an electric system is then of course missing P if you can generate electricity you're really cutting down cost but uh but I'd be interested to hear like what what kind of vote you get because it's such a less comprehensive retrofit issue issue you know it'll come back to you any sure can Dennis here how are you hold it's cool doesn't get too um no thank you for the rundown that really helped me like the issues electric but you know we can't count interest rates like get hundreds of and I'm going to just bonding part of it that we get Federal Credit and then we'll get these annual T Rec maybe we say we're going to create let's figure it all out get scary it's just not as good I'm say scary not as good yeah anybody was the what about thank you okay how about some she I was going to say that was too Happ this is something back no I ex recognize denn Dennis ER okay let the record reflect we have reconvened with all members present councilman uh Bob Lander is a little bit under the weather so he is excused tonight for those who are able I ask you to rise for the Pledge of Allegiance ask you to remain standing after the pledge IED United States of America stand nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all please remain standing going to take a moment to remember uh members of our burough staff family and a long time Madison Les who we lost over the past few weeks Roger Snider age 74 Madison passed away on January 16th at his Homan with his family by his side he is survived by his wife of 50 years Patricia one daughter Stacy duly who works in our ping department and her husband Edward his two grandchildren Emma and strong dully two brothers Leroy and his wife uh Regina Peter and his wife Diane and also he leaves behind his devoted caregiver boce Hilton who cared for him for the past year and a half of his life Roger was born in New York in August 1949 raised in chadam with his two brothers and was a graduate of chadam high school he went on to earn his bachelor's degree from Christian Brothers University in Memphis Tennessee where he majored in English Roger and Patricia were married in 1973 in s Madison where they've lived ever since he had a career for over 40 years as a material manager in the hospital industry before he retired spent most of his career uh as materials manager for Children Memorial Hospital in pton Plains he served our country in the 78th division of the United States Army Reserve for 31 years stationing in M Freedom New Jersey base he attained the rank of Sergeant sergeant major he was a lifelong student of American History especially especially Civil War he was very proud of the fact that his great-grandfather served in the Union Army during the Civil War Roger was active parishioner at St Vincent Martyr Church and uh also a longtime member of the Knights of Columbus Madison Floren Park and where he was a past Grand Knight we also remember B Elizabeth Betty cyon who died on December 19th at the age of 98 she is a grandmother of Madison police officer radoo capillus born in 1925 in the town of Glen Campbell P Sylvania her journey led her to New Jersey where she lived until her passing at her home in in lwood she survived by her son John her four grandchildren another John Trisha of course ronado and Eric and daughter-in-law Amelia she was predeceased by her husband Albert was uh raised as only child and uh very impressive for considering when she went to college earned a ba in bi biological science from Purdue University and went on to be a lab assistant University of Pittsburgh from 50 to 51 for Dr Jonas sou people remember that name because the polio vaccine she lived in Baltimore for a short time till our marriage and then to New York to Scotch Plains and then settling in in the area we also remember Olympia Lee Howard of Mars Township formerly of Bloomfield and Glenn Ridge passed away at 90 this Thursday January 18th at her home after a battle with cancer she spent her last days with her devoted husband of 70 years Bob and her precious daughter Sandy Emer who is our Personnel director for the burrow and she also leaves her son Robert and mples fla who was at her side she was a wonderful lovely wife mother grandmother and great-grandmother she was uh compassionate beyond measure incredible Devotion to her family and grandchildren we devoted her life to her husband and her children and exemplified the definition of mother and person personified friend to her children as was noted in her obitu I was happiest when she was sitting with the kids en joyed each other's company she survived by her sister vensa two children Sandy and Robert four the four grandchildren and uh three great grandchildren and we also remember Walter John hian Botham who passed away at his home in Madison January 13th age of 84 born in Neptune lived in Asbury Park and been in Madison for the past 61 years graduated from Asbury Park High School and in 1973 here earing The Bachelor of Arts degree from fry Dickinson University worked for jcpnl in Marist toown where he met the love of his life Marie in 1960 they were met in 60 and married in 62 worked for as an accountant for 36 years until he retired in 95 you also served a country in the Army as gifted athlete athlete John was involved with Madison football when his Avid golfer he also volunteered the Madison community garden member of St Vincent martyr Irish and after his retirement he helped people attack and he loved all the relationship he formed with his clients he was provided by his wife for 61 years and children Michelle Christopher Jonathan Cheryl and Jeffrey and the respective spouses as well as seven grandchildren and his great first great grand children would be born next month so let us take a moment to remember Roger Snider Betty silveron Lee Howard and Walter hiban and let us pass our thoughts on the families and friends that they leave behind thank you can have a motion for the executive minutes of December 11th and January 8th 20 or J December 11th 2023 and January 8th 2024 some up second this already been discussed in executive all in favor I and a message I mean motion to approve the regular minutes of December 11th 2023 sum second we had a correction on that it was spots any further discussion all in favor I I and a motion for the regular minutes of January 8th 2024 some move second any discussion Corrections all in favor I welcome all serious and we uh survived the cold and just a reminder for those that were complaining that uh it is January and it's the way it's supposed to be so uh just put on don't forget your gloves your hat and a warm coat and we can get through it um and warmer weather is coming later this week uh yesterday I attended the uh reception for the opening the museum ear early trade and crafts newest special exhibit called uh booked 18 scene exhibit which shows the collaboration with book Arts Round Table as uh noted in the invitation seeing is a play on words and seeing is uh C SL uh aimed at drawing visitors into a deeper connection and understanding the book Arts I highly recommend the uh the exhibit uh I saw Eric there and others probably were there also at different times yesterday and I'm going to come down and do a couple of presentations here EX hello ah there we go try that try this again can I get Alex Del Cruz com on up and your uh members of your Youth and YMCA Youth and government group around so we're kind of facing the audience and uh facing the cameras and uh our youth and government program at the Y which uh many people know I spent just a few years there working um is uh you know preparing the next round of leaders whether it's at a local level state level or federal level and the more they learn the earlier they learn the better off we will be Lord knows I need a succession plan so we're uh hoping that this is the beginning of it but uh tonight you will see uh local government in action as we talk and that is in action as in two words not U one word um as we discuss the budget approve a few ordinances and some resolutions so on behalf of the burough of Madison this a certificate to Madison Area YMCA Youth and government for commitment to Civic [Applause] engagement um thank you so much for the opportunity for us to come and visit um I know this is our first time here so it's really great to see how everything works in person um especially if you've never seen it before um I definitely want to thank um all the council members and thank you may Bob for having the opportunity to come over here um a little about our program so we have two different ones we have our teen Leaders Club and we have our youth and government program so teen leaders really f focuses on um um volunteer opportunities and community service all around the community in chadam Madison Floren Park and we have about 50 to 60 students in that program and then we do have three students in our youth and government program um where we focus on learning a little bit more about the government and really starting at um you know from the beginning and basic knowledge and stuff like that and then working towards wanting to do a conference um and do more visits like this so thank you again so much for the opportunity mayor and since you mentioned the leaders Club you know as as you may know that uh being a mayor of Madison is a volunteer job I've had a life that has been really driven by uh volunteerism and where did it all start as a member of The Leaders Club at the Madison Area YMCA um I joined in seventh grade kind of because I had a crush on a girl that was in the uh Leaders Club at the time but it turned into you know it was incredible experience and set the basis for where I am today so thank you for all the work you [Applause] do and for those that watched our uh annual uh reorganization meeting we know that part that tradition is recognizing volunteers that have served um on a Madison committee for at least 5 years and are stepping down today we have a record one I'm pretty sure until someone tells me otherwise it will go down in the in the books as a record uh Kathy colus please come [Applause] forward this is so special that her son flew in from England just for this presentation so welcome and um we we last year we recognized Kathy as a legacy hero because the legacy of Kathy's volunteerism in uh Madison is incredible in 1980 she was recruited to join the uh what was then the Memorial Park uh feasibility study committee which eventually morphed into the pars committee so from 1980 to through December 31st 2023 Kathy has served on the parks committee guiding the great Parks we have in Madison so Kathy thank you so much and this is a [Applause] medallion just want to thank um the this mayor and other Mayors uh who have allowed me to serve on the parks committee been a real um it's been great we've uh and some things that we're really proud of and I'm sure that it will continue on and thank you again thank you we have a few other medallions for volunteers I couldn't uh make it at the new year at our New Year's reorganization so we will send those out there but already mentioned the name but there were two that were overlooked there was a little glitch in our program but we have someone in the room that had served on the open space Recreation historic preservation advisory committee from 2012 to 2023 so 12 years and including the last few I don't know how many years as chair but to recognize Melissa for as she transitioned from uh a volunteer on open space to volunteer on the as a council member thank you [Applause] and we have a twofer here to uh John Forte who served on the historic preservation commission from 2017 to uh 2023 so that's eight eight years inclusively and very impressive here is the planning board meets twice a month and also certainly a key role in guiding the development in in Madison uh and many of those years as Vice chair John Forte planning board 2008 through 2023 so you m thank you for your work [Applause] there okay we'll move to uh reports from committees uh Public Safety Council president range thank you mayor from the police department tonight on January 18th uh detective Sergeant Ken Shannon took part in a presentation titled hidden in plain sight at the chattam middle school presentation is intended for adults who care for Youth and provide an opportunity to explore Trends in teen substance abuse signs symptoms and lingo in an effort to raise awareness about substance abuse disorders the event also provides resources and tools for parents to identify prevention and treatment options Sergeant Shannon takes part in these presentations held by the US uh da as part of as part of our local representative on a panel to discuss these local Trends if any parent is looking for information or resources around this topic you can contact Sergeant Shannon at 973 5933 0004 and the next next day on January 19th detective uh Manon graduated from as a dare instructor following a two-e inservice training detective Manon will immediately be assigned to a fifth grade Madison Elementary School class to have his to have his his own D is taught to all fifth grade Madison classes by trained Madison officers and gives the kids the skills they need to invo avoid involvement in drugs gangs and violence congratulations to Detective manto and from the fire department tonight uh so far during the month of January the fire department has responded to 17 General alarms 11 still alarms conducted 25 investigations 44 medical calls for a total of 97 calls so far the fire department would like to remind everyone that if you think you have a gas leak to call 911 if you call psng directly they then turn around and call the Madison fire dep department and this adds to response times the Madison fire department would like to remind you um as they've seen uh a number of instances where homes have out-of-date smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors if these detectors in your home are older than 10 years old it needs to be replaced if you are a senior citizen the fire department has a program that will replace them for you free of charge and that program is sponsored by the American Red Cross if you fall into that category you can contact the fire department to set up an appointment to have your uh detectors swapped out and lastly tonight the fire department would just like to mention that uh we are nearing the final stages of completing the partnership in transition with the Madison volunteer Ambulance Corp uh for EMS Services here in the burough that's all tonight mayor thank you thank you finance bur clerk new the tax collector's office reminds everyone that the first quarter of property taxes are due in a couple of days on February 1st property owners are reminded to mail their payment or use the online portal which can be found at rosenet.org the finance department reports on our budget tonight while the council has already had multiple Financial presentations over the last few months tonight we are starting the budget process in Earnest this evening we will hear about the financial performance of our water and electric utility you'll also hear from the electric utility superintendent Jim matina and our Public Works director Ken O'Brien we are very lucky to have excellent reliable and safe electric and water services in Madison and tonight you'll hear about what steps our utility staff are taking to maintain and improve our Distribution Systems finally I'll add that voting on the budget is one of the most important actions that the council takes this is a personal aside when I ran for election in 2019 one of the things I talked to people about when I knocked doors was that we use our budget to set our priorities and it's imperative that the council adopt a sound budget that reflects our values if you want to know what a town values you can look to its budget to understand what's important in Madison and every town okay back to the report our utilities build over $24.5 million in 2023 our single largest budget line in the entire budget document is the procurement of electricity which Madison buys and then distributes to our residents and businesses you will hear that this evening you will hear this evening that the utilities performed well last year but we have two significant issues ahead first is that we have costly but much needed Capital Improvements that we must address and second is that the cost of electricity has gone up significantly while we won't feel that cost in 2024 we will feel it in 2025 we work hard as a governing body to be transparent and to make information available to Residents tonight we will have the first of four scheduled budget presentations at the next meeting on February 12th we will discuss the municipal budget and on February 26th we will meet with the department heads on March 11th we will discuss the budget again and review strategic planning guidelines that guide our decision making for the budget every year and then on March 25th we will have one final discussion on the budget along with the introduction of the official state budget document the statute requires us to take a 4-we break so that all residents have the opportunity to review that budget document and then on April 22nd we're scheduled to have a hearing and to vote to adopt the budget as a reminder all of this budget information is available on the annual budget process page on Ros thank you mayor thank you and great message on the budget and just a reminder to our students in the audience that uh most towns do not own their electric utility so what you're going to see tonight is uh you would only see in eight other municipalities New Jersey um and many towns don't even ow water utility or many were forced to sell off their water utility because they didn't maintain it that is something that Madison's been committed to so we're never in that position of having to uh sell util utility because we didn't do our job so with that we will move on to uh utilities put us thank you so much Rachel thanks very much for that thorough recap too we're fortunate to have our department heads here tonight so we can just commend them on some of the work they're doing around town we don't even realize what's going on behind the scenes uh from the electric utility uh January 8th there is a construction home where the crews had to go and disconnect the temporary meter after the house was demolished but neither the homeowner or the contractor had the appropriate permits to have it done but they did it anyway uh January 10th on Waverly Place uh customer at a new downtown construction was getting water into their underground electrical service so the electric Department crws refoam the pipe in the manhole and it was once again water tight we've had too much water I guess that was the test that we needed to tighten that up a little bit uh Department Crews pumped holes at the commercial District bolts this is a by annual process January 15th on Academy Road the electric Department Crews responded to a call of no power uh the entire Street was out the cause of the outage was two squirrels playing in the Transformer I'm sure they don't look the same now January 20th uh the department Crews responded to a call no power again at the intersection of Central Avenue in Elmer approximately 75s without power it took the electric utility 1 and A2 hours to destroy the power unfortunately Provident Bank had a different issue so they remain without power right now but it's being addressed and they've been consulted by our electric utility what's required of them to get their power back up as soon as soon as possible the electric Department continues to respond to its typical monthly activities including service installations demolition dist connections street light repair all over town marking out where where uh power lines are when they're requested to solar tie-ins as we continue to Electrify the burrow with solar power and customer concerns regarding hanging wires trees branches and General Electric questions very busy every day uh from the water utility uh we're working with the contractor and Engineering on upgrades to the BW it's been offline now for a while we anticipate it to be back online in the early spring better than better than it's been for a long time uh we flushed some hydrants on Madison Avenue Water Tower area for testing and everything went well over there we replaced a damaged hydrant from a motor vehicle accident on Richdale and we replaced a water connection at 202 Park Avenue Morris County is intending on Paving Park Avenue in the spring and we will be upgrading some of the water lines in that area before Paving that's all mayor thank you community fairs Miss thank you mayor Downtown Development commission uh held its reorganization meeting last week and also wants to let you know that the Madison Farmers Market will be reinvented for 20124 it will now be called the Madison farm and Artisan market and will be held on Saturdays from May 25th through December 14th in the Prospect Street parking lot from 10: to 3: the hope is that the new format will allow for greater participation closer to the heart of Madison more information will be coming by the end of this month mark your calendars the taste of Madison returns to the Madison Hotel on Monday March 18th more information will become available over time uh Chamber of Commerce after the holidays party will be held this Wednesday January 24th at 6: p.m. in Encore Speak Easy at Shanghai Jazz it's in the basement there there's no admission fee um and food and drinks will be available for purchase uh there's also a brand new downtown event called The Rose City chocolate walk this event will be held on Saturday February 10th and will kick off at 1: p.m. local businesses will provide Shoppers with chocolate products as they shop dine and discover the best Madison has to offer uh the Museum of Early Trades and crafts will have two chocolate making sessions uh uh one at 1:00 and the other at 2:30 and the cost will be $10 per family in addition there will be two screenings of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory at the Madison Community House at 1 and three and as was discussed it's the one Everyone likes the old movie uh and the Madison Community Arts Center uh the Madison arts and culture Alliance will hold its Madison Broadway Cabaret fundraiser from 4 to 6 this Sunday tickets are available and can be purchased online the new literary Arts organization yes and will hold its first workshop and Open Mic of the Year this Wednesday starting at 6 Isabelle Gonzalez the Dodge Foundation poetry Festival creative officer leads this program Spotlight kids will hold a weekend workshop on January 26 6 through 28th featuring prominent Broadway actors presenting workshops and demonstrations a work of heart Productions will hold a bringing Broadway home concert on Saturday February 3rd from 7: to 9: the summit Film Society will screen the French film driving meline on Friday February 2nd at 2: p.m. and at 7:30 the New Jersey Jazz Society will present the Lance Bryant Trio on Sunday February 4th at 3 and later on that same day at 6 PM Arts by the people would present the launch of a new book Grand Street Revisited by Paul rovitz and Anna heral events for the entire year can be viewed on Madison arts and j.org thank you mayor thank you and health and if also if you have Bob's report for public works and Engineering councilman Forte sure thank you mayor uh from Public Works uh Department we had a minor snowstorm last week and we did not have any major breakdowns our mechanical staff worked hard on maintenance and our equipment that uh and that was a major factor in not having any breakdowns we had a tremendous amount of rain in the last couple of weeks and the sore Department was in was in overnight cleaning drains and maintaining the pump stations with the upgrades we have been doing on the pump stations we are handling high flow times much better and are seeing less emergencies Christmas tree pickup continues until the end of the month please put your Christmas trees out on the curb and will be around to pick them up residents can also drop off Christmas trees only at the recycling center during normal operating hours and from the health department the health department had their reorganization meeting last week and uh there's an important message from the health department um radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer and the state of lung cancer report reveals that it is detected at high levels in about 10% of homes in New Jersey during January for for National radon action month the American Lung Association in New Jersey is urging everyone to help save lives by testing their home for Radon and mitigating the high levels detected Madison did post on our Facebook page information about National radon action month you can get more information at ww.gov ron-ron D action- month- information uh I also want to just mention I am the lead a on to the YMCA and I'm very happy to see representation from the youth and government program here tonight and I spoke to them uh back in I think it was November uh we gave a presentation and I told them that I started in the youth and government program when I was in high school so I think it's great to see them here and I told them you'll never know where you'll end up or where you'll go beginning where you're at today so welcome very very much now move on to Communications and petitions yes mayor mayor and Council received an email dated January the 19th from Resident David sty regarding Frank Frank anon's participation in um MSA that's the Madison Alliance addressing substance thank you abuse there you go thank you and now we're on to our first of two um invitations for public comment uh this one is limited to the our agenda discussion items and also the resolutions which I'll go through so you can our agenda discussion items are uh the Green Acres Jake law dods field all accessible uh playground funding application that actually is a hearing so after the presentation you can comment on it at that point um so you don't need to comment now if you uh are a little bashful but you can comment on the uh the budget hearing and the resolutions you may comment on and this will also be part of the consent agenda which will be approved at the end of the meeting so you're aware of what's in the consent uh resolution 51 is um authorizing continuation electric utility rebate program for 2024 and this is for those that are uh eligible uh support of $200 for one-time credit to electric utility uh resolution 52 is final payment and change order order request from Mac Group LLC for the amount of $1,739 bring a total authorized payment to $53,900 22 resolution 53 is appr proven use of the community full parking lot by um The Adult School the cadams uh madis Chads Madison Flor Park on March 20th April 18th May 9th and May May 22nd those are all before the pool opens up resolution 54 is authorizing the appointment of Mike Michael gerero to the position of truck driver in the uh public works department an annual salary of $6,995 uh in line with the collective bargaining agreement resolution 55 is appointment of Chelsea Taylor position of office assistant in the office of water electric utility annual salary $ 52,000 um pending uh all clearances resolution 56 is um the enabling um resolution for Green Acres Program additional Green Acres Grant 6,6 36767 resolution 57 is uh raffle license applications for St Vincent Mar Church on March 8th and 9th resolution 58 is U endorsing and supporting big a big read project Grant application submitted by the Museum of ear trades and crafts for the purpose of CommunityWide big read program this truly is CommunityWide including the library and Drew University and others resolution 59 is approving raffle license application for the Covenant House New Jersey Inc on uh for March 15th so you may comment on those resolutions or the two agenda items if you wish to comment on any of those please step up to lect turn state your name and address and uh then the um agenda item or resolution you're commenting on and try to keep your comments to three minutes but we do give you a one minute grace period welcome austri um I'm austre Bailey uh 54 East Lane Madison and tonight I'm here to support um the Green Acres um Jake's law Dodge field all accessible playground funding application um this is something when I sat on Council where you were uh was near and dear to my heart um I helped through the first playground renovation and it's time to do it again but this time um we're talking about an all-inclusive Ada compatible um fully compliant um playground for Dodge field the current playground at Dodge field is really the only only playground here in Madison except for the the schools and it is old and tired with this grant we could build a new playground for all children in Madison and the area an all-inclusive playground allows for all children despite their handicaps to enjoy playground and being outside um right now the only allinclusive ADA Compliant playground is approximately 8 miles from here so it is time to upgrade our playground please support this Grant application um I attended the workshop um I've participated in helping put the grant together and I really believe um Green Acres wants to give money to us to do this so please support it thank you thank you very much for your comments on that and all your work also and uh probably felt a little funny to be standing there facing this direction Deb welcome Deb Starker 30 Beverly Road medicine um I just actually want to say thank you first of all for your early support of this project um this is an National endam for the Arts um Grant um for a community-based big read project um and what's really unique about this is that it's involving so many different players in the community the Museum of ear traes and crafts um we are the lead organization I'm writing the grant which is due Wednesday um Drew University's writing collaborative project um Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey the Madison public Library um nature of reading books which is the new bookstore um right across the street from the museum and Dew e Comics which is the um newest business to come back to Madison um so this um is a CommunityWide collaborative um effort um it just promotes so much it it supports literacy it supports communication it supports the community um and it's very competitive I think they only fund about 35% of the grant nationally that are applied so um having the support of the council prior to even submitting the grant is really huge um and um I just wanted to thank you for that and if you the book that we're doing by the way is station 11 um written by Emily St John Mandel and if you haven't read it just read the synopsis and you'll understand why we chose that book and how it resonates with Madison as a community there's just so many um wonderful opportunities so thank you for your support thank you for your work on this and looking forward to hopefully we'll this resolution will put you over the top and we'll see that great anyone else wishing to comment on the agenda items or resolutions that are on the consent seeing none I close this part of the meeting and we uh now move on to our agenda discussions and as know our first one is the Green Acres Jake law um godfield all accessible playground M Harington thank you for covering well thank you mayor council members it's real pleasure to be here tonight to talk to you about this uh Grant opportunity and the Redevelopment of Dodge field playground um the the grant opportunity um we have tonight or that we will be applying for was under Jake's law and it's administered by the Green Acres Program uh initially it was offered only to counties but in the fourth quarter I believe of this past year it was made available to municipalities the burrow was very well placed in order to get the Grant application in order and meet the deadlines in early February uh one of the requirements of the Grant application is to hold a public hearing which is being fulfilled by our meeting this evening the grant would fund 75% of the eligible project costs this project is estimated at $690,000 which means that the grant that we would be apply applying for would be north of $500,000 the existing conditions at the playground as Miss Bailey had mentioned uh are are less than ideal uh the surfacing is compacted Earth and wood chips playground equipment I believe was last um reconstructed about 20 years ago so it is outdate it doesn't meet current accessibility needs and requirements it doesn't provide an inclusionary type of uh of experience for those with varying disabilities not just Mobility but hearing impaired sight impaired other sensory types of issues the proposed playground will do just that the concept plan was developed over course of a couple of years we had a previous Grant application which was not uh funded um and the idea was to fund it totally with the recreation and Open Space Program from the burough we had worked with several equipment suppliers and uh designers they provide the graphics and the concept plans um a group of us visited various uh local playgrounds to get some ideas on the types of equipment that are popular now in the The Sur surfacing that's available um which I think we're all familiar with the rubberized resilient surfacing it's similar to a running track but it's got a more of a bounce to it for fall protection um and that was the vast majority of playgrounds that that we we visited had the rubberized resilient surface one the concept plan includes traditional equipment swings slides climbing apparatus but it also incorporates interactive play with sensory features such as musical instruments agility thing games tactile things for the children to participate in not just the physical aspects of it but the entire sensory um experience one of the requirements of the grant uh application is also to discuss the environmental impacts of the proposed playground and propos improvements um and as a developed site the environmental impacts were very minimal um the proposed plan does require the removal of three existing trees and it will require uh excavation uh of the existing surface to install the new plague surface which would be several hundred cubic yards of Earth removal so the environmental impact would be during construction with truck traffic noise from from standard traditional construction equipment um possible dust generation nothing more than a typical construction site as well as of course the demolition of the existing equipment construction is estimated to take approximately 10 weeks um and with the grant uh application we understand the decision should be made by July 1st I believe late June or July 1st so we would hope to be in construction the middle of the summer uh and finish well we need to get it done before the next cold snap I talked to you on a January 22nd evening when it's 25 degrees but the the last uh construction item is the installation of the rubberized surface which is temperature sensitive so that needs to be installed when it's still 40 to 50° at at the minimum one of the benefits of reconstruction of the playground is the existing surface is a compacted Earth surface doesn't promote any infiltration or recharge of the aquifer um the new play surface will as after the excavation will have a placement of crushed stone under layer base a base layer and then a permeable rubber resilient surface which allow water to percolate travel through that and recharge the groundwater rather than running off as it mostly does today with the compacted Earth surface as I've said it's been 20 years um you know it's it's lived useful life and it's it's time for mayor that's my presentation on Dodge field and Jake's Jake's law Grant application all right before we have a council uh comment I'll open hearing to the public as this is a hearing as mentioned before so anyone else in the public we've had one comment already but anyone in the public that wishes to comment on this project or ask questions please uh step forward with the same uh guidelines state your name and address and and right the same on the clipboard and hi I'm Sue White for uh 12 vitt Road Madison um I am the mother of a a a small 18-year-old special needs child who loves nothing more than to play on playgrounds um we were part of the crew that went um looking at playgrounds in the in the New Jersey we went to Wayne we went to norc um and Katie climbed on everything ran around and gave her two on what she thought was was the best equipment um to play on but um we have lots of friends in town um many of which um are some a few in wheelchairs others you know have are very awkward in moving and they can't go to playground they can't go to dodge field they can't go to the um Central Avenue because they can't manipulate the ground to go play on a playground so this is something they would absolutely Thrive with and as it was mentioned the closest one um that we we know of is in Mars um Mars County Central Park in Mars County it's eight eight miles away um and um there there are lots of kids we know kids in Floren Park all over um who would absolutely benefit from from a completely inclusive playground um so I I highly recommend you guys all um give your support I appreciate it thank you very much anyone else in the public wishing to comment on this project please step forward hi my name is Asa I I'm resident of 31 Balo this is my first meeting so I don't really understand how it goes but I appreciate the opportunity I'm ACC Alex and Shanta from YMC listening to this project my heart is warmed up building an inclusive culture like this is not just going to benefit kids with special need but also build inclusive community for Next Generation to see that we need to incorporate needs of all including our children really plus one on this project I hope everybody provides their support thank you for your comments and very important the uh the fact that this is inclusive in the the bingling of abled and those with challenges anyone else wishing to comment please step forward seeing none I close the hearing and uh we'll um we'll go to council uh comments I'll just uh want to reinforce that U if we were able to get this Green Acres funding we've uh has already been mentioned we were planning on funding this through the open space Recreation historic preservation trust fund and this would put $500,000 that has been appropriate we would cancel that ordinance money would go back to the open space trust fund for possibly Drew Forest or other endeavors by the trust fund so this would not only give us a credible part that we've already committed to but will enable us to take on the next challenge and to put the uh the time factor in place the current playground I think that it was councilman um jigs manone that led the charge to get that playground done at that point um and I eventually took um jig's seat on this Council and you know I've been here forever so it's been a long time so um you know it's uh the tradition the Legacy that jigs set up there will continue with this new Incredible Park other comments but from the council Tom thanks mayor so Dennis I want to ask you a couple questions is this the design set in stone you're not going to change it can you can you change it all this is I it was yeah this is way we developed crost estimate um this been through process choosing equipment locating it fine-tuning the location so I would say it's it's pretty well set rubber rubber okay but we didn't put any pilings in yet no so so it's just an observation and I made this last year when it was first presented I'm really happy that we're moving forward and making a change I was involved with the rotary when we put the first playground into together 20 years ago and we built a lot of us volunteers were there oh your name on the lot of weekend I was very happy to help the father of five so I was spend a lot of time over there so one observation I have that this is also a place like that that young lady said where the community is going to get together and we're going to spend time with our children and our friends I don't see any benches for us to sit and conre on there are some benches something you can't see as I could there are benches in the design we would do those as a as a after the fact we do those independently of the of the equipment installation itself CU if you go the overall if you go by the playground that's there now and I and I'm also a big advocate for a stand boox I know that there's some schools of thought why it might not be appropriate but that is probably the busiest part of the current playground and it always has been a place where the parents of young children would sit and spend an hour or two there maybe even you know eating some SM and I don't know if there's still an opportunity for something like the current guidelines for sand boxes as set forth by the uh joint Insurance Fund yeah and other things we we can't maintain a proper sandbox the one there probably should have been removed sooner uh things such as sifting sand on a daily basis covering the sand or covering the sand box every night so as it's it is a very much loved thing it's going to way of um you know risk management and uh as often challenges things that's a shame that's Insurance C well all right that's my at least at least you should have a place where and you said you will eventually where people will just be able to sit and their children will still be able to push toys around in in a in a controlled area like 10 is same have Crush I guarantee Benes will be we have discuss I'll help you with that so the other thing there I was wondering since if we do get this grant we still won't have enough money to fund it maybe we want to also offer to the community some sponsorships like there's with sponsors on the last project we raised $100,000 so I they might you know be surprised y um people there again that want yeah certainly you know one thing uh is rotarian you want to take that back to the club might be uh helpful to have partners lead away um you know it the sponsorship whether it's for the um playground itself or some of the supplemental things such as benches or other things would would be greatly appreciated you know it's our as I talked in my um New Year's message that we could not accomplish the many great things we did last year and we'll be accomplishing this year without generous partners and so they're always always welcome thanks thanks Dennis great job any other comments from the uh Council and uh just a as a um followup because I just received this just in on the on my wire here uh the the Elks have already sponsored a bench so there's already a um and and a solar charger so there are some momentum has started so okay and uh any other yes just a big thank you to the team uh at B Hall and also to Austy for for really going forward with with the grant um it could be a huge savings for our town and also make us a place to come to um with other communities so thank you for all that work thank you any other comments oh so I I do think uh one one thing that's really nice about this is that um I've witnessed Dodge field evolve over the years you know this is the I don't know what iteration of the playground at Dodge field I remember in my lifetime but it is nice to live in a town where we do care enough to keep evolving and getting better and getting safer and getting more inclusive and to the point about the sandbox I actually remember as a kid Dodge field had a small swimming pool over there and it was probably not the safest place to be swimming because there was no life sorry just to uh talk about since we we brought it up I've worked for recreation department at one point so I was The Watcher that pool for a while which which got drained every day and refilled the next day so it was very interesting and the the equipment with the uh probably 15t high slide that fac the Sun that was always a challenge and the one thing called the witch's hat where I think uh people could if your hands were a wrong spot would be not a good thing and then the uh little marryg go rounds that had no governor on them so you just spun them as until kids went flying so we've come a long ways and then Jimmy in the audience probably remembers a lot of those things of course the old seesaw where you would have your yep you you have your friend up high and then you would jump off and you go crashing down and uh compress their vertebrae so this will be much more safer all right with that I think we can close this and uh thank you very much and uh we will confirm that the hearing has been held and uh the application can go forward we'll now move on to our budget hearing for electric utility water utility and public works and as it comes out you will hear this common theme thank you Oscar for coming to join us um that and uh councilman Rachel also mentioned that this is one of the most transparent uh processes of any town that I know of as part the whole thing whole budget process so you'll have a good understanding of course we do this uh for multiple reasons one so as a council approves the budget they know exactly what's in it but it's also a chance for us to tell the town what was accomplished last year and what our goals for the next year and and how they're uh how our resources are being spent so with that our CFO Jim Brett thank you mayor I'm going to go through a number of these slides quickly um they're really there for people who Maybe want to read a little more this talks about the agenda for the evening Ken and uh Jim mintino could be here and then we're going to talk about the finances of the water and electric utility I'm go to the next slide Michael um transparency as you mentioned and as councilwoman erck mentioned um is important and we have an annual budget process page on roset that's really built up significantly over the years there's a lot of great historical data in it um next slide this proposed schedule was mentioned by councilwoman earli at the last council meeting it's posted on that annual budget process page on roset tonight Public Works electric utility and water utility and then um February 12 in 3 weeks we'll do the initial Municipal budget and from there we'll continue um down the path to hopefully getting to a budget introduction in March um next slide just shows the breakdown of the tax bill which I always think is important to explain to people along with the 10-year uh increase um which is uh the table there showing the increase of the county increase of school and the increase of the municipal or burrow portion of the budget um next slide I'm going to introduce my esteemed colleague Mr Ken O'Brien to come up here and talk evening council members uh thank you for having me uh one thing on the agenda that was approved tonight the Cass set agenda was a couple new hires one of Public Works and water and I appreciate that and thank you very much uh we're getting up to uh significant Staffing level now we've lost in the Last 5 Years quite a few employees due to various reasons and uh so we're finally ramping up and getting that Manpower and that we need to do that um couple things we want to talk about if you want uh we go through the budget a little bit work with Jim quite a bit on the budget sometimes we have a little budget hearing here Town Hall Comm room but that doesn't account for all the phone calls and emails back and forth from Mr berett asking me some questions about the budget and what are we doing with this number what are we doing so we're always shuffling it around you know I I help with the um shade tree budget water department sub Department Public Works roads so it's all in cumbers so this is a brief part of it but a lot goes on behind the scenes on a regular basis um might go next slide so these some the accomplishments we took care of right we did um Memorial Park Bridge uh reip Stone down various walking paths all around town that was a project uh we did in the fall um we worked on the styrofoam recycling as you know with both both cadams we have an agreement with lill we had a third option which was take it to the private sector however that market dried up so now we're kind of locked in right now with long Hilt and if that should change you know we're always look at that market but um I was like I was bringing it to two different places at one time I didn't want to be locked into one particular place but now we're back to that so um we'll work on that um we're doing a new pedestrian signs I think you've seen them all you've all approved them on the various cassette agendas you know the signalization for that and uh Center is you know the old SE Center we took some of the trees and um bushes and we planted them around various areas some of them over to train station and they needed some tender loving care and that was you know certainly helped with the garden col which was nice Michael and um so for next year we're going to continue have safe working environment uh we look at EVs and how to reduce carbon footprint you ass what up in the police and firing range that's almost done uh we're going to be moving some storage boxes that area flooded um I don't not sure which storm but it flooded and some of the uh stuff got damaged there you know some targets and stuff so we're going to re-elevated those up and we elevated them up for a 100e flood so we're just hoping not to have another 100e flood um which happens on a fairly regular basis now um we still do all our training you know we we buy uh steel tow boots for the guys reinforc boots we do all that we provide safety vest safety equipment all the time they ask for something sometimes the guys will see something you know maybe uh online and they talk to us about it and if it's something we feel that fits into it safety wise we partas it uh we're working on Public Works um garage know on some point we're probably going to put solar on the roof there but in order to get to that process it's been uh involved so the building is an older building it was built in 1950s we had to look to see whether the electrical system system could handle it if the electrical system needed to be upgrade what was going to be involved in it we hired a private contractor to come in and tell us you know the kind of voltage and um the kind of systems we would have and it gave us options and so there's a lot involved in it so that's progressing right so now we um have Trust Construction down there and we have um an old the roof so we just noticed in that that some of the trusts were not in great shape so now we have a guy coming in to gave us a uh idea of how to fix the trust and we we've fixed them before but now we know that instead of one here and one there we probably should fix four or five of the trust if it's going to be supporting more so then we'll go ahead with the solar panel it's not that that's the driving thing but it just didn't you know in the end of the game uh think that that was what we're going to do was put that up there and then maybe have a problem with the trust so it's it's all I'm going to say behind the scenes prep work is is kind of what we're doing to get there but we'll get there we'll get there and I think that our roof and our line and our Public Works facility we just had a meeting not long ago we talked possibly putting it with um a level three charger down there I think that that probably be a good spot for we could find it off on the back of the wire Lane so that's a little bit more useful to the public and we'll continue to do that and then we have Capital work projects meetings and um starting this year we're going to start bringing that to a new level as you know Mr vogel's retiring and so engineering is kind of um a big part of what we do whether it's water sewer Parks so we'll be bringing in supervisors to those meetings now uh which are kind of the Hands-On guys a little bit instead of just having it done by myself and they'll be able to give us a little bit of feedback so going forward when we're making some decisions we'll have a little bit more knowledge and um that's mainly because just you know Bob's been here for 25 years whatever is him coming out of the loop a little bit we're losing some knowledge so we're going to try to rotate some more uh supervisors into those meetings on every other weekly basis and I'm just waiting for Michael to hit the gong at some point so that's on my mind right so uh I think the uh B weld everything like that if you look at the Chron chronology of the weld or not that's where we're at with everything and we're constantly working this year uh wellb which is a significant uh well for us that pumps a lot of water so that's why it's on our front burner to make sure we have it up and operationally um April May at least it pumps a lot of water and we use a lot of water in Madison in in the warm months um so a couple things I want to talk about before we we go when we ask you questions first um see if any particular topics come up off uhoh going need the microphone police yeah so I was going to actually ask you about electrifying the building uh you know once I didn't know you had to shore up some of the uh the roof structure a little but that's probably great for the long term we don't know how involved it'll be but we have a company that does Trust Construction start talking to us about sure sure and then I guess you guys are going to do an assessment I'm sure Jim's going to be very involved these night about how much power you can bring if you can actually cover everything that the building uses you have your your Public Works garage there so there's in the m in the maintenance facility for the mechanics yeah right so there's a lot going on there but I you probably cover a lot of it yeah mathematically that yeah I don't know exactly yeah charging is but I a big roof area right so then working on that for us so then if you do that and this is part of the climate action plan which we've discussed we can actually uh Electrify some of the equipment that you're using whether it's blowers are you're going to have a new electric homeow so you won't power it from the grid maybe we'll be able to charge it yeah from there get a battery pack and that's all going to develop over time we get solar when we get this electric mower we're going to have uh a charging system on the vehicle it'll probably have some solar panels not right away but then you know when that vehicle is being used during the day or park in the afternoons uh those solar panels will be charging the electric mote batteries brilliant the idea that's fantastic okay that's it thank thanks so much Ken there's a lot going on over there uh thank you any other questions or Rachel thanks for the presentation Ken just a minor clarification on the capital slide where the Zero Turn Mower is listed for 2024 is this the same mower that we talked about last year or is this another mower no this would be another mower so um buying an electric mower which is you know a significant cost I'd like to see it perform so I have to balance that and that might not be what the climate action committee thinks but um my concern is that if we start having problems into the mowing season with the electric mower we have and I buy another one I I don't want to put us in a position where there's not much of an alternative so we're going to look at some other some other mowers cuz I see if the electric mower was a problem or something happens it's it's new technology which we're we're doing I just don't want to be in a position of not being able to get the grass mode that but just to clarify the Departments are already taking possession of one of them yeah yeah it actually hasn't been delivered it's on ordered the purchase ERS out it's a fully electric mower we demoed it um it's in transit it'll be delivered by spring for sure I think there's a bag or something we wait they won't deliver until it's completed so then the second purchase which is uh at least projected for as early as this year is it because there's another gas mower that's going out of service that you need to replace gas are very old so we always want to have something there if we should have a catastrophic failure with one there's something in a capital budget that we had to do it we don't always do it but it's in there and we know that with the electric motor we don't there's a lot of unknowns so I just want to make sure that as we go along we're still updating equipment right so some of mowers are very old they get used a lot they get used every day from you know may till the fall right now we're also mulching leaves quite a bit so we're doing that much further into the fall than we used to right for the cut it leave it program so we're using the M as much but I'm F I just don't want to be at the point where all now we're having a problem we're down a mower sure um I I just wanted to clarify that this would be for a second Mower and that you're looking to diversify the equipment it sounds like maybe with the different manufacturer is what I'm getting what you're getting at okay Y and and the major fact we're buying the electric one for I forget the name of the tank or something it's a national it's not something that was built in someone's garage and web sure sure okay thanks for that information and uh I'm sure we all eagerly awaiting your review when you when you can take delivery of your first one this year so thank you for that we'll have demos and we'll have on a Saturday for people to see It'll be the quietest one out there that's right yeah yeah we we were and and I take it your concern is not just a long-term reliability or not just a short-term reliability because we'll find that out fairly quickly but concerned about long term um but I I would uh to reinforce with some of Rachel's questions is depending on the timing of the purchase of this zero turn you know not only do we know the reliability of our electric one we just purchased but there may be there's certainly others out there that we could be looking at to see how they're liability is yeah and the Machine itself is not what I'm more concerned I'm more concerned about the batteries sometimes there's hiccups with batteries or some kind of recall or something happens the next day I know I got to send the batteries out for a recall or something and then I don't have batteries to run the machine and I just don't want to really be in that position but I think you'll see that we're electrifying more and more equipment more and more of its coming um we're we're in tune with what what's happening and the way we want to go pression so we look at everything then um on Final I think I'd like to just talk about I mean that's if you want any more questions any more any more questions for K I think my question is going to depend on what Ken says next let's ask your question first no no no PR no pressure Ken but uh uh Ken I I I think one of the things in your uh accomplishments for 2023 that um you know DPW does a phenomenal job here in the burrow and and is working long hours to plow snow and collect leaves and all like that but I think one of the things that uh I think we all observe but I'll speak for myself as a potential shortcoming this year was the leaf collection in uh and how we handled that this year which didn't seem like it was up to the standard of previous years so I'm just curious if there's um any reflection on that or you know plan moving forward to adjust um to adjust for 2024 so we don't find ourselves in the same same situation we were in this year yeah so I take responsibility myself I leave the department the it stops with me I'm at the top of the organization and I made the decision that I felt that the municipality and the residents had the appetite to pick up leaves twice and get the entire town done rather than using all the fuel and the Manpower and everything goes into it rather than going around Time After Time After Time and going down some streets that were little and no leaves on so I made the decision by myself that if we start a little bit less a little bit later right we would pick up the same amount of leaves get it done in two weeks we know it takes us about two weeks to get around the town that we would burn less fuel we' use less Manpower we had less Manpower we've already hired three or four people now those are three or four people we didn't have last year we were doing water projects we have someone retiring from the water Pond we had a employee retiring from Public Works that used to do a lot of the running around so you're looking at the guy who made the decision to delay our leaf pickup and I take responsibility because I thought we had the opport to say okay a leaf pile in front of my house is going to be an okay thing but I know long game it's going to get there that message either wasn't carried and now I know that really uh we're going to work extra hard and we're going to start Leaf season much earlier it's not what I think is mathematically or the best way to do it because if you want to talk about the environment and burning diesel fuel meal power you can't be driving around October picking up leaves but I understood I heard the municipality loud and clear I read on Facebook I'm on Facebook I read the comments we got the phone calls it comes down to Ken I made that decision we will before Thanksgiving right is a very important time we'll be out 10 hours a day we'll be out Saturdays we will pick up all the leaves in this town coming into the Thanksgiving weekend I know that now it was a misfire on my part right but I'm telling you it bared on me because I didn't ask the man I didn't ask the the staff at Public Works I took that decision as though okay we're going to get done we know we're going to get done by Christmas anyway we know the week before Christmas it's done every year it it happens every year look I've been in this business long enough to know but now I know that that's not necessarily true so we're going to be out there we're going to work for it we'll put a schedule together we worked over time we'll work over time for season coming into Thanksgiving coming into November we'll do a schedule we did it the the Manpower wants to work that wasn't a problem you know we put the hours in that's it's not the problem no we appre yeah appreciate you uh taking the responsibility and sharing with the residents uh how was managed this year and how you approach want to approach it uh next year and I don't want to get into the weeds or the leaves but the you know Le I I I think there I think there is a a hybrid um you know Tom would be very quick to say pomi Road needs more attention uh uh I I I live on Britain Street we got collected once you know what that's all we need and so I think it is a ma a matter of uh you know managing B based on the the uh the need of the neighborhood I I I use my lawn mower I put in my Barrel I put it out and it's only once or twice that I have to actually have to cart uh leaves out to the curb so it's it's really um my neighborhood was fine and another neighborhood wasn't so I think that's the way we need to down absolutely thanks appreciate it any other questions or comments one thing I just want to quick I know you guys have seen some bricks raised in the center of town on Main Street if you see that was from frost Heath little information about that that in the last deep cold we've had the last few days they've heaved but if you notice they're on the side of the road that's usually shaded the side of the road that's got no shade the Bernette side of the road right the bricks always dry up quite a bit and there very little even though it it's because that those bricks will go back down as the temperature rises this week and the rain comes down they will naturally fall back it happened years ago and they actually went right back into place that's why we just have it ConEd off as a tripping Hazard it's kind of unique but um that's why it's on the Shaded side thank you for bringing that up and and uh to remember Sam Ciel former council member he would be talking about all sorts of things about the papers but we won't get into those weeds so yeah but yes they will settle back yeah all right all right now I'll turn it over to the I'll turn there you go I'm going to turn it over to the second most important utility in the burrow well first thing I'm going to say I use battery tools we have chainsaws with batteries we have blowers with batteries so just saying all right let's do what we have here hi everyone nice to see you again 2023 accomplishments we replace all the old poles and transform as needed we installed the new pole and and Transformers at 218 Main Street that's Rosewood condiments uh we reach reconstructed the Ridgedale Avenue and the Walnut TI point and still in progress we are reworking the ti point at Cook Avenue in Ridgedale it's a three-phase we built a three-phase bank for the Starbucks on Main Street we upgraded the west side of wavely place with 500 copper wire replaced a motor that went bad in Main Street underground Vault that was a big job and we ordered a capacitor Banks for Jersey Central Power and light requirements they should be in this summer and we had the interns help us out to install new stone and gravel at James Park substation and we completed the 2023 line clearance this year and the goals and objectives uh like I said last year we order we're ordering uh backup Transformers for heartley Dodge Memorial the public safety building the Madison Recreation Madison Library Madison High School Madison Junior school and the Central Avenue School we have no backup Transformers for them so they're on order Madison Green condos that's going to sit back for a while we're going to be talking about a lot of relays here so continue upgrading our tie points is very important James Park we got install an oil circulation system on the Transformers that's to keep the oil clean James Park we we got a replace relays on the 34 side we already did the 125 side just two different sides so half of it's done um Kings Road substation uh we should be starting NE next month we already got the relays in and they they're doing some custom work and that should be starting next month I hope uh James spark and Kings Road substation we did a Ark flash study we had to buy arc flash suits so when we go from the substation do some switching now you got to wear the whole suit by by law uh I Kim says that water well B is a big uh water station um and we are going to install a brand new Transformer there that we have we already replac three poles and we have the underground wire for it once we're ready to go we ran a new fiber line between the two substations Kings Road and James park with that fiber line you can do a lot with now it took us 5 years to get that done I mean we just never had a chance to do it and our training we do bucket truck training bucket truck rescue pole toop rescue substation AR flash CPR and our new employees are in a Northwest Lineman College certification program and they for an apprentices and second class line ongoing activities uh I I think for the most part on this one we just make that a slide available for the public and uh we can go on to the next one I I don't want you to go that's right that's right then Ken did we this competitions I'm trying to beat them out here uh special projects like I said James Park substation relays Kings Road relays tie points this is the big thing we got to do for the next couple years is is changing all the relays out and upgrading our tie points very crucial uh next one Micha upcoming projects uh five Central Avenue that's back Ed right now 25 Green Village Road couple houses in there 14 Lincoln Place uh it's completed on our side the Electric's all hooked up 18 Madison Avenue still in progress 120 Madison Avenue the mosque we ran the temporary we had to build a whole Bank of Transformers forther temporary so it's going to be a big place that's just a temporary uh 98 Main Street they're out of power uh their Transformer blew up last night so they have no power we're trying to help them out whatever we could do uh 294 Main Street Madison mall apartments the Project's going pretty well 300 Main Street we uh we did a EV Charger station 15 Prospect Street the old wer building and 28 wallnut Street Community Place affordable housing project we hooked up there uh temporary last week so on our way with that been in contact with them almost every day all right for 2024 I have a digger Derek truck it's a unit 131 it's a 1989 it's 35 years old we're still using it but I think it's time to look into maybe trying to get another one if you go down a little bit I'm still trying to get uh historic pen Globe fixtures for Madison train station once they come in we're going to replace all them everything is completed with LED issues uh Dodge field lighting that's not me Reserve funding sub repairs 300,000 that's J Bernat uh the ska system that's what we're going to be doing substation relay project is we're in process doing that and our flash so the next the next one is the big one here we sat down with um my electrical engineer consultant engineer and went over these and and really the more we think about it this project is really important and we must complete this project because I mean you got a lot to read and you probably don't understand a lot of it but these relays do protect us out in the field and they protect the switch gear in the substation if a relay goes bad you could blow up half of the substate and of course your millions of dollars to fix it so relays are very important plus we have relays that are burning up now at Kings Road that's why I'm in a rush to try to replace these so with that this project will replace all of our relays at Kings Road and James Park sub these relays will provide more reliability protection for equipment in the sub station and we will we will improve workers safety in in the substation and out in the field and I just want to touch Bas a little bit on uh the annunciator here that's an alarm panel at the substation and we have two of them now but they're pretty old so with the skater system you're going to uh put that rain into the system so that's going to be upgraded number four 345 circuit breaker slash blind differential relay upgrade two different things the circuit breakers just give you a little followup we call them ocbs and there's two of them and they're in Kings Road substation yard and they're big and what they do is you get 34,000 line comes in it goes out down Kings Road and feeds two Transformers at James spk jp2 same thing 34,000 goes in goes out and feeds another two Transformers at James CLK so they're old and they're in great shape but the issue with that is if one fails we can't get parts for him and if that happens we have one line now going to James Park we have a tie up there we could tie one line and Fe all four Transformers but what happens if JC drops that other line now that whole side of town power and we can run this side with one line and two transforms so it's a good idea to uh replace these with the new vacuum breakers they're called and it should be done I mean it's fine I mean I think they were built back in the 50s it's a dinosaur but we maintain our equipment very well and it's it's maintained really good I hate to get rid of it this it works good but if something breaks you're not going to get any parts for it and and now we're out all right all right so we're on on to questions and just just a couple of uh clarifications of the um $300,000 which you uh was for Jim it it it is our building up a reserve for a substation similar to what you talked about either for major upgrades or replacement these are uh you know obviously a key part of our system and u a major Investments that's why we're building up reserves and especially the um list of major things you know the electric Department's going to need our whole grids going to need a a lot of attention in the coming years as uh we shift to electrification and EVs and all electric homes H and buildings and so we are committed to doing that um and in case any people in the audience or watching at home or uh heard these comment about Provident Bank being out the um the major um larger users they actually own their Transformers so we do not we work very closely with them to makeing sure it gets replaced but it would be on them to replace it I many years ago I was talking to Jim earlier we had the Transformer go at the Y um probably 30 years ago and um you know it was on the Y to replace that and it was a tough time as the why ran on a generator for three weeks until the Transformer came in so um these are things that um the major users need to be on top of and we we work closely with them so any other questions or comments not not a question but I do think it's uh I'm impressed by how proactive you are and I think it's prudent especially with a system like this to be that proactive need to be yeah we really thank you it mean so so Tech yeah sorry mayor can I say something yep yep your turn Okay raise my hand that really so technical it's hard for us to even at least for me to understand all of it we're lucky that you guys are there and and you understand it you know like the engineers that you are so you talked a lot about relays which is what's transferring the power from one Transformer or one power line well the relays protection yeah protect all the equipment inside and out on the lines it measure current so if the current fails and it goes down or up that is going to see there's a problem out there and trip out it's like a fuse breaker but some yeah sure so the new ones that you put in I guess the technology must be much oh yeah comp so they'll last forever computer at least mic yeah you read it okay it's actually a computer inside there and it does so much so many options right so the million dooll uh part of your budget for all those upgrades is that something that you want to do over time yeah if you look at it it says years I mean we want to do uh 2024 differential relay upgrade in 24 and um but we're doing the bank breaker relays this year too so he says he to fit this in this is the engineer and then 2025 is another Transformer overcurrent relay upgrade and then he wants to get into the ska system I didn't even touch on it did I was a skate system that's going to be inolved in the system so that SK system will be down at the Water and Light plant and we'll have everything on the on board we through the substation you actually maybe uh do some switching right from there so if you have an emergency or something a pole falls on the car and we can't get to the sub station that trips up now we could go right there so this technology is unbelievable awesome okay thanks Jim any other comments or questions thank you very much Jim very good you we're going to talk a little bit about the finances of the electric utility and the water utility um many of you know that I have this report that I found on my dad's archives from 1944 which talks about the Bureau of Madison transferring utility Surplus um uh for property tax relief we've been doing it since since at least 1944 and we continue to do it today it's it's one of the tremendous benefits of owning electric utility go to the next slide you'll see a residential rate comparison we're one of only two municipal Electric utilities that have actually had rates drop from 2016 to 2023 Sussex rural this year had a 19.5% increase in their utility Atlantic City Electric is the price leader um they've gone up 21% over that time and um a bill in Madison will cost 154 billing for Atlantic City Electric which is a large District it's not a small area it's a very large area in Southern New Jersey um would be $192.7 for that same bill Madison's right in the middle of the pack the municipal Electric utilities next slide please this is our uh portfolio of contracts we've talked about this in executive session because we deal with it on a purchasing and and on um uh from a contract matter standpoint um but we always talk about it publicly every year we are um it this year is going to be the best year in terms of our electric prices but next year and Beyond electric prices are going to be going up we've purchased um all of our electricity for 2024 2025 75% of it is purchased the last um being a block that we purchased back in December 2023 for $37.60 much higher than the $25 blocks that we that we have this year uh it's inflation it's the cost of everything um it's the fact that prices were just exceptionally low um when we bought those prior contracts we're fortunate that in um 2019 and 2020 we bought 50% of our estimated load that's those long brown um blocks um we bought 50% of our load um going all the way out until the end of 2029 so we have a fair amount of our um our electric needs hedged if you will going that far out but we do need to buy one more block of energy um sometime in the next 6 months so we'll be working on that um next slide please so the electric utilities financial performance was was excellent this year but um there are long-term things we have to keep in mind uh as I mentioned the electric costs were very good this year but we're anticipating a $2 million increase um in electric and capacity costs in 2025 the capacity pricing in auction won't occur until June so we'll know more then but indications are that that could be a million dollars more um the electric costs as I showed you before we're going to have another block contract in the $36 range so we could see a $2 million increase there um however fund balance was excellent this year due to um our current year costs for energy and interest income which was significant so um Administration um as we talk through the budget over the next month and a half we'll advocate for a little using some of the extra electric Utility Fund bounds to fully pay for the MRC carport if you remember we floated um a bond ordinance something we don't often do here and we did it as a back stop um for the funding we hope to get funding from the federal government to the direct pay program we will get funding We Believe obviously from the Board of Public Utility for the srex which Tom gets for his solar on his Warehouse um and uh the previous presentations we've shown you that those two funding streams alone will pay for the entire facility if we pay for it with fund balance now those revenues that come in will help soften any future challenges that the electric utility has and the bureau has so it it it it may make sense to do that we'll talk more about that as we unfold the budget over the coming weeks if we go to the next slide throwing a lot of numbers out at you um but this is a a similar schedule that we see every fre year um and as you can see we go back to 2018 um the first line is Cash collections it's basically the billing um the the amount that we've received in Billing you can see we're at um 21,700 um I'm sorry 20 about 21, 681 from the year 2023 go back to 2018 it was 23 million or over 23 million so energy efficiencies and other reasons office Parks not being as energized some of them being complet completely offline um are all driving um the reduction in cash collections um our electric utility dividend continues to operate and function properly with over $1.8 almost $2 million that we've given back um over the course of um the seven years the council has approved and the electric utility has given back 12.2 million in dividends back to the customers um for our excellent performance um line E8 shows uh transmission costs which have increased almost 400% in 6 years we anticipate these costs will continue to increase as we will have to pay a share of the offshore wind transmission lines that are going to be installed when that project comes to fruition they're going to be are it won't be that obvious they're going to be going up about $150,000 a year but every year they're going to be going up for 15 years to ultimately pay for those trans special transmission lines that are going to be out in the ocean and bring the energy um off from the New Jersey Shore into New Jersey's Regional distribution grid um e13 is um electric utility uh Capital we're um recommending that we increase that because as Jim just said we've got a whole lot of projects coming so in the um on the expense side in the budget for 2024 if you look at line e13 that's the amount of money that we put into the Capital account for Jim to um purchase what he needs to and to fix things that he needs to and to buy that Digger Derek truck we're asking for an increase to bump um that number up and um 18 19 and 20 all deal with the fund balance and we had an excellent year um this year in uh fund balance we're ending the year um at a high in fund balance and I think over the coming weeks as we see the municipal budget unfold we'll talk but um it's we're a little bit of the Super Bowl hitting the bottom right now and so we're we're at the very lowest in terms of prices we're at the the very best in terms of fund balance that we expect costs to go up um definitely next year and the year after so having some extra fund balance will give us a cushion so we don't have to immediately um take other actions like cutting cutting the dividend or anything like that I think if we are judicious with with our fund balance um usage this year we and um we can look to uh to to not have to kind of gradually move into the the the next few years and maybe energy costs come down at that point maybe transmission costs aren't as bad as we thought um so uh you know it is a it is a moving market and so uh we will always kind of budget conservatively so we have a a tentative budget here which shows cash collection the divid and miscellaneous Revenue miscellaneous Revenue I need to increase that um I am sure that it's going to be more than $100,000 in interest income um so that'll that'll go up the next time you see it um wor about that one um so uh and then um cancellation of Appropriations is when we don't spend all the funds and so um the big uh Revenue E4 that um miscellaneous Revenue that was the interest income um where we had significant increases in in income we also get electric utility connection fees now so funds like that that we used to not get a few years ago we're now getting so you see in that line so we go to the next slide it's the MRC carport which we expect to go out to bid on this project in the next six weeks I'm going to say six weeks I'm hopeful we're having a meeting tomorrow about that um it's worked out well Tom's been asking for solar for 8 years and now that he's my Lea on to the utilities he gets to he gets to enjoy that so we'll talk more about that funding in the coming weeks um how I talked about using fund balance um the next slide just shows EV charging at a home how um uh how it really changes the load and the consumption the next one shows uh uh someone who is generating electricity the dark the dark bars show when electricity is being given back to the burough from their solar panels and then the high spikes are when they're charging electricity and the next one is very interesting we had a customer who um blew a Transformer we didn't understand why this Transformer blew until we went to their backyard and we saw that they had installed a full ice skating rink with an electric refrigerat electric refrigeration system and it was about 38° and they were trying to make ice for Christmas and we're like but it's 38° but I want to skate on Christmas so um so yeah so he had light Jimmy thought he had lights he had boards it was not as as about a little maybe a little bit smaller in this room right Jim and um it it's impressive but um that's that's as much energy as he can take you can see it just flat lines out and his house was connected to I believe two other homes on the Transformer gym so um somebody turned on a curling iron another half that was just enough for the Transformer to blow so Jim has smartly decided that anytime a Transformer goes that was I believe a 25 KV Transformer bumping it up so that got bumped up to the next larger size Transformer figuring that there's going to be more electrification more charges hopefully not more ice skating ranks so we can host the uh NHL Winter Classic in I think so 25 so we'll go to the next slide that that I just had to say that that was very unique and the next one again Michael so big news um we are going to start the water meter um uh swap out program and exchange program and the installation of the modules um in the probably the second week of February so that's coming every resident's going to get a letter like this that when you get that letter is going to be dependent on when you when we read your meters if we're reading your meter this month we're not going to send the letter to you this month because we want to get in there read the meter then you'll get the letter right right after we read your meter so we've got a two-month window where we can get in there and change it before we have to read your meter again so there's a little bit of a balancing act on where we are and where we're doing that but that's going to be starting in the next few weeks we're excited about that um and one item that Administration may bring Jim Trible's probably watching so I should say we are going to bring to council is that we want to implement a charge for customers that um refuse to allow us to either install an electric meter only about 14 residential customers or refuse to give us access to the meter uh their water meter so we can change their water meter or they won't let us put the module on for whatever reason um it will be just a $10 per month charge per utility um for us to have to go out there and manually read it as opposed to us being able collect it we want to have a little bit of a of a carrot um along with the stick The Stick of swapping out the water meter is that we can identify if you have a leak um before you might even know you have a leak and we won't have to bother you anymore by going into your house to ask to see your water meter or asking you to give us reads um and the the water meter will um will more accurately reflect the proper Bill a new water meter old water meters get a little weird so with that we'll go to the next slide I went too far onl um and this is the water um utility financial performance it also did exceptionally well if you look at line um W7 that's the estimated fund balance generated it was significant we did ratchet back on a certain um amount of numbers um specifically the amount of capital Improvement dollars there was a little bit of a funny bubble happening in the water utility where we had to ratchet back on that now that fund balance is up we're going to um push um W6 Capital Improvement line back up um fund balance um as I said was deteriorating significantly um it was kind of being um funny in the way it was moving around making it a little bit of a challenge for us financially um but that has obviously significantly rebounded and um given the solid financial position of the water utility we're going to be looking either this year or next year potentially use a little bit more of the water utilities fund balance to support Municipal operations that's um always been something of a goal of mine to get a little bit away from the electric utility um next slide is our goals and objectives I'm not going to go into them in any great detail I've talked about most of them already with the exception of pointing out that um want to complete a pilot program to um model the Grid at the Transformer level so we know which customer is connected to which Transformer and we can then identify through our metering system the we the week links in uh in our in our system and hopefully get the volunteer time use rat all right a lot of lot of stuff and some of it will be on the final exam but um okay so any uh questions or comments for Jim I was just um not to Bel labor things and we don't know need don't need to go back to the slide but I I think the slid that shows our power purchases uh shows two two important things one the great job we've done in managing our power purchases the fact that for the next six years we have very favorable uh purchase prices but then the looming challenge as you look at that one little block at $37 you know it doesn't sound too much but you compare it to the 25 that's basically a 50% increase on the Block and so that's what we're facing that's something we got to manage and course we're not the only utility that's going to have to manage that so uh it's it's looming electric rates will go up across the state every electric utility is going to be facing that um we uh other electric utilities the the public Electric utilities buy their energy in threeyear blocks we were fortunate enough to buy out in 2020 we bought out to 2029 we bought out nine year other utilities didn't do that so we will we will benefit for years where they have this threeyear rolling system that's going to hurt them very significantly their rate payers significantly in the short term any other questions or comments Tom microphone they use electricity so we want to we want to run it this is supposed to all right come back over here I remember this all right so on the one sheet gym we talked about this last year about proposed increase the regular residents in the burrow are not going to be getting so that was a slide that we didn't present this evening oh you don't want me to talk about it no I know on on the preview but we decided to swap things up we we we'll we'll talk more about that another day okay Jim no problem but so the water meter project which we've been talking about for like 10 years is going to happen this year like everybody's house everybody lets us in every we want everybody to let us in so don't if you don't let us in most mon a sear charge sure that's fantastic and then you'll be able to probably generate maybe a little more or at least regulate better that's one of the objectives yes so the burough understands there's a lot of benefits there thanks Jim and everybody yeah one of the uh I mentioned Transformers for large uh users so our large water users own their water meters so the YMCA Drew University would own their own water meters they're required to do testing every few years I'm remember that I've been may I forget yeah I've been retired too long I don't remember either so so for the major users we have a system in in place to make sure that they're uh measuring the water they actually use for our smaller users these meters we don't know how far off they are so we will find out all right anything else cover yes Rachel Jim can you talk one of the recommendations from the climate action committee last year was to seek to try to balance our electric purchases to be more renewable in their content um in terms of because the burrow has buys energy for the entire sorry Madison buys energy for all of its customers it's a tremendous lever that we have to try to drive down uh carbon pollution by sourcing for more renewable energy can you talk a little bit about the Exelon chunk that was shown there in green and sure I wish I remembered it specifically all the details back in December but Exelon was it was an excellent contract they're almost 100% non-carbon producing they have a lot of nuclear and and Renewables so um we talked about different strategies but what's happening is all of the providers that we have we have um contracts with companies and when we go out to bid we say what's your price we don't just take it from anybody it's Exon BP all the companies you saw in that chart and they're all moving towards more renewable moving towards decommissioning their carbon so we're very fortunate in that regard um but Exon was both the lowest price and the least carbon producing I believe of all of the co the companies that we currently deal with so sometimes we get a double a double good thing that happens was they were the lowest price higher than higher than what we'd like but we actually anticipating $40 so coming in in the 30s was good and then being the um lowest carbon producing so thanks and then something interesting about our you know the the water revenues being up and yet as a burough I think and certainly this Council has expressed an appetite for more water conservation measures and how can we seek to stem you know wasteful use of water and protect uh our Water Resource because that's one thing that as has been pointed out without water in town we uh we don't have a town so this is not exactly maybe utility um Finance question but how might a water conservation ordinance uh figure in to what we're seeing with the trends with the water Revenue right now so a couple of things water Revenue going up doesn't mean we're we're pumping more water out of the ground um when we replace water meters we think they might be two to or 4% more accurate that an older water meter may miss some of the some of the water that's coming into the house and so that's number one number two we did have a water rate increase that went into effect um two years ago so that is starting to filter through so um so I don't know that we're pumping more gallons I think we're more correctly billing and and that's appropriate because we want people to pay what they're what they're consuming um in terms of uh water any sort of water conservation measures um you know I think we need to be monitoring we have new have a new licensed water operator now that Tom debas has retired and it's fantastic I appreciate everything that Ken did to find this company to come in and do this work because they're giving us a different perspective on how to operate the utility they they work in a number of towns and I think they can give us some good insights on water conservation measures on how different ways we can study how um the change in the aquifer level is incre impacting our wells so I think those are things that we can look at um maybe not this year we're just kind of getting settled with this new person but maybe in the out years we can be looking at that and then determining how we want to do that um but we should always be and we do always encourage residents to conserve thanks Jim any other comments or questions thank you well done and uh Ken thank you very much uh before we go on to wance for hearing I just want to uh quick oversight in all the excitement related to the uh Dodge field playground and uh about the possibility of a major Grant $500,000 Grant to support that playground forgot to mention uh councilwoman Deb Cohen's effort because without her determination and all the work she did lead leading the committee and uh looking at options and uh driving this we wouldn't have been talking about it to begin with so uh a big shout out to uh councilwoman Deb Cohen for all that work and now we'll move on to ordinance for hearing will the clerk please read a statement the ordinance scheduled for hearing was introduced by title and passed on the first reading at the regular meeting of the council held January 8th 2024 was posted and filed according to law and copies were made available in general public request I call it ordinance 1- 2024 for second reading ask the clerk to read by title ordinance 1 2024 ordinance of The Bu of Madison amending chapter 195-201 cbd2 Central business district zones and regulations I open the hearing anyone in the public wishing to comment please step forward seeing none I close the hearing and may or I move uh ordinance 1- 2024 second and in between meetings this was reviewed by the planning board and has been deemed consistent with the master plan any further comments roll call vote please miss erck yes Mr range yes Mr har pis yes Miss Hanahan yes Mr Forte yes I I declare ordinance 1- 2024 adopted and finally passed and ask the clerk to publish notice their newspaper and file the ordinance accordance to the law and now we're on to our second of two invitations for public comment anyone in the public wish to step forward to comment pleas please step forward now seeing none I close this part of the meeting we go on to introduction of ordinances clerk please read the statement the ordinance is scheduled for first reading have a hearing date set for February the 12th 2024 all will be published in the Madison Eagle post on bulletin board made available members of the public requesting copies I call up ordinances for for first reading ask the bur clerk to read send ordance by title ordinance 22024 ordinance of the burrow of Madison appropriating $650,000 from the general Capital Improvement fund for the 2024 cook Avenue parking lot reconstruction project rebid may I move uh that ordinance second coun discussion this we already appropriated uh funding for this project but it's uh the B bids higher and we've done some value engineering but this will uh appropriate what should be enough money to move forward with this project any other comments top so how much is this raising the approximate cost of the whole C we prating 650 more for a total of we have 1.4 but we've also done some value engineering so hoping that the yeah bids will come in love so it's so it's omland who was originally involved in designing it and estimating it they obviously Way Off the Mark yeah right so even so they even have to redesign so that it's amazing they could be that far off but it was just the post pandemic world of uh bidding and uh you know a lot of capital projects yeah we're the bidding calculations did not keep up with the B the real world yeah you're being very nice to there I think that the you know it's a big big Miss I hope they hope they're doing the second part for a little bit less but it's going to be nice but what the one thing that I know that we pulled out and from my perspective I don't know if it's prudent to pull out although I know it costs a lot of money is putting the electricity all the services underground we're bringing them back above ground now and we're just going to get pretty utility poles and some so it it's not going to be 100% above so the the the U feeds to all the lighting in the parking lot will will be buried right um the ma major cost savings are twofold with the uh major Services primarily this is to the buildings that are there by not burying it number one is not the cost of varrying it but you know it'll be designed to State the perimeter so it'll have a a minimal effect on the parking lot the other thing is now we're using pole mounted Transformers or would have been uh Sur uh surface mounted Transformers a little more costly and also taking up uh real estate in the parking lot so there are some advantages of uh going plan but if you if you follow what we've done around the rest of the central business district years ago we buried everything yeah and obviously this is a big benefit especially you have a contast storm but okay if there's a way to somehow you know look at that long term we might have we might have the funding to do that too but I know alin's already got their plan's 99% done okay thanks mayor thanks Ray any other comments or questions roll call vote please miss herlick yes Mr range yes Mr harm pus yes Hanahan yes Mr Forte yes ordance three- 2024 ordinance of the burrow of Madison appropriating $600,000 from the general Capital Improvement fund fund for the 2024 milling and overlay projects mayor move ordinance 3- 2024 second C discussion and this is the annual funding for million overlay Moll call vote Please Mr erlick yes Mr range yes Mr harn pus yes Miss Hanahan yes Mr Forte yes ordinance 4-22 24 ordinance of the burough of Madison appropriating $235,000 from the general Capital Improv movement fund for the 2024 sanitary sewer improve improvements program may I moove ordinance 4- 2024 second Town discussion roll call vote please M earlick yes Mr range yes Mr harn pus yes M Hanahan yes Mr Forte yes ordinance 5- 2024 ordinance of the burrow of Madison appropriating $390,000 from the water Capital Improvement fund for portable water well improvements projects mayor I move ordinance 5- 2024 second C discussion just to confirm again the all these ordinances up through uh seven are making the Appropriations based on the uh uh capital budget and also for those that may be planning or watching from home planning to come to the hearings as we typically do for these ordinances they will be grouped by funding source so the uh General uh Capital would be grouped into one hearing and so on roll call vote Please Mr earing yes Mr range yes Mr harm pis yes M Hanahan yes Mr Forte yes ordinance 6-22 24 ordinance of the Bureau of Madison appropriating $100,000 from the general Capital Improvement fund for additional security equipment mayor I move ordinance 62024 second CC discussion roll call vote please M erck yes Mr range yes Mr harm pudus yes Hanahan yes Mr 14 yes ordinance 72024 ordinance of the buau of Madison appropriating $250,000 from the municipal open space Recreation and historic preservation trust fund for the Memorial Park Trail improvements phase three mayor I move ordinance 72024 second Council discussion and then Tom you had to hand I I just wanted to highlight that this uh is money that the burough is laying out initially and then some significant portion I think uh $169,000 will be recouped through a grant from the Morris County Trails uh commission or funding source so um that's a great benefit we're getting from the county thank you have comments uh there's nobody here to even hear I was just going to comment that my family actually just recently noticed that there's a really nice Trail back so what makes me feel good that there is more people in the community using it including my wife it's great and it was a very nice Improvement to our our outdoor your Wellness campaign here get people to walk more on the trails and um I just got a word that without Monday Night Football our ratings are way up so there are a lot of people at home that are watching so they they heard the comments but I have also received a lot of very positive feedback at about the uh great new trails at Memorial Park so thanks for bringing that up sure any F further comments he we call vote please miss erck yes Mr range yes Mr haral udus yes Miss Hanahan yes Mr Forte yes ordinance 8- 2024 ordinance amending chapter 18 of the burough code of the buau of Madison entitled fire department establishing promotional procedures for a review of the ranking of candidates for the position of Fire Chief and Captain mayor I move ordinance 82024 second Council discussion so just uh a little clarification on on this one um this establishes um procedures similar to what we have in the police department um for our top kind of tier of leadership in the fire department um fire chief and Captain will be looking at adding a second captain um to the fire department in support of their uh responsibilities with EMS so this will kind of set us up to start that process and then future captains and Chiefs in the future thank you any other comments I'll just add that uh to clarify this would be um as we seek to fill the role that Eric described we would be promoting from within the department um keeping the current Staffing level that we have thank you any other F further comments roll call vote please mli yes Mr range yes Mr har pus yes M Hanahan yes Mr Forte yes okay move on to consent agenda resolutions will the clerk please read the statement consent agenda resolutions will be enacted with a single motion any resolution requiring expenditure is supported by a certification of availability of funds any resolution requiring discussion will be removed from the consent agenda all resolutions will be reflected in full in the minutes mayor I move the consent agenda of resolutions 51-22 24 through resolution 59-22 24 second any discussion or any that need to be pulled roll call vote please M erck yes Mr range yes Mr har and pudus yes M Hanahan yes Mr Forte yes there is no unfinished business we move on to approval of vouchers where the clerk please read the stable read the vou from the current fund 4,675 n9743y electric operating fund $1 17,41 1848 from the water operating fund $ 38,46 183 from the water Capital fund $882,000 even and from the trust $125,000 75332 the total is 5,344 n696 Mayor I move approval of vouchers second discussion roll call vote M earlick yes Mr rain yes Mr har pis yes Sahan yes Mr Forte yes and new business like to make the following appointments first uh to announce the appointment of Patricia Coyle Stafford Drive to four-year term to the planning board through December 31st 2027 that does not require Council confirmation and also like to make the following appointments requesting Council confirmation for the Board of Education LS on appointments one-year term through December 31st complete streets stav Duran DDC Steve Tindle emergency prep Sarah fiser uh Recreation advisory Eric Fontes and sustainable Madison David Duran and to the open space Recreation historic pres historic preservation committee uh Corin Bowen for the environmental commission representative one-ear term through December 31st and for the Madison Alliance addressing substance abuse Amy Lewis Health educator of the Westfield Regional Health Department which is providing Health Services for burough of Madison as uh the uh and their Masa coordinator may I move the forging appointments second any discussion all in favor I oppos thank you very much John motion to adour all in favor