody here is always very helpful so we do appreciate that in your order report there's two opinions uh that we have to provide uh both of your opinions are clean opinions uh one is the government ordering standards report that's about your internal controls and your compliance with the laws and regulations uh we had no findings in there and then your uh financial statement opinion was also a clean opinion we felt that all the finan statements were fairly stated so it's a completely clean opinion no comments or recommendations which is what you're looking for Al so that's a credit to the finance office and the administration so uh good job by them uh from from a financial perspective uh the burrow started the year out with a little over 8,48 th000 in Surplus uh you use 3,131 th000 to balance your budget you able to regenerate uh 3,093 uh so your Surplus went down slightly from 8,048 to 8,010 so once again a very consistent year uh and overall compared to most of the towns I deal with you guys are very fiscally sound um so on both both both fronts clean opinion fiscally sound good order report any other specific questions how do we rank in the county uh we do not rank uh by by by the county but since you're in front of us we came in first right you were number one in my book there you go any questions no well thank you for the time thank you and thank you for your review four minutes that was four minutes have a good night guys take care you too for an hour minutes yeah well we can make him talk we can make him stay put him on last adoption of ordinances we have none this evening old business Joe start your way I got nothing Raina no I'm good Michael nope Bruce no sir get Marie I have nothing Dominic nope I can't have any then right Dominic new business I have nothing anarie I'm stick to nothing Bruce no like sorry I have something a I know I know I have nothing you're a Ric so I'm the Joe with techy tonight uh no it's something I just noticed today may they property mins may already be on this but I noticed when I was R riding down Lafayette Avenue a lot of the weeds are growing through the pavers and um and a lot of residents uh you know right in front of the residents homes now I'm going to make a strong suggestion because many years back I got one of those very nasty letters and by that time there was no weeds in front of my house it was already taken care of um so maybe you would want to see what they send out because I think we can maybe massage that a little bit first before we give them you know the old slap on the hand you know the carrot and the stick type of thing that's my suggestion they might have already taken care of it I don't know but I thought it was worth mentioning thank you thank you if I could just piggyback on that real though no you said no I no no no they said announced today on the news on CBS 88 that posos is associated with pesticides and weed killers and P vinegar vinegar will do it youing soda is another our P system is operational so gasoline white you're GNA make her have a stroke options white vinegar will do it yeah bacon soda's another option but either way each councilman from each Ward should go take care of L you have I'll take care of myself I got a little bit so it's okay yeah mine's pretty big mine's pretty big yeah weed weed's not allowed in anything elsea okay um just want to give an update okay on the Now kill poly styrene so we've launched September uh September not even September yet May 15th to uh pres and I just want to let you know that we've had two full loads of the 40 cubic yards and a total of 399 pounds that we recycled so the residents have heard us loud and clear bring your poly diine to the recycling um we've done basically it's once a month the 40 cubic yard that we have gets filled up and we bring it to Clifton and they um put it into like a pallet for the um foam cycle company so it's going extremely well we're very happy there will be no polystyrene collection in October because we have officially permanent location at recycling center which right now is seven days a week so until the winter but uh I just wanted to give that update Marine provided that information at the commission uh the green team meeting recently so it's working so thank you thank you we pushed really hard to get that container and the um extra container that we have with all the and everything so it's working out and very pleased and no collection in October thank you I just want to piggy back may I allow to make a request that the head of environmental commission should still be out there with the ticker for each of the cars that go in there that's a good idea I'll I'll speak with her does it take it away take uh no it's negative we just bring it to Clifton this is an agreement between bake County and Clifton they have the machine they process the material they send it to foam cycle so there's no cost to us the only thing is guys have to drive from horor to Clifton that's the only thing I mean that's really Clifton is a big town so it's probably like 15 minutes so it's all good we're going to use this on our tonnage report so it's not going uh on the Wayside this will be part of our tonnage report next year at d listen we're at 399 pounds we're almost you know at 2,000 pounds for a ton hey it everything we recycle goes to our report and we get money from the from the state for clean communities so we doing we're doing good I still have nothing write this down I I'll pass to then I can't beat that turn to administrative agenda presented by mayor lanan thank you Mr President I've been working the last couple of weeks with New Jersey Transit with respect to the condition of our train station New Jersey Transit has begun cleaning up the station they are adding lighting to the area they have cleaned up the platform and and the waiting shelters the trees along the platform will be trimmed so that there is better lighting uh on the platforms themselves this Friday is the opening ceremony for the Olympics being h in Paris the ceremony will be broadcast live at 1:30 p.m. and will re rebroadcast at 7:30 p.m. local time on NBC porth Thorne's own Ethan Ramos will be completing in Paris representing and wrestling for Puerto Rico Ethan was a wrestler at horor high school where he was state champion in in his weight class and was the allamerican at University of North Carolina Tar Hills please join me in cheering Ethan on wrestling begins at 5 August 5th good luck in we are also very excited to watch and compete and we are very proud of you this week we sent out nixel regarding the mailing of the water bills the nixel note noted each water route when it is due and if you don't receive it instructions on how to find out what your bill amount is going forward we will send you out a nixel on Monday noting what roots have been filled the hathorne police department presents National Night Out on Tuesday August 6th from 5:30 p.m. to 900 p.m. on the grounds of the burrow Bandshell please stop by to meet the police firefighters and EMTs there will be food trucks a balloon artist vehicle tours and K9 action our neighborhood preservation program is is beginning to is beginning to our downtown various musical guests this Saturday between 4:00 and 7 Brendan Anthony will be strolling the area in and around our pocket park please stop by and perhaps grab dinner a movie or just enjoy the entertainment thank you to the coordinator Nancy Agnello and the entire NPP committee and Channel 12 News will be there at some point on the weekend thank you I'd like to turn it over to my attorney Mr Michael Pasqua thank you mayor by the way if you didn't see talk about local news first restaurant on Lincoln Avenue was named one of the 40 best restaurants in the state of New Jersey and it's very first year of operation uh by New Jersey monthly I had dinner there last night and it's phenomenal but the top 40 in the state which is really impressive and goel crey got a KN for like the best ice cream in in the northern northern Jersey yeah the food food at first is great he's a terrific jef and uh it's a American but it's uh got a great classic it's not classic it's like a new Twist on a lot of American foods and uh it's it's great it's a boob right it's a boo I had hbit last night over a great bed of Oro and they're really really good food so we're on the map with a top 40 restaurant so we have a lot of good restaurants in town I don't mean to single out one but one made list to Top 40 that's pretty good um food aside and um couple very minor things to report I have nothing new to report on the spoiled the matters uh as they progress through the courts and the superior court but there's good news and that is our prosecutor in Prospect Park who worked with us on this matter hasham Massy has a stack of tickets that he's now preparing to prosecute against Mr spoila for new violation that have been pending against him from 2022 all the way to the present and we're going to proceed with them we're going to continue to bring him to court and continue to go after the junk pile that is his house until it gets cleaned up so we are now pressing forward with new rounds of tickets against him uh nothing much has happened thus far with the Nexus Plastics lawsuit however I do have a conference finally tomorrow and uh it's a prerogative r which is a challenge to a governmental action it's usually settled by way or decided simply by way of briefs there's no testimony and so tomorrow we meet with judge filco who's the assignment judge of the county he'll probably give us a briefing schedule um and I would expect that probably towards the end of the year we should get resolution on that matter the challenge as you know is both to the procedural aspects of our adoption of a Redevelopment plan and for the fact largely that we felt Light Industry was the best use for that site and not heavy industrial use which Nexus represents so I'll keep your post I'll let you know how that goes now Raina mentioned the uh 7 day a week open Recycling Center but we at the Band Shell had eight days a week because we had the Beatles this past uh Sun two weeks ago on Sunday um great show group called stage 2 they came out dressed as the Fab 4 each played a distinct role and they dressed in the neou jacket styles of 1962 to 66 uh unfortunately Paul or faux pole lost his voice so all the harmonies and pole parts were not able to be performed but the the lads carried on and they uh they really did a nice job so it was there was a lot of fun and this past Sunday we had a phenomenal turnout we have about 500 people showing up to see filet of Soul they are soul M Town they did earthwind and fire they did um Whitney Houston they did a whole lot of great music um and for start to finish then they came out they did 1999 by Prince and they worked all the way through to a whole lot of uh like I said earthwind and fire uh Wilson picket so they did some really great stuff uh they they brought a very large crowd so it was a great night so we're very busy coming up so you know this coming Sunday we have Captain Jack that is of course a Billy Joel tribute band with Christian machio who lives in town uh that's Sunday on the next week we start then with August um let's see Sunday's Captain Jack August 4th is Harper lovey in the wait list she she performed last year she's a great young artist she's just getting her career underway um she does a lot of original stuff and uh she's she's really a terrific young Talent uh then we of course we have August 6 National Night Out August 9 and August 10 two nights we have a play called out of fuel it was written by Estelle Barbieri who this year wrote A comedy it features and stars recent and current High School graduates from Haan high school they rehearse it they produce it they create the staging um they they work so hard at this and it's a great night so they're doing two nights August 9 and August 10 and then August 11 we have a singer called Sion arbell who's a beautiful Jazz vocalist if you haven't seen her before she's performed before she's great voice um it's a treat if you get to see her August 18 we have our last concert which is country big Hicks and then uh we finished on August 25th we're excited to announce Lego Movie 2 the Lego movies are awesome and Lego Movie 2 is well probably the best of the of the genre if you can call it a genre and uh so we're looking we're partnering with our Municipal Alliance we're hoping to have a Lego building area for kids to come before the movie and participate uh there'll be giveaways there'll be uh a lot of fun stuff so that is August 25th so our band showell season's been great we received $23,700 in donations this year um now a big chunk came from our NPP Grant which was nice but a lot of it is businesses in town small people giving $100 all the way up to our friend Eric Fisk at Fisk alloy who gave us $2,500 who gets nothing from this since he doesn't sell FIS wire products in Hawthorne to anybody but he's just a great corporate Citizen and a friend to us in Hawthorne so it's nice when people uh reach out and do that kind of thing so I thank the members of the council who've been able to make it I hope the rest of you can make it to one or more of our upcoming shows because we have a lot of good ones so thank you for everybody me for your support and our DPW our police theyve we've all partner together so been a good season and if our weather continues like it is it'll be a great conclusion that mayor concludes my report it was changed n9th and 10th 9th and 10th is Friday Saturday 7 and every show is 7 pm thank you Michael the shows this year are just fantastic and thank you for all the hard work that you do and you put into it you and your committee they do a great job now I turn it over to our engineer Joe burn thank you mayor uh short report tonight uh the galvanized water service line replacement phase two uh shager Property Services is currently working on Florence Avenue and we'll start work on warberg navu either later this week or early next week depending on weather um a change order request has been sent to the buau for installation of water M on Florence Avenue between Ethel and 4th Avenue uh the Water Department PFC treatment system we're currently working on Project closeout and the final ch order has been sent to Eric ma for processing uh the Franklin Field bleacher improvements um read times on materials uh will push construction to the winter so it's not to interfere with the football season uh award is planned for tonight under resolution of 11024 to cith construction company uh the 20122 resident assessments uh calls from the residents and Property Owners as part of the 2022 Road program prr and the uh 2022 ma project uh are being received and reviewed prior to final invoices uh being submitted and uh that's all I have thank you thank you Joe and now I'll turn it over to Eric Meer our administrator thank you mayor um I'd like to offer my thanks especially to Lorie Foley but also to our staff and the various departments for their diligence that led to the clean audit report that we heard about uh from Mr swisser um our NPP committee has been busy yesterday MPP coordinator Nancy agel gello and her stakeholder committee provided a well-received presentation on the NPP facade program to business and Property Owners on the central block of diamond Bridge Avenue it's going to be exciting to see the changes that will happen here as this project gets off the ground thanks again to the council for its endorsement at your uh uh July 10th meeting um resolution r 108 which changes the funding source for the services of our Planner on the NP facade program is necessary because we juggled the funding sources for our program expenditures so that we used all of the 2023 Grant um so in order to receive our 2024 Grant the rest of these costs will now be charged to 2024 um the award of the Franklin Field bleacher construction project um leaves us enough money uh remaining in our Recreation facilities Appropriations to complete the roller hockey project any further recreational projects though will require new grants and or local Appropriations um the award of the water service line uh phase three inspection contract uh by resolution r111 is the final remaining item uh required by the njib before they authorize bidding for the construction of that project so that should get away get underway this fall um R1 112 makes a correction on the amount of a single sidewalk assessment from the 2021 Road program as previously approved by the council uh DPW staff the engineer staff and I are being kept busy with reporting requirements to the D for the service line replacement program to the EPA for enormous um for the uh routine what they consider routine water system operational and testing data it's an enormous amount I guess we call it the departmental department of extra paperwork and the extra paperwork agency uh for good reason sometimes it seems theyd prefer we spend our time doing paperwork than actually managing the system um I've been working with the uh police department and the finance committee on El Leasing and Fleet Management program for police vehicles which would improve the reliability of those Vehicles allow a reduction in the fleet size and possibly save a little bit of money I hope to have the necessary resolutions on the AG agenda for August 14th and that concludes my report thank you Eric Mr President will answer any questions that the council may have any questions for the administration yes sh um I still see that the board of education has parking spaces in the municipal parking lot um they haven't moved yet Joe okay but the plan is to have those spaces turned into possibly president of the council parking space that's a good idea I know I'm here for you man they'll be they'll be turned over to uh different people uh different staff members you didn't like the president of the council I didn't say that okay just checking we pay for the pain we love the president of the that's that's oh I did have a question give you your $5 later you got it um the ninth and 10th is it the same play two nights in a row or is it part one part two no same play two nights in a row so I can pick one of them you can pick one of them where you can go twice and really show your half one night and half the other night no it's the same whoever was petting the dog on Sunday she was like in heaven I was like I'll just leave the dogs and take off you're you're yeah the a whole bunch of kids were entertained by your dogs loved it they kept them busy dog slept like a baby that's it more sections do we have to do for the Javan pip we it's a 10e project we will be we should be done by uh June 30th 2032 going seriously it's we're required to do it over 10 years I know I know we pretty quick we're a little behind we're doing phase three which should have been completed by now uh we will be um doing that this fall phase four should follow closely behind that and should be done by about June next year so we'll be back on schedule and then we'll be doing one phase a year six more phases for the following six years so yes it's going to be a while okay I thought well I thought we we were catching up on we found a lot of houses didn't need it you know there's less houses that we doing than anticipating but it's still scheduled each year yeah we're supposed to do a 10 each I mean we we contract for the amount and then we we get to that Lo those locations and find out that they're already is copper then we we stop with a test pit that demonstrates that and there's a little bit of money so so we're saving money in that regard but it isn't necessarily getting us through any faster okay and Michael you did a fabulous job you're you're committed it's a fabulous job Michael turns a lights on at a certain time and stuff like that he's he's got a real Ro down I show up at 3:00 and open it up and I bring water and pizza at 6 so they were loud I can hear them coming to the park they were practi it yeah six o'clock is typically sound check so if you ever want to can't make the show but you want to just show up for sound check which is a lot of fun what's great is a lot of these shows too people in the pool stop what they're doing and they listen and so well received yeah also what I did was I I got an email from the county uh the County's going to be in town uh doing mosquito control uh so they're going to they're going to go to the bans show and hopefully spray for mosquitoes also okay did we cut the grass this week or what Thursday okay I was told it was cut last week at three inches and I said well it a lot higher than three inches it grew that R it grew yeah grew that Without Rain it grew thank you mayor do we have a date when the Board of Ed will be moving out I I was told sometime the beginning of August I don't they've been moving themselves actually hand truck by hand truck a little bit each day uh but I don't I don't have a firm date no at least we're not padlocking their offices any other questions that concludes a report from Administration could I have a motion to record the administrative agenda motion by Bennett second by skier all in favor I resolutions we have consent agenda r107 d24 to R 11224 R 10724 is chapter 159 open space grant for the Franklin Field features R 10824 is a change of funding source for R1 16623 R 10924 is acceptance of the 2023 annual audit R 11024 is the award of contract to Zen construction for the Franklin Field bleacher Project R 11124 is BOS engineering construction Administration for the phase three leadline service replacement program and r1224 is reduction of special assessment costs for single property on the 2021 Road program can I have a motion motion by m second second by Sasso any discussion Eric are think you can be done this year bleachers or no it's a 10e project that one's not a 10e project it will start in late November okay and be done over the winter and so it will be done before the field gets used in the in the spring we got a grant right that's on the grant is paying for about half of the total cost good thank you other questions R Co Bennet yes leosa yes Mee yes yes Sasso yes skara yes wki yes Matthews yes motion carries reports to special Council committees Dom will start your we today give all right it's end of the year Well beginning of the year end of the year for M Alliance I want to thank Nancy ello for a great job and our coordinator Miss Lori for doing a great job we got our basic $8,000 again this year a lot cheaper than it we used to be but we got it uh some of the projects that we take care of shiff Project Graduation the Boys and Girls Club junior Police Academy um Leadership Camp Roar National Night Out that's what we take care of and that's they do a good job the girls do a good job and it's a b very busy committee thank you very much Marie my committees are quiet today but I would just like to thank um mayor and uh all the Departments that you sanction uh another fundraiser this year um this is a star studed weekend along with Channel 12 and and all the um action happening on Saturday we have ESPN coming for another softball game to raise some funds so I thank you for uh saying yes again for the kids what time do the softball game start um the big one starts between four and five depending on when Don arrives with his uh Entourage of CBS fair enough at wag one thank you so much Bruce not Michael uh the only crossover information I have on the board of ed is there was a discussion with public about the Royal Holly rink uh uh I think because we were in negotiations we could just leave it there and hopefully we can have a settlement real soon and move on that's it not tonight I had no meetings but I can announce that the next Board of Health meeting is September 19th we've had discussions with the mayor and he has some really great ideas what was that old boy down there me hey I was thinking it but he said okay uh planning board finally met after a couple weeks of not meeting uh we had three larger applications prio sausage is expanding um into a building on Fifth Avenue for CT storage and office work uh employees are going to be moving into there so they can expand their existing facility within structural systems on utter AV is tearing down a house that's on utter and expanding their systems um and a Wing Stop is coming to the old scuffy building in the current Dunkin Donut Suite when the Dunkin Donut Suite moves out when they build their own freestanding building so if you're into wings that's something new to come and the farmers Chamber of Commerce the farmers market is ongoing on Sundays between 10 and 1:30 the F yourb contest is still going on till the end of July so visit a local store and look for the be and get your passport stamped and the next event that the big one is is a classic car show on August 18th so don't miss it last year I think we had 170 cars it was a lot it was a lot it was a lot good so no it well actually what they do is they take donations for the scholarships that we give away so last year I think they got like $1,200 in donations for the scholarship and they do have the Premio sausage truck there and they get a cut of the sausage sandwich sales okay so come down Hungary okay uh correspondence we have none but we have bills have a motion to approve the bills and forward them to treasure for payment some Move Motion by Scar second by m any discussion roll call what techie abstain on the fire department yes on all others ski yes on everything saso yes M yes leosa staying on horth environmental commission and yes on all others Benet yes Matthews yes motion carries public comment on now open to meeting to the public anyone desires to be heard come forward State your address or your name you just ask nothing better to do tonight ask good look at just some air conditioning and some night out well seeing no one that wants to talk I entertain a motion to close the public portion of the meeting Move Motion by Bennett second by wki all in favor I motion carries our next council meeting is Wednesday August 14th it's the only meeting in August so write that down so don't come the first week 14th 14th and have a motion to adjourn so Move Motion by with Tei second by Scara all in favor motion carries we're J Paul I hope you're not writing a book on e