##VIDEO ID:_fz0-rm7udM## good evening welcome to the township Council Workshop meeting Monday August 12 2024 this meeting is now called to order Council inhabits please lead us in the salute to the flag All Rise pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you madam Clerk read the statement of public notice take notice the adequate notice of this meeting has been provided in accordance with njsa 10 4-8 and 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 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 is filed in the office of the Township Clerk on said date Link in a telephone number to join the meeting virtually can be accessed on the township website at www.f nj.com electronic Provisions have been established for the public to participate during the public comment portion of the meeting thank you madam clerk at this time can you please call the role council member Patel council member Murphy pres council member habitz council member vaneri council president scova presid at this time we have our health officer John beagle um from the Clifton Health Department Mr beagle the floor is yours yes can I'll send my better S so good evening everyone uh my name is John beagle I'm the health officer for the township of Little Falls and I just want to begin uh by saying I hear statements that Little Falls does not have their own health department you do it's us right it's me it's Kimberly it's the registered Environmental Health Specialists that come here it's the nurses that do our communicable disease investigations we are your health department so please we are professional we are accredited um you know which is a higher standard than most health departments have we're the first one up in SE County so I always like to remind people we are your health department and we care about the township of little um you things I just want to mention we did have um a positive West Nile Virus case in Little Falls and for those you that don't know what West Nile is it's a virus that is transmitted from a mosquito um from an infected bird and then the mosquito will bite the human and transfer that West Nile um for most part almost all the time it's not transferable from person to person it's kind of ended there the only way it can go person to person is through blood test um and via the other some very infrequent um ways um and in blood tests they have to screen for that so it's not like you're going to get when you're receiving blood um you're not going to get westn from that so um we have that in place uh we work very closely with the pay County Mosquito commission um very very closely and they will spray adulticide where um any type and there was two sprayings within the last few weeks guess within the month in different locations in Little Falls lton uh Wayne and few other areas anything where there's stagnant water and that's that's important for the public to know stagnant water is the reason why mosquitoes breed if they do not have a breeding ground they will not you know reproduce and it takes a mosquito maybe 5 to 10 days to go from egg to an adult and the only ones that bite are the females there's not saying anything bad about the females but in mosquitoes it's the female mosquito that does bite and transfer certain diseases um so we work again work very closely with them um also I know you probably on the news you heard about leria leria is a bacteria that is found a lot of times in Co Cuts that's why we tell um individuals that are females that are pregnant not to eat coold Cuts because leria can't survive in refrigerator temperatures usually with bacteria once it's under 41 degrees the bacteria will slow down tremendously with leria it grows fine and keeps multiplying so there was a bores head we've been working with Bor head and anybody that would have Bor head U Deli uh Meats they would um we reached out to them and you know told them they have to take certain Products off and horsee head themselves is a really good company they came out it went to the stores and and already removed it's not every board's head product so if you do see board's head product that doesn't mean it has leria if you have any concerns about that you could contact the health department though okay at this time I'm going to turn over to Kimberly finkler she's one of our health Educators and she's just going to go over some of our communication um guids hi everyone um so I'm one of the health Educators with the Clifton health department and my team and I one of our jobs is making sure that we have open communication with Little Falls and its residents so um every week we make sure to send our um respiratory and covid reports to Mayor Damiano and councilwoman Patel and we make sure to drop off flyers at our Recreation our Civic Center in here in town hall you can always see right in the front that there's some flyers there and you can always call our number on it to ask questions um we are going to create a little Falls health department Facebook so right now we have our clipton health department Instagram and Facebook where a lot of Little Falls residents are getting their information right now um but so we're going to um create a little Falls health department page so residents know where to find all the upcoming events that we have and we're also looking to get a digital signboard so at um Clifton city hall there's a sign board that posts updates for residents so they know what's going on in the city every week so we're hoping that um Little Falls can also have that Advantage too and then um one thing that we just recently created was our podcast so that's a new way for people to get information and we're hoping that mayor Damiana will be on it as a featured guest and uh you can always go on to that we have it on all different platforms and we do updates like animal control um anything with health inspections and things like that um and then we also have some upcoming events I have some of the Flyers here so on August 19th we have am men's mental health screening which is open to Little Falls residents that's going to be from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on August 20th and August 27th we have a children's immunization clinic and that's for school age children that's for ages 2 months to 18 years uh we have on September 26 2024 on at 10:30 we have understanding memory loss that's going to be at the Little Fall Civic Center and then some upcoming events at our satellite office which is located in Clifton is at 207 Parker a we have on August 13th which is tomorrow and August 16th we partner with Ed andj to do free HIV testing on August 23rd from 130 from 1: to 3 we have a mental health screening and then October 10th from 9:30 to 10:30 we have a free eye screening um which is open to Residents and there you'd get a free you'd get a free eye exam and also free glasses if needed then some upcoming projects that we uh have been thinking about for the new school year with coming up we are partnering with the banan school in Little Falls to bring a mindfulness program to the teachers and students we have our health education presentations that we do every year which would include handwashing dental health and vaping for um elementary and middle school children and we have will be attending the Little Falls fall festival and if you have any questions I can give you my contact information I can answer anything that you have I also want to just say that um we had the pleasure of having Norman Sherer to our health department in clipon um we had a nice discussion and nice Public Health talk you don't find too many public health groupies so it's nice to have Norman hereon so if anyone has any questions for us or comments there we're finished with our report and as you know I will be here quarterly um to report certain things thank you Mr vle at this time we're going to open up for those that would like to speak on this particular topic alone you're welcome to up to the podium thank you my name is Norman Shera I live on Birch Road in Little Falls lived there for a long time um and I think most of you know I have a fairly extensive background in in in public health couple of of good news items I want to make comments on a little bit out of out of Public Health topic uh one I just heard that Little Falls is one of the 10 sa the cities and the state chief thanks really appreciate it uh you don't get good news like this all the time so it's nice to uh uh it's nice to hear uh second um uh I had the pleasure of uh of visiting with the health department actually spent a couple hours there and uh I have a lot of experience with health departments all over the country and all over the world uh some uh like New York City where assistant commissioner which are huge uh and I got to tell you this is the first right place and I'm not just paying homage to John because he's sitting here uh I was blown away by the facility I was impressed there was actually a uh full-fledge dentals chair set up uh I think compliments of delter uh Dental that uh that donated and what have you and uh we spent about two hours uh talking with the staff uh uh I will admit that I was bribed I was given a a gift I was given two uh two yellow SP Deans took me back to the Bronx in terms that one of their health Educators is uh one the nurse rather the public health nurse uh is is from the Bronx so I I think there are a lot of things that that are clearly that are that are going on oh I also wanted to mention on on the good news front uh uh thanks to several people here including uh council president SCA we did finally have a memorial service uh for 26 victims of uh of covid uh the health department came and uh put up a temporary uh site with with Flags uh I understand that uh uh scob is going to come up with a uh with a more permanent Memorial in the future and thanks to the mayor and everybody I think I think it was it was the right thing to do to acknowledge people who have uh who have lost I have some comments uh going ahead for uh uh how can we make things a little bit better and I want to talk a little bit about public health in uh in Little Falls and uh the first thing I want I want to do is to talk about the fact that uh uh a lot of time the the communications that come from the Clifton Health Department to uh to the administration Little Falls may not reach the residents uh they an incredible number of events you announced a few of them just uh just a few minutes ago and I think I think that we would agree that uh we are we are seriously unrepresented in these events and that uh a lot more people could take advantage of them if they knew about them and I'll talk a little bit about how I think we can uh improve Communications in uh in a moment or so um I think that that uh uh there are several areas where we can uh stren I always I always want to be cognizant when I talk that I'm not here to to to criticize I'm here to see if we can find a better way to strengthen public health and Little Falls to take advantage of the events that uh that the Clifton Health Department puts on and uh and I have a couple thoughts about how we might go ahead and doing it I have a bottom line in public health my bottom line is you know people die for all kinds of reasons but nobody should have to die from a disease that's preventable and if we can provide people with information and education that help them to avoid becoming sick to help them avoid dying uh that's a wonderful thing to uh a wonderful thing to do so I have a couple of suggestions for us uh in fact I have three suggestions going forward to strengthen Public Health in uh in Little Falls and let me just list with the three I took a Course once that said if you can give a presentation don't make any more than three suggestions because people will just simply uh tone you at that tone you at at that point in time my first suggestion is I'd like to see the township of Little Falls declare Public Health to be to be a priority a simple declaration we declare that public health is a little Falls priority the second suggestion I have is that I think that we need to to come up with a better workable Communication System uh for making sure that citizens of Little Falls get the information that they need to hear it's fine to announce them at this meeting but if you look around there aren't that many people here and if you were to ask the average citizen are you aware of this event or that event the answer is probably not and if you're going to go online and went online today they just check and look at a website and look at the events that are listed for Little Falls you don't see many events uh involving Public Health that are listed but even more than that not everybody goes on the internet uh uh some people rely upon getting information in a different way and some of the most vulnerable people including people myself like myself who seniors need to get information in a different way by the way my role model for information is the domiano team the information that you guys send out you went you sent out something recently had an American flag on one side it presented your team it came into my mailbox I didn't have to go online and that's a wonderful way of getting information in addition to uh listing things on the uh on the website so I think we need a more workable uh a strengthened communication plan for the township of of little I'd also like for us to uh to dedicate a a I'm not sure who it should be Mr Mayor but there ought to be a Township official who is responsible for the various types of communications that go out involving public health and I'm sure they can take care of other things but uh several meetings with uh councilwoman Patel uh I think she does a nice job announcing things here and what have you but she's a part-time person we need to have an official who makes sure that citizens get the information they need sometimes on a grassroot root Roots basis uh maybe seniors at our Civic Center had a meeting recently with uh uh with a fellow named uh Pace on Pace who's over there and he'd be happy to spread information more and it isn't only a question of telling people about a particular event it's trying to explain why should you be at that vent what are you interested in what have you and if you have a dental chair and you know the nice the nicest thing about it you have a state of art Dental chair but there was no patient sitting in the chair so I don't know whether or not kids need to have dental care or whether adults need to have it but I do think we can do a better job uh improving uh improving Communications and I think having a Township uh person responsible for for that would be uh would be helpful and I think that also should include by the way I'm glad to hear that you're putting up a web page uh when somebody goes to the Little Falls website on that website itself it'd be nice to have public he and I'm sure you guys would be willing to keep it up to date and not just list the event but explain what it is Who's involved and how and how people can uh can benefit from the event and my uh third suggestion for for public health is the most difficult one of all and that is I'd like to see us undertake an evaluation of the quality of air in our public buildings including El schools that people breath excuse me uh we're dealing with a number of airborn viruses covid Blu RSV uh what they all have in common is the major and I've explained this once before the major way they spread from one person to another is when when a person with a virus coughs or speaks sometimes the virus clings to that dust particle in the air and if there's a filtration system uh adequate by CDC standards that filters that dust out it dramatically reduces the amount of viruses that people are exposed to and it's particularly important because people are fatigued it's going to become harder and harder to have people wear masks distance uh get keep up to date with vaccines and the nice thing about decent uh air filtration systems is they don't depend upon changing the behavior of people they simply are on they're expensive but they're on so what I would like what I would like the township to do to help our health depart to do is to systematically evaluate each building this one one uh the schools and what have you and and come out with a report you know how safe is the air in that particular room in that particular building to breathe and if it's not what would it take to resolve and it may be that we don't want to because it may cost too much more money too much money but it would be helpful uh I'll give you an example of of of of uh of air filtration systems that that struck me the most recently uh couple of months ago I was vaccinated in a major bomacy in little for and what was interesting about the vaccine was uh I was taken to a room that that the pharmacy had set aside to give people vaccine and the pharmacist came out very nice woman and uh gave me my vaccine in a room with a closed door that had absolutely no filtration system whatsoever fact they had no air whatsoever it's like a closet so the irony of providing people with a vaccine in a room that was actually you know almost designed to spread a disease uh was was particularly iron so I I would call upon us to see if we could uh do something to to evaluate building by building uh uh whether or not the ear is safe to Brea and I want to make one final comment about schools I know there always been an issue about who's responsible for the schools in Little Falls certainly they have their own school boards and they have their own Administration if there if there were an issue of of fire safe in a school we would call the we would call the fire department and if there were an issue of of safety physical safety to people uh somebody in was some strange person was walking through the neighborhood people were walking in out of the building we would call the police department well if there's an issue of whether or not a school building is safe to breed or whether or not people are adequately immunized uh for that matter we should be able to call the health department and thanks for giving me the time thank you very much thank you Mr schwarzer um your comments are well t uh will be well taken here and I all the governing officials here can't agree with you more that communication is key to whenever uh to keep people the public uh informed um yes we are in an age where there is a generation that just will use their cell phones and laptops to stay informed but there's still a big generation that reads mail and would love a newsletter uh so we'll definitely take a hard look at that we are in the process of making a new website uh councilwoman uh Hab is there going to be a tab do you know off the top of your head for Public Health on this new website um yes we are working with the department heads um in order to bring that we website uh up to date and there will be many tabs there so with the possibility of maybe a newsletter the the new website that will have a tab for um health and eblasts maybe we could reach a greater part of our community um do does any of the council members have any comments or questions mayor where I couldn't agree with you more that communication of All Sorts for us in Little Falls as officials to get to residents here in Little Falls is one of the biggest problems that we have whether it be town events emergencies health related issues it is always a problem communicating with residents and while we do our best to get out the word as quickly as possible in emergencies oftentimes the best way to do that is social media websites uh and things of the sort uh every event that the health department hosts for Little Falls does go out in an email class when it comes in we send it off to our Web Master it gets post on our website and emailed out to your point many residents don't check emails or don't have access to the internet uh and it may very well be a generational issue but I have actually found that the younger generation when I'm out and about at events asking them are you signed up for our email blast in town people who spend probably 12 hours a day with their screen in their face are not signed up premil bus so I don't know that it is just a generational issue it is not just my grandfather at 97 years old I am I'm willing to bet is more inclined to know more about what's happening in Little Falls because of email blasts than a lot of 25 year olds that live in Little Falls um so finding a way to communicate at a low cost to the municipality is I think the challenge to your point of things hitting your door and not to cross lines with politics and in public office here in Little Falls but that is a political flyer that costs to the tune of three to4 thousand every time one is sent out and I say that to tell you that that's not a cost that the municipality could take on that every time there's an event a three to $4,000 cost would need to be incurred in printing and mailing flyers for particular events that's just something that why while I understand the importance of passing on information to Residents I don't know that it's financially and fiscally responsible to burden taxpayers with getting information out at that much of an extreme cost finding a way and I try to do this through my tax letter which is a mail that already is going to be sent out by adding an extra piece of paper encouraging residents to sign up for email blast to access our website to get information that way unfortunately I think often times while they may read it it falls on deaf ears and we saw after the first letter that went out in a tax bill advising residents to sign up a decent jump in the numbers related to to Residents that were enrolled but since then even though I've done it in letter after letter after letter since then we don't see any substantial uptick in the numbers of residents uh signing up for email blasts or or checking the website uh so to that point you're right communication is one of the biggest issues I I I'm willing to spip all other ideas or other ways that we we might be able to get the word out I don't know what the answer is sitting here right now other than what we've been trying to do if if we were to evaluate each event that that takes place and evaluate how we communicated it it's going to constantly change um I knew that the world had changed years ago when two of my granddaughters were sitting in the back of my car and instead of talking to each other they were texting each other on on the phone I figur it was the end of civilization uh we have we have supermarkets people walk into shoppr all the time maybe that ought to be a primary source we we need to come up with creative ways that are not very expensive that are Grassroots ways of reaching people with information and we need to ask people how can we reach you one of the reasons I'm interested in working with the schools is I think the schools might be a very good way to have a child in in in one of pic Valley Schools take something home and give it to their Grandfather at home and maybe that reaches them so I have a whole list of things I'm not to take take now but but I think if if I knew who if we had a particular person on on your staff that we could begin to work with uh I think we can come up with a variety of ways and been changing all the time I know it's frustrating uh to to help people get uh get information help people understand what they were doing and and it's tough I I realize it's probably one of the toughest things that uh uh that you have to deal with but it can be done I was just gonna add that ironically counil V Cherry yeah we've done that too uh Mr Sherer with the schools uh with Little Falls School one two and three they have what's called a Friday folder and what happens is a blast goes out out with all kinds of upcoming events flyers and stuff so we utilize that a lot we do utilize PV as well we reach out to the superintendent and share it's frustrating because believe me when I do the Memorial Day Parade perfect example I'll blast it out at nauseum put it on social media I'll put flyers in businesses I'll throw them the shop right the library and I'll say on Facebook when's the Memorial Day Day Parade I haven't seen anything I haven't heard anything about it it's just people sometimes don't look or not paying attention in the right resources but it is a challenge when it comes to Communications you you have to find like that balance and like you said after each event evaluating okay what do we do right what do we do wrong how can we make it better the next time so I I I understand completely every week I get something called say there's a little news newspaper comes at every the say Valley the PB today as well yeah and unfortunately like every week in that newspaper I see all kinds of things that took place in littlefalls yeah but I don't see so that's another opportunity uh in Clifton I think times has has something where the flyer is picky back on top of something that's already going to somebody's house it is no extra expense but I think if there were if I knew who the key person was and if they knew who the key person was on the township that maybe we could we could yeah do all these things and above and what Happ and I'm taking too much time no it's fine absolutely ironically too with the health department activities they do put them in the PV today unfortunately they get buried the PV today today is not what it used to be when I when I was in college I wrote for them I just have two pages just myself writing stuff now the shop right circular has more pages than the PV today it's unfortunate that that publication doesn't put the information in a good place it's usually buried on page 12 and a little blurb so you don't know about it because you see most of the upfront stuff picturs that be willing to add a flyer to their mail yeah they want to unfortunately with PB today they'll want to charge it they're all about making money as well they're not going to do it for when they choose the content yeah they don't charge you when you try to choose the content they charge you there's a cost yeah that's the frustration believe me because trying to hit everybody is different like you said social media if I want to talk to my kids I can text them right now they'll respond in two seconds I call them they won't pick up the phone you know if I give them a piece of paper they not gonna look at it so it's just trying to find that happy balance with health related items and other events throughout the year that we do it is a challenge and I know with uh Mr beagle and his team they'll keep trying and get people to show up to these events because they really want to and I know they've come to council president scoa has a lot of senior events they're there at those events now too trying to integrate them with the people that aren't on social media so to make sure they understand thank you uh anyone have any comments anyone um in the chat that would like to speak on this very good we're going to move forward Mr ble thank you for joining us have a motion to open the meeting to the public for General matters and agenda items moved by councilman V Cherry second by councilman Murphy all those in favor I all those opposed motion carries Madam clerk council member Murphy NOP that was a voice vot oh to read the public oh I'm sorry it's okay I was looking at the uh chat okay anyone wishing to address the township Council may do so to the council president it is preferred if you give your name and address for the record comments are to be limited to 3 minutes however if appropriate you 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 cue the members of the public that wish to provide comment and the council president will recognize them in order members of a public who have joined the meeting by calling in must press star six to mute and unmute themselves and star n9ine to raise their hand members of the public who have joined the meeting via the zoom application must click three actions icon and then the raise hand icon once the process is complete we will return to the regular order of business thank you madam clerk um if anyone would like to speak on any issues on agenda items resolutions authorizing the uh Rod Grant or the group dental benefits for the application forell you're welcome to speak hello uh my name is Sebastian arbala from Chell um my mother Diana my name is Diana Nar good evening she used to manage it um if you don't mind if you could just speak close it's the microphone so we could all hear so we had recently received an email for uh the renewal of the license and we just wanted to come here and talk about it I guess um I think there was a couple documents that were missing from the renewal from the police department and I had talking to the sergeant here about it and uh I believe I'm missing a couple documents and it wasn't renewed and I wanted to you know I'm just trying to get it um I'm not very good at this sorry but uh we're trying to get it renewed so because I like I said before we were trying to get it um sold and I don't really want to be an issue for anybody in Little Falls I know I haven't been very good in the past and I've been working with Sergeant marado here and he helped me figure out how to get more organized and have more documents in place um but uh some of those documents I could not find and that obviously that's on me but um I'm just I'm just trying to get it sorted out and you know it's been um a hard year year and a half we're um pretty much at bankrupt at the moment um I had to move back in with my mother recently because I couldn't pay rent and the business has doing been doing very badly obviously because we have to close at8 um not many people nobody will really work there so I'm also going to school in my last year of college I'm trying to finish that up so I don't we don't really we open here and there whenever I have some time but um yeah I'm I'm just trying to push through you know trying I don't want to be a problem for anybody anymore you know obviously I'm not haven't been doing well myself running it so I just I don't know I'm just asking for help here and uh so I can sell it you know because the limitations that were placed on us is um really holding us back from being able to sell it and you know just you know uh be done with the continuous problem um I believe this was a punishment that the business was closed at eight so actually we cannot do any business with for hours so then was lady we we are really Banky I was paying everything they don't they can pay nothing right now even the electrical that's and trying just to to keep the business so we cannot lose everything because was a big investment at first but I don't understand because ER said the the punishment was to close a date but was more than one year actually was like a year and four months or three months so we was asking course so when is finished because I don't know what to do really it's crazy and and I I understand what happened there well we have to take a responsibility but it's one year and four months right now he's one year close to finish his career in the University which can't pay because he cannot pay anything and he right now we are trying to sell a business but it's very difficult to sell a business with the punishment to close a date so nobody wants it the kitchen is closed long time ago so we don't know what to do we only want to at least sell it in to get some something from the initial investment there so I like to know what we can do to to get this our full license again so we can sell it also um on that note I was Al I've been for the last year working uh pretty closely with my realtor to try to sell the business and everything um we've had a a pretty decent amount of buyers for it but it's like like I said once they find out what the limitations and all all these things that they become very unsure about the liquor license and they get scared off so it's also preventing me from being able to sell it you know um like I understand like we I I didn't do what I was supposed to do maybe even recently I haven't been very focused on it but I'm just trying to you know I'm just trying to be able to sell it and not cause any more trouble for Little Falls so that I can you know so we can all continue with our lives and get off this topic I just want to be able to you know pay my tuition pay for my business you know maybe not live with my mother anymore so I can finish off college and be off but uh it's like a ball and chain there really um I'm not trying to restart it or anything I know I don't have much good faith with everybody here and I apologize for everything that had happened but um I hope we can just find some type of path forward with all of this thank you thank you this is not a hearing but we appreciate your comments we're going to be addressing it thank you is there anyone else that would like to come before uh detective Mado can you please bring the council up to speed of what has occurred at this establishment good evening uh John K detective Sergeant L Falls PD um on May 30th I conducted a investigation for alcohol license at cell while I was there uh first off I don't announce that I'm coming because I expect everybody to be prepared with all the documents that request um I showed up I spoke to a bartender that was working Daisy Jina inoya Medina I requested uh all documentation for cella's business she then in turn contacted uh Mr Sebastian arbolita um who just addressed all of you um requesting where everything was which was in an office I was then provided with a folder that only had the um manual the ABC manual um I asked where everything else was um Mr arbed explained that whatever is there for the business is in that folder which it was not I then left the 7day um application explaining what I want um which indicates all the invoices books and Records uh cash flow payroll uh information on the devices um any records of all proceeds within the last five years as well as the um the delivery slips for the last 12 months um um excuse me can you please uh explain what delivery slips are sure it's um how he's getting his um liquor uh whatever companies he's using he should keep receipts invoices after he signs whatever it is that he signs for the products that he's getting and he's supposed to hold on to those for 12 months and this is because establishments of this nature must buy through qualified vendors and can't buy any alcohol through secondary parties right um June 10th came around after we left on the uh on after May 30th I attempted to contact UM Mr Lawrence cahari which is Mr AR's attorney from the last time who then in turn uh failed to contact me I left several messages uh some time went by because the 7day request um went unanswered by anyone uh including Mr Kalahari or Mr Aral on the 11th of June I contacted the uh ABC themselves and Advising them of what I was currently dealing with uh with the lack of cooperation um and providing any information for my uh inspection I was advised that the ABC still has um I guess pending issues from previous incidents at cell's that are still being handled by their uh prosecutors they were uh they advised me to kind of write it up report and then send it over to them and they would include it um with whatever they have I advised chat PRL of also of my findings and what I was also dealing with uh next day went by um the investigators at the Abc did forward my information over to the AP which included everything from January January of 2023 when everything's kind of started um with their inspections and kind of dealing with the same um lack of information I guess you could say and documents um June 18th came around um I spoke with the investigator at the ABC again um and they were uh basically everything was being heard in Port uh for cellos and they were uh including my um report as well the list of stuff like I said the uh books of accounts the records the employee list um everything was kind of um included uh with that as well um I forwarded all my information on uh June 21st um to the Chief and then uh and that's where it U ended up however after that um Mr Kalahari finally was able to get back to me um spoke with Mr arita who I have spoken with about approximately three or four times now at headquarters Mr arbolita indicated that um several documents were lost with um a move um from where he was U moving in back in with his mom um he did provide me with um the application um itself which is another thing that I require that needs to be on the premises at all times he did not have it then on the 30th which he ended up getting a copy from the township uh some other the documents he also provided me was um bank statements uh for the business within the past year which uh the money has decreased tremendously several um documents are still not available which includes the employee list um he was able to show me one thing that for an employee list which only had four names on it um I know from previous inspections there should be approximately a few sheets of paper including everybody on there um today I did meet with Mr ARB he did come in um he was able to provide me with two recent purchases that he made one was in July and another one was earlier this month I believe on August 4th for uh alcohol for the business other than that there's nothing else as far as delivery slips receipts invoices nothing for the past year um and that's pretty much where we're at currently does the council have any questions from detective Mado mayor do you have any questions I'm Miss detective I just want to Circle back when when we did have the hearing it was for days closed was was that not correct I think correct I believe it was December right it was not about hours it was days closed correct okay thank you thank you uh Chief Pearl do you have anything to add to this renewal just want to put everything into context here if I can just summarize so uh Township of Little Falls I think we have about 16 liquor licenses we have a number of pockets uh we have two Club licenses and um when I took over the department in 2022 I appointed Sergeant monado as our ABC compliance officer in 2023 that was a that was a learning curve for all the you know uh liquor license establishments within the township Sergeant monado hit hit most the businesses with that 7-Day compliance letter so administratively we are required under title 33 to do these inspections and we have to you know uh go through all of their employee lists we have to go through you know uh sources of funding and serge monado has a very long and extensive list in 23 uh other than one business there were people that had issues uh but I and um The Madam clerk can can attest to this once we gave the businesses the 7-Day letter back in 2023 numerous business owners came to town hall um were getting their documentation they were getting their paperwork all in order and Sergeant monato was able to successfully inspect and check off and therefore I recommended to the council in 23 okay we can renew everybody's liquor licenses we did the same type of inspection in 2024 and there was one business holder that had issues there was only only one business that that was served with the 7-Day compliance letter correct and that was chellis again um the liquor I have to make that recommendation to this Council that they are compliant and we feel comfortable that they are running their business according to the state law we were unfortunately able to make that recommendation to this Council and we did that in June um you know not to take anything away from Mr Sebastian but to be a responsible business owner May 30th when you're served with a 7-Day letter you have seven days to get compliant he wasn't compliant fast forward to June numerous phone calls and attempts of Sergeant monado to try to get the business compliant went unanswered and we are now August 12th I still can't make that um you know that I still can't attest to this Council that that that the business of Chell is has everything that is in order and they're up to uh code when it comes to the state compliance so that's just a summary of previous inspections this current year and that's where we are today thank you chief for that thorough report does the council uh members have any questions or comments for the chief May councilman Murphy Chief real quick you said out of the 16 liqu license that we had 15 of them were in compliance with everything that was requested we have a number of pocket licenses so that's you can't get anything from them but but but all the other business bus that are opened that are hanging a liquor license they are all compliant yes sir okay thank you madam clerk you have anything to add to this application I know your office handles the renewal application process uh no I don't I don't have anything to add just that I'm in agreement with what the chief and detective sergeant moncado said everything okay thank you does anyone else like to come before this governing body with any comments uh or questions with General matters or agenda items is there anyone in the chat room see have a motion to close the public mooved by councilman Murphy second by councilman hav this is a voice vote all those in favor I all those opposed motion carries mayor resolution one two and three please all right hopefully the batter holds up in this microphone uh the first is a resolution authorizing to apply for funds from the njdca under the fiscal year 25 roid grant applic program uh this is a grant that the municipality is allowed to apply for annually uh last year the township was successful in securing a $220,000 grant it assists or allows for programs for those uh individuals in the municipality with special needs the library acquired the grant last year this year they indicated that they still had some leftover funds and were not interested in applying but our Recreation Department was so this is a Grant application in an attempt to secure some grant funding to allow our rec program to potentially uh expand their program that they have now for our individuals in town that have special needs so it's a Grant application under that program are there any questions on item number one all right item number two is resolution renewing the group dental benefits program this one is about as self-explanatory uh as any one item that has ever been on this agenda and we're simply looking to renew the dental benefit program for this now any questions and the third as we've just discussed is resolution denying the application of chis restaurant and bar for renewable plenary retail consumption license any questions on it all right other than those three items council president the only other items on the agenda tonight are applications for some uh Raffles whether it be for uh uh parent football parent Association uh cheer parent Association uh and OES chapter number 224 so other than that that is the items of this evening mayor would you like to bring the governing body and the public up to speed with um Street Scapes or water issues or any other issues uh first so today was the first day that our contractor for stepen AV was on site uh I drove by just a little while before this meeting and was very pleased to see the amount of progress that they made in one day they have removed all of the curbing from Walnut all the way down to the parking lot and have already began to install U probably about 30 or 40% of the total curbing that was removed uh so they made some tremendous progress on day one hoping that they will continue to make great progress because we are hoping to have at least that side of the street completed before the start of the school year uh so that is moving along the parking lot we continue to have the same thorn in our side which is PSG not relocating the poles uh I have now been in contact with a couple of individuals from psng uh who are a little bit higher up and they're trying to get the Metro division to expedite the relocation of those poles uh we're currently waiting on that once that is completed the Water Company's also moving the hydrant they have been very cooperative and are scheduling the relocation of that uh once that is completed the contractor only has a couple of days worth of work to finish putting down the base coat and then to put the top coat across and finish the sidewalk in front uh unfortunately the sidewalk is not completed because they're waiting to run electric through that area as well uh so it is the really the electric that is holding up this entire project uh so we're going to continue to push PSG to try to get that done uh like I said we are in the home stretch and there's only about less than a month there's only a couple of days work there's only a couple of worth of work from our actual Municipal contractor uh so we would like to really get that concluded ASAP unfortunately that continues to be the holdup uh so we are plugging through with that uh any other questions from the council or any other projects that they are looking for incid on all right that's it council president thank you mayor Kevin motion to approve resolutions a b and d will take C separately move by councilman Cherry second by councilman habets this is a roll call for Resolutions a b and d Madame Kirk call the rooll council member Murphy yes council member habblet council member vaner yes council president scova yes have a motion to a um to approve resolution C moved by councilwoman Venter second second by councilman Murphy Madam clerk call call the role for resolution C council member Murphy yes counc member habetz yes council member vaneri yes council president scova yes madame clerk read ordinance 1497 please uh oh I'm sorry have a motion to approve the uh following raffle applications so move move by councilman Murphy second by councilman Council woman habets this is a roll call to approve the Little Falls football parent Association the pvrs Pake Valley uh football chair parents Association Pake Valley football chair parents Association and the OES chapter on premise for 5050 and the raffle for the OES chapter 224 on premise please call the r council member Murphy yes council member habblet council member m Cherry yes council president scova yes madame clerk read ordinance 1497 introduction of ordinance number 1497 an ordinance entitled 2024 Little Fall salary ordinance with a second reading and public hearing scheduled for August 26 20124 thank you have a roll call for 1497 did did I do that already have a motion to uh introduce ordance 1497 moveed by councilman Venter second by councilman habets please call the RO to introduce 1497 council member Murphy yes council member habet council member vaneri council president scova yes councilman habet lead us off with Council reports please thank you council president uh so just a few Library updates um this week at the farmers market we had the library there for a community outreach tent um it was a great day they had some library card signups and everyone enjoyed having them there um they had a raffle with a little S'mores Kit and I believe someone maybe by the name of Van Cherry maybe not Chris but Evan um might have won that raffle raffle so congratulations to Evan man Cherry um this week um or I should say in the month of August they have some really great programming coming up um they will have the Yankee Stadium organist uh Ed Alstrom um there at the library on the 20th at 6:30 uh you do have to register at the website uh but that should be a very interesting night um there's also a Polish Cultural celebration on August 23rd at 5:00 pm uh stop by for Polish food and traditional dancing and uh lastly the library has also added another little Library uh for those of you who do not know uh there are little boxes that have been uh put around town uh that have books that you're um allowed to take and then um put books back when you want to um there was one that was donated by Patty swanie a local resident um it had been vandalized and she actually um and her family um fixed the little library and it was placed in the Park area at the corner of Morningside and Jacobus uh there are others there's one by Wilmore Park there's one by svorski Park uh there's one down at the recck center there's one down the Mars Canal so if you've never stopped by one of the little libraries you definitely should take a book add a book it's really great uh the farmers Market's going strong uh we have produce Pete recently as a special guest for the Peach Festival uh we also had the wonderful sounds of a local resident Misa Ray uh this Sunday and uh this week coming we will have tie Dy Sunday at the market with uh local uh traps teas um the market is open every Sunday from from 9: to 2 uh here at the municipal uh building parking lot um our movie Nights will continue this Wednesday at Wilmore Park uh we'll be showing Wonka and our food vendor will be the little fall sha uh films will begin at DUS so bring your chairs bring your blankets and come on down and have a great time uh just a reminder there is a new policy in place that children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult in order to watch the movie and lastly um it's almost at time for our townwide yard sale uh it will be held this year on Saturday the 14th with a rain date of the 15th uh you can register at Community pass which is on the recreation website that's all I have thank you councilman habits councilman V Cherry thanks council president and yes I can confirm that Evan did win a raffle of a box of s'mores and he's waiting for me to come home to probably light up the girl to put them on for him so thank you for that it was nice uh just some updates from me uh blast is going to go out this week and I'll put some flyers around town getting back to like how we communicate this the annual 9/11 ceremony is going to take place of course on September 11th rain or shine at 6 pm at Wilmore Road Park so hopefully everyone can be there just working on putting together the program we have some guest speakers as well as some performances so like I said uh 911 at 6m at Wilmore Road Park mayor thanks for the updates on the um streetscape and of course everything that's going on with the parking lot hoping to reach out to the engineers uh to connect with them get an update on the Francisco Cedar Grove traffic light I know we keep hearing it's coming it's coming it's coming and maybe you got an update before I did because I didn't get a chance to hear from the engineer but figured to ask you real quick last three months it's always it's always a month away I keep hearing every week I know so I figure at some point hopefully next month a long time coming I know Sergeant monado's outside he's got a lot of history with that one as well so hopefully finally does come through fruition I'm also working with our Engineers uh based on a meeting we had um last month myself and uh our clerk Mrs Krauss with the county uh changing our speed limit on some three count roads from uh 35 to 25 uh just need the engineers to pull together some uh mapping that's required so I'm going to follow up the engineer tomorrow hopefully get that done uh because the county had said try to get it to us by the middle the end of the month of August so we'll get that done um that's something else um I do also want to say thank you to a bunch of people from last week you know obviously with the weather we had one of those uh storms again where all of us that live along the pekman river stress out for a few hours uh big kudos to Mayor domano Chief PRL our OEM uh Department of course sergeant monado and his staff as well as DPW you know everybody was out there monitoring the situation and luckily you know the water did recede and there was no flooding um also thankful to commissioner lazara as well as Senator curado um you know we reached out to both of them to see if they could help with some uh things that were taking place Place both of them came by spent some time showing them the area along the pekman on the Cedar Grove Road side as well as an area uh by Hopson ad and both are you know have offered their assistance whatever they need um Senator curado had mentioned that assembly baras who unfortunately was dealing with his own water situation where he lives last week has reached out to the D because I know this is something that mayor Damiano and others have been involved with it's just having conversations with all the parties that matter you know Wooden Park Little Fall um Cedar Grove Verona as well as pay County and Essex County to address the constant concerns with the pecman so hopefully that will come to fruition to help out with the bank stabilization because there is a lot of erosion that's taking place so you know thank you mayor for all your help with that and hopefully you know our elected officials across the different facets whether it's state local or federal are going to help address this because it's a long time coming uh that's it for me council president thank you councilman Cherry councilman Murphy thank you council president Council we may want to have Sergeant monado look into that wind for from Cherry over there make sure there was no collusion in that uh raffle drawing over there councilman he filled out the form had a phone call today said he won I had to take him to the library so so real quick on domestic violence for bench committee uh we do have a meeting tomorrow night in the upstairs room of the community center uh Hall uh at 7 pm so looking forward to that we did take a break in July so we'll have a lot to uh discuss tomorrow night so anybody that wants to join uh feel free to come out I do want to reiterate uh councilman venter's remarks on the OEM uh during this past storm I did hear a lot of positive feedback uh about the Facebook updates and posts that they were sharing uh and former residents I think that was a really good uh thing to see that up there I know that wasn't something that was really done in the past it was nice to see that so uh just kudos to them on giving those updates and giving the information that reson uh the uh information that they need so to have council president thank you thank you councilman Murphy Chief Pro for us you don't have a microphone I'm sorry mayor stole it okay no report um I'm happy to tell uh the public and the governing body we have 10 veteran banners that will be going up technical Sergeant Leonard Roma who served in the world uh World War II US Army and he was a bron star recipient um Charles mowen who served in World War I US Army Sergeant Edward mowen who served in World War II US Army John mowen who served in World War II US Navy Charles mowen who's CH who served in World War II US Army petty officer third class her Bria World War II US Navy Sergeant Bert Bria who served in the Vietnam US Army electronic technician mate second class Henry Wagner Jr who served in World War II US Navy Captain her Bria US Army bronze star Boston's mate second class John surane who served in World War II US Navy Combat Action ribbon um I think uh we I've talked about this before where we hoping to be able to have individ individuals scan the banners and get a bio of each veteran and I just kind of thought of it tonight it' be it'd be a great Eagle Scout project so hopefully uh those that are listening maybe could spread that word and and we'll have a scout who wants to obtain their Eagle Scout and contact me have a motion to open the meeting to the public for agenda items so move move by councilman Murphy second by councilman V Cherry Madam clerk anyone wishing to address the township Council May doce through the council president it is preferred if you give your name and address for the record comments are to be limited to 3 minutes however if 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 a virtual hand in the zum application meeting moderator will cue the members of the public that wish to provide comment and the council president will 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 and star N9 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 anyone in the chat that' like to speak this evening uh Mr bedry you're here would you like to come and approach the podium even though it's not agenda items agenda okay go ahead a nice item as well I hi everyone John V I participated in a meeting at the county regarding their committee I think it was the kickoff meeting for the 2026 is for the 250th anniversary of the country and they want Little Falls to taken active role in that particularly the historical society and one of the things that came out of that meeting is something that we've endeavored to do we just never had the funds to do it which is um we drive around a lot of towns all over North Jersey all over the country and there are these beautiful bronze historical markers you know we have one of the oldest houses in the whole state of New Jersey um you know the spear house on uh Upper Mountain nav um that is 1680 it's on the national register state Register no marker the mill uh no marker some of the Brownstone homes no marker so um there is funding available now so we'd like to present to the board maybe at an upcoming council meeting our plans for the uh five properties that the historic uh preservation commission has selected and we'd like the Township's permission to proceed with that and I know the mayor and Council like this with no cost to the township but each one is about I think $3,500 so uh just to reiterate this this bronze markers something on a PO is is on a poll generally if I've seen them at other historical houses and talks about the house they're pretty expensive put a new one there by the old Walker Hardware so they're very elegant they're discreet and um you know gives the opportunity to describe to people that come to the town um you know where these historical landmarks are terrific any questions regarding that gonna say once Council Cherry once you have it in place as the up the website's getting an update maybe it's to kind of listen that on the site and as a page as well so that people know when they check out Little Falls see some of the images maybe it' be nice to highight that would be great thank you for that good news Mr rer thank you thank you have a motion to close the public comment moveed by councilman V Cherry second by councilman habets all those in favor I all those opposed motion carries thank you to Mr contron Mr Deo and Adam clerk for assisting me in putting this meeting together I have a motion to adjourn this meeting so move move by councilman Murphy second by councilman and Cherry all those in favor I all those opposed this meeting is now closed