you ready oh might want to turn off your sound that doesn't work okay ready Liz yes mayor pursuant to chapter Section 5 chapter 231 1975 this is to State for the record that adequate notice of this meeting has been provided to the public by posting and maintaining the annual notice of regular meetings on the bulletin board of the municipal building by mailing the annual notice of regular meetings for 2024 to the news record and the Star Ledger in December of 20123 and by filing said notice in the office of the Township Clerk m c here D here Mr Dua here miss angle here mayor Adams here thank you whereas chapter 231 Public Law of 1975 Comm knows the open public meetings act report as all me of public bodies be open to the public and whereas section 7A provides that the governing body has a discretion to permit prohibit or regulate the active participation of the public at any meeting and we desire of the governing body to comply with the provision of this act same time to conduct this business in an orderly and expeditious manner now therefore be resolved by the township committee Township mut does hereby prohibit except to set forth in the formal agenda active participation and deliberations of the governing body by the public and acceptance otherwise prescribed by law the Li with the public to the observations of the actions and discussions of the governing body at all its regular and special meetings so moved second K yes Mr daffis yes Mr DeLuca yes Miss angle yes mayor Adams yes thank you please stand for salute to the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible lice if I could get everyone to remain standing like to do a moment of silence uh we lost our bond attorney the Township's Bond Attorney Edward MC manamum uh for the past 50 plus years he has practiced law in The Firm that bore his name McManaman in Scotland and we're sorry to lose him he was uh well respected and served our Township very well so thank you so uh tonight good evening everyone um welcome to the February 6 meeting of the Maplewood Township committee um we have a couple of proclamations this evening or actually one for Black History Month that'll be read by Miss kpe uh we have a couple of appointments to different boards and committee Kayla Spinelli will be appointed to Recreation advisory committee um senior's advisory committee will be David R Ravi sorry um affordable housing board for will be Leonard Robbins and Richard Greenberg each for three-year terms um then will be having a public hearing on um an a completely inclusive playground through Green Acres uh we are applying for a grant for that that is due tomorrow at 5: PM um and one of the um requirements is to have a hearing on the matter um we also had a public meeting last week which was well attended to get input from the community on the way it's designed and get a lot of it was a very good meeting so we will proceed with that um and then we will have our public comment period for agenda items only we will then have the Board of Health meeting chaired by um Miss angle then we have one ordinance on Final passage and then we have another ordinance on introduction regarding the sewer fees um and that will be raising the fee uh based on the joint meeting we have a fee raise for annual fee from $24 to $224 and then an additional amount to cover the capital um investment into the infrastructure and that will raise it to $31 then we have a report from uh administrative reports uh Mr warry miss cdio and miss fritsen reports from elected officials will be Committee Member Duca Deputy Mayor kpe Committee Member daffis Committee Member angle and then my report discussion items we have uh Mr Duca would like to discuss the proposed 15% Fair increase by New Jersey Transit um we'll talk briefly about the movie theater Redevelopment area and public meetings that we're planning for that undertaken um the next thing will be undertaking a natural resource inventory study in 202 for that will be um in requesting a grant from sustainable Jersey and then the next budget Workshop will be discussed to get uh a date on that finalized and notified to the public then we have the consent agenda um and then that's it then we'll have a second public comment period and we'll adjourn so with that Miss K Deputy Mayor would you like to read the proclamation for fabulous Black History Month yes I would thank you mayor whereas every February Black History Month is recognized to not only encourage the study of African-American life and history but also to act as a reminder that black history is an integral part of the history of the United States of America what began as a week recognizing black history championed by Dr Carter G Woodson and Minister Jesse E Morland in 1926 when they founded the association for the study of African-American life and history evolved into a month by 1976 After official recognition by President Gerald Ford each year the association presents a new theme and the theme for 2024 is African-Americans and the arts for African-Americans the Arts have been a means to express joy and sorrow assert Humanity or communicate in a way that reaffirms one another Alvin ay Coleman Domingo Michaela Shai Rodriguez Billy Holiday and others made it clear that black and LGBT TQ plus people not only exist but could do so openly women like Eartha kit Maya Angelou Queen Latifah Audrey McDonald Viola Davis and more not only exhibited black women aren't a monolith but there isn't a limit standard or any imposed glass ceiling that could hold their talent back from the Applause of the masses as with every Black History Month there's also a need to remember black history is not only American history but the contributions of black Americans go beyond those who entertainment for while Michael Jackson popularized the Super Bowl halftime show as a must-see event James E West patents from 1962 utilized in 90% of all microphones today allowed over 133 million people to hear that set list Mark Dean while working at IBM developed the first gigahertz chip that laid the foundation for the technology required to hear see and experience entertainment on a computer or a phone and Valerie Thomas a NASA data analyst Advance the 3D technology used in theaters Across the Nation and the world now for therefore be it proclaimed that on behalf of the Maplewood Township committee we highlight these names in honor of Black History Month and ask the public to further educate themselves on those named and many others who have shaped our country and the world thank you mayor thank you we'll go to boards and committees I have two separate agendas that are slightly different so so do [Laughter] I heuse the one that's you got tonight okay good idea um couple versions so Recreation advisory committee mayor yes we have invited Kate Spinelli who is a longtime Maplewood resident who left and came back is now raising her family here so I don't know if she is available if we can move her from the oh there you are hey you're person that's even better I thought you were looking right at her but your Patrick was in your way come here in case the committee has a couple questions for you but if you want to give a brief introduction of who you are and why you'd like to serve hi guys can you hear me is it going yes it's on hi I'm Kayla spelli um I grew up in Maplewood um we moved here in 2000 um I guess just a brief thing a little bit about me and my family uh my I swam for the Maplewood makos for a long time I was a lifeguard at the pool for a very long time I started the Maplewood Manor diving team back in 20 3 um and that continued after I left my mom actually continued to run it for another two years my mom was part of the uh one of the Committees I can't remember which one but she was part of thewood democ rwood democratic committee yes kathen Spinelli some of you probably know her um my dad is part of the garden committee so everybody's kind of part of everything um and then after in about 2017 I moved to Florida for 5 years to pursue diving and and I had my first son and then moved to Tennessee and then decided after we got married that we wanted to come home so we are now back in Maplewood with my two little boys with my dad and my husband who is not from Maplewood he's from Alabama so it's definitely very different um yes but I'm sure some of you may know I haven't left the pool so I am actually the aquatics director at the uh Westfield Area YMCA so I'm still in the pool and I never left the pool so don't really plan on it anytime soon so you know I feel like I've had a lot of I've probably attended Beyond more events in Recreation and the township events that have happened as a kid as um a teenager as a young adult I didn't leave Maplewood until I was 25 so you know I still did a lot of things locally um I and I also did Coach my husband always says I never praise this enough so I coached at seen Hall University for two years um as their springboard diving coach um I was awarded the Big East diving coach of the year for the women's team of 2015 and we I'm also a big East Champion we won the Big East the following year so it's pretty cool I've done a lot I know this town inside and out I feel like I see some familiar faces and some I think I know but I haven't seen in a long time my hair is brown now instead of blonde so it's a little bit different a lot of people don't recognize me but you know I would love to be to be able to put my input um back into the town and into the commun community that I know and I want my boys to be a part of too cool well I don't need to say anything after all that no anyone have any questions no welcome home thank you mayor would you like to move yeah so I would move the placement of Kayla Spinelli onto the recreation advisory committee for the years I'll second it roll call roll call M great yes Mr daffis yes Mr Duca yes zle yes mayor Adams yes thank you and welcome home say hi to your mom for me okay for senior advisory committee yes we do have a a gentleman who would like to step into the role unfortunately he's had an emergency in his family and cannot be here tonight but um David riabi has been a 30-year resident here in Maplewood um who would like to now that he's retired give back to the community by assisting in any way he can in um serving the senior community he's now an active part of so I would move that David Ravi be appointed to the senior's advisory committee I'll second we have a roll call Great yes D yes DeLuca yes angle yes mayor Adams yes thank you affordable housing board Mr Duca thank you mayor um we have two reappointments Leonard Robbins and Richard Greenberg and I would move both of them I'll second scri yes Mr D yes Luca yes angle yes mayor Adams yes thank you uh Mr DeLuca again for historic preservation historic preservation thank you uh we have a reappointment of Carla Lanka and she's moving from alternate two to alternate one it's a two-year position I'll move that I'll second that M great yes Mr daffis yes DeLuca yes M angle yes mayor Adams yes thank you um so we have a public hearing so miss fritsen who would be running this public hearing deputy mayor or Mr we we'll just do Mr weary will be a presentation as required by okay thank you thank you so I can start that off so this is the township um will be applying for Green Acres funding it's through the Department of Environmental Protection uh we have gone through a public process to obtain input from the public that resulted in our our final concept plan um that is what we'll be presenting tonight and we'll have an opportunity for public input at the conclusion of it so I'll share with you a [Music] slideshow okay so it's proposed the uh the title of the park it will be the completely inclusive playground at Maple Crest Park this is funded through uh the D Jake law playground funding and Jake law uh was a law that set standards for inclusive playgrounds in New Jersey they have standards that are more rigorous and more inclusive than the uh Ada requires for similar playgrounds and um the this is the first opportunity that municipalities in New Jersey has to apply for the funding there are specific requirements like I said that were adopted it has to have an accessible rout from the parking lot uh a unitary surface in the area surrounding the play equipment so typically that is like a poured in place rubber could be like a concrete in some areas but it's a a uniform surface much different than wood chips you would see in a traditional Park and the idea is that it's easier for people uh especially with Mobil issues but it could also be seniors or or young people makes it easier for them to Traverse the parking area if you have restroom facilities at least one of the restrooms has to be a family or assisted use toilet room and there needs to be shading on 20% of the surface area of the playground the playground has to be fenced in it can be a natural barrier like a a hedge but what we proposed is a full surround with like a metal aluminum what you would typically see in a a um in a fencing and it must include play components that have physical sensory cognitive social emotional imaginative and communication uh needs and lastly it has to have quiet play erors so everything that is included in our concept plan and that we'll submit to the D um has all of these required components the grant funding it's a 75% matching Grant the DP anticipates awarding a grant between 500,000 and 750,000 so with a 25% match we would be putting if we awarded at the maximum level and they could go beyond that depending on how many applications they receive uh if we put in a $750,000 grant the total project would be a million dollar and we'll go into the exact cost of the project at the end of this we had a public engagement form last month we had online surveys we posted in quite a few places in social media sent out our own email blast and we received uh comments questions and concerns via email and phone as well if we are awarded a grant we may have additional public forums to really finalize what's going to be in the the final playground we have a concept plan which I'll go over now but it's also available on our website for anyone looking to see that afterwards so this is where the playground will be here in Maple Crest park at the bottom of the screen here is Springfield Avenue when you can see the Police Department um here the the square building right at the bottom so this blue shaded area is where we have proposed the inclusive playground it's a it's a good location suitable for this type of a park because there's a walking path all the way from the parking lot on Springfield Avenue and it is close to other Parks which uh continues to promote the inclusiveness of what we want to see in this playground this is an aerial view and what you see here that you may not typically see in in some parks are the shade structures like I said it's required to cover 20% of the surface area and then you can see this as proposed it's in green but this unitary structure that is around it in here um you this slide it has some tactile feature on it a rumble slide um there are over to the right here you can see ramps that are easy to walk or use a wheelchair on and as you go along those ramps there are inter active areas with different activities amenities there are music zones um and so there's all different kinds of you know drums and xylophones here there are some shorter slides there are some larger slides you saw earlier in the back and you can see again here there are quiet play areas such as a shaded area underneath the play structure this is an area that could also be ideal for someone look for more quiet play these um single eggs you know designed for one person um our director of community services said she'd seen a couple PL kids in the play at a time but you know if you had a desire you could go in there by yourself and still enjoy your time at the park that's kind of a little bit of a closer look at that egg this is one of the swings that is proposed in the concept musical instrument proposed drums proposed so that is the concept plan um another part of this hearing that we have to present is our environmental impact so we have uh a 15-page environmental study that was performed by our engineering department and is available on our website that I'll go through kind of quickly um the the environmental impact looks at what this park will do to all different types of um envir enironmental components that are currently present in the park so they're looking at hydrology freshwater wetlands soils vegetation communities such as trees you look at wildlife and existing um land uses in the area and the so I'll work through some of them now at least where they they identified specific impacts and how we might mitigate those so for the zoning and master plan the use in this this is in an existing Park the existing use will not change change and it will not impact any setbacks or require any variances um the Township's master plan adopted last year does prioritize improving uh Municipal Park space so this will do that when it comes to surface water there will be minimal disturbances to the underlying formations as a result of mostly construction activity in the the final uh playground surface the project will be uh graded in such a way that storm water runoff will be directed towards per able areas that are suitable for infiltration there are no well heads in the site area and the proposed project will not need any additional Water Services there is already an existing sanitary con uh connection to a public sewer that is at the restroom facility for Wetlands hydrology and and surface water uh we did a digital mapping of the area there are freshwater wetlands in the Park area but not in the uh location that this project is proposed and we can do we will do additional field investigations to confirm the presence of wetlands on the site and to delineate those there are no streams or other surface water features located on the site for the vegetation communities we do not propose displacing or removing any trees or shrubs there are no apparent of threatened or endangered species that are prevalent at the site and for air quality um there will be some impact to air quality during construction um but there is not expected to be any increase in air quality impact at the conclusion of the the construction another thing that is impacted by construction but not expected to be impacted afterwards will be noise um the noise levels are not likely to change as a result of this project and the project will be uh compliant with the requirements of the noise control regulations and it will be uh conducted in compliance with the Township's noise ordinance as well and so I think that is the so in conclusion for the environmental impact statement um the uh there are some undesirable impacts that are unavoidable during and after construction they include a permanent displacement of surface geological deposits which is the the soil that will be displaced for the creation of the park um traffic conditions will be impacted temporarily during construction but not after construction uh there will be increased noise during construction but not after construction and during construction there'll be some uh soil impacts to windblown dust soil and erosion uh but none expected after in summary our engineer found that the proposed project will have minimal impact to the environment um and that um given this is a minimal impact and that the project will provide recreational spaces to uh the community it is determined um that this site is well suited for the project thank you and last but not least the project cost so the total project in cost of the concept uh that we have now is$ 1,356 612 which makes our grand application $1,177 and4 I'm sorry 17,45 um and we'll have a 25% match on top of that again should the grand come back lower uh we can revise uh the exact project scope Mr where we have funds already dedicated to this from the open space trust fund we do yes funds that were um earmarked for improvements in Maple Crest Park yes so yeah any question presentation thank you any questions on the present now into the public hearing if any members of the public here Zoom would like to make a comment have the opportunity now are there any member any members of the here that would like to speak okay and let's go to zoom all right let meop sharing my screen all right if any members of the public on Zoom would like to speak in this public hearing please raise your hand now I see no hands right okay where just so I can tell you one thing um when we were at an event up there on Sunday I I know I need a life I counted the parking spaces in that lot there's 24 were there to be fair and one of those is designated for handicap working so you might want to jot that down 24 and one designated for handicap and that was a that we were see both in the online survey that we had and in the um in the the public so you might want to put that in the proposal 24 but only one in the in the lot now there's 24 one of them is handicapped and we're going to be looking to make some alterations there very good and I think the last item would be move to close the hearing that's a move to close the hearing second Mr great yes Mr daffis yes Mr luk yes Miss angle yes mayor Adams yes thank you want to thank actually if I could make a comment I would like to thank not only Mr wary for the work and extra effort he put into making sure this state on task and on time but also to our superintendent of Public Works and Engineering Paul kitner who went Above and Beyond on this as well as Melissa manuso our community services director because all of them together made this come to me and it was done quickly and well done so thank you all for the effort put in a much needed playground yep thank you for that welld deserved and and appreciate because it was a short timeline and I know we got everything in just need one signature around 1M tomorrow and boom all right can we we have a resolution approving uh Green Acres application for Maple Crest Park completely inclusive playground can I get a motion can we I move I moved that moved second I'll second it yes Mr daffis yes Mr DeLuca yes M angle yes mayor Adams yes thank you yay hopefully we get 750,000 right million million we're looking for a million they're only 750 we can putting in for a million though right yeah we are putting in for a million you never know we might get lucky all right at this point I'd like to move into our Board of Health meeting and yield the direction of that meeting to M angle thank thank you mayor pursuant to section 5 chapter 231 PL 1975 this is to State for the record that adequate notice of this meeting has been provided to the public by posting and maintaining the annual notice of regular meetings on the bulletin board of the municipal building by mailing the annual notice of regular meetings for 2024 to the news record and Star Ledger in December 2023 and by filing said notice in the office of the Township Clerk cor here Mr daffis here delca here mayor Adams yes I mean here sorry Miss angle here here where as chapter 231 public laws 1975 commonly known as the open public meetings act requir as all meetings of public bodies be open to the public and whereas section 7A provides that the Board of Health has a discretion to permit prohibit or regulate the active participation of the public at any meeting and where Zar the mwood Board of Health to comply with the provision of this act same time to conduct its business in an orderly expeditious manner now therefore be a resolved by the mwood Board of Health Township of mwood that it does hereby prohibit accept the set forth in the formal agenda active participation in deliberations of the Board of Health by the public and acceptance otherwise prescribed by law those limit the public the observations of the actions and discussions of the Board of Health meeting Along the trailer and special meetings so moved second M K yes Mr daffis yes Mr Luca yes mayor Adams yes Miss angle yes um first I move to approve the meeting minutes from the January 16th Board of Health meeting second M great yes Mr daffis yes Mr DeLuca yes mayor Adams yes M angle yes and now I will turn it over to our health officer Candace Davenport evening everyone good evening you need to be you need to be near the microphone so they hear you in um can you hear it works speaking specifically in Maplewood you'll see that using the City Health dashboard data that we were able to acquire we can identify areas in Maplewood where residents have um have been told that they have high blood pressure or high cholesterol um by their physician in the past year so while we are scoring above the national average um as you can see here here um we are still identifying Pockets where we need to focus our um attention so this is also um heart health data that we're also looking at here and again it shows kind of the same similar pattern as we saw before again we're really studying um how we can address certain areas in neighborhoods and uh persons so that they can get the screenings that would help them to alleviate um heart disease this is um one resource that our uh staff had found it's called the live to beat to the beat campaign it's a free online campaign that allows you to uh customize your um Health activities and encourages you and tells you you know here's what you can do and it reminds you every day with small living um activities that you can do to help you out so we encourage people to take advantage of that it's a fun way to incorporate Health into your life while February is heart health month we still also have to address that stroke it's a big part of our circulatory system um and people may not be aware of the stroke symptoms so our time show committee people have received a little card which goes into what are the risk factors for stroke but also how to react to them so the acronym that we want to remember is be fast it means to look for someone who might um have a loss of balance that there are vision changes facial uh drooping or a complaint of a severe headache arm weakness or numbness speech with trouble speaking um and confusion and then time time is of the essence when you're talking about a stroke when you think something's irregular please contact 911 even if it isn't a stroke it's important for them to get um seen right away if someone expresses those symptoms we also have these cards um that we can give to Residents so if they stop by at the health department on Valley Street in town hall we have um available information for them we'll be able to get some of those cards for the libraries we can order more okay yes thank you I just want to add that someone experiencing a stroke need not have every single one of those symptoms that's right I had three of those so right absolutely and because you know these are these are real issues that um people are dealing with we want to bring attention to it so people can recognize it on that note we are having a uh lunch and learn and uh on February 20th and at that senior lunch and learn we will also be doing um Health screenings that includes blood pressure checks as well as diabetes and cholesterol blood checks uh through our public health nurse and if they missed that on the 20th uh we are also advertising that on February 27th there's also a senior heart and health event as well that people can do moving on to animal control we are now into uh dog and cat licensing and um applications are still open but unfortunately if you missed it you have now a $7 late fee we still encourage people to uh get their dog and cat license currently we have about 500 dogs and over 70 cats so we we're like about halfway through as for Bloomfield their report for the month of January was that we only had five calls so that's really great moving on to environmental health um while we failed to mention we want to mention it now January is National radon action month so people can go get get tests at um Home Depot and they can test their own home however if you can't afford to do that we do have tests from the Essex Regional Health commission that we can provide to people as well so they can stop by and we can give those to them one thing that people may not realize is that if you have um a home with raidon and you are a smoker you increase your risk of lung cancer so this is something that people don't realize so testing your house is important and this is another reason to stop smoking because it increases your risk um quite a bit January um we had 16 restaurant inspections 35 complaints most of those uh were related to uh questions about uh lead screening for renters um but also uh garbage and nuisance complaints um we actually our inspectors did help um the Essex East Orange Health Department who does our lead um inspections uh to resolve a case in in Maplewood so um related to Childhood uh blood Le poisoning so that is resolved and um everyone is being followed up and that's great moving on to communicable and infectious diseases we are in immunization audit season so Anna has been very busy with 12 audits this month of our child care centers and our schools so needless to say as you might have um heard in the news that we had a measles outbreak in Camden and some parts of Philadelphia this is the reason why we do these immunization audits to encourage that everyone is up to date with the required vaccinations for the State Health Department in child care as well as um throughout the school as for the covid we are um in medium um transmission level in Essex County these are all information that you've seen before but because um the mayor had the great idea of sharing them through our weekly eblast and our Administration is able to do that we are now sharing them for the public so they can digest it after um the meeting so one of the things that I also didn't mention was that we have a flu outbreak among early uh childhood centers and uh young children so as you can see here that kind of reflects the state data which is that influenza transmission throughout the state is high so we're still not out of the wood yet in terms of respiratory diseases so we ask people to get their flu shot it's still viable moving on to social services and mental health issues as for black history month thank you for that great Proclamation uh Deputy Mayor we have um a partnership with the Community Coalition on Race that on February 29th at 7M at The soac Loft they are uh showing a free screening of the PBS documentary birthing Justice we hope that people will engage and attend this meeting and hopefully we will'll encourage people to be aware of what's going on and then advocate for Better Health Care for um black women um and their families and their growing families it's an interesting uh connection because um Community Coalition on race is having an event at the Duran headen this month earlier this month to talk about uh black history and families so we're looking at the the back end of like look at your ancestry and this one says look at your future so um we really want to make sure that people come and are aware of this that brings us to the universal home screening um home visiting just want to encourage people um regardless of your insurance you are eligible to um take part in this as long as you schedule an appointment within the first two weeks of your postpartum discharge um and it's a wonderful wonderful uh program again going back to um the importance of Maternal Child Health interestingly enough the State Health Department also funds um certain organizations in every County and this is the Essex pregnancy and parenting connection we are constantly finding new resources and um making Partnerships so we want to encourage people to take advantage of all of their free services that they offer from um prenatal care to Childhood um immunizations to um access to health care and early parenting uh guidance and support which we all need um as for Women's Health we are also offering um mamography and uh cervical cancer screenings through the safe program that's also another free program and we are working to bring this mobile um Clinic to Maplewood to offer various Services as well again as we're finding more resources and more Partners they're kind of finding us as well there's um a new program from the Ada Foundation which is called give kids a smile and for example on February 2nd they offered um dentists in these areas in Newark Montclair West Orange um offered free uh Dental screenings for children who can't afford um a dentist so we also want to hope to coordinate with a dentist in the area to be a part of this program but if you'd like to schedule an appointment for your child they can contact the health department for um free bus tickets if in case they need to get to a center for their appointment again eliminating the the transportation as a barrier to healthcare as part of the mayor's Wellness campaign um Mental Health First Aid provides this adult Mental Health First Aid screening and because we are a healthy Town um up and coming we want to um advertise that they're having this adult Mental Health First Aid screening uh this February 22nd this is really for anyone our Township officials anyone in leadership Aunts Uncles parents brothers sisters anyone who wants to talk about mental health and know how to relate to people reduce the stigma of Mental Health but really also to address and practice how to identify someone who may have suicidal ideations or might be experiencing suicide and have that real um experience of asking that question are you thinking of killing yourself it's a hard question to ask um but this program really helps you to get through that so that you're confident to address those issues likewise we just want to promote that um our partners at and cop are offering a free virtual Zoom every Friday um these are sobriety uh Community meetings if anyone would like to attend for support you may not um have realized this but um in 2017 the state of New Jersey passed the legislation to reduce um opioid prescriptions from 30 days to five what they found that if you um it takes five days or more to create opioid dependency and so from 2017 on they've been studying this and new research from um Morristown Hospital has said that it is reducing the incidence of new opioid cases that are caused by prescription drugs so this is amazing stuff this is what public health does you don't see the effects until maybe years later but we are seeing some really great results so what does this mean it means that there are less opioids out in the community for someone to take out of someone's um you know medicine cabinet but it also means that by following data we are reducing opioid dependency so this is really great news and again please encourage people to go to Stop and Shop um to the pharmacy to get their free Naran something that our staff brought up which I thought was really interesting and I wanted to share people think that Narcan is about um drug addicts and people who are addicted to opioids when in fact anyone who's a caregiver of a senior citizen who is on pain medication should have Naran in their home because all seniors may experience at some point confusion about how much medication they take forgetfulness that maybe they took that two hours ago and suddenly you have someone who's passed out in their home because they're overdosing on pain medication such as an opioid so anyone who is a healthcare provider or a home caregiver should have naren in their home if they're taking care of a senior citizen just want to reduce the stigma of of the usage of naren get it out there um if you don't if you don't know how to use Naran they have a free trainings uh for how to use the nasal spray kits and they're offered six times a month through recers and they're free and also we have a safe disposal uh site at our Police Department Lobby you can throw away all of your expired and unused medication it's open 24 hours a day 7 days a week we always put this up here for people to see and again it's for the public to digest all the information and thank you so much to all the residents who have utilized our service and also have donated but our staff asked that at this time we no longer can take shower chairs or Cotes we're kind of at capacity but if anybody would like one we have them so we just had someone come in today for um a cane to recover from a a foot injury and so it's really working and the people always are very thankful to the township for offering this great service because otherwise they might not be able to afford these um these uh equipment to recover and that's it for me thank you thank you so much health officer Davenport um do any of my colleagues have any questions for our health officer no great we will open it up to the public U Mr warry will you help facilitate public public uh questions from the public for our health officer if any members of the public joining us on Zoom would like to speak in public portion please raise your hand now I see no hands Miss angle great because it was such a fantastic presentation thank you so much um so our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday March 5th and I move to adjourn our Board of Health meeting okay great yes yes DeLuca yes mayor Adams yes M angle yes back to you mayor thank you okay with that we'll go on to ordinances on Final passage Miss fritsen okay yes mayor uh up to um number 11 on our agenda ordinance on Final passage ordinance number 3112 d24 is an ordinance to amend chapter 257 of the code of the township of mwood entitled vehicles and traffic with respect to parking on the south side of Milburn Avenue ordinance will revise parking regulations on the south side of Milburn Avenue between Valley Street and the Union border okay this um ordinance has been published copies posted on the bulletin board of the municipal building and copies made available to the general public in accordance with the law is there anyone who would like to speak or ask questions on this ordinance Mr warry if any members of the public joining us on Zoom would like to speak in public portion please raise your hand now I see no hands mayor okay thank you may I get a motion Mr Dela mayor I move the passage of this I'm sorry I move this ordinance be adopted as a whole and the clerk be directed to publish the same as a passed ordinance in the Maplewood South Orange News Record according to law I'll second that new roll call M yes Mr daffis yes Mr DeLuca yes SLE yes mayor Adams yes thank you introduction of new of ordinance yes mayor that's item number 12 ordinance number 3113 d24 it was an ordinance to amend chapter 123 fees of the town ship code to establish the 2024 sewer user rate this ordinance will revise the annual sewer user rate per dwelling unit I move the passage of this ordinance on first reading its publication according to law in the Maplewood South Orange News Record and a hearing to be held on February 20th I'll second it m c yes Mr daffis yes Mr Duca yes M Angel yes mayor Adams yes thank you we have no reports from departments so we'll move to administrative reports Mr wary thank you mayor one item we have a resolution on the agenda tonight hiring a custodian Jose Marcado so we're excited to have him on board he fills a vacancy that we've had for quite a while so we're excited to have that's all mayor thank you okay any questions from Mr wary I do have one um Mr warry we were on the uh stage at the Woodland the other day uh for the lunafest and I'm pretty sure that we put money in the capital budget to replace the curtain okay um can you check that out because it was pretty I don't think we did no previous year do you mean yeah no we have never put money in the budget for that well okay if you check it out check check out what I know Ms Manzo asked for it I don't remember if we did it or not but find out and we can circulate what that would call it's pretty uh raggy old I have a few questions uh for our administrator and assistant administrator um where are we with respect to uh our compliance with the Leed remediation law we will be going out to RFP for a concession for a company that can perform that service so the deadline for that is over the summer we spoke with mostly one or mainly one company in New Jersey who's performing this service for municipalities and so we had talked with them and they have confidence that we got to RFP now award a contract they can complete the required inspections by the deadline the deadline is in June that's right I'm just going to note that I think that this has been taking far too long and there are so many grants available through DCA uh to help whoever our third party contractor is gonna is going to be to um to do this work municipalities are ahead of us yes and I have sent this information to the appropriate person here many times please prioritize this and I think uh what led me to think about it is the lead complaints that you were talking about health officer d report you should Loop into the lad remediation efforts right now the holdup is on me drafting that RFP so it's it's a priority but I will yeah I I your hold the holdup is not you the holdup was that you know there was all this like we don't want to do this kind of thing okay my next question where are we with um so we heard from the community about restricting certain commercial vehicles uh from our streets and neighborhoods and we were going to look into the DOT requirements any progress on that follow up with the engineer and get you an answer okay that'll be on our agenda for engineering Public Works and planning terrific and then lastly um we adopted a sanctuary resolution um again I want to applaud deputy mayor kpe for that uh a few months back and one of the requirements in our resolution self-imposed was updated cultural competency and sensitivity training for all of our employees uh is there an update in putting that together yes I believe Mr Jones has an update sure so um I did meet with uh members of the police department so that we could collaborate on to develop a uh training for our civilians non civilian I'm sorry our civilian staff um so I'm in process of developing that collaborative effort um where the police department will provide their input and then the administration will provide training from um a civilian perspective as well great thank you thank you that's all I have mayor thank you anyone else have any questions of the administration okay thank you we'll move to our Township attorney Miss cedia thank you mayor um just very brief for Marks tonight um on behalf of the entire firm thank you so much for acknowledging our beloved founder Ed McManaman this evening he truly believed in a life lived in the public service which I know all of you uh also emulate and um one of the last conversations I had with Ed was uh after my interview here on the way home and uh um we will all miss him dearly but thank you so very much it was very very meaningful to us oh we're sorry for especially the firm's loss for sure thank you no other items no other updates any questions for our legal council all right Township Clerk uh just one thing to report mayor that since our last uh Township committee meeting uh we conducted six event planning meetings a lot of stuff going on and uh I have uh one schedule for next week which is the uh St Patrick's Day 5K race so we're all caught up on planning meetings but I know it will not last that long and that's all that I have thank you that's it yes okay any questions for Miss briten no okay well we'll move on to reports from elected officials Committee Member Duca thank you mayor just a few things uh M kpe and I are the liaison to Black History Month and just want to remind you that we're celebrating it this month this year our theme is African-Americans and the Arts and both the township and many of our Civic and Community Partners are offering a great um span of activities uh we had music and art and the spoken word on Sunday on Springfield Avenue and so there's stuff happening you can go to Maplewood artsand culture. org and you'll find everything um on there of the various events one event in particular I just want to mention is our new assemblywoman Garnet Hall will be the featured speaker for Black History Month on Thursday February 15th at 7:30 pm. at the Hilton neighborhood association meeting and Garnett will talk about her own Journey from being an activist as a teenager in Montclair with Jesse Jackson uh the Jesse Jackson campaign to now being an assembly woman um and um so please come out it's open to all it' be at the community center at deart Park um the community energy plan is still being finalized we were editing it yesterday and um we intend to have it um to everyone uh if not next meeting probably not next meeting but in March and that will become the basis upon which we will make an application for implementation and we hope to install heat pumps at the police station and at the greenhouse and and be able to um get hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant money for implementation and lastly um I've been texting with Father hot at the Ukrainian uh Church asking if they are going to be doing anything a remembrance service on February 24th it's the 3 anniversary of the start of the war so um they are doing something in their um diois I'm not exactly sure how what what it's called but it's sort of their their region and um but he will talk about he he will get back to us if we're going to do anything locally so I'll let everybody know and that's it thank you any questions for Mr DeLuca when we hosted the second anniversary I remember saying to each other hopefully we'll never have to have another anniversary and here we are okay Deputy Mayor CRA thank you mayor um as Mr DeLuca stated that we've had a full month so far already the weekend was Chuck full of things but I wanted to make note of the fact that we also had not only our lunar Fest over at the Woodland which celebrated our Asian-American ride and the wonderful activities and things that were planned there so I'd like to thank the committee who put that together and for the community coming out it was impossible to find a parking spot that's how popular it was so good on Maplewood for putting that together also on Saturday we had the end of winter festival at Dart Park in the community cater and there was ice skating and fire pits music inside the building they had a face painter and one of the things they also had was a a a u together we Bloom brought a sensory friendly room and we got not only on social media but in private messages so many positive responses from people in the community including folks that were just visiting and didn't realize they needed that space and when they were able to when they got overwhelmed they were able to go inside and uh have some some some quiet time that they could use to regroup before they went back out and got involved in some more things um so I want to thank Melissa manuso and her team again I mean she's knocking it out of the park Missy you're getting it done so I appreciate that um one last thing I want people to remember um February 26 to March 1st is crossing guard appreciation week and I would like to stress Don't wait until the 26th to thank your crossing guard if you go to the township website I've asked Mr warry if he could put that up there there are downloadable thank you letters that you can print out and uh write for your own particular um crossing guard um you can say thank you you can buy them a gift you high- five them whatever they are a a community resource that's actually a gift for us um they do so much to protect our kids and to keep our children's commute safe and um I want to thank walk bike ride South Orange for making sure that that is Happ happening every year there'll be a special breakfast for all of our crossing guards on February 29th and uh at the JP House so hopefully we'll be able to get folks there and finally um continuing with our our our our civic duty we really still need more people to volunteer for our committees in particular Rec advisory we would love it if you could go to the website check out volunteer opportunities and find out where your sweet spot is you might find that there is a organiza a a committee or a subcommittee that could use your your wisdom and your help so please volunteer and that is all mayor thank you any questions for Deputy Mayor K nope you're off off off the Committee Member beis thank you mayor I have three items this evening I will start with the master plan implementation working group uh we have a core group a core group of four and we've met once already and we're meeting again next week the core group consists of myself as chair and three former members of the master plan steering committee namely two planning board members with planning experience who led our process during the master plan process with the planning firm all last year and our planning board chair I'm pleased that our little core team is majority female yay intergenerational and diverse as reported previously we will bring in relevant stakeholders and other experts with each subject recommendation and Loop in other intersecting committees or work product we will be uh reporting regularly to the committee uh on entrepreneurship and econ Economic Development and of course I will be reporting back here as we make policy decisions officially to implement any of the uh recommendations we are looking at prioritizing the following for now as a start and it's a big a big start uh these happen to be in the capital P plan to be top priorities and we think that they also reflect recent public comment and concern in land use and Zoning proposed revisions in zoning to include among other things uh ways to break uh breakup building bulk uh for instance required architectural features I.E for instance explicitly requiring Eaves and revisions in density in setbacks and or floor area uh ratio enacting targeted regulations to support historic preservation efforts such as with for instance a demolition ordinance which may apply to both residential and commercial construction what percentage of removal of the building or home would qualify as a demo if historic preservation commission gets to aine on the construction how much time will they get to review it what would be their criteria or parameters of their review how will the homeowner or owner of the building uh have their due process rights preserved would there be any exceptions to this will we be able to strike a thoughtful balance between preservation and Commercial viability or Economic Development these are the things we're looking at and it so happens these are the things that already were already engaged in exploring and further developing in code committee so made sense for us to dovetail on that existing work in Township circulation and Mobility one of the the top uh recommendations was to develop a new circulation element with a focus on bike and pedestrian Mobility with a vision zero and complete streets approach uh we are we in our budget Workshop the other evening we talked about going after grant funding for safe roots to school we're having conversations already about updating our 2010 Bikeway Network we're engaged in various traffic calming studies throughout town as our residents bring them to us and we hear about safe and complete streets all the time in public comment again this too makes a lot of sense to bring all of these different threads together into a circulation master plan the question is going to be can we use existing consultant nv5 for this who are already addressing some of these issues for us um or do we have to go out to bid for a planner and what would be our related budget concerns in Economic Development there are several recommendations we are exploring as they relate to revising permitted uses in our business zones including expanding The prb Pedestrian retail uh business Zone and broadening the commercial industrial also known as the CI Zone and the CLI special light industrial district to encourage entrepreneurship and small business startups and we're looking at establishing an administrative zoning review that is less burdensome on entrepreneurship in change of use applications from permitted use to permitted use so all of that is coming and a lot of that is already um happening we're already working on it my second item is I want to take this opportunity this evening to unequivocally condemn the aggressive conduct that had that was displayed the other day at a rally in Maplewood Village I condemn it full stop we are better than that we have condem condemned this behavior before we have called for peace and unity and we have been working on that with various groups local and international we have gathered together all kinds Jews Arabs and Muslims together in public spaces and in private homes to share Collective pain and indignation to express solidarity breaking bread together while bridging gaps in understanding and acceptance I'm afraid a few extreme folks out there are drowning out the progress we are making in coming together we remain engaged and committed to bridging peace and unity and we're not interested in policing speech but aggressive tactics some were're using the other day should not be tolerated inyour face screaming shouting at children taking pictures of them throwing things at people this crosses the line it's dangerous and we condemn it full stop my third and last item relates to heart health awareness month I want to take the opportunity to express my deep uh gratitude for the support I've received from folks near and far since my social media post a week ago a week ago about my heart condition a mini stroke two weekends ago and my upcoming surgery as you heard from our health officer earlier uh tonight during the public health portion of the agenda being screened for hard health is critical it saves your life and even I who have been monitoring A congenital condition all of my life was surprised by a mini stroke it was alarming it was scary and it certainly made me pay attention so please pay attention to your heart health be screened today thank you mayor thank you Mr daffis any questions for Mr daff okay I just want to thank Mr daffis for again opening up your personal stories to share with the community and the public near and far um because I think when people hear personal stories um it helps them and so you've done that before about your life stories and you're doing it now so I appreciate you thank you thank you thank you I want to add that uh I've heard from so many people who have the same condition as I do who uh are going into surgery or had the same surgery that I'm about to have um and that was the idea of the post right to connect us all to each other to share information and experiences so so thank you for that V Ango you're um I have no report but I just want to um acknowledge that our residents are very engaged in many issues that are on our docket so I thank um all of our residents for all of the emails that I've been receiving about many issues um and I apologize for not being able to write everybody back um immediately so far but I will get to you and I really appreciate your advocacy and everybody for sharing their opinions because that's what makes democracy um it's nice to have those conversations and on that note I will remind everyone that the board of school estimate meeting is next Tuesday February 13th on WebEx thank you thank you Miss Ango any questions for Committee Member angle no can we send somebody over to the chef Jesse thing so we can get our share of Gumbo since we're going to be oh I know seriously I'll get it for I'll eat for you okay thank you it's Tuesday and I'm not gonna be get said he's gonna eat it for us I'll eat on behalf of the township no no no I want my cut I'll bring you a cup Weare five helping Mr DeLuca is gonna be full all right thank you um for my report everybody covered everything particularly um the events that took place this past weekend um again a shout out and a a gratitude nod to U Miss manuso and her staff and department for a very full weekend and for her attendance and her I hope her daughter U enjoyed herself because she was she was I'm sure made to come to a lot of these um also I was also going to just make a comment um because we are hearing from members of the community um on both sides of the Middle East issue and um I agree with Mr daffis and I won't go on too long because you said everything pretty much just you know we work really hard at being respectful we're being you know asked by members of the community to stop the aggressive behavior of um those on another side of an issue and there's a peace rally and then get some um members of the community both South Orange and Maplewood and maybe Beyond who are aggressive in their tactics there's little we can do um because there's First Amendment right in this country that is extremely strong as it should be um that does doesn't mean we agree with their tactics or what they say or what they do but we certainly cannot stop them unless they cross the line in which case um our police will get involved and they should be notified and there has been um some police um action on some members of the um extreme side who is making who are making life a little uncomfortable for those who just want to do their right to public um protest or rally and um so that said we we ask everyone in the community and those who know who they are who are stirring the pot a little bit too much and not allowing people to disagree with them respectfully we ask them to rethink their behavior and um to be respectful of people on this very complex issue so with that I oh anybody have any question questions for me you probably don't um okay so we have discussion items and the first item is H proposed 15% Fair increase by our beloved New Jersey Transit mrca thank you mayor um as we've all heard New Jersey Transit is proposing a 15% across the board increase starting on July 1 2024 they've identified a 119 U billion million dollar deficit um and they claim that they have come up with savings to reduce it but uh Savings of 44 Millions to reduce that they've also found another way to raise some other money but the bulk of it will be covered by a systemwide fair adjustment as they call it a 15% which would raise $ 1017 million um for Maplewood commuters the current monthly Fair to from New York would go from 20 227 a month to 261 that's an annual increase of $48 and it goes from $2,700 to $3,200 so it it does add up and you know as we sit here and we work very hard to keep our budget right uh property tax down you know in one little quick thing it gets lost by a fair increase um the oneway ride from here will be will go to almost $9 and that's $23 so dollar $230 cents more a day for a one zone bus rider and it sound doesn't sound like much it goes from a160 to A180 um that's over $100 a day if you take the bus and many of our neighbors in our urban areas who don't have the ab availability of an automobile they they live on the bus yeah and these increases um are really staggering when talk when you're talking about people who are modest means who are um uh employed don't make large salaries uh in addition to the 15% increase there's going to be a 3% increase every year on July 1 for how many years we don't know they haven't identified that um there are public hearings across the state uh just a couple little more background the regional plan Association of New York uh and New Jersey noted that New Jersey Transit is the last public transportation carrier in the country that does not have a dedicated tax for funding for funding uh and in New Jersey we have dedicated taxes we have 23 dedicated taxes on the book so we could easily have a dedicated tax a Transit tax to cover these costs uh we just lost a billion dollars by getting the corporate business search charge off the books on December 31st uh many people said we should have left it there to cover our needs we have a budget deficit and certainly could have helped to cover this um situation so what I'm suggesting is that we uh pass a resolution tonight um in opposition to the 15% increase that we express our support to um to make sure that the any increase is Equitable and that Urban bus riders do not bear the the brunt of this and are taking into consideration a special need for them and that we do establish a dedicated tax for public transit in New Jersey so that would be my resolution yeah my motion I would agree with that I also um the thought that they're just automatically going up 3% every year like it seems so arbitrary to me not based on much not to mention the fact that they've cut Services as well as many of our locations are not accessible correct the fact that they're asking for all this extra money and not providing additional Services is ridiculous yeah the seniors advisory committee is actually in the process of putting together our own letter okay to send to Trenton as well as to New Jersey Transit opposing this good Mr Deluga does this go does any of this address the capital projects that they are so far behind on such as this is just operating just op operting any other thoughts comments discussion disgruntlement I agree with the resolution yeah I agree as well okay um Miss cdio so do you want to well we have to vote on it and I'll work with you on putting together a resolution great okay so we have a motion in a second really for Mr Duca and then me so Mr K yes Mr daffis yes Mr DeLuca yes SLE yes mayor Adams yes thank you um the next item is movie theater Redevelopment era so we are um as everyone knows we we made this area um an area in need of Redevelopment non- condemnation area in need of Redevelopment that was passed by the township committee and affirmed by the planning board um we do have two public meetings set up and this will go out on our different um Communications text message and alerts but also it will be up on our website the dates for community meeting are February 29th um and March 14th and the time is still to be determined we are there's a resolution on for my colleagues to approve for uh Hiring Our planner to facilitate those meetings for the community to have input of basically what the community would like to see in this block of our beloved Village for that um Incorporated the movie theater space so it we're calling this the movie theater Redevelopment area because why not and it describes what it is so everybody's not confused but it includes uh the Bank of America building and um pretty much all the buildings on Maplewood Avenue to the corner of Inwood and to the corner of Woodland with the exception of the um Bergdorf building there what I don't know what's in there now I can't think real estate office real so it was it was long time ago the Bergdorf real estate so now it's still real estate but anyway that's not included in this but the rest of the buildings on Maplewood Avenue inclusive of the Bank of America building are so we're looking for input from the community as to what we want to see there and we want um Mr gel to uh facilitate that SWAT analysis and get input from everybody so I'll ask for everyone's um support on the resolution to retain him to do so what was the second date March what March 14th 14th and the 29th is at the Woodland right yes yeah we confirm the Woodland we're not confirmed on this March 14th space yet because it'll either be the Woodland or the Bergdorf okay and then if we need a third community meeting we will do so probably here yeah I shared the 29th at the Woodland with the MVA the other night during our board meeting okay good do we have a time is it going to be six o'clock Mr feary or 7 or did we not figure that out yet we're discussing times okay we'll let everybody the TC as well as the public know when it's confirmed okay thank you anything else on that from anybody okay uh undertak Na natural resource inventory study in 2024 Mr DeLuca yes thank you um so the environmental advisory committee has uh made a recommendation to the planning engineering engineering Public Works and planning committee uh that in 2024 we undertake a um natural resources inventory the last time we did this was in 2006 and it is consistent with the new master plan to um just get a handle on on our um open space uh the you know everything from trees to Recreation areas historic assets I mean I was just listing uh since 2006 some of the things we've added senior building the Woodland the Gazebo the skate park the basketball court at deart the rain Gardens composting program we're talking about the inclusive playground we have his historic designation of this building historic designation of Maplewood Village so we have a lot of things that we've done that are not captured in the 2006 uh resource directory so um I think that uh the planning engineering engineering plan Public Works and planning commit I'm reading something it says planning uh the engineering Public Works and planning committee was favorable to moving this uh Mr kitner is favorable to moving this there is a uh grant program that's available the proposals are due by noon on Friday and um what I'd like to do is get a resolution pass that uh would allow us to apply for this um and uh also in addition to applying for it have a conversation during one of our next budget meetings as to whether or not we can put it into the budget or not and um because I don't know if it's reimbursable or not the grant but in any event we'll just have a sense of uh both two steps one to put the application in and second to talk about uh uh putting it in our capital budget so I would make a motion that we apply to sustainable Jersey for natural resources inventory Grant second I'll SC yes Mr daffis yes yes SLE yes mayor Adams yes thank you thank you think it's going for yeah you you're on it great thanks next budget meeting dates um I actually only have one to toss out to everybody that I think we have consensus on February 27th just if the public is keeping score that's pretty much the week that we're we're not supposed to do anything we have meetings every night right it's the only one we're free I have I have a lot of meetings that fourth week yeah February 27 so February 27th at 6 PM in this room will be our next budget Workshop I think the last one um we got a lot covered of the big chunk of the Departments um Mr wary can you inform us which will which departments will be on that meeting I'll tell you who we have left yeah Court Health Community Development Finance Public Safety special Improvement districts the directly funded Community groups and OST okay should be able to do all those yes yeah we should they're short yes can you alert the SIDS that they need to be here for the 27th yes because they probably I'll let the MBA know first they're going to be long yeah and then um I believe we need to you need to coordinate with the director of Community Development may have a conflict so maybe she's going to be at the end of that meeting or we'll work out all first thing in the beginning something okay great and she may have to be remote but sure okay that moves us to the consent agenda I believe we have a couple of resolutions we would like to um pull out yes U mayor uh I would like to pull out resolution 17 o resolution number 6324 this is a resolution for USA Architects and I'd like to pull out um 17- AF or 8124 that's 8124 this is the corrective action plan and then with those two re um out of the consent agenda I would move the consent agenda second M fritson SC yes Mr daffis yes Mr DeLuca yes M angle yes mayor Adams yes thank you and to those two resols May yes on um resolution 633-2424 to up to 25,000 I'll second that any com any discussion okay okay Miss fritzen call right yes Mr daffis yes Mr DeLuca yes angle yes mayor Adams yes thank you do we need to move it at uh m c do we need to move it as an amended resolu so I move the amended resolution 6324 which reflects up to 25,000 second I thought that's what we just voted on but okay voted on the amendment got it main motion M K yes Mr daffis yes Luca yes kenle yes mayor Adams yes thank you and on resolution [Music] 881-2483 please raise your hand now do we have members of the public can you see we do yes we have eight seven right included that TV there are no members of the public on Zoom who have raised their hands okay with that I'll accept a motion to adjourn so moved second yes Mr daffis yes Mr DeLuca yes M angle yes mayor Adams yes thank you we'll see you on February 20th right yep yep do my math thank you everyone