o' evening let's call this meeting to order at 7 o' and ask that cind read the city clerk read compliance with the open public meetings act to the record this meeting is being held in compliance with the open public meetings act the the meeting schedule advertis in the January 10 2020 for our edition of the Trenton Times the meeting agenda was posted on the bulle at City Hall in the city's website February 12 2024 and the meeting notice was sent to members on the list serve and department heads and the city engineer on Monday February 12th the meeting agenda contains action lated to know at the time of publication and is subject to change this meeting is being streamed live and recorded using the zoom meeting platform wo yes please councilwoman Kaminsky here councilman live here councilman Stegman here council president L Lambert is absent mayor n here right please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and remain standing for moment of silence and have our moment of silence tonight be dedicated to those people we love thank you again welcome everybody uh as is our um custom we will start off the meeting with uh the first of two public participation sessions uh for those people who wish to make public comment or ask question we ask you let you have a mobility issue step up to the podium please state your name and address we have 3 minutes of uninterrupted time to make your comments or ask your questions and the council may or may not respond to anybody would like to offer a public comment jeny um 367 Rock Road East lamberville um I would just like to thank the council I'm the director of the lamberville library I would like to thank the council for their ongoing support of the library and their interest in Rehabilitation of the library building um I like to consider the library as one of the um uh greatest Community Resources of lamberville and also the building is an anchor in the South part of town and um I think any vote to improve the exterior of the building would be just a real boom to that whole section of the neighborhood down there so thank you very much and we look forward to serving Lambertville uh for many years to come thank you hi I'm Alissa Patterson um 102 McDow Lambertville I'm also the president of meler um and I just want to say thank you for your consideration again this year for our pride um we're really excited and we're grateful that the bridge will still be available for us to use that we can still be the only Pride that cross the state lines thank you again for your support anyone else in the room there anyone online motion to close comment perod please move second all in favor please say I I I thank you motion carried move on to the approval of minutes uh this is uh be asking for motion to approve the January 18th Open Session minutes February 1st uh 2024 Open Session minutes and then February 1st 202 for closed session minutes were there any comments or questions about the minutes and anybody just that this is the closed a thank you for clarification all right I have a motion please Mo have a second please all those in favor please say I I all right motion carries uh now we would ask for I would ask for motion to approve the February 1st 2024 close session minutes B council state will recuse himself in voting on this action so there three of us any questions no question I'll make the motion thank you I'll make okay all in favor I all right motion carries uh administrative reports uh so did everybody have a chance to look at the administrative reports yeah good um just a couple of things I want to highlight this month uh the clerk tooken $37,000 at fees and permits most of that was parking and what else the Vari of parking parking leases it's the annual renewal dog licensing I think was about $1,100 so yeah good um I'm also going to start you know Cindy's been putting the uh the hotel U uh report in there I'm just going to start kind of pulling up the lill page and sort of separately last month we uh took in $1,351 in hotel motel tax and that's good and if you when you look at it like we took it more than R in Township yeah right yeah so the Airbnb money yep and I'll make a note that we took in just over $35,000 in meters in January so that's another significant number um one other report that we're going to start next month and I didn't put it in today I just got the report today you know last year we hired part-time accountable clerk 12 hours a week is that is that what you works yeah um and uh it's been hugely helpful to the city's staff um and just to give you an example of how helpful um uh between January 1st and February 15 in the first quarter payment she processed 879 individual transactions uh toing uh $1.9 million in City Hall at a desk you know these are checks that are dropped off our taxpayers are amazing in terms of coming to the window every quarter with their checks so um that's a that's an incredible amount of work and think that you know we just have two people handling that that level of kind of administrative work and doing it well uh you know it's hard for me to believe so we're very grateful to have somebody there and we'll start including this uh this is a as a as a monthly reporter most of her work is done kind of in those quarterly marks uh so you're going to see a high uh you know higher numbers at those quarterly uh so it's February what is it February May May November yeah and in fact um I've I've said that during the during a week on either side of that period when it's very heavy volume you know if we if we if if if we feel like she needs a little bit of extra time she can increase her eight eight hours during a during a quarter um and she can come in and sort of do that you know there's some flexible some flexibility there so so that's been really great for for processing tax payments um and that's all I wanted to just note um and unless there any questions or comments from the council I would just ask for motion to approve the administrative reports sub is there second okay all in favor please say I I I thank you I carries uh this evening on resolutions we have a consent agenda these following resolutions are on the consent agenda are considered routine and shall be enacted by one motion should any member of city council seek separate discussion of any item that item should be removed and discussed separately so these are resolutions number 33224 through 48-22 there's a couple things I just want to highlight here and then certainly if the counil have have any questions and that to uh to answer um resolution 42224 authorizes the hiring with Daniel peacock to serve as the interim tax collector from March 4th through June June 21st 2024 Jess Jessica Creed with all our best wishes is going on maternity leave and Danielle peacock is the person that she Works group in which township is it Hamilton yeah that's Hamilton um uh res resolution number 45224 this is a uh to amend resolution number 19-22 24 and to authorize the not to exceed limit for the city architecture fund project for the land fil for public library in an amount not to exceed $44,000 this is a resolution basically to uh fund uh plans and estimates various work that we that we've been talking about uh for the libraries so um that that would be and that will come out of that pen will come up ordinance number 18-202 3 which was the bond we passed last year to uh to to uh for work at City Hall and Library um resolution number 46 2024 this is the resolution that cancel Capital Appropriations Bal consecuted projects talk a little bit more about kind of cancellation of uh some some uh uh Bond balances uh notes uh a little bit later on in the meeting but this is one that I thought was worth was worth considering so we have um when we bought the Clon property we budgeted over million dollars for site planning for that property and that's coming coming up on three years now that we've had that property um I feel as though a million dollars is probably not necessary uh at this time so I'd like to propose that we cancel half of that and keep a balance about half of that on uh you know as a project base for now I'm not sure what we're you the council has not made a plan um but at some point we will need to spend some money on site planning whether it's just uh professionals or putting in a parking lot for the park or you know so I think it's a good idea for us to keep some of that money for the time being um but I also think it's a good idea for uh for us to uh to to to commit to not using all of it I don't think that we need all of it um the next one one is resolution 47- 2024 it's to amend our resolution 2024 authorizing the contract with Phoenix advisor to serve as a municipal advisor uh this uh amount is to get us through the uh processing uh and services related to kind of the long-term bonding that we're going to do in the next couple of months um and the last one which is resolution 48224 this was a resolution that authorized the rich Tree Service to prune the white pine tree uh in Mary sherid Park which was damaged this week uh they came out and did an excellent job just this afternoon so that's what that that's what that resolution is so are there questions from anybody on the council about any of the other resolutions I just want to confirm that on 46 2024 we will still have approximately half a million dollars in that Bond and after going through the numbers of what we've spent we spent very little of that million Cor 7 something thousand dollar over the past three years that's mostly for for Professional Services and then maintenance assum and things like that but I think that makes sense yeah yeah so we have about half I don't I don't we can get the exact number to the council I don't know what it is I could have I didn't think to ask to for it today but it's about half that number um and you know in the interal we're deciding what we're doing with the property you know we may need to remove more trees there may need to be some work done to one of the buildings right there is some work that needs to be done at the holding house and whether whether the DPW can do that or whether we have to have it done uh remains to be seen but uh I think it's good for us to keep some money in you know at hand so to speak um there other questions from anybody okay I'm hearing none I would ask for a motion to accept the to adop the to the consent agenda let me just read the numbers again uh numbers 3322 24 through 48 2024 some second second all right all in favor please say I I I okay guys thank you very much uh next is uh we'll consider ordinance's first reading uh this is ordinance number 42024 it's ordinance of the city of Lambertville in the county of conen New Jersey providing for various Capital Improvements of and for the city appropriating , 43,000 4353 therefore and authorizing the issuance of 1,361 538 in general approvement bonds per notes of the city to finance the same so I'm just going to take a couple minutes to just talk about to just walk everybody through this um the first item uh in this Bond ordinance is uh for uh road projects in 2024 uh this is to repay South Franklin Street to make upgrades to the storm water infrastructure along there and also to repave and uh restripe and resign Church Street the block between North Franklin and Maine um we do have a grant in the amount of $131,000 $131,500 City Library uh that is uh at $320,000 I would just note here that uh yesterday I'm sorry I haven't had a chance to to send this to the council yet I did submit uh to um uh assembly when rold Jackson office Jack R Jackson office a request for the 2025 New Jersey library Bond uh in the amount of um 398,000 which would cover the entire cost of rep repor pointing repainting the building as well as an additional project which we discussed at the library board and which I had Michael um Burn the City architect drafted plan for which would be $70,000 to um ship the Ada um entrance to the main library which would uh put a lift at the main door uh reconfigure be able to remove the the ramp everybody would kind of come in through the through the main door it's a great project and it was a it was kind of came up just sort of organically in our tour when we were looking at the building with Michael and the and the library board and uh I think that it doesn't get bonded through the if it doesn't get paid through by the state I think that there are other resources out there that are going to be popping to you know to to do a nice project like this to to to do it so I have asked for that money from the state and uh we'll follow up with them if we do get you know we can proceed if the if the ordinance is adopted we can proceed with the with the job and if we get the money then we can use that to pay off the the debt so um that's that um the next item is uh compar to the sewer pipe on Delan Street including all work and related materials there of um and this is a $28,000 project to replace an 88 foot section of a storm sewer pipe on on Delan Street which was nicked by contractor who has paid their relative share of that project um and uh we'd like to get this done put this in in early because I'd like to get it done as quickly as possible so that we can issue uh uh the the um uh the uh what is it the occy well certificate of OCC occupancy right yeah for them they have to paid yeah they have to paid so so I wanted to get prop kind in the works and get it done uh the next item is the Music Mountain project uh this is the federal ear Mark you've heard me talk about this uh a lot over last year so um uh by now everybody should know that we have to pay this up front and this is a reimbursement so we have to bond for this um I had recent conversations with the USDA uh as well as um Princeton hydro and we'll be collaborating between the USDA and Princeton Hydra hopefully meeting sometime in the next month to kind of determine the scope and and uh and start to plan that project uh the next is the school parking lot uh we're asking for $25,000 say noted in the last meeting this is for um just basically engineering and permitting fees uh and shipping in a little toward this project which is costing several hundred, of the school bond um it's a great project for the city and uh and uh think it's good for us to be able to chip in a little bit and then the last is just a the the uh estimate for the work at the DPW uh site came in a little higher than the $500,000 F State appropriation so uh to make up that difference we're incling that in in this Bond there any questions about this from the council no I just wanted to comment that I think the library Project's great I all for do with not even swapping them out more on the library is better it is a great Hub in the community serves the community a big fan I would like to plug though on the flip side of that of getting you know perhaps like some regular maintenance as when we were touring these buildings like cleaning the the gutters and some of the things that will of course have to be repaired I believe when we do paint the building but then we need to be able to continue to clean them out so all those newly painted surfaces aren't going to then you know be clogged with debris and R and then we'll be right back where we need you know to be you know so whatever it is in terms of regular maintenance I think committing to that for actually all buildings would really be a good thing to take a look at as a project year because it's you know if you don't have regular maintenance your costs just go up on painting you know and doing those things but I'm the the the both they're both great projects for the library I think it'll really be very very helpful and the only other thing I'd like to PL while we're talking about monies I do believe that a few months ago when we were at the beginning of the discussion about the bridge and when you had met with the business Community we had renewed again a discussion with them about you know little beautification project of that we need to have some planters maybe take down those old green signs that are up that have businesses on that no longer you know exist and work with the chamber you know about um on on something like that I know we the bank is in flux so we always talked about renewing you know some of the you know the furniture that was there rather than have people's donations there you know um but that we should maybe come up with a scheme and fund it you know banners maybe Memorial Day you know a lot of towns do these great things now where you know they adopt uh veterans that are in the town and they have the vet up on the and their story and and they're beautiful and people love them but we could figure out a way to do that and I I did get the chance to talk to some folks on the chamber this week and and talk hook them up with the county about getting some grants but we talked about getting together to to talk about this so I think that it's kind of something if we can't do it here that we we do do deal do it this year you know again it's like right up the street in the library library plan or two but you know it's it's some nice continuity for when people you know visit town and you know it's nice to spruce up a little bit since tourism really puts the dollars back in the hotel and motel tax puts it back in our meters you know so we get it back in time you're absolutely right uh and just to address a couple of those points so you know we do have a anou with the library about maintenance we are supposed to the city is supposed to keep you know keep up with the maintenance on the exterior of the building um we've had I've had conversations with the DPW about the gutters this year and I had another conversation with them a week or so ago so I don't know if the gutters have actually been cleaned I do know that that we there was one issue with the key so you know and and and Jen and I have had a conversation of you know if if it's not if for some reason we can't the DPW can't get to it we need to get to it right I need to come up with a plan for that right so you know roof is high I've been up in top of the pupila so the gutters I'm I'm I'm aware of and and I acknowledge that it's an issue um and and that we're working I'm working toward sort of a resolution on that not I don't know what that what the resolution is just yet but I'm aware of it um and certainly you know in the central business district I talked about this last year and you're absolutely right we do need Planters we need to we need to fix those giant Planters where the the syamore trees are and the parking lot there a disgrace right so in the next Bond we will have another Bond ordinance at the budget time for the capital projects that have been already sort of discussed with the budget consultant whether it's a new police vehicle or I don't whole list in front of me but we will incorporate a few of these other things because it it is important to make the downtown and and I do want to make it a focus and it is you know we were on I was on the call with Moody's today about our uh about our bond rating and we talked about how you know the economy here is strong but you know we we we want it to be strong and we also want to be participating in you know strengthening wherever we can so uh your points are well taken and we can expect to see that kind of thing in the next Bond ordinance um are there other questions yeah i' just like to to mention that um thank you for reaching out about the 2025 uh potential Grant opportunity for us to get money back that were uh outlining for the majority of the repairs to the uh library and uh I look forward to that project finally get it done and with with any luck we be able to get reimbursements of lost so thank you for doing that um I'm just obviously I'm believe this supp the library thank you for everything you guys do it is truly one of the treasures we have here um and especially now this year because the El school does not have a library there're walking in public library there so it's even serving even greater purpose uh so this is stuff that I'm happy to do I think we need to do more general maintenance to continue maintain this we talked about and I'm really excited about the possibility of this project with you know the rant with the the lift to make it more successful and just a better better setup so and and then might add all those years ago we came up with a plan to paint uh and I don't know how many folks were you might have been here at the time we came up with a a concept on how to paint the building so it's more reflective of what goes on inside on the outside and I I think that color scheme is somewhere somewhere yeah sounds like City so I don't know if we want to readdress how we're going to uh there were plans for signs and a lot a lot of things going on the L yeah I I haven't talking to Michael Burns about this I don't know what uh you know and he was involved with the process choosing a color you know the colors that were done at the porch had been kind of improved and vetted by the historic New Jersey historic preservation office that's why when we decided to do the porch in 20122 I didn't have to worry about choosing paint colors because they were already they had already been approved so I don't know what the paint color story is here yet um but I'll find out and uh I have no interest in personally choosing the color uh but U I'm more than happy to make sure that it's done with lots of uh input from from intive parties um so uh and I will just say having now served uh you become more active on the library board it's an it's an amazing group of people and it's an incredible place um and I just couldn't be I couldn't be more I couldn't be happier or more proud of the kind of the community the reflections of of our community spirit that that it embodies every day um in In the Flesh so thank you for being here and thank you for all the work you do um this point I would entertain a motion to introduce ordinance number 04202 for cl reading I all in favor please say I I I motion carries unanimously good uh and second reading ordinances we have a couple of these tonight the first one is ordinance number 02-2020 this is an ordinance of the L city code 2014 chapter 14 Street openings to include a provision to prohibit construction without first providing those city so we talked about this last month it was uh really just an ordinance to uh for members of the public Tak either a street opening permit or approval from the police department before they shut down a sidewalk uh and force people into the roadway or the right way very common sense this was born out of some issues that we had back in December here in the city um so uh at this point I would open this up for a public hearing uh if there are any members of the public who wish to speak to this ordinance this would give time to do so anyone how many people we have on line tonight n all right um can I have a motion to close the public hearing on this ordinance second D please say I I public hearing is closed are there any comments answer questions from the Council on this ordinance no by hearing none I would ask for a motion to um adopt ordinance number 202 I'm sorry is this a first second second got first you got my wording did I yeah sorry like I'm pretty sure this is the second reading um so make a motion to adopt on second reading ordinance number 02 d224 second second all right all in favor please say I I than you motion carries ordinance is adopted um and now I will go to ordinance number 03224 this is an ordinance authorizing an amendment to the lease agreement between the city of Lambertville and the Wells Fargo Bank um this ordinance would uh allow the city to continue to lease with the Wells Fargo bank and change the termination notice from 90 days to a 45 day notice and from a year to year to a month to month Le so we talk about this um I'm happy to open this up to public comment if there are any questions or comments from the publicans anyone on line all right I have a motion to close the public hearing on this please all in favor please say I I okay public hearing is closed uh any questions or comments from the Council on this ordinance just as you got last time there's not much of a negotiating position here so we're lucky we have the opportunity to sett right okay um I have a motion to adopt ordinance 03224 second reading thank you second all those in favor please say I I motion carries just a couple things correspondence uh New Jersey transit schedule public hearings uh jcpnl verified petition to establish a rate or WR or lost Revenue adjustment epu doet number ER 2311 065 um one uh couple of board appointments to shift around uh I'd like to point money pel to the serve as the alternate number two on the Zoning Board of adjustments Uh Kevin Brady who is the current alternate number two would replace Paul Bernstein was stepping down I sent for Council some information from Monique I think she'll be a very nice addition very smart and Liv C the L time so uh if I may I'll ask for a motion to confirm these nominations no than all in favor please say I I all thank you um now I just want to touch on a couple of things um coming up let me just go through list of announcements um pay registrations are du by February 29th U after March 1st will be charged to late fee landlord registrations are due March 31st registrations received honor after April 1st will be assessed of L fee city office is be closed this Monday uh February 19th for President Day convenience center of hours are Saturday March 2nd and March 16th from 9: to noon and Wednesday from March 20th uh from 3 to five um I just wanted to talk about just uh one second just want to let everybody know that the uh annual financial statement has been posted to the city website which was finished I think yesterday um and uh I just wanted to highlight some some good news so this year last year our Surplus ended with the balance of $1.5 million which is up $414,000 from the year before um and that total revenue that we generated last year was 664599819 this year with our budget and uh in the long term for uh for servicing our debt so I'm very pleased with that news and I know that it came all backs of a lot of difficult decisions for people and here both in the city Administration for the taxpayers but uh it's positive news and I think it's uh has a has a has definitely a a great impact uh on kind of where we are um I would also note that um you know we've gone through the finance team has gone through we talked a little bit about this uh recently we've gone through and canceled a number of uh unused Bond uh notes uh over the last few months in fact we've uh we've just been able we we just uh with tonight's action and with uh another million dollars that we got from FEA 995,000 940,000 $940,000 we got check this week we were able to pay down some more debt so you know when we started this process um less than two months ago uh we've been able to cancel uh $1.2 million in debt from uh from our total debt so we will be going out to long-term Bond uh sometime in the next month for just over 8 million um I'll forward that all this to the to the to the council uh this is based on going out for the long-term U Bond based on many conversations with the Auditors the financial um advisers uh and the finance team um we're looking at a couple different options uh for 15 20 year um and we'll be having a little conversations about that we may we may be able to uh go out to to to do that uh the next couple of weeks so we may be looking at uh that uh coming up in uh in early March um and I think that was everything that I just Dr to note um and I think that's uh think that's all I got well actually the only other thing I'll say is that we had a bid opening for the uh North Franklin Street um and uh let's see the street oh the stter heard at Swan Street um we had a number of bids and uh we don't have the engineers review on that yet but uh we'll certainly have it before our first March meeting and I expect that the council will be able to award uh a contract at that meeting and we'll get those Road jobs uh underway quickly as quickly as I can get them underway because stord Street continues to get worse right so um so so look forward to that that's that's good good news as well than all right that's all I have um I would say at this time unless there's any other Council questions um we'll open it up to the second uh Public public comment period any members of the public wish to speak same uh lines as before you have three minutes please uh sayate your name and address Lindy will let you know when you have 30 seconds left and the council may or may not respond St bur sh Bruns Avenue in lamberville uh since we don't get an opportunity to comment on the try to adjust this uh when on first reading of ordinances I think questions that come up in in the process you know we have to come back at the next hearing but two things I have in question on the B Bond ordinance which is 042 24 all right the um repair it's section three the repair to the sewer line is it a sewer line uh which should be repaired by the Sewer Authority or the MUA or is it a storm sewer sorry about that that's a that's a typo for pointing that out and the other piece is the Music Mountain there's no detail what are we going to put the tent back up at music mountain or what are we what are we doing up there uh so if you wish if you care to make a comment on that the other thing in the way of comence and trying to be helpful all right is talking about the the gutters and they are high okay so I'm not going to go up uh but uh the gutter guards are very effective we used them at our home for a long time and it's a lot shorter than uh than that so that's something you may want to look at uh and they are available at Costco uh and one last thing uh I recognize that there's an equipment problem here with the PA system all right but with some you know people who have some hearing difficulties all right you really got to speak up because if you're sitting in that audience you can't hear okay and I think we need you know people should be able to hear have a good evening and thank you for what you do uh Judy GLE 86 North Union Street um first I'd like to Echo what Dave said it it I don't think you even have to be having difficulty hearing to have trouble hearing is sort of we then we're going to do this and that we're going to do that and that we're going to go what we're doing because you you really you really can't get any of it since we're not printing anything anymore which is fine it's very difficult to follow and know what's being talked about or what the issues are periodically people speak louder appear but mostly not so yes without the microphones and I get that's an issue I am now speaking louder than I normally do talking to people if I were just at a dinner table so I know you can do it of course I don't want you to miss a word that I say but even still uh on with regards to some of the money issues that happened uh that you talked about tonight um I didn't ever get the full total I I guess I can look it up somewhere of what the all the money amounts were but I did catch the reference the differentiation or the reference to Capital expenditures and maintenance expenditures and as we know they are different and I think the point that was made about maintenance which came up at the last meeting the work session is critical because if we don't maintain if we don't know as the citizenry what we're spending on maintenance we don't have a clue until we get the statement back of what kind of taxes we're going to be paying this year so it would really be appreciated if the budget big picture I think one of my fellow uh residents said last week we need to know how it stands I love the library I want the library to get money but I want to know where the libr Library money stands with the with the maintenance money with the tree repair I mean the street repair money with not because I'm going to say it's wrong or right but just because people want to know that stuff and it would be really helpful if that would be made available to us in a way that would let people feel either feel good about the decisions or ask or go to council members and ask them to consider other aspects of the decisions so otherwise I think have exhausted the excitement I can bring to you this evening anyone [Music] else hi har Berg One with stre court in lville uh I am president of the library board and I just want to also say thank you to all of you for your support uh I also want to say Andrew I mean I've been active on the board for a few years and it is so nice to like we have a mayor's representative but you also come to the meetings which is something that I think has not been true for many years before he in it role so I appreciate that very much we appreciate all your support and uh thanks hi walie menes 93 North Union Street and I think I'm the newest member of the one of the newest members of the library board and perhaps the newest resident to lville having just moved here in 2022 want to also thank the council for considering the the motion for the support of the library um I was honored and pleased to join and Andrew thank you for recognizing what an exceptional group of people it is but what a great organization and U I was looking to find a way to contribute to a community that really cares about its very diverse uh population and I think the library has done outstanding work there and so we really appreciate your support and looking forward to unveiling a strategic plan uh for the next few years that hopefully you'll all find great interest in and value actually important any Liz would you like to go ahead sure thanks Lindsay hi this is Liz pelli um I'm at 120 Highland Avenue and I just want wanted to say thank you to councilwoman Kaminsky uh on behalf of the chamber for um meeting with Mark salic and Carolyn are one of our other board members um for the meeting we really are excited about collaborating with everyone on you know ways that we can help bring more uh Commerce to Lambertville and um I also wanted to say thank you to Mayor Nock for attending our membership meeting that we held uh earlier this week I think it was on Tuesday um we decided as a chamber to in in addition to the networking events that we're having to start also holding member meetings strictly for you know business matters and things that you know to to support the membership so it was really nice to see the mayor there and um that was all I just wanted to say thank you okay Mo to CL comment period second all right there have any comments or reply to anybody any of the speakers I would just say I'm sorry if we were not speaking loud enough but I completely agree with you I think sometimes we just get used to the mic being here when they're not here we forget so if you can't hear us please yell out and tell us you can't hear us so we can speak a little louder uh we are hopefully going to rectify that issue soon but thank you other than that we're taking theater classes to project our just in the nick of time and he's taking comedy classes which we uh hope we can get a refund on WE you'll pay in one way I know I know mother said don't Mumble um but also we would also be happy to go to any like chamber events I don't we don't get the you know invitations so please you know feel free to invite us yeah Liz put us all put everybody on the mailing list yeah we come on we can right I don't have that excuse my wife is on CH that's stay home and take care Robert so you're acting hey excuse me Bill we have to we could more than two PE chamber members can go to these meetings correct we show up yeah social we have a a lot of rules about how many chamber people can be on the phone the same time yeah so without calling the public meeting I'm sorry I have a question about that true what can can they do that I on the library board we were like never more than three people or whatever but they you could have a couple council members at a meeting though and it's not it's okay it's not it's only to dis public if they're discussing or voting on business or taking action only then would the open public meetings that apply so if it was a social event where the council members were just attending and listening and not discussing public business then there's no issue so when we hold fundraisers for the library the board can come oh yeah councel me yeah no I mean the library actually I'm glad you said that thank you public I'm not just over right I want to hear that question yes any questions on the sunshine ask Judy who can memorize them and calls us out on occasionally so it's it's it's what I used to do one of the things I used to do so um just a couple of uh clarifications so Dave the Music Mountain project we've been talking about that for a while so you know with the federal earmark to deal with storm water on Music Mountain uh and this project is specifically going to be working to mitigate the effects of stor AR runoff behind the firehouse so it's a $450,000 to to create you know better infrastructure to slow the water do whatever the engineers say is necessary so that's what that is um in terms of the gutters you know the gutters of the library are Yankey gutter so they're open they're like open swell so you really couldn't put a gutter guard on them because it it wouldn't work um but it's it was a was a good was a good uh was a good suggestion um and you know to to Judy's question or comment about building maintenance you know last time I talked a little bit about this we really don't have any building maintenance worked into the budget um the only the only thing in the operating budget that we have uh accommodated for is cleaning of this cleaning of the buildings so you know there is you know when light bulbs go out there is money in the public works department for light bulbs you know in the operating budget but there's no money whatsoever that's been allocated in any operating budget since I've been mayor and I think while Julia PA was mayor specifically dedicated to building maintenance so we don't have a line item that says every year we're going to spend $110,000 on paint touchups or you know uh gutter cleaning when the DPW can't get to it or this or that or the other thing there is absolutely no money and we can start putting money in I'm happy to put in a line item for maintenance of buildings because we need it uh you know I kept thinking that I was going to get to painting the door at City Hall this year and I suppose that's something that's small enough if I could have the DPW do it but it's part of a it's part of a systemic old problem that we have we have never put anything in the budget year after year after year for for maintenance of our buildings it doesn't exist and that's why you can't find it it really doesn't I mean other than light bulbs and you know I bought a vacuum for City Hall I asked Lindsay to buy a vacuum for City Hall when I when I moved into my office because there wasn't a vacuum and I do all the vacuuming and you know so so there just isn't and I would love to see us let's do are let's do it this year I mean water and great one of those shark sticks it's like changes your life so doing trash and other stuff you know the time they have so I think we've got to build some money in for these G yeah I mean you I'm sure you all get just tired to be talking about the Department of Public Works um and you know how much work there is to do in the city and you know I'm not GNA I'm not going to start talking about it again but I do think it I do think it would be a good idea for us to start formalizing more of a maintenance plan um and to stay on top of it uh whether it's uh you know maintaining our our fire safety uh programs in our buildings or you know anything right there's just a lot that needs to be done and we just we haven't really done it so uh I'm happy to start talking about it happy to I'm happy to start with start small maybe maybe we just start with a small we start with like you know essential maintenance that you know right the things that have gone and then you know can get yeah you don't want to get crazy R you know but let start there because you know it's like prevented maintenance like you know could really be cleaning out my gutter tonight instead of being yeah I saw all the stuff but but you know but those things are important whereas you know the fire extend is not in this in the right place L sleep I shouldn't say that because of fire kill but you know but I think we can you know prioritize it and you know just like you do with anything else you know I think it's a good point I mean there are lots of little things that I keep thinking oh maybe we can get some volunteers to paint the light posts in in Mary sh Park and then I I don't do it right and it would cost $500 to have somebody come in and paint all the light post and they look great right yeah but then we don't yeah but then you don't have the repeat and and it's not really you know government should be taking care of business and you know volunteers are for you know great programs and and uh but yeah I'm off for G government on you know like schedule I'm like a fiveyear plan or a 10 year you know like although I still write list on paper which is a great but I think that would be you know we I'll start to identify Identify some things with the staff and uh we'll we we'll put something in in the budget this year start small let's start and I'm sorry I'm just gonna take one more minute to you know something I I wanted to just mention in the announcements is uh and I I didn't write it down but we've been working with the state to craft an ordinance to change the lead fire the Fire official agency to the to uh to the Firehouse um and uh we have the state has not been um uh quick or responsive to uh the ordinance that they are requiring so I followed up with them the chief has followed up with them the fire officials followed up with them we were we were hoping to hand this over we were being very organized we're hoping to hand this over to the fire uh commission uh the 1 of April but now the state has held us up and I think we're going to miss that deadline it's probably going to be the 1 of July but we have a great Fire official I will hold a meeting here I put this in Lambertville matters on the 4th of March with the Fire official I will generate leaflets and hand them out personally to all the businesses in town you know where where we now have somebody who's really on top of it really dedicated really devoted to make sure that all the state uh regulations and local regulations are being met um and I've said before you know we' fallen short as a city in this effort in this program over the years and we we've got a great person who's really engaged and wanting to do it well um and it's a surprise to some of the businesses when he comes in to do an inspection that hasn't been done in years and you know find they've got 14 violations and they're a small business right so we we're going to hold a kind of a community uh uh session with the business owners anybody who wants to come to kind of talk a little bit about the fire prevention program uh what the inspection process looks like and how we want to work with people we want to work with businesses we don't you know we need to follow the laws we need to make sure the regulations uh are followed and and the compliance is is always there um but that uh you know we're also taking it from a point of service and wanting to work uh with organizations businesses so that'll happen in early March uh as I said I'll be handing out flyers to all the businesses uh that's really just the best way to do it um get tell people is the chamber gonna help promote this uh they can I'm G I'll ask them to put it on their site we just decided that we were gonna hold this meeting this week so I haven't done it but we'll do leaflets and I'll I'll just take it to all the businesses as many as I can um and uh so that we get that that program kind of stabilized and on its way to a better place um and with that unless there are any other Council uh questions or comments we close the Public Public yeah so I would just hope that the Fire official as you said indicated keywords work with people because not happen yes no I don't think yeah since especially since we're kind of ramping up into a newer yes more modern system that that doesn't you know some you know the Zeal has to be yeah know appropriately business and and Resident friendly I think here to you know find people we're here to work with them to get so we don't have you know fires yeah yeah I would say that we had a meeting with Heritage Village uh recently and that went really well um and the president of uh CIS is working she's our direct contact for taking care of all of the outstanding uh issues up at Heritage and I'm very pleased with the progress the sudden quick and meaningful progress there so that's good because I've had a lot of conversations with residents up there recently um so and I I told Frank or the Fire official and I have spoken to some businesses I'm more than happy to talk to any business have a conversation about what what this means and why it's happening now so we'll do our best to get to get the word out there and to listen and to be very proactive in terms of service I'm glad that we've worked things out with Heritage Village because I think that we you know it's a big part of our community and you know a little like conversation and understanding is better with that you know yeah that's stand off for you know that Happ they've been here a long time and it's great it's kind of come around yeah 85 Apartments it's a it's a big build you still live there yeah so I'm pleased by that um and now unless there's anything else I would love to hear a motion to adjourn so does that all right on favor please say hi we are adjourned thank you for joining us tonight it's good to see some uh some familiar faces in a new setting is