[Music] a okay I making this announcement in compliance with the open public meetings act chapter 231 Public Law 1975 laws of the state of New Jersey the bur clerk is prepared to schedule the meetings of the governing body of the bur of Kenworth for the year 2024 the barl clerk has posted a true copy of this schedule on the Bolton board located at the front entrance of barow Hall and is mail true copies of this schedule to the local source to store Ledger and the home News Tribune and is maintaining a copy of the schedule in her office during the year 2024 accordingly the notice requirements of the open public meetings act have been satisfied in regard to this meeting please stand for the salute to the flag I to the flag of the United States of America and to the repblic for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all roll call Mayor Carlovich here councilman Bole here councilman finella here councilwoman Jana perero here councilman moral here councilman SC here councilman Zimmerman he's here I just saw him out in the hallway he's here he's here he was in our meeting he's here okay is there a motion to accept and approve the following minutes of the work session of November 1st 2020 23 January 17 2024 February 21st 2024 March 624 and council meeting February 21st 2024 motion second roll call councilman boyo here oh yes councilman yes councilwoman J cerno yes councilman Morrow yes councilman scare yes councilman Zimmerman yes okay like to move to the finance report C counc me finish were you going to do again because there's no video um yeah okay let me just make a quick announcement um a couple of them Marco is just having had car trouble and he's running a little bit late so um I'm expecting him very soon but he did just send me a message um and also just so everyone knows that this is the first meeting that's combined between work session our work session and our regular meeting will be one meeting from now on so there'll be one salute to the flat or one open public meetings act one uh part that's open to the public we won't be repeating reports and it should be more effective and and make more sense and people won't be confused what meeting is what meeting when am I speaking when am I not speaking and so the be one meeting we're going to combine them starting at 6 p.m. so with that said um the budget's going to be introduced tonight um I just have to have uh High Praise And kudos to CFO Canon chill with an outstanding job they did and um keeping it uh as level as they could um that's all I have okay thank you councilman Department of Public Works councilman Bole um I don't have a lot the next cardboard pickup is going to be Tuesday March 26 uh cans and bottles April 2nd BR pickup um every Thursday uh the DPW received the check for $1,155 for for 3865 tons of cardboard and paper wow that's great it's just the month of January that's great and how much would we have expect as opposed to receiving a check for I think cans our total go for January was like $2200 well um with if you factor in hard board it's that's your decrease you got the positive flow off setting the $3,000 charge well and thank you too for the part to last two days like everything got done dip uh we still have some minor issues there's a couple leaks in each part but they're very minor one of them is Loose H I think already fixed another one we have to get the outside foret um Camp so the kids don't turn on leave it on yeah stuff like that but still we told them Friday for practice to start but I just have a question I know this has come up before um how about how difficult would it be for us to get cameras in the Parks because the parks they're unreliable how do we I mean they're being vandalized and the kids are throwing their garbage all I see it on social media all the time okay you were going to go into that yeah me and Angela met yesterday yesterday I talking about um we we our phones were blowing for two days on poke between posts parents um one of the kid names was mentioned the parks were absolutely like a disaster but it's at night I'm not talk you know I'm not not on you guys we just want to try and talk about some ways to try and remedy it between the chief so there's a couple ways we could do it is um I mean it's too late now it just cost you more money but you could put in 6ot fencing that's anti chain Ling that would slow them down with Gates and then you have and then lock it like have it we loock it once it's dust and then we'll open it at dawn um that's one way of doing it but I mean in my opinion it should have been done that way in the beginning thinking more things like we asked the chief to to maybe have something at school or pikon or somebody and talk to the kids about taking care of your town uh we already started putting together a few groups like to maybe maintain we've done it before where groups of kids would go to The Parks at night and also if the cops drive by or something see something just maybe get out and say hey guys can you give me five minutes to clean up um we stop and clean up all the time yeah C only keep honesty on we we also it's it's also about getting the word out Pat had meent you had he had a lot of great ideas is I'm I'll share we had talked about I'll share with you and uh the chief as well we don't think but I did um have the front sign put out just to get a remember to clean up after yourselves don't Litter it a sign's not going to change anyone but it's part of a bigger plan um had an idea the rec center doing walks and cleanups those were great ideas that happen all the time after school the older kids would get out come over here to play basketball while the grandparents and stuff are walking by um little little idea I know it's not going to help probably but maybe two more garbage hands in each park at least when we're cleaning it up it'll be closer yeah we can we can add more gar scans I'm I'm working with um the chief in like I've talked to him about in the past and I'm going work with them in the future right now I'm just getting vot so better cameras cameras we have right now are very unreliable I want something that they can access from the police department M they can check on it you know you know with a more sophisticated system you have cameras that only pick up hum alerts we do have I don't want to I just got we do have cameras and they do we did change that last year that they do go to the police now now they're not good I'm I'm not saying we don't want to upgrade them but I don't want people to think that they don't they do and we did make sure the chief has access and they do build police now I don't know about the recording but when you're inside the buildings they're really clear they're really even at night with those l oh okay zooming in the same exact system in our zooming in you lose quality so right so that's where it's hard to figure out who it is also the angles are wrong we had an issue there one time and I mean I don't know the details on the police do I was just asked you know how to get in there yeah and there was an issue where they said the angles were wrong they couldn't they couldn't solve it okay so do we do we have a time that this is happening is it after dark is it the day or a lot on Saturdays now gorgeous on lot of the teenagers during the day right I saw 200 kids in the park it was the greatest feeling ever that I had to take a ride later and I saw all the garbage everywhere right right you know maybe something as basic and simple as some signs up like please keep keep keep your Park clean Park is here for you things are going to change a right you please please put your garbage away you know please be mindful of small children and and families in the park so everyone enjoys the park you know keep your foul language you know don't want to leave the playground when a grandmother comes with a four-year-old kid to go on the way they don't get all the s and you know just whatever we can do well that 16 Street has also gotten a lot of uh abuse I have to talk to Tony about it but the the material right under the swing and it's not through vandalism it's through literally from kids dragging the feet as they swim I can tell just by looking at it so we just got to get that fixed this year and we'll do that with Recreation gr great just just on another end I know you know the police department used we have a cat entry for park checks I know in the past when they were vandalizing the the Mario park building and stuff like that could we do that Chief increase park checks and and do it in the cad system and especially at night time absolutely we'll check them but I think part of the problem like like saying it's not so much vandalism as people just not cleaning up I don't know whether people have kind of just lost all track of you know I I talked to P and anel about this and it kind of bugs me that we have to clean up after a bunch of kids that should be able to clean up after themselves right you know whether whether we put signs up we put garbage cans up we all went to school together about the same time and I said this the we never would have thought about leaving the park like that because some of the older kids I won't mention would have beat our beat our bus leaving leaving leaving the parks they kind we kind of policed ourselves from for case you know so um you know we'll definitely check my guys my guys stop and play basketball with the kids they get out of the car they walk through the parks all the time so uh I just think it's uh it's more a little personal responsibility here we got to kind of get the word out to people to take care of we worked hard on these parts give them a nice place to let's take care of them you know that's on everybody not you know DPW or whoever have on something on these kids you bring something in bring right right and since I've been here the only since I the only vandalism I've seen is host tickets being left on that aren't tamperproof and maybe dir bathrooms but I haven't seen one thing with the sink there was one before you but knock on W it's hasn't happened it's been a while it's been a while which is a good thing and this year we're looking with Tony and I we talked last year this year we're looking to get the automatic locks on 16th Street bathrooms because they' worked really well into Mar know was towards the end of the season so we can program it to whatever time schedule part right wants for you guys a council want and um they'll work automatically no one has to do that that's great yeah and we can have it then it also permanently lock during the winter yeah and just on that too I I I you know I do pass the parks I know there was a group playing there today and the kids had school today so there are kids from out of town that are coming in and playing too then and I knew I did see you know one or two people 16 I don't even know they could probably adults if they're not in high school at this point climbing on the playground stuff too so you know whether it's a DPW or the police driving by or whatever might be just in in our best interest just to say listen you're too old for this this you know whether we put a sign up TW you know 12 years of age or whatever it's going to be I don't know what the rating is for those little slides and climbing things but when you got 16-year- old kids on top going nuts you know it's it's not me for that that abuse so playground manufacturers will make you a sign for that'll match the playground if you ask them to that we'll say this is for the siege group yeah I think we need something like that just I think Tony can chime in on this one so the the all have stickers that are a stickers and you can get signs made you know they're usually about um 18 to 24 in High by 12 in wide um but I F have found through all the playgrounds we have built that when you engage the community and specifically I like Pat's idea about bringing it to the schools and having the kids kind of take ownership and police it themselves but it would be more helpful if there were more trash can and specifically Recycling and um trash combination can around cuz if somebody has to go carrying something they're not going to do it um it's hurting too that's why I think the school should be in yeah is a mess it is a mess bad bad every night yeah but um it when you engage your community that that's where you're going to get the better um outcome cuz even watching it it's it's done already and the older kids on the equipment they're not going to hurt it it's commercial grade steel equipment but you know then the because I've seen it at the Mario if you have older kids on the swings and your parents they little kids they feel funny would you mind getting off the swing so we can put the kids here so maybe a more friendly verage sign that we as a burrow can get for all three pars saying something like you know I don't know something not as generic as ages something like please be mindful of give everyone time at the park so and so whatever everyone would like to enjoy the time at the park please be mind of others like the gym when when it's when it's something like that okay yeah right that's the in effect that the parks close at dusk when it gets dark problem the lights are there for the but right they look at as an invitation if keep play right no I get it I think there used to be a sign at the Mario on the old tennis courts that said nine right and you know what you don't mind it cuz what else are the kids going to do they're going to be you know roaming the streets but if they could just help to maintain it and and that they are nicer now especially 16 Street there are kids from out of town and young adults that are using it you know so it is not just our own we lost the basketball court the Mario so everyone goes there EX right exactly okay if there's anything I help just let me know since we're on the topic of kids um I notic we don't have a meeting the beginning of next month so April 13th is opening day for L Chief you were informed that uh we need to know what route we're going to take they're going to take and um mayor and Council will invite it and um hopefully it's not going to rain what's the date again I'm sorry April 13th April 13th and what time is the period do we know yet I believe usually steps off at 1 1 p.m. yeah read at St is at 12 usually yeah okay thank you okay anything else y okay uh thank you councilman depart uh Department of Public Safety councilman Zimmerman thank you mayor I have Chief Seuss's report first I'd like to say congratulations to Chief Seuss I know he submitted his uh letter of intent to retire effective July 1st of this year and uh I did tell Chief Seuss he he does a great job and when I retired I did leave uh our department in great hands and and he's done a great job and I respect him and appreciate everything he's done and I wish him the best in his future endeavors and Godspeed I know it's a little ways off but uh just wanted to uh start off with that thank you commission appreciate yeah so Chief susu's report in the first half of March CER police department has seen an uptick in motor vehicle burglaries and thefts again we've had a half dozen reported incidents which have occurred at different locations in town including North 19th and 21st streets as well as Dorset Drive and North Michigan Avenue residents are reminded to lock their vehicles even if they are parked in their driveways as actors are going up and down streets and entering any vehicle they can get into unknown actors also attempted to steal a Cadillac Escalade from North Michigan Avenue on Sunday the 17th but were unable to access the vehicle we have also seen an increase in reported shopliftings at the Acme Supermarket with three shoplifting arrests in the first half of March these are only the reported incidents as the Acme loss prevention will sometimes intervene and if they've recovered their merchandise will either not report the incident or choose to not press charges with the weather getting nicer and more people out walking Kenworth is starting more targeted details aimed at enforcing Motor Vehicles to stop for crossing pedestrians residents are reminded to only cross the Boulevard in crosswalks and when driving to please stop for anyone who has entered a crosswalk just remember New Jersey it's no longer yield to pedestrians it's stopped for pedestrians in a crosswalk it does carry points on your license and a hefty fine so you have to stop not yield so when they're in this crosswalk from end to end you got to be stopped till they get out of the crosswalk once they pass in front of you is not a permission to just hit the gas and go while they're still out in the middle of the boulevard teetering on the double yellow line um I'm Monday March 18th Dominic relli conducted a motor vehicle stop in the area of North Michigan Avenue and federal Avenue during a subsequent search of the vehicle officer relli recovered a stolen firearm with hollowpoint ammunition and various amounts of heroin cocaine Xanax and other prescription narcotics the driver an East arme Resident was charged with unlawful possession of a weapon possession of a stolen firearm and various other narcotic offenses the suspect was remanded to the Union County Jail to await detention and hearing Chief Seuss would like to recognize and commend officer relli for his diligent police work this is the fifth time um an illegal handgun that officer relli has recovered in the last year and a half along with numerous other narcotic arrests officer richelli has done a phenomenal job since being hired has been an awesome representation of the kwart police department and the burrow that's all I have is there anything Chief Seuss that that you need to add to uh the report no just uh like I said he uh he's got a good nose for a lot of these U these actors coming from East Orange and everything from his experience up in East Orange and in a year and a half to take five guns off the road is is just work that he's doing pretty good it's also evidence everybody here that this stuff is here this is in this this stuff is in town you know everybody thinks it's Elizabeth for plan field but these kind of people are going through town all the time our flop cameras are going off every day and we have some good young guys out there who have good noses who are doing this kind of good police work all the time and I couldn't be any proud of them so it's good good police work agre excellent y thank you that's it mayor thank you councilman uh Planning and Zoning councilman Morrow thank you mayor uh start with uh planning where there's not much of substance to report on from the board other than we're also going to be beginning our reviews of the Onyx property determining the B roles of each the council and the planning board uh in such studies and things that'll have to come out of what's on our agenda for the last couple of weeks uh so more to come on that through the official business at both the council and the planning board levels uh other than that we do have a few uh applications that have been progressing their ways back and forth through our town professionals and everybody involved we'll be getting those on the board's uh calendar soon uh moving on to the building department uh I'll start with an announcement to the public and thank you Marco for being here uh our department has been receiving applications for the annual motor vehicle body storage where we sent out notices in January I believe I reported on that a couple of months ago if you sent in an application our construction official plans on conducting inspections this spring and you will be hearing back from us accordingly important to note here that our code enforcer will be researching any other businesses that have applied for these storage units in the past uh and have not applied this year and we'll be going out to inspect and talk to the property owners so we do urge that the businesses who have storage containers on their property fill out the application in order to avoid any violations or fines for anyone with a concern or an inquiry we encourage that you call our department with any questions or download the application for these storage units on our Bor website under the building department link then click on the construction application and forms section of that se uh page and then submit the application to the department okay and on the zoning front we've uh I didn't report last meeting on February so I'm going to do that now we had 18 applications that were filed in February for zoning all normal stuff fences some new businesses that as those applications get approved I'll talk more about uh and then signs for various businesses in town so nothing crazy but great to see all the activity uh for March currently we're happy to be reporting that we're working with residents as they start to fill out their zoning applications just to beautify their homes so we have 11 applications thus far in the month of uh of March and it's only the 20th uh these are for new fences Home additions and gazebos all great stuff to see going on in town now regarding complaints um I'll start with zoning where we've seen a couple of legal apartments in a single family home this led to us issuing a notice of violation over the last couple of weeks um we've also had some summonses issued for property owners that were in violation of Prior notices and didn't clean up uh what was needed uh so that's all been taken care of uh on the code enforcement front we've currently had three complaints over the last few weeks um one this one currently being addressed still is some uh property maintenance issues uh that are going on in town nothing too alarming just normal things I think you see at the beginning of Spring uh a homeowner complaining about a neighbor fixing his car which is now disabled on his parking uh on his driveway uh and this has also been addressed um one noise complaint from a homeowner who lives across the street from our industrial area in town complaining about the trucks in the industrial area so uh all these things being addressed uh in due time or already uh that's it on the report Greg I just wanted to ask one question last meeting I believe we were talking about Richfield Avenues and the flooding that happens there when we have those intense storms and it it was identified that the parkway drain dra AG was uh possibly one of the reasons are you having trouble getting in touch with the park uh the do are they responsive the homeowners have been asking so I I did say I follow up I yeah I was out of the office since last three days but I made contact with some of the wor for the park right down south he's a friend of mine um he steered me in the right direction I'll be stopping at someone's office either tomorrow or Friday and uh talking to the office that handles this re and um I'll report back to you on that as well the rest of council I received several emails regarding this issue as well and um I forwarded them to the Barrow engineer although he's not here so I can't ask him and I know he's recently had surgery um and they're questioning why the responsibility of the drainage on the street is uh falling on a private property owner and that the the Barrow does not have proper drainage installed so I asked uh the barrel engineer to look at this and see if there was some other solution you know instead of in 5 years from now or two years from now us tracking down the Parkway and uh these other private uh Property Owners to take care of this drainage ditch so um when Tony's feeling better I'll speak about it in depth with him but um it is is uh something to talk about you know and I'm not really sure you know I'm when this road was put in it was obviously a long time ago but I don't know why the drainage the proper drainage wasn't put there in the first place but I think the storms are just getting more severe and flooding is just becoming a problem everywhere and so I think it's just something we we should at least um explore um what we can do to uh help that problem over there I walked Bridgefield and the ddge area with Christian from haror the SS um we looked over the survey Maps it's a very odd setup for some reason the road that we maintain that we legally own as a burrow stops on the zoning maps 25 ft from the end from the ditch that belongs to the commercial residence off of um marus Market Street mhm but the black top is paved all the way up to the ditch so we're Paving past our quar line um the other thing is the way the road is built is the first 3/4 of the road pitches towards um the the county road and then the last of ites towards the ditch and there are no catch Basin on that road at all I think when it was first installed like you said said however many years ago they ried on gravity just to pull it out of the street and throw it onto the county road um we have a Christian says we have enough pitch if we wanted to put a Bas in at the end of that road and run it down there but that road was recently just paided and I don't know if you guys have a moratorium on paid roads like I know sometimes I moratorium where you're not allowed to dig it off after so many years of um if you do then the contractor has to like repeat the whole thing for his work site I don't know I have to find out or ask you guys to find out but okay um that's one solution it'll be costly um probably like weeks long project but that's the only way to get it done put in front of that guy's house the last two houses on both sides both sides have them run down both sides of the road until you get to um Michigan AV because everybody from that crown towards Michigan ad they have an issue okay it's the last two houses on each side it's the last four that's the last four y all right so it's last four I'm sorry um but it's from that crown back to the commercial property um I think that if we alleviate if G State parly alleviates their issues it'll it'll it won't eliminate the flooding issues but it will lessen the impact it won't be as drastic okay um I think Christian was right we do need to put something in there right some it's Shield it's Summit it's all those roads that back up into that area okay all the ones that don't have drainage so with one is another one that res complained about they have no drain ites on their Road no patch basons that's another one we have to pipe out to I think fair I'm not forget get the of but I know W is the one issue that called us out on so that's another one that needs storm bases and underground ping carrying it out to the main road okay thank you you're welcome than great that's okay thank you councilman uh Recreation and fire councilman scarice thank you mayor um for the rec department basketball has ended and it was a huge success as a reminder the townwide Easter egg hunt is coming Sunday March 24th starting at 10:00 a.m. registrations are currently open and are required the remain date for the hunt will be on Saturday March 30th at 10:00 a.m. the hunt will be held at Demario Park this event is for residents only the age range is from Toddlers walking age to fourth grade there are currently 282 children registered uh Middle School B uh baseball practices have begun and games will start in April Middle School track and field has 26 kids registered practices have begun already and meets will begin in April summer camp registrations are open exclusively to Kenworth residents and Kenworth school student only until April 15th starting April 16th Camp registrations will open to the general public you can register through Community class there are 47 kids registered so far information regarding the camp has been sent out and that's all I have to report than thank you councilman Education Health and Human Services uh councilwoman jodano thank you mayor um last week was our library meeting on Thursday and um they have a plethora of events going from the rest of March all through April really ramping up they were talking about a lot of different events and um activities for the children especially during the summer um what she did um ask again is please call and register your children because there are limited spaces and if they had to um maybe add another event or another time to accommodate everyone that would like to attend they could do that but really is important for the children's programs that you call the library and register your children um and the adult programs are still going there's the 2:00 in the afternoon noon and then they have a couple during weekday nights but um there are so many on many days the best bet is to go on the library website or call or stop in and they have uh leaflets with all the information the Board of Health meeting will be um tomorrow night at uh 7:00 and they didn't have anything in particular to report up to now the Board of Education uh meeting was March 11th and I addressed with the board to ask the contractors to reach out to the residents along um Monro and 14th Street that couple of people were having issues with the heavy machinery and the trucks and whatever coming in and out um and I suggested to them that um it would be a good idea for the contractors to either prepare a leaflet or something for those residents that if they had question about something they had the right person to go to so their calls aren't coming into burrow Hall and we really don't have the answers to give them but I will say the job site is being kept pristine uh the streets look great everything is parked and cleaned um as best as they can uh but I understand their concern but it's the nature of the Beast like you know Billy said if you live next to a a construction site you are are going to have some disruption but it's going according to schedule so hopefully it will uh complete um in the time that it was uh recommended social concerns I want to thank Angela for posting on the website when the days and times to drop off the food at St Teresa's it's really very helpful there were so many different uh time frame so thank you for putting it up there and um the senior center uh Greg and Charley and I met last week and just walked the whole building inside and out couple of little repairs that are necessary u a little bit of wear and tear and Greg's right there of course um going to power wash and Spruce up painting the front doors and some other things that could be done and uh Shirley was uh interested in purchasing some lightweight um folding tables like you typically could get at Home Depot because every time they have events she has to call Greg and he has to send the staff over to open and they have to come back to close them where she had some more lightweight things she knows she can manipulate them herself and um she has her budget so she's maintaining whatever she has to do within her budget um but Greg is really very helpful with everything she wants to do she has great ideas there to spruce up the building a little bit and I just want want to remind everybody tomorrow is soups on at the senior center 6 to8 it's only $12 a ticket I don't know if there's any left I think there are some but this is all soup that comes from restaurants it's not homemade so it should be really fantastic and last year I believe they sold out and there were people like waiting at the door to get in so um yeah that'll be a great night tomorrow 6:00 to 8 at the um Senior Center and that's all I have thank you councilwoman May or not if the video was here can I get my report or cuz I was going to wait until would you like to read your report again okay well no I didn't have I just said I'll wait until okay all right um the 2024 report is going to be introduced tonight the all areas of the budget we looked at for possible cuts and new revenues to the budget but is constantly being explored to find out every little bit of monies we can uh gain while the increase for both the municipal and library is higher but uh this year's increase is 55% compared to last year's 9.7 uh budget increase uh three main contributors for the increase were Group Insurance Debt Service and the raway valley SE Authority these three increases which we have very little control over equal $830,000 all other budget increases to this year's budget amounted to 230,000 so as you can see it was a hard budget again this year due to these three large increases mentioned we also had a few budget decreases which helped offset the budget increase the police and public pension bills decreased and the insurance for the joint Insurance Fund known as the GIF also decreased Sol weights decreased by 50,000 which uh is uh pretty good but unfortunately the spring bulk pickup will be eliminated and uh we will be having the fall pick up uh from the revenue set we're able to use 103,000 almost 104,000 a mpal relief fund to help lower the effects of the budget increase but in summary The increased Revenue usage the municipal budget increased 722 th000 and the library increased 108,000 for a total increase of8 [Music] 3,855 uh the comparison to 2023 was 1.3 million so it worked out uh better than last year so total increase uh per average house in 2024 which includes a library will be32 $32.67 and of this amount $107 is due to Lost valuation of the old mer property so the library yearly budget is set by State Statute and based on percentage of equalized value so there's nothing that can be done about that that's all I have to say mayor thank you [Music] councilman uh bar engineer is not here bar CFO um I distributed to uh cancel a little bit more of the breakdown of the uh budget uh increases decreases um as councilman P said that the the main increases were those three three areas with the U Insurance debt of broy Valley um you know we had a few nice decreases um you know the municipal Relief Fund was nice to bring in um you know it's it's better than last year but I I wish there was better news to tell it's hard to you know without cutting surfaces to the town it's hard to control when you have three big areas of increase um so if anybody has any questions on the two sheets that I gave out Jill I have one um you know the three big increases with the raway valley coming in at 77,000 that's actually the fourth big increase it's the library I think Mr F was saying that that's that stat driven so is there there's a it's it's they call it 13 of a mill based on the utilized value so that's why our percentage went up from 8 to 10 from 23 to 24 if I'm reading this correctly on the second sheet we were 0088 as the factor and then it was 0.1 105 for the library you're talking yeah so is that so that the law didn't change at the state level our valuations changed at the Town level well said they Bas it off of the equalized value and I know uh the Board of Ed is concerned with that b equalized value is going up as as much uh too because they're getting hit with a cut in their state aid and how he explained it is you know that it it appears like the the home values in Kenworth he was explaining to Ken and I last night are going through the roof so I mean it's a good good that everyone's home values are going up so much but what that what the impact of the library is because the values are going up the equalized value is going up as well and then you you apply that formula to the equalized and that's it that's the library budget interesting I know this is not a school board meeting but in your profession you seem to know a lot about this is this going to do uh almost an equal impact to the school's budget where either their ratio goes up or they get less Aid because our value went up thought I have read an article about the about the school budget. million they were cut so it was cut they got they got it cut and that was part of the discussion and the finance commit committee met this week to discuss how they're going to address it because they absolutely don't come back to the burrow to make up that deficit so they did have a couple of other programs on the board that they were contemplating that now they have to um re rethink how they're going to work this through for the next year so that will be on my next report how whatever they have come up with um to work through that 1 point I believe it's 1.4 or five interesting I guess where I was going with that is that the town people should expect was there was a 300,000 increase for the choice but the state aid loss was 1.6 so it comes out to 1.3 and the county do we have any County the list it's interesting with the county county is very tight LIF about what's what's happening so they they last couple years they've had a flat budget and then what they do is they they equalize it and spread it out amongst the municipalities so at any given time it's it's hard to know like what your number even with a flock budget there's sometimes I go you know like U you know way up or way down so it's it's really it's really until they release that number you really don't know I think L year we do the county course it's going up or down yeah they they won't release the number until after they adopt their budget that's their and I I go back to the library you know I I thought they're like a year or two behind on that equalized value so I don't know if that Merc uh loss of Revenue is going to impact them or not at some point you know like uh you know like it's catching up to them or if you know the value of the homes is just going up so much it's not going to matter quite as much I mean my initial thought was they're a year behind like they may see something next year but I I I can't say that for sure either because you you never know what the equalized value is going to be all right last question last year for 2023 what percentage did the municipality make up of the entire tax uh increase and I mean I'm just going to imagine more large numbers we're going to stay close to the same number if everybody's having troubles but what was that percentage versus the um the 5.5 and uh no the whole pie of of the tax increase what was the municipality percentage probably about 33% the whole he's talking the sorry I I have misunderstood yeah maybe about 30 a third of it okay so we may be representing with this number again another third of whatever the tax increase May wind up I'm pontificating here and I don't want to put you on the spot I'm sorry didn't understand what you were asking that's okay usually like the board of V you know it's the board of V is the biggest Fe and then I believe in this town uh the the municipal is is a bigger percentage in the county yeah I believe that's to break down all right well thank you Jo thanks I have a question regarding school funding is the board add investigating this like as to how they came up with this number and also maybe is there a way to appeal the decision I've been really hurts Kenworth yep I've been reaching out to our Senators I've been trying it does but it doesn't because there are programs that they will have to eliminate that maybe that one point three or four would have funded so it's not that they could come back and say hey burrow you have to pick up the difference they're going to have to tighten their belt like every other department in korth is doing right my understanding is that not all School Board districts were cut not at all yeah that's what I'm saying so how did they pick us so this is what I got from the state of New Jersey allegedly our property values went up 75% from 2019 to fiscal year 2025 they bring it to there our income per household went up 29% our um underserved percentage of children in the school district declined from 23% to 19% and our our enrollment declined by 1% now I asked uh followed up on this report asking what they use to determine these numbers because I don't believe that our income went up 29% per household and our property values went up 75% so I'm still waiting to hear back from and get that information and when I do I'll share it with you and I've also been in contact with our Senator um asking for help as well okay great so yeah of course I would disagree with some of those numers I think we might disagree so that's why I asked where they uh what what report they use to come up with this these numbers because I I certainly would like to see it I'm sure everyone would I don't think too many households went up 75% in I don't think so I agree that the value's gone up but not quite that high agree and not 29% in income either I don't believe so okay is that all for the CFO okay uh bur attorney no report okay thank you B administrator U I don't have anything I'll just to put out shout out to remind everyone to do their training um I did get quite a few so just a reminder that's all you got time just a reminder thank you okay is there a motion to accept and approve bar reports motion second all in favor we have ordinance 2024 d06 for introduction it's the calendar year 2024 ordinance to establish a cap Bank njsa 4A colon 4- [Music] 45.4 is there a motion to approve ordinance [Music] councilman Bole yes councilman finella yes councilwoman gardano pno yes councilman MOA yes councilman scures yes councilman Zimmerman yes be it hereby resolved that ordinance 20246 here 24 introduced do now pass on first reading and that said ordinance be further considered for final passage at a meeting to be held on April 17th 2024 at 6:00 p.m. or as soon thereafter as the matter can be reached at the regular meeting place of the burough councel and and that at such time in place all persons interested be given an opportunity to be heard concerning said ordinance and that the burrow clerk is hereby authorized and directed to publish said ordinance according to law with a notice of its introduction and passage on first reading and of the time and place when and where said ordinance will be further considered for final passage the introduction of the 2024 Municipal budget resolution 20241 6 approval of the 2024 Municipal budget for introduction and establishing April 17 2024 as date of public hearing and final adoption is there a motion to approve the 2024 proposed Municipal budget for introduction motion second call councilman Boy Yes councilman finr yes councilwoman gardana pasero yes councilman Morrow yes councilman scarice yes councilman Zimmerman yes uh next for Council consideration is the consent agenda is there a motion to approve motion second sorry I didn't yeah Tony oh okay I think they all yeah sorry the consent agenda consists of resolutions 2024-25 through 2024 109 these resolutions will be approved by one motion all items will be recorded individually in full in the minutes councilman Bole yes councilman finella yes councilwoman gardana pno yes councilman moral yes councilman scarice yes councilman Zimmerman yes we have ordinance 20245 for introduction and ordinance amending chapter 15 departmental structures section 15-2 Police Department table of organization of the burrow of kennworth municipal code is there a motion to approve ordinance 20245 for introduction motion second roll call councilman Bole yes councilman finella yes councilwoman gardana Ferno yes councilman moral yes councilman scarice yes councilman Zimmerman yes he hereby resolve that ordinance 20245 here to for introduced does now pass on first reading and that the said ordinance be further considered for final passage at a meeting to be held on April 17th 2024 at 6:00 p.m. or as soon thereafter as the matter can be reached at the regular meeting place of the burrow Council and that at such time and place all persons interested be given an opportunity to be heard concerning said ordinance and the and that the burough clerk is hereby authorized and directed to publish said ordinance according to law with the notice of its introduction and passage on first reading and of the time and place when and where said ordinance will be further considered for final passage okay is there a motion to open the floor for the public motion second does anyone have anything to say for the good and well-being of kennworth please come forward and state your name and address I speak is come right up of [Music] course afternoon everybody good after my is I lived in Kenworth for 21 years what is your name again I'm sorry Paul George okay I I I thought you just said Paul and your address please thank you yeah I've been know one annoying with all thosea I know all those emails I know I'm glad to hear you actually try can we just get your address please sir 727 Ral de thank you okay and uh I met with Gregory mhm but the last 25 ft of that street actually belongs to me so if you need a copy of the survey if you need to install a catch Bas on it I will give Town permission to install drainage on my property so if you the last 25 ft of that street I can give you the survey to whoever needs it and and is it split between you and your neighbor across the street I would like to see that and if you see in red right here in front of my driveway 161 y I'm 1601 that is Richard holler on the other side now does he own part of the street too the other half oh how interesting that's what I was referring to May when I said we paved up to the road I mean up to the ditch but we weren't supposed to I see okay so if you need permission install any type of Dage to fix the solution I'm willing to uh give the town permission but I don't see why I have to pump out water when it's not my street and nobody none of the other houses have to do anything besides me every time we have brainstorm I don't believe that's my responsibility nor the the other private property owners it's really interesting how they Street the street the videos also Gregory you also have pictures of me Running P poses down the street I don't believe that's my responsibility so please keep me updated absolutely and I'll try to stop the Ming you with email that's okay you can email me as much as you want I read everyone and I send them to the appropriate Department thank you anyone else okay do you want this uh yes thank you sorry okay seeing no one I'd like a motion to close the just real quick can I just weigh a thereor um I'm going to get to that I'm going to close the okay I'd like a motion to close the floor for public discussion motion second all in favor I okay does anyone else have anything to say for the good and Welfare of the Barrow yeah just uh two things the the first one I received a uh a note here from uh Carol papis in in reference I guess to her brother who lives in Florida to participate in the street fair so I'm going to pass that on to Angela oh yeah since you're you've been dealing with the company and uh just so you know I'm going to pass it on to the B Clerk and and she'll she'll look into that for you Carol he he grew up canorth and she was telling me that uh you know he's musically inclined and and would like to participate so participate in playing music yeah up on the state yeah I mean he's he's great he's great we have a meeting I should have mentioned actually we do have a meeting set with um from the street fair so J promotions we want to get a rotary table too I you have to go on the you just go on their website and yeah I'll give it to you if you're in town for no cost all and the question I guess to make sure is are we going to get a stage this year or not I know in the past sometimes we have a stage sometimes we don't the county the count we already stage same exact stage the county uses uh but we got it from you okay I remember last year the county had a book so we couldn't use the county the last couple times again so but we do have Union stages ex exact same one all right great great now thank you and last but not least I just wanted to defer to the burrow attorney um he had asked me a question and I know the mayor and I have worked with uh Rich pno the uh planning board chairman in reference to the Onyx property and he had a question that um he just wanted to bring to our attention and make sure that we're on the same page so I'm going to defer to you um council president I don't think uh the uh advice that uh I feel I would like to provide to the government body uh is something for public session okay all right so it would uh have to be provided in the executive session okay all right I just wasn't sure so okay no problem I just want to add that uh this coming up Sunday is Palm Sunday and hope everyone has a happy and blessed Palm Sunday and the Sunday after that is Easter and hopefully I wish everyone a Happy Easter and see you next month uh mayor may may I make a suggestion M uh if uh the council wanted to hear what my uh advice was uh or at least uh what my opinion is I think is probably more appropriate um we could uh have a motion to add an executive session to this meeting okay uh and uh you could also uh it would be a motion to amend the agenda to include an executive session and then a sub motion to go executive session and the meeting uh without it again uh Angela did we have it on there already yeah it's on there already uh I have a general one on there placeholder in case we haven't so I don't know that you still need to agend amend the agenda I don't have a reason it's uh you have a reason it's on the agenda I would I guess it would just be a motion going to to discuss Redevelopment yeah okay um okay I'd like a motion I'm sorry before we do I just wanted to Echo what councilman Scurry said about the basketball program I see Christen here and Pat Uh Joe kzer too is's not here but what a what a great season the kids love it if you didn't go to the games you should because they're just fun to watch I mean it's a 2512 at final score and it's the most part you'll see in 37 points ever so uh congrats guys it was another great season thank you and I think we could probably find it in the budget to replace the battery to the clock haven't done the final adoption yet can add it in for um I'd like a a motion to uh go into executive session I'll make that motion second all in favor okay sorry keep looking at the [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music]