that was myit gentlemen ladies gentlemen good evening everyone um call this meeting to order at 7M and ask the city clerk to read the statement of compliance with the open public app into the record this meeting is being held in compliance with the open public meetings act with the meeting schedule advertised the January 10 2024 edition of the Trenton Times the meeting agenda was posted on the bulleon board at City Hall and the city's website and with the meeting notice sent to members on the list of department heads the city engineer on Friday January 15 2024 this meeting is being recorded and streamed live using the zoom meeting plat wel call please okay councilwoman Kaminsky here councilman live here councilman Stegman here council president Lambert here mayor no here all right fa please pleased remain standing for a moment silence in group serving [Music] your thank you good evening what's that too loud yeah good to see you all here tonight um we're going to begin the meeting with our first uh public participation session so if you are are member of public and would like to speak we would ask that you step up to the uh Podium unless you have mobility issues you have three minutes uh to uh speak questions concerns comments please state your name and address count may or may not respond anybody in the room who would like to offer any public comment l no hands raised but we have eight people right then I would entertain a motion to close the public comment period Please all in favor please say I I I okay the motion carries for public exhibition period Well it's that time of year for the uh state of the city address I'm glad you can show up and I'm glad to have people online and uh this is going to take about 15 minutes to settle in give him a three minute one yeah yeah 18 minutes cut me off no matter what and this will be posted online we we include it as a link in next week's Lambertville matters and uh uh puts it online to the city website good evening everyone the city is doing well with the impacts of covid and Ida ever diminishing in the rear view Lambert F A stride that feels comfortable and reassuring and though external factors are always a foot our community is strong our economy is strong and our prospects are good community community will always be the driving force of Lambert Field's Vitality it can be seen in the volunteers who serve on a on our Municipal boards and commissions who plant trees in our Parks who serve the clients of Fisherman's Mark who write Grant applications volunteer in our Liv Library organize and oversee events like the Halloween parade the green Fair the Wednesday Community lunch hacka day park cleanup days ride shares shadfest porch fest Memorial Day Parade Christmas tree and the minor lighting also those who serve on the C the Chamber of Commerce the legion and on the school board and there all and and there are those who give not just generously of their time but also of their money in the close week of 2023 for example the city's shade tree trust fund received a $10,000 donation from the family of Nancy northr and Jim Johnson and a $5,000 donation from Michelle Rego and when the library board sent a Citywide appeal in late November it received $3,183 in donations in one month and uh with half a dozen checks from local businesses as well generosity of our people in time or money or both needs to be recog recognized as part of who we are a feature so predominant it shapes our success with one of the most beloved places in all of New Jersey economic factors and Municipal finances underlying economic factors in the city are strong and positive local income levels continue to outpa State and National levels our unemployment rate continues to be lower than those of the county the state and the country in 2023 our assessed valuation reach 871 m158 792 which represents a one-year increase of $31 million 540,000 and in the last five years Market values have increased nearly 33% commercial investment whether through local or outside sources in Lambertville is as promising as it is noticeable the new restaurants the new homes the Cannabis retail shops and the rehabilitation of key buildings and Central business district all contribute to our strength Additionally the city now has 41 reg registered short-term rentals which bring further economics as these visitors stay not simply for a meal and a stroll but often for several days of shopping dining coffee drinking and so forth and what of City finances they have turned the corner four weeks into my term the S&P Global and ratings downgraded Lambertville from Able a stable to dou a negative and perhaps that perhaps the most concise way to explain our current financial situation is to read a passage from the S&P Global rating report issued on December 2st 2023 and I quote following five consecutive years of decreases to available current fund reserves operational performance for the city has stabilized in the last two years which we believe is reflected reflective of improved budgetary man management and oversight fiscal 2022 current fund results reported revenues less than expenses however this was driven by the delayed receipt of a USDA Grant the funds of which were used in 2022 but received in 2023 as such the current fund balance improved in each of the last two years holding $1.1 million at fiscal end 2022 management has shifted its approach to to its budget by taking an aggressive stance on funding operations utilizing less fund balance and fully replenishing by year end certain policies have been enacted to increase to utilize increased fees and fines including increased beverage taxes cover expenses which have resulted in improved Financial operations management PL plans to sustain its current fund balance above its informal Target of $1 million and continue building reserves with the addition of cannabis revenues investment income and increased fees and fines for regeneration of appropriated surpluses expected for both fiscal year 2023 and 2024 end quote I'm pleased to report that our rating has been upgraded to double a stable what the report doesn't indicate of course is that the line share of the stabilization came in the form of significant tax increases even as our property values continue to climb it's a fact so unavoidable it must be reiterated it's been a painful few years for our municipal taxpayers our Municipal finances are not just stable they're improving when Union chill welcomed his first customer on June 14th the city welcomed a new source of Revenue the 2% transfer tax on retail sales of cannabis in the last four months the average tax revenue from Union chill was almost $122,000 per month projected sales for Union chill in 2024 are whopping $9.5 million which translates to $190,000 in Revenue to the city bake by the river recently opened its doors on Church Street and though I don't have projections yet it's reasonable to assume their impact on the city finances will also be important raising the meter fees this year 25 cents per hour the rate which is still well below that of new hopes has left us $1 125,1 182 over the 2022 number Finance team has not worked sufficiently through the 2024 budget yet enough for me to speak to the specific that these new revenues will have a a positive impact to our bottom line the city continues to be supported by an excellent full and part-time staff of 45 people this past year saw the retirements of Cindy McBride and Trish wosc tax collector and Court Administrator respectively Jessica Creo was hired as a tax collector and kathern McLaren as the court administrator we welcome Jill Titus to the new position of part-time accounts receivable Clerk Rond Janita left the police department and we welcomed officer Henry zilio and parking enforcement officer Jack angelone we said goodbye to Susan slesinger who served as Fire official for nearly two years and we hired Frank ER to build that position lastly we welcome Christopher ber burkette to the DPW as the finance team and I work through the 2024 budget I very much hoped to fund a new position likely part-time to assist in overseeing human resources and the management of ongoing projects functions and processes of Human Resources dispersed as they currently are among department heads and myself cannot be considered best practices to reduce the strain as well as the risk Human Resources should be centralized I simply don't have the time or the training to Be an Effective HR director for a team of 45 people though I note that the police department has independent procedures which are largely outside of my HR responsibilities to it I am proposing a major change to our fire prevention program I will soon introduce an ordinance designed to shift the providing lead Agency for fire prevention from the city to the Lambertville fire district the New Jersey Division of fire safety audit I referenced in last year's state of the city address is not sufficiently reconciled in 2023 and I feel strongly that in order to stabilize and ensure the future the future success of the fire safety program it's time for the city to hand it over to the resources and expertise of the fire district Redevelopment the city will soon introduce amendments to the high school Redevelopment plan in March of 2022 the city was approached by kahanian for the possible Redevelopment of the site the city council and I have been in discussions with them since and as a result of steady progress the company was designated as the conditional redeveloper by unanimous consent of the governing body on August 18 2022 it's resolution number 15922 the Redevelopment of the former High School tract was included as a compliance mechanism for our affordable housing obligations May 22 2018 fair share settlement agreement for all the legal dryness of the term compliance mechanism we must remember that not only do we have a legal obligation to provide affordable housing with armed boundaries but a societal one as well at this time I can offer no news on the future Redevelopment of 295 North Main Street The Village departments the site is under the control of the contract purchaser and we await an amended proposal storm water and resilience the challenge of managing storm water in Lambertville is a heavy burden and may best be examined through our reassignment to the njde issued ms4 tier a permit in addition to our former requirements under the ms4 tier B permit the city must now comply with 34 new or modified regulations for a small municipality with limited resources the breadth of these regulations is daunting and without a disciplined approach to ensure the necessary resour resources are in place we will fail to meet the regulatory requirements the goal is not just to manage the rainfall totals of 2024 but to prepare for the rainfall totals of 2055 with 13 miles of Roads Three Creeks 1,00 residential units scores of businesses more than 540 storm inlets and outfalls unexamined miles of underground culverts and pipes The 100 and 500e flood planes impervious parking lots dozens of regulatory requirements ongoing crost jurisdictional issues a DPW crew of A's primary rle is trash and recycling and a part-time mayor how effectively can the city manage storm water there were hard lessons from Ida and recent rainfall events proved that we are not holding up our end of the bargain increased pressure on our system is not only an environmental issue is a health and safety issue and we must look at every possible solution beyond the uncertainty that the status quo will suffice using a grant from the New Jersey League conservation voters the city is currently undertaking a storm AR utility feasibility study with Princeton hydro and wsp our first focus group meeting is this coming Tuesday the members of the focus group have been chosen to represent a broad SWA of community stakeholders the meeting will be recorded and I encourage all residents to watch it and to be a part of the public process as it continues to unfold in terms of resilience the city continues to engage its Mission which reads A resilient Lambertville is prepared connected Equitable and mutually supportive equipped to withstand adapt and Thrive when faced with adversity awarded a grant from the NJ dup's Municipal assistance program the city will soon collaborate with the D and Consultants from kleinfelder to complete a comprehensive vulnerability assessment and resilience action plan robust public engagement would be the first step in this process on Tuesday I spoke with our contact at uh D he expects the final phase of the procurement process to be completed in the next month or so this will be the Principal focus of our resilience work in 2024 additional projects include flood mitigation efforts here at the pedor Justice Center and planting trees in our parks and along our streets Municipal projects there's a brief run through of Municipal projects this year in the spring stutter street from Douglas to Swan will be repaved as will a section of swan below stford Street the entire length of North Franklin Street will be repaved later in the year South Franklin Street from Highland to Swan will be repaved the Church Street block between North Franklin and North Main will also be repaved and reinstituted as one way headed west the sidewalk in front of the North Union Street parking lot is scheduled for replacement the first week of April when the elementary school is closed for vacation that contract also includes replacing a section of sidewalk along M Street Michael Burns the city architect is drafting an R an RFP uh for repairs to the library elevator and to raise its Mechanicals off basement floor Michael is also going to provide estimates for the repointing and repainting of the library something I'd like to see done this year repairs have also been made to the roof at City Hall and the antique iron fence has been put up along the western edge of City Hall lastly the expansion of the DPW garage to include a break room and new as well as the construction of a coal Barn for a large equipment is expected to be complete by early fall up at Hulen Park we are nearing completion of our requirements for the Green Acres Program Jackie Middleton has graciously volunteered to apply for additional funds from the county open space program and the national fish and wildlife found Foundation Grant is underway the scope of which may be reviewed on the Hulen page hul Park web page of the city site a public design sh will be held on February 22nd 2024 details and updates to follow all are welcome to attend and to participate among the governing body there is unanimous support for selling part of the property namely the farm market in the laog cabin to pay down the debt and we are actively working toward that end there are a number of moving parts to the to complete sequentially and behind the scenes which explains why it may seem that nothing is happening as the government body continues its work please remember that the public are free to enjoy the open space and I'm always happy to arrange tours of the buildings on request two other projects of note uh the Lambertville public school as you probably know is undergoing a major renovation and the city is partnering with the district to repave the city owned parking lot with pervious Paving the line share of this project will be paid by the school district though the city will pay application fees and other relatively minor costs associated with the project secondly of course constructional and Tool supported Lambertville New Hope Bridge slated to begin on January 29th and the re and the renovation and lighting project should be complete by early fall in short the state of the city is good let us to let us continue to feel grateful for our community our history our sense of self plenty of hard work and regular doses of fun thank you right we'll move on to approval of minutes anybody has anything they want to thank I can and this will be on the city's web page it will well exact text I've just read we can't get the [Music] YouTube that'll be on there as well oh gosh uh so we look at approving the minutes so uh we have in two blocks so there's the December 21st 2023 voting session miss and the December 21st 2023 Clos session minutes part of a and the January 1 reorganization session minutes so uh everybody is eligible to vote on this and unless there are any questions about the minutes or comments I would entertain a motion now so moveed second okay all those in favor please say I M thank you the motion carries uh and now I would ask for a motion to approve the December 22nd 20202 you close session minutes Part B and councilman segement I believe you something V yeah thank you second all in favor please say I I I okay thank you very much um I'll I'll put it into the record thank you uh everybody have attal look at the administrative reports I did yeah they were riveting riveting who can tell me how many tons of track we hold out in the city in the air oh uh 1435 I didn't know there was chest lunch I think watching the pric is right all day Let's Make a Deal one of the two uh harder to find the administrative reports but there nonetheless I think on page about look I actually have a question about the municipal it was the U hotel that's what I was just getting to oh go ahead so every month the state sends out a 200 Page breakdown for every municipality in the state with uh the hotel and motel occupancy tax it's always hard to find Lambertville not quite hard we're sort of like middle of the pack you have to you have to scroll really fast through until you get to something that something in 100 in County it's usually around 110 um 17 what's that if you look for 1017 everything goes by Municipal Code so if you just search until you get 107 then you'll find okay than you could say control F and then B oh you think yeah scroll last month we uh we took in 20750 either $50 or $56 and hotel and motel t uh which is pretty good is that also the Airbnb tax as well that includes is there a total for the year no ready for one more no that was in December so we don't total it up Cindy hasn't yeah I had a total that we could do a spreadsheet probably has it in the budget though she's not here but he probably could do a search for that and tell us what the total was for last year but the other interesting thing is our number beats rar in Township's number so you would think a bigger municipality like that I think they're around 12,000 very interesting it for us not that it's a competition that's not supposed to be um well we can get that for the next meeting sure absolutely we talk about the revenue from the uh cannabis sales I think we should yeah should yeah absolutely how can you do that I mean we can record this number every month if you want uh in the meetings I'm happy to I'm happy to include it um it does show the ality of the uh Hotel mold pels and and probably could tie it to the economic um Outlook of what the city's doing yeah it's it's a good point I don't remember Bill do you remember if it's 3% I think I was get it I was I was forget if it's two or 3% it 3% the M 3% so that's a pretty respectable 20 ,000 in one month is pretty respectable right go lot holiday shop probably to the meter rates too and just get a general picture about how one aspect influences the others um if you look at the meter I think if you look at the monthly meter uh reports you're going to see uh pretty consistent numbers I think throughout the court I mean I think well no I retract that happy to happy to throw those in monthly as well I we can we can certainly do that it'll beity yes so yeah actually we do we do have we can't do ma though so call this year so we can see 94 yeah yeah yeah that was very handy that's where I pulled that $125,000 from B the sheet significant number all right unless there's more uh to chat about the administration administrative reports that for motion to to AC second all right all favor say I I thank you motion carries uh we'll move on to the approval of the bills list who's in favor of paying the bills this month so moved second all in favor please say I thank you tomorrow morning resolutions we have the consent agenda this evening the following res resolutions on the consent agenda are considered routine and shall be enacted by one motion should any member the city council seek separate discussion of any item the item shall be removed and discussed separately um I just have one note to make here um resolution number 30224 to uh one Kelly Grant of malamut uh serves the uh the attorney for all matters witha and Clark K hints um for um amendments to the small cities Grant manual in the amount of 9,500 um so just these two numbers we we uh it was an oversight did not get the Kelly Grant uh uh did not get into the um uh the reord meeting it was just an oversight um and we do expect our our cost associated with um affordable housing uh to be hired this year for reasons which I will explain another time um and Clark Kon hints the 9500 that's for a manual update and that uh that 9500 can be paid by the grant itself it will not incur any cost to the city so just a clarification on that um are were there any just a quick question on the 295 North Main Street so that's for 2021 property taxes so they're still have they paid 2022 or we're still that too so um most of this was sewer okay um and so we now have to pay sewer because we collect for that um so let's see just let I think it was 29474 SE yeah um these are two of them for silver so yeah so they they paid us 48,000 18,000 was for 2021 property taxes and then the SE fee is for 29 just over 29,000 they I believe that the 2022 lindsy could probably correct me if I'm wrong is still uh has a has a taxine for it that they have not yeah um and I believe they're starting to pay 2023 they they didn't know they had money to any have questions okay uh I asked for motion to approve resolutions listed in consent agenda number 27-2 24 through 30-22 all in favor please say I I thank you carries um we're gonna hold off on ordinance number one 2024 uh I referenced this in my in my speech um uh and we'll talk about it but the the process of Shifting the lead agencies uh for the fire prevention um program is uh something I feel strongly after after two years of really stumbling uh and I think that our fire prevention program even before I was the mayor uh was not sufficient um it's just after two years I can tell you that I have not had the bandwidth to oversee this program the city has not done a good job overseeing this program um and so uh I'd like to turn it over to the fire department was more resources more people on the ground who are qualified to do this work um and so we'll be hearing a lot about this over the next couple of months there are five or six different things we have to do in order to shift the lead agency to the fire district um by April 1st which is my goal there's an ordinance that has to be adopted there are several resolutions there's a shared service agreement it's fairly complex and um we worked with we're working closely with the fire district um Frank ER who is the the fire um Chief farlo and uh and the board um and we grafted the ordinance the state wants to review absolutely everything before we uh introduce it or bring it to the council uh we thought we were good with this we send it off to the state and uh they want to have a meeting so we're still we'll still be on track to do this by April 1 um but uh that's just a little bit of information about that so we'll be talking about this a lot over this com months anybody have anything to say about that okay um so we're g to move on to ordinance number 02- 2024 this is an ordinance of the Lambert Lambertville city code 24 14 chapter 14 Street openings to include a provision to prohibit obstruction without first providing notice to the city so you know this ordinance uh was requested and well we we've had some issues in the city over the last couple of months with sidewalk closures and Roofing jobs and things being stored in the street and people just willy-nilly putting caution tape up and clothing off sidewalks uh and without without a mechanism to uh you know without an ordinance to to uh enforce any kind of safety Provisions there were we''ve been out of Lu so so this ordinance will will address some of those concerns so there are questions uh from the council about this all right thank you uh I have a motion to introduce ordinance number 02- 2024 on First meeing with the public hearing excuse me scheduled for September I'm sorry September February 15 2024 all in favor please sit I I motion carried uh the next ordinance is number 03224 this is an ordinance authorizing an amendment to the lease agreement between the city of lamberville and the Wells Fargo Bank um this will uh allow Wells Fargo Wells Fargo is asking for this update to this agreement to amend it to a month-to-month agreement and change the the 90day termination to 45 days this just allows them a little bit more flexibility in terms of um you know if at some point the building sells and they and and they want to cancel the lease so we're sort of locked into this uh either way so um I don't if there any questions from the Council on this so we're going month to month you said and also reducing the termination period to 45 days correct okay what happen Well Fargo I'll just note that that'll start in April because even if they do terminate they have to give us notice of termination 90 days prior to the end of the lease and the end of the lease is April 23rd so um it'll continue on the current lease until at least then then if the if the property is not sold say until August September you know anytime after that they have to give us 45 days notice Well Fargo has to give us 45 days notice that they're going DET terminate at that point rep the 0 days because we don't know what the sale will come to your R back to the question of is it it's just for well far this lease like it's not transferable proba they sell it have to reach out owner and do right yep just check but we really don't have a lot of bar power with this a very generous leas so yeah we kind of don't have any options correct is there an indication from the people you spoken to that they're close to naming somebody they they uh I spoke to broker for Wells Fargo today uh several several occasions first of all about about the sidewalk at Wills Fargo I complained bitterly about the sidewalk and this DPW also did go out there today after I had several calls I had not been there uh up until this afternoon but the city Cindy had called I had I had I had a couple of calls uh and texts about it so we sent the DPW out there I did speak to the broker about it earlier this morning and then again this afternoon so we took care of the problem but I've also made it perfectly clear that uh they need to be taken care of their sidewalks um so so I did end up speaking with him a couple of times today uh broker and I did get the telephone number for their property management company which I now have and I'll they'll be looking at the sidewalks tomorrow when on Saturday and how many people as necessary because that was unacceptable um soan they weren't they weren't cleared they wer cleared they were when I went down there at 2:00 this afternoon that all of all of the South Union Street all the way down was just one sheer was ice all the way down and the DPW were putting Sal down at that point so um apparently they did the parking lot but they didn't so I will keep and see the sidewalk because the tree hasn't been cut properly I was actually going to ask can they do anything about the tree can we that in then there brought it up that and and and I'll bring up one other thing that we're talking about if they can do something to minimize the amount of light that those uh it's like a baseball field down there there are yes and I've talked to the residents on Ferry Street and some on South Union Street about light pollution about the Bel for Bank in particular um there are I learned recently the last zoning board meeting uh state regulations in terms of light requirements for banks and tellers and so some of that may fall under you know existing regulations I don't know whether the lights need to be that bright I'm not sure you know I'm not sure something that we should and and and and also for the record I did ask the broker uh six weeks ago the bank would consider turning off those lights Al together now the bank is inactive and they they haven't done it and they what they have not done it obviously well they're to say the same thing they said about sight lines because they are maintaining an ATM machine there okay they and it is kind of like safe for the ATM user at 10 o' or 11 o'clock at night you can go in it still has the lock swipe so I mean I wouldn't really want side of the building kind of above the drive in ATM kind of there must be some requirements that they by by law have to do something I think that's probably it and and they'll get back us got back to [Music] us all right I'm gonna R it back in here tree is a thing for me as well but I'm not gonna talk about it tonight now I just want to goair you know the chair that was in front of the tree because it was just bugging it shouldn't have been was so heavy and then these things I'd like to introduce I'd like somebody to still under the tree are they still there those were absolute we have a motion made motion okay all in favor of introducing the uh ordinance to ordinance number 03224 with a public hearing on February 15th please say I I thank you we have no ordinances on second reading correspondents as noted the County Board of Commissioners um green ACR Jake law grant for completely inclusive playgrounds I forwarded this to the parks and wreck um Commission uh it's a it's they're taking a look at it but they're not optimistic that it's actually going to it's actually going to be able to be something that we a program that we can kind of do here in town um Hunter County planning board the public hearing for the adoption of the growth management plan scheduled for SE February 1st uh beginning 8:15 and Route 12 County Complex building one assembly room 314 in Flemington and uh jcpnl verified petition to establish a rate for ride or loss program adjustment me mechanism for sales loss sale losses occur during program year one I have no idea what that means I'm okay well it's on the record now have they done a report on what failed what the pro what what generated the problems dur in the last storm um and and the and the incorrect information getting out to the people affected was really really frustrating on you look at it one time it says by following day by 11:30 p.m. and then it came on like early you know the communications are a big they're a big challenge well you know I can speak a little bit to Communications I think that um I think that Lieutenant Brown and I and Cindy have have a pretty good relationship with our representative at jcpnl I can call her at 11 o'clock on Tuesday night and she'll answer the phone so you you know during that outage I did have a number of conversations with her um unfortunately there's often a disconnect between what she knows and with the lion crew now right exactly so she can tell me that a crew has been dispatched because it shows that on our system um when that crew arrives and they're looking and looking and looking there have been a number of times when I've met the crews and and had conversations with them and they've restored the power while I've been there or shortly thereafter and I go back to my office and then I get Amy calls me two hours later to say the hour's back on I know I was out there right so so there's a little bit of a there's certainly a lag in their internal Communications um and I think some of it some of what happened last week was there were there were several problems uh when you've got several problems that are sort of stacked in a way that nobody quite understands um until they can get one until they can kind handle them sequentially they don't really know I mean she didn't really know what was what was going to happen and she they did have the the time 1:00 in the afternoon and then follow evening at 7:00 and then of course we know that power came back on for all but a couple of residents on Washington Street or some somewhere else so it's uh you know we do the best we can staying on top of it in terms of the communication we're consistently posting things to Facebook which is really I think our our our announcements go to Facebook they're also once they're posted to Facebook they can post it they can transfer to the website um everybody's got my number I do have people that call me when power goes out uh and oftentimes the people like you guys know more about it than I do because I'm not getting any notifications through you know jcpnl as a customer right so I do get the notification that there's three what was it 730 but you know you go to the map and you can't even really you don't even necessarily know who's going to get it back first or you know so it's a I think there's some issues with the weight too where they so people were dispatched but the line couldn't go off because of safety issues and and that generally is not shared with the public right but that once the wind g go over 45 miles an hour they can't right no I'm not D that's that's the standard it's like the DPW within 95 degree days they can't work or8 84 okay I think it should be 95 don't tell us but I think that I think there's room for for it's approved a great deal from the way it was 10 years well I would say that from from the city point of view not driving or anything here but I think we do a pretty good job of getting information out as quickly as possible oh yeah um that that that we get so um you know the problems are always going to happen and they're not always going to be able to you know we're not always going to get answers um as as we might like um well may we do this time have a really good rep from JC she back she communicates we've not had that in the past yeah good right but it's it's valuable for to give her the feedback as to how jcpnl can improve its communication um you know plans for Pages yeah yeah did our generators hold up all right yeah I guess we lose power oh yeah we power that's right good yeah direct all right um I'm going to move on um just a couple of updates here um as I mentioned in this in the speech the National offici Wildlife Foundation Grant is underway um we have a couple meetings now laying up the timeline um we haven't gotten all the information out to you guys yet but we will soon um there will be a a as as I mentioned um a design shred on February 22nd that'll be here mie for anybody who's interested in this project to come and ask questions and also participate in sort of understanding what the design you know the design of the of the park will be in terms of the plantings and uh it would be a nice opportunity for people to kind of weigh in um Lo Park I mentioned also that uh we're fairly close to having all of our paperwork in with the Green Acres um there you know there have been changes because of uh because of so so you know what council Direction the council is taken in terms of what would be what would be U preserved through green acre we're pretty close and you do want to just talk for a second sure um you know we right now we just have some um some minor things to go through we had the well decommissioned so we're waiting on a determination from Green Acres as to whether they're going to require the decommissioning of the well stamp from DP or not it's vague in the way that they they wrote it um so that's one thing and the other thing we just have to gather our invoices and purchase orders to submit and uh then we'll be good for reimbursement because it looks like they reimburse us for the preliminary assessment for the appraisals um and for some of the other soft cost so that's that's where we are I would anticipate that we'll probably have everything submitted by the end of next week as long as they allow us to move forward without the stamp from d on the Deep commissioning of the well we do have it from the county but technically DC is a the approving Authority thank you um um so stay tuned that's good news uh stor water mity feasibility update uh don't have too much to say other than uh we are have we have a focus group meeting here uh this coming Tuesday that will be recorded um sending out a uh a packet of information to those people who are on a part of focus group um chosen a number of people uh from businesses from lville station from nce from nonprofits like the church different neighborhoods uh you know sort of regular just residents from different neighborhoods uh Engineers tried I tried to try to work with a a fairly broad group of people that represent I think um a diversity here in town in terms of geographic and uh sort of uh a variety of things so um stay tuned for more information about uh the um feasibility update stor water utility feasibility update I don't other than what what we've got that they're still kind of putting together um a lot of a lot of data to share um in not dist there um and I think for all I have just a couple of announcements here pet registrations are due by February 29th registrations received on or after March 1st will be charged the $25 late fee uh Convenience Center hours are listed uh Saturday February 3rd February 17th and Wednesday 20 February 21st and landlord registrations are due by March 31st registrations received on or after April 1st will be assessed late fee uh and now is our second public participation uh period so same same guidelines apply uh please step to the podium if you have something relate to to any three minutes that your name and address Paul Stevens 39 Cory Street U just wanted to comment on I'm glad that uh the sidewalk got cleaned up here on Union and right right along Wells Fargo I walked tried I tried to walk on that last night and it was extremely dangerous you have to walk out on the street I hope at a minimum we're recovering Bo at the EP going out doing that for them uh looks like this winter G to have more problems with ice not the storm uh because we're not getting a big snowfalls we get little snowfalls we get a little bit of melting and then it gets to be just this sheet of ice in places and there are a lot of people that are bothering to put down salt and trying to get the ice melted um and the sidewalks are a lot more dangerous this year than they are in the year when we have big snowfalls because you can walk on the snow there's the law of ice two laws of ice if you walk on it it all Second Law is you can't beat the first law okay so I I think it's important that we start enforcing whatever ordinances we have on this um and also that in cases where the city does go out we at least recover our cost for that that we aren't doing people favors and and going out taking care of their side L for them thank you Jeff TI 33 Wilson Street one little item in um one of the problems that I see what's happening this year especially when we get the cold freeze is a lot of people are still pumping their basements we don't pump out basements anymore so a lot of people especially right here on Swan um have little pumps in their basement going out onto the sidewalk creating an icy mess and so that's a problem in other parts of town too but it gets very slippery and our sidewalks are not being forc the other issue I wanted to bring in because that brings into storm water which is I was trying to understand so we're going to have a focus group not like a stakeholder meeting on this issue U it sounds kind of to me it sounds a lot more political than it does sound like trying to get fact finding and trying to come up with a plan to help deal with our storm water and blooding problems in town and you know I really think the town should go back and have the flooding task force to take a holistic look at the town to see what works in different areas because every part of town is a little bit different to focus more in flooding not just storm water because storm water is is much about um water quality as uh as water control the other thing is when you're doing with the national fishing Wildlife Foundation and the work going on up at the um soall Farm that'll probably be in my head so and die so um is to see what kind of benefits are going to come and how much water will actually be saved or stored during the different types of floods you have a twoyear flood a 10year flood 25 year what actually will be the outcome because you'll get a sense of what the cost is I mean my problem with what with rain Gardens is they're fine for water quality but they do nothing for storm water control for flooding because they're too shallow and they don't hold enough water and they're fairly expensive um the other point um I really think you have to look at is you know we going forward with the focus group but we still haven't even seen the study and I think we're got part head of the course or you know in that respect and the other concern that I have is that we really should be looking at the coming FEMA resilien to go after Federal support and help I know you've been talking to DP but we really need to get that type of designation to be able to get the resources we need because when you set up a utility by the time you get paying for an executive director a secretary uh having some professional staff and it's like $300,000 a year that becomes very up in a town that's small and the cost of our problems run into the millions to replace um one culbert on Main Street on Swan Creek will probably cost eight or 10 million you got to get dot or someone to do it because we can't afford it and to come up with a comprehensive and holistic approach to flooding you have to look at the individual lot the neighborhood The subwatershed Watershed in the region we can't do it in one piece and so anyway I hope this will be an open process and U we we the St the focus group be open to the public and just get to see the table just get to see the table thank Judy gleon 86 North Union Street um I wanted to to emphasize and and and point to the bridge renovation project that's coming up that that you mentioned May in your announcements because this is a big deal there's going to be pedestrian access this is huge people struggled for that starting in the very first meeting over and over and they said it couldn't be done it couldn't be done it couldn't be done it couldn't be done and then but we could go it could be done I don't really care how it happened that it suddenly could be done whether what they said is what really happened or not it doesn't matter but it would be good it seems for the city to think about ways we can be focusing not to spend money but sort of in a bully pulpit kind of way to to to try to encourage that people will be coming over here on foot and not in cars I I also though we've tried in the past to have maybe special days when this when the city forgives parking for a special day and the mun and the merchants have the opportunity to use that as a marketing book and say come to Lambertville on Wednesday free parking or whatever it might be so that we can try to generate a lot of awareness that we're here besides that there's going to be a little bit of an issue with the with the bridge renovation and secondly um Jeff brought up what I had noted also this focus group thing focus groups as compared to other ways to do it and I'm I'm just basically agreeing and supporting the ideas that we we aren't there yet and part of what was out in your in your state of the city speech was a number of things about the town that probably yes need attention and probably yes should be part of our PRI prioritization but it it wasn't clear it won't be until the budget I understand that but some of the things that we will do to try to address water issues including talking to Regional other places which is part of the whole thing um we'll be looking forward to hearing more on that sort of thing too because again I would agree that the focus group might be a little bit ahead of its time in this project idea anyway thank you anybody online Margaret you want to go ahead yes thank you thank you good evening it's Margaret carmelli from Maxwell assets and Canal Studios um One North Johnson Avenue Hamilton I first would like to thank the mayor for having two meetings in December one to walk the creek not literally and two a second meeting at City Hall to talk about flooding and the concerns of various property owners in the city about flooding so I appreciate that those meetings were set up and I think they were beneficial and I think you all have a letter that I sent um extending um our appreciation of that as representing commercial landlords in lamberville and as part of those commercial landlords Maxwell assets and Canal Studios the impact of Ida and covid is not really behind us nor is I don't think it's behind the other commercial landlords in the city Co has had an impact on how commercial spaces are leased by whom they are leas and the amount of time and the certainly the impact of the flooding the commercial landlords are still trying to release I wish I could say it's in the rearview mirror but we're still dealing with that on the resiliency consultant um I learned this evening that the focus group had been selected I guess I'm disappointed that I didn't get an invitation nor do I know that our commercial landlords got an invitation to be a part of that having spent countless hours um at meetings sending letters trying to have an impact and to offer our services um so I guess I'm somewhat agreeing with the other commentators tonight and I'm just interested to learn who comprises that committee and how they were selected and I do hope that the uh commercial landlords are represented on that um committee and the business Community as well I was also disappointed to generally here that I don't think any of the items raised by Mr Sullivan and the resident group that um he's involved with and Mr Sullivan had a work commitment he's not here tonight I don't speak for him um but I didn't hear those those issues and concerns to be a part of the resiliency um Consultants work so that was a little disappointing of I'm not sure that we know the time or I didn't catch the time of the um meeting and whether the focus group that I guess now been selected if that's going to be broadcast live so that we can watch or published later and they just perhaps some clarification on that would be helpful and I think that in terms of openness of process it would be very helpful for us if um the certific ification that the city has applied for in connection with the list of historic structures and this whole resiliency consultant process if that could possibly be a part of the mayor's report every two weeks if there's nothing to report nothing to report um but I think that would be helpful to those of us in the community who are very interested because otherwise we're sending letters and we're asking if there's anything anything new and we might be able to learn that thank you for your time this evening anyone else good have motion close the public comment period move second all in favor please say I I I I'm just G to touch on a couple things that Margaret said so Margaret uh you may be a little bit confused about the two different things that are happening so the Str Mar utility feasibility study focus group is different from the municipal assistance program Grant that uh that we've been awarded uh through the D so uh the list of people who were uh chosen by me uh to serve on the focus group will be made public obviously it's a public document we'll put that in uh I you know contacted and had conversations pretty much with everybody uh the I think the the two large you know one of the things I I did was to specifically invite two of the largest uh commercial property owners the station and and E Lumber both of which have a very large portions of impervia surface these are the business owners that are going to be potentially most impacted by storm Mar utility fees so I wanted to make sure that they were a part of the conversation so that's uh that's in regard to the storm water utility uh focus group The the municipal assistance program had not had a chance to write to the group uh in the north end of town over the last couple of days um but as I noted in my speech I spoke with our contact at the D on Tuesday uh and did get did learn more information about the program itself and how that's going to Ru out uh the first component of that will be public engagement there will be a public meeting when anybody in the community can come and express their uh their concerns their thoughts ask questions about what a um uh vulnerability assessment uh should incorporate uh you know it be everything from can can we take a look at the the the AR cor engineer project can we we're concerned about this so all of all of that will be a very public process right from the beginning so uh I'm pleased to report that's a five-step process I just got uh a complete scope of what that looks like from the GP I'm happy to forward that as a document to uh to all of the people up with the north end of town and and anybody else who would like it um so that is basically um all I say at the moment a city council representative on storm water Focus gr do we have le on to to it wasn't councilman Stegman weren't you uh participating in the storm water um one meeting oh no no not the storm water no the first the first meeting on the feasibilities yeah for the uh for the utility wasn't you know not in this boook no oh so is there a council representative there there is the mayor okay all right um at this point I would ask for a motion to adjourn did and then mayor KN made his his response yeah so uh did did we vote on adjournments we did okay on it again thank you we'll for next we