good evening everyone welcome to the township council meeting Monday April 29 2024 this meeting is now called to order please all arise councilman inhabitat lead us in a salute to the flag to the flag of the United States ofer stands thank you may be seated at this time Madam Clerk can you read the statement of public notice take notice that adequate notice of this meeting has been provided in accordance with njsa 10 col 4-8 n njsa 10 4-10 as follows notice of the meeting was prominently posted on the bulletin board at the municipal building located at 225 Main Street Little Falls New Jersey on January 4th 2024 a copy of the notice was sent to the north Jersey Herald the news and the record on the same date additionally a copy of the notice was filed in the office of the Township Clerk on said date a link and a telephone number to join the meeting virtually can be accessed on the township website at www. lfjc electronic Provisions have been established for the public to participate during the public comment portion of the meeting thank you at this time please call the rooll council member Patel council member Murphy president council member habetz council member van Sherry president council president scova president if there's no objections we'd like to take a motion for the approval of the meeting of the minutes of the meeting of March 25th and April 8th so moved moved by councilman councilman Murphy second by councilman V Cherry um Madame clerk cero council member Patel yes council member Murphy yes council member haet yes council member V Cherry yes council president scova yes mayor Damiano the floor is yours thank you council president before we get to the complete agenda this evening we do have a proclamation in honor of Arbor Day uh and I am pleased to report that the Girl Scouts assisted Us in planting uh one tree this past Friday and the municipality has 14 additional trees that will be planted within the next couple of weeks uh several of them will be planted on a roadway where one or two trees came down as a result of a complete streets uh in Belgium blocks being added to the roadway uh and about a dozen will be planted in other various portions of town uh that have the room and space for these trees so I'm pleased to report that in just about a week's period of time we'll be planting 15 trees here in Little Falls and this evening in honor of Arbor we have a proclamation to read and it reads whereas in 1872 J Sterling Morton proposed to the Nebraska Board of our agriculture that a special day be set aside for the planting of trees and whereas this holiday called Arbor Day was first observed with the planting of more than a million trees in Nebraska and whereas Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and the world and whereas trees can reduce the erosion of our precious top soil by wind and water cut Heating and Cooling costs moderate the temperature clean the air produce prod lifegiving oxygen and provide a habitat for wildlife and whereas trees are a renewable resource giving us paper wood for our homes fuel for our fires and countless other wood products and whereas trees in our city increase property values enhance the economic Vitality of business areas and beautify our community and whereas trees wherever they are planted are a source of joy and spiritual renewal now therefore I James Belford Damiano mayor of the township of Little Falls do hereby Proclaim April 6 2024 as Arbor Day in the township of Little Falls and I urge all citizens to celebrate Arbor Day and to support efforts to protect our trees and woodlands and further I urge all citizens to plant trees to Gladden the heart and promote the well-being of this and future Generations my council president that's all that I have for the top of my report this evening thank you at this time we're going to open up the floor to Mr John Beagle from the Clifton health department and he'll introduce his team and he'll go over the report Mr beagle thank you sir uh good evening everyone my name is John beagle I'm the health officer for the township of Little Falls with me tonight to do a presentation will be uh our medical director Dr Timothy Cowell our projects coordinator Jennifer kid and our health educator LEL helani so tonight we're just going to review our annual report from last year and also uh come up or give you some information about some of our initiatives that we're doing for 2024 at this time I would like to bring up Jennifer kid to discuss um our accreditation and also our social service division good evening as John said my name is Jennifer kid I'm the project coordinator at the Clifton Health Department um and I was the accreditation coordinator over the last several years um in the department um we are very excited I think one of the biggest accomplishments that we had in 2023 was that we became nationally accredited uh we were um the sixth local Health Department in the state of New Jersey and the first local Health Department in Pay county to become accredited and we are really excited um to have this designation we have been um voluntarily accredited by the public health accreditation board and the public health accreditation board helps to ensure that the programs and services that we offer to our residents are as responsive as possible to their needs accreditation uh strengthens our infrastructure and Workforce Development ensuring that Health departments have the necessary systems in place to efficiently um deliver high quality Public Health Services it serves as a catalyst for continuous development and continuous performance Improvement enhancing our emergency preparedness efforts and fostering quality of quality improvement uh within the department basically we went through an incredibly rigorous process to attain accreditation um since 2015 um it's a really prestigious designation for a local Health Department like I said it is voluntary here in the state of New Jersey um so we are really proud to have gotten this designation and it shows our residents um that we are transparent um in everything that we do and it holds our staff more accountable for what we do on a daily basis and it really just has created a culture of quality improvement for the Department something else that we want to bring to your attention um that started in 2023 besides becoming accredited is we have added on a social services division to the health department um our social services division is currently comprised of three people we have a social worker Tom Sadowski and we have two social Services assistants Erica shioki and Nathaniel king um in response to the Mental Health crisis that is going on in our country and the fact that we are in the wake of a of a global pandemic we thought that having a social services division was really necessary um for both the city of Clifton and the township of Little Falls our staff that we have is amazing um Tom he works primarily with children and with people that have disabilities and their families Nate uh Works primarily with our unhoused population and with veterans and Erica works with people who are struggling with substance use disorder um we're really excited to have this new division um in place John had fought for this for a very long time um to be able to have this added to the health department um we do provide these services to the township of Little Falls of course um currently we are working with United Methodist Church um with their youth group um we have Tom and Nate is working with them right now um on um just mental health awareness and also having compassion for the unhoused and they're actually putting bags together for the unhoused um I think it's next week we're going to be meeting with the youth from from United Methodist Church what we're also doing here in the township of littlefalls with our social services division is our mindfulness mindfulness Mondays programs that we have in the Little Falls Elementary Schools mindfulness is really just a state of mental well-being and something that we try to instill in our students is to be present in the moment um we are working currently with the third and fourth grade students here in the township of Little Falls and we've reached over 200 students with this program through our social services division um our mindfulness for kids program focuses on teaching Elementary School AG children various bre breathing techniques and mindfulness practices such as meditation that increase positive emotions memory attention and compassion while also decreasing stress and negative emotions we're really excited because we've working with councilwoman Patel in bringing our mindfulness program to families so that we can um work with not just children but also adults and we're going to be doing some mindfulness programs at the public library in May and June for mental health awareness month so we're very excited about that [Music] um I think that's it in terms of Social Services and what we've been doing I'm gonna turn it over now to LEL helani um oh no it's back to John it's back to John to talk to to talk to you about our environmental health division thank you Jennifer and she was a true leader during this accreditation process so thank thank you um got my book please there you go um so I I will be just briefly talking about our Animal Control Division and also our registered environmental health specialist um so far as far as animal control we have four Animal Control Officers that are available 247 we work very closely with the police department on variety of issues whether be stray dogs dogs abandoned unfortunately we just had a dog that was abandoned last week or two weeks ago and um the dog is doing well the the one thing that a lot of people don't realize is that the clipon health department has an animal shelter on City Hall property and when an animal comes to our shelter we have to hold that animal for seven days and then if the owner does not come forward we then go and adopt that at them all that but um we've been working with Little Falls probably over 12 years now I believe and we've always had a good rapport with the citizens and um and the response and animal control is under the health department because of rabies control and we have our rabies we have one rabies clinic at least a year here last week I believe we had 39 individuals come get their animals vaccinated we also um de with dog bites unfortunately that's when there's dogs and there's people you're going to have dog bites and we will respond our inspector gets in involved and Animal Control will get involved so that's just a brief statement on animal control as far as our environmental division um led by Nino and Tilly Nino is pretty much here every day um Nino is responsible for Little Falls and also we also have some other inspectors that that come to Little Falls we have about 135 inspections they're based on risk a risk one is a very low risk it's basically prepackaged items but we do that at least once once a year a risk to is something where they do some preparation but not where they're Cooling and uh cooking Etc on a on a Centric basis and then the last one is risk three which is basically they cook and cool down over three products so that's a higher risk where some individuals can get sick and we inspect them at least almost twice a year and we have risk fours which are are sushi places which have a specialized processing and if I if I ask this question I always ask if you're eating sushi raw sushi you think you could get sick from the fish or from the rice and majority of the people say it's the fish but to be honest it's the rice because if the rice is not um with proper pH but putting vinegar or acidity to lower that acidity Factor bacteria won't grow so your chances of getting sick from a sushi is merely more from the rice just figured you want to know that um and then also we also the on the environmental we do our public pool inspections we do we have two at Monclair State one which is a year round one so we do that twice a year and then the other three um in the community we do once a year we have body art and we also have um septic systems so in some parts of the township there are septic systems and a a lot of times we would get involved if there is something failing and we we get involved with that um sometimes and that could be closly to the homeowner but we try to work with those individuals and we also do the temporary events that we have around you know July 4th and block parties Etc um and we also hold food handling classes um for the restaurants and the owners of Township with Little Falls so at this point I will turn it over to Le haani thank you everyone good evening um so I'm going to be talking briefly about what we did in terms of health education in 2023 in the township of Little Falls um so for the health education division we are primarily responsible for uh providing up-to-date information on various Health matters and healthy Behavior changes now we do this primarily well we do this uh in part through in-person programs but also on our social media we are very active on Facebook and on Instagram and now uh we actually launched our own podcast it's called Clifton clipon Health on air and it's uh available in all major streaming platforms um so in health education we truly work with all populations ranging from children to seniors um in the annual report you can take a look at some of the programs that we typically offer uh but in 2023 specifically we did hold 45 single session educational programs this includes all of the bloodborne pathogen trainings uh which were which were offered to police fire uh EMS DPW the recreation department and the C team C an eer not sorry not Little Fall C team a community Emergency Response Team um I like to think that I do a good job with the bloodborne pathogens training right changing it up doing the games throwing the at you y okay I see I see approval from our chief and our Council woman councilman um and these programs also include our school based programs um we've made an effort uh to really emphasize The Vaping prevention programs just because it's one of those issues that um Still Remains among our youth um and so we um spent a lot of time last year uh providing these programs to school number one uh We've also done the mental health programs for prek and kindergarten students last year we offered these programs to Sunny Days preschool and the Ben Samuels children center um these programs also include the screenings that we held in Clifton all of which had an educational component um we always have out literature and the staff are available to answer any uh questions and provide health education um so some of the screenings that we offered were the bone density screening hearing screening oral cancer Mental Health and eye screenings we also hosted a community baby shower on May 6 which was also open to Little Falls residents um I also oversee our tobacco age of sale enforcement program um what the program entails is that we visit all of our licensed tobacco establishments in Clifton and Little Falls uh we send in an underage student to attempt to purchase a tobacco product obviously if that sale is made that's a problem because the person is under because the student is underage um but the other thing we're looking for is making sure that these places are not selling the flavored Vapor Products which have been illegal since April of 2020 um so we did this in Little Falls in June of 2022 we issued five summonses for selling to a minor and then uh we also issued five noobs for having the flavored Vapor Products we reinspected in November 2022 and issued four summonses for the flavored Vapor Products um unfortunately I did not get the opportunity to do this in 2023 it was on maternity leave for the later of the year uh but we do have every intention of resuming this in Little Falls uh because it's something that remains a challenge you know holding these um these establishments accountable um just talking briefly about our nursing division so a major part of what this division does is communicable disease investigations um and immunization audits of daycares pre and schools so last year our nurs has investigated 102 communic communicable diseases non-co related um we we re in Little Falls received a total of 237 covid cases just keep in mind these are just um the cases that were reported um a lot of people are testing at home so uh it does not include any of that um and we we investigated about 60 of those cases uh due to the updated CDC guidelines which calls for local Health departments to investigate the hospital uh based covid cases um in 2023 uh we so our nurses um audited 12 schools and daycares this year uh we did 10 and approximately 704 records were audited to ensure compliance with immunization requirements um I also want to add that our dental clinic for school AG children is up and running um it's a phenomenal service um it's for children school age children 5 to 18 years old uh it includes free dental care consisting of exams x-rays cleanings and fillings um during the summer months we do plan on bringing back our vaccine for children V vfc Clinic which will uh we will be heavily promoting among our schools um and then for more information on upcoming events and screenings we brought a ton of flyers from the health department which are on the back table over there and then just to kind of wrap things up with our strengthening team AKA our covid and infectious diseases team so we were able to keep our strengthening team thanks to grant funding uh and they assist the nursing and health education divisions um specifically they assisted the nursing division with homebound vaccinations they distributed covid test kits which we have plenty of if you need um at various sites in Little Falls they provided Outreach at the library on a number of different occasions um and they participated in various City events uh in Little Falls the Memorial Day concert the little fall Falls block party um in addition to a resource fair at the Civic Center um they also primarily handle the handwashing education and they provided seven in 2023 so I think that's all I have I'll turn it back to John okay I'll just wrap it up real quick um I just want to say um to Chuck congratulations on your retirement it's been a pleasure working with you I know you still have a few meetings left so you're not out of the woods yet but um truly appreciate you and um mayor over you know during Co I think we were on the phone many many times uh talking about some tough decisions and some rough uh you know rough times and thank you for being there and Council as well um we recently last year started working with councilwoman Patel thank you um for that and we look forward to working with everybody you know we're always here if anyone needs us we're we're just a phone call away so please always reach out to us and um I think that's all I have mle if your staff and yourself could stay for a few moments and we're going to open this up to the public to ask questions before we continue councilman Patel do you have anything you'd like to add at this point no I mean my report's going to be very short since the department is actually here but I just want to thank them um for coming tonight and really it's been a pleasure working with you and thank you for everything that you do for Little Falls thank you those res residents in the audience or those on Zoom if You' like to ask the Clifton Health Department any questions please come up to the podium for the record you could just state your name my name is Norman Shera good evening longtime resident of Little Falls uh and an old Public Health guy uh with some experience in uh communicable diseases so uh I have a couple of comments to make uh one of the things I should mention is that I sent 11 questions to uh uh to John and his staff uh a couple of days ago and uh answered every one of them responded and uh I and I learned a lot I learned I I thought I knew a lot about health departments and what was going on but clearly I needed to catch up and and I learned a lot so I have some comments and suggestions and uh I want to I want to uh preview them by saying I'm not here to criticize anyone I I think that that uh there are concerns that I have about public health in general and how we might uh we might improve Public Health uh just for the record I spent 25 years working for the Centers for Disease Control and I was the assistant Commissioner of Health for epidemi ology and prevention for New York City and some other stuff since then including running a cancer organization and I believe that the public health infrastructure and many of my colleagues agree with me has been broken in this country uh it is less funded uh less staff than it used to be uh there used to be a time when the centus of Disease Control assigned field staff to every State Health Department in the United States every major city every regional office uh and that entire Field Services Division of CDC was was totally wiped out no longer funded and so on and I think what happens here in Little Falls is that we're at the tail end of a structure that the federal Public Health structure has been broken the state has not uh has not received the kind of funding and infrastructure it used to and it goes down to the county and finally we wind up in Little Falls and uh and I think we're left to pick up the pieces couple of thank yous um I've spent quite a bit of time with Jana Patel and with Anthony scer uh some of meals and I and I appreciate the time that uh uh that uh that you've given to me uh I think that there there are a couple of areas that in in terms of the questions I'd like to address uh I'd sent a note to uh council president SCA rather than read through this list of of questions and what have you I would simply ask that uh you if you could put the questions and the response of the health department into the uh meeting report I think the people Little Falls would get to see a lot more about uh uh what's going on and and the focus my questions have been in the area of communicable diseases I'm concerned about what we have learned and what we may not not have learned having come through the worst pandemic in over 100 years the last time the United States faced a pandemic by covid uh was during uh World War I and at that time we were worried about our troops on troop ships going back and back and forth uh millions of people in this country uh actually one million PE of our residents in the United States died from covid uh there are a couple areas that that I think that that we might want to take a look at and my purpose of mentioning them is that I think it I think one of of the worst experiences in public health is when somebody becomes very sick or dies from a preventable disease it's one thing for people to uh to succumb to other diseases and uh I think s you know I lost my daughter a couple of months ago and I thank those on the township committee who reached out to me and uh uh and helped me uh but people should not have to die from Co or flu or uh or other diseases where where the disease in fact uh may be uh may be preventable so there a couple of areas that I'd like to comment on one is that I think we need to do a better job of communication uh I was amazed at how much I learned about the health department I had no idea that uh that uh LEL and by I keep screwing up her name but I had no idea that uh how much you you you were involved in MSU uh and some of the work that you're doing there uh B may Shea who's sitting here with me he and I were talking trying to reach out uh to him as you and do some work with them and and I finally found out how much you're already doing that you're on the uh on the faculty of of of MSU I think that we need to improve Communications uh the Gap in terms of what I had to learn about the health department over the last couple of days has to be much greater in terms of what uh what other residents learn I think that we need to fix our website the Little Falls website should have the same information that is available to Clifton residents on the Clifton website and it's fine to to to refer people when you go on the littlefalls website to the Clifton one but basically we ought to have it here and either we do it or we give them access to it uh but I think we can do a better job in terms of in terms of that of that website I think that uh uh we can do a better job at uh what I think is is probably the most important public health issue in terms of communic diseases today and that is what what what do we need to do and what can we do to deal with the continuation of co co has not gone away uh most cases are no longer reported because people are self- testing but we're learning more and more about Co and we're learning more about long-term Co and and the and the pretty significant implications of of this disease and our strategy has been over the last few years to recommend vaccinations masking distancing contact tracing and quarantine and the reality today is that very little of that is going to take place uh unfortunately people are fatigued in terms of of vaccine and I think the vaccine rates if we if we really had really great data uh we would find that these rates have gone down and I don't think we see people masking anymore or expect to see but there's one thing I think that we can do and is one thing that I learned when I read the Health Department's response to my questions and that is to do something about uh about the air so I'm going to give you my uh my old CDC 101 in terms of Airborne illnesses uh how do people spread the disease whether it's flu or Co or RSV from one person to the other we used to think by by the way when Co started that perhaps people were catching it through surfaces and so we had a major campaign that went on keep washing and keep washing and we later discovered that although it could happen that these viruses don't live very long on surfaces so how does my virus get from here over to the mayor picture a situation where you're sitting in a room and you see sunlight coming into the room and what do you see in the room you see Speckles of dust all over the room viruses have no wings they have no feet so they way to the way they get from one person to another is the viruses fling to the dust particles and when I cough in the air if I have covid and the mayor comes walking by me a few minutes later and breathes in the air with that dust particle that's one of the ways he can catch he can catch co uh council president scor had I think he was excited I was too we saw we saw a documentary a couple of months ago on CB BS where where they spoke about what we could do to make sure that we did a better job in filtering the air particularly in our public buildings and schools so that we remove the dust particles and those viruses have nothing to cling to and what I was really uh disappointed to learn is that we're not doing this yet uh that we don't have a major program in place whether it's in our schools or room or what have you uh to monitor the air and and and we do have standards in place CDC has come up with recommendations over the last couple of months uh to to filter the air and the basic recommendation is to have equipment ventilation filtering equipment that filters the air I think was five times every minute or so uh I'm not an expert in this particular area I realize that we need certain kinds of expertise uh but I think if if we were to add one thing to our repertoire going forward it would be to be to begin to develop a program first of all to test the air I think parents have a right to know whether the whether the rooms that their their children uh uh spend so much time in during the day are safe to breathe and by the way when you look at schools even though I think we do a great job uh in looking at vaccination levels we used to call schools The Germ factories of the world and we have a particularly robust germ Factory at at the pic Valley not because anybody's do anything wrong there but because it's a feeder school for three times so my plea is in addition to fixing our website what can we do to uh first of all test the air to see if there's a problem let people know and then figure out what is the resolution and how much does the uh does the resolution cost and having said that uh I think I'll stop uh I want to thank the uh the health department for here tonight but there is one other thing I'm sorry one final thing uh every time I come to a meeting and I watch most of them by video I see the police department sitting at the table and I'm glad you're here once in a while I'd like to see the health department sitting at seated at the same table and we've discussed this uh Anthony scorer and I and that is can we put Public Health on the routine agenda of our Township meetings and although I think Jana does a very nice job falling and feeding back and forth there's no substitute for having somebody with public health credentials periodically appear and be part of these meetings and I think that would dramatically help to uh to facilitate Communications thanks for listening thank you Mr SCH for coming before us and I I remember your daughter well we sat behind each other in home room and Mr sence class councilman pel do you have a want to comment on the possibly bringing in the health department yes uh council president thank you I could actually comment on two of the things I've already started um Communications between Our IT department and the Clifton um Department that takes care of their website so that's already in the works to update our little Falls website and then in terms of having the health officer here um I have been reviewing and trying to figure out what form of the health department would best fit for Little Falls and I spoke to council president this weekend um we do believe moving forward as Council and the mayor do act as the health department we're going to have um quarterly Board of Health meetings where someone from the health department will be present and it will be presented you know as a regular meeting prior to a council meeting thank you um does anyone from the de have any comments questions Mr beagle do you have a followup yeah you know you are you are correct Mr Sher about public health and there's a documentary on PBS and it's called The Invisible Shield and nobody knows about the health department until something becomes visible um we learned that with the pandemic so you are right um we have no problem come to any meeting any educational session that's what we're here to do we're Educators first hey sometimes in the real world we have to be enforced ERS but we're Educators so we want to be here we want to be anywhere where we can educate and if we help one person a day that is our goal right if we could help one person a day walk out of the office and say hey we help somebody that's what we're here for so um and we do just just we do meet with um other health departments once once a month so I know you have regards to bake Valley um we are the lead health department and we have gone there Mr Hy has my phone number I've talked to him many many times too so but I thank everyone I also want to thank councilman V Cherry I forgot to give you a shout out too we worked very closely together so I appreciate your time there and everyone else and I thank you mayor the um thank you so Mr schz if you would just so we can record it if you want to say it because For the record yeah we've been talking earlier and I and I forgotten remarks about creating an appropriate Memorial in Little Falls similar to the one that that the city of Clifton has which acknowledges and pays respect to in our case 26 of our residents mostly senior citizens who died during covid and I forgot during my interchange uh the health department has offered to to work with us and I would ask uh uh my colleague uh Mr beagle to to comment on that so uh Mr beagle would you like to comment on how you put up the flags sure I mean they're just small Flags in honor of each individual that has passed away um this year we could put them wherever you feel NE you know in front of the town hall or wherever and maybe in the future we could build something doesn't have to be you know that great but I think there needs to be something to remind us of the people that lost their lives the people that work during this pandemic and just everybody that was affected because everybody was affected that if you were alive you were affected and you mentioned long-term Co whether it be mental health or whether it be physical that's a real thing so I I think we would like to do that and we would support whatever so that would be through the mayor's office Mayor would you have any comment or with that something that we can move on I agree I believe some doing something like that would be would be great so we'll be in touch with your office and we'll work out the and figure this out okay Mr is there anyone on the chat that like to speak on this topic thank you president if I may just mayor a couple of Mr sher's inquiries first is Little Falls in the process of revamping its entire website the current website is frankly out of date the mobile use on the website is near impossible uh getting to a point where we have a more updated website is something that we need to do not only for health purposes but for ease of access for all residents for any all questions they may have or uh various departments that they may need to access so we are in the process of redoing that it will also have a mobile portion to it so we will have that and and getting additional uh information from the Clifton Health Department or linking particular things over to them is something we can absolutely include in that and the next question I know you've asked on a number of occasions and we've gotten an answer is the filtration in this particular building I can only speak for this building and municipal buildings uh the best filter that we have is in the recreation center uh the indoor section of that that has a a very high rated HEPA filter I it was in the middle of covid that we installed that particular uh air filtration system it was when we added air conditioning to the recreation center and in the middle of that we had asked because it was the start of covid that a better filter be considered there and there was some additional cost because the filter is Tighter and allows less air to pass through we needed to put in a little bit more of a powerful Mo powerful motor and a couple of other components to ensure that it would continue to flow the amount of air that it needed to while getting the filtration uh that would that was necessary uh here in this building we currently operate with Merve 8 filters they collect up to 85% of particles in the air and that's what's currently being utilized in this building here that's all I have council president thank you mayor are there any other comments see any will move forward thank you for joining us this evening and expressing your concern thank you very much uh thank you Mr Bagel to your staff as well thank you we'll be in contact we'll move on to council reports councilman Murphy why don't you to start us off thank you council president so just uh two quick updates on the domestic violence prion committee um I had a great talk last week uh with the faay county woman Center on donating some of the funds that we received from the D to donate events um I know a lot of residents came out to support the the committee and I think it's going to be good for them to see exactly where their you know their funds and money is being used towards so they're putting together a list for us uh with some items that they would like us to purchase so once we receive that list we'll work on getting some of those items and donating it to the shelter and I'm I'll be sure to update the the residents on when that happens I also had a um conversation with the superintendent of Pake Valley um Dr Healey uh and Jazelle D Silva from the Pake County prosecutor's office um I know a couple months back I discussed the event that we were looking to hold at Pake Valley right now we kind of have a tentative date of June 19th for the uh safe dating presentation which is the prosecutor's office doing a presentation for some students at Pake Valley on safe dating and going through some of the you know effects and and going into a little bit of detail for them so we're working on firming that date up uh we should know probably this week or next week exactly which date we're going to use but right now it looks like June 19th what that's finalized I'll I'll let everybody know um other than that I did want to thank the Clifton Health Department for coming out uh fantastic presentation and is it's good to see that the amount of work that they're doing for us really is good that's all I have council president thank you councilman Murphy uh councilman V Cherry thanks council president um first also want to Echo thank you to uh John beagle and his staff you know we've had I've had the pleasure working with him the last eight years as a member of the council and then when I'm not doing this my other job because we are in Clifton we get a chance to work with him and his staff so appreciate the time and effort that they put to help our residents with all their needs uh few updates on my end too is uh councilwoman Batel and I connected today we're working out the details with may you know for mental health awareness month um trying to sort of tie the two events together the flag raising and the wellness initiative is going to take place at the library so more details to come on that but we do have um a date in mind where we could you know host the event and the flag Rising uh a couple other events that are coming up as you know we finish up April and head to May uh with the Memorial Day Weekend activities the planning has begun and I have a meeting this week with several uh Township officials just to go over some details for the event on May 24th which is the concert in the park as well as the parade the next day on May 25th so um you know I'm pleased to say that the responses have been great in terms of both the days the participation I know I've reached out to some of my colleagues as well to see if any committees or different groups that you're a part of are interested in whether showing up at the concert the night before or even participating in the parade so all are welcome you guys know that so just uh keep me posted if anything changes on uh your end um have been working too behind the scenes uh you know with our Engineers as well as the mayor and Mr cuch and Mr guaton just finalizing the details I know it's on the resolution tonight for the speed humps for Houston we're finally progressing to the point where you know we're ready to kind of approve the resolution and then move ahead with the ACT ual work um we're also working with the engineer to look at some other streets in town uh hoping to have some updates soon but you know after to connecting with some residents about some concerns and the police has been looking into some of the streets as well we're looking at possibly adding more but I'll have some updates uh in the near future and another update too from our engineer you know our uh traffic light that's coming to Francisco and Cedar Grove Road we're hoping to have that sometime in June fingers crossed that that isn't delayed any longer definitely looking forward to it and you know council president if I could mayor just wanted to ask you real quick because I know it's the million dooll question on social media um if you do read it as much you know on a daily basis the traffic light on Stevens and Maine any update in terms of timing when that light will be operational great question I actually just sent out an email about that earlier this evening to our psng representative uh we are still awaiting PS CG has now finally installed the electrical meter on the control box which will Electrify all of the components unfortunately there's no electric actually run to the meter to power all of the components so getting electric from the pole to the meter is the next step apparently that's a different division at pscg than the division that installs the meter uh so we are waiting for this separate division to come in and install the power from the lines down the pole to this actual meter at that point we can get the new lights operational and from there we can decommission and remove all of the old lights and polles that are in the intersection uh this is an all handson deck everybody has been reaching out including our Engineers uh I am now using other avenues including Regional representatives and and and things such as that to try to help move this along as well um it's becoming frustrating that it's just sitting there with you know 15 lights hanging in that intersection right now uh because the old ones cannot be decommissioned until the new ones are obviously up and running uh so we are doing everything we can in order to move that along but unfortunately we're just at a stalemate because of psng thank you mayor and just one last thing I just wanted to mention and kudos to our DBW Department as well as the mayor and commissioner lazara as I mentioned last meeting there were some concerns with some pipe issues backing up some of the water on Main Street and Francisco um and Cedar Grove Road and because of this you know and thanks to commissioner Lazaro working behind the scenes and working with the administration of the county both areas where there's been issues with water have been addressed so you know it took a little while but thanks to her being proactive and getting on some of the colleagues it was um address finally so I know the businesses on Main Street are going to be happy as well as some of the residents on Francisco and Cedar Grove Road and there's one other one that you know we're working on with the county on Main Street as well hopefully it be addressed so that's all I got thank you Council HS thank you council president um so I'll start off with some Library updates um this Saturday May the 4th they are having a lightsaber uh craft uh for May the 4th be with you for all of those Star Wars fans uh that will be at 11: a.m. ages seven and up and you do need to register on their website for it uh tomorrow night they are having one of my all-time favorites um he is a regular at the farmers market as well uh they will have a meet and greet and book signing with produce Pete from news4 um at 6: pm tomorrow night and then on Friday uh we will continue our noon in the No Series uh this Friday we have a special guest that will be at 12 noon uh that is a Facebook live it gives you all of the township updates uh this Saturday fingers crossed the no rain uh there will be our Bike Rodeo uh beginning at school number one from 10: to 12:00 p.m. our police department will be there uh as well as uh Avenues in motion and uh the loose wheel which is a local resident and uh bike shop they will be doing bike inspections helmet giveaways bike Raffles there's pizza ice cream and more uh you do need to register on community pass but registration is free uh this is for children uh six and over uh the farmers market is beginning in just about a month um our weekly Friday face series I started up again last Friday uh talking Farmers Market um as one of the founders I had the pleasure of being interviewed uh along with uh my co-founder Tanya seber on Friday uh it is our fifth anniversary of the market I can't believe it's been five years already uh when we started out in covid we said we had uh 13 vendors we started planning before covid and then covid came and there were 13 vendors and now we average we L uh 20 to 22 vendors each week we have food trucks coming this week I mean this uh year excuse me uh lots of entertainment and events so uh please stop by the market is starting uh May 19th uh it runs from 9:00 a.m. to 2m every Sunday and then lastly as the mayor stated uh I was happy to organize our annual tree planting with our Girl Scouts and the shade tree commission um they've been doing a great job it's just uh one of three trees that they've planted over the last couple of years that are Eastern rose buds uh they are along the path at Wilmore Park and they're very very pretty and I'm really thankful that the Girl Scouts um have decided to help us with this so that's all I have thank you thank you councilwoman Patel thank you council president mine will be very quick since the Board of Health did steal my thunder a little bit um I do want to thank them again I work with John and his entire team on a regular basis and they really are always there for whatever I need them for and to even just sit down and brainstorm and get new events to Little Falls um for the month of May it's mental health awareness so as Kim mentioned before they are currently doing a mindfulness program in the schools for third and fourth graders but we've decided to take that and make it into a family event and it's going to be held in two sessions it's going to be May 18th and then June 1st from 10:30 to 12:30 and you'll be able to register um through the library website probably later this week but I'll keep everyone posted on that um that's all I have council president thank you Chief Pearl do you have anything for this governing body to seeing no report tonight sir thank you I just want to comment thank you for the extensive report that you supply the Council on your activities in the department I attended a meeting last last week at the county with Matt Jordan commissioner lazara about six different Engineers concerning the pekman uh bridge that is uh that the county has a Federal grant to build and erect over the pekman uh this bridge was approved um with dist with about being a one foot with a 100-year flood plane with being about one foot over the 100-year flood plane Mark the concern was new regulations came out uh with a 500-year flood plane which mean which would mean elevating the bridge I had discussions with the mayor because our primary concern is the safety of our residents and we wouldn't want to cause any additional flooding if this bridge span was uh to be erected and trees were to be caught underneath however with this new proposal if the if the counties Engineers uh can design it which we're hopeful uh we will have a bridge band over the pekman that is about 3T over the 500-year flood plane uh so we're looking forward to seeing those uh if that can happen there we possibly be warning lights on Cedar Grove Road so when you cross over to the Morris Canal walkway it would alert drivers uh to slow down as you cross that area I want to wish everybody a Happy Passover um and also we're working on a GPS Hometown Heroes program correct Mr cordone this is an interesting program that we're thinking of is that those people that want to come from out of town or even live in town uh would be able to locate uh veterans banners or Hometown her hometown hero banners on their phone also to then maybe in uh expanding that program possibly to have a uh recording voice of a veteran uh and as a cost field trip uh that each um you could I hate to say click on or push you'd be able to hear the voice the veteran explaining that Hometown hero who who he was and uh what their life was about so we're looking to also then expand that as well councel you have anything for this governing body no have a motion to open to meeting to the public for agenda items only moved by councilman Venter second by councilwoman habets Voice vote all those in favor I all those opposed count um Madam clerk anyone wishing to address the township Council may do so to the council president is preferred if you give your name and address for the record comments are to be limited to 3 minutes however for appropriate you may be granted additional time in the sole discretion of the council president members of the public who have joined the meeting virtually and desire to provide comment shall raise their virtual hand in the zoom application the meeting moderator will cue the members of the public that wish to provide comment and the council president will recognize them in order members of the public who have joined the meeting by calling in must press star six to mute and unmute themselves in Star 9 to raise their hand members of a public who have joined the meeting via the zoom application must must click the reactions icon and then the raise hand icon once the process is complete we will return to the regular order of business thank you is there anyone wishing to speak in our councel or Chambers is there anyone on the chat Mr G thank you have a motion to close the public comment move by councilman Murphy second by councilman habet all those in favor I all those opposed motion carries have a motion to approve the consent agenda so mooved by councilman um councilman V Cherry second by councilman Patel please call Ro for the consent agenda council member Patel yes council member Murphy yes council member habblet yes council member van Cherry yes council president scova yes Madam clerk read ordinance 1480 second reading and public hearing of ordinance number 1480 an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the township Council of the township of Little Falls in the county pay state of New Jersey to add chapter 134 Mutual Aid to the code of the township of Little Falls thank you the public hear the public hearing on ordinance 1480 is now open does anyone wish to speak on 1480 seeing no one come forward uh I will close the hearing on 1480 is now closed can I have a motion to adopt 1480 so move move by councilman Murphy second by councilman V Cherry this is a roll call to adopt 1480 please call the role council member Patel yes council member Murphy yes council member Hab council member V Cherry yes council president SCA yes madame clerk read ordinance 1481 please second reading and public hearing of ordinance number 1481 an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the township Council of the township of Little Falls in the county of Pake state of New Jersey amending and supplementing chapter 163 of the township code regarding regarding requirement for inspection of lead based paint in certain residential dwellings the public hearing on ordinance 1481 is now open does anyone wish to speak on ordinance 1481 see no one come forward to speak before us the public hearing on ordinance 1481 is now closed have a motion to adopt 1481 so moved moved by Council Patel second by councilwoman abets this is a roll call to adopt 1481 Madame clerk call a rooll council member Patel yes council member Murphy yes council member habblet council member Venter council president SCA yes madame cler 1482 please second reading and public hearing of ordinance number 1482 an ordinance entitled an ordinance amending the little FES fire Division and the code of the township of little FES code section 37.8 entitled fire division the public hearing on 1482 is now open does anyone wish to speak on ordinance 1482 see no one come before us to speak on the public hearing on ordinance 1482 is now closed can have a motion to adopt 1482 move by councilman Murphy second by councilman habets this is a roll call to adopt 1482 Madam clerk call the rooll council member Patel yes council member Murphy yes council member haet yes council member vent Cherry yes council president scova yes madame clerk please read ordinance 1483 second reading and public hearing of ordinance number 1483 an ordinance entitled Bond ordinance to authorize the construction of a foot Bridge from Morris Canal Park to the pic River and buying for the township of Little Falls in the county of pic state of New Jersey to appropriate the sum of $60,000 to pay the cost thereof to make a down payment to authorize the issuance of bonds to finance such appropriation and to provide for the issuance of bond anticipation notes in anticipation of the issuance of such bonds the public hearing on ordinance 1483 is now open does anyone wish to speak on 1483 seeing no one come forward to speak on 1483 the public hearing is now closed have a motion to adopt ordinance 1483 so moved moved by councilwoman Patel second by councilwoman habets Madam clerk all the all on 1483 Council member Patel yes council member Murphy yes council member havet yes council member Venter yes council president scova yes madame clerk 1484 second reading and public hearing of ordinance number 1484 an ordinance entitled Bond ordinance to authorize the undertaking of various improvements to the Civic Center building INB for the township of Little Falls in the county of P state of New Jersey to appropriate the sum of $80,000 to pay the cost thereof to make a down payment to authorize the issuance of bonds to finance such appropriation and to provide for the issuance of bond anticipation notes and anticipation of the issuance of such bonds thank you the public hearing on 1484 is now open does anyone wish to speak on 1484 see no one come before for us to speak on 1484 the public hearing ordinance is now closed have a motion to adopt 1484 so moved move by Council Patel second by councilwoman habetz Madam clerk call the rooll on 1484 council member Patel yes council member Murphy yes council member hav council member van Cherry yes council president SCA yes madame clerk 1485 please second reading and public hearing of ordinance number 1485 an ordinance entitled Bond ordinance to authorize construction of a vehicle enclosure for the office of emergency management in bind for the township of Little Falls in the county of P state of New Jersey to appropriate the sum of $85,000 to pay the cost thereof to make down payment to authorize the issuance of bonds to finance such appropriation and to provide for the issuance of bond anticipation notes in anticipation of the issuance of such bonds thank you the public hearing on 1485 is now open does anyone wish to speak on 1485 see no one else come uh see no one come to speak on 1485 the public hearing is now closed have a motion to adopt 1485 so moved move by councilwoman habetz second by councilman V Cherry Madame clerk P the role for 1485 council member Patel yes council member Murphy yes council member Hain council member van Cherry yes council president scova yes madame clerk 1486 second reading and public hearing of ordinance number 1486 and ordinance entitled Bond ordinance ordinance to authorize the undertaking of Bank stabilization at various locations along the p River in by for the township of little fallson county P state of New Jersey to appropriate the sum of $100,000 to pay the cost thereof to make down payment to authorize the issuance of bonds to finance such appropriation and to provide for the issuance of bond anticipation notes in anticipation of the issuance of such bonds the public hearing on 1486 is now open does anyone wish to speak on 1486 see no one come before us to speak on 1486 the public hearing is now closed Madam have a motion to adopt 1486 so moved moved by council member second Murphy second by councilman Ben Cherry please call the RO to adopt 1486 council member Patel yes council member Murphy yes council member hin yes council member V Cherry yes council president scova yes Madam cleric at this time please read ordinance 1487 second reading and public hearing of ordinance number 1487 an ordinance entitled Bond ordinance to authorize the undertaking of sanitary sewer improvements at various locations in by and for the township of Little Falls in the county pic state of New Jersey to appropriate the sum of $150,000 to pay the cost thereof to make a down payment to authoriz ISS of bonds to finance such appropriation and to provide for the issuance of bond anticipation notes in anticipation of the issuance of such bonds public hearing on 1487 is now open does anyone wish to speak on 1487 seeing no one come before us to speak on 1487 the public hearing is now closed have a motion to adopt 1487 so move move by councilman V Cherry second second by councilman habetz Madame clerk call the rooll for 1487 council member Patel yes council member Murphy yes council member haet council member vaner yes Council president scova yes you okay Madam clerk I'm good Happ there please read ordinance 1488 second reading and public hearing of ordinance number 1488 an ordinance entitled Bond ordinance to authorize the acquisition of new additional or replace replacement equipment and machinery and new Automotive Vehicles including original apparatus and equipment for the use of the police department in by and for the township of Little Falls in the county of pic state of New Jersey to appropriate the sum of $250,000 to pay the cost thereof to make down payment to authorize the issuance of bonds to finance such appropriation and to provide for the issuance of bond anticipation notes in anticipation of the issuance of such bonds the public hearing on 1488 is now open does anyone wish to speak on 1488 see no one else come to speak on 1488 the public hearing the public hearing on ordinance 1488 is now closed have a motion to adopt 1488 sove move by councilman Patel second second by Council habet this is a roll call Madame clerk call the rooll council member Patel yes council member Murphy yes council member habet council member vaner yes council president scova yes Madam clerk 1489 second reading and public hearing of ordinance number 1489 an ordinance entitled Bond ordinance to authorize the undertaking of renovations to the bathrooms and snack bar at Dua field in bu and for the township of Little Falls in the county of pic state of New Jersey to appropriate the sum of $300,000 to pay the cost thereof to make down payments authorize the issuance of bonds to finance such appropriation and Sur for issu issuance of bond anticipation notes and anticipation of the issuance of such bonds thank you the public on 1489 is now open does anyone wish to speak on 1489 seeing no one to come forward to speak on 1489 the public hearing is now closed have a motion to adopt 1489 so Mo move by councilman vent Cherry second second by Council woman inhabits Madame clerk this is a roll call call call the rooll for 1489 council member Patel yes council member Murphy council member habblet council member V Cherry council president scova yes Madam clerk 1490 second meting and public hearing of ordinance number 1490 an ordinance entitled Bond ordinance to authorize the undertaking of the 2024 Road Improvement program in by and for the township of Little Falls in County pic state of New Jersey to appropriate the sum of $500,000 to pay the cost thereof to make a down payment to authorize the issuance of bonds to finance such appropriation and to provide for the issuance of bond anticipation notes and anticipation of the issuance of such bonds the public hearing on 1490 is now open does anyone wish to speak on 1490 see no one come before us to speak on 1490 the public Heen is now closed have a motion to adopt 1490 moveed by councilman Venter second second by councilman Murphy Madame clerk roll call council member Patel yes council member Murphy yes council member havet council member van Cherry yes council president scova yes Madam clerk 1491 second reading and public hearing of ordinance number 1491 an ordinance entitled Bond ordinance to authorize the undertaking of various public improvements and the acquisition of new additional or replacement equipment and machinery and new Automotive Vehicles including original apparatus and equipment in by the township of Little Falls in the county of state of New Jersey to appropriate the sum of $735,000 to pay the co to pay the cost thereof to make a down payment to authorize the issuance of bonds to finance such appropriation and to provide for the issuance of bond anticipation o in anticipation of the issuance of such bonds the public hearing on 1491 is now open does anyone wish to speak on 1491 see see no one come before us to speak on 1491 the public hearing is now closed have a motion to adopt 1491 so moved by councilman Murphy second by councilman vent Cherry Madam clerk call the rooll on 1491 council member Patel council member Murphy yes council member haet council member V Cherry yes council president scova yes madame clerk 1492 please second reading and public hearing of ordinance number 1492 an ordinance entitled Capital ordinance to appropriate the sum of $250,000 for the construction of bathrooms at Wilmore Park in buying for the township of Little Falls in the county of P stadi of New Jersey and providing that such sums so appropriated shall be raised from a County Grant the public hearing on 1492 is now open does anyone wish to speak on 1492 see no one come before us to speak on 1492 the public hearing is now closed have a motion to adopt 1492 so moved moved by councilwoman habet second by councilman Murphy This is a roll call call the rooll council member Patel yes council member Murphy yes council member habblet yes council member V Cherry yes council president scova yes Madam clerk 1493 introduction of ordinance number 1493 an ordinance entitled ordinance of the township Council of the township of little fallson County Pake state of New Jersey amending the Township Code chapter 136 noise with a second reading in public hearing scheduled for May 20th 2024 C have a motion to introduce 1493 mooved by councilman Patel second second by councilman Murphy This is a roll call call the roll council member Patel yes council member Murphy yes council member habblet yes council member van Cherry council president SCA yes madame clerk Fortune 94 introduction of ordinance number 1494 an ordinance entitled 2024 Little Fall salary ordinance with a second reading and public hearing scheduled for May 20th 2024 thank you Madame clerk read ordinance 1495 oh I'm sorry have a motion to introduce 1494 I apologize so move move by councilman Ben Cherry second second by councilman habet is the roll call to introduced 1494 council member Patel yes council member Murphy yes council member havet council member vaneri yes council president scova yes Madam clerk read ordinance 1495 introduction of ordinance number 1495 an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the town Council of the township of Little Falls in the county of pay state new state of New Jersey to add chapter 152 pedestrian malls to the code of the township of Little Falls with a second reading and public hearing scheduled for May 20th 2024 thank you have a motion to introduce 1495 some of move by councilwoman Patel second second by councilman Murphy please call a roow to introduce 1495 council member Patel yes council member Murphy yes council member haet council member van Cherry council president scova yes have a motion to open the meeting for public and general matters some move moveed by councilman Murphy second by councilman men Cherry there's a Voice vote all those in favor all those opposed Madame Clark anyone wishing to address the township Council may do it to the council president it is preferred if you give your name and address for the record comments are to be limited to three minutes however if appropriate it may be granted additional time and the sole discretion of the council president members of the public who have joined the meeting virtually and desire to provide comment shall raise their virtual hand in the zoom application meeting moderator will Cee the members of the public that wish to provide a comment and the council president will re recognize them in order members of the public who have joined the meeting by calling in must press star six to mute and unmute themselves and star 9 to raise their hand members of the public who have joined the meeting via the zoom application must click the reactions icon and then the raise hand icon once the process is complete we will return to the regular order of business thank you is anyone like to come before us Mr Kush anyone in the chat that like to come before us I want to uh um have a motion to close the public comment move by councilman Venter second by councilman Murphy all those in favor to close the public comment do so by saying I I all those opposed motion carries I want to thank U Mrs Krauss Mr Deo we had to uh we not had to it's mandatory we attend a gif Insurance meeting prior to this meeting to go over regulations I want to thank you for helping setting up that meeting uh thank you to Mr kushia and Mr katron for assisting in this meeting have a motion to adjourn this meeting so move moved by councilwoman habet second by councilwoman Patel all those in favor I all those opposed this meeting is now closed oh my God I do hey what's up bud