##VIDEO ID:zWneuRfQVSo## e e e e e e e e yep okay cool um where's my statement here it is there it pursuant to section 5 chapter 231 public law 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 statement of regular meeting here it is pursuant to section five chapter 231 Public Law 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 statement of regular meeting there it is pursuant to section 5 chapter 231 Public Law 1975 for the record that adequate Noti has been provided to the public by posting and maintaining the annual notice St of regular meeting it is yeah let's fix this pursuant to section 5 chapter 231 Public Law oh my God you're Lo for the record that has been provided by maintain the technical difficulties please stand by okay I'm afraid to talk do I have to reread the whole thing or just everybody's heard it like five times I'll just go to by mail in the annual notice of regular meetings for 202 and Star Ledger in December 2023 I'm afid by filing said notice I have to reread the whole thing everybody's heard it like five times I'll just go to by mailing the annual notice of regular meetings for 2020 e e if it helps anybody feeling better I have no report so test okay do you want me to say more uh do you want me to just lead the Pledge of Allegiance okay everyone please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge of alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indiv with liberty and justice for all may I need to make uh read my statement and take a roll call I'm sorry I need to read my statement and take oh I'm sorry we were just trying to test the mic okay yes please thank you than right now here a pres Luka here fle here mayor Adams here where chapter 231 publical 1975 commonly known as the open public meetings act requires all meetings of public audience be open to the public and whereas section 7A provides that the governing body has a discretion to perit or regulate the AC of participation of public in any meeting and whereas as are the governing body to comply with the provision its act same time to conduct its business in an order ly and expeditious manner now therefore be resolved by the township committee Township mwood does hereby prohibit accept to set forth in the formal agenda active participation and deliberation of the governing body by the public and acceptance otherwise prescribed by law does limit the public to the observations of the actions and discussion of the governing body at all of its regular and special meetings moved second second M K yes daffis yes Mr Luca yes Miss Engle yes mayor Adams yes thank you thank you good evening everyone and welcome to the Tuesday October 15th meeting of the Maplewood Township committee um we will I'll just run through real quickly we have one two proclamations one for the Community Coalition on race and one for Italian Heritage Month uh the first will be read by Mr Duca the second by Miss KP uh boards and committees we have one appointment to the Maplewood swimming pool advisory committee of Sandra copitch and then we have public comment for agenda items only then we have uh one ordinance on Final pack or I'm sorry is that all on Final passage three yeah three three on Final passage sorry ordinance for um the code with historic preservation part that went to the planning board at its last meeting and coming back to us for second um approval ordinance for amending chapter 123 with respect to food trucks and their fees and then ordinance amending chapter 257 uh for vehicles on traffic that's with regard to no no parking being allowed on South Orange Avenue by the top apartment building um where they exit then we have no introductions of new ordinances tonight then we have administrative reports Mr weary miss cdio and miss fritzen then we have reports from elected officials Committee Member daff Committee Member angle Deputy Mayor kpe and Committee Member Duca and then me we have three discussion items on for tonight A containment ordinance discussion crossing guards discussion and allowing parking on a portion of inward place and then we will go through our consent agenda then we'll go to a second public comment on any subject matter and then we will adjourn um but I just want to make a statement before we get to to um the proclamations so uh first I want to um extend my best wishes to a speedy recovery for our police officer who was working the County's road construction job on Valley near the Crescent when he was struck by a driver turning onto Valley Street our officer needed to be transported to the hospital to receive medical attention we just want to say how sorry we are this happen and hope that his healing is going well second I extend heartfelt concern for the children their families who were involved in the traffic accident last week on Prospect Street at Oakland I sincerely hope your children are recovering well both mentally and physically and I totally understand how distressing this situation must be for you these two incidents illustrate the need for drivers to be alert and cautious as they are driving in our town at the last Township committee meeting at the request of Milbourne mayor Romano who had asked several Mayors in the area to promote safety I made a statement to remind D drivers that schools are open and to remember to drive safely and be alert to pedestrians this is even more important now I know we are going to talk about crossing guards later in the meeting but I wanted to update you on what we've been talking about and what we've been doing since then we have discussed the area of prospect at Elmwood in Oakland with engineering and Public Works committee led by Mr Duca and are discussing options for physical modifications to it we set up cones to reduce uh speed and added in instreet signs pending and all the rest is pending decisions on more permanent changes we are putting these temporary conditions up we have put out a vehicle speed sign trailer on Prospect Street and then we discussed the accident where the accident occurred at Public Safety last week and emphasized the need for more traffic enforcement especially during school commuting hours these incidents and your concerns highlight the need for better communication about the safest routes to school and clearer guidance for both students and drivers in the area I have asked the school's superintendent to work with us and with South Orange to create an education campaign for all residents with regard to traffic safety for both drivers and pedestrians particularly our school kids we are working together with the Schools starting with our meeting this morning to create a campaign that will teach students through their classroom teachers about pedestrian safety including crossing streets in a crosswalk and how to make sure drivers see them and how important it is for them to pay attention when crossing the street we are also working in this new temporary committee on a visual campaign of posters in all classrooms and school buildings and on social media and our Town's websites the superintendent is also reaching out to student groups and clubs in the high school for help in working in this campaign and we'll be working with them on effective strategies for implementing it I want to reassure you the public that we are constantly reviewing our Town's infrastructure to prevent future incidents like the one on Prospect and I can ensure that the township is committed to making valuable adjustments to improve pedestrian safety we will also continue working with the local schools to promote safe practices for students walking to and from school so with that I will ask Mr Duca to please read the Community Coalition on Race uh Proclamation thank you mayor I don't see anybody here from the Coalition Thursday night I guess no okay uh um okay this is Community Coalition on Race month 2024 whereas the South Orange Maplewood Community Coalition on Race celebrates over 25 years of working to build and sustain a community that is racially culturally and socially integrated and truly inclusive where there is equity and equality for all and whereas hundreds of residents in our two towns in our two Town communities uh participate and benefit from Coalition sponsor concert forums discussions Publications and activities and whereas the Community Coalition proudly sponsors the annual Dr Martin Luther King Jr observance and luminary project and whereas the Coalition schedules other events throughout the year including conversations on Race Coffee House discussions on issues like racial wealth Gap policing and more anti-bias and anti-racism training talking to Children about race workshops and integrated art circles and whereas the Coalition supports equity and inclusion through the wealth Gap equalizer Loan program the annual preschool open house the realtor advisory the neighborhood Summit and affirmative Community marketing and whereas the Community Coalition has partnered with local Civic Community educational and faith-based organizations to sponsor pro- integrative initiatives that continue to position Maplewood and South Orange as models for communities around the country now therefore on behalf of Mayor Nancy Adams and the Maplewood Township committee I Victor Duca do do hereby proclaim the month of October 2024 as Community Coalition on Race month in the township of map wood and in so doing affirm the continued commitment of the township of Maplewood to support the mission of the South Orange Maplewood Community Coalition on race thank you we also have an Italian Heritage Month Proclamation thank you mayor the proclamation for Italian Heritage Month whereas the month of October is designated as Italian Heritage Month to celebrate the rich culture history and contributions of Italian Americans to the fabric of our nation and whereas the state of New Jersey has long been home to a vibrant and proud Italian American Community with millions of residents who Trac their ancestry back to Italy making significant contributions in the fields of Arts education business government and Beyond and whereas italian-americans have played an integral role in the development of our State bringing with them the values of family hard work and community and while preserving their cultural traditions and sharing them with others and whereas italian-americans imig immigrants helped shape the United States through their dedication and labor overcoming adversity and discrimination and leaving a legacy of determination resilience and success and whereas Italian-American Heritage Month provides an opportunity for all residents to learn more about the historical and cultural achievements of Italian Americans while also recognizing their continued contributions to our society today and whereas the Italian-American Community significantly enriched the diversity and multiculturalism of New Jersey fostering an appreciation for Italian Arts language food and traditions that are now part of our state's cultural landscape now therefore on behalf of Mayor Nancy Adams of the township of Maplewood and on behalf of the Maplewood Township committee I do hereby proclaim the month of October as Italian Heritage Month in Maplewood and encourage all citizens to honor and celebrate the contributions of Italian amican amans to the progress and culture of our great country thank you thank you all right we'll move on to um pool advisory committee angle thank you so much um Miss copak do you want to come up to the podium and just introduce yourself and um say why you would like to join the pool advisory committee yeah is that M make sure the mic is green on the bottom right in front of you we got it good evening uh again my name is Sandra copek and I've lived in Maplewood since 2003 um my my um I guess I I my oldest daughter is now 16 and it wasn't until that she was born and I had my second daughter that we joined the the pool and I feel that's when we really became part of the community before that it was just you know single or married without kids working and just coming home and going doing it all over again so it wasn't until uh till after we started taking them to the pool that I met my neighbors and really felt like we became part of the community both my daughters um grew up well since then you know have been swimming uh with the makos team they are competitive swimmers so they swim pretty much all the time so we're pretty much part of the pool and um I feel that it's it's a very much important part of the community and I'd like to try to bring any kind of ideas or help to uh make it better for everyone and for have more people join so forth thank you thank you so much I'll also add that you've been the um parent volunteer coordinator for the past couple of years for the makos which is a tough job to Wrangle all those parents so you know you should applaud yourself on that for bagels um any questions from my colleagues from Miss copitch no not for me sound great with that I move Sandra copitch to um join the pool advisory committee with a term ending December 31st 2026 second and M yes Mr daffis yes congratulations yes M angle yes mayor Adams yes thank you and congrats thank you welcome fellow 2003 mover thank you so much and you're welcome to stay and watch the rest of our meeting or go home and hang out with your family watch the game okay with that now we move to public comment for agenda items only I invite members of the public who are here to address the township committee um you come up to the microphone and you have three minutes to speak You' give your name and address and talk to us agenda items include the discussion item for crossing guards so if anything things related to uh the accident that I referenced you can speak now to hi oops Yeah you're taller I'm Jacob Lambert I live on Oakland Road you probably guess what I'm here to talk about um I just want to say mayor Adams you said a lot of nice good things tonight about the crossing guard situation and that Oakland Road and everything that's happened but a lot of good things were also said last Wednesday and I don't feel like appropriate action has been taken yet um orange cones in the road are not enough to protect our kids from the drivers on Prospect um it's an incredibly dangerous spot and the day that the Cones were put down they' already been knocked over um I don't know what the real intent is there to make it look like concerns are being taken seriously but I don't feel that they are um I went around and got signatures the last couple days um on this petition and almost everyone I talked to in that area has a horror story about that intersection um something really needs to be done and it's not traffic cones we need an adult there when there's kids I don't disagree that more education is needed for drivers because clearly people don't care um but we need at minimum a crossing guard traffic cones is not going to cut it I'm sorry um so I hope you take this seriously because I'm taking it super seriously I know we don't have the cast of thousands I was hoping would show up tonight but a lot of people are out there hoping that something is done because people are legitimately scared to cross the street not just there but in a lot of a lot of spots in Maplewood so please take this seriously I assure you we do can uh you leave the petition with the clerk Mr Lambert can you tell us what the petition says what it calls for and how many signatures you have here at the MIP okay we can read it when she the clerk will distribute it to us thank you okay thank you hi uh my name is Jonah Davis I am a resident of Maplewood um I'm I supposed to give my address where I live um 39 Brookwood Drive um I didn't write anything down I didn't really plan to speak speak tonight but um hearing your opening remarks and hearing what Jay said I do come in support of uh Jay and um his daughter and his friend and her daughter's friend his daughter's friend who um who were involved in the accident um I think that infrastructure is an important part of the equation um but to Echo what Jay said um I [Music] am dumbfounded at at the driver Behavior and the driver volume in this town um I don't know where these cars came from um like I the there are um lines at almost every traffic light um heading to the train station um heading towards the schools um it didn't feel like this last year I don't know what has happened um I mean I have some ideas I know there's a lot of theories around um the um uh the changing of the I'm losing my um memory for the um the word for um how people are going to town going to schools in different parts of the Town um intentional inte yeah um and so people are driving further um there's a lack of buses um and and on top of that greater traffic creates greater stress uh more reckless driving um and there it just seems to be chaos and so I don't know what the solutions are I have not done my research like this all like came um this is all just in the last couple of days where I've opened my eyes to this issue um given how real the um the Fallout has been but it appears to me that um there is an element of driver behavior and Driver discipline that needs to be enforced um whether that is um greater enforcement by police um or whether it's um requirements for um licensed renewal uh depending on age um I think there are just a lot of options and I would suggest and invite the town to um consider all possible options to try to figure out how to calm the situation thank you there anyone else like to speak hi um my name is Mia Tanner I I live at three suffk Avenue and I'm a seventh grader at Maplewood Middle School and when I usually walk to school um me and my friend Maya we usually pick up um we usually walk together to go to the corner of where my friend's houses are and then we walk with them down to school so we had picked them up that day and usually Maya and one of our other friends walk down a bit faster than some of us so when we had gotten to the corner of that street uh they had already like crossed and we had to usually wait a bit to cross because there's like no traffic light there and so we waited and then we started to cross the street and then out of the corner of my eye I saw like this car and it kind of like came out of nowhere so I kind of just like stepped back a bit and then that happened um and it was like it didn't even feel like real it just felt like crazy like it felt like I was like imagining it in my head and then everything after that was like random events that just happened so yeah thank you thank you for coming up anyone else like to speak hi there um my name is Paul Burger I live in South Orange uh I hadn't actually planned on speaking this evening um my kids go to South Orange middle school and Columbia High School and most days they they walk and I feel safe knowing that they're walking because most of the busy intersections that they cross even actually on tichner Avenue where I live which is not very busy at all as a crossing guard and I just think crossing guards obviously they help right they they attract the driver's attention they kind of stop the kids from Crossing when it's not safe and then they help them across the road um by chance this morning I was actually driving down Prospect around 7:20 a.m. 7:25 and even knowing what happened with the kids and also like like always trying to be a a careful driver and knowing the town and the roads really well it was kind of weird when I got to the section with the cones in them as a driver I actually found it a little bit disorienting because suddenly the road was kind of narrowing like that but I still had you know a car up my ass and people all around and I remember there was a maybe it was a dad and his kid at the side and I I noticed them come towards the crosswalk and wasn't sure whether toing break suddenly in case they wanted to Cross or keep going because I was worried that the person behind me would hit me and in that Split Second I made the decision to keep going but as a as a driver I just found it like a very stressful situation to be in and so um you know I I I work as a as a reporter I've cover transportation for like 10 years and I I know that often people blame motorists or motor blame pedestrians but I think often these are just accidents that are preventable and I just think that whatever measures you're looking at it seems to me like a crossing guard who can uh stop traffic when it needs to be stopped stop pedestrians when they they need to be stopped especially when you're dealing with with kids going to school it just seems like the most sensible solution thank you thank you anyone else in the in the room want to speak we have hands up online if any members of the public joining us on Zoom would like to speak in public portion please raise your hand now okay but we have a yep yeah hi good evening my name is Erin Sherer I live at 49 Oberlin Street and I'm a parent of a seventh grader at Maplewood Middle School many of you have known my daughter literally since we moved to town almost 12 years ago go and we were pushing her in a baby carriage that bright yellow baby carriage and now that child that you all knew and watched her grow up now walks to Maplewood Middle School on her own my child has shared with me times when drivers do not stop don't pay attention to gaggles of kids walking to school with big backpacks that are actually a little bigger than them she has shared times despite representation from the police department that the corner of Harvard and Prospect does not have a crossing guard and there's not another officer there to cover that intersection that's already an area that has been designated and there are times where there's no coverage at all while I appreciate the action that's coming into place it is unacceptable that we are now eight days after this incident where two children could have died that there is not a human being at that corner to cross the street as a taxpayer and we are all taxpayers here we would like information on how much extra it will cost to have a human being at multiple Corners throughout this town it would be good to have a human being at the corner of Oakland and Prospect it would be good to have a human being at the corner of Oakville Oakview and Prospect and we do a lot of services in our town but life and safety has to be the number one priority I can appreciate better communication and encouraging our children to cross the street but I can 100% guarantee that every child that crosses that road whether to go to Maplewood Middle tusin Clinton High School crossing over to go to Seth boen going to Clinton they know how to cross these streets because from a very young age when they sat in their in their baby carriage they saw their parents teaching them how to cross that road signs in classrooms is not going to change this it changes when you have a human being there redirecting and reang action similar to the last person who spoke we pay a lot in taxes here and what I would like my taxpayer dollars spent on is not another movie night not another event at the Woodland I would like a human being to make sure my daughter and her classmates who are incredibly beautiful powerful smart people to be able to go to school and not have fear I look forward to continuing the follow up and I hope the next time I'm here I'm not reciting the number of days that there hasn't been a crossing guard there and I would like to point out was the last comment while I'm very sad that a police officer was hit in the line of duty that officer was wearing body gear and a bright green shirt these children don't have that they have no protection on them you need to put a human there to protect them thank you you now there's someone coming Pat there are no raised hands on Zoom mayor okay go ahead you can come on up uh hi my name is Maya Lis I also I'm also a seventh grader at MMS um I live at 32 ball Terrace and um me I was the friend me and my other friend were walking up ahead and we were like oh wait we should wait for other friends cuz like we wanted to stop and wait for them like so we sort of just waiting up ahead and like I heard my friend Kate who was the one who hurt her ankle like scream and I turned around and like a rush of like sort of like panic and worry sort of hit me like like the few days after that we like walked down towards the presentence where it like was a crossing guard but like now we still like walk there like still not the same like safeness like that we feel so like it would be better than just like orange cones there like like an actual person like the last person said to like help us cross the road easier yeah thank you is there one anyone else in the chambers here who would like to speak okay oh hi I'll be fast Mia Herman 6 South Crescent so we live right between Valley Street and Prospect these two streets that had these accidents um and I did actually sign that petition so you'll see my name on it because I do think we need a crossing guard on Prospect um maybe more than one but I do think that's important and until we get a guard there I do think we should have um maybe a police officer uh helping the children cross I did want to also point out that a lot of times kids cross when it's not school hours because you know and especially with the intentional integration um initiative they're making friends all across town and so they are crossing when they're going to their friend's house on the weekend and after school so it's another reason why really need to be looking at complete streets and vision Zero vision zero means no deaths no um no one getting hurt from Cars so that's that's the goal and that's what we should be striving toward um and I did also want to mention that on Valley um there's a section of sidewalk right in front of my house that has gravel on it and there are actually no cones there and the kids have to walk down that sidewalk when they cross Valley um at Baker so if you're kind of picturing sort of where that is um so we actually had a um Postman cutting through our yard and going through our trees and I told him um can you please use the sidewalk and he's like what sidewalk I'm going to get hit and it's this big you know post guy with the construction you mean it's it's the construction and they've got cones in other areas but they really should put cones protecting like that like signifying that that's like a sidewalk P follow yeah a Crossing so I would just want want to point that out as well but anyway thank you thank you anyone else would like to address the township committee okay seeing none we'll move to uh ordinances on Final passage mayor um number eight ordinance on Final passage ordinance number 3129 d24 is an ordinance to amend chapter 271 of the code of the township mwood entitled zoning and development regulations this ordinance will amend article 8 historic preservation of chapter 271 of the township code to modify the procedures by which applications for demolition permits for principal structures located in residential zones are reviewed and approved this ordinance has been published copies posted on the bulletin board in the municipal building and copies made available to the general public in accordance with the law is there anyone here who would like to address the township committee regarding this ordinance anyone online Mr wor if anyone joining us on Zoom would like to speak on this ordinance please raise your hand now I see no hands mayor seeing none may I get a motion Mr Mr Dua um Mr dfus oh sorry oh I DD sorry no worries VD no worries mayor 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 second M yes Mr daffis yes Mr DeLuca yes M angle yes mayor Adams yes thank you we have another ordinance on Final um can I interrupt I'm sorry I'm sorry you had to experience that I've been sitting in this for a little while and I watched both of you express trauma response physically it's what I do for a living is working with youth and as I'm watching you wiggle and look down and not make eye contact it hurt me to know that we got you hurt we as a collective as adults because those were adults out there driving and not paying attention to you and not caring enough about your Humanity because we had some place to go um we have to take this more seriously and I agree 100% with every single thing every person who came to that mic said it can't be one tier and we've got to do something faster because we got real close to losing two people in less than two in a week and it when I first moved here back in 2003 one of the first things I had actually heard on maplewood online this weird little Forum that people used to misbehave at but yeah we don't do that anymore right um was that you don't speed in Maplewood that quickly became the past we need to bring it back Maplewood needs to be known as the town that you pay attention or we're going to hit you in your pocketbook until you start paying attention we're going to make it so uncomfortable for you because you're making it uncomfortable for our kids you're making it uncomfortable for our commuters you're making it impossible we're pushing for bike safety and all these wonderful initiatives to get us out into the streets what for if the streets aren't going to be safe for us to be out there in them we've got to do more than just throw quick little Solutions at it if we have to reach out to the county to see whatever resources they have available if we need to start reaching out and speaking to individual drivers like heck I don't know have parking people standing there at at at drop offs handing Flyers to people saying hey if you live this far away you should leave at this time whatever it is that we need to do to help people not feel like they can't walk in a walkable Community safely so I again I am so sorry that your experience is that and you shouldn't have to do that at seventh grade God Middle School sucks hard enough you don't need to have to have it outside of Middle School be pressurized like that too um and I'm putting it on all of us including our chief of police we've got to do better we've got to do better and whatever that looks like even if it is uncomfortable sorry that's the job we've got to do it because we can't have another person hurt over something as silly as just slow down slow down and pay attention I'm sorry thank you it's okay it's okay that's why we're discussing uh the I know I just it just it just kind of felt like we were like next it's literally all good I know I know but it is yeah part of it is right yeah to just Monitor and wait so but appreciate that I know you I know that hurt so back to business before we get to the discussion items we do have business yeah uh mayor also on Final and ordinance yes the second ordinance on 3130 d24 is an ordinance to amend and supplement chapter 123 of the code of the township of mwood entitled fees and chapter 305 entitled food establishments with respect to food trucks this ordinance will revise permit procedures with respect to food trucks this ordinance has been published copies posted on the bulletin board in the municipal building and copies made available to the general public in accordance with the law is there anyone here who would like to speak to this ordinance Mr Ry anybody online any members of the public on Zoom would like to to speak on this ordinance please raise your hand now I see no hands mayor okay with that uh can we get a motion Mr daffis certainly mayor 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 Mr great yes Mr daffis yes Mr DeLuca yes angle yes mayor Adams yes thank you third ordinance on Final uh yes mayor uh item 8C ordinance 3131 D 24 ordinance amending and supplementing chapter 257 in the Township Code entitled vehicles and traffic to implement parking limits on a portion of South Orange Avenue this ordinance will add a no parking area on a portion of South Orange Avenue this 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 laws there anyone here who would like to speak on this ordinance Mr warry any public on Zoom would like to speak on this ordinance please raise your hand now I see no hands mayor okay may I get a motion this time Mr I move this ordinance be adopted as a whole in 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 Mr K yes Mr daffis yes Mr DeLuca yes SLE yes mayor Adams yes thank you we'll move on to administrative reports right now Mr wey thank you mayor one report happy to announce that the consent agenda tonight includes the hiring of a public information officer Kristen Downey so we're very thankful for that this was a position funded uh in the 2024 budget new position to the township uh part-time plenty of work to be done so we are excited for them to start next week we had a very competitive process with over 75 applicants uh many very very highquality applicants many applicants from map wood so uh competitive process and congratulations to Miss Downey on being selected okay thank you any questions for Mr wary from the township committee none okay we'll move on to our Township attorney Miss CIO no report mayor any questions for Miss CIO okay we'll go to miss cler miss clerk miss fritsen our cler oh just a couple things mayor uh first I want to just uh lead off to indicate that my office is open straight through till 9 o' tonight voter registration and I'm noticing it's about uh 45 minutes so if you are not registered to vote for the upcoming November presidential general election uh you may come down to the uh Township clerk's office I have a staff um that would be happy to uh walk you through the application process to become a registered voter for November great secondly uh I just wanted to mention that uh we have let's see three uh events coming up we have uh volunteer appreciation uh dinner coming up next Monday with um great participation uh of course an election we follow that and uh for over a month we've had all the particulars up on the township website with all the uh dates uh all the places that you could do early voting if you chose to um and all the deadlines for uh vote by mail ballots and uh of course any questions that come in Walkin and uh on the phone we're happy to answer and then uh we'll be going into uh probably my favorite uh activity that we do here and that's Veterans Day and that'll be on November 11th right here in this room it's a Monday thank you thank you any questions for Mr prson okay we'll move on to elected officials uh we'll start with Committee Member daus thank you mayor um Deputy Mayor KP I just want to acknowledge I just want to thank you for uh for centering us it is very difficult to segue into what seems to be superficial matters um but I will I will get through my report of the other business that we're doing in the township so that we can quickly get to the crossing guard discussion yesterday was uh Monday uh second Monday in October which we have proclaimed as indigenous people's day uh South Orange hosted a celebration this year we hosted last year uh we didn't make a proclamation tonight as didn't make the agenda but hopefully we can include one with the next agenda in honor of the LPI people um whose Land We inhabit today and I just kind of remind us to keep that on going tradition um when I was mayor I opened every meeting with the land acknowledgement um which I know is not everybody's cup of tea but it is important if we're serious about indigenous people and their contribution and our being an inclusive community to keep doing those things uh I remind us that we removed a statue a Columbus statue uh out of the park here in Maplewood we had a very successful art walk this past weekend on Sunday record attendance I hear and ever expanding group of artists I'd like to thank all of our participating artists and vendors and to our Maplewood Village manager Ain Rose baldry and to uh gerilyn Robinson our tireless founder and chair um of the art walk that we do every year in in October on Friday uh we celebrated and honored the 36th annual National Coming Out Day by having a coming out Day celebration right here outside on the Plaza our third one uh thus far we held space we shared story of self and once again our youth showed their strength their resilience and their love including my trans nephew Kaden who joined us from Fanwood where they don't do what we do in Maplewood and that's the point that's why we do it here even if only one kid shows up because we are a Beacon of Hope We are a leader on October 7th on Monday uh no October 7th yeah it was on Monday I I and Committee Member Duca were able to attend a oneyear 107 commemoration ceremony um standing in solidarity with our Jewish Community here and everywhere it was very moving affirming and a very powerful ceremony I'd like to remind folks if they haven't already bought their tickets for men's Gala me meeting essential needs with dignity it's at Saturday night this Saturday night at the Woodland menend has been uh tremendous partner of ours uh with respect to our food shed and they've become a regional strong leader in fighting food insecurity and I've been speaking to them and other relevant stakeholders recently about how we might be able to strengthen our operations at our food shed while continuing fighting food in security the master plan implementation working group has work has been working through zoning recommendations that were made in the recent master plan we adopted last August and I'm talking here about those that relate to revising expanding or retiring certain nodes in our business and Commercial districts I presented an early summary of uh that proposal at the recent code committee to get the conversation started and the next steps will be to continue exploring this speaking to the zoning board zoning officials Gathering input from affected merchants and even surrounding residents our initial discussion was productive and substantive which we touched upon several underlying issues to zoning changes including our current parking requirements and also about making sure that our growth and development is smart and thoughtful tonight we will discuss the possibility of of adopting a municipal contaminant containment ordinance other municipalities have either done or are exploring another item from code committee I'm sure the mayor will update the community about the Maplewood theater Redevelopment draft plan which we discussed in the committee on entrepreneurship and economic development last week about where things stand currently I've started laying the groundwork for Reviving our rent leveling board our former chair is still serving the community even while in retirement in terms of handling rent increased inquiries he receives and other landlord tenant issues we will be exploring a revised rent leveling or rent Control Ordinance for Maplewood the master plan recommends this too the community board on police's October meeting this month is at the end of the month uh a typical for us October 30th and we're preparing for our annual Retreat next month scheduled for November 16th The Village Center Lot the parking lot behind um elk what used to be arturos milling and Paving the Reconstruction of that lot has started this week in terms of staging and we understand that that project should last about a month no later than mid November fingers crossed and as you heard from our clerk election day is fast approaching what is it 3 weeks from now there's still time to to apply to vote by mail if you think you won't be able to vote on Election Day there are many opportunities to get involved in a manner that suits your schedule and your preferences and information about those has been widely disseminated by the local press and local voter engagement groups get involved please do something thank you thank you any questions for Mr daffis I I just have not really a question but a note for the U Maplewood comes out day I request for next year if we can start a little later like 3:30 because Maplewood Middle School doesn't get out of school till 3:14 tuskin doesn't get out till 353 and Seth boen as well so it prohibits our Maplewood students from being able to go unless you're at CHS absolutely yeah and that and that's exactly what happened we didn't get started until about 3:30 quar or 4 yep thank you you're welcome okay we'll move to committee membering thank you um I also want to just thank our parents but especially our youth for coming out and speaking today that was very brave and I think it's really important to hear from all of you um so thank you I know you're all staying here so you'll hear more about our discussion later I also have a seventh grade at MMS so this hits really close to home but it's something we've been talking about for I feel like a year already and so I'm really sorry that this happened to our Community I'm really sorry that this happened to you and um know that we all want everybody in Maplewood to feel safe and so we'll going to be continuing to talk about it but thank you so much for coming out today um I just have one other update um the map so Foles I keep talking about and um Miriam and I had a chance to be the judges two of the judges at the auditions which are really spectacular I ran into our producer Tori today and she gave me a little preview about the other that have um sent in submissions and it's going to be a really really fun show in November um but uh video submissions are still being accepted until tomorrow Wednesday October 16th you can send one to three minute video submissions to map so FES at gmail.com um no solo acts you have to have at least two people in an act and it can be anything I really think we should have like a family juggling act so I know there's some performers sitting there so you can start thinking about what you want to do um and that's my report thank you any questions for Miss angle okay thanks uh Deputy Mayor kpe I have no report mayor okay you're up Mr Dela thank you mayor so today we had the uh final event of of the ideas Festival which was really great we had um the Olympic winners the Olympic gold medalists from Maplewood uh Jackie de brovich and from South Orange TOA Davidson and they were at the Hilton branch of the library we had the place was packed and the kids really love seeing their gold medals and asking them all kinds of questions about how they got involved and who they hung out with and at the Olympics and stuff like that so it was great so um yeah this is the third event we had a good event here uh BL week and then of course we had an event a couple weeks ago at the Woodland so the ideas festival for this year is is Con cluding we may have one additional thing if we can put it together but uh otherwise next year we'll have it in our new building for 2025 um want to give kudos to the Hilton neighborhood association for co-sponsoring uh The Purge Fest that's happening this Saturday it's a neighborhood garage sale we have 70 homes signed up um so if you if you don't have enough junk in your house come to our houses happy to bring you stuff happy to bring you stuff we're having Dollar Days at my house I want to um you know this is put together by the residents and then the association uh co-sponsored it and uh the town has been great working so thank you Miss fritsen uh the Springfield Avenue partnership is having a craft beer uh tasting and fundraiser on the 24th of October and that'll be in the parking lot of the wine barrel uh from 6:30 to 9:30 in the the wine barrel is at 1886 Springfield Avenue so if you're into drinking that would be the place to go and finally um today the township put out an election guide which was very helpful um you know election day is November 5th we heard today that is the last day to register to vote till 9:00 and that's 32 minutes from now but there's a lot of other dates um early voting is starts on October 26th and and that is um it goes until November 3rd and that is uh 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 P.M Monday through Saturday and 10: to 6:00 on Sunday there's also mailin ballots and you can submit your mailin ballots up until October 29th so um there's a lot of ways that you can still vote you can vote early and you can vote um through the mail we also have a DropBox which is located on Springfield Avenue um and that that's where we urge people to go so that we don't have problems with the mail so and that's my report mayor thank you any questions for Mr DeLuca well just to clarify it could only come to the beer tasting if you're 21 and up right yes because you and I will be the bouncers and chief we're tough yeah but no but see people have tried to bring their kids in previous years but you have to be 21 and to come we we do allow dogs but no children only dogs over seven dogs over dogs over three three three dogs over and we will card okay all right I just have a couple things um I attended the indigenous people Day celebration in spota Park in South Orange yesterday Deputy Mayor kpe joined for a while uh we were there representing Maplewood for that recognition and um it was cold and windy but it was um beautiful nicely nicely done um the little library was opened at the de harp at De har Park on Saturday was that Saturday at 1 and uh that's a contribution will be for kids books or adults books it's located if you're looking at the community center it's to the right like between the basketball court and the building so that you can donate books for that as well um and that'll be a really great resource for people um at our seed meeting which is the Comm committee for entrepreneurship and economic development um we talked about at length on um October 10th the movie theater Redevelopment area there is a contract purchaser for the movie theater building um it has not closed yet I don't know that it whether it'll close that's part of buying a property so they're going through the process of negotiating with the owner and we'll see if um if that closes if that's the case it's also the same owners for that contract purchase are own the Bank building and that corner of that block so um we'll see what happens we don't know yet and it's private to reiterate it's not Township owned property we have no involvement in who purchases this building the Redevelopment plan is to lay out what uses through zoning um will be permitted in that area so the Redevelopment plan we had three public meetings on that it is in draft form right now and we are still discussing it we'll be reaching out to the owners of or the prospective owners of the movie theater um property to talk with them about what they are thinking of doing there and how that fits with our Redevelopment plan that's in process so more to come on that as we continue to discuss it and figure out what we can do what we can control and what we can't control with regard to this private property in the Redevelopment area um and then I just want to say before we get to the discussion on um the crossing guards we do just to just to reiterate um thank you for coming and speaking out um I have I I do take issue with one thing we do take it very seriously that's why we've been talking internally with all departments that's why I've been working the cones are obviously just temporary because we cannot put a physical barrier there yet and if we are going to do that part of that process is testing it with cones and seeing how traffic moves and so on and so forth so it's not perfect it's not final and as with most things in democracy it takes we can't just do everything as fast as we always want it to be done but we are taking it seriously I think that's um at least it's abundantly clear to me and to our administrator and my colleagues because we've been talking about it literally every day since and um talking with our police with our DPW with our engineering and with the school district which is something I initiated this week to have a meeting with them and it's it is a huge part of it is education frankly and it's it's educating drivers who are distracted with their phones it's educating kids who are distracted with their phones it's educating everybody who are to pay attention it is it is a when you step out of your doors it's a society that you're walking into and we all have to be mindful that some people may not not be taking proper care with what they're doing so we need to be extra vigilant so we are taking it very seriously so um with any questions for me no okay great thanks we'll go into discussion items and we'll start with the containment or ordinance that I brought to code committee Mr yep thank you mayor so uh we've discussed this at code apologies for the title not being complete here it should a contaminant containment ordinance it's very difficult to say um so what is this this is an ordinance amending our construction code to specifically regulate a contractor's handling of Po polycarbonate and other materials including fiberglass concrete and pressure treated wood why would we do that because the cutting of those materials creates microplastics and they go everywhere they become environmental hazards in the water uh in in the soil they even contaminate our food um those of you who know me know that I had open heart surgery earlier this year back in April and I uh going into that process I had so many heart related tests like really sophisticated testing and I found out that when doctors are doing tests on people's hearts these days they're not just finding cholesterol or hardened arteries they're finding microplastics in our heart so think about that right this is a serious thing and so um this is an ordinance that basically lays out how contractors uh are supposed to contain these particles from entering the environment so the ordinance will help lessen the impact of these waste particles and um it's something that other communities have either adopted or are exploring yeah I I think it was what Shore town was it that we Margate Margate I was thinking Marboro yeah Margate did this ordinance and they have a a since they're so close to the ocean they're more inclined but we have all our water eventually goes to the ocean so we need to um I think we need to just just like we do for the lead for the paint on the side of a house sanding it containing that um this ordinance if we were to pass one which I hope we do that's what it uh brought it there for I'd like to invite our Township attorney Miss cdio did you want to add anything since you drafted this just a clarification um it will not apply just to contractors it'll be anyone who is cutting correct um correct you yeah some a homeowner make building something and so they have to contain like the sawdust or the of what the absolutely yeah anyone else want I guess I have some questions so wait so it's not just contractors it's homeowners that are going to be regulated and I guess my question is like what I mean I'm for it whatever all the pl like not having that I'm just I'm just looking at the other side so like I'm guessing there's a cost related to it to have to have extra stuff and also like the education component to the homeowners like I'm just so curious how this is actually going to be like executed and regulated so like contract is one thing but I'd be curious just because we did it with the leaf blowers like what the repercussions are to their businesses and their business model and then also for if if it's also homeowners I'm just not 100% sure how that like works and what projects fall the permit process through the permitting process probably yes so homeowners will have to pull a permit from the Buildings Department on the second floor here to to do something like this and that's when they'll be educated about what they need to do if we adopt big projects like if you're building your own deck at your house that kind of thing like with composite material because it's microplastics you know a number of the measures in the ordinance for all that they're effective are fairly simple so using a vacuum attachment on Power Tools tarping in area tar cleaning debris you know at least once daily so it doesn't disperse in the wind probably the the only one that I would think would be um more individual is um installing filters if there's going to be a drain of storm water to um uh to a to an inlet if it runs off your property and it's running into a storm drain um I think that would probably be a measure for a more significant project right but the rest of it I think is fairly um fairly straightforward lowcost Common Sense approaches that uh I think have a a higher yield result thank you Miss CR yeah anyone else want to discuss any part of it do Luca anything I'm good so we good to move this to ordinance on first reading yeah but I would like to know like if there's a cost related and I don't know if we've spoken to any contract I don't know I just feel like I don't think so I mean other than when you have to do a larger project so but if more and more towns are passing this requirement they're having to do this kind of protection elsewhere too and just to be clear as our attorney indicated some of the precautions if we were to adopt this Ordinance do not require special materials that contractors don't already possess like it wasn't like when we were talking about the leaf blower ordinance that was a brand new toy that they had to be able to acquire and that was affordable and accessible and so on and so forth it was a big impact right in this case we're talking about tarping we're talking about um yeah like things that they already do in in construction if you're doing construction thoughtfully because you don't want to affect your neighbors right so yeah we have other regulations with regard to the way uh construction site is protected so pedestrians don't get hurt so we require that temporary fencing that the contractor has to get so I think the costs are minimal compared to the saving of you know the microplastics in our water stream thanks for clarifying that it's all stuff that they already have like tarps and yeah what not it's nothing new Reinventing whe okay so are we okay to put it for first reading yes okay great we'll do that with the next meeting on the 6th thank you thank you Mr daff uh discussion item is crossing guards Miss angle thank you mayor so I put this on the agenda as crossing guards because I feel like last year we started talking about how School placements have changed and how that's having an effect on how kids are walking to school and we talked about how a whole neighborhood that historically used to go to Psalms this neighborhood is now going to MMS and I feel like we've never holistically looked at what is happening with our kids walking to school where placements are happening like geographically you know where kids are coming from where they're going to and I feel like when I ask questions about well how do we decide where crossing guards are going and what metrics do we look at and we do traffic studies for traffic calming is there any kind of studies that we can do for walking or how are all these things determined I don't really get many answers and I just felt like we needed to talk about it here a little bit because there are more cars on the street and there is more more kids walking because this is what the this was the second year right your class was the first year of the integration going MMS and now the six incoming sixth graders are the second and so next year is the third and then we'll have all the school placement integrated with middle schools but we haven't changed anything on our ends with where we're stationing our crossing guards and when I've inquired it's like well we have a list the school district does a hazardous Roots list or reports or studies and I looked at that study and while Prospect Street is broken down intersection by intersection from like Parker to Irvington and Irvington South Orange it's not broken down intersection to intersection from Parker to tusin and I think it needs to be and we have crossing guards at Harvard and Prospect tusin and Prospect Crescent and Prospect that's three blocks in a row and then nothing until Parker so I feel like something has to be done whether it's us the school district combination we need to holistically be looking at where our kids are crossing and where how they're getting to school Mr warry and I have talked about this many times and I understand that if you look at a map and you look at Google Maps it's the same distance plus or minus a minute walking all the way down prospect prospect to the crescent and then cutting up to MMS but when you're actually a person a human being walking to the Village you're not really going to go from Elmwood or Oakland all the way down to Crescent because there's a light at Valley in Oakland there's a light at Valley and Oak viw it just makes sense to like cut down and so Mr wary and I have talked about if we don't have a crossing guard station there then we definitely need to do more public education about where our crossing guards are and do targeted Outreach to families in that area so they know to walk down to cresence because yeah we have a list of crossing guards that we link to but we don't actually point that out but I really feel like we need to be doing an assessment of where our crossing guards are stations and if where we have the current ones is still correct and do we need to add more and I still think we need that data from the school district to show how kids are getting placed like how many families are coming from Pink Flamingo or whatever that area is you know by Parker Richmonds um Highlands Elmwood you know and maybe there's a neighborhood that used to go to MMS that's now going to psms and maybe we have a crossing guard when we do headcounts the headcounts are way lower than they were previously I just feel like it's something we really need to look at and it's not something we can wait every three or four years like data the the reports from the school district data was collected December 2022 to March 2023 you have a whole new school year with a whole new crop of kids that have been placed all over Maplewood and South Orange so I just still not 100% clear on how we figure out crossing guards what data needs to be collected to figure out if our current placements are correct or if we need to add more and how to move forward so that's kind of what I wanted to talk about here anyone like to talk no I 100% agree with that and also the idea around the crossing guards for pedestrians who are going to the train station I couldn't tell you the number of times when I used to walk to the train station that it would take me 10 minutes just to get across Prospect because nobody stops even if there had been a cross crossing guard there I wonder how the crossing guard would even get into the intersection cuz they just tear through on that road so I don't know exactly what is factored in but I would like the the the commuters to be factored as a part of this crossing guard solution as well yeah so there's two things that I have to say because I really think this is a two-part thing there's something very immediate that we have to do and there's something longer term the longer term is what Committee Member angle angle put on the table which is we really need to get to the bottom of the evalu what is the evalu evaluation and assessment of these walking routs uh I understand that it is the school district's burden to come up with um a walking plan based on their hazardous roots to school evaluation but they do that in consult with the township with our Public Safety officials with our engineers and in light of the fact that we do have a lot more kids walking and we want that right we we want it we are a as you said so eloquently earlier if we are a walkable Community then we want that we want more people walking um we have to get to the bottom of that we can't just keep saying well the school district well the school district well we don't know yet and and well you know this is an us thing this is an our burden it is not the school district or the township it's us working collectively so that's the long-term thing but before we get there I honestly do not understand and I mean no disrespect to anyone please do not misunderstand what I'm about to say but we attended the public safety meeting we heard from parents who spoke not just about what happened that day but they also spoke about their everyday lived experience walking through that intersection and all along Prospect they talked about driving it as well and I understand their frustration and their pain of course their perception and their feeling is that we're not taking it seriously because I think that we can do something about it immediately why can't we have a cop there to direct traffic until we assess for a crossing guard and until we make the other physical improvements as we continue exploring those and studying and evaluating and further assessing why not the if we have a cop there the cop will do two things they will make people feel safer they will also deter deter bad behavior not always right because we had a cop that was hit on Baker We you know not always necessarily but we had a public safety meeting and people spoke up and they said even with the cones and everything else and by the way those cones are ridiculous come on they're just you know it doesn't last right um I just feel like we are discounting the real fear here and we're making other evaluations that are not meeting the real threat and the real fear we're saying things like well if we put a crossing guard there you know we're stuck with that crossing guard being there and and so what so what this is not like one person came to us and said because of my student and what happened today uh we should have a crossing guard there and there is no traffic at that intersection we do have that and that's happened right because that's how responsive we tend to be that's how responsive we tend to be we respond to everyone but in this instance we have traffic data accident data and now we have a real incident that threatened the life of two lives while the whole Community is is upset by this right so I just don't understand why we can't say oh my goodness this is terrible we let's not wait another second let's just put a cop there and help direct the traffic and you know if there's a cop there you're also doing enforcement a little bit right and people are slowing down you're not just putting a a couple of cones up and then those Co those two days later those cones are not there I'm not saying it's the fails safe solution I'm not saying that having a cop there is going to solve everything it is not but it does seem disrespectful on our part our Collective part I'm not disrespecting anyone it does seem disrespectful to the community after what happened and what we've heard so now we have another chance tonight we're not hearing just from parents we're hearing from our students who came up here and barely got through their statement because they're they have so much emotion about this and fear and Trauma are we going to be talking about this again at the next public safety committee meeting what are we waiting for I don't understand we had cops um who accompan the bike thing on Friday to Seth poon right we have special Duty on Maplewood Avenue um in the Maplewood Village we this is what our cops do our cops are here is it a staffing issue let's figure it out let's work it out but I think we've heard from the community that whatever the cost whatever the cost as taxpayers they want to Bear it because they do not want to compromise their security so what are we talking about yes we have to evaluate these complicated things and yes we got to talk to the school district but we need to act now and in my opinion there needs to be a cop there first thing tomorrow morning absolutely that's it I do just want to thank Mr kitner for getting those cones up super fast though because I think that they have I mean maybe yeah they're being thrown around I drive down Prospect many times a day but I think that I just want to acknowledge that Mr ker worked really fast and really hard to set them up I actually watched a couple of the guys stop and put them back up and a couple hours later they were mowed down again but um likewise is in the whole discussion about putting a crossing guard in place and and not being able to move them afterwards is that an ordinance is that a a a practice or is that like a requirement we have to because if there are intersections that aren't heavily used and everything there's your crossing guard move them the end there doesn't need to be a discussion about it if you've got the data and can we please reassess I don't know any industry in the world that does one assessment and then looks at it again next year they go back every period they go back periodically to check to see is this still this what what we saw beforehand as you stated Miss angle this is a whole new crop of kids coming with a whole new group of directions they're coming from last year's data ain't good enough we need to assess every three months and personally I mean as much money is being spent on public safety and various things that's part of the job personally I think that's part of the job doing those assessments every once in a while and coming back to say hey this intersection is heavy traffic that Crossing guard's valid this one not so much so maybe if we find ourselves in a position where we don't need somebody or we need a new person at a heavier guard spot this is where they get pulled from maybe next year we change it up again so what it's what the community needs period this doesn't sound like rocket science no so I I um I just wanted to share some information because we did some studies already we did a study in um 2017 and uh this was part of a multi uh actually we did a study in 2008 and we did a study 2006 rather and we did a study in 2016 um so we know that you know and this is this is Prospect Street and we and we looked at others we looked at Bernette and we looked at uh Wyoming and Valley but on Prospect Street it's a it's a challenging Street there's 21 intersections it's a it's a long Street and there's a lot of intersections 17 of those are unsignalized so it's you know there's there's a problem because there's people are crossing where there's no lights um we know that there were accidents there were um let me just get this uh on the for pedestrian um we had the most accidents were at Elmwood this is pedestrian in bikes and this is uh from 2012 so this is a 5-year period 2012 to 2017 the most accidents were at Elmwood Parker was next and Harvard was after that and then uh the others were Park Crescent Lexington and Springfield that so so that was there were 14 crashes in that 5year period dealing with pedestrians and bikes um when you include cars there were 143 accidents along Prospect Street and most of them this is all accidents most of them were at Harvard I'm sorry 163 most of them were at Harvard and tusin and then Oakview Elmwood and Parker so what we did is um we did a couple of things we took the recommendation of the uh people who did the study and we reduced the lanes the lanes were 15 ft wide we reduced them to 10 because traffic cing people tend to drive slower when you compress the lanes when you make the lanes wide they feel like they're on the highway so we did that we changed Harvard to a four-way stop um we changed the crosswalk at the Crescent which was recommended to make it more in line with the with the crossing of the church we uh changed that curve at summer and made that 15 and did a lot of highlighting there we put we uh did some work over on the South Side of Springfield Avenue so we did a lot of stuff I don't think that and then the The Proposal that we talked about at engineering not at Public Safety but at engineering was to think about some bump outs at Elmwood and Oakland to make it easier to cross there because as you put bump outs which are essentially your making you're shrinking the road from whatever width it is you're you're bringing the curbs out so you're making a shorter crosswalk so that's what the cones represent it's a it's not a solution it's not a replacement for for crossing guards it is what we would do permanently if we would create bump outs there because it just as one gentleman said it does make you slow down because you the road all of a sudden gets tighter um but all these studies you know 2017 20067 um they don't deal with people disrespecting the law they're they're predicated on if you do the engineering people are going to obey the stuff and you know I think now we we clearly heard from the parents from the children here um we have a problem Prospect we have a problem in other places too and we've got to take a look at you know in addition to the engineering solution what's the enforcement solution what's the proactive enforcement solution with either using a police officer or a crossing guard so after looking at all this stuff yesterday I'm more inclined to think about that we should put some more crossing guards on um on Prospect particularly after we got the map of the crossing guards and I saw how on Ridgewood we have crossing guards all over the place right and um and that's to be expected because you have the school right there you have a lot of people crossing to get to uh to the high school or to the middle school or what have you and also let's not forget you mentioned the commuters the crossing guards also cross commuters right you have a lot of people walking down to the station from that area more so than in other parts of the of the town so I do think that looking at Prospect um we did hear it's 1,200 12,000 um Auto cars or Auto passes a day that Rivals I mean the two the most we have are Springfield Avenue which is in the 20,000 and Valley which is in the high teens and then sounds like Prospect is number three we clearly have less controls on Prospect than we have on either of those two main roads so um I'm not sure we should be waiting to do any more studies I we got a lot of stuff I'm good with not waiting to do a study I'm just trying to go to the people who were interested in this but I do want to put I do want to put one thing on the table we we are not getting requests only from people who use Prospect we get requests for crossing guards from other places too so we if we're going to move forward then we have to look at it all over to make sure it's Equitable sure um so I do think that given given what we've talked about in engineering we're going to continue to move forward with some of the traffic coming a work we're going to be Paving that road in probably 2026 and at that time we can think about striping and highlighting and signs and doing whatever um but in the interim I think we ought to look at what more should we do in putting some additional Personnel up there I don't think it's sustainable to put police off officers up there maybe in the short term but in the longer term maybe putting some more crossing guards up there I wouldn't take them away from where they are sure but I think adding some more um you know I just think that there's more there are more cars on the road there are more people working unemployment's low people are going back to the office um people are driving kids to the school that's how families are they have to move a lot of people in the morning it's not like used to be so we have to you know we're not going backwards we're going we're moving forward and um I think maybe looking after looking at all this stuff uh we know the we know the engineering work I think we've got to to take a look at maybe we put some more bodies up there to help people cross so for tomorrow morning are we in agreement that we can have at least a cop out there until we get a crossing guard I know we have a new crossing guard that is being trained and should be starting soon I mean what are we doing for tomorrow morning Chief I hate to put you on the spot thank you I thought it important for me to be here um because this is like you said very serious that's why I came out um you know I have children as well that cross the street I actually get some uh surveillance make sure they're going to the Cross they cross at the right place before umh so um uh so what we have been doing we have the we have the traffic cones out there we have um officer dedicated in the area uh this morning we had a officer with their lights on in the area of Oak viw um uh we have been counting how many kids been Crossing at those Corners I've been out there probably um for the last two weeks myself I probably don't see me I'm in mar car but I am out there observing and um you know so our our what we were thinking was and how we have done it in the past is that we have the crossing guard at the Crescent so uh when we every time we send out a press release or um information about where to cross the idea is that um if you're walking from Prospect to cross at the Crescent that's where the crossing yard it is or cross at Tuscan um because Down Below on Valley we have a crossing guard on Valley and tusin and then they can cross at Valley and Baker so you always hit the guard so you going down it's a little further walk which you're going down and you're you're seeing a crossing guard um when I was out there the other day I I was um observing I observed three kids cross Oakfield um and walk down to valley uh but once you get the valley I mean there's no crossing guard there's a there there are lights but there's no crossing guard so um and most there a few it's it's a it's a small group of kids that cut through the park so that's why they're going that way they want to go through the shortcut um I just I just thinking that if we do put a officer on Oakview um Oakview or Oakland that now um once they get down the valley uh we got to make sure that they're Crossing down in Valley correctly because there's no guard you know we're dependent on the light so the uh the other way was just that you know you would see a human if you walk further and go around and down um I'm not sure if Oakland's the location MH might be Oakview you know Oakview might be more um but again that's going to take time to do a traffic study and things like that but if you say for tomorrow um again I would probably go with Oakview more so than Oakland uh Oakview seems to be more and this is just me observing and uh out there that is is it seems to be uh more car especially crossing Oak View um on Prospect going down Oakland's kind of like you you get to prospect you got to make a left and you got to make a right um so if there is a guard um I would I I recommend prospecting Oakfield so what I'm hearing you say is the way the crossing guards are laid out right is that if you go if you cross the street where the crossing guard is that's going to take you on the route to where there's another crossing guard to get you safely right and then you go down to valley there's another crossing guard on Baker so when they're Crossing unless they stay on Prospect they cross at Oakland or Oakview unless they stay on Prospect and go to tusin or the Crescent they're not going to have another crossing guard down at Valley right cuz the only guard is on um Valley and Baker and Baker Valley and Baker yeah that traffic light at Valley and Oakland is actually a solid traffic light there are is a Crossing signal people people pay attention to that one I've very rarely see people try to go around to the right of folks stopped at that um intersection so the behavior on Valley Arrow that's why and the same at Oak View Oak View has the light too right so the behavior improved and and a lot of the traffic coming up on prospects because Valley is doing the construction so sometimes being the that's why you seen the long lines on um so Chief with regard to the Staffing because I mean it's easy to you know pound your fist and say get a cop out there tomorrow but you're the one who has the staff to get a cop out there or not and you have there are what four or five cops in that shift that have to be at there two by the high school one by the middle one by the middle school and there's uh one that uh does at at the bottom of the barricades it's 4 in the morning there's 5: in the afternoon and then out of officers and then how those are four out of how many police officers on the shift shift it depends yeah right like I don't like to discuss our minimums publicly but uh we have minimum Manpower and a lot of times when the when the crossing guard is called out sake our officers have to cover those Corners we have 30 don't we have uh subtit shift that are cover each cover each I mean aren't they overlap yeah I mean I know you don't want to talk too much publicly about how you do your placing but right but we we we do have some we do have sufficient officers that we could put yeah so we have so we cover 4 in the morning uh we have 32 Corners 32 Corners there'll be times where might might be four or five crossing guards that are out we have to cover those Corners uh we're officers but um but what we have been doing when we have more manpower they have been on Prospect so we we we actually um hire two extra U crossing guards supplement but they're already being used you have um crossing guards on long-term illnesses and they're already being on the corner um but we could fill it when we have the Manpower we can we can put an officer there the problem is when we fill it and then the day we can't enforc like if oh he's saying if we don't have enough manpower if we fill in one day and then tomorrow there's not one because they have to go somewhere else make a commitment you got to make a commitment circular thing we we put if we put officer Prospect o Oakville and then we have um all the officers on corners and we have like one we call one officer rolling uh meaning he's the only one taking calls right so can't commit that officer but there's times when we have plenty of officers we get put officer there right and we can't commit can I ask a question sorry one sec we can't demand enforcement of speeding and things like that if all the officers are being cross guard but um so we we started a new uh tra traffic um initiative enforcement and um I was out there this morning and they they they are enforcing they enforced um all our shifts have been on Prospect great all have enforced tickets in the last two weeks in other areas as well so the enforcement is there um I think that's that's what I'm hearing that we need a lot more of so it's good to hear we're getting more but but the thing is is either before school starts or after school starts because we just don't have the officers to enforce aor school right either on corners or they're okay trying to respond to calls Miss angle well I just wanted to go back why Oak viiew and not Oakland I get when you're driving Oakland you have to come down make a left and go but there's a crosswalk that cuts through Prospect and I'm just thinking we will have Harvard tusin Crescent Oak View and then still n to Parker like why wouldn't you move it further down near Oakland or Elwood where the kids are coming from um the people coming from Oak viiew in that area they already have they were always going MMS to begin with I'm trying to figure out how to make it safe for the new kids who are coming to MMS that used to go to SS I was sitting on Oakland and I was trying to understand why if there's someone Oakview I don't see why you would want to cross why you would need to crossover Oakland you just walk to the next uh intersection and crossover Oak View it seems like it's just a more busier intersection you have cars pulling up and um it's hard to me the site is harder to see when you pull up but doesn't that show that it's a hazardous rout that maybe we need a crossing guard there because it's hard to see instead of moving it to yeah but his his analysis is that Oak View because it's a straight T inter it's a straight intersection there's more movements where at Oakland there sto because they they don't you have to go that little thing so it's a little different but I still think when you're walking because Oak View is not that much closer than Crescent and so I'm just thinking about where the where the kids are coming from to walk to school and how they don't have a safe route so that's the only reason why I'm asking like why not get to get to Valley Oak viw is equal to Oakland right to get to Valley yeah but what if you're coming from I'm just talking about when you're coming from Elmo I'm just I mean I I I'd like to see the counts like if you have counts of like how many people are crossing at Oakview and how many are crossing at Oakland like those counts would be helpful if you're walking on Prospect whether you're coming from Elmwood or whatever you can still walk you're going to have to walk that way to get to the middle schools or wherever you go or tusin so you go diagonal I that's the same think should I know but diagonal we can't yeah I'm good with that but I just want to see like I've gotten feedback that we need data in order to change we're doing with crossing guards so all I've been asking for a few weeks even before this a crash happens was what data is it that we have or that we use to make these decisions and so I haven't actually seen any data I haven't seen any counts I haven't heard about how we decide where our crossing guards are and so that's what I'm trying to understand so you're saying from what you see you think Oakview would be better so I'll say from what I see driving a CHS driving to MMS driving to work all on Prospect I think Oakland or Elmwood would be better because also understanding where the neighborhoods are that that kids are coming from and what the human nature the part of us being human beings of how we're going to walk like if you're going to walk from let's say Highland and Elmwood and you put it in your Google Map what would the route be that it takes you would it take you all the way down to Oakview or the Crescent because we're just servicing the same families that have always gone to MMS I'm talking about there's a whole new community that's going to a different School than historically they've ever gone this is only the second year and there's an issue and two kids got hit so I just that's where I'm coming from like I just don't know I know that not all my colleagues agree that we I understand the we talked about this a budget season how we don't have enough Personnel in order to cover everything that sometimes crossing guard you don't even know if a crossing guard calls out sometimes until someone's driving by or I text Mr warry being like there's no crossing guard you know I understand that and I understand that there's going to be budgetary and maybe when budget season we have to talk about it so I understand that there's challenges in order to be able to get a police officer there tomorrow I'm just trying to understand what data it is that we actually have to look at to make decisions versus what antidotal I see when I drive or or anecdotally you as a way more qualified than me in this area sees when you're you know in the area so accident data like you were saying uh where the kids are coming from now we have to get that from the school um how many cars are coming through uh complaints um all that but it takes it takes a while but I know we need this immediately and just from um us counting last um I I do think o Oak View is better Ser now we when we do the full study be wrong could be Oakland you know could be um another intersection but you know Prospect you are correct from uh from from the pressence to Parker it's a long stretch where there's there is no guard but um there's a lot of intersections so we we got to figure out which if if we pick two officers I don't know two crossing guards but if we we have to pick one I say oie and Prospect for now Chief is there a possibility there is a crossing guard that was put at South Pearson um long before a couple years before the signalized intersection there's there's not a lot of kids that come down there that crossing guard says that there's hardly any kids coming down there is there a possibility of moving that one since it's now signalized intersection yeah yeah so that that that was the reason for the guard because there was no signal there there is a now and there is not a lot of children that that could be yeah that could be a that could be someone we could move to prospect even if it's a temporary location before we know for sure where it should go do we know why when the school so the school district had those two reports one I think from like March or April one from May and the May one listed intersection by intersection along Prospect from Parker all the way to South Orange a but doesn't do it in Maplewood do we know why I called um Stonefield today I didn't um they said they're going to call me back I didn't get a response I'm curious to know about why that is because there are a a bunch of crossing guards in South Orange on Prospect and in Maplewood it's just in one little area so what's the takeaway again I don't want to end this meeting and not have a plan for tomorrow uh when we talked about this at the last public safety meeting uh not all five of us felt like we walked away from that meeting with the same impression of what we talked about doing the following morning so what are we doing for tomorrow okay yeah so I don't like this decision you know I don't like to make it myself I'm glad we're here we're all trying to get in agreement with this um but um yes I'll have an officer tomorrow but it if um temporarily to guide traffic until we assess further man Manpower permitting um Prospect Oakville Prospect Oak View so anyone just like we should always be encouraging our children walking school to go to not cross unless there's a crossing guard right then if they want to cross at Oakland and Elmwood tomorrow it'd be best because there'll be one at Oak I'm sorry I'm just because we have all the cones set up they don't even go all the way to Oak View so I'm just right like I'm just curious like we're doing a traffic calming measure in one area but we're going to put a crossing guard outside of that area I just I just I me maybe it's just me I think the chief is trying to respond to the immediate Demand right now by the governing body to do put somebody and he's asked where should where would you recommend putting a police officer to monitor the traffic tomorrow and the answer is Oakview what about park that's further down is Park also not a straight shot there's no it doesn't have AOSS well there's no don't want to send people to park because when they get to Valley there's no there's we got a huge problem of people crossing there I'm fine with your recommendation this what I'll say this this is tomorrow I mean we can get on Oakville and put an officer there and do a count and realize Oakland's even a better place for that person we can move them shift them down okay until we because we're trying to we're trying to figure out where the best place is I personally think Oakland and I also think while you're there Mr wary and I were talking about how there's kids walking to mm mask down Oakland even before the crossing guards are out remember this morning we were talking about that so it might be a good time to also get data to see what time kids are actually walking to school because again they're coming from farther distances so it's they have to leave earlier um last year we made those adjustments to um earlier times and different times and we done it this year too yeah's kids walking further um they were okay with where the guards were it's just that they left a little earlier so try to extend the uh or switch or move the time a little bit so I do think like it might if we had one in Oakland we can also be tracking that what time are kids coming down Oakland cuz there are I mean I drive to CHS and I see MMS kids walking down Oakland already when I'm coming home at like 7:42 or something G I'm looking at the map and I you know Oakland Oak viw is two blocks from where we have a crossing guard Oakland is seven blocks from we have a crossing guard so I know you're putting someone at Oakview but it does seem like it's it's sort of that um tusin cental centered as opposed to Oakland so yeah because that's where the school too but that's where the school I understand that but no but the school but it's not where the we're not talking about tusin we're talking about MMS and we're talking about kids coming from Clinton to go to MMS so we're talking about the Clinton students CU those are the ones that were affected they used to go to psalms now they go to MMS so I think we need to look at the Clinton students and not put more crossing guards where tuskin students are coming because we have three blocks in a row of crossing guards right and it also appeals and and is utilized by CHS students because that's the route my daughter would ride her bike so Oakland for tomorrow and I think what I'm hearing from you Chief and maybe I'm wrong is that regardless of how manyc how many streets seven intersections or five intersections it's still it's not like there's not a way to get to that crossing guard to cross in the safe space that was determined years ago when we're using the crossing guards as a guide so we just talked about how Oakland Elmwood and Prospect is a more dangerous intersection because of its lack of symmetry it's not directly across from each other so you have cars making more movements that are turns as opposed to going straight so now we want to encourage kids to cross there by putting somebody there to be a crossing guard when what we should be doing is putting crossing guard at a safer intersection and then a less safe intersection so I'm confused as why we would do that because I don't know why we would have a crossing guard at Harvard tusin Cresent and Oakfield because those are the routes that are four blocks in a row will have crossing guards and then we don't have any more until Parker I don't think it fixes the problem how many of you would walk all the way down to Oak viiew to get to school do you even know where Oak viiew is oh sh no I'm serious and also like I'm just going to I wasn't going to say it but like talking about kids being on their phone like it's so trafficky out there in the mornings that there's no kid looking at their phone when they're trying to cross the street I see them they're tensively trying to step out because you can't see anything there's cars par there's people driving there's so there like chaos on prospects and so I'm just saying I don't think an oak I appreciate you saying you have't person available but like I just don't understand why we're not going to put it right in the middle of where we have the cones where we have the accidents where the kids are walking the oak viw that's the same kids that always went to MMS we're talking I think I think we appreciate your professionalism and your judgment but I do think that um we did make a a call on our part at engineering that and and we did have um our traffic Consultants look at Elmwood and and Oakland and you know that has been consistently in all these reports that has been a problem this that elud Oakland area yeah and so I would urge us to make a decision right now I think I would be in favor of doing Oakland As opposed to Oakville Oakland I'm out voted uh so all right we can do open but we and you can come back reassessment absolutely with re you know I think we ought to start where we think there's a problem we've already addressed that area I think you're right M angle that we put the cones out there BEC and we put the crossing sign in the middle because we think that's an issue why don't we start there if if you come back and say you know what this is how many people we crossed here but we we've been watching Oak View or Elmwood and we think more people are walking over there than we can yeah I don't look at I don't have uh the hard data but I'm just going off my observation observation I saw we respect that IED a lot of kids crossing Oakview yeah but and commuters too a lot more people a lot more commuters Park on Oak because they straight walk straight to the train all the way down to Dell on Oak viw but I think we I think the data shows at least the old you know from years ago and some of our Engineers have always talked about that problem of Elmwood Oakland because of the geography yeah so we have five votes for Oakland four four why do we only have four because I agree with the chief okay so you're a no you should say no you can't abstain unless you have a conflict and you don't have a conflict you just don't want to take a position as the mayor in front of all of these what you talking about I just said I you have done this before if you then you're a no you're a no vote you're saying no no vote say I think I think I think we all said that we want traffic someone there crossing I think four of us say the best street is open and one of us says is Oak View that's the difference okay that's the difference I miss the difference yeah okay we have another discussion item thank you Chief um Mr DeLuca okay okay this is uh talking about parking again this is on Inwood Place between Maplewood Avenue and Woodland where uh the TR Ria is this would allow parking on the South Side um right now we only allow parking on the North side which is the former bank side so um that is a very narrow Street and it's gone through some changes over the years because we had um uh the outdoor Cafe that was on there so we eliminated the parking on the North side because you can't have all that happening so this would allow parking on the south side and I believe this was an initiative of um mayor Adams to look at this I think it would add seven more spots so um it was looked at by Engineering in public works our engineer is uh Pro is recommending it and the question is do we want to put on the agenda for next meeting to move forward with my vote's yes I parked there on Sunday for the art walk and it was beautiful and the way they've got the cone well the paint on the road you have to slow down so again when folks are looking at trying to park there they're going to have to pay attention to where the painting is you don't just whip around that corner like folks used to do anymore there's now both sides you have to pay atten so folks will have to slow down hey I'm all for that slow down the village is not 78 yeah I think it was sorry stri I don't even know that you couldn't park there so I'm okay with you parked illegally to run Beautiful People Park there anyway yeah yeah okay okay put it on for next meeting woohoo I think seven spots okay can I get a motion on the consent agenda I move the consent agenda second second all right yes daff yes DeLuca yes SLE yes mayor Adams yes we go to our next public comment on any subject matter is there anyone in the house who would like to comment tonight seeing none anyone online Mr we if anybody on Zoom would like to speak in public portion please raise your hand now I'm moving over Joan Crystal to panelist welcome the public portion Miss Crystal you may unmute yourself and address the committee thank you and thank you for the opportunity to talk about the situation on Prospect Street I don't believe we had an opportunity during the earlier discussion to comment on the topic at that time I'm concerned about the situation on Prospect Street and have been for many years I live on Pro Prospect Street I've lived there for 43 years I do not drive I cross Prospect Street regularly I know what the problems are and they very much include speeding traffic which is going way above the speed limit include cars that are afraid to stop at crosswalks for fear of being rear ended because of the speed the traffic is going at and I know from personal experience that there are cars that will pass to the right one nearly hit me and ended up on the sidewalk to avoid hitting me when they suddenly realized that a car had stopped for a pedestrian I don't think that crossing guards are going to be enough of an answer I really think we need to take a look at engineering Solutions and enforcement engineering in solutions to make the road safer enforcement to try to do something to change the culture of drivers who are not driving safely thank you thank you anyone else Mr wor there are no other hands mayor thank you can I get a motion to adjourn so mve second yes staish yes Luca yes ble yes B Adams yes thank you everyone have a