e e e e e e let the record reflect we have reconvened with all members present we do have uh councilwoman Rachel erck is absolutely excused as she travels back from the path of total totality of the eclipse and uh councilman bob L is recovering from KN KNE surgery so we wish him the best on his recovery I ask for those are able to please rise to the Pledge of Allegiance and please remain standing after the pledge flag United States America stands one nation God indivisible and justice for all please remain standing as we take a moment to remember uh long time Madison res lost over the last few weeks Jesse kakaro lifelong Madison resident passed away on March 28th at the age of 100.5 as pointed out she died peacefully at her home with her daughter at her side she survived by her daughter Barbara Floren Park six nieces and nephews and numerous great nieces and nephews she was predeceased by her husband of 72 years her husband Francis she was born on July 13th 1923 to F and St bie and was a Madison resident for her entire life raised on Central Avenue with her brother Michael and resided at two other homes in central with her family throughout her life graduated St Vincent martyr school and Madison High School and after graduating high school during the high World War II she worked at CA pharmaceutical company in Summit and her brother Mike formed a friendship with schoolmate Francis who introduced him to his sister and Jesse and Francis were married in January 1948 and welcomed her daughter to the family and around 1963 she began a new career as Secretary of missions office at fry Dickson and she worked there for 15 years before retired in 1980 lifelong parishioner of St Vincent attending daily masses until she could no longer Drive herself she um expressed her love and admiration for family and friends for her cooking and baking she never let anyone to visit her home go unfed holidays were always most memorable with her cooking and warm Hospitality so let us take a moment to remember Jessica Caro and let us pass our thoughts on to her family and friends that she leaves behind thank you very much right we have no minutes for approval wait got the wrong glasses on hold on a second much better always got to be prepared um anyway here we are after a weekend of being sandwich between quake and eclipse and on the former I want to thank all the burough employees who quickly inspected substations pump stations buildings and other infrastructure ensure that all was well which it was and for the eclipse the clouds cooperated for the most part and given us quite a show through our glasses and the only thing missing uh between these events was a winning Power Ball ticket being sold in Madison but uh can't have everything EX Jes on March 28th I presented a Maran gerward a proclamation in honor of her 105th birthday she was born in sicy in 1919 is now a resident of Sunrise and uh she was uh all dressed in her favorite color blue and as I was about to leave she wanted to make sure that she got to keep a proclamation which she I think has hanging proudly in her room and then uh on Saturday the 30th the Madison chamber of Congress held the rescheduled Easter Fest which after the uh delou of rain on the original schedule March 23rd and to reinforce the importance of these events for our downtown was uh I was with the chamber members as they were calling the winners of the uh fine Shelly and jelly bean contest and all but one of the winners families were still in Downtown Madison so pulls them into town and you know they were in the hour waiting to see if they wanted they were shopping so it's just another great example of what what makes your town so great and the employee for the month of April is Bob Duffy executive assistant to Public Works director while the director is on extended sickly Bob kept the department running smoothly this included managing staff including during the snowstorm attending various meetings dressing daily resident concerns as the arose and now I'm going to come down below for two items MO can I have come up here please and family and part of the family that not yours I want to recognize Rob's father mother mayor Jack d f Roberta thank you for joining us tonight it's a very special night you want to have Bible your right hand after me I st your name I done Solly swear Solly swear that I will Faithfully that I will Faithfully impartially impartially and justly perform and justly performed all the duties of all the duties of fire captain fire captain according to best my ability according to the best of my ability I further Solly swear I further solemnly swear I support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States Constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and I will bear true faith and Allegiance and I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same to the same and to the governments and to the governments establish the United States established in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people to help me God to help me [Applause] [Music] God am [Music] and I think we have girls basketball team out in the hallway come on in right on up here and what obviously we'd like to celebrate our great successes in Madison so tonight we have a a great one to recognize a great time of years we're uh in April winding up March Madness after a great final yesterday and um Madison you you did us proud but undefeated in the conference 10 and 10 and0 five of the 13 players on the roster were recognized as all conference players for the second time in 3 years the team won the group two sexual final they defeated to caucus and got to have a police escort coming back into M and then for the first time in programs history the team Advanced the group two state finals at rord University unfortunately ran into a very strong mquan uh team and lost in a hard f final so congratulations for making M so proud and having a great run so we have a certificate of recognition coach Lisa let you say a few after done Mark coach Jess trainer Mike and now we get to the real crew Bo bman thank congratulations and let me just before I present this next one read this off uh this is being presented to each of the uh members of the team as a member of the M High School girls varsity basketball team for winning me njsi aa North 2 group 2 championship and the njac Liberty conference champ chionship Catherine finan Ashley dris not here Gabby Marano Mar Char gav Johnson Mallie Kate GI upperman not here Samantha nson not here still watching Eclipse SI Naro here cam fishes not here Cecilia Stewart there we go thank you very much than congratulations thank um I'm have our team we just also like to thank the the town mass for really supporting us so much through the Run um I can't explain how wonderful it felt to be down Rec look out into the stands and see that many members of mass and supporting us um whether was that when we uh the championship for the state SE caucus when we went to Bloomfield to win the north Championship um there was such a crowd in those away games that came to support us and it means so much to us to you know have the town behind us through that run um I encourage everyone to support us during the regular season as well uh this is a fantastic basketball season um we graduate some wonderful seniors two which are standing right here um but a lot of these girls are returning next year and we're looking to make the same strong run and we would love for you guys to come out supporters just the same it meant so much uh to us to have the town behind us especially um the young girls that came out to watch us play and young boys as well like us having Youth player supporters but the whole Community it really meant a lot to us so we thank you very much and appreciate your support thank you congratulations thank you best of luck say thank you for so [Applause] proud we'll uh start the reports in just a second thank you all for coming out to support Captain Rob also want to welcome we've got some students from the uh Drew University journalism class so welcome thanks for joining us today and we now move on to reports from committees Public Safety Council president range thank you mayor from the police department tonight the speed limit signage on Kings Road has officially been changed last week from 35 mph to 25 mes an hour after the council adjusted the speed limit last winter additionally one digital radar sign was also installed this past week to assist with speed enforcement during the next several weeks residents will see Heavy speed enforcement in the area of Kings Road where officers will be educating motorists on the new speed speed limit change please slow down and adhere to the new 25 mph speed limit on March 26th Chief missa met with members of Madison High School staff to discuss intern program intern programs for students who have an interest in law enforcement Chief Misha hopes to have one or two uh Madison High School students inter with the police department this upcoming school year and on March 27th Chief Misha and Captain Longo attended a community connections meeting with members of other County Police agencies and members of the prosecutor's office the topic was the new arrive program and how it is uh has been an immediate assistance to our officers in Madison and those uh who are in need we continue to keep uh we'll continue to keep everyone a breast of this program as we move forward and from the fire department tonight so far uh this month uh no I'm sorry in March we uh responded to 23 General alarms 12 still alarms 32 investigations and 90 medical calls for a total of 157 calls happy to report tonight that the fire department's full-time EMS program is officially kicking off the fire department passed State requirements in both documentation and the field inspection and should be issued the New Jersey State Department of Health EMS provider uh license number tomorrow the fire department has also officially started their perdm EMTs who are an important Staffing component to supplement our full-time firefighter EMTs and members of the Madison volunteer Ang Squad the uh first shift for the PM was this past Saturday night and in fact they are Staffing an ambulance right now well they were just in this room now they're Staffing an ambulence right now um so that means that we now have a dedicated local ambulance scheduled Around the Clock in Madison 24 hours a day 365 days a year and that's the fruition of nearly a year of planning and coordination between the Madison fire department uh the burough Administration and the Madison volunteer Ambulance Corp it has been a high priority to get this job done and the uh Chief quickman would like to thank all the mutual Aid Partners as we've made this transition the support of the Madison volunteer H Squad Pro Administration police and OEM leadership has also been greatly appreciated a special thank you to the firefighters and chief Martin of the cire department for providing guidance and best practices also a big thank you to Jeff from the Morris County Office of Emergency Management uh Jeff and his staff have been have done a great job helping provide EMS coverage throughout the buau over the last few years the help of these two agencies cannot be overstated uh and on a personal note I'd like to extend my personal congratulations Chief Wickman uh who took on this project shortly after he became Chief uh and made it his own without his leadership we wouldn't be here today um and this has been a huge undertaking for him so really appreciate all the work he's put into this on April 1st uh at uh 5:14 the Milburn fire department requested the fire department uh to 150 JFK Parkway uh for a reported fire in a large office building Madison's rapid intervention team responded to assist in a fire in An Elevator Shaft was found m firefighters assisted with removing smoke from the building um and as the mayor noted after the earthquake earthquake on Friday the fire department uh did Target inspections on buildings deemed more susceptible to damage from earthquakes uh but found no damage uh through this point that's all from Public Safety but I do have an update from Finance as well uh so from the finance department uh this Friday the burrow is paying 75,6 to.5 in bond proceeds this represents the interest portion of the burrow debt that covered the construction of the public safety building renovations to heartley dodge and the purchase of a fire truck the second annual payment for this bond is on October 15th of this year uh that amount is 1,645 36250 which covers the principal and interest payments these Bonds were originally interest uh issued in 2008 and then refinanced in 2014 we have another four years of payments and then this Bond will be completely paid off as of 2028 second tonight uh special thanks to the finance department tax department and Personnel department for their work in completing the userfriendly budget document this is statutorily required document that must be filed with the uh official state budget it is also available on the annual budget process page on roset and finally tonight as a reminder uh our next council meeting on April 22nd the council will hold our hearing for the municipal budget the official state budget document is available for public viewing on roset and hard copies are available in the clerk's office and at the library that's all tonight thank you mayor there we go that was unless come me getting older sad okay so thanks mayor council welcome Community uh from the electric utility the electric department has been working on pole transfers at 28 Walnut Street for upgrading to the new development this is the new affordable housing project on the 25th the electric utility crew responded to flickering light calls at 25 Delwood Road uh Crews have been working on tool repairs and maintenance on their equipment Crews have been removing large branches off Main lines due to storm conditions we've had uh pretty stormy last two months so Kudos tell the work they have to do the department continues are routine street light repairs markouts service hookups disconnects and daily substation inspections now the line clearance inspections has started for this year's tree line clearance for any encroachments of on of trees and branches on poles and lines and on Friday the 5th the cruise assisted the contractor at 14 linoln place the new development with wiring and relocating of the buroughs lamposts from the water tot uh normal maintenance and operations continue throughout town no interruptions in service generators at the wall stations have been tested and running under load and efficiency meter replacement and new installation continues for the contractors National metering Services more to come on that uh wellb has uh finally started the metering pit installation so we're making progress there tie to our water system has been completed on Community Place and wner Street for the new housing development project and a new hydrant has also been installed on Community Place uh mayor can I give a two-minute update on my Recreation activity committee meeting yep yeah okay so we had a recreation activity committee meeting two weeks ago I'm happy to report that all of the sports are being managed very well by the volunteers who who are the president of each Club this year we will have uh we have a parade coming up on Saturday the little leag parade will'll be going uh Kings Road to Main Street to Dodge yep the mayor is going to be participating I don't know if you thrown out the first pitch but I know you're a baseball player back in the day uh was previous Life we'll have to test you on that's at 11:15 so it's always a nice event watching all these uh ball players boys and girls Mar down the middle of town this year we will have in the spring uh boys little leag girls softball boys and girls across spring soccer and Spring Track uh approximately 1,200 uh young athletes in town participating in their spring Sports and the burrow does a great job supporting them and they love being part of their Madison teams that's all thanks thank you very much and and the Community Affairs Miss Hanahan thank you mayor um from the Downtown Development commissioner commission uh the Downtown Development commission's next regular meeting will be held on Thursday April 18th at 7:15 on the second floor of heartley Dodge um the Madison farm and Artisan Market will be held on Saturdays from May 25th through December 14th in the Prospect Street parking lot from 10: till 3: musicians have been booked to play every week and local nonprofit organizations have been invited to participate the Downtown Development commission is also hosting the green and clean which used to be called Mayday it will incorporate a townwide beautification day on Saturday April 27th from 9: to 2: and will be kicked off with the annual Arbor Day celebration you can look for more information on sponsorship donation and volunteering on rosenut from the Chamber of Commerce uh ladies night is scheduled for Thursday May 99th and the fire extinguisher inspections will take place on Tuesday June 4th from 11:30 to 3:30 Madison Community Art Center The Rose the rosum gallery has a new show up and running entitled under the Open Sky it features 74 works by 26 members of the New Jersey plane Air painters Gallery hours vary and you can find the hours on the Art Center website the summit Film Society will'll be showing IND Indigo Girls It's Only Life After All on Saturday April 13th this weekend you can get tickets on the Film Society of summit website the Arts Center is also pleased to announce the rose Pavilion outdoor summer concert series which will begin on the 28th and have multiple bands throughout the summer um I have two other small announcements one is uh just a notice that the Madison rotary Club is sponsoring its first repair Cafe on June 15th from 2 11: to 3: at the ambulance core and volunteers will work with people from the community to fix items they don't want to discard keeping things out of the landfill so volunteers are um being sought as well as people to bring their old things that need to be fixed and uh open space met and elected Brian Monahan as chair for this year excellent very much and health and uh Public Works and Engineering thank you mayor I'm going to start with public works and Engineering uh from public works and Engineering with all the heavy rains last week the store Department was quite busy uh it was fortuitous that a few years ago the burough undertook a large uh Capital Improvement at the North Street sewer pump station and one of those items was larger pumps that uh had more flow which was good uh so with last week's heavy rain we saw little or no problem the department is working on milling and Paving of the streets and will be upgrading the storm inlets to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Environmental Protection requirements all downtown benches are out and Madison is starting to bloom the Department's working uh on the plantings of trees around town this will occur in the coming weeks if anyone in town would like a tree please contact Public Works to be put on the list Public Works uh has also hooked up the charging station for the new Electric Lawnmower and if anyone wants to see that uh you'll see it in action as the Grass Grows um okay so uh current projects from the engineering department the well with regard to the wellbe facility improvements contract with vnl LLC construction is progressing it's on schedule for May restart to meet summer demand other improvements to the building will be completed in the summer M McDonald and jam Architects are reviewing submittals and progress payments with regard to the utility building roof contract with Joseph DH company construction commenced March 22nd with good progress Helena ran Architects will be reviewing submitt and progress payments with regard to the MRC multi-purpose courts otherwise known as the pickle ball courts um work has been completed and erosion along the path has been addressed by the burough DPW with regard to Memorial Park trails Phase 1 Project it's completed uh with reimbursement from the county to be submitted submitted a Grant application for phase 3 has been submitted and approved by Mars County and scheduled scheduling to be coordinated with hazardous tree removal around that uh with regard to the library there's an interior contract with dascal LLC um and the library staff has relocated to a temporary trailer work is progressing well with approximately 85% complete now uh with regard to the Museum of Early Trades and crafts um there is a uh the conr construction started on nove in November of 2022 with historic building Architects reviewing submittals and invoicing and the project is nearing completion there's some upcoming projects Mill and overlay for 2024 uh that's uh roads to be done are oldwood Long View and Valley Road with construction in the summer preliminary work will include Curry construction where necessary in replacement of older non-compliant catch basing grates and head pie pieces is required the cook Avenue parking lot uh plans have been revised to reduce the scope and cost uh and there have been some bids received uh and that there'll be some updates on that relatively soon the Dodge field playground uh Grant application has been submitted to Green Acres Program the grant would cover 75% of construction costs we're waiting on an announcement from the county uh constructions now scheduled to commence in early July and it should be approximately a 3-month construction time with regard to the MRC solar carport uh plans and specifications have been completed by Consultants uh no bids were submitted on on March 28th project plans and specifications will be reviewed to see if there are any changes which could make for rebidding and to get contractors to submit the bids from the health department the Madison Health Department in conjunction with the Mars Regional Health Partnership and the College of New Jersey is excited to announce the launch of a community health assessment survey the survey is a crucial component of a larger effort to gather data from various sources compiling them into a comprehensive document to provide insights into the health status of Madison's residents information collected will be utilized by the Board of Health to guide their planning initiatives effectively your participation is essential as the more responses we receive the better we can tailor our efforts to meet the needs of our community we encourage all residents to take a few moments to complete the survey your input helps shape the future of our health initiatives in our area should you have any questions or need assistance with the survey please don't hesitate to contact the health department at Health rosenet.org thank you mayor thank you and we move on to Communications and petitions none received mayor all right next item on the agenda is our first of two invitations for public comment this one is limited to the items on our agenda discussion and resolutions that are part of consent if you want to comment on any other topic that'll happen later in the meeting so these the items you can comment on uh we will have a presentation on a proposed uh native plant ordinance and then we have our two 2023 annual Arbus report and these are the resolutions you may comment on these will also be part of the consent agenda later in the meeting resolution 121 is awarding uh contract to square acre Studio of Madison for pressional Park planning Services resolution 122 is approving special permit to allow use of Memorial Park parking lot by the Thursday morning Club this is on April 18th res resolution 123 authorizing a special event permit for uh parking lot number one by Rotary Club of Madison for Public Training event that is uh the prospect parking lot resolution 124 is approving renewal of uh liy uh Livery license to uh M Madison limousine service for 2024 resolution 125 is awarding contract cook Avenue parking lot reconstruction the amount of $991,000 and uh 1323 and 224 so it'll be it is finally becoming reality and then resolution 126 is terminating contract with national metering services for water meter replacement so you may comment on those resolutions or the two agenda items if you wish to comment on any of those please step forward as you do state your name and address put the same on the clipboard and try to keep your comments in 3 minutes but we give you a one minute grace seeing none I close this part of the meeting and we now move on to our agenda discussions Claire and Bridget welcome hi um I'm CLA whitcom I'm chair of the environmental commission Bridget Daly is wearing her lucky um oak oak tree species shirt and uh Happy Birthday Bob thank you I'm sure this is exactly what you wanted for your birthday um so we're happy to supply it um Bridget is the driving force behind this ordinance and if you have questions she's going to have to answer them um this native plant ordinance is a message of Hope and if you guys all know Doug talami he um came to the burough via zoom and gave a talk to burough employees to kind of explain how ecosystems work and his message of Hope which is really that if all of us do a little bit in our yards we can reclaim a lot of habitat that's being lost to to development to um chemical usage and um you know we we look out and we see New Jersey being reshaped every day and this is um a screenshot of the noon the zoom which is on uh the B 's uh YouTube channel it's had 880 views um so it's it's made quite an impact and it one of talmy's points is that nature is full of specialized um interactions between plants that have grown here and the animals who live here and that plants from uh France or China or whatever can't replicate those those interactions and blue jays rely on uh acorns so and blue jays can fly a lot farther than squirrels so oak trees benefit from Blue Jays because they can Wing further um so this ordinance is only applies to burrow property not private property and it only applies to Future plantings nothing needs to be taken out and it has um exemptions for things people love like rose bushes or Rose C sizzy the seasonal displays on Waverly place the hanging baskets and Veterans memorials um talmy's point is that nature can't be relegated to parks and we've all seen that um you know our highest Aqua for recharge areas are all forested parks um the duwar summerh Hill Park and the MRC and um we see Madison facing development pressures the Drew Forest I hope is going to get saved but it's um in the course of the noon Zoom we asked Doug taly if he would make a statement about the the importance of saving the Drew farest so this is what he said and um he pointed out that um uh globally we're facing a bird apocalypse and the reason for the bird apocalypse is insects are declining and it's it's a food web that's interconnect and in Madison we can see this by the increas in impervious coverage 400 Acres from 2001 to 2016 thanks toisa Jordan's class who compiled all that um and the same time Peri period we lost 276 Acres of trees which is a third the size of lanica Brook reservation so it's really easy to take action by planting native plants you know they're beautiful if you tried to buy from the Great Swamp uh Native Plant Sale it sold out by like maybe 300 p.m. um last year they sold 27,000 uh plants um native plants have the advantage of being um appropriate to our environment they're easy to care for once they get uh established they require uh less watering and they um birds bees and butterflies and Moss depend on them um it was super inspiring to go to this looks like there's a bear over that guys this um sha L turret that had head of the commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection and Mikey Cheryl introduced um her Federal native plant bill at the Great Swamp Ed outdoor education center and it would it's bipartisan Democrats Republicans and it would require native plants on federal property so the the bill that the ordinance were proposing is is a similar idea where we would take responsibility for our town and our habitat and um I this may be like the next plastic bag initiative because it's kind of catching on um menum and Monclair passed ordinances quite recently and the cadams are uh planning theirs and among the things that native plants do that hostas IV and pandra don't um they they're host plants that support um the the caterpillars butterflies and Moss lay their eggs and on species that um they're caterpillars can chew so hostas don't work um Yos have zero support zero um species and the oak tree which is Doug Tal's favorite example has 534 species of caterpillars it supports honey bees I didn't know this for a long time and Melissa your mother taught me about like chewing the caterpillars needing to chew leaves I was on the environmental commission I didn't know that either um honey bees are I didn't are imported from Europe you know Winnie the Pooh is British um and Native bees depend on our our specific plants for for their um uh neor and pollen Gathering um the the milked is the poster child for um post plan interaction moners can only lay their eggs on on Mo um milked the butterfly bush um is a really attractive plant that I personally bought and then had to take out because it it it seated itself everywhere but it it is basically we're coming to realize junk food so so it's an imported plant that that distracts pollinators from the the plants where they need to lay their eggs so a lot of this information is just coming out um and one thing about caterpillars is you can't you when a bird tries to feed it's young it has to stuff something down their throat and it needs something soft and Squishy and and protein packed it's it's really kind of like instant food and baby birds don't eat seeds and they need a lot of caterpillars uh uh a a single pair of breeding chickes must find six to 9,000 caterpillars to rear their young and I see chickies in my yard I've never seen 9,000 caterpillars so I'm not exactly sure how this works um so why Go pass a native plant ordinance we have a Parks project coming up uh it's just kind of like good protocol for the town I mean we're um and and for the department heads um I know there's new plantings coming up at the police department and Gan inquired about whether they were Native it's inspiration for homeowners and um it sets us up as a leader among M municipalities and if this snowballs there could be action in Trenton um so this is a really good Doug tal me quote butterflies used to reproduce on native plants that grew in our yards before the plants were bulldozed and replaced with wands to have butterflies in our future we need to replace those lost host plants no ifs ANS or butts if we do not butterfly populations will continue to decline with every new house that is built so I give a plug for um the cleaning green green Fair which features an EV Expo that Peter is organizing and uh native plant sale that the MC is organizing thank you thank you Claire so um take any questions but to Quick sum up this is uh again for burough properties and allows the burrow to set the example for uh our residents to follow on their own properties but they the residents will not be affected directly by this ordinance other any questions or comments just a question is this part of a sustainable Jersey um you know our application in any way or is it like a plus for that I I everything's a plus for that yeah U I figure um but I don't specifically know inaction that it's tying into yeah so the next steps would be we we'll draft the ordinance and would be introduced and uh move forward Tom I have a comment Claire and maybe the burrow can just think about if we can Implement something like this one of your uh statements here from Doug Talam me is about new construction and replacing when we bulldo and without without lawn but people are going to plant Lawns too so they not going to get away with that in new homes okay but I think maybe there could be some information that the Construction office can give to some of these home builders and developers saying here's something to consider and the reasons why it could be like this three or four pages or five pages cuz a lot of them are looking at what's bringing in homeowners to attract into the house not necessarily appealing to what you're trying to complish with us here you know and you're talking about a different breed of people who are developers more or less so maybe that's something that could help us with some of the new construction whether it's the multi family when we redevelop now the new um what's the place called on Main Street uh next to Staples uh Madison Mall apartment Madison mall is going to have a lot of planting area I assume I don't know what guidance they're going to get from anybody maybe they're just going to make it look pretty with like you said hostas and the some dogwoods whatever dogwood trees so something to think about no that's a very good idea the um one of the um things the environmental commission does is review site plans so we did review the Madison mall but it was some time ago and like things have have changed and um Bridget on the committee then bridg it was there but they don't OB is all we do is recommend sure there's no teeth so shade tree looks at all the the tree species and ask for Natives and we look at um like we review the plantings that are on the Starbucks um property in the front of the Stables mall they took some of our recommendations some not um I think what we have to do is build up a culture where people can see that native plants are beautiful and if they see them on our property and they see it starting to be integrated into uh beautiful settings I didn't I didn't explain but that I showed a picture of um a really modern building with plants that was a Brooklyn Museum um you know the these yeah B Bridge oh no they yeah that's up but that there um so we have we have like a beautiful plants like um pack of views and we're going to do an Eco Garden Tour in the fall and um I Carol Huber has designed like a knockout planting at CVS in Mars town like these things are starting to come into our our lexicon Carol Huber is a landcape designer based in Mars town so it's happening so um Tom I'd like to talk to you about any ideas you have about how to how to bring this before any true yeah I mean I I feel like site plans are designed by the time they get to the burrow so you know I I don't know it's kind of we as you said that the bur again will be be able to lead by example so when we redo a park and with natives we can tell people that are looking to redo their home go go take a walk around this park and see how it looks with with the native plants also any applications that go to the planning board go through the uh George limbach filter which uh he is very good about uh analyzing the uh landscape plan and that's where you can put teeth because they're looking for approvals and the approvals will often be uh include uh Native PL plannings now do they actually have a list that you present to the homeowner when they're redoing the whole front of their home as as Claire pointed out often it's the plan has been done when they submit it and so it gets modified as it goes through the hearing process but that's only one you know if it's a project that doesn't need the zoning or planning board approval yeah it's it's not going to get that review so creating an education program would go a long ways we um we drafted a there's a preliminary environmental checklist for the kind of plans that that bu was talking about to go to the zoning and planning boards we drafted a similar checklist simplified for home owners but um with Bob fogle's absence it's kind of the engineering department is a little snowed under but if anyone wanted to partner with us on on that idea we have a draft um and and again these are voluntary things but it sort of States like is your house solar ready it just States things that that could could could be best practices and none of them are required thank you thank you CLA CLA okay ordinance will be forthcoming and now we'll go to our 2023 annual arbest report Rich Jean Jean C here from the sh Tre board um rich wtz is our arborist uh he's going to be presenting the report to tonight uh it's our annual report of what happened in 2023 uh Rich has been an arborist for over 40 years um currently he's been with Madison for about four years uh and he supports multiple towns in both uh Mars County and in Essex County uh he Al also is the executive uh director of the New Jersey CH shade tree Federation so with that rich thank you Jean thank you everybody for having having me you know after thinking through the week that we've had we actually not even quite a week you know talking about ners flooding Windstorm out of power earthquakes after Quakes eclipses Eclipse one it's almost Bland to talk about trees so relax it's going to be a nice presentation no heavy Doom here today but actually what we have here is a state of the union state state of the union state of the trees what's going on Madison and it's typical of what everything else happening in the state of New Jersey you know trees have issues you know they are victims of um damage caused by insects by storms weather extremes and diseases these are a nemesis of trees and again as invasive insects come in it wrecks h this is what happened with the asht tree problem that we're having it's all it's a Asian Beetle emerald ashb and it came in snuck in and it's wrecked millions of dollars worth of damage but in most case healthy trees have a better survival rate and that's the key what we're trying to do with the commission with the STA is to keep it healthy back in uh two years ago or almost two years ago when the town ordinance is modified to uh go for a replacement Factor based on trees the replacement number are based on the size of the diameter of the trees being removed it had a positive influence in what we see what's happened last year last year in private trees the uh 337 trees were removed uh those were done with the permit in 2023 there we go uh planting obligation total 230 trees with an additional recommended 164 trees be planted that's th almost like starts breaking it even maybe a tad above but the most common classifications why trees are being removed is that because they're dead in poor condition or structurally impaired either from storm damage or old age or infrastructure problems if you break this down a little bit more you have um out of last out of last year the EAB is the emerald Dash border effect you have 66 trees being removed poor and declining 68 next were dead trees construction issues cavities and Decay other issues storm damage infrastructure so you see there's a whole Litany of things going against the trees but there's hope there is hope if you break that down into uh genus categories this is always everybody always wants to know what's going on I said ash trees were a big hit but this is by genius so you have Maples top over at over 80 trees being removed that includes the red Maples the silver Maples Norma Maples and um I think that's all we have in this town those those are the top three so that coupled together you know again environmental factors three years ago we had a drought specifically Maples red silver Sil and Norway shallow rooted trees they lost that water source and it might take a couple years before it this to Common this is what we see happening if you um so Maples and Ashes followed by The Oaks cherries and hemlocks these were the big hits of species that we lost in town if you look over the past couple of years with the graph of how many trees were removed we see that the uh the answer please there we go flip it around the 21 and 22 number of uh private tree removals held the same they bumped up a little bit in 2023 and that we see more so is the influence of the emerald ashb and a bump up from the the ash trees being removed in terms of public trees and you might remember this that his that's the historic Tuttle Oak that you'll see again in a few minutes that's generation 2 which is commendable to see so that you had the foresight of taking care of that tree and taking the acorns and seeding it and get going so with public trees breaking down I've noticed a lot of interest in town by people call me can you look at my tree can you do this what do you think it's going went out there and you know 8% of the people wanted to talk about their trees not too long so dream didn't spend all my time there talking to everybody um a lot of them not much work was needed or no work was needed and a lot was pruning and removals unfortunately again the town suffered with the loss of the public trees just like some of the private Industries private trees in terms of storm damage ash trees and issues like that and this is the biggest problem we see in the Parks going on we also had another situation coming up that we've noticed with construction everyone thinks oh you put a padding around a tree trunk and a tree's is going to be fine well that doesn't do enough that's like putting a Band-Aid on a on a or something where you need a tourniquet on to stop the bleed uh protection around a trunk is just a few sand to shy of a full picnic it doesn't quite do enough you need to incorporate a bigger fence a bigger Tree Line like a picture over here where they protected the tree for access to it but you also have to remember the tree itself what's underneath the ground and I've been so many construction sites where well there's the tree and there's the fence around it I'll park my dumpster there I'll put my dump truck over there I'll put my tools over here and you're compacting the soil yeah you're not going to see it immediately but you're going to have an issue in a year or two's time it's going to catch up to you so in terms of construction activities 46 trees had to be removed last year these are major construction not the little addition to a house um that required 83e replacements that's a good move we're getting there but the really neat thing is they have one contractor who actually was digging up the quality trees in his one site moving them over fixing the house or rebuilding it and then he's going to plant them right back windwind you can't get any better than that so the word is getting out people are going bonkers about that because they're they're realizing it's it stays in house here so where do we go from here well I I think we need to work on a better tree protection system especially during uh construction which is what I alluded to before um maybe incorporate a method to help trees healthy help keep the trees healthy I like the Zone pruning approach which basically incorporates taking a section of town and trimming everything maybe trimming everything on the streets that are going to be paved this year they don't get damaged by the milling machine more efficient more cost effective and we've done this in other towns we don't have limbs falling down and have to call out a crew on emergency overtime so there's a benefit to that in of course of five or six years you could to have gone through the entire town systematically and get a lot of good stuff done uh I think we need to follow up on new tree plantings elevating the low limbs we're doing an awful lot of effort in planting and it's looking good and starting to look good but now it's time to go through with snippers and start clipping them up and elevating the trees so nothing happens and the biggest thing keep planting that whole adage when's the best time to plant the tree 20 years ago that's what happens here so we got to keep doing it and keep it up so questions and I said ash trees it's almost like the bane of our resistance now but this is like the biggest ash tree in this in Madison I think maybe even in the state and it's still alive it's being treated so there's hope and there's hope for a lot of trees in town we just keep it up I I could go into that if you want to but I don't want to put anyone to sleep so thank you just just just one question I noticed um you know we had both beautiful uh presentations I noticed there were a lot of Oaks that were removed I mean that was the third largest so that's pretty painful for our natives it it is there were some issues with oak trees one we're getting um influx of some issues happening with u beach acteria leaf Scorch and Oak whe they they haven't found that specifically in town but there's been a lot of dead issue dead branches starting to die back in this town and neighboring towns also but ruers hasn't confirmed it yet uh it's a species that likes a lot of space and we have them imprisoned on roads and sidewalks and and whatnot and they've gone through a lot like everything else I'm not downplaying it saying it's natural but we're keeping an eye on as to what's going on so is the is the this year's um extensive rain better worse or not an effect on our our trees and our health of the trees and canopy and it's not going to hurt okay trouble is if you get too much at one time and it runs off that hurts so we probably if we could turn that faucet down a little bit and stretch it out it'd be really be better but we don't have that Authority yet we haven't had a lot of trees topple over because of the soft Earth from that extensive 2 three day rains not that I'm aware of and Jean wanted me to check every tree after the earthquake but we we're okay but but no seriously no didn't see good it's lucky thank you thank you thank thank you thank you Jean great report all right we now move on to ordinances hearing with clerk please read the statement the ordinance scheduled for hearing was introduced by title and passed on the first reading at the regular meeting of the council held on March 25th 2024 was posted and filed according to law and copies were made available to the general public requesting scene I call up ordinance 11-202 24 for second reading ask the clerk to read set ordinance by title uh calendar year 2024 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a c Bank may I move ordinance not so fast sorry I I I open the hearing on ordinance 11 anyone wishing a comment please step forward seeing none I close the hearing how about now I move ordinance 11- 2024 second you Council discussion roll call a vote Please Mr range yes Mr harm pudus yes M Hanahan yes Mr Forte yes I declare ordinance 11-202 adopted and finally passed and ask the clerk to publish notice thereof a newspaper follow the ordinance accordance with the law and now we're on to a second uh invitation for public comment this is when you may comment on any topic uh same guidelines or in effect where we ask you to try to keep your comments to uh 3 minutes but we give you a one minute grace period please step forward welcome Judy I'm Judy croll 27 Laurel way and um I'm here representing friend of Drew Forest we' like to show up and encourage everyone to uh continue their support for preserving the beautiful Forest that we all know and love and are working very hard to get to a conservation sale so I want to again thank the mayor and Council for all of their efforts um I wanted to just talk briefly about some of the uh native plants that are in the forest thanks to the restoration efforts that began in 2008 with deer fencing and removal of many invasive plants uh the forest now boasts a huge um Wildlife Garden so if anyone is interested in taking a look at what native plants can look like in their natural setting um beginning now and into the spring and the rest of the summer season there will be lots and lots of things blooming um among the many plants that were planted there since the restoration started are 30 species of shrubs 88 species of wild flowers 26 species of trees and um another 19 Wild Flower species returned on their own so once the deer were kept at Bay and the um invasive species were removed these these plants just came back so it's really um a testament to Nature and the beauty of the forest so if you're interested in starting a native um small Native Garden in your own yard take a look through Drew Forest over the season you'll see some beautiful examples of what you can what you can um plant there and I just wanted to say one other comment I really enjoyed the presentation that Claire uh and Bridget did for the upcoming ordinance and I just wanted to make a comment about uh bees because I think bees are a little bit confusing um we hear that honey bees are safe and there's lots of them and that's a great great story and it makes a lot of news um but honeybees are also managed by humans for agricultural pollination but native bees um are what we're talking about when we talk about pollinators that are really important to the food food web more generally um certain wild bees are the only ones that can pollinate uh some of our agricultural crops but certainly also a lot of the native plants that the birds and the um C holders use but um wild bees pollinate crops like tomatoes um Peppers night shade plants which cannot be pollinated by honeybees so if we lose our wild bees we're going to have a serious problem so I just wanted to point that out because when we when we talk about bees in terms of native plantings and Gardens um that we're really talking about not the managed bees that are doing okay but rather the wild ones that we also need uh very much in our ecosystem um so FY for us is coming up to our third anniversary that's happening next month and um I think we'll probably be bringing you kind of some highlights of our of our three years at that time I won't take any more of your time this evening but thank you again for all of your work for us thank you Judy thank you for your work anyone else wish to comment please step forward daily 28 keep Street um I just wanted to share a really interesting fact that I recently learned from watching a presentation by Doug taly who who was mentioned recently is that um oak trees have a 600e lifespan 200 years of growth 200 years of stasis and then 200 years of decline so I think it's just important for us to think about the fact that decline is part of a natural process in the life of trees and um you know assuming that a tree is in a location where it's going to you know injure someone we should really carefully consider if a tree is in Decline does it really need to be fully cut down um during that decline process um it serves as home and uh food for birds like woodpeckers who as it's decaying there's insects in there the woodpeckers eat the insects they make homes in them as do other um creatures and birds and then even when uh tree is dead it contributes to the ecosystem as it breaks down and enriches the soil and and builds soil so just something to consider cuz I had I wasn't aware of that previously so I wanted to share that thank you very much love that we keep learning things do things every day clire um I I'm going to just speak on a separate topic um your name again oh CLA WC come 12 Fairwood Road um I just wanted to uh point out that um both Judy and I went to a memorial last Saturday for um Karen elante who was a legendary um music choir and and the a teacher at um Madison High School I'm going to tear up but she um cast my son in King and I when he was six and in sixth grade and he was a little boy you know stinks was a Happy tune and the high school kids would roll down their windows and yell Hey kid you know and so he was in every show she did in Middle School in high school and she planned the senior musical around him and she changed my kids's lives she she was amazing in jazz choir and uh she Di stage four breast cancer left behind a 12-year-old who um was also daroy in the uh form Park Middle School the elepant live in Middle School Joe elepant wants a jazz a music school in New Providence and my son studied Jazz with him um I think that Madison is an incredibly rich town for its music program and Mrs elony just thank you for sharing that hi I'm lodash I live at six Hardwood Drive um March 21st I was a victim of a automobile accident as I was driving to get my daughter to high school around 2 p.m. on uh going down Central and I noticed a movement from my left and I saw a car um who made no effort to stop at the stop sign on cook she was driving a uh a Volvo SUV and I have a VI of enclave and both of our cars were total um luckily I um veered off a little bit and was able to pretty much come out of an unscathed as was she aside from a little bit of whiplash I did go to the hospital and get x-rays um but I've always been concerned about this intersection um especially if you are coming from cook Avenue you have at any time two cars parked right there the stop sign is set back quite a distance and it's really it's just 50/50 if you're going to make it through um in fact um I was grateful to see Edan he was one of the first people on the scene um which was quite a relief um many of the other First Responders said um this is a terrible intersection many of them commented the same thing about a year ago I witnessed the exact same accident that I was in I was behind a Jeep Wrangler that almost went through flies and honey um I travel this countless times a day whether to MRC to the high school my kids walk from the Middle School into town constantly and I just I shudder to think if there had been pedestrians there um or if anybody and either vehicle was hurt of course neither of us had any passengers when I asked her why she didn't stop she told me that she yielded and that she had car insurance um so you know it's a highly trafficked area with pedestrians obviously I posted on Madison area parents anonymously because I know people have a lot to say about these things um just to just simply tell what happened and get people's thoughts and an overwhelming amount of people responded worst intersection oh my gosh I saw this I was on a bike I got thrown off the bike I used to work on that corner there was an accident every month I mean so many people um and I know there's a lot of questionable intersections in every town but you know um with Central Avenue School there with the farmers market coming with with baseball softball games I mean it's it's constantly busy and I don't you know I know we have a a traffic light right on um Main Street so I don't know what the solution is but you know be it some some traffic calming measure you know a raised sidewalk that a pedestrian can cross out on grade with a sidewalk a flashing light I don't know something like that um but I just wanted to share this because I have not met one person who has not responded with I avoid that at all all cost I think of the I don't know what the state of the proposed Apartments going there are I I have read that parking will not be provided I just can only imagine the influx of cars frustrated drivers not able to find parking circling you know and getting frustrated and you know just ignoring these stop signs altoe so um and I'm more than eager to help in whatever way I can so thank you thank you and sorry for your experience um this this certainly has been a intersections studied quite a bit our our complete streets committee will be meeting um next week I believe it is um and so we'll make sure that this is uh discussed some more as you said the the solution is not easy because you already have a traffic light another block away but um certainly we'll we'll take a look at what what can be done I I walked that intersection at least twice a day as I do my commute so Ross SN 12 Pomroy um and his family is a close friend of my family so when she went through this about half a second after she described where it was it was like oh yeah yeah I know what you're talking about um two days after that I had to go to the pet store and my choices from my side of town are either sit in Main Street traffic don't want to do that I guess I'll just deal with that intersection to get to the Cook Street parking lot it was raining it was a gray cloudy day full Park all the parking spaces that that intersection were taking as I was on cook trying to cross central trying to get to the parking lot and on top of it I think cuz it was raining somebody had double parked right here I couldn't see anything I inched inched inched inched and by the time I could tell if I could go or not I'm already in the intersection so thankfully nobody was coming but like it just it felt so terribly poetic that like 2 days after this I'm like yeah all it would take is somebody zipping down Central right now and I'm toast um my kids are now the age where the most fun thing they can do is grab their friends and walk around town and this intersection is like my nightmare I'm just you know oh kids are out having fun whatever oh one was crossing you know when something happened there um I I just as we talk about like getting more density downtown which I know with the building plac in the movie theater which I think is going to happen with those buildings right behind the pharmacy there we wanted that SCS we want people frequenting our downtown we have this amazing downtown yes come walk around go to the shops oh don't go half flock that way that's that's a rough intersection now I just it just really strikes me that this is one of those things where until something terrible happens we kind of keep just rolling along and then something terrible happens and we all look at each other and we say yeah we knew that was going to happen eventually like let's let's not let it get to that like if it's my kid or somebody's kid I me it's just we we could we could do something here and I know Central is a state road I know that changes things if we have to go talk at uh the Morris County version of this meeting you know I think that's totally like Lanta said let's let's do that but we got to do something here thanks thank you Ross anyone else wishing to comment I I did um two weeks a week and a half ago attended the um Aven the motion for former trans options annual Transit um forum and full disclosure I am on their board uh and certainly we talking about uh things that towns can do to make things safer the uh so not not to compare this with hoken but uh hoken is a great story right now and the fact that it's become if not the certainly the safest City in the state if not one of the safest cities in the country as far as pedestrians and it is um you know some of the things they they did came at a cost such as pushing parking back from intersections which means you lose parking but as you pointed out this is about safety and and well-being so we need to look at everything Central Avenue is a County Road um one of the things I did mention at The Forum is I'm one of my passions and if you want to go to U commissioner meeting is I think it's time for the county to adopt a complete streets policy which is a complete streets is to look at a street not just for moving cars from point A to point B but pedestrians um bicyclists and full activity and uh the county does not have a Col stre streets program so anything that happens really will come from Madison working with the county um so we'll we'll take us back to the um compl streets committee and um the uh and we can get back to you as far as any recommendations that come out or what the next steps are and um we can make it safer because this has been you know it's not news to us to hear the cons the worry and the uh your terrible experiences at at that intersection it is a challenge so thank you and with that we a will move on to uh introduction of ordinances cler please read the statement the ordinance scheduled for first reading has a hearing date set for April the 22nd 2024 will be published in the Madison Eagle Poston buer board made available to members of the public requesting copies I call up ordinance 22 or ordinance 12- 2024 for first reading ask the clerk to read ordance by title ordinance of bur of Madison amending chapter 166 section 35 of the burrow code entitled streets and sidewalks regarding determination of hazardous conditions may I remove ordinance 12224 second Council discussion this is cleaning up an existing ordinance uh right now um the process goes through the burough Council which really doesn't make sense and kind of drags things out so this will stream streamline the uh uh process for deal with hazardous sidewalks which is ear part of complete streets forther discussion V call please Mr yes Mr har yes M yes Mr for yes okay we move on to consent agenda resolutions 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 may I move uh the consent agenda resolution is 12-1 through 126 2020 second any con discussion or discussion or need to be pulled mayor yes sir uh resolution 125 2024 I'm glad to see that we are moving forward with cook Avenue project uh timeline what do you think Jim right well the the the goal is to do as much during the summer months as possible minimizing uh so we hope to be I think underway by mid June it is a phase project so half Park a lot will be um in operation at one time we also negotiated with uh for for the merchants to use the uh parking lot behind 14 Main Street the old YMCA building so that'll leave some of the pressures um so I think that's where we are I think what we'll also do is work through um engineering uh and when we have the contractor on duty is on board is having a preconstruction meeting with the uh property owners in the back there to go through the whole process because it um I offer compare projects like this to doing your kitchen or bathroom at home it's going to be painful but if you manage it you make the best possible way so that's what we'll do we'll F out thanks mayor any freether discussion roll call V please Mr range yes Mr har bu yes M hingan yes Mr for yes there is no unfinished business approval of vouchers a clerk please read the voucher totals from the current fund 153,070 from the general Capital fund $ 26,588 from the electric operating fund 8,895 90 from the water operating fund $937,500 and from the trust $647 1469 the total is $652,000 Mayor I move approval of the address second second okay thank you and discussion all call vote Please Mr R yes Mr har pus yes M Hanan yes Mr P yes motion for adjournment mayor I move to adjourn the meeting all favor