##VIDEO ID:VcuACVhDZd0## [Music] to the Asbury Park Press and the two River times and by posting at the B of Highlands municipal building and website and filing with the bough clerk all on September 20th 2024 how's that okay hi so notice requirements have been properly transmitted this agenda is complete to the extent known no formal action will be taken at the count at the meeting Council May limit repetitive comments and may limit the time or number of questions or comment by anyone citizen to ensure an orderly meeting and allow adequate time for members of the public to be heard okay it's it's not important what they they have to say is more important than me but um I will speak louder I will now do um can you please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance we're going to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance did everyone hear that come [Music] on thank [Music] you I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repu for which stand God indivisible andice for all I will now do a roll call council member santes council member Tac Council M Council preski here mayine here thank you before we get started number one I want to thank all of you for joining us tonight this is a very important presentation that uh is a collaborative affair with the burrow the DP the Army Corps and other professionals uh before we get started and I start introducing people or asking them to introduce themselves I ask that uh you respect the people at this table as well as your neighbors um we're all in this together we're just trying to uh find a way to um to get through it right so let's be respectful and helpful and um all of your ideas are going to be uh heard and listened to today I will uh ask that everyone that's here speaking these are our old microphones so you have to get real up close and personal and you have to put your volume level high so that everyone can hear clearly for the folks sitting at the back tables and unless you're speaking mute yourself with the green button because that's when the feedback happens um so if the people at the tables can you guys all hear me awesome okay so now I am uh going to defer to the uh Commissioner of D if you could please put on your mic introduce yourself and then we can go across [Music] Environmental Protection in particular in our division of resilience engineering and construction work on flood control and Shore protection projects up and down our Coastline and even into our rine communities and we're here this evening to talk with you all about the project that has been pursued in fit and starts for many years as you all well know uh here in H and I'll I'll just start by telling you why this is important to me I spent a good amount of my young life uh along the Bay Shore born in Lone Branch raised in Kingsburg and grew up a little bit in Atlantic Highlands as well and throughout my young life saw firsthand the flooding conditions that affect the communities including this one here in Highlands and it's been important to us at the Department of Environmental Protection to make sure that we are working hand in hand with the communities that we intend to serve and it's one thing for us in state government thoughtful people like our assistant commissioner Jen Mari you'll hear from shortly uh and others throughout uh the D it's one thing for us to have have uh an idea about the solutions that will help to protect a community it's another thing entirely to understand the lived experience of the community and what people need may want to see or may not may not want to see in their communities it's likewise really important to us to make sure that the decisions and offers of assistance that we're representing communities with that they're well informed by the realities that we see here and all across the state and as someone who travels our state up and down then to every County nearly every town the biggest issue that I hear about everywhere I go in New Jersey is with uh is about F's risk of flooding and the loss of VI hoods and property and even lives due to flooding and due to storm surge and part of the reason that I hear so much about this is the changing nature of our very landscape right in recent years blood risk from both an inwind perspective along our rivers and our streams and as from a coastal perspective those flood risks have increased and in some cases dramatically so right we only looked to a few years ago with tropical stord Ida and and before that Sandy and as we've all probably paid attention in the news the last couple of weeks to the ravages of hurricane Bine and the fact that there is yet another hurricane of 175 m l winds bearing down in Florida right now you know we're lucky that we have the support of the Army Corps of Engineers uh and our representatives in Congress that work hard to bring federal dollars home to do really important projects that will us but sometimes the options that are available to us are few in some places there can be a range of of options from living shorelines to hard civil engineering infrastructure like floodwalls like the on propose here for Highlands which I understand not everyone in this community to be inat of and I can understand that right the the fact that our communities are are beginning to look and feel different because of the changes that we're all experiencing across the landscape as as these extreme weather events get more frequent and more intense it's hard sometimes to assimilate into our experience right but we know through sound science that our sea levels are rising that we can expect more intense storms higher storm Sur in the years to come and so one of the really important decisions that we're all faced with is whether and how to proceed with the project that the Army Corps and the D have been working to develop and to be clear that project is BU no means fully designed yet we have several years should this project proceed to pursue the fully engineered design of this project now I also want to be honest with you about what that means there's no version of this project that does not include a flood ball and because of the study that has been done the work of the engineering teams and the underlying authorization that has brought over $100 million of federal funding to get this done they all rely on a few key realities about the risk of stor surch and how it will affect this community and the reality of all of that ends up resulting in a flood wall barrier being the most protective measure that can be pursued and we can talk about a lot of other elements of this project and will throughout the evening but I want to be honest with that because my job is to always be clear and be direct and the second thing that I need to be clear and direct about is the fact that we have through the work of Congress Frank alone then the beneficiaries of a sizable amount of investment that if we do not seize by continuing this project we will lose and I want to be clear about that so as not to stare any but to be that this is the moment where we have to make the hard decisions that are inced of H government and the people we serve to make about the safety of our communities and you'll hear there's lots of different ways we can work with this uh flood resistant barrier to make sure that we still have waterr access and that the the restaurants and points of entertainment and access to marinas is is preserved right we can do that through the detailed designing process what we're deciding in the near ter is whether we even continue that process at all and so I wanted to be clear with you all about that being the the driving uh issues here for us and be honest with you about where weeed and and I think we'll offer a bit more of that perspective in the in the presentations throughout this evening but before we continue I wanted to offer uh the the Congress and District director you know or many of you do an opportunity to to say a few words good evening hi my name is Matt monio I'm the district director for congressman Frank P the congressman wishes he could be here tonight but was unable to attend due to a p commitment we wanted to thank the New Jersey D the US Army Corps of Engineers and Highland proo for hosting this important informational meeting so residents fully understand the facts and risks regarding the proposed blood control project it's hard to forget the devastation that Highlands suffered during superstor San and flooding is a common occurrence in the burrow to this day as you will hear tonight Highland's vulnerability to rise in the sea levels and stronger storms is high and it will only get worse we have a once in a generation opportunity to address the issue and protect the town from future Devastation H colone was proud to help provide the $2.4 million for engineering and design for this project fully funded through a federal disaster relief bill he was also proud to help I'm sorry but most importantly we were also able to appropriate $128 million through the bipartisan infrastructure law the project construction we cannot stress enough that if the burrow turns down the project this November the Army Core will send money elsewhere and there will be no second bite of the Apple now I want to be clear that that is not what the congressman wants but it's the reality that we Face there are communities all over the country that would love to have this money and it will be very difficult to hold on to it here the infrastructure bill was a historic investment and is very unlikely another bill of its kind will come around again for a long time if ever in our lifetime the congressman appreciates concerns that this project will reshape the T and its relationship with its waterf we hope what you hear tonight will help you make this important decision on the future of Island the congressman urges you to to support the referendum and protect yourselves your neighbors and the businesses that c Island's home from these very real risks ultimately you the residents will have to disu if you have any further questions please reach out to our office and we here to help in any way thank you you like to Cel if you'd like to offer some opening remarks all right good evening everyone um thanks for having me here today and chance to talk about this project here so I want to make it clear up front that I'm not here to sell you on anything I'm not here to convince you I'm here to provide the information so that you can make an informed decision about how we go forward here today so part of that and I Echo everything that the commissioner said so the flood risk here is real and it is only increasing so I see this throughout my entire portfolio under the New York district and the the commander and we've got New Jersey north of the manisan river Long Island and I see it across the core of engineers on these risks and they just keep going up seems like we have a one in, year storm event multiple times each year just had one out in Long Island one in Connecticut and they're just occurring all over the the country so the flood risk is real so I've walked the area on this project several times which for me as a commander is is a lot I've got my project team here that lives brieze can talk anything on this project and what I saw out there when I walked it is that the geography puts this community at risk and we have developed a project that reduces that risk we completed a feasibility study report sent it to Congress and what we have is a project authorized by Congress doesn't mean that we're necessarily going to go forward that's up to you and the in the upcoming referendum but has been said it went through a screening and approval process Federal money has been allocated over $128 billion in bipartisan infrastructure law funds an opportunity to address and reduce the risk that the geography here and I've seen it and and the geography puts that Community puts this community at risk so if we move forward as the commissioner said we will go into the detailed design phase start the initial constructible elements finish the rest of of the design but we've got to get through that next step with the referendum for us to be able to go into that next phase and again not here to sell you or convince you it's to provide you the information so you can make an informed decision about going forward and reducing the risk to this community thank you thank you Colonel and thank you commissioner um thank you mayor Brian I'm actually going to stand up there so I can actually see these slides as I'm trying to progress through them okay yeah can everyone hear me a little too well all right so I'm Jennifer Mor I'm the assistant commissioner for Watershed and Land Management at the department um and I am going to walk through the agenda and it's um my duty tonight to go through um a number of slides just to try to provide some information about the type of letting this experience in this community um and what some of those floods are and again you know I I Echo the Turnal in saying I not very to convinc you of anything um I see it as a department charge simply to lay out the facts um so that anyone who is making decision this important question um has all that information in Fr them um so we've gone through the introductions um like I said I'm going to walk through the highlands vulnerability to sea level rise Coastal storms um as well Asing from storm water um and then I'm going to turn it over to 's engineering and the Army Corps to talk about the uh flood mation and green infrastructure project and as well as the C stor risk management project see and I apologize try to move down wasn't happening so some of the might be cut off but I think you'll you'll get an idea of what they say um so we all know here that this community has will unfortunately continue to experience serious flooding impacts um it can be helpful though to understand uh where some of that flooding originates um and what causes it um so you know as the colonel reference um Highland is naturally a area it was at one time um wetlands and sometimes uh Mother Nature doesn't want to let go um and so those types of INF conditions tend to be seen in these kinds of areas even after they are developed um and that makes uh this community very susceptible to storm surge um and title surge there are bulkheads throughout the community but they are of differing Heights um and elevations and so even when maybe one bhead is is that an appropriate elevation water its way behind that at another location and flooding therefore still occurs um and then in addition B water tends to back up through uh the storm water system and sometimes s in with that cloud and then you have storm water backing up and causing flooding in that way and sometimes the tide is just high enough that the outfall place that go into the B um and obviously that causes the water to back up and causes flooding just stay there bre it okay so um in in Highlands uh the flooding com from three sources as reference so fall um which is coming directly from the sky and then um run off from Upland areas on the hill and as well as um flooding from the bay to storm surge but in addition um we experience what we call Sunny dayl which is simply due to a king tide or both head over toing um just usually noral sea Lev R and Tide I'm going to run through some photos um just to give you examples of each type of so here um storm surge I do not need to be labor this one everybody here knows what we experienced in this community um but our these is simply to um to show that unfortunately this type of PL don't want there we go right and been see Carolina as well as in Florida and this kind of drives home the point that it's not just the homes that are impacted um you know property it's vehicles um you know really impact the entire community and then um advance we have flooding from the storm water drains um which I as well and this is raining storm back up various locations um throughout the burrow and are just some Visual and then um we haveing around runoff when sees heavy RS serious major off kills and these are just some that um so next I'm just going to kind of through a few drawings which areful I think to kind of create a visual that shows sea L rise and the purpose here is to show you know we just saw what already currently happening and kind of create an image of what the future is going to look like um so sea level FES and flooding um together and they will L play out coming down um so on this slide we see current sea level um and then we see on that second line future anticipated sea level so what sea level be in 5075 years so when that's currently um above sea level once the sea levels rise will'll be inundated twice daily by high TI minut come in dat it um that we reach out SE level um and you know this might not necessarily right now um if you are building a new home property but obviously for a new building but obviously buildings that are already existing is a LLY to elevate this um so so as the levels rise right so two flood elevation um and so here a future SE rise of um 3T and then the Top Line shows what today's elevation is during years and if you again um you'll see the top line that's what the flood elevation or the elevation of blood water 100e storm will be if those sea levels rise High 3 um and so it's important when we're looking at something like this just to keep in mind that whatever it is that we're today um whatever it is that we're investing in right now we anticipate know it's a home that it's going to be here inste it's going to still be standing when the sea level R this flood elevations are now much higher I know I live in 20 it's still going strong and that's the idea right that these us for a very long time so it's just important to kind of have this visual in mind um and understand what some of those um some of those changes and sea levels uh future um so I also think you know seeing those kinds of visuals is helpful but I think this kind of drives it home a little bit more clearly so we have a um a base map and it's just showing photography ofb um and this just got from mm.org um it's an online tool to check it out you can kind of Click around and see um for different are what happen um with different levels of sea level to see where areas might beated um and it holds to assess what vulnerabilities are so if you so we we took that F and we um one foot level rise to see what that would do um and you can see that even with one foot um p is so low Ling that there is a fairly significant impact from just one foot um a sea level R there are um now um this shows two R um so the the white and the green on here um and hopefully everyone that out but it depict areas that will be um below sea level if SE if the sea levels section so white would indicate that will be um in a data directed by the bay and then the green represents um line L that kind of forms like a bowl area that storm water back to so one more time um this now 3 ft have below and it's hard to see it's hard um you know it's kind of hard to accept that that is what the future holds um but if no actions taken at all this um that white area DET land be permanently under below sea level um if no action is taken um Lev this is it um and so know again this is just what the bur they look like for okay so we'll oule examples from these are photographs around just to give you like ground um depiction of kind of where the waters will will reach in the future um compared with the of the SE sea wall so this is business that is located at the recession of and um we started this location because we actually have a high water to compare the Sandy seaw wall this was a good place to start Welly that white line um and then compare that to the other line the height of the blood so you can see that obviously even as high as the water willed scenario um and then if you C again um he doed C today during 2E that's the bottom line a 10 year is the middle line and then a 50e storm and that's assuming no sea level and [Music] so pretty close to each other that's where FY blood waters came to um so again you can see that Walling the storm today but now let's take a look to the Future so [Music] um so there's a box up to the right corner which hopefully everyone can see it's a little bit cut off um but that provide a range of lik see level rise for year 2030 2050 70 numbers com from 2019 ref study um written and reviewed by 19 globally reced climate and so the range um we're talking about range between andow so um the higher number um in each of those regions has a 17% chance of being exceeded um just for your information but I will so if we the high of those ranges then the color l here the yellow orange and red are showing what the 2ear storms would um what the flood warmers would be the 2year storm 30 2050 and 2070 see as compared to the height of the seaw wall um in this um and I think it's worth mentioning that was storm um that a a 2-year storm a way to think about that a storm that has a 50% in any perod so then we move on to the same planning Horizons 203 7 these are year for flood elevations and you can see again there's still um there is still protection provided by that um you sa wall um and then if you go to the next will show the uh 15 year storm which has a 2% probability of occurring in any given year um and again see now you we're getting closer to wall water higher moving forward 2030 50 um and finally we have the same um photo but we have um depicted your storm of SoDo and where the um storm elevations would be 2030 compared to that okay so let's move on to Marine police um so this is an area of marine police that is um and again we're showing today's store L the wall um won't walk through all of it with you I you get the idea but we've got um you know that was the uh current this is the 2year storm um you're spe enough that's fine the STM see the the wall 10 year um and then the 50e storm 2030s the of in this location and here um we have Washington app um Co area and um you know this is an area that se flooding and um here Day storm levels and again see that the wall present day want to move forward 2E storm and then umer to 10e storm would look like in this location versus that wall and then we have the 50e storm 20307 is how those um so you know hopefully some of the slides show paint kind of a picture of what science are will happen um and of just trying to lay out this is what the state will be going into the future um and again you know ECR J has simply put information out there we want Community to see it we want everyone to understand what the current state of the science is and what Happ in the future as this difficult decision see me so at this point I will to yeah to 's engineering he will discuss and just as we make the transition I want to thank uh assistant commissioner morard for sharing all of that and and just emphasize the point that what the Department of Environmental Protection is trying to show uh all of you here uh is how the projected increase in sea level rise is likely to impact the burrow and based on science that has been uh done with ruers University and leading climate scientists around the globe uh New Jersey is forecasting a a risk of sea level rise of 2 feet by the year 2050 uh and as much as 5 by 2100 and there's a likelihood that that could be exceeded and so what I hope folks have taken away from uh some of these uh exhibits here is how uh under various scenarios the project as proposed could protect uh the community from some of those risks and uh how that would ultimately help reduce uh the amount of flood damage that the community has had to overcome many times over it's since the 70s this community has received uh over 80 million in flood insurance claims right paid by the federal government and hopefully uh if we can settle on a project that is protective you might be able to move to a more secure future than that Joe before we get started I I've been noticing that a lot of people are taking photographs of the slide deck and this is going to be available on the Burl website thank you everyone hear me okay uh I'm Joe R senior project manager at kers engineering design as well as the r engineer Highlands I'm here just to briefly discuss the EMA brick project that many of you have heard probably about probably wondering what status is and just wanted to refind what scope was that all the public is out there um thank you guys for having us tonight so basically I'm happy to report that IMA provided 12 million towards the $6 million project it's currently in what we call a pre-award there's an environmental and historic assessment that's happening that will probably take until March 2025 at that point the official award is expected so even right now we're kind of in this Lim pre award status so this first Slide the way that I've interpreted this project in the last few years is that this is Zone one these are where your storm water events from rain are going to be improve where we are putting in Pump Station improvements and drainage improvements specifically these are key maps C5 and C6 is the North Street drainage area C4 is the valy street drainage area C1 C3 C2 that is the snow Harbor area so this project will enhance and improve the pump station snow Harbor would be a new one that would allow the water to instead of waiting for the tide to out would be forcibly removed and evated zone two is the connection that's water riches drainage improvements right now the water rushes down down and it basically causes an inundation on the Zone one area that especially when we're being a high tide water cannot get out it hits a wall it backs up a Avenue it backs up shore drive and this would be an improvement of color under Route 36 and it would allow for larger pipes to be able to take down the water in a more efficient manner to the pump station and finally in some of the earlier pictures you saw the pluging at grout 36 Zone 3 is the m Hills TRS now there's a lot of this hill it's not just m Hills basically we have a lot of silt that comes without water that comes and clogs the system in zone one in zone two and what we're doing here is we're going to be looking at Green infrastructure improvements to settle the water detain it and get the out of it so that cleaner water with suspended sols removed enters into Zone 2 which then will go down to Zone de and be evacuated and basically the point of this is that these are $16 million improvements that were estimated and they don't help with title sech so I just want to make that clear in case there's any uh discussion where the EMA project is going to be solution it takes many solutions for this problem to be resolved we're going to work with ar core we're going to work with njtp because with these two projects you can solve the problem but it's not going to be one or the other so just wanted to make that unavailable my information is at the mayor's office and there's any questions abouta project I could discuss it further uh have thanks everyone uh my name is Robel I'm with the njt office Coastal Engineering our office serves as the primary point of contact that's the Nal sponsor for our project so I'm just going to quickly go through the slides have the projectsstem the status of it and then next steps uh up here I think you've seen the slide before um back me and maybe previous that um so the primary feature of the CL project obviously isall itself it's a reinforce concrete FL that will span the sh line of the burrow um but also in addition to to the main feature are are interior drainage fees basically the itself cannot exacerbate interior floating from storm so Army cour actually Incorporated the tier trange components into their own project which uh if this project the rest will be coordinated very closely with the ongoing efforts at public level with their uh storware process uh so again the projects a the flood wall and then those those uh those other ancillary features um also include a road closure gate in front of Baron's Park that c across Bay Avenue time High Ground um and then the the the interior GRS um similar to what Joe was talking about consist of P station upgrades as well as pressed pipes and for m in the S Harbor area and then also a det tension Bond at the Northwest to to address area so the stat of project obviously we're still in the design phase um and if the project does address at the very earliest uh the construction would be by 230 but that is dependent on many different things uh um the uh sign up agreements and the uh and real estate acquisition uh funding as as the interel said before there's been a very large of money that's allocated by Congress the total poliy me all cost Shares are involved as $148 million uh believe uh you any of you saw the slide at the presentation back in May but this is one of the renderings for what the FL wall could potentially look like uh specifically in V's Park area um the first phase of the project which is currently in designed is specifically the road enclosure G component that has across um and in the lower left hand corner you can see an example of what that would look like which is taken from the PT mon project just down the road that's where we've been uh constructed uh so this L here shows a few examples of what the flood wall could look like those details are still to be worked out but there are several options that the arm board could uh provide as far as the tech finish and the color of theall and the upper left is actually a picture of the FL wall in action in greenook that was taking very I 2011 you can see the very important AG of it espe because is protecting a lot of critical infrastructure that particular [Music] location uh so again that's a reinforced wall which is much different from the F that the B currently has um in many cases it's f a final wood many many different materials but the Army Corp has certain standards that we have to need to address uh certain uh degree of storm surge and storm water elev and tidle flooding elevation um which can only be addressed through the use of a reinforced concrete flood wall um the top of the flood wall will be at elevation 14 many of you are familiar with the elevation system with your elevation Ser to the Sy elevate your homes um the of the products that will be addressed specifically during the design time include the alignment of the FL ball so the FL ball is going to be con would be concrete and it would be an elevation 14 specific as far as the alignment on each property that's worked out during the design Joe I think that's an important point for folks to understand um so if we could dwell on that for a moment and if you could just go back three slides I think it is to where the alignment appears on one more one more right so I think one of the things that's important for everyone here to understand right at the stage of design that the Army Corps and D are at all you see is a red line on the page right and some of you who might own property or visit restaurants you love you might see that red line as going through some place you own or love the that is not the intent but yet a starting place in order for us to proceed forward and in and uh in the next stage of design if we get there what Joe is mentioning about alignment are there some places that we should go around that we should back up from right that is the conversation to be had uh with the community members here with property owners by no means is the government coming in and taking your property right uh I've heard reference to the use of eminent domain that of course is well not a thing uh because if property if part of this wall is to be located on Prop on your property if we continue uh that is a negotiation to be had Fair compensation to be hand it over uh not the government coming and taking something from you uh and I just want to be clear about about that so consider this as a as a starting place yes the answer in this community uh has to be a wall if we're going to have an answer for lots of different reasons you've seen about sea level rise and storm surge uh but we have an opportunity if we continue to work with the landscape um work in and around some properties and features of the community uh and I just didn't want folks to think that this is a inclusion right but a starting place in the design if we continue please please can you please hold your comments no we can discuss your your comments after and that is a very important clarification we all want this project to asting as possible with it meetings so when it when it when it comes time the each indivual property owner we will try to work our best to make sure that that we can get that a lot best U uh design possible so one of the other things that still uh we work out during the design is crossover access uh configuration uh obviously this fo wall is going to be going across in the do but that that cross access uh specific will be worked out during the time and as I said earlier the uh the specific aesthetic of law will also be something that be worked out that process moves [Music] along we're questions at we're going to take questions afterwards okay we're going to take questions afterwards so so the next steps in this process uh as the core Works along with the the design um many will occur concurrently um but uh if we do get the if you go ahead to proceed with the projects with then execute agreements one one agement between the EP and the AR Pro partnership agreement and then agreement between the and the state with state agreement which outline responsibilities of all parties and the applicable caution um and in addition said before the contain of real estate easements across both public and and private property for for the project and then that would lead into uh construction once all that real estate is obtained um and then once the project is finished we then enter the operation and maintenance phase um thankly with a flood wall there's not a whole lot of maintenance um but more particularly for the interior drainage features and the B closure and the eurad closure the across that part so as they recap um EXA what everybody here said islands is very is highly vulnerable to flooding because of geography um and the recurrent storm stormy that we're experiencing and the worst thing of SE RS uh the Army Corps DP and the bur are buing several products to help reduce that floing and flood blood damage it's not a one- siiz fit-all solution it need a need projects and components that can address floting from the valy floating from rain water and then there's also ever at the at the individual levels this home elevation which many of you have are done the so the the project which is the high man Pro is going to help address the fun funing from the bay component to help keep the water out and greatly reduce vulnerability from that and then to conclude I'm sure many of you have already done the Ser you have't um it's still available on the website the link is there and with that we will take questions [Music] I'm [Music] sorry Rob hang on for just one second um and I know this is a big Gathering but this is still a council meeting so when we're going to ask you for your comments if you could please take the microphone and state your name and address for the record so the clerk can put it into the minutes thank you I so just first question I have name and address please Dr Mike you're going to have to go real close to it uh Dr Mike Michael Mar 30 Bard Highlands uh so the big question I had well po plent of them but um The Domain question I mean last time discussion would be aent domain uh you're saying there won't be aent domain but clearly if I say no then they're going to come and take my [Music] prop yeah so so there's actually many so so there's several steps in the real estate process the first would be the there that we would reach out to to to request a voluntary easement to donate easement but you also have the option to request a appraisal on the on the property and both in the with and without project condition and whatever that difference is is what we would offer as just compensation and then that would feed into the good faith uh negotiation process if during that if during those negotiations we can't come to a agreement on the price then it would enter the eminent domain part of it which then that would be handled through the cour okay guys can we please keep it respectful um there you go C marrow 16-1 Beach Boulevard um I just want to uh acknowledge a couple of things before I ask my question also on eminent name one is that I've lived here and own my property for 20 years I it's a little disingenuous to say that this has been an ongoing process um most everybody here has thought that this process has been dead and gone and are not very happy about it coming back there's a lot of questions about why it's come back so that's problem number two from starting point of a red line that starting point is nonnegotiable um for the people who live there and as a as a corporate attorney I understand that and the question would be who's doing the appraisal and what what um process would that be because who's doing the appraisal is I assume somebody on behalf of the government and I have seen eminent domain cases and suggesting first of all not addressing this at the beginning with dis gener because this is the you you said you wanted to be transparent and not putting this as like the number one issue was non-transparency but in terms of evidence of many we all know that the property owner doesn't get a fair check in terms of what the real value of their property is because it's the government who is paying to take over in case after case after case has demonstrated that you can look as confused as you want to but the case law is clear that evidence will remain the people in this room suffer and in terms of a wall you're also being disingenuous about what it will cover because you say it covers the Bay water but not on a sunny day that's not going to be prevented by a wall the seawise level you're trying to scare everybody with that we live here we know about sear rise but wall is not going to prevent the sea R now I'm interested in hearing about the other elements of the program and I can't tell whether the FEMA part of the program is going to be separate from the Wall Part of the program but I can also do ma an80 $80 million from 1970 to pay FEMA claims is a heck of a lot less than what you're suggesting you're going to spend here especially when the majority of the properties here have already been br and we all have blood insurance on top of that we can't get blood insurance if we don't raise our properties so what are you offering us because what you seem to be offering us is a really really bad deal and just because I hire P for everybody who's not on beach poar but um I want to remind everybody again I've been here 20 years about the little Stone issue that we have just because something somebody is offering you something doesn't mean the community wants it or has to take it we were able to get rid of that but we won't be able to get rid of this and so you're not I'm not hearing an upside for us and I've spent a lot of time looking at this I spend all my day looking at documents and and assessing these things and you have you gave a one-sided presentation and you're expecting the community to do your homework for you to show you what's bad about it you walk you say that you that you come here but you don't live here and and this is not sounding like a good deal to the majority of us which I think why the majority of us are [Applause] here got it hi guys I'm I live low um I think Engineers are very inent you know I wish just like this maybe I don't 30 years know you guys live here and it's on a marine place they bu beautiful ball it's not it's going to be there going to be room for the kids to go fish it it's going to be great it's going to be beauti R this is fre s you guys come in here come govern whatever you do 14 Walling view looks like crap Sandy least they ra houses over the wall which never worked now you drive up down see rust we look like a rusted little to a nice fishing Village which we are so I think you guys to take long and hard before you move back toal wherever you guys live before you try to put something down the [Music] appr do you guys want to address any of these questions one by one before we get to so deep into it that you forget what other people I think we are I think folks came here to be heard um that's at least the sense that I'm getting we're taking uh notes of the questions to which we can respond but I I think it's important for us all to hear the perspective of folks in the community so we're we're writing these down and can and can respond both here and also uh in writing following this meeting uh to make sure that it's also posted online the response to questions and that folks have that in their hands when they they go to vote um we're not here to convince you we are here to give you the information we have and you will make a decision for yourselves so that is that is what we are uh here for today so I'll let the gentleman speak thank you so much my name is Andre I live in 28 Road thank you for the presentation I thought it was informative but there were still some things that I need to uh answers to want to a couple questions but they quick I guess the first question is who's the uh ultimately accountable successful project we have a few other projects in town some have deter especially some has ear been um up the par so is there that person here going to so so we can we can answer that one directly right now um Bethany you want to explain how that how that works with respect to ongoing maintenance after Project's built yeah so once the project is designed and constructed um there's an operation and maintenance plan that has been developed and that's in agreement with the state of New Jersey and the burrow of Highlands so the ultimately the operation and maintenance of that will fall in the hands of New Jersey DP or the burough of Highlands thank you in terms of the U 148 million how much of that is going to be actually local the community as well actually get that work done is that any known to the community burrow of Highland share is $13 million 13 okay so that's less than 10% um I'm hoping to copy with disability study will also be on our website it has been for quite some time but yeah we'll recirculate all of those links um um and finally so we do have a pwn station in town already I'm curious to know what it costs to run day but in addition you mentioned there's two aspects two major aspects here there's the run up coming down from the hill and then there's also the stern storage I think a third aspect that we can really consider is loss of power what happens when we have the seaw wall we have the water that's come up and then we have the water going down the hill Plus SE wall is closed and there's no power for the pums are we going to turn into the top the to answer your question there are two uh two storm water stations in town and um part of the brick study is part of the brick project is to get uh gas power generators there uh our sanitary sewer pump station that we just finished on water witch Avenue which we we raised it put it in a little house to make it blend into the community and that also has a gas powerered um backup generator so all of the pump stations will have backup generators the DP and the Army Core in pursuing project design design the projects of this nature specifically to avoid a bathtub effect specifically to avoid it and what the mayor has mentioned as part of that Elena Rose to 48 ning Avenue my question is in regards to the V Street what is the the plan of access for the commuters who commute from Highlands and neighboring towns to the points of access that these streets provide I think the answer to that question lies in the work of detailed design in order to ensure the preservation uh of access points uh or the creation of those uh that may need to be developed uh should uh a flood wall proceed right at I I want to repeat this again because this is important at the stage of design that we are at we don't yet have those answers the question question that is presented to you all and will be on your ballot is whether we continue the work of Designing it at all and engaging with you as we do if the answer to that is no then it ends and then the community is is is left to take the risk of the future risks that are very apparent right without the protection uh that could be offered by a fully designed project um the question is do we even get to that point I've been in this town about four years I've seen the flood B you have to go close really close s where we have back L our home our house is now raised now we all correct a lot of people in here how many people here got screwed by FEA all right so here it is in a nutshell see numbers here I've seen all kinds of numbers if you're saying total estimated construction cost of 148 mil I saw 148 14 n there a Miss milon we all know it's never going to get cut under budget so it's going to be over budget so who picks up the T over besides the town you're saying 14 million I believe you said 30 well I saw as high as 25 numers are all over the place so what you guys are asking us to do is time off onl check water seeks its own level doesn't care what you put in front of it around will find its way around that's number one that's just fin now you guys are asking for more time to come out with a better plan before I to even vote on something like this I want to see who you guys I don't want hypothetical you can't give me anything the hypothetical my answer is no now don't get me wrong do I want to protect this town absolutely give us something that may help us I'm not here to guys now but the same thing when we have these pipes going out into the river they're too low now you got to Pump It Up and over now we're talking about pump houses we've had several pump houses in the history of this town Town couldn't afford to maintain it over the years what makes you think this town going be able to maintain this you're going to price everybody in this town out tax wi and what I would like to see from Mr is when when I paid for rebuild cost on my initial house here before Sandy I got 20 cents 28 cents on the dollar nobody includ s her fact she laughed at me at the time when I met with her she says I really can't help you cuz this is the federal government they're just going to give you what they want to give you and that's the end of I have no trust in our federal government feem for anybody else because you guys all want to deal with hypothetical you will collect your paychecks you'll be out the door cu you live besid the mayor and a few other people live in this bottom line is you'll get your paycheck you'll move into your little mini mansion and here we are fin to deal with this now granted we can't force we can't do anything about mother nature and do what she wants to do we all know that but there has to be a better solution to deid raising our tax and pushing us out of the town let look at our rest down C what you going to be charge $60 $70 make their new tax Burg or hamburger they're going to be out of business you're not helping businesses in this town they're all going to be bankrupt and that means we lose our rebles we're going to lose our clamor and who's going to be responsible for closing these flood balls and show me one place where this actually work show me one place on the eastern coast where this work that's what we at you show me in place see how to work and here talk guys I do appreciate I'm not up on you live here see here and then this this is our job and we take no offense to you sharing your mind and your perspective I'm very dis my federal government me over the years I paid a top premium for over 30 some OD years in this town for flood insurance I got 28 cents on the doll nobody help help these people in this s but they're all bu let put up on wall raise their tax when does our tax stop we're all paying 50 $60,000 a year ta property taxes look at a SE don't work don't work I I hear you and and I have a couple of thoughts in response again I we are here to attempt to convince you of nothing we are sharing the information we have to help you make make an informed choice but at the outset of your comments sir you said that if if we show you a more developed plan then that gives you something to vote upon right now typically at this stage in a project we are not presented with a ballot measure to effectively kill that project before it can get sufficiently off the ground to answer the questions you have we want to answer the questions you have by continuing the design unfortunately we may not have that opportunity and that's okay if that is this community's decision right that is that is okay if that is your decision we don't arrive in communities to force things down folks throat we arrive in order to share the information we have and offer a perspective of what we think might help protect you because I understand that you've been here for 40 years I understand that and I I I see that as a as deeply valuable source of insight but the truth is that the landscape is changing right entire sections of our Coast are being swallowed up and I will be honest with you that this borrow will at some point in the future be swallowed too whether or not we do a project like this buys us time time and we want to help by you that time if you'll let us and if not that's okay that's your decision and we'll be here to support you however we can but without a piece of infrastructure like this the the sandies will just keep coming [Music] uh Tom GRE um it pains me to say this but I've been in town 65 years hopefully I don't look it but uh um snug hard I various spots to the town mostly down by the water I do want to start out with a positivity commend the mayor and Council on a lot of the infrastructure Pro you know projects they've been doing and uh you can't see them because they're underground but they've been doing a lot of good work that's been elected for decades so I do appreciate that um I'm looking at the stop and end point and then like someone else says actually water SE pH level so it's going to get around however that the thing that disturbs me most about that red mine is and I want to backtrack and say the highlands is a great little town it's a lifestyle town you know you see the kids driving down the street on our bicycles go fishing many people uses the beach and and boating and most importantly the jewel the Pearl this view uh this project eliminates all our beaches and eliminates all our views from let's say walking when my house is raised it doesn't really affect me I look over the wall and see the ocean and all that but you know more concerned with folks that walk or ride bicycles down if I look at the water that's that's a dead Dead Issue um now the current I'm guessing I built a house of two by the water and uh I'm guessing the E of the existing wall is about 7 ft and the E of the proposed flood wall is 14 so I'm sure everyone's been down by the wall had 7 ft on top of the exist wall and you got yourself the bur wall no longer the water or nothing like that um but these folks seem genuine but to lose the lifestyle then why you going to live here um the other thing that I'm going to wrap it up I don't want to take too much time you know it was sort of I felt like a little bit of Scare Tactics take it down or you're never going to get it like a used carel or something um but uh my my last statement is and someone El mentioned the Stone Hedge and then there just have to be a national concrete conglomerate convention environment Center and all of a sudden we got this giant moan on the beach um I somewhat feel a little bit and I certainly don't want to consult speak at a turn but why Highlands first I feel like like we're sort of the in PS you know let's do it in the highlands and see if it works out it's not it's the highlands and I think that supposed to be intelligence of the people in this room thank [Music] you sir um thank you for your for your comments um in a moment I'm going to have to depart although my colleagues will will be able to stay behind unfortunately I have to catch a I have to catch a flight um I just wanted to offer one one response to uh to your uh to your uh comments there um about why Highlands and are you guinea pigs no you're not guinea pigs the majority of our 127 M long coastline is already the recipient of a protective project I would ask why have you been left behind and part of what we want to be able to do is provide a level of protection if you want it and if you don't again that's okay but I'd ask as you make that decision as you press yes or no on a ballot for a yet un uh a not a not yet completely formed uh project that could be informed by your feedback I would ask you to think Beyond this moment and Beyond yourselves and to think about who comes next and how this community could be protected into the long term uh again as I said I have to leave and I'm I'm sorry for that uh but the colleagues throughout um here my colleague here Jennifer morard and and everyone uh up here will be available to answer your questions and I thank you for your time and your attention and your thoughtfulness [Applause] Chris Team Beach boulard um I have a couple of points of clarification i' like one is in this presentation when this vague referendum is put to a vote which by the way makes no mention of it being funded by taxes and it would informed decision uh one are you saying that if we vote Yes which hopefully no one will um that you can vote Yes to proceed with the design phase and then pull the plug later CU I'm getting the impression that a yes to proceed is a yes to completion of construction is that the case or no that is not the case so what is it we are voting for exactly because it seems like we're voting to build wall or not you're voting for if you want to go forward with this or not to completion correct which means the decision needs to be made without a design without all these questions that's what the commissioner led me to believe as well how I understand itk my second question is from previous meeting asked about this pump station and valves and storm run off project I was told that was a separate project and I thought you got a $6 million Grant I remember correctly it is a separate project the grant we're in pregrant award which means they're doing environmental and uh historical so the entire project is about $16.5 million of which the grant is$ 12.5 million and that project is unrelated to what we just spoke about moving forward of this V correct so the project in the presentation that was notor but was the hills that's that's the brick project yes so that's happening it's not part of the vote correct so if we don't know that project and that problem will get solved which seems to be the recurring daytoday project that residents are faing so we don't know for this that still happens and get as long as we get through our environmentals okay that's why I we call it pre-award but we've been this project is one of the largest Grant awards from FEMA for a town so small because it it's been a historically this would be fixing something that has happened in the highlands and Joanne can speak better to it because she's more of the historian than I am but at the very least since 1900 when we were first Incorporated and uh even before that when we stole the land from the Native Americans so I just want to be clear because the way it was presented was these two parts are one of the same project that we be voting forward no they're not part of the same project however in every project that we do in this town we rely on um efforts from both D and depending on the project the Army Corps as well the Army Corps is not solely this wall D is involved in every single project that we do that touches water and I'm sorry just to clarify what the uh storm War components of the Army Corps project there's also those components but they're going to be coordinated very closely with the FEMA Pro that the mayor just mentioned and if that project doesn't address certain uh design parameters that are required for the Armic project then the the Armic would look to essentially to to add additional features to the ongoing thema project to make that work the majority of that infrastructure is planned for this other they are certainly they are certainly taking on a very large portion of it okay and my final point is in the language for this referendum it says a non vote what exactly does that mean if it's V yes or way you saying you and the council have the right to do something contradictory to the vote or what does what exactly does that mean non-binding means exactly as you put it it is not binding it can still go forward but I am the only person left on Council that was here in 2016 when we made a promise that before any dollars taxpayer dollars get spent that there would be a resolution to the people so it's a mechanism for May C to get the put it on thisall secondary no a secondary voter would never be able to Legal cast a vote in The Bu of Highlands as it's against the law I'm saying not formal inut oh believe me I get input every day so it's just bu VI for the mayor and Council to then make decision whether they shut this down exactly I'm a big fan of hard data this is hard data [Music] I 68 points that um you keep talking about that this wall is not really set so me the price is not not really set either so in other words you say we could move this thing into the beach we can make deals with me and it's not ston that [Music] [Music] I feel like we drew the line where wew it least the beste scenario that's not happen it's certainly subject to change for sure based on a multitude of factors inflation being one of them um and as you said the the real estate acquisition process what comes of that um a as far as the main components and what we're paying for those main components um the the the reinforced concrete football being that main component that is not going to change a whole lot um you know the the total linear footage for the entire project could fluctuate slightly um but it's uh it it it's it's not going to be a 50% reduction let's put it that way one one more point about Scare Tactics earlier in your earlier design when you show your picture of you know what may people's houses started your your water level basically at the first floor of people's houses when most most houses in this town at first floor it's not probably 10 ft so your picture was not really it was it was really trying to scare people when it's not really in close what would actually where it would actually be at this point [Applause] [Music] B the 68 Port Road um but what I kind what I understand is that um the money that was allocated by the federal government is 128 million uh I think that covers 65 65% of the cost and then the rest is split between the state and the Burl and our cost is are $113 million so again if our share is is um uh 13 million basically we're getting protection from storm surge and you know we're paying $9 and someone else is paying $91 uh so this seems like a pretty good deal and um as several representative have said is that this fol is not not fighting but in reality sounds like the council's looking for guidance on what to do uh you know with his study well um I think the way the uh referendum was uh question was worded um really uh basically it says you want to pay higher taxes and have your property taken away and you had said nothing about you know the protection that this law will give to the Highlands uh it says nothing about um that you know the money that is allocated for this will be gone and um that money is not coming back so again a I I I think this this B question is very biased it just giv the negatives does not give any the positives and the people here a lot of people here are against this and we vote no um but I think there's a lot of people who don't know the facts don't know that this money is going to be gone um a lot of people have raised their houses some have not and uh businesses are not raised so there's there's there's infrastructure from the bur that will be affected by Future Storm surges and fing and um you know property and businesses so several people talked about these businesses well what will happen these businesses when they're flooded and you know will your taxes go up so again like I think that that this is a bargain for us someone else is paying for most of it and um I think uh a yes A yes vote um will continue the study and um I think it's the way it's worded that it looks like the the DP uh cor Engineers are looking at this well if you say you don't want it you know we're out of here the money's gone so I I think that this B see this question should be thrown in the rubbish because it doesn't get both sides of the story and I don't think uh the council the towns really going get that idea as what the high's residents really feel because of the way this um ballot question was work thank you hi my again just two quick points mention that Town's going to disappeared in 30 50 years or whatever the flood as soon as the Wall's built the town's dead to me you know it's not why I moved here the town disappears where the wall goes up and it's no longer Highlands some other place in the world that's not move here for uh quick technical point I'm just wondering whe if it's built is there supposed to be an access room behind it so they can get to it and maintain it uh you know got a lot of room on my property and wall with a big thing behind it would be a little different no there's no proposed access road behind the wall so the access you'd have grass up to the wall but no road so I my yes ground level no we're not raising ground elevation [Music] we we would work with you to provide access either over or through the wall wall to to your dock or you know we're not taking your beach access away it's just your access is going to look a little different um it's up and over or through but your beaches will still remain we're not taking those away those what that wall would be pulled back as far as it could conceivably be pulled back so you still have your beach access [Music] thank you everybody for presentation I have a design question and what does that really look like and will the people that live in this town part of it if everybody votes yes [Music] or sorry about the yes sorry yes as once we proceed forward we will work in probably like groups of residents along the alignment to work with you on how to design that access how to design that wall what is where is it actually located what does it look like so you will be a part of that [Music] process thought process making it more of a multiuse function so not just this wall that do want to look at but be useful in the time it's beautiful and funny which is most that's something we can look into um but it's hard to put like a see-through wall because eventually it'll get just scratched and clouded so oh they oh so like an access on top it's something we can look into um particularly for the beach areas on the public areas so I have a question over here hang on one second I just like just because you've asked it twice you want and that's a very easy something very easy to answer Martin it starts at Doris Ed's property and it ends at Veterans Park then that's a question for the Army Corps guys if we're going to do involved that I'm just going to close the meeting but I'd really like to get a lot more people's input so if we can go to Brin hi at 11 Central um I hope this doesn't sound silly but I keep thinking uh all this money and use it or lose it it's strictly for a wall is has there ever been other discussion about some kind of uh Improvement that'll be helpful that does not involve a wall that this money could be used for or well they said that they said it right up front it's what is non-negotiable is that it will be a concrete wall and it will be at 14 ft nav 88 sayoud remember that all right thank you theil so the the project was authorized by Congress um so that's what this money is for and it includes the interior drainage as well and not just the wall um so that's it's a combined project um so we'd have to go back for a different authorization and through the whole Congressional process to get something different we we can't SE we can't that's the other project that's the other project I know I know it's confusing 32b Avenue I have comment question my comment for my neighbors is I sat through one of these meetings many decades ago the Army cour came to Highlands and proposed a cut across Sandy Hook inl so that vs would not I remember F would not go all the way around that cut never happened as know and I think it's a good thing that it never happened so I want to remind you the Army court is not always correct it doesn't always have to happen the question is what happens to our repairing grants that are given to us by the state they are so many feet and we are taxed on those grants are you taking them away [Music] we will certainly follow up on on that question for you that again we will certainly follow up on that question for you but but there there there will be an easement over that reparan lot here we we get you further information on that want to to be clear it is not the department that is asking for the vote on this I'm the guilty party Council your mayor and Council wants to hear your opinion and not just in a survey where it counts at The Ballot Box thank you 59 District I am letting my imagination run wild with this and it caused me not to sleep and it would be super helpful if there could be some kind of rendering with different options understanding what in real life is supp like because to everyone's point the lifestyle is a very important part of why we live here and I can't picture anything but a concrete wall encasing us in our flood waters and I just think it would be incredibly helpful to understand real life what it looks like it doesn't have to be that an absolute of what we see in a virtual I don't know 3D some kind of scenario but if you could put that out there it would be very helpful thank you so from our presentation back in May the arm courp actually did do several renderings at different locations throughout the E bur of wall would look like and as far as the the actual finish of the wall as we said earlier that that's still something that could be worked out as far as what that that finish looks like um what we have up on the screen here the vast majority of these photos are from Port M which just just down Road that's already been constructed they they opted to do this this type of textured finish on the wall but there are certainly many other options to choose [Music] from this picture here my question is know you're saying that this isn't the first time I and where we have this whole solution where it's been executed and where it's been tested like we have a storm where it's actually loed and you know check the photo in the upper left hand corner up at Greenbrook during Hurricane Irene it was very effective at protecting the critical infrastructure in that [Music] Community right like in in that photo right that's those are flood waters that's correct and and and it's probably hard to see from that but there actually are um flood waters in that photo right there there's only a couple feet exposed above that and I think that is similar so the bottom is your everyday condition and your top is your flooded condition the bottom photo the bottom left that's your everyday condition so that's dry the top photo the top photo is where it was flooded so you can see on the left of the white line which is the wall you have the warehouse that's protected and on the right the train tracks were inundated resal are all right go ahead you've got the microphone Tom Tomy mayor Commander thank you very much um I have some questions about is the design of the wall a theory or is it a fact that it will stop a store like say how about hel that just happened you don't have any guarantees it's all family do you really don't have facts I can tell you right now the other thing the gentleman left very quickly he saw my hand up probably um about trying to save us or uh give us more time because the storms are going to get worse gr so stronger is that because of climate change or something or what's that reason we bu lot more STS right so that that was kind of what I was trying to convey in my portion of the presentation that yes this is due to climate change um which is causing sea levels to Rise um by we by about 5et by the year 20100 that that is the basis for the idea that that flooding is going to get worse that's the 10 most deadly storms with the most fatalities the 10 top cyclon hurricanes a cyclone is the beginning of the hurricane for people don't know when it gets to 73 mph more it becomes a hurricane and goes into different categories the greatest Cyclones and hurricanes the top 10 in the world that killed the most people were in that early 1900s and in the 1800s and they didn't worry about climate change or anything else back then and you can look it up it's a fact so the deadliest moment were before us and this is not going to stop mother nature it's not going to stop leing and I don't think it will stop stand thank you very much [Applause] hi everyone John ruso 24 Brad Point Road I've uh Built Well over 30 homes in Highlands and lifted almost the same and as many of you know the 11 Benchmark that we have currently a restricted long it's only about head high basically aage we have and if you do have a garage the bottom floor level is 13.89 [Music] and their 100e storm is 14 it's that close so if you've already lived in your house you're somewhere near the Benchmark of the 100e storm so as many people in this room have incurred the cost of me lifting your home and all what happens to the people that already spent that money so you've already been penalized you've lifted the houses spend thousands and thousands and now you're going to be taxed on that again for something isn't 100% and most of you are already there but just don't know 13.89 keep that number in your head because if you do have a garage in your house your number of your bottom floor is basically a 139 14 is their Benchmark for 100 years long thank [Applause] you hi AR Kylie I have a house on this street and I also have a house on island and if this wall is built and the wall ends at Veterans Park and you close it and I'm in my house up on a hill and I want to get to my house on Fifth Street how do I get there don't answer it hypothetical question okay why does the wall end with very very expensive housing in south of on the other side of the bridge doesn't that area flood doesn't that want to come back and in addition to all of that you live on Swamp had a house on CH Drive behind me always swamping to the point where I had to build a wall to hold the mountain back very expensive wall so I haven't heard one thing that addresses is ground water swelling up all I've heard is Storm surges what happens when sand builds up on that wall what happens to Sandy Hook I've seen nothing about Sandy Hook is there some kind of deflective mechanism that can be put in that area Congressman pal great guy great for our area $25 million dredging the rivers well if you take the ribbon bottom down take the water down with it now I know that's very infantile in sense but with the storm surges movement how much sand are we going to Happ in X number of years and how much is that water going to come up over sand buildt up on the water I've seen it time and time again with the critical Zone at Sandy HW put the steel wall and save the island that was going to be and kept it as a peninsula but what you're asking us to accept and absolve right now is nothing this is like a pipe Tre I would like to really really understand what you want to do I want to protect my very very well invested in this town what you give me right now with pipe greens the last three times that we had meting it was people looking to make money not people looking to protect islands and if you only buildt the wall up through certain Park not protecting the city I don't understand it makes no sense to me and then on top of that we lose our community Beach at Miller we lose our beach at Community Center we luse the public further north of that what about you're not going to Build That Wall there what about the py homes been the city million dollar condos susceptible to these storm surger I I really don't understand trying really hard here folks but you're not giving me anything that iend the mayor and counsel say hey and then may was the point you said this is a special council meeting you have okay okay I'm going to try to address some of the questions that the gentleman just asked um you did ask a lot of questions um the town the new town homes by P ppur Beach they're at and above an elevation 14 so we're tying the wall into that they were built after Sandy at the proper elevation to avoid um flooding so we're tying in by Veterans Park that that location because to build a wall to extend the entirety of Highlands down at the southern end the benefit cost ratio didn't be was not above one so it wasn't cost effective it's just the process we have to go through to do that and I just want to add if there's anyone here doesn't want to stand up and ask a question we do have index cards on the side may not be them but if you do want to POS a question please leave your email address and we'll respond Rosemary planner one Central Avenue um mayor Bon can you tell us where the you and the council stand on this this topic are you in favor of it yeah you're resident I don't need to put you on the spot we need to know sort of because I think there is this fear of this nonbinding thing that if we vote no as a town and the mayor council kind of disregards us and votes yes it's just a little it's just why do we bother voting it would be politically uh it would be political suicide to vote against what the people of the town want I heard you thank you and then my second question is there's in the last meeting and in this one there's this underlying sort of nice kind of threatening way like saying well you don't take it now I'm going to L out you're not going to get anything and so my question is does if we pass on this project does that mean we have another storm that high is not going to get any kind of um service or clema or our is insurance rate going to go up FEA hang on hang on you're asking a lot of questions let me get them one at a time FEMA's not at this table I understand that but I guess what I'm asking is like you don't take this out we move on but that left in the dust is we get another storm because we no no not necessarily it does not mean that it means we lose the money appropriated by Congress for this particular flood wall project would they look kindly towards us in the future maybe not I don't know that I I don't have a crystal ball I can't tell you what's going to happen in the future I understand that I think people just need to be reassured that we we all there seems to be a common agreement that we all feel like the flood is needs to be addressed we just think that an ugly wall is not the way to go we would prefer to see other options so we're possibly willing to pass on this one but we just want to be reassured that because we have invested in this town we all have been that we want to be taking care of another comes in our lifetime hi Paul Avenue this is going to sound bious but it's a real question um we've got this design that's very truing um if it turns out we decide to do it as a we all we want to do it it happens and it turns out oops it's not quite working like we thought it will they cover the cost of fixing it for us and will there be I'm curious that's a real question and will there be for example maybe a 10year warranty on the work and the reason is we're going to vot we're just going to impact some of our our own taxes probably we're going to take advantage of some good money that we have available to us so there's good reasons to maybe say let's go forward but what I think there's a lot of concern is what happens if oops well just had all that about that we only need another $62 million to fix it I bur can help out so just a thought put into the process it's not a question real question before we go back to R we're everybody else Micha I'm sorry can we just address that the last question first so we don't lose TR um that'll be a case by case basis on the uh C share for uh changes to the project after it's constructed um my first question is if we don't do this and it could be very well headed down the that what is plan be to protect against tile plotting is there some alternative that would propos for the state would fund that would protect to some lower level maybe not that it's intrusive or are we really looking at a future of sea level in our streets in our houses I know my house is raised I still know that if I get flooded it's going to cost me A5 or $110,000 it's going to put me out of the house for a month because of the loss of services and it'll change the character of the town so far as all the businesses have worn their clothes so I mean that's my fear how do we keep this how do I keep from living in a disaster Zone every 10 years 20 years or whatever it's going to be and I don't want to walk away and not know that there's some alternative you know I'd rather keep working on finding a solution and walking away and without without any alternative uh so I would say to that as far as the issue of Overland flooding flooding that's over tops bulkheads comes over the beaches during mayor storms there's there aren't a whole lot of options either you keep the water out or you let the water in for that type of flooding for the storm water flooding which the brick project will help to reduce substantially fixing uh check valves that stor sty certainly help with the rainfall aspect of it but when it comes to the Overland over top you know bulkheads the really the only solution is a some kind of resist structure to keep the water out and that's what the Army quarter is putting forward Kelly Kelly could you come up and get Eugene here he's been very patient with the dog Daniel 27 Saturday my question is I'm the better Town wall I'm sorry where's where's your address 27 okay so has that considered I had I had nothing to do with where the wall gets placed so I'll let that go to Army Corps or D so I did address this a little bit prior um to one of the gentleman's questions over there so we went through a whole type of analysis a plan formulation analysis to look at the location of the wall the starting and the stopping point and in order to a project to advance it has to have a benefit cost ratio above one so we're actually the cost of the wall is less than the benefits that it provides if the benefits are less than the cost of the wall that it's that ratio is below one so that location is where that that BCR benefit cost ratio was above one so the people outside the wall unfortunately will be flooded during a storm that road closure gate will only be closed during a storm so you would still have everyday access outside of a storm through the town of Highlands yeah my name is Eugene aard what I like to know is we had about four or five meetings on this subject and everything was discussed maybe not firm but it was discussed money for the project the town's obligation for the money the bar from the state to the design on that wall there was going to be Boulders in front of it on the water side of it there going to be a pathway on the inside on the land side of it for trucks to drive back and forth to maintain you can't build it over it unless it's like 14 or 15 ft High you can't obstruct it with any furniture anyit Tre or nothing public has a run away through the whole thing through private property or public property it has run away through the entire thing that's the state coration need there so there was handicap issues there was walkway up from private property that had do to get over it I mention an elevator so what about handicap what about all the facilities that goes into this that we discuss are they be included with this new deal never mind the fact that now you're talking about imminent domain uh never mind how much you would pay a fund to take a part of my property like that what about I ask question what about what was already discussed is that going to be ined and thank [Music] you no there's a lot there so um I apologize if I missed something I can't hear you oh sorry um there would be a permanent easement to access the wall for maintenance um but it doesn't preclude you to put putting outdoor furniture that's movable in front of the wall she saying yes or no oh sorry okay um is that better okay there is going to be a permanent easement for the wall to access it for maintenance um that distance um is not determined at the moment but it could be anywhere from 10 to 15 ft that means you cannot put a permanent structure in front of the wall you could put outdoor furniture something that's movable in front of a wall as far as a public access route behind the wall I have not heard of that um your private property is your private property water on my no but having the public walk through your property that's not going to happen he's like my dad so um so as far as walkways over the wall um it depends on how High the wall is where you you are located each it's the elevation is at 14 ft but it could be 6t above ground it could be 4T above ground it depends on where that is located so some of those walkways could be what's located at sebrite over the the seaw wall there it could look something like that it could look something like at Marine place right now where that elevation is that bulkheads at 11 so you'd have an additional 3 feet on top of that and you just put a walk ramp up that so that could be an additional 3 ft on that ramp so you still have view access there so it it it all depends on where your property is located and that height of the wall and that's so we would work with you to determine how you access over it so we're just not there I'm [Music] SC so so the $148 million that heard as a result of trying to um obtain other the people's property I mean who's paying for the lawsuits that are inevitable for eminent domain as we go forward I don't think that a lot of people are going to be willing to just you know negotiate and get whatever your property I don't know and also how will that impact the timeline for the project that's supposed to be finished by 2030 all right so the cost of the real estate acquisition is a non-federal responsibility the specifics as far as cauer that are still to be determined between the town and the state also 20 was the subject to [Music] correct do not so is still here um could I ask that something for Sandy Hook and I have seen Sandy Hook covered from the ocean so I'd like to ask the the Army Corp what studies you've done to protect Hook is a historic state which is a national property and if that goes we don't have to worry about is's or anything else because com across Sandy Hook so I'm just interested in what studies have done to project [Laughter] first you answer [Music] thaty St on Sandy H we're not we're not studying s hook right now we've done work service s is part of the Gateway National Recreation systemware that we've done some work at stabiliz we're not doing any studies of work there right now except navigation channel so then there is no PL to protect sa Hook from the same thing that you're protecting Islands from and yet that's a narrow Peninsula and that's really between the Atlantic Ocean and mury River um okay um I'm sorry that neither Mr nor Congressman got enough noers of this meeting there I'm sure they here at least that's because I think it's kind of important start interesting ni as well um he had a catch a flight I I can't control his schedule as for the congressman the congressman is at his daughter's wedding so I think that takes precedent over this we do have a representative from the congressman's office here and we do have a representative from the congressman's office if you would like to speak to Mr montigo happy to talk could you tell me please I know you're talking about the earli starting in the 2030 so what plans have you made to protect Highlands between now and the earliest point and also what other the farming for plans for the construction if we do have to have another storm here before 2030 I am not aware of anything in the interim before the project is built um but if the project is during is in construction when a storm hits our contractor or um is responsible for the maintenance the repairs and basically the security of what is there so it does not get destroyed in the storm and it' be built in segments where it would be stable enough to withstand um an interm storm if that happened yes and there's an emergency disaster declaration for an emergency that happen here from the federal government side FEMA would have the lead and on just like what's going on with Helen and other areas the Army Corps would then get Mission orders from FEMA to do work so we could do that under FEMA under emergency conditions if a if a storm hit here so we could have a role there uh through FEMA does FEMA have any more money left Shea's not here to answer that question and nobody here can answer that question the um just from those I don't understand but it appears that the wall that you're building is um that you would want to build um is not much higher than what you expect the floods to be in 27 or 70 years so is that what we're talking about protecting the town for for 7 years after that it's going to FL it out some said earlier Defan do you want to talk to the um the feasibility aspect as to how the elevation was chosen and the potential adaptability of the [Music] wall so we did pick the elevation Jesus 14 ft we looked at a high level scenario a medium level scenario and a lowlevel scenario and actually the 14 ft is the lowlevel scenario with sea level rise and to provide the maximum benefits for the town um to have that benefit cost ratio above a one um so in that we would construct the wall to be adaptable for future Heights so you could add on to the wall so the foundations would be more robust to add on to add height to the wall if we foresee in above 2070 the 2100 that it's going to be 18 ft you could build any any a certain amount on top of that wall so it'll be adaptable for the future can you imagine what that's gonna look like I would like to hear from people that we have not heard from already I would like to give everyone a chance to say something you still [Music] this is the same study that we've been talking about since the 1990s [Music] specifically anybody else hi thank you um I lived here for almost 30 years and I love this town and I would love so much to be able to protect it um honestly we have the highest tax rate in Mama count our taxes are through the roof when I'm looking at $14 million as a today we all know that's going to go up and then $500,000 a year to maintain this wall not to mention the eminent domain that I'm sure that we're going to be on the hook for this scares me we cannot afford this my husband and I work hard and we pay our bills and I can't imagine our taxes being any higher than they already are along with all the other things that maybe go up every year you guys would thank you we appreciate the offer but my household says thanks but no thanks we cannot afford [Music] [Applause] this I'm so sorry I didn't oh sorry sorry sorry um I didn't understand this question was asked before a yes on the coming up would that simply further engineer or would that yes to the it would be yes to further engineering can go ahead so the process in this um the referendum um it would be to have the project proceed forward with engineering and design we would sign a project partnership ship agreement with the new uh state of New Jersey they would sign a state agreement with the burrow of Highlands if we don't have those two agreements we can't move the project forward so this vote would just say yes we can move forward um we could finish the preliminary engineering design on the road closure gate we that would let us move forward to sign this project partnership agreement and then that would allow the state to sign the agreement with the burrow of Highlands but we would need that state agreement in order to move forward so there is a stopping point that can happen May pleas is it yes to the wall or is it yes to further development and further vote for the wall that simp question okay and and we're going to answer it because the core said if it's a no at this ballot in this election they're going to stop working on it and they away or is it further fur design and then further V get yeah yeah Bethy could could we R course P2 the PPA that we sign is that the only option or could we also execute a separate uh PD agreement to to finish that design of the rest of the project before signing an agreement for construction we already have a design agreement with you and the burrow to finish the preliminary engineering design of the road closure gate we would need the PPA agreement with you to move forward into engineering design and construction of the remainder of the project I agree I agree that's not Joe I need clarify what you [Music] asking Jo Engineers so so this is complicated for us this is not the way we nor so the referendum came to be we wer involved in that role and you heard the mayor's explanation of the purpose of their representes help the council understand more the feelings of the public with regard to the project at some juncture the town is going to have to commit if they want this project to we're not going to play between what happens in the referendum and the future discussions between the council and the mayor and the state ultimately decided that a support that support is there is that clear the the the Army Corp of Engineers right now is the design and construction agent for this project we have to have the support the state and the town to move forward question is yes to all the way completion of thew the P does that mean it has to move to completion of construction or can after by signning PPA does that mean we're moving forward to completion or you can just sign a PPA to get the so once weim design it would certainly be our intent to move forward into construction give you a lot of options that could go forward after the pp but I can tell you the Army Corp of Engineers as the design and construction agent is working with the state is going to work with to town and if this project is something you truly want us to move out on you will and so the referendum again we are not directly engaged or involved in so far as what you will decide and how the town will take that information and ultimately go back to the state and establish whether they want to in fact decision the I think the big question is are we on the hook for something if we V yes and and you're done so let me tell you what happen and I've seen it before I can see it I've seen it before you can you can you can read to the ref ref or you cannot be the referend ultimately ultimately the council in the town are going to have to sign a local agreement with the state of New Jersey the EP if they want to move forward with the project if the town decides they don't want to sign that agreement this project it it means you would not have all of the information so we are where we are and and what I'll say is you know I know that some of you think that we're trying we're sounding threatening we're pull the plug on you and that is not our intent at anyway we are trying to share as much information as we have at this point the no you don't commit you don't commit until the town signs the agreement all hold on everyone please let the man talk go ahead you I'm talking to the crowd please let Dennis just to build up the court of Engineers is looking [Music] for asking for us to agree now design conru pass the gate the rest of the design to construct project was rejected in 2018 the district there is some caution on the course point this project will not move forward we will stop in the middle of the design we not have a commitment to build this project I think I I don't want to speak to the vote but the language inside it is pretty clear this is a design constructive that we'll be trying to reach where your portion of the of the design and oper um we need a project that can be built or needs assurances that we're going to move for and then after that we need commitments that we're going to operate you're hearing a lot of people in this room talking that issue a failed system is is a system that we fail prepare to operate and maintain I know you talking about some stand and some other issues we need be prepared to maintain it with po want to and that's part of the agement as well is that help I think what is most confusing is that you're linking design and completion of project together because how can we say yes to a design that doesn't exist yet the [Music] asking what will what will happen in this process if there's a to with the design is we will Design the first contract and we will then continue to design the second and third contract but when the first Construction contract is complete and ready that is when we will ask the state to sign the project partnership agreement and commit to the funding to initiate project construction they have [Music] four five years right you don't good it's a good point that Denis makes okay we're going to we're going to design that first contract we're going to have much further engineering and design work we're going to have in the end in the end truth and lending truth and lending we're not going build a project that the town is is is against it's not happening stat the state is not going to allow us without the support of the town to go forward to this project and again you sound like we're threatening we're going to take the money and run that's not what we're doing [Music] here okay so hopefully make this a little bit more clear okay if you vote no on this ref referendum question that means that you do not want the project and then the Army Corps and D for this project will stop working on it if you vote Yes for this then that means that everyone continues to work and we could all continue to argue and we're going to move on to the next question mayor if you're Poli 32 if we vote Yes as the pro project progresses what will be our invol you mean will there be F further Community engagement uh 100% 100% And as we'll have additional votes voting voices I don't see why not just we just be informed as to what's happening um as was spoken to before um that there would be Community engagement like these like the survey that's going around town um to get your input on what the wall should look like if they're like yeah like there's all these different things that it could possibly look like and uh your engagement and your feedback would be given to them as they continue their planning process thank you um how would not project like this change our vulnerability with a project like I'm not an engineer neuroscientist so I'll leave that to you guys all right so if we do if we do not move forward with this there'll still be an authority by Congress for for this project so we could if with our non-federal sponsors reevaluate the project down the line just like we didn't move forward before as long as we Congress does not deauthorize the project which would be possible if that was what was requested as long as there's that that Authority we could relook a project in the future I don't I don't think that was I interpret my question if we don't move forward with the project but neighboring towns move forward with the symol of project does it what does that do to our vulnerability from all of the damage that you predict could happen to us is it there project all along the coast so there's a project Northwest of here Port Mammoth Union Beach Keyport keensburg you guys would still be as vulnerable as you are today without the project moving forward so those towns north of or Northwest of here would be protected because for a whole bore plan but this piece in Highland you would still be as you are today um so the highlands is a part of that whole Bay Shore plan it was just a phase out of that whole bore plan which was constructed in Port Mammoth and Union Beach and if this goes no further further than today you're going to be as vulnerable as you are today there's going to be no change you would still get flooded during storms rains um it just be like you are today hey so so water wouldn't be more water diverted to Highland because other areas are protected with their project that's correct okay we're still on round one round one of questions so if you haven't asked a question yet AR follow 62 gravity Point Road and 140 Day Avenue which is the building that you had in your presentation that suffered 68 in of water in Sandy and about 32 in Irene my question is someone mentioned Bay Avenue businesses um my husband and I purchased the building and uh late 2000 and aside from Ivon and Sandy there have been countless I can't even tell you how many nights I could not leave my building and go home on gravity Point Road because there was so much water which was not coming from it's coming from the High Tides the moon tide I can tell you over the years years I before living here I summered here since 1967 that Bo has always come up and my question is what would this wall do for our business or any business for that matter on Day Avenue and I think we know the answer [Music] nothing so if we're talking about new um uh sunny day a title fling that comes up through the storm trains that would be reliant on the town's upgrades to the check valves for the storm water outlet that go out in into the abay as far as water that may make it to your business that comes Overland that's where the Wall comes into play but but I'm sorry [Music] so I'm sorry are you saying that the water came just up to the storm trains during Sandy I think the point the wall not oh correct yes so there is an interior drainage component of the wall that is specifically meant to make sure that the wall does not exacerbate flooding so it can't get out from storm water and other floting that accumulates behind the wall so that was taken into account in the Army corpes design if by regular floting you're just referring to the title floing that only comes up through the stormm water drains and does not come Overland over the the bulkheads and the beaches the wall itself just the stal wall will not help with that but again the the interior drainage components of the Army Corps project would have an Ang benefit of in that [Applause] issue I never thought I'd say these words but Carla I cannot hear you question is the Bay Avenue will anything help theen I will I will refer to Joe on the ongoing project that not to storm however the second part of the project interior [Music] TR so it's going to be collaborate it's going to be a collaborative approach between our interior drainage components with the Army courp project and the town's ongoing efforts with their FEMA project you are getting a fee project and there will be coordination by the Army Corps if we need to add additional interior dra drainage departments to the FEMA project so so the FEMA project is in pre-award it's going to require njd permits Army Corps permits it's going to require collaboration with these entities the game plan for the FEMA project is to improve and enhance the pump safe but the day in day out Flooding at the susceptible areas where bulkheads are below the elevation of six where there's a few of those spots that flooding is going to allow for tital inundation Into the Storm system without this project we will help drain it in a matter of hours versus right now you're waiting for the tides for that to happen so it's going to be a kind of a ying and a Yang where both projects if they were to happen would be the best case scenario understanding that the FEMA project that should be awarded next march will help drain the situation that we're dealing with right now when you have long-term inundation the moon high tide we have bulkheads that are elevation 5 and A2 when you have a 6ot high tide that's coming over the top of the bulkhead that means our pump stations are pumping out salt water which long-term M maintenance is not ideal the ideal situation would be for storm water which is clean coming from on high being pumped out over a bulkhead at a high elevation and keeping the saltwater at Bay maintaining clean infrastructure for long-term low maintenance for the burrow so again there's a lot of variables that could go into what we end up with but again we have one project concentrating on the interior bathtub effect Evacuate the water the question is with the Army Corps is am I putting it out over a bulkhead that's right now about 7 or 8 ft which would be fine but based on the findings you know if it's going over elevation of higher than that to me Army Corps that's something that we will go through over the next year or so in design once awarded I hope that answers it's kind of a large question and again my email is with the burrow so I can go into details on our project as well hi Kelly H 14-3 Beach um I since I've known about this I've been doing a lot of research as well like a lot of people here and one thing that we haven't really talked about is environmental impact I know that um for example our neighbors of the South are having sand problems uh erosion is a major consequence of these walls do you have any um can you state to the environmental consequences that will happen as a result the wall um I'm not aware of erosion in the Port Mammoth wall right now um or I know in sebr they do have um Beach replenishments periodically um this wall will be designed with a stone toe in front to help with erosion um there's not a lot of sand on the banks of the Highlands outside of your beaches um in front of your bulkheads right now so we're not really looking at a lot of erosion at this point um and we did do a full environmental assessment it's in the report um and it came back a finding of no significant impact the Fonzi that's what that's called so we all looked at you know all types of environmental so there was no adverse effects from this wall that would be built uh any more round one questions one [Applause] hi question emry you're going to have to hold the microphone really close to your mouth okay all right um so I I start work tonight since this has been I apologize for having to repeat answer has an economic analysis been done on the impact that the wall is going have on our businesses at our water businesses restaurants bars the clan deoration plant our marinas um we're a waterf town you're going to create a box that basically Cuts up all of our access to water and it doesn't sound like there's any incremental benefit from the wall for the water that we deal with that comes from down the hill in rainstorms and it comes to the sewers in the moones if we can solve those problems with other engineering Solutions the wall sounds like it's just a solution for significant hurricane title problems and the vast majority of our homes were Liv better understanding so I'm trying to figure out what problem we're solving for what percentage of buildings in our town are not lied I heard from my friends say coming in that you're not boxing in the marina buildings at the end of town near one Willow and I know that you're not building the wall past Avenue Avenue I'm trying to figure out what we're solving for here with the worldall that's going to box in our entire town take where our water from access and not solve for 90% of the water problems that we deal with on a day bis so economic impact why is the wall being cut off where is being cut off in that we're trying to stop sling and um those are to much so in every project we do we do a benefit cost ratio which is our economic analysis um we are looking at so far 95 structures remain at risk um that have not been elevated or our businesses so when we do this economic analysis we we are still providing access to the water so that's not really a question like that has not been a thought you know we still provide access to the marinas we still provide access so the water what we're looking at is benefiting um further damages to the those structures in town preventing those structures from being damaged in a storm resta access to the water if you have a restaurant SE which is a each front do restaurant Ming which is a do restaurant I know I've been there um having access to the water view if there's a significantly High solid wall That's facing their or de or Famers to move their PLS are they getting over wall to those businesses so that's the process we have to get to so we can work with those businesses on that location of the wall where the sea pharoh is there's already a bulkhead where those condos are so most likely that wall would go there still providing you access to the parking lot to the um the fairies and to the seaf far that beach would not be touched um as far as Proving Ground we'd have to work with those those owners to say where could we put this wall we don't want to deter access to the Waterfront where you have your dining you have the band you have the outdoor bar you have the fire pit um but their main restaurant is elevated so maybe we can pull the wall back maybe we can you put it somewhere else outside of their property so that's the that's the stage we need to get to to determine that with them and work with them I'm sorry on the sidewalk it could be on the sidewalk so that's a location we have that's a location we have on our street that's the location we have not determined yet andry I don't think you can hear um but she's saying that it hasn't been determined yet you're asking questions that cannot be answered you appreciate what we think right we live in a waterfront town you want to F the 14 foot wall how are people going to get across the 14t wall to get to their votes to get to another Street beach that's understand and I did hear earlier that some folks couldn't hear the beginning of your answer and I think that it's important to note that yes there is the very valid concerns that you're raising but the cost benefit analysis part of what you were looking out was what I've heard a lot of people say well we all have our homes elevated and it it's not actually the case that there aren't structures at risk there are a lot and I just wanted you to repeat that number oh at the time of the study we looked at there is 905 structures still at risk which means they have not been elevated there or they cannot be elevated businesses that can't be elevated so that's homes are not even looking so that's what we okay hang on everyone just calm down I know it's late we I've we've all been here a long time but there's no reason to lose decorum and start talking over people okay so why don't we all just take a breath and let Bethany finish your sentence I when we did the benefit cost ratio it was above one um I'm sorry so the benefit cost ratio that we completed um we looked at the whole town of Highlands so this is where our flood wall line is right now I'm not going to say it's a permanent alignment it's a line on a map um it starts up where the town homes by one Willow are and it ends at Veterans Park um unfortunately the benefit cost ratio was below one if we continued it further south along Highlands past bars past movies under the bridge to connect it in the wall is um it connects to High Ground Up by Shore Drive and up to those town homes by one Willow because they are above 14 um so that benefit cost ratio was determined that way like I said there's still 95 structures at risk um that have not been elevated can't Elevate um for whatever reason so we're trying to protect those we're also trying to protect the infrastructure emergency routes um how to get in and out during a storm pre-storm your cars as well Bethany question when did uh you do when was the benefit cost ratio done in 2020 okay so that's four years ago there's been a significant amount of rebuilding in the last four years thank you so much and I'm sorry this is important right there's been significant I think it was buildings damaged town after stand that you're saying you're to Sol for so already 850 substantial damage the worst St we've ever had and 900 now that we trying to solve so I'd really like to update number because that's very very important right and then the other thing I'd like to understand is what percentage of the buildings downtown is 7% so are we trying to solve for 20% of the buildings downtown we're trying to build a wall to State 20% of the buildings down town or is it a major I mean it's really important to understand what we're trying to solve for here we're trying to build a wall to solve for Less building of damage and sanding that's important for us to know because you know this is a significant impact on the town so up to dat numbers are critical and percentages are critical so if you say it's every buiness on that can't be lifted that's really important for us to understand I appreciate that but a lot of those businesses when they be good they made themselves waterproof so that Bloods come in those buildings are cing out and putting their stock back in place and they rebuilding most of the homes have been lifted many many many in the last four years so I think up toate numbers are critically important appreciating the fact that I think the number was 850 substantial damage and sing and we're trying to ster a lower number that would be damaged up youring this beneficial Amry there's one number I can give you with definitive definitiv there are uh 1,52 properties that are in the special Hazard flood zone so that's after they move the flood zone to include uh most of Shore Drive I I can't understand the building be address with the number well you know what we're going to get an updated number with the building department because that doesn't seem uh it just needs to get updated and that's a very easy thing and so that's why I asked Bethany when the numbers were from so that now I can go to the construction official and say tell me how many buildings either new construction or were lifted from 2020 to 2024 and then we'll have that number okay is there any more round one questions one I don't think this gentleman spoke in round one meaning that you have not spoken before a 67 Washington environmental question on this matter what this looks like it's going to be casting a permanent Shadow around like pretty much the perimeter on the shoreline of of the Town up and down both s we've got small animal and whatnot and we're changing having dark in some of these areas you know that sunlight disappear to say that it may affect people that Liv in the area where got nothing Dark Shadows in that know so on that I don't have the specifics on that right now but I can get back to you with that answer I can ask my environmental biologist okay I think that's round [Music] question okay yeah sure sorry [Applause] Bob Z State Portland Road um what I've heard from this meeting is that um a no vote on the the question means that the project will not go forward uh yes vote means that we will continue to study uh and continue with the study does not necessarily mean to approve the study and that is not what the resolution says um so I would suggest that the counil um irrespective of what happens on vote that you consider doing another vote that more clearly outlines what a yes vote means and what a no vote means right now not there thank you can that [Music] this is the fourth time with exact questions has come up continue to get different answers so remember one we were supposed to vote in November yes or no if we vote Yes from my understanding that means that whoever ABC at army Corp FEA whoever we don't care who who if we vote Yes we are moving forward with the design plan and then that automatically is going to go to building the wall period there is no interim vot on what the design looks like or if we like to design it sounds like we have one opportunity to vote Yes or No that right this gentleman just rephrased it completely I try to check from with the mayor just give her a second I put this vote on even though the project has not been finalized because the Project's been around for longer than I've lived in this town um when I said the 1990s I wasn't lying that's when this started people wanted to have a say I promise them it'll be in an election and there's no better election than a presidential race to get people out to vote and to share their opinion and tell us what you want us to do so if your answer is yes continue onward the wall then that's what will happen if your answer is no you don't want any part of it then that's what will happen Okay I just want I just want to be 100% crystal clear I think it's still getting confusing and I think everyone in here wants protection sure I think there people that are concerned for a design that you don't know what it is exactly but just if you vote Yes and you're saying that you want further design then you'll get you'll have there'll be another vote design v no it is not Sor I'm toy to get lot and and I appreciate the opportunity CL they're not it's important Joe I'm not speaking for you but just to add that the state and the Army are not part of the re hi Robert set the 68 out I just want to ask a quick question about any number 2020 came from as far as houses that have already been lifted because they they came from from the substantially damage list there are hundreds of homes that are not including many brand new homes that I built and are still on the substantially damaged list so if the houses were not physically counted your number is not even close to correct did you tell us where that came from I don't know that right now I can I have to ask I was not on the study back in 2020 so I have to ask my economic my Economist that question hi I'm Kylie so the red line where the wall will go how many proper I believe it's 125 124 so say it's 125 so that Ro is fil and that BEC the property of the State of newey the State of New Jersey has an easement over that property but you would still be the NP owner sorry it's still real property it's just there's an easement over it that is in the name of the state and the town this domain you're going to be paying people for that property paying people for an easement on the property something like so there been any kind of economic impact study to determine how properties would be value or [Music] increased that would be part of the appraisal process during good negotiations when we reach out to you but uh my property value was down as a result of this every every property could be different but every every every appraisal May produce a different uh outcome as far as whether the property value goes up or down says impact on our tax base we have to pick up that spot and right now with very high taxes you're asking us triple will be very very expensive essentially 125 the most expensive pieces of property in this worldes essentially 10% more more because you put a wall up there's no way it's just not and in addition to them while you are building this what is the EV when people drive in see a wall what happens to the Val homes and sales I know none of you have done any of those studies I'm conf saying but I bring that up because that is probably sing the most essential point of process is say the house house and one other way to look at it I'm not saying the way that you're looking at it is wrong one other way to look at it is you know to elevate a house um you know if the infrastructure serviceing that house such as the rows the utilities that becomes inundated uh the quality of life for the person who's in that elevated house could go down so [Music] promised us all this money we build that City ball and we got screw and now we're building an entire infastructure on B driving up the road very and where is all the money we supposed to get for that got a lot of money but we PID a lot more than so every time I you get this you get that you don't get it we don't get it you know what 25% City Hall and I know you that stud [Music] anybody else know Engineers question stand I was involved in part of this about 10 years ago when we had the first done us um I was told the one above sea level is that correct anybody know uh that's in some locations um it doesn't matter island is now the same thing is now 36 have that se is the height of wall 3 I think it's at elevation 20 okay well they're in standing we over to the center no protection to those houses on thatp still over even on that's number one number two you're talking about I think was the two 5 10 year blood range did your pictures right so that said sea level raises that high my mind sing H is going to be gone means the only thing sto in that ocean is the Hill Bel 36 I don't care what you got build can you guys tell me I'm wrong Sandy Hook has a natural Dune system that's probably out of elevation 14 at the moment um that runs north to south um so that will still add protection you know and Candy Hook is continually growing and it gets replenished on the back end as well so those Dunes are continually growing um as far as sebrite there was wave action that did over toop the seaw wall but a lot of that flooding came from the strwberry in the navyy river it because their bulkheads are six 7 foot high so a lot of that flooding did happen there and they have nowhere to store it and it happens every day as we know I agree with that absolutely correct from side seaw wall that seaw wall help that back water help get out of when you go to the ocean side there a seaw walk in if there's a dune there too the seaw walk the water can't go through the D so the answer for I don't think anybody here does have a bunch ofe we have numbers that is going to take years for disability go through Z an an add to this price to say it takes 10 years 20 years everything goes up in price those numbers are way up we did add contingency for those pice those costs so a contingency is added in for Construction and design so right even still it could they could they could escalate yes especially inate climate they could escalate yes everything we have all this money coming from our government for El here we don't know who's going to get voted it's going to be the next regime com they say oh you get this money where do the that's more than that's more than know luckily that's not going to happen so this this project is part of a White House 36 project so they they keep an eye on what's going on for this project so they're not going to take the funding away if people say no then the funds have to be released or they so they gete the project right please I just have a quick question for May please has there been any cost to the B today or any of these studies cost cost to the burrow for any for this project no other than you know other than pay for the custodian to stay late you know again I real quick I appreciate the mayor's honesty really do just back question will it get voted voted again so my understanding that this vote will know gaug the temperature or the the feelings of the people Highlands um because it's you know it's stated as a noning batt referendum meaning not but I appreciate the honestly say not going to vot against the will of the people speak so I feel the yes word is the wall will get built and no wall a no V the both the wall might not thank you carer bar um going back to the issue of cross uh what hasn't been mentioned you were talking about B furniture on the top of the wall in addition to the threat of domain ements and loss of our repairing Grant you're are also confirming that every waterr property owner in business will be responsible for the Marine construction to restore our own access in other words our docks will be torn down we will have to [Music] rebuild I don't think the yeah I don't think they fall off along in the design process for that whether the on the cour will constructed or whether it would be factored into the compensation as part of the uh um the real estate acquisition process so that's still to be determined cther 161 beach again um I don't think that I'm going to relinquish this until there's an actual answer to the question is a yes vote Yes to the completion of the wall several of you have said that that is what we heard is that the answer to the question it's simple I appreciate the Poli Ians I appreciate the people who want this fill I appreciate the double speed don't do that to us answer the question is a yes vote Yes to the completion of the wall simple there can be many other votes we can vote on this exactly we could have another vote on this these guys go back and and work on it and bring us something that was more palatable May maybe I don't know the answer to that you you said it's a nonbing question you you said at least twice yes from your mouth that yes vote was yes to the completion of the wall you can see that that would be problematic yes and I'm tired and I'm sorry you said that earlier yeah before you got there so I'm just trying to keep everybody honest here I'm going to turn arguing is and I I pay attention to these facts this is what was said this was what was represented to this group of people the question has been asked four or five times with four or five response I think that everybody is Ed an actual definitive response on the question I'm going to leave here thinking that yes is definitive to the wall and and I I'm not seeing anything despite the double speak despite the political spe despite the fact that despite what you are saying I think that you have an agenda and is that the answer not political speak I'm up for re-election next year suppose somebody who really really wants the wall runs and they win and they put out a non-binding question and it flips everything that's why I can't give you a definitive answer because I said before I don't have a crystal ball cuz some somebody else could do a question or somebody else can just say hey Army Corp come over here I'll sign that paperwork and who was ever on council at the time will say yes you have the authority to sign that paperwork mayor that's why I can't give you it's not double speak I can't give you a definitive answer because I don't deal in hypotheticals and have crystal balls or wherever Todd went with his fairy dust all right um and then the second question someone was talking about the beaches I live we have a very small Beach uh our beach will be gone with the wall in fact I don't even know how you will build a wall without taking away some of our houses so um that is the majority of the beaches in high they're very narrow um you know PPO is not part of this uh the recreation beaches is far I don't know how much land we left M Beach when this is done beaches that are on the other side of the are out this um how how can you say that I mean all the beaches are G and how can you say like when you're talking about domain and easement and no one's going to easement so we are talking about domain and the appraisal value is well under market value and that's fact it's awful but that that's just a fact the beaches will be gone did I hear you say I mean what is your respons that one and did I hear you say that the beach of seaer is going to be carved out so if that's carved out the no water come through there so I'm not understanding any of it uh none of it makes [Music] sense that's the sand the seire sandbox yeah sandbox but even sandx water there I no the wall would be connected that's the wall the alignment of the wall would be continuous there would be no holes in the wall there'll be access points to access a dock a parking lot a restaurant so but those things have to be determined with you at our next phase so we I can't answer that at this moment as far as your beaches if you I'm trying to think about where you're living in in retrospect of the whole project because of the wall you might lose some of your beach at high tide you don't have the beach at high tide either so it'll be similar to that you'll have yeah it's very small yes so the wall will be at your bulkhead and then you would lose you you would lose access to that part of the beach yes okay I it yes don't if you're taking our beach say you're taking our beach I can't say that because some locations were not so I don't know where you're locate where your specific property is that's the design phase that we have to get to so I could work with you to keep these these project elements that you want again um the project was to go forward I assume that there's going to be insurance cost ongoing or the wall who Bears those do we share those with someone or is that strictly the town's responsibility all I'm sorry can you elaborate that a little bit with the insurance I was talking about the uh like general liability insurance for the contract this construction after after it's constructed someone falls off someone gets hurt I don't know what could possibly happen something happens that someone wants to sue [Music] about pance [Music] yeah we'll have to look into that and get back to you but um oh yeah [Music] yeah yeah yeah exactly yeah uh yeah we want to make sure that we're giving you accurate information so that's why we're going to put it on the website and so everybody can see it I'm Michael and Central um first thing I want to say what I've heard about whether the project mes forward or not is that when the first contract goes to construction the PPA partnership agreement has to be signed until then the town does not have a current commitment for construction of the wall so it would go through design process up to the point of issuing the first Construction contract and that one we're in and see check okay I just wanted that's what I took away from the conversation um second is it possible to bring up the slide that showed the rendering by veterans partk and I see it's a very there are just continuous sections of this wall they very there are large GS in the wall and I think that's important I'm assuming those are Deployable sections and I think that's an important option for people to understand for places like proving ground or the restaurants that there can be Deployable wall segments uh could be operated or maintain similar to a lot of the urban flood walls that have been built I just want to to check if that's an option that you'll be working with people on where deployables would be appropriate and where they would become too costly yes you're correct yes yes are in at 148 million or those will be added so that price it's included in that 148 million so we'd have to work with you to determine what's appropriate for your property so so there is no definitive plan to have we're not at that stage yet to say it's definitive or not [Music] EV andate [Music] but sure what everybody's concerns are maybe having another you maybe now they better understand theide entities involved we're looking foring I [Music] it's question about the walls and in between okay we could have this we could have this sidebar conver ation later I'm going to motion to adjourn can I get a second second okay all in favor I thank you meeting AJ at 9917 e