the uh Sunshine compli oh you wanted Tracy you read that please call to order sure um notice of the time date location and agenda of this meeting to the extent known was provided at least 48 hours prior to the meeting delay there we go I'm going to start again okay notice of the time day location and agenda of this meeting to the extent known was provided at least 48 hours prior to the commencement of this meeting in the following manner pursuant to the provisions of njsa 104 to6 the openland public meetings act notice was posted in town hall and the Township's website by notification to newspapers on December 19th 2023 of the schedule for 2024 and by providing notice to the Township [Music] Clerk ask you all rise to salute the [Music] flag Justice for All I'd like to read the save mission statement the purpose of the special improvement district is to promote grow and support local businesses proper Property Owners residents and visitors Melbourne Township Sid ordinance designates a district Management corporation whose mission is to encourage the economic cultural and social Vitality of Melbourne Township through increased marketing and visibility improved and renewed infrastructure and local businesses and local business development and engagement may I ask for an approval of the minute from February 15th motion I have a second second um just do a Voice vote Yes Voice vote please roll call yes roll call thank you okay Tracy C me yes Jackie Benjamin Liber yes Ben affirmative Ashley Schultz is Ashley on he will join likely later okay and Steven Winer yes thank you Mr Wier treasurer's report yes thank you fairly simple report this evening uh it is located as attachment two to your packets um just to highlight a couple things our bank balance as of February 29th leap day was $ 51,3 and then a more recent snapshot of March 5th we were at 50731 uh you'll notice that on the special assessment line that um you know the amount owing is $244,000 it's showing zero collected the tax assessment letters have gone out though so um that's in progress and we'll probably start seeing it in the next couple months depending on the flow right probably next couple of weeks weeks excellent um and that was it everything everything is good the uh expenses are detailed in attachment as well all right and as we've added um this year there's a grant report that comes with the treasurers report so um that's attachment three in your packets um the Main Street application took up most of my time uh this month so I haven't had a chance to pursue anything else um but that is listed um on this uh on this sheet and the application was submitted earlier this week both the digital and hard copy um and we expect to hear probably late April uh worst case scenario early may as to the five municipalities that have been selected um there's also there's an outstanding payment of $4,800 or so uh which is 75% of the grant award from Essex County which is the first portion of the payment that they are due to us for this year's public art program um they've paid most of the municipalities but I spoke to the grant administrator and there's a couple of towns that there's some sort of internal issue um with the the payment process um at the county and so our payment has been processed but it has not been done yet and so um it's sitting there in limbo so we're owed about $4,800 um as part of that grant for this year so when that comes in it'll be reflected um but that is income due to us um and then once we finish with Restaurant Week Amanda and I are going to start working on two grants which are listed on this sheet attachment three as well uh the first is the New Jersey Division tourism their Cooperative marketing grant program um that's been very successful with uh SIDS around the state um and then the Schuman fund which is a private philanthropy fund um has a diversity equity and inclusion program that we can use to focus on engaging with the Chinese and Indian communities um and so that's something that we talked about at a prior meeting and uh funding would certainly help in order to engage those communities so those are the items that are on the horizon but uh just to confirm yes we we did submit our Main Street application which was the priority and uh we made it in on time and we we'll hear in a couple weeks can I ask a question um what is the dollar do we have any idea the dollar amount of those potential grants or is it is there range that would they would both be um subject to what is available in the fund versus who who else applies um and then they are sliding scale so the answer is I don't know yet okay and one more quick on the Main Street application do you have any feel of how many other applications are in there I know it's pretty competitive yeah I I I was on a mandatory information call um a couple weeks ago and there was probably 30 to 35 other towns um and that was one of two calls that they had so how many of them actually go forward and actually submit the application I you know it's anyone's guess but I I would say they'll probably get somewhere between 20 and 30 applications at worst I think there probably be more because it only comes out once every three years so you have to be in it this year nothing till 2027 and that's for how many spots again it's five spots Statewide got it in it to win it okay Mr Stoler Township committee reports please sure just a couple uh first with the holiday Decor committee uh which is to look at a committee to uh do comprehensive Township wide uh holiday decorative lights to make sure there's continuity across the township uh we've discussed it uh brought it up with Alex still work to be done but everyone was quite receptive to it so we'll be moving that forward I should have more information to report on that in the near future excellent um other items uh paper mill Playhouse we had our public information uh on Tuesday evening uh fairly well attended um the final approval uh will go to vote on April 2 and I've spoken to a number of uh businesses in town regarding the paper mill as well as how it supports the underlying businesses gotten a lot of good feedback from them and absolutely under underpins a lot of their business uh and it really resonates with a lot of the information we've been talking about here as the demographics of our town changes so uh as we start to look to drive more of the demographics downtown uh that certainly help as well excellent okay thank you uh 10 Mr Hoffman business administrator report main street closure the traffic study panel I think you have an old agenda yeah that was from ma we've got nothing to report this evening okay got it you got the right one yeah okay yeah yeah fine just in case there's a uh Ryan Cooper nothing to report this evening have it field any questions that Ard may have any questions from any of the board members no okay my answer was probably gonna be then we have to discuss it in close save us the trouble okay uh marketing and events okay Amanda Dean as fast as possible okay all right the Met sorry um the Metropolitan so some updates there um we have over 40 businesses participating in the um new Resident welcome bags and um just to report about 25% of them are from upper Milburn F which is really great we still have more coming in um but I wanted to show you a few of the businesses gave items for promotion products so Home Instead gave one of those bags um Papermill gave a pen milour camera shop um an eyeglass uh cleaner and smiles on Essex ChapStick and then Bruce Hill agency gave a little house key so we have those and then they're all going to go into this is the bag that The Metropolitan uses um so they're going to put water on either side and then we're going to have our envelope which is getting heavy um in here with all of the promotions as well as those items so um I'm going to do one final invite to all the businesses to participate we have to have the rest of the postcards in Hand by March 25th and then um we will get these to the metropolitans so they can start using them April 1 wonderful so it's going really well um any questions how many do you have so far how many businesses just curious between 40 and 43 I I literally was just adding more before we got to the meeting great um that's a combination of both the products and the postcards I was out um on upper Milburn app today and it's really helpful we got more people signed up there's we have so much going on that it's like they're having a hard time keeping coordinating it all so being in person with people is really help a quick question and of we're going to have our explore postcards in there and is the envelope are we putting like a sticker on and I want I'm going to do an updated postcard and I'll send it to you for approval so that'll get printed by the end of next week great thanks um okay restaurant oh wait uh advisory committee um we one more thing are we gonna have a direct our directory in there yeah as well right this is what I'm doing all next get through through tomorrow okay um so um we're moving the advisory committee meeting to April 16th it was on the 11th um so if you want to mark your calendars I'll send out a reminder tomorrow and we invite all of you to attend so that's it can you make sure I'm on that invite as well yeah all right Restaurant Week um final number we had a little over 40 but now we're we're at 37 committed and have all their specials um um and it's increased by almost 30% participation from last year which is great uh final number of specials we have uh between 70 and 72 I'm just tweaking those uh this afternoon um we have a KN blast going out tomorrow as a reminder to everybody to make their reservations and make their plans um I want to show we put a considerable amount of work uh in on the website we have the directory you want to pull that up Tim first first yeah first so the specials um see actually can you hit the um renew button the I just I made updates to it that's not the color but um what I did is I added buttons above each um category so people can just print a and Download a pdf of just lunch specials or just breakfast specials because there's just so much to see so each one of these has the category what the special is when it is and then when you click on the individual like that will take you straight to her either website or Instagram whatever that that may be so everything's on here I just have to add a wine Boutique but um really happy with it how it's turned out and uh let's see okay so say next thing just to go over what we've been doing for marketing very quickly um the Milbourne Short Hills the second tab um so the printed publication mil Milburn Short Hills monthly we did the whole back cover for March so we have some things in print out there and then the next one is uh tab three um milour Short Hills this is another printed publication that Steve's been working uh on so they had a a little um promo in there as well and um posters so I think you've seen um we have these posters all over town um right over there is one of the A-frame signs that are going out tomorrow we're g to have them in each district and just see Magazine Street Banner is up across from uh the book house a frames poster we we've gone over um just a quick highlight with community outreach our relationship with the school district has just been awesome and just getting better and better so I asked Nancy Drees and she um sent out Restaurant Week to all of this faculty and staff which is over 800 people so I think there'll be a lot of lunch uh specials there and going to some of the tastings and she's also going to uh allow us to put printed um uh specials in each of the faculty so just to keep encouraging people as well um that's great yeah it's wonderful yeah actually I was just saying it'd be cool to do a special teachers bonus or something next year right I that kind of Engagement that's like that'd be that'd be pretty cool Educators Educators I don't honestly know which businesses have educator um discount programs that's a something that to bring up um and then the event listings we have in the patch and tap into um and something new this year is uh the carriage house from the paper mill they set up all these different um kind of culinary experiences so there's murder mysteries they have a wine um a French wine uh dinner pairing they have a Broadway vocalist that's performing at like a nice um a dinner they're doing karaoke um they've already sold out a few days but uh we have four of them listed on the website so very happy to have them involved and um one thing I wanted to talk about is um I think I mentioned Karen at the last meeting Karen Mahoney um she's creativ by Karen she also works for real style exchange um and I've worked with her extensively with girls night out last year and she was just phenomenal um and we really needed boots on the ground with restaurant weat because what I learned last year is the restaurants of all the industries really need you to show up not everybody has email not everybody checks email you don't know who you're going to if it's going to be a man you just don't know who you're going to come in to see so there just needs to be a lot of repetition and so Karin was that repetition going out getting people signed up telling them about it um reinforcing it hey now did you send us your specials like it's just a constant process and I think that's one of the the big um reasons we've had such an increase in participation and specials and then tomorrow she's going to go to each one of the participating businesses with a marketing check List have you told your staff that's a simple thing but a lot of people don't tell their staff have you printed your menus did you post this on your social you know is it on your website how are you planning on engaging the people beyond their visit are you asking them to follow you sign up for emails stuff like that so we just again getting it in front of people trying to make sure we're giving them every tool possible to take advantage of this so that's happening tomorrow and um social media would you pull up that PDF put the spreadsheet so we hired five different influencers this is as of 10: a.m. this morning just so you so five different influencers um doing a total 22 reels for us I'm sure all of you have seen them some are combinations of businesses some are just uh business highlights and they're also doing dozens of stories for us so um Jessica choose who you guys are familiar with we've used her at almost every event last year um her she did our kickoff post and it has almost 25,000 uh views uh as of this morning and the engagement is really great 629 likes 35 comments uh shares 734 and then you go on um Sushi zero this is really great we're able to promote them um they had they had almost 1500 um views uh Jack surf that's e with them she's a new person we work with someone here me I think you told me about her so we've work with her on three different reels she did Jack Surf and her first that's almost 4,000 Vinnie's pizza again uh my in fat kid is out he's he's great that's Brian um so and even um with perola we did something a little different uh with that one it's was kind of a test to do like a behind the scenes and so Jessica went there and if you haven't seen it definitely go to our Instagram page and watch it it's really neat it's watching doola talk about her pasta and how she how she does things and then uh we did did a a lunch special overview with NJ hipsturbia that's had almost 30,000 views so all of this is it's just been phenomenal and it's not over we we're going to keep we keep going into mid next week and then we'll do some of our own posts as well um so that's that's it for right now I'll definitely have a report for you after the fact um definitely get some feedback from restaurants but everything's going really well Amanda and Sten if there's a way to have on the kpis a year over year over year comparison of the even if you have a you know just the number of hits the revenue you know the the contribution etc etc just so we can see you know it could be a you know a feather in your cap if it's a huge success and F not it's not a huge success but just so we can see what the performance of everything that we're doing to this point I mean right here it seems like it's a huge uh um you know springboard you know of activity about to happen you know I've been telling everybody I see as well and and you know I think everybody up here should be posting it on your social media as well and and just you know how we push it forward and get people out yeah it I agree I mean the nice thing about social media especially Instagram is the analytics are there and they're there in perpetuity um and so we can go back see what we did last year think we probably done more reels this year than all last year combin yeah um but yeah we can definitely start tracking that and and I would ask the vendors or the restaurants to give you kind of a you know year-over-year [Music] Revenue you know Glimpse as well because that's where the rubber meets the road for them right right and then you know they're paying taxes as well so it keeps us it helps everyone well and that helps tell us how I mean these kinds of events are great because it it's the status of the Sid as well that we're putting on this type of an event exactly so you have to have a story and this is the foundation for that story and it's the shop local story right and we want to make sure that contining press forward know during the entire year but specifically now you can have those a direct microcosm of what's happening during that period and we're going to survey all the participating restaurants for how their experience was as well um just because we've tried to improve that experience for them so I just want to see you know what else we can tweet moving forward last year I'm not sure if you just it was a little bit before and it was during so almost all of this is before we've got a couple things going up Monday and Tuesday Lada is goingon to get posted Wednesday because Anthony um the influencer said that's the best day for for pizza so um yeah yeah 85,000 plays before the events even started yeah Amanda was right on target the first one with how many shares got yeah that's really phenomenal results that's a lot of people sending that real yeah and the the promise I made to all the restaurants because last year we we just couldn't include everybody and everything when when it came to the influencers was that I will I will include you in one at least one of the so everyone that's wanted to be in is in um so that's almost 40 Restaurants are covered here and and then ones coming up in the next five days and uh also too is H you even if you get somebody to hand out cards at the train station too because when we come off the train no one really wants a cook but you know they can just jump downtown or have the family meet them at the train I know we've done that before you know just walk over and meet everyone at the train and walk over I'll see what I can do with that just because it's a little later in the game but we are putting the frames at each um of the stations okay let that that work too and not to break my arm patting myself on the back but I went to suan zero and called her directly from there right yes yes you got it done I appreciate it guy puts his money where his mouth is he does okay so that is restaurant week and social media um next up let me move forward through this quickly so I believe we mentioned last week we have a new strategic partnership with uh the neighbors group of milour Short Hills they're kind of the welcome group um and so what we wanted to do we had a couple of businesses on upper Milbourne AB say you know we want to do something new marketing wise so we're having a neighbors night out and so the neighbors are inviting their members to come out and we're having kind of a stroll and so we have Studio 1200 uh Stone and tiles design the shade Place tiger shans and possibly uh the coder school and um what they're each going to do and I'll read an example um Studio 1200 is going to have blood orange cocktails with non-alcoholic versions cheese from Summit Cheese Shop gluten-free treats from taste buddy a raffle for complimentary 2hour design consultations and a studio 1200 swag bag with vintage items Bango set jump rope Jacks record coasters Etc so they're trying to make it enticing neighbors are doing the same thing that like we need stuff to pull people out so we're looking forward to see how this goes um and you're all invited to come I know we invited The Advisory Board I'll do that again but other than that it's just the neighbors inviting their members which they said from time to time is 200 to 300 families that are they contact with so just another way those are fames what 12 months in or either just moved here or they've been here months so they switched Ben they switched their model they were just newcomers yeah and uh so they changed it to um neighbors so that it's the people actually didn't want to leave the group but it was like they were almost aging out of it so they they rebranded everything last year and made it so that people that are here more than a year can can stay on because they're enjoying the camarad but you would almost figure that even the the short list just gave they're selling their services to these people and that's why they're going to Summit cheese and wine and such and they're going to put they're going to invest in that event absolutely so you want to make sure that these people may purchase the service right you want to don't want to mismatch it with people who just want free wine and cheese right and and it was targeted you know we picked so this actually started from a conversation we had with the shade place which if you remember um we had a we had a mixer there last year they just open um and there next door neighbor is Stone and Tile and we said all right this is sort of a home design it makes no it makes a lot of sense I just want to make sure that you know throw to Sven you 40 people show up who've been in their houses for 10 years and are done right and aren't ready to spend money on doing a $50,000 kitchen and then you that's that's not the case yeah so um and we'd like to replicate this because it's really a 90 minute or so event so you're making these quick stops and you know hopefully if this works we can do it again in different neighborhoods where you know you're just doing three four stops in an hour and a half and it really is pretty inexpensive and pretty simple to set up um it just requires that strategic partner with the neighbors group so this will be a good test R yeah it's a test we'll see how it goes they can tell us what the engagement is like and then you know we can do that in different spots um that's March 26 at 7:30 y um and so we're meeting at where we starting we're starting at Studio 1200 and um and then we're moving just literally up up upper Milburn a um so I I think it's going to be a nice evening um so that's the neighbors night out uh Wellness week um I don't have a lot of updates but I will I wanted to explain a little bit more uh we had talked last week for the Elementary School uh Wellness week is going to be in an assembly style and the topics that are being covered is self-care Fitness and we're still um deciding on that third one and then the middle school is doing a he going to do like a health fair where so many kids can sit at one place for a 10 or 15 minute presentation and they move on to the next one and it's like this rotating group they're doing self-care concerning technology a lot of kids have problems with their necks and and things with their phones um skin care for teens and skin care for athletes I think I talked to you about this last time that trying to use sensitivity in dealing with hygiene so that's the way we're going to go about it um and then we also have the faculty lounges uh that are going to have art projects for them um all week long so uh that's happening as well I will have a much more detailed report for you at the next board meeting um but again another great partnership you know uh and I think this is just GNA continue to grow another Nancy Dre thing um so moving on to founding day Jackie I'm sure you wanna well I I mean you can kick us I I can I I'll get started in you where you can fill the stuff if you want to do everything else um well you well the date is tomorrow for the millwheel design uh deadline is my understanding and we've already gotten three already I actually got another one four or five as of an hour ago okay great so there are 12 um groups committed to uh to doing Mill Wheels um which is great and we've asked them for a really uh rigorous detail on the design to make sure that we have all materials that they will need and also to make sure that they are engaged in the process for robust design if you will um pick up Amanda is going to spearhead April 3 and fourth is right yep um drop off decorated Wheels May first 2nd um Michael Cooper who uh was the artist one Al together now and is helping partner with us will be applying a protective coding over the next 10 days and May 18th is MIL wheel Taylor Park 100 Year celebration uh May 18th 12 to3 with a rain date of the 19th um please also know we have um a variety of Community Partners including historic um environmental commission um that will be participating in some day of activities we will have period music there'll be some tours um am I missing anything I the only thing I'd say is we held a um a stencil and painting workshop at Bower center for the 12 organizations anyone that needed to get more comfortable with painting or using stencils and we had several groups come so that was really helpful that's all I've got great then girls night out I will have a much more detailed report at the next meeting but just another reminder it is June 6th and that's it for me great right and then there's the stuff that I do all day so um one of the new reports um that that Tracy asked me to include on a recovering basis is a new businesses closed businesses um we used to do this kind of quarterly or so but uh just to keep you guys in the loop uh thus far this year we've had seven new businesses open including three storefronts uh So Sushi zero at Milburn and lacana curious kids on Spring Street they just got their brand new sign so you go check that out and then Rossy paints is at 8 Main Street um four businesses have closed this year so Suburban paint was sold to Rossy paint so that's just a kind of a one for one wash uh the sonoko on upper Milburn Avenue closed after the passing of the owner which we we talked about previously and akt Fitness on Morris Turnpike um just closed there was some Financial issues between the franchisee and the the parent company um the fourth one is just collect uh which opened maybe two years ago or so up at U Milburn at Holmes um I spoke to the the building owner um and he said that they're currently in litigation with the tenant um so he wouldn't explain what happened but if anything uh does come up I'll let you know um on the positive side um we we've had numerous projects that are underway including sugaring NYC um which is uh fitting out at space over by the old president's Club just down the road here um there's two recently signed leases at the futter space so fingers crossed um I saw two by Forest in there yeah so do we know what the what they are yeah uh why don't we wait a month and I'll tell you about it because I don't want to jinx it yeah because I'm like oh for my last 16 every time I told people they were coming in um there's a lease uh underway for the former elephant plate um and they're doing some fit out there and then there's two projects that are underway on upper Milburn uh the formal Bridal Shop uh which is slated to become a boutique Supermarket that's the 565 space um and then there's uh the new signature realy um is under construction and hopefully with some warm weather um that project will be completed that's at the corner of Milburn and balol yes so they've gutted the entire building um but it's it's coming along quickly um we also of course have new construction that has to get filled um so I've been working quite actively on sending tenants uh to the representatives at the old Wells Fargo which is now called The Hearth at Milburn and then the former Milburn feed store which is right across the street here our former board member thees nickel owns that building and uh we have some good news uh Ben and I have been working quite hard on attracting a golf simulator to n's building and uh they are going to be appearing in front of the zoning board relatively soon um to get their approvals but uh there's one operation in chadam they have another in Monclair and we would be the third um in the network but Ben and I have had a chance to go and meet with the owner see his facility and I think it's going to be an absolutely incredible addition to downtown um so we're thrilled with that and then um in the 12 weeks since the start of the year I've actually received 10 real estate inquiries from businesses looking to come to milber so we're talking about almost one a week U which is a terrific rate and um just on the next month will be the biannual state of the Sid but because of those uh closures with akt the Sonoco um the vacancy rate is at 4.8% which funny enough is the exact same as it was in March of last year um and a little bit higher than the all-time low which was 3.26 um at our last report in October so we're at 4.8 some strange things have happened obviously with with debts and things but um you know we're still in a great situation and I think as these new spaces come online at the hearth and the feed store um we're just going to keep bringing in some some really exciting tenants um education program update so we've had two programs completed thus far we did one with the New Jersey Economic Development administr Authority on small business uh Grant programs that was really well attended and then one with David sorin from New Frontier on the njeda uh free website program that was last week the third session is actually a week from tomorrow it's Friday March 22nd at 8:30 a.m. on Zoom uh Jeff berer who is from the New Jersey business Action Center is presenting on some of the programs they offer um that includes mentoring assistance grants and Loans uh licensing and professional certifications um as well as labor and Workforce assistance so it's a pretty diverse presentation uh not just for retail but for really anybody in the in the S um and I certainly I strongly encourage all the board members advisory committee members elected officials to attend this one because Jeff formerly ran the Main Street program um for the state and he's got a wealth of information about Small Business Development and about community devel so I think this is not just for business owners but really anybody that's interested in Economic Development um so that's Friday March 22nd at 8:30 I'll share that Zoom link with everyone um and then finally Jeff and his team are going to be coming back may 23d for a two-hour Symposium that we are hosting with the chamber it's going to be at the Short Hills Hilton um so it's going to be 3 o'clock to five o'clock Symposium with the business action center and a couple of other organizations and then we're going to do a mixer for Sid businesses and ch chamber businesses from 5: to 7: so that's May 23rd and just you know Mark that on your calendar but more information will come out about that so um educational programs are going very well um any questions before I go on to the parking committee Friday March 22nd 8:30 a that's zoom on Zoom so I'll share that okay and may 23r that's from 3 to 7 at the Short Hills Hilton 3 to 5 and then five to six correct and that's in partnership with the chamber actually all of our education programs are in partnership with the chamber this year um but this one is the only kind of inperson mixer that we're doing but I think between the two organizations we'll have a really nice turnout parking committee so we got a couple quick items so I am on the Township's parking committee and um we had a meeting about a probably not even a month ago um we are going to be adding the explore logo to all the pce stations um to promote the Sid most towns have their Sid logo um so we're actually just waiting on specs from the operator of the pay stations then we'll send them whatever resolution uh jpeg they need um we also dealt with uh Mr Feld brought up an issue in January that the 15minute parking option was not the free 15 minutes that we have on the streets was not showing up at lot 14 on up from over Avenue so he was half correct as we as we discovered because yes it wasn't showing up but that's because the Lots do not have 15minute free parking um so we decided if it's good enough for the streets it's good enough for the Lots so now um we're working with the programmers to add free 15 minutes in lot one two four five and 14 um so one is where the clock tower is two is the parking deck uh four and five are right here near town hall and then 14 is on up from Milburn Avenue so a good catch on his part and uh uh we we are now adding it not just to the streets but to those five Lots yeah um at the last Township committee meeting uh Jerry Kung uh he had made a u a i gu a public comment uh that and it was actually it was very good comment is um to Arbitrage or get more people use the new parking deck just drop the rates there significantly compared to the other rates for on the street parking to drive business into that deck and even if we did it for six months or so see if it really does Drive the business because there's so many so many empty spots you know on the second third level I know the top level's under construction now but you know let's just keep that filed in the back of our head or in your head you're on the parking committee yeah I mean I think the the real challenge is parking is 50 Cents an hour so it's not as if it's prohibitively expensive right um the parking deck is underutilized primarily because of its location right it is not actually within the central business district um and so I think if the parking deck where were today where the municipal parking lot is right here right where the the staff Parks between the Hearth and here you'd have a much different user um and I think your usership rates would go up um I think it's it's something that we talk about a lot is how we can impact and better use the parking deck we've actually changed the way that uh the parking spaces are allocated it used to be majority uh workers and fewer shoppers but we've noticed that in terms of who purchases the passes um the Shoppers need more parking so we flipped it um to try to make it easier um I I think yeah it's definitely a conversation that we need to have about continuing to activate that parking deck um I just wish it was in a different location if I'm honest I think if it was closer to the you know the mil bur main intersection certainly it be more popular but um yeah I'll bring it up at our next uh parking meeting and see what we can do yeah and you know uh once parking becomes a little more extreme people will walk that two and a half blocks I mean most I know most people in this days uh who work in in hat or worked him in hat know know the the problems with parking so walking six blocks BLS um Alex McDonald also requested that the police department assess the viability of converting um the town hall parking lot that you all Park in uh into a one way um part of the concern is that we have a lot of cut through traffic and we're concerned there's a lot of teen drivers that come here after high school and it's a very very tight lot and so no action you know is planned at this point we're just getting data but we want to see average speed um do we know if cars are just passing through are they stopping um we may consider doing some sort of one-way structure where um cars are forced to go to the right when they come in off of Milburn Avenue maybe we're just going to make um the exit onto Milburn Avenue one way and you can only enter from Essex so then that come plays into the Essex Street two-way conversion so there's a whole host of stuff that we have to figure out but um we've started that process at least about trying to make that a safer place for pedestrians um we also worked with the town sign shop would you mind getting our sign um so as you all know in front of the Milburn dely Goldbergs pliables um there's a lot of double parking we've dealt with it quite a bit because of the angle parking that has been installed um but oh she's strong um we still have a problem with delivery drivers occupying parking spaces and just standing literally you know the car is standing waiting for an order to come in on their phone so they don't have anywhere else to go so what Alex came up with is we have a surplus of parking spots on Essex Street um near the form Rand he says and they're just kind of in no man's land because there's really no it's the backs of businesses that are there but the businesses all of parking lots so they don't really need those spaces so we've now put up signs that actually match this that say this is delivery driver parking and so the police officer is going to be pushing them to that area and then we're going to place these two signs which match that sign um on Milburn a trying to encourage people go up make a left Park on ess6 and then just come back around so hopefully that'll free up some of the parking spots for customers as opposed to FY drivers um and then we do have some email blasts and social posts coming up about the Shopper parking passes um if you are a resident you can purchase a $60 annual pass uh which many people do not do but um you can park on streets and lots without paying the meters but Alex will make me say by contract time limits do apply um but for 60 bucks you can park um in in any part of town um and not have to feed the meter so um it's a good deal so we'll we'll get that messaging out as well um any questions on parking and you already changed a quarter as well was that last year yes so um we have for stores yeah we have right now you can buy an annual pass or quarterly pass um and then we actually we've been talking to some business owners um people are feeding the meter and you know if you work three days for eight hours it's cheaper just to buy the quarterly pass than to pay the parking meter and so we're trying to get that word out to people because I think in their minds they think they're saving money by paying the parking meter but the price isn't that expensive especially when you break it down by quarter um so we're we're just constantly telling people buy the passes buy the passes um terms of infrastructure so sidewalk sales are on the agenda for the meeting on Tuesday uh the resolution needs to be approved on an annual basis so Ben this is your first time uh asked to approve this um it's something we do every year um it allows retail sidewalk sales from May 4th to September 29th um and the resolution will be provided in your packet it's something that's been approved unanimously in years past and it's just a nice addition to the town so that'll be on your agenda for Tuesday um outdoor dining and seating applications have been produced by the municipal clerk um and theyve been provided to all the food establishments via email and hard copy so that's anybody that puts up tables and chairs outside their space um they are limited to the sidewalks and the adjacent spaces of the businesses the Main Street Pedestrian Mall um applications are separate I know that's come up as a question so I just wanted to answer that if a business wants to have a table in the mall itself on the street it's a separate application separate fee um so the ones that are coming in now are just for people that have it immediately in front of their business um and then an announcement on the downtown circulation Improvement plan um so we had talked about this a number of times I'm on the committee that's been looking at converting Essex Street into a two-way street um we've been working with Coler engineering to determine the viability of that um the whole goal really is to ease congestion increase accessibility um and promote Economic Development especially on essic street so um Alex has has put me in charge of preparing the presentation uh which will be made to the public on Wednesday the 27th of March so um I guess just a little under two weeks from now and that will be at 800 PM uh here in the committee chamber so Essex Street 2A downtown circulation Wednesday March 27th 8:00 pm here at council chambers and uh encourage all of you to attend this is a a really important piece of of trying to restructure the downtown especially with the new development that's happening we need to really modernize the the road circulation and Colliers has done a really good job and there's some really good people on this committee uh that have been working now almost two years on it so this will be kind of the end hopefully um any questions on that before we get to the RFP for um sidewalk maintenance um I have something a second please um for the outdoor dining applications is there a way we can get them earlier like today is a beautiful day would have been really nice to have chairs out maybe like in the winter what would be an ideal time for you February 15 yeah beginning of the year makes sense I will let the clerk know okay so then attachment for y in your packets is a maintenance RFP um so hopefully you've all had a chance to review it um so this program is funded through a $20,000 allocation that we have from the town it's going to be given to explore it's actually through the New Jersey clean communities program I think the town gets about $43,000 or so a year from clean communities they use a portion of it for Public Works um and then they've now given us the other 20 ,000 which is actually approved in our budget for this year um and so you know as we have more events more people more businesses um the the maintenance really is is now I think beyond the Manpower of Public Works and we saw that certainly last year with The Pedestrian Mall um you know every Sunday the garbage was piled up because there was just so many people so um good problem to have but you need a solution so I went to Alex and asked him if we could allocate these funds um which he agreed to so the RFP that's in front of you um is for street sweeping um you know literally a broom and a a pale um graffiti removal and area maintenance from May to August so this is a pilot program um this is the first time we've tried it but the the idea is to put this out to a private vendor who could provide these Services I've also broken down in the RFP the frequency so it'll be for all five districts of the Sid um and I tried to make make the frequency relevant to the the foot traffic so downtown uh two times a week and one of those days must either be a Saturday or Sunday morning um which will match up you know certainly with the weekend traffic upper Milburn is the second most uh foot traffic uh area so that'll be one time a week Short Hill station two times a month Wyoming and Morris um they have very little foot traffic it's mostly the HIIT killer um and and also most of the property is private anyway so they have their own Camp Crews um so one time a month just to do those too um so I asked Mr Cooper to review this he made um some minor edits and really at this point is just about um getting feedback from you guys any questions um I did leave the RFP um response date as a TBD um but I'd like to get this out as soon as possible to vendors so um any questions or uh the only action really would just to a Voice vote yeah a Voice vote to authorize me to distribute this yes the only uh comment well any does anybody else from the board have a comment and then I can make my comment I I have one question you got yeah I had a quick question a little outside the scope of cleaning but I know we've spoken many times about those loose bricks and things also on the sidewalk which in some cases are hazardous people can trip that's outside the scope of this but has have we has anything move forward with respect to fixing those issues yeah um no no it's actually good so there is actually a reporting component of this um so we've asked the vendor to report any issues that are above their scope so at least Public Works is notified um it depends on where you are right so there's some areas where the brick is privately owned and so if we get a report we have to go to the private owner um if it is on a public sidewalk and we get a report it usually goes through um the sdl portal which I know Ben is a big fan of um we encourage people put in the sdl portal Public Works will be notified that there's a deficiency in the sidewalk and then they could go out and repair it okay yeah great we got to get rid of the brick sidewalks is what we need to do ultim ultimately get rid of them tracon I was just interested to know like how we choose who this will go to and are there actually are there businesses in the S within the s that one business that would vendors to be considered and how else do we I have a list of I have a list of 10 that I've been able to find um through various resources um I think 10 is a fair number to get it out there and um one of those businesses is within the we don't have many um type of types of these business but um I'll come back to you guys hopefully we could do it at the April meeting you can make a decision and then we can award that contract and proceed to minut right but but I think I mean so it's price but then maybe UHS a recommendation sure you know that kind of stuff right like what would be the criteria for choosing I think Tracy that's what you're yeah I mean that's certainly additional import yeah yeah I I would want to confirm that it meets our best practices yeah uh for select selection of a vendor and also as well that um DPW would not want to submit as well to do this to do this why would they not this is a supplement to that I understand but as even as a supplement there's they wouldn't want to external I I understand but even for 20 grand but I don't understand what what you're asking so like public works as an agency right as a department correct um they don't they don't really have the Manpower okay you end up paying overtime well yeah right but even if they're paying overtime you know their famili their familiarity with the township and you know shop local you know they're as local as they get U so uh you know just a discussion I have with Alex and with the head of DPW to see if they did would want to do it I would think I can certainly doesn't doesn't hurt I think also depending on the prices that come back we probably lose hours of of Maintenance right depending on how much DPW yeah private vendor is gonna probably be cheaper but we might as well ask it's fine I I would just I would just encourage that the scope uh run through Labor Day um rather than August September third or because August 30th what but I would say September 3rd or second yeah and and those dates may end up having to be a bit malleable because again this is a finite budget right and so we have to look at it by week and so we may not be able to get to that number of weeks we may have to shorten it so that's something that I'll be able to bring back to you guys once I get to the RFP responses I just wanted to add to to address the questions um it's SP out that it's a qualitative evaluation not a quantitative which I think is what the comments were getting at it is not strictly lowest bidder you you are to evaluate uh you're free to evaluate not just the price but also um a number of other characteristics of the bid that it will inform your decision as to who the best vendor is I believe that was the questions right yes is something that a lot of other towns utilize this type of service yeah so um it's a great question um a lot of towns do give the Sid the money from clean communities to do this work um ideally the Sid should be more efficient right than than the municipality that's the point of improvement districts right we can go out and hire vendors we don't have to go through the same uh bidding process that municipalities do um so we could be a lot quicker and Nimble about it um some bids especially in lower income areas do have the ability to access State funds that we don't have access to like the neighborhood Pres reservation program um that's something that a lot of lower inome communities can tap into and um they can reach 20 25 $30,000 for those types of things plus um that program you can put in shade trees you can do Street Furniture um unfor fortunately we are not a low-income community that qualifies for that program but um to answer your question just sort of in the macro of what SIDS do um a lot especially in this part of the state where you do have lower income communities they tap into resources that we're not eligible for so they do it they just use different funding mechanism so we do need a Voice vote though yes a motion motion a second and uh a roll call vote this uh may I have a motion to approve the resolution supporting the part of may I have a a Voice vote for the districtwide sidewalk maintenance RFP as highlighted in attachment four with those minor Corrections about nebor day and I'll add also references just in case I and probably you could well right May May 1st May 8th I don't know whatever I think we'll find out yeah okay uh all those in favor so I'm sorry just to be technical that was a motion that was a motion I need a second please thank you who was the motion was you Jackie yes second second and we wanted a roll call vote either either is fine either a roll call or or just a Y and N I'll do the roll call Quick List Alexa yes Tracy cine yes Jackie Benjamin liberg yes Ben Stoler yes Ashley is not present stepen Winer yes and Ashley's not how you join us 7:30 we actually moving faster than the Clone and then the final item um so is that the completion of the role sir that was of the so the final item I know our last meeting I mentioned that I was trying to find some funds to and get a scope for an improvement on Morris Turnpike in that area between the curb and the sidewalk um I got a project scope from a vendor and it it was it far exceeded what we were able to spend uh we do have two grants that are currently under consideration um with two different foundations so if those hit that'll change the scope a little bit um what I would like to do um and this is not urgent because this is a hardscaping project so it's just rock it's not plants or grass because they don't hold up well as we've learned out there um this is something that could be done in the third quarter of the year um but once we have an idea of our of our funding availability as well as whether those grants hit um I'd like to if even if it has to be scaled um at least start that project so that that's on my back burner at the moment and um we will get something done on Morris Turnpike in the hardscaping um but it's just going to be a a budget issue more than anything else so wanted to just give you an update on that because we spoke about it um and that concludes my executive director's report um but I know we have the Main Street resolution yes do you want to say anything Jackie or you want me just to why don't why don't you kick us off and then I have some comments and I like to share with their board okay so this is uh you see attachment five in your packets this is a resolution supporting a partnership with the historic preservation commission um and so as I was developing the Main Street application right the one that we just submitted um I requested letters of support from various organizations in the town uh we got one from the art advisory committee Ceda Historical Society the Milburn neighbors Papermill Senator mcken and the Chamber of Commerce then we also expect a letter on Monday from the historic reservation commission uh but related to that Jackie and I have met with the historic reservation chair Allison Canfield as well as the township committee liaison which is Frank Sandy uh we've had some really really productive meetings about the need for uh HPC to engage with the city um on a more frequent and more detailed basis and so um they've asked us to form a more significant partnership and we think that's a good thing for economic development um how this relates back to the main street application um so you don't have to have a designated historic district in your main Street District to be considered for the application it certainly helps but it's not a requirement um and so what we we've gotten to is there's definitely opportunities to designate areas within the downtown which is our Main Street District as well as other areas within the Sid as a whole um HPC wants to advance those efforts which is certainly within their mission um but where they could really use our expertise is the communication and the relationships that we have uh we certainly have a much larger social media presence email presence and relationship with property owners and so um tonight what what we're asking for is a is for you to authorize this resolution which simply codifies that we're going to have a formal relationship uh with the historic preservation commission and um I'll read it into the I'll read the resolution uh for the record and then we can discuss it or do you want to do that yeah you could you could do that and then I have some comments about uh revision and I just to share with the board sure I just want to clarify um and I want to read this so I get all my words right just keep in mind that this is this resolution is not meant to infer that Explorer is responsible for initiating the process of any historic district designation uh we are simply committing to collaborate with the historic preservation commission to educate property owners and business owners about two specific plan designations which were initiated by HPC as well as overall engagement and educ education in the future um um and you'll there's five points to this resolution so I I'll make note of those I'm sorry just inter One Last Time correct correct so with those two facts I just wanted to let you know there's no obligation there's no requirement that you read it as a matter of procedure for approving the resolution okay then let me just read the action items and I'll I'll spare you all the we asses um so item one um so it says explore will provide support to the HPC on an ongoing basis to advance the following efforts on an as-needed basis one collaborate as requested by HPC in the creation of a historic designation for Taylor park in downtown murn two collaborate as requested by HPC in the creation of a historic district for the quote Short Hills Village which includes the Short Hill station District of the Sid Short Hills train station and nearby parking lots three work with HPC to examine future designation proposals in the Sid to ensure that both historic preservation and economic development goals are met four work with the HPC to advance educational Outreach to Property Owners to help create a better understanding of historic preservation policies and benefits five work with the HPC to engage property and business owners who may be interested in historic design standards preservation and programmatic services related to their properties okay so I've read through this several times and based upon my experience on both the TC and as well as on explore I recognize that we are not a land use board and we are really a communication partner uh to HPC and to the TC and we are not an ordinance driver um so my recommendation and I I want to share this with the board and would like your feedback is rather than say we are collaborate as requested I would like to say that we will assist in public engagement as requested by HPC and assist in public engagement as requested for for Taylor park in downtown mour and assist in public engagement as requested by HPC during the proposed creation of the historic district for Short Hills Village which includes the Short Hills station District of the Sid so I think that those um uh clarification if you will will um will put the Sid in the light that it is as a as I mentioned as a advis more an an advisory capacity and a communication partner rather than uh ordinance driver so I think I'm trying I'm trying to just understand exactly what you're recommending to change I'm recommending to change collaborate as requested to assist assist in public engagement I have it written so and then what do you and then what about regarding three4 and five three four and five would stay as as they are because I feel like I have actually some questions about fine I got a lot of yeah that's fine um I'm sorry did I like interrupt you well that's okay the the other thing that I think I just want to so Steve yeah it's so the Taylor Park designation as historic is not um is not a a qualification for the Main Street application I just want to make sure no you do not have to have either a so remember the Main Street District that we've applied for yeah is only the downtown section of the bid you do not have to have a historic designation of that District nor do you have to have a specific site while there is a significant historic preservation component um that is part of the Main Street effort right to implement historic preservation um opportunities when you have the designation but in terms of the actual application there's no requirement that you have a historic district or that you have a historic in is in so whatever we do here you know with respect to aligning our efforts or communication whatever relationship we choose to establish with the HPC really will not impact our pending application is that right no it will not the application is a standalone whatever HPC does tomorrow next week a 100 years from now so should we I'm like I don't we should consider how we feel about the designation of Taylor the area near the station I'm good with like helping to serve as a conduit with communicating putting them in touch with the businesses that's fine we know them that's I think what Jackie was but anything more than that helping you know I started marking this up and saying well reasonably and trying to as requested by like Jackie picked up that seems kind of bro put my lawyer hat on a little bit like I I guess I feel myself a little uncomfortable because I I don't know how that would help or hurt or be neutral with respect to businesses right I kind of like the idea of having Taylor Park is a historic district but I don't know what that means with our ability to improve the building that's there our Center like can we at some point could the town rebuild it or is it sort of Frozen in time because it's now a historic building I you're asking a question really for the township committee as opposed to the but we're being asked to sort of support that which is a for on conclusion that we haven't talked about or thought about I think I'm yeah I don't want to I think I'm just having a lot of the same feelings as um you know we read our mission statement at the beginning of our meetings I'm concerned that this is going way beyond our scope as we said us assisting in communicating to businesses that's certainly within our scope but I feel oh sorry I just wanted to finish one thing um but I'm concerned that we don't know I mean I'm just not familiar personally at all with HBC guidelines and all the pros and cons of the historic districts and Taylor Park I mean we love Taylor Park it's a key part of town but I don't it's not actually part of the S area right the park is separate I'm just concerned that this feels outside of our scope and to say we're going to um work to ensure historic preservation and Economic Development goals are met we have one set of goals HPC has another set of goals and there may come a time with what they're recommending is not consistent with what we would want to advocate for for businesses and we might not be able to come to like a meeting of the minds I guess I just don't totally understand it sounds like more collaboration is a is a nice idea and a good idea and us helping with communication to businesses make sense but I don't totally understand why we need like an official I would offer up that the TC of which lays on from a TC is that the TC are the elected officials by the residents uh and they are the only ones you can and you correct me if I'm wrong Mr Cooper uh who can actually effectuate an ordinance or a resolution so that being the point this HPC or the Sid has no real power to pass an ordinance or a resolution what the TC is asking for input from collaboration hence input from HPC other boards so anything that comes up is not going to be passed by the Sid or by HBC the only people who can make decisions governing decisions are elected officials which are the TC and the Board of Education in the township of milb so I I totally agree the the only clarifying point is I agree with ordinances a resolution is just a statement of of policy for the board making the resolution so um without opining at all on the substance of your comments you this board can pass a resolution on any number of subjects it is binding only on this board as a matter of this board's view right so contextually I meant on the township yeah yeah any resolution this board passes can't have any binding effect on any any any agency or Department of attention okay good so which is correct correct so what I believe this resolution is being asked to do is not to assist but to collaborate and get the points forward from the perspective of the special improvement district and the business you the business improvement district which is in fact why we exist why this District exists is to have someone representing the small businesses and the businesses of Milburn Short Hills so unless we don't want them to have a voice at the table to collaborate however it says that we're gonna collaborate on the creation of the historic district conclusion that it's saying we're gonna support and collaborate and I don't know enough to say I as a member of this board I think that t Park should be a historic district and I think the Short Hill station should be a historic district I just I'm just being honest so maybe that's the difference in the POS in the possible creation or a potential assist in the proposed creation proposed creation you said assist in public engagement assist in public engagement as requested by HPC during the proposed creation of a histor a better word though but I like the proposed do we need why it just seems just seems to convey that we're supporting it and I don't feel like our board has made a policy decision that the Sid board I just don't feel like we have the data and the information I I know I don't to say again I'm Aller helping communicate and engage businesses in in in things being considered by HPC and to help represent the business as I mean I'm all for that that is totally our role but I don't think we know enough to know we don't know for certain things what the business's point of view is on things or which things are beneficial or not well so just from a procedural perspective right I was asked to draft a resolution you can do whatever you want right and so if you feel like this existing language is is too committal or you to remove a portion you can do that that's the whole point of of tonight's discussion in our past though Steve we've we've engaged with a lot of Township organizations without a resolution right Ceda we we have a lot of and we and you work and talk with a lot of the art comp you know and we've never done a resolution like this to sort of authorize you talking with like to me it's a little odd because you should you like you should be reaching out and we should be communicating with all of these groups and if if HBC and our business it it feels like I'm wondering why we need a resolution like like to me this would be a first time that we need a resolution to talk to another Township organization I I to me that's a bit odd well so what what's the like and and and so I I think part of the challenge with HPC right is it's not it's not Ceda right Ceda does great things but it's not a defao board right and so we need to be very careful if we are asked by the township committee to engage with HPC that we have certain garbage um there are two pending applications right or there will be at least on the Tuesday night agenda as I'm told um one of them is the Short Hills station District which is within our city if you remember back to late 23 there was the proposal to designate the entire downtown and it created a a furer in in town because there was very little public engagement if any and very little public notes and it ended up being tabled and is now sat and probably will never Advance the feedback that I received from HPC and from the township committee members was this could have been done a lot better had the Sid been engaged because we could have met with people and explained to them what HPC is doing not necessarily advocate for HPC but at least get our constituents right to understand what this entity is trying to do the HBC that didn't happen this I think is now a lesson learned to say we should be doing that right and we should be assisting HPC however I think in the security of our own organization we need to make sure that we're setting boundaries and so when you say you know we really want to be careful about Taylor Park and maybe we don't want to specifically endorse that project we don't want to specifically mention that we're going to get involved with Short Hills Village I think there needs to be something that says that we're going to engage with the land use board on a regular basis but I'm not sure really it's up to you guys how you want to formalize that if at all so hopefully I know that was a sec cous answer but can we also that we had a discussion at our meeting about this and that we sptify in our minutes that we've discussed that that we may that HPC has approached us and would like us to be more active in helping with Communications to businesses and as a neutral facilitator of those Communications we I'm not sure we should be taking a strong one position or another on whether it's a good idea I I and I I I'm a little uncomfortable because I I know that there was a political backdrop to this issue right and I but you're saying that this is on the on the agenda for Tuesday no to to codify Short Hills Village no no no I I believe there's going to be either a presentation or discussion I don't know and they want to say that supporting I should have said IM okay I think we just like I have no idea if the like I do we even know I don't know we're kind of going in circles but I don't know that we I I I would have no idea if the property owners and business owners at Jord Hill station would want it or not want it to be that's the point is no one's talking to right so I think we definitely want to well shouldn't we have the ask quick questions and I don't mean to interupt you can okay I'd be happy to um is is a resolution needed uh put in in the near term or is this something that could be um uh represented at the next meeting I think a resolution could be represented um I think we should just get something in the minutes that establishes that we've had this conversation and we are working towards a potential resolution the other thing I was going to suggest um having listened to all of your comments um and you tell me whether this I think gets to the heart is I think the language in the second whereas Clause perhaps more accurately reflects what I'm hearing for your comments which is you would engage in a Cooperative effort with HPC to explore these enumerated issues in the next where as law so rather than commit to the creation what I'm hearing and what I would propose is a revise language that says something to the effect that Explorer will uh engage with HPC in a Cooperative effort to determine uh whether to create a historic designation for Taylor Park uh engage with HPC in a Cooperative effort uh to determine whether uh to create a historic district for the Short Hills Mall village now perhaps not that precise language but I guess what I'm asking is if that more accurately reflects more I feel like I'm pushing back a bit here could it be even more General though again like why is the S getting involved in our view I mean t Park is a great part of town that brings people down but like could it be even more General about our role of of being engaged in discussion engaging businesses and helping with communication and getting input and feedback in ter you know especially related to the economic side time well well yeah so that's right delete well you delete all these the list of five things and you kind of the way the generic uh engagement to discuss you know with respect to e Advanced economic and historic future of the town and leave it at that and and opens the door of communication without dictating sort of the the the agenda right in a resolution I I don't know if that would accomplish does does this help with the Main Street application it's uh it certainly would help um to say that we have a partnership with HPC so let's it is not and I thought we said that it kind of is we've already submitted our application and this really will not impact the decision are we going to supplement our application to this were to come in I see okay um plus I do have to supplement anyway because the Chamber of Commerce letter came in after we submitted okay board meeting so I have to send something anyway now does does having this resolution hurt us no does it help us somewhat is it a deal breaker no um and so I certainly would not suggest that we do anything that we're not comfortable with you know to try to bolster the Main Street application the Main Street application will stand on its own um so we need to just make sure that we are protecting our organization going forward um with whatever comes out of this discussion does that clarify then but my other question is why are we just isolating Taylor Park and the Short Hills Village shouldn't can can't we just say all the districts within this within the s or some more generic more something a little more th those are the to uh proposed designations that HPC is is attempting to advance at present we could eliminate those and just be generic about it um that's fine I like the idea of some kind of language that says right we're going to assist the things that talk about the joint and bass the economic and historic future of the town and collaborating and helping with communication and in in especially with the business Community like that all makes sense I think it just seems tricky focusing on these two items would and just as a side note Short Hill station actually has nothing to do with the Main Street applications corre only for as a side um would you feel more comfortable if we were to eliminate the five specific actions and as Mr Cooper said simply leave the first two whereases um is that is that generic enough would feel more comfortable I again suggest what if you just strike the first two numbered paragraphs um is is what you seeing to accomplish not captur within items three four five I I think three four and five um certainly are what you know our obligation to our stakeholders needs to be I think had three four and five occurred in late 2023 um there would have been a much more more robust discussion of the downtown designation so if the the goal is to solve a problem that exists 3 four and five would be the way to do it I would feel much I would feel more com well the other thing is one one you're looking at something that the municipality owns and one you're looking at a private um no Short Short Hills Village has both because we own uh right the parking lots we own the train station the federal government owns the post office we own the Arboretum um so and then there's private property as well are you comfortable if one and two were not is anyone not comfortable if one and two were out May I make a proposal or suggestion I think the Taylor Park is important for [Music] our I mean it says in number three that maybe take out the word future to examine designation proposals and that includes I the ones that are coming up I don't think we need the word future and so that we would be if you want to mention Taylor like currently including or such as such including but not limited to yeah language of lawyers can I ask a format question on on this document I've always thought where as Clauses are sort of the non-enforceable set the context what are we doing and the whole purpose of this resolution is to authorize Steve to talk to HPC and I'm I'm wondering whether it it should just PE whereas we're trying to promote business they're trying to do something we would like to communicate to effectuate our joint goals therefore and have something more I I I I don't know it it sort of yes and both okay I know precis what you're asking you know what I'm getting at okay I do so which is the the enumerated paragraphs would would in many resolutions many not all would be under the therefore Clause but there's but that so that would be a proper way I can't say that this is not a proper way also okay sounds like it sounds like if we're going to pass it it would be beneficial to do that that we might as well do it so that it can be submitted to the with the Main Street application this is something we're comfortable with and so if Brian is saying that the language is okay and we're saying if we take out one and two sounds like we're getting close solution okay so then what we are left with is a second whereas well let's fix the first paragraph So we have Explorer has submitted its application and one of the key right that's just factually more correct um okay and then whereas explore as engag in discussions that's okay right we you've spoken HPC the second whereare seems okay right to Y and then if if you like you can now therefore yeah where I was y therefore resolved or be it resolved and then um kind of three four kind of that do we want that sentence explore will provide support to HPC on an ongoing basis or just just three four and five well therefore be resolved that explore will you know what reasonably work with HPC to examine existing and potential future designations if you want to name healer Park you know if that's important and ivly just so that Explorer will and then you have three enumerated paragraphs except it says three four and five become one two and three work with HPC to examine future design to examine designation proposals including but not limited to uh proposals for uh Taylor Park and Short Hills Village right right I say in or adjacent to this I mean t Park I I I think Tracy it's not a I think Tracy is a good point I think if we just say in or adjacent to the sit would be a catch all right right we're not going to get involved in you know things that are happening in residential neighborhoods you know miles from but if it's within proximity right because that's good it keeps a business Focus so so I'm sorry could you repeat that language so so work with HBC to examine designation proposals in and around right or in adjacent in and adjacent to the Sid to ensure and I call the district to ensure that both historic preserv and economic development goals are met so can can I ask though what if those goals um are not not Al not well we we relinquish power or we we we relinquish our ability to do things at certain points right so HPC can't authorize a preservation District they can only refer it to the township committee right we could if we feel that their proposal does not comport with economic development goals to say that and say this is not something that that we support well you're required to that's what C is so I I would I would agree though with the executive director and I I do want to emphasize this because um I think you're making a lot of great progress um here but I do want to emphasize a couple things this is not a contract so you know it's a resolution it's a statement of policy um and as we know uh in a million context policies can you know policies can change the same exact policy statement can be interpreted a lot of different ways depending on the policy maker uh or or agency at the time so I I and that's valuable okay so I I I don't I think you are right to be proceeding very carefully and deliberately but I also don't want I want you to know that you you are not being not a single word that I have heard um is binding you to any conclusion or obligating you to you know continue on a process when you feel that that process is no longer fruitful or in the best interest of your constituency so with that said I just I don't want you to get bog bogged down um with some particulars if you need to and if anything I believe it's giving giving more say to the to the S which is you know it's giving more autonomy and more deference to the Sid to make decisions for the small businesses in town that have not had a say I mean a little dumbfounded that this board was this was founded to represent their interest yet we don't want to represent their interest this is what this board is for they need to be heard and yeah I mean as things stand today right we don't have any real ability to comment on the HPC process or engagement um I think if we're going to be honest about transparency and engagement this is a good step the the historic reservation commission should be working with the Improvement District in any Town not not just Milburn sitting on on on the days as TC member when I asked a question what does the Sid think of it we haven't talk about it say you know yeah I want to say I completely agree we should be representing the businesses and having views I say my concern was conveying a view on two districts without having the information I completely agree we're here to represent the business but I don't think this is asking you to make that we taking out the first two I think the way it was worded before sounded like we were saying we support these things can I ask on number four now it sounds more open um we're going to clarify Outreach to Property Owners to help create under like we're not talking about like homeowners we're talking about business Commercial properties we could just say Sid stakeholders because that then encompasses that's good assessed properties nonassessed prop owners owners operators as well as as business I like that that's good and we could do the same in in now three to engage Sid stakeholders okay another question to but it's it Sid stakeholders and it could be um surrounding areas right sometimes yes no okay um does without over bureaucratizing anything how do we actually 45 minutes because what a lawyer talking paid by six minute I get paid by them we get paid no without beating us to death even though we beat it to death yes no no but to effectuate this though I mean does it require a a a either going through the Advisory board or a new committee set up to actually engage or is this just you talking to HBC and Reporting back or do we need so we do have a business advocacy subcommittee of the board um typically it doesn't really meet unless there's some issue like this that would be a good time for that committee to meet um I think my procedural question is the resolution that's now being entertained is far different than what was presented um what is your opinion as on how we could proceed you have two options um and uh either is totally fine so we can take these edits back to the drawing board and come back with uh a new written um resolution for the next meeting uh drafts can be circulated in between that so there's further opportunity for people to weigh in or in the alternative we can now it is required to read the resolution into the record so um the alternative is once we have settled on language uh someone um and I recommend either myself or Steve read the res read the proposed resolution then a motion would be made to adopt that resolution seconded and voted on accordingly would you like me to read the resolution just so everyone can hear where we are based on my notes maybe it's a good time for a reset is that right with everyone okay um so I'll start the title resolution 24. -001 resolution formalizing collaboration between explore Milburn Short Hills and the Milburn historic preservation commission whereas explore Milburn Short Hills explore has submitted the Township's 2024 Main Street New Jersey application and one of the key components of the Main Street approach is historic preservation based development strategies and whereas explore has engaged in discussions with the chair of the Milburn historic preservation commission to engage in a Cooperative effort to advance the economic and historic future of the Town therefore be it resolved explore will one work with HPC to examine designation proposals in and adjacent to the Sid District to ensure that both historic preservation and economic development goals are met two work with HPC to advance educational Outreach to Sid stakeholders to help create better understanding of historic preservation policies and benefits and three work with HPC to engage Sid stakeholders who may be interested in historic design standards preservation and programmatic Services related to their properties and then it would be uh the explore board authorizes the executive director to engage with the HPC as needed to effectuate these efforts um I hereby certify that this resolution was duly adopted by the Milburn Short Hills business organization Inc Board of Trustees at a meeting of said board on March 14 2024 sounds like two resolutions right one one is what you read and and then the authorization to the executive director when that's one resolution that's it's all one resolution it would therefore be a further result that the explore board authorizes the executive director to engage with the ABC as needed to effectuate got it okay we can still have discussion I I would think that no one made a motion I just read something based on based on that reading though the language you had submitted before including but not limited to Taylor Park and the Short Hills Village uh would would be included as well it's up to you guys I thought I heard that we wanted to remove that but maybe I misheard you tell me what to write I mean I'm okay either way because it's sort of uh optional if if it's helpful to include reference to those current pending kind of discussions and it's in in that would be in scope I think regardless of whether it's in writing or not so do you feel it's there's a feeling it's helpful then put it in and I would keep the tayor parking down just thank you to keep that Ryan do I just can I just read that one paragraph one okay work with HBC to examine designation proposals in and adjacent to the Sid District incl including but not limited to Taylor park in downtown Milburn and Short Hills Village to ensure that both historic preservation and economic development goals are met can do you need to include like which include Short Hill station and like the more wording like do we all know what Short Hills Village is or do we I don't if you're remember Short Hills Village as presented by the HPC is larger than the Short Hills station District of the city it includes um technically right the parking lots are not within the Sid right um the post office is a non-assessed it's an exempt property it's owned by the federal government and the Arboretum which they are proposing has never been within the District boundary so I think it might be less confusing just to say short Hillsville okay so if that was acceptable a board member could make a motion to approve the resolution as read by uh the executive director I would you like to be the secretary tonight that's a there's a lot of notes I mean is there do we have anybody online I don't know if if anyone joined um okay asley join so is it explicit that the Short Hills what the Short Hills Village entails do we know it is um I would not feel comfortable speaking about that it is I know some but I don't know what the eventual proposal will look like I guess none of us do other than HPC so I would not want to comment on that and and I want to be clear this is as as read you were not taking a position on the proposal what you are agreeing to do is work with HBC to examine the proposal and determine whether it it cons it comports with your your view of historic preservation and economic development your view of Economic Development store preservation can diverge from the hbc's and you're not committing to to to to find common ground with them you were you you were committing only to work with them to examine those questions in their proposal and you will you will reach your own opinions so would we be better in the language saying the the area surrounding the Short Hills train station or you're okay with short Hillsville I I don't know I I would again just from picking up on the conversation I would stick with the um the names of the current designations that are being used so so you're not again you're not approving the contents of those designations but right now what I'm gathering is that HBC has been talking about two specific designations that are uh being identified as commonly referred Short Hills Village or Taylor park at downtown milare I think we're probably safer just to use Short Hills Village and that will be the the name of the eventual designation right so it's not going to be coterminous with um the Sid District it will be slightly different so is anyone wanting to make a motion for this I'm happy to go for it okay uh motion to uh to pass as as read by uh Steve executive director is that you want you want to re read it one more time just to make sure I absolutely can yeah I think I think it's important I I'll skip the title um save us 10 seconds whereas explore Milburn Short Hills explore has submitted the Township's 2024 Main Street New Jersey application and one of the key components of the Main Street approach is historic preservation based development strategies and whereas Explorer has engaged in discussions with the chair of the milber historic preservation commission HPC to engage in a Cooperative effort to advance the economic and historic future of the Town therefore be it resolved explore will one fingers crossed I get this right work with the HPC to examine designation proposals in and adjacent to the Sid District including but not limited to Taylor park in downtown and Short Hills Village to ensure that both historic preservation and economic development goals are met two with HPC to advance educational Outreach to Sid stakeholders to help create better understanding of historic preservation policies and benefits three work with HPC to engage Sid stakeholders who may be interested in historic design standards preservation of programmatic services related to their properties therefore be it further resolved the explore board authorizes the executive director to engage with the HPC as needed to effectuate these efforts Etc ET you can stop there because that the the language is only for when you write this down and someone certifies that accurate it's not part of the resolution so I move that's adopted that a motion as read is adopted second someone needs a second I second it okay I'll do the roll call to Alex CL yes Tracy cat yes Jackie Benjamin lieberberg yes Ben Stoler okay as a TC member I have I you can I abstain you have to I have to abstain you don't have to but you can I abstain as a TC member um Ashley is absent Stephen wner yes four votes so it does carry that means more that's correct you you don't even need a you don't need approval of a quarum a quorum has voted a majority of that quarum is in the affirmative motion passes for zero one all right you want to keep pressing on can you read back not funny guy I like we should have applauded at you know they have that that clerk in the Senate who gets to read all the the names on a vote that should be my next job um this is going to be a very quick presentation on Placer AI um so if you remember at our last meeting we talked about an upcoming meeting with the folks from placer AI which is a location analytics platform um they use cell phone location data to assist communities and SIDS with a variety of projects and so um don't worry I'll I'll give you these notes Trac um so they currently have about a thousand clients Nationwide um including actually the bids in nework Somerville Westfield Summit and Madison which has an economic development office not a c um we had an initial meeting with some of the board members I think Jackie and Tracy were on the call if I recall um and their sales representative on February 22nd and then we actually recorded a demo which I shared with all of you um on March 1st it was a 30-minute demonstration um so hopefully you had a a chance to watch that and um there's a lot of significant benefits to this program as well as other similar ones but there are two major issues that that jump out and so uh the first is H do we need such a significant database for a sid of our size um I think Stephen kind of pointed out where sort of probably use 10 or 20% of the entire capacity but you have to pay full price um so maybe it's not useful just for our improvement district um secondly the subscription is $166,000 a year um that is a significant portion of our budget um so I think uh where where I'd like to move this is um I don't think this is particularly applicable to explore but I do think there's benefit to the town as a whole um we can get really good data on for instance you know for Ben how many people are using different fields at different times um you can get data analytics on um who's going into the parking deck and how frequently it's used um this is all location-based cell phone data so um I think we are too small maybe the municipality is the right client um and so my recommendation Ben is I'm happy to have a conversation with you on it we did our homework it's not for us maybe it's for this for the town as a whole um and I'm comfortable just kind of leaving it where it is at this point and uh and passing it along to the the township committee may be interested maybe not but that's where I I stand at least from my perspective okay so we'll speak offline about that then main street closure next item so um this is all open discussion so there's no resolution on the table just we do need to reach a conclusion but I'll I'll get to that so every spring um explore initiates the discussion of whether we're going to close Main Street or not um and create a temporary Pedestrian Mall for July in August so um just from a technical side of it in order to close a street for more than 48 hours you need an ordinance from the township committee and then approval from the state DOT um so Explorer's role is to Pro program the space with events music signage the chalk the games everything that you see we do not have a formal role in the ordinance that closes the street or anything related to that that is solely within the Dominion of the township committee so tonight really our responsibility is as we've done in the past discuss the potential dates that can be employed um and speak to Ben as to what he feels comfortable he can support um at the TC level because it will require um an ordinance be passed hopefully sooner rather than later so we can get our Logistics together but um so that's that's just me kind of setting the table we don't have a formal role other than requesting that Ben as AR Le aison go back to the township committee with whatever he believes um will be approved so that's my that's my setup so who would like to speak regarding the street closure and i' I've got some thoughts myself I have a statement from Richard werman that he'd like me to lead into the record want to share first sure okay um Richard waserman unfortunately I'm not able to make it here this evening I'd appreciate it if you read this short statement into the record for me as one of the original sponsors of the main street closure I did want to urge our board and the township committee to continue the main street closure for the full July and August months July 3rd through September 3rd according to this 2024 calendar during the past three Summers we've seen what a great venue the main street closure has become for our Township our residents and visitors now see our closed Main Street as the center for food engagement and of course music during the summer it offers our residents a reason to say local shop local and of course eat local I've been amazed at all of the people from our surrounding towns who come to our Township to enjoy it and while those Neighbors start at the closure they stay in the township and visit many of our shops and restaurants throughout the township indeed we need more open space in music and food for our residents to enjoy their downtown Emil you this that would be great yeah so here it is for the copy for now um have a c sure I'll email it to you great um okay so this is something that I feel pretty passionate about I'm happy to talk or somebody wants to go first but I'm going to I've also prepared a statement so fire away fire okay um every year this board has a discussion regard regarding the viability and timetable of the mainst street Pedestrian Mall closure for the last summer season each year we look at the concerns as well as the positive impact that the signature feature of explore and how happy how popular and welcoming it is for our business businesses Main Street uh Milbourne sh Hills residents and customers visitors from around the region as noted in our user survey from August 2023 which Mr gillo provided at the board meeting last last month the Main Street Pedestrian Mall was closed to vehicular traffic from Friday June 23rd and reopened on Tuesday September 5th the total of 74 days including 11 weekends the mall hosted 30 live music performances 15 open Street programs which included Fitness Yoga children's chalk event all by local businesses there was also a painting uh event as well that I just remembered when asked in the survey also provided some information when asked provide three words that describe them all the most popular responses were Lively Community fun music relaxing and friendly when asked about their favorite features the majority of the people said live music dining pedestrian space no cars public seating which were all enhancements in 2023 70% reported that they use the mall either daily weekly or multiple times a month most visits on weekend evenings or week day evenings and reported that they spend an average $88 per visit 70% reported that they visit other businesses in town when they're visiting the space 30% of the respondents from the surrounding communities were from Maplewood Summit and Springfield it's a great sign that a third of our users are choosing to spend money in our as Steve mentioned this Placer AI data performed a comparative data analysis on the mall between July 1st and August 31st in 2021 versus 2023 according to the data the number of visits with a minimum of seven minutes or more increased by 18,00 000 people from 61,000 in 2021 to 79,00 in 2023 the number of of visitors also increased by over 10,000 people from 4,221 to 51,800 in 2023 in 2023 Tuesdays Wednesdays Thursdays and Sundays saw higher visitation than those days in 2021 this demonstrates that users in the space are using the space throughout the entire week they spend an average of 95 minutes in the mall looking forward for 2024 I encourage or I believe that the short that the township committee should consider a full closure from July 3rd through September 3rd which is 60 days and I believe this for a number of reasons by having the complete closure this will mitigate the strain caused for businesses to set up and break down equipment on a daily basis it will it will also remove the cost and time required by Department of Public Works to open and close the streets on the on on several of the on the Mondays to Wednesdays to lessen the logistical burden for Explorer to set up games and seating and allow the explor staff to focus on other priorities and other programming this will also allow more open streets programming yoga chalk art Fitness and the early part of the week when programming does not include the music and can be more experiential in nature to promote the downtown's economic development by attracting residents and Shoppers on Monday Tuesdays and Wednesdays supports the restaurants the stores and you and and enhances the experience when the lowest bot traffic of the summer during those days questions comments that last point is really important because the summer we see a huge drop off right kids are going to camp and everyone leaves so this bringing back into town really has we see a difference yeah and it's a magnet to really and I'd like a copy of that as well yes I'll um one thing that strikes me a little odd about that is um that data you gave is that affected for Co because I would think during 2021 in the height of Co people W going out I would have think there would have been a much larger skew in those numbers between 23 and 21 Ian I wasn't going 21 I was hunkered down at home with the kids in the house and the the circle of safety uh and not going out so that was really more 20 20 well we all know where we are March 13 2020 I shut down my business and I didn't go back we didn't open back up till 2022 so 2021 summer 2021 was up height of Co and just the numbers you gave 61,000 and 71,000 and 41,000 and 51,000 I I would have thought that spread would have been much much different so I would just check those numbers because well this is the Placer AI data so that's that's so those were people who were outside in that area those were the people that were that were visited that were in the closure they tra yourself and that summer we had closure just on the weekend that no um I'm I I'm just you would be much2 2021 was my first year here and we we were doing weekend closures starting around Mother's Day and then we were I think we did full closure uh starting at the end of June my we had full closure yeah we had a full closure for the summer it was just a longer period of those temporary closures because that went to I think it was Mother's Day May 15 something that but the the other thing well I want to say I think as as the guy that was programming the space right I can tell you I think people in 2021 were using it for their outdoor activity because they couldn't go to indoor activity so I'm actually not surprised that the spread is not larger it was an outdoor activity in the middle of the pandemic like Park usage went up field usage went up Golf Course usage went up so I'm not surprised that it's not a much larger you I think people were using it because they couldn't go to other indoor activities just want when you started this board was meeting Inside Yes when when Steve was hired the month Steve was hired was about the month I we had we had Parx partition I'm just I'm not disagree I'm just I guess to it is hard I think we with all our Recollections of the of the pandemic blur together and I I myself myself quau wondering was I really doing that at that point in time but in 2021 while still in the midst of the pandemic the vaccines the very first vaccinations were I think in February March 2021 there was not a return to normaly but a lot of indoor activities and a lot of other activities were trending back towards nor we had a full music program in summer 2021 in The Pedestrian Mall so we were you know it was It was kind of times as normal because it was Outdoors it was one place where you could have public congregation yeah I just because you know I just want to make sure I have all the data all the numbers and such it probably I I also think that as as we've evolved and have become more of a of a destination that would expect the the 2024 numbers to be in Greater because now people are aware that we hey let's go to mbour we've got they've got live music and it's free on weekends and we don't even have to sit in the restaurant we can sit at the picnic table and grab a pizza and sit there and or an ice cream cone and it doesn't cost us anything so um I I think the PO I think the popularity I think it it it has a momentum of of its own and that it's only going to get bigger and and better just for the record too I'm a huge proponent of the outdoor space I just have to be able to justify it and sell it to the township committee and get the three consensus that we need to do it so uh because I think you know I'm a big economic guy and want the activity and I believe in everything you said but we got to push that forward and be able to get the the votes um and the things that are going to really help push the TC because we've had discussions we we've you know I know I've had discussions with Frank about it is a report from fire a report from police a report from you know fdpd um the the volunteer you know Milburn Short Hills volunteer Association and um the hospital I mean we had people TC meetings last year stand up and say you know people almost died because they couldn't get through uh to the hospital because of that closure so we need to understand whether that is you know the severity of that situation did you get letters is that what you're saying or you're G ask a fist F there was almost there was a there was an altercation in this In This Very Room and Steve that's something that Alex is coordinating the conversations with the with the Police Department fire department like what's theat is having ongoing conversations with those so Ben I would suggest um to actually move forward with those discussions speak to Alex and he can set up a meeting for the Chiefs well it's incumbent upon everyone in this room along with Alex to get those answers right it's our duty to the residents to make sure that no one dies of a heart attack while sitting in traffic if there's a closure and we have to get those answers now those you know those studies can be done and you know reaching out to those four parties that we discussed um we also had a surgeon stand up in a TC meeting a very prominent surgeon who lives in town and was very very vocal about the speed in which his staff gets to the hospital Hospital not on weekends but on weekday so I've asked Alex to reach out to the hospital and get their feedback as well so as much as I love it and such is we just have to do our homework right and the analytics and the these discussions will lead us to the right answer and as I in you know in the middle of August when I get hit a golf ball through Milbourne probably not hit anybody you know here's a different discussion as it June 15 there were you know when schools empty so you know there other also too let's back to co is there was no traffic during Co no one's really driving around downtown Milburn in June and July during Co it wasn't the same traffic patterns as we're uh experiencing probably now and we just have understand that as well yeah yeah no that makes sense the the ess6 two-way potential do you think that would improve any kind of because I feel like it's mainly coming up Main Street and then you're stuck at that light right that's really where the issue might be I would think but if you can get the Essex yeah I think the issue is that these cars back up on the one way and they can't get around and if that is the twoa that's a very good point is you come up Spring and right maybe will help yeah when is that going to effect that's up to you Ben I think there's a date right the street 2A yeah oh no you guys have to approve it um we're just giving you the final study um without the final study when is the final study gonna be presented so there's a Public Presentation May 27th 8 o'clock here March 27 March but to answer Stephen's question one of the parts that we looked at with the S63 2way is if it's a two-way street could we potentially elongate the main street closure and the answer realistically is yes you've just now created a new artery because remember creating a two-way street on Essex isn't really for traffic on Essex it's for traffic on Milburn right because you now created a secondary artery to go Eastward um and and so and one thing like just you know we we've looked at some traffic improvements one thing that we're looking at doing this summer if the street is closed is instead of having one right turn lane from uh old Short Hills onto Essex it'd be two right turn Lanes so we would double capacity so there's there's a lot in the mix um but you know it gets back to from my perspective from Alex's perspective traffic PD we have to have some certainty as to when this is going to happen and how it's going to happen but this we're about Solutions right and if you do have the two-way traffic who controls the lights PD FD there won't be two-way traffic this summer you have to reconfigure the entire room no no no that won't happen but it's in mind that the police the fire and the first aid Squad have that capacity to expedite or change a light with they have you're saying real time they have that yes they have that their vehicles have that capacity to change but but my point is is we need to reach out to them and ask them if you're trying to change that capacity and you're 24 cars deep on Milburn Avenue changing that lights not going to do you any good trying to get down to Lac aana to make the left what Steve is saying is that this is two-way you can come up Spring cut on cut on a on Essex and go up it's different story but but like they just said it's a major project it's not going to be in place because what what they usually do we see it all every day of Manhattan is they cut up they come up the wrong way they come up the uh the other traffic direction and didn't make their El with the Sirens spare I think either way what we should do is give Ben a potential blueprint to bring back to the TC um and give him some direction on what we think preferable dates would be Etc so that we're giving him some talking points to then go to Alex and the Chiefs and say if the closure were to happen on xxyz date how does that affect your operations and then I I think that's our role here as it always has been is we don't close the street we don't make the final determination but we have to give then is are the aison the marching orders to go back to the other decision so you were thinking July 4th through Labor Day yes I'm I'm saying the day before July 4th which is July 3 it's 60 days which is uh 14 days lessor shorter and cutting out the end of June and cutting out the end of June when people are still around and camp and all of all of those things so it comes out that it is 60 it's it's 60 days that's what it is so it's a Wednesday I believe July 4th is a is a Thursday so it's the Wednesday prior to July 4th says set it up so it's ready for the holiday and it's the day after Labor Day and school does not start until the 5th how school starts the day after Labor no it doesn't check the calendar I I I that's the website was the fifth I believe if you would be so kind to check the calendar but I'm I'm pretty sure got the Board of Education and just so you know um the ordinance that is passed every year it's the same ordinance it's actually just the date changes um it empowers the business administrator to reopen the street at any time yes if there's if there's so working there traffic ISS if there's a let's say a gas M blows on Milburn Avenue and you need it you can so there is that nice um safety exactly I know we that Steve presented at a prior meeting yeah I want to make sure that we have then have the survey results because just as it was said earlier in terms of data on people coming to town and the M the spending of money that it certainly benefits not just the businesses in the closure but also businesses throughout town and yeah just just two things I wanted to mention I guess reiterating what some people said I think the open streets um part of the program was a big enhancement which also enables businesses from other districts and even Community organizations like the chess folks right were there a lot to utilize the space so it's not only benefiting the businesses there and just I say it's it's really our Flagship program a lot of the Bands include local people we received an award for what was our award through the downtown New Jersey best in placem best in placemaking so I mean we were recognized in the state for the caliber of this and it's just such a great sense of community we've talked about the changing demographics like I know being there it's just such a great Vibe of seeing people at all different ages and stages and all the different segments of the population so I'm hopeful I of course safety is key and absolutely those discussions are critical to happen but I'm hopeful and and I guess I would just wonder in those discussions I'm sure Alex would cover this like if there are concerns are there any you know during those required or months are there any adjustments that could be made such as not having parking in a certain area if this you know the two-way is not going to happen yet but should there not be parking in a certain area when Main Street is closed so that on Essex Street or no we there like an additional link imagine that if you remember those are the things would be one of our many parking achievements has been uh there is a shoot Lane now on Main Street heading towards uh heading Northbound it's only during morning and afternoon rush but you know where MNT bank is across from Vinnie's Pizza yes there's I don't know it six parking spaces um we've eliminated parking at rush hour there to create a de facto right turn lane that could be made permanent during the closure period so then you'd have two lanes uh that could turn now obviously that then brings into a question can two cars safely turn on to uh Milburn Avenue because you do have cars backing out of the now um horizontal park or whatever by the deli by the deli that's all stuff that the engineering department can look at again it's about giving Ben the marching orders to say we have these ideas let's put them to paper and figure out if they really work or not can't do that until Ben is empowered to bring this to the TC right and um you know the numbers the numbers you gave too is you know we need to be able to be pragmatic in our approach because um you know we became somewhat contentious with you know the fist of cuffs that occurred in the TC meeting uh and having you know the surgeon write a letter to the township committee uh and as we get those studies back uh but we that was one isolated incident and I'm not minimizing it or dis missing it the surgeon is another sounds like a separate topic not a surgeon was that I the surgeon was complaining about not being able to get to hospital which is separate from the person who suffered a medical incident and that person well it's all related it's all related but but the the the point I'm going to is the one incident that happened however when a surgeon comes up and and articulates that he's having problem getting his staff in during the week then maybe there's a hybrid that in the in the early month where July where it's not as busy maybe we don't close it 247 7 Days 24 hours seven days a week and we're able [Music] to to meet to to be very pragmatic and have you know some type of a because I have to sell it to the to Township committee and then in August when I could hit a golf ball through downtown not hit anybody and maybe close it so it's just how do we think about getting everyone on the same page and being able to not so much negotiate but negotiate a a a comparable or a deal that works for everyone uh and and be able to get to a get everyone on board to support it so you're saying possibly a hybrid where it wouldn't be closed continuously yeah I'm just thinking out I'm just thinking out loud and I understand you know there's there's some expenses and such I think it's you know obviously the expense to to to put it up take it down you were very eloquent in in mentioning the DPW folks and putting up the the chairs and such but to point you know the businesses that are benefiting you know certainly would not have a problem covering that expensive what was expens to take it up and put it down uh Alex quoted me uh Alex quoted me at about $900 per weekend so that's one police officer and two Public Works employees for about two hours one day and then two hours I would think that the servers at standard and Evo and and II would all get together and throw that in for a for a closure for the Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday or something I know I would if I was one of them but I'm just trying to think of how we could figure out a way to accommodate everyone and get to a position and this for the sake of the businesses it might be a little I just want to say for the businesses just to factor this in you may know this better but like a lot of the businesses had like permanent awnings and seatings up like I don't think that's something I don't know that they could take those things up and down on weekends I don't know you might know better I say it just the model might be The Continuous closure enables the full the full package of everything I think if you different if you do a hybrid yeah the product in July will be substandard to the product in August um we can't set up the same games and things because we don't have the manpower to clean it up move it bring it back all that the same thing with the awnings the the tents all that kind of stuff um that's going to have to just be something that you all consider is you're 100% right Tracy there will be a difference between the July hybrid and the August it's can you live with it um you know I'm not here to give my opinion I'm just here to tell you what the facts on the ground are think through the options I think we just want to all be would it be like the weekend like Friday night Saturday Sunday think Ben saying thday push for th I would push for Thursday I mean and then this is a case that we have to make to the TC and uh and certainly after we get the results from uh from the police fire the staff at the uh RJ St bar Barnabas and the first a squad uh as well as as as well as resents but I'm sure everyone will show up and voice their opinion as well just want to F and and and you know even for the games and such uh you know we could probably what the games the what chess and Connect 4 and bunch but can we put that to DPW over the four or five days or three or four days yeah we would be probably a little bit more judicious in my backyard and then I would tell you in August we would really go full war and we put out everything you know just again it's going to be a fraction of what it is when the full closure that doesn't mean it's not going to be a quality event but it's just not going to be the same so who would be benefiting for those 12 days if we I mean Wednesday Monday Wednesday think it would be you think it would be because a alleviation of traffic well that's that's you know that's the question we have to ask is the TR well we all know July's a lot busier than traffic's a lot busier than August yeah it's a lot busier at August and something that we might want to think about is and Sebastian a compromise as well right so so if you look at the calendar right um July 4th is a Thursday as Jackie said so it would be the weekend of the 6th the weekend of the 13th the weekend of the 20th perhaps if it were to go full closure July 25th then you're only dealing with three temporary closures and the 25th is you know you're getting into the the Deep depths of the summer at that point I mean so you could go full closure on the 25th as opposed to going to full closure a week later on the first and then you'd still get one two three four five six you would get six weeks of full closure if you moved it up one week so you get three hybrid six full do do we know when summer school summer school ends I don't think it's a big no I don't think it's a big um mean I can tell you Ben you know from being out there the first two weekends in June it is tough to get down old sh Hills Road there's no doubt I think moving it back two weeks in June June because we closed at June 23rd yes so this would be that's what that step one in alleviating a problem is moving it now to July yeah I I think that last year at the 23rd there was a lot of traffic coming down old sh was that weekend it was tough um I think a correction to that course correction would be to move it later in the year by two weeks I think that's a great starting point I think I think the 20 the 25th I could probably get some people behind but I think you know is this the are we deciding tonight or do we need to get this studies and understand that first that's you what we've typically done in the past is give the TC liaison the scenario that we think works best right obviously part of your feedback is a full closure is not something you can sell after that it's sort of on you and me and Alex to facilitate so the board steps away at that point once they give a recommendation to Okay [Applause] so so I mean you guys could say what do we want to tell Ben is it start July 3 three hybrid weekends and then a full closure on Thursday the [Music] 25th just want to verify can you just pull up the yeah I have it up the the school calendar it looks like summer school goes through the time my my recommendation would be the July July 3rd through September 3D but I will defer to the rest of the board members I mean that makes sense to me if the police if they all say it's really not in reality a problem that that's the ideal but if they do say well wait there are problems you know this you know then then maybe I like the the three the compromise three weeks in July that's like the plan b i I think the best thing is we can just agree on a plan A and A Plan B that at least gives me and Alex and Ben some clarity yeah and and the biggest the bigger one to me is the same barnab is barab the RWJ Barnabas is um you know and to have a surgeon stand up in front of us which he he will be back in that TC room standing in front of us and far being it for me to argue with the head of you know but there is a difference between the ambulance drivers and I like to hear with our volunteer versus like staff of you know like that's commuting that's like these guy you know that to me is like sure we all have commuting challenges and you make adjustments but if the ambulance drivers are saying yeah you know this was really that's much more important to me I mean that's what I would kind of and just that question is there any parking changes or anything that could help open you know help the traffic by the way I'm seeing if I PST it up right 93 is the first day of school Tuesday 9:3 I guess aome too it's ining on this group here to give me that information with Alex right so let's get me that information so I have it you know about what no I'm just trying to clarify to give me the information from fire police the volunteers sure we canar so Steve you'll help coordinate that with Alice so please give me that information showing that the first day of school is the third I pulled up the right yeah so the third okay so that's then then then let's correct it to the second so we're just confirming Steve's gonna coordinate with Alex on the faure police and and I'm gonna give two options to make Alex aware and then obviously it'll come back to Ben but option one would be closing it so the option one would be a full closure from July 3 and also too there's there's another option which is no closure whatsoever if I can't if I can't get the TC on board you that if I can't get the votes I can't get consensus there's going to be no closure also true I don't think we're going to bring that up as an option we not but I mean I want to be realistic when there was a fist of cffs in here I could see no closure whatsoever but that is just a few people unfortunately calling the shots for the whole time I promise you the the Police Department fire department the the the guys come back and say it's a problem that's a show stoper that's certainly a show yeah we don't want we don't have that official feedback we don't have that feedback so I just want to make say so it's Steve I I was must have been looking at something else it's it would have to be on Labor Day September 2nd yep I'm marking down all these dates um now I'll give them to Alex I mean double check that's just what I pulled up quickly on my phone so also make you know make sure calendars haven't changed since the version I Googled well and just keep in mind that um because the business administrator has the authority to change the dates if there were an error or something or something did change um on a school calendar we can we can override the dates and the ordinance and that's at Alex's discretion so there's that's a nice safety though okay I um I have what I need to uh to report back so I'll just read it to you guys and I actually have one other question too um and I hate to ask this question the cost of a safety officer on site it's the it's 247 right no no when was the safety officer on site so we have so a police officer uh is on site usually Wednesday through Sunday um and I want to say six to 10 something like that and we did have an incident last year where a gentleman did pass away in The Pedestrian Mall he was a member of the band and he had a heart attack while they were setting up an officer did resp respond who had an AED you know the uh the heart Fator um he had it in his vehicle he was able to do it on the spot however uh the gentleman did not survive so that is part of the package that the town has is there is an officer there Wednesday through Sunday don't quote me a th% but I think that's pretty close um six to10 usually and they have an AED with them and we've never had an incident of any type of uh you know altercations or youve probably had more fights in this Council chamber than at The Pedestrian Mall um but the uh it's always been you know the police have done a good job in controlling the crowds because the crowds can get pretty large listen we're living in precarious times you know we we have to be prepared for anything and everything and we haven't had any as far as I know haven't had any pedestrian vehicle conflicts um you know we set up the barrier in a way that you know there's high visibility good signage um we have had for special events we've had a crossing guard um as well over there so I think from a law enforcement safety component obviously separate to the hospital issue um it's been managed quite well the police and and um have taken care of it so okay so you're you're G to proceed with the dates you want to so yeah so my my first option that I'm going to present to Alex is a full closure from July 3 to September 2nd and then the second would be a hybrid of July 3rd to 7th July 11th to 14th July 18th to 21st and then um although maybe that double check me 18 yeah July 18th to 21st and then the full closure would proceed July 25th to September 2nd and that would all be contingent upon uh Ben's request of EMS fire police and the hospital having Communications with the town okay okay anybody have anything they want to add and then we'll move on to the agenda okay property maintenance standards discussion attachment six yeah I'll be pretty quick about this you have it um in your were there any uh fairs during the summer as well were the Milbourne Avenues closed in no um so the so that was those were hosted by the Chamber of Commerce through a third party vendor that organizes the fairs they were specifically in I say April and September um the township had decided that that was not necessarily um something we wanted to pursue anymore so last year I believe there was a spring event the fall was cancelled and they've been cancelled uh now in perpetuity so there are no streets on milour okay that's it lunar Lunar New Year Lunar New Year was in March right so that's not a conflict with the main street co right but that closed this this past year it was at the high school it was not on the street every year okay there they have a they have some conflicts with their AV um they do a really really nice well Ben and I I was sitting behind Ben the whole time you didn't know it right staring at the back of your head for two hours um but uh but yeah the the Luna New Year folks um they have they have a great show and doing it outside doesn't really showcase it as well as they can I mean that's what I was gonna sorry going back to the closure that is an opportunity to bring in like we have said the reach out to the other communities in town right to have music or yeah dance or other things that are culturally like that's a great opportunity the open streets program plays a really nice role in that because I mean we can it's Limitless what we do with the nonprofits or Community grps who work um so just briefly on attachment six I think this is more for kind of starting a conversation as to where the explore may want to go on this um Jackie asked me to prepare this onepage abstract of a potential ordinance that could be supported by explore at least discussed by explore in advanced the township committee um it's it's really just a working document so uh nothing here is official this is really just for discussion um the idea came from conversations I've had with virtually all of you about um how some of the vacant properties in the town look especially in the S um and Ryan can speak to this better than anybody probably but vacant and abandoned property law in New Jersey is is pretty strict um it's hard to enforce um some of the the property maintenance issues um that that come with some of these these vacant properties and so uh what we discussed was the ability to create a special ordinance for properties within the Sid boundaries um that would consolidate the requirements from the municipal code right the municipal code is pretty voluminous um this would consolidate them make them easy for people to digest um we allow the Sid to play a greater role in the process of reporting deficient properties and and trying to address them um providing immediate remedy requiring a higher and broader standard of appearance than what's stated in section 10-4 of the municipal code so think of this this is a special improvement district and we want a special level of appearance um and that is allowable under Section 10-434 and then that money could be used to remedy those properties um and then it would only be assessed on uh assess properties within the district so Residential Properties or nonprofit or Government properties would not be subject to the same standard um that uh that the properties are so um really that's that's the discussion um that we'd like to have and um you know maybe for tonight or at least to start the discussion but um I think there's certainly areas of of the Sid where we could see an improvement in the way that the buildings look sidewalks look um so do you know if other towns in the area actually kind of have this with SIDS the summit or I I don't know if they have necessarily Standalone ordinances um a lot of them will focus Manpower on addressing some of the the dirty sidewalks and things the challenge really is if you have a a vacant property right within the Sid District there's really very limited enforcement that you could have um so that I think is is the primary challenge in the town we have an abandoned properties list but in terms of appearance there's only so much that you could do to try to make them make that property look better and this would be an opportunity potentially to to have a higher standard and try to enforce those standards can I say one thing and ask the question yeah I mean for I really like the idea of an effort that that would enable some of the longer standing vacant properties to be enhanced because we've had so much success and the great reduction and the vacancy rate but there's a couple of very key buildings and locations that you know even if they're vacant could look a lot better I guess I have a broader question which is does this have to be limited to the S I mean a whole separate concern I have in my is you know two blocks from where I live and at the Gateway to our town at box Hall in Milburn Avenue the gas station is just the biggest eyesore so and you live in Wyoming as well right so and I say it's the gateway to our town from the east of the eastern part of New Jersey is there a way that we could have a broader have this on a broader basis and for those properties that are within the Sid could the township like could the township do something broader and then for the properties in the Sid the Sid could be the same way we're like delivering on the grant you mentioned earlier in the sit area could the S cover the sit area but could the town have these higher standards overall well yeah I'm not just I'm not sure about over overarching standards but even that area you know we're looking at doing something with that area as well because now we're gonna introduce an open open space tax which are those monies give us substantial more flexibility make that a beautiful park with the welcome to Milburn kind of or you know the the you know the um origin of mbour next plaque some park benches some green grass for God forbid some green grass um and such um but you know in terms of I don't want to say forcing but forcing a landowner who's bought property to to to to to uh to I'm not sure there's we don't have any laws on the books right now that actually actually manage that sounds like we do what you're saying they're not that strong they're not that strong that's what you would tell there's there's a difference right between an occupied property that just isn't all that attractive right versus a vacant property where you have an absentee landlord who doesn't clean it right it's just going to sit there right No One's Gonna Come clean it because we don't have a mechanism to do that and I don't think it's the responsibility of the Improvement District to pay for the maintenance of one particular property or another right we maintain the general area with flowers and street cleaning but what we've kind of distilled this down to right is there are a handful of properties which are and I don't want they are a blight on the town however they're not a legal blight as far as New Jersey vacon property is concern that's part of the problem they are a blight and we don't have a mechanism to say this property looks terrible we're going to hire a cleaning crew to come in and clean it up because the the owner won't if there was some standard where the Sid could assess that property owner a violation and then we could use that money to clean that space because they won't that is probably the cleanest most efficient way of attacking some of these deric properties so I think that's that's the real goal here because I can't use public money that I take from a tax assessment to go clean you know some guy's property because I don't like how it looks right that's not Equitable but if that person were fined and the Sid had the ability to then take that money and remedy the situation it's a much cleaner way of approaching so that would have to go through a through an ordinance that's right to to the township Council which the governing body would have toine on that's correct yeah and you know you know you know stepping on a property owner's rights uh to me you know to me as a as a as a business person and is is always a very very difficult thing is a residents or a taxpayer's rights to to do so I think you know I I just what is there a better way to go about it is is kind of the question uh than than the Sid becoming the Arbiter of what's up light and what's not I mean c Ryan I mean in your experience what what are your have you seen this before in your practice sure let me ask a couple questions before I get an answer that so see if you could explain to me I'm a little so there is a property maintenance code in Melbourne's MP you attach to it's this entire and that is what this 10 and I'm unclear so what is the ask of the Sid is it to is it to request the B well I think if we were to say the simplest goal let's not say ask but a goal would be to create a mechanism where the Sid could take a penalty a monetary fine and then use that monetary fine to clean the space that is not being attended to so so what typically happens now there's there's two putting aside a heightened standard for SIDS um and and again with the caveat I haven't reviewed milburn's Municipal Code so I'm going to speak about in general and it probably is consistent but it may did work um you have Property Maintenance codes and if a uh a property regardless of its commercial or residential character violates that uh then the summon is issue um it's a municipal court summons and um you know typically there's a warning first uh if it it's not compliance then you have a summons you have to come to court uh there's penalties fines Etc um beyond that in some other circumstances in addition to that um a municipality itself can undertake certain maintenance and then the cost of that maintenance becomes a lean on the real estate um now uh again there you have to have an ordinance in place to do that Etc so that is the current that is the common status quo in most municipalities in the state of New Jersey right now and I guess if if I understand executive director correctly you're suggesting that the standard Property Maintenance requirements typically address broken windows overgrown weeds Etc and I think you're talking about properties in the Sid that um uh need beautification Beyond just the bare minimum uh so you're not just talking about overgrown weeds but perhaps fresh coats of paint um and things of that nature yeah I I think that's a really good way to say it's at the it is the overgrown weed problem right but it's also to to elevate the things that you explained because deric properties bring down the commercial value of the entire District they make The Pedestrian experience that we strive so hard to achieve negative and so we don't have in place an immediate remedy as you as you just explain there is a legal process that legal process could take an enormous amount of time perhaps the the levying of of the uh of the lean is an approach I think that might be perhaps more aggressive than the town wants to be um and again this is why we don't have to walk away tonight with a conclusion but I think this is a critical issue especially in a town that has fairly aging infrastructure and buildings um this is not a new construction Town most of the buildings in this town go back to the 1930s 1950s 1960s they are Believe It or Not 1950 was 74 years ago so we have some real challenges in terms of Maintenance that are only going to get worse unless the town steps up and decides to do something I don't know what that do something is right now but I think it's incumbent upon this Sid board to have a functional discussion about it and say we have to get in front of this because it's only going to get worse is this on the code enforcement officer of the town I'm just reading the so the code enforcement officer is literally one person who's responsible for every single property in the town including residential but but but even reading this I mean honestly reading this I I would call on my neighbor if any of this happened on my neighbor I'm calling you know code enforcement they're going to come and take care of it I'm just not sure why you wouldn't do the same with with the business versus having you know uh the Sid the Sid walking around the badge and and enforcing code uh you know personally I would say it would probably be an overreach just in in in my first blush here as I'm looking at it um I would just have to understand more if this is a set of nine 10 bullets right here of what it is that has nothing to do with bad paint or broken windows or or such it's talking about overgrown I mean literally if if if there's a lot or there's a lot across the street if there's any of this going on you call a code enforcement he comes out makes them get the leaves swept up and such and you move on where it issues a summons so I'm just trying to understand where what you just talked about comes into play uh on this because it's not listed in here I think it's an economy of scale right it's if we have to handle this from the code enforcement perspective where we have one individual right who's responsible not only for commercial spaces but all residential um I think the response time is probably too low but and let's let's be very very Frank about some of the properties in downtown most especially there are others on upper Milburn um they're not to the extent Short Hills but certainly upper Milburn and downtown there are properties that are absolutely filthy and the town has not gone out and enforced the rules because having a dirty storefront is not necessarily the violation but it is an is and so I think maybe there's something in between and and you know what maybe the town wants to say you know what this is an issue for us and we want to set aside just like we did $20,000 from clean communities let's match that with Municipal funds that will allow the Sid to hire a power washing crew and a sweeping crew on on on an on call basis a lot of bids do that and so that's something to think about that is not necessarily government overreach um but but I think what it does is it gets us to the point of there are deficient deric properties the owners will not maintain them so either we allow that or we confront it and I I think confronting it through potentially putting a fund together that allows the Sid to go out hire private vendors is something that is done across New Jersey through SIDS it's just that we have a fairly small budget um so that's that's probably the issue but I think I think you and I are somewhat on the same train here of remedy this but let's do it in a way that's not an overreach to property owner yeah I I see what you're saying there's two ways to remedy it one is you make the businesses so successful that they're able to sell the buildings or make them not bacon or or whatnot uh and they have so many customers coming in and complaining about the uh the Der elction of of the sidewalks and and and such or or they're able to rent it uh or two is you know somewhat of a what I believe is an overreach uh but I've never met a person in Milburn Short Hills who's who's not shy to call a call the um call the uh but that's a res for the most part for residential the the township is not adequately addressing from what I've observed over the course of this my tenure that not adly addressing certain as you know derel Properties or or properties that are unkempt their Windows their doors the dirt in the in the hallway in the in the entries and and this mechanism would allow um would allow the the Sid to just to to be to be a conduit for um for improving those we're there's no reason to me why Milbourne Avenue shouldn't be glistening it's it's it's way it's it's the major thoroughfare of downtown and there's there's a there's several properties that are just that shouldn't be I may not I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you I'm not sure if the Sid's the right place to do it I mean do we need to hire another code enforcement person another two or three this would be certainly kind of the the the question I'm asking is are we empowering the Sid to to go out and Patrol Milburn Avenue and are we deputizing the Sid to go around and write out summons and Steve what do you think no yeah no um I don't want to be deputized to do that and that's not that's not the intent no no I think I think it's like it comes down to the flow of money right so we all agree there's this der very dirty entrance way on no whatever it is how do we take care of that because I agree it should be a glistening that's our this this is our town right so so far the mechanism hasn't been working right so for whatever reason bureaucracy lack of resources these are still sitting there very dirty and we're going to be bringing in thousands of people from our neighboring towns for this music for whatever right so what's the best mechanism it seems to me like you can go back through and make sure that the town is actually enforcing this code as it exists right it it seems to me like or maybe like you said allocate money to S we'll hire somebody to go power wash and kind of take care of it right so if the town doesn't we have two mechanisms the existing enforcement capabilities of the of the town which have for whatever reason not been 100% effective or I guess we're will do it as an organization if we get the funds and we're not trying to be the cops but I think it's pretty obvious which locations are like this isn't going to be like fact we are asking to be theop this this is goes beyond yeah I don't want to be the cops but um I think I think it's a reasonable like you can point to it nobody would disagree like this hasn't been washed in 10 years and what's going on you know those are my thoughts we can we can ruminate on it and come back and talk about it in April yeah Tracy do you have any thoughts Alexa I mean my thoughts are just that again over these last few years we've seen s all these new businesses and so much vibrancy and there are a couple of locations that they're just holding us back to what we can achieve as a town and so um yeah I think it's more about what our objectives are and what are the right ways to get there so I think it's good that we're talking about it in this way and are there other ways to get there um yeah Alexa I know makes sense yeah I mean I know I know how much work goes into keeping the storefront clean and I understand that throughout the years things can fall through the cracks but I think a couple businesses can bring down the whole block so maybe you know just something needs to get done yeah and listen by no means am I saying that doesn't need there doesn't need to be some beautification in Milburn or Milburn Avenue I'm saying the way that it needs to be done needs to be it needs to be done correctly and through the right channels and you know deputizing the Sid I don't want to B I don't want to B but the Cod I know that was but the code enforcement officer if I'm reading this correctly but maybe it's a discussion for Alex and discussion for the code enforcement officer and and with with with the Sid and say Hey listen there's an issue how do we how do we solve it with the with the issue with the regulations we have in place you know what would be your you know they deal with it every day what is your best uh path to success and let them Aline on it instead of us sitting here in in this room you know figure out you know the best way forward it takes you know everyone's input okay so uh we'll continue the discussion well can we uh task you with maybe having a side conversation with Alex and perhaps code enforement Alex yeah yeah I'd be happy to to have that discussion Paul and Alex and the code enforcement have that discussion I and Rising tide lifts All Ships listening yes okay we're at the uh we're at the the public comments public comments public comments is it public meeting is when invited to speak please come to the lecturn state your name and speak into the microphone so that your pro your comments can be properly recorded when reading a prepared statement please send a copy to Tracy at explor Milburn shorth hill.org speakers will limit their comments to three minutes if you're utilizing Zoom plea you will have the opportunity to speak you must have your camera turned on this is a business meeting and professional decorum must be maintained if a speaker engages in disorderly conduct or other acts of disruption they will be asked to cease their public comment or asked to leave the meeting um what we also intend to do is after the public comment period if if any of the board members or Ryan or Mr gillo would like to respond to a public comment they'll have that opportunity to do so Mr Fel try to be very brief um Jeffrey Fel M resident um just to bring you an update as to the mediation since no judge has ever designated mediator today I wrote a letter to the court because we have a new judge and we now have our fourth judge to get a date for uh or for her point a mediator to actually handle it I look forward to speak listening to Mr Bueller because I have a relationship with him where he he did not allow a Main Street denied Main Street application in Orange I look forward to meeting the broy paints are they changing their name or are they gonna be using a Suburban I have because I have a long time relationship with orange as to to I guess the power washing you're giving a grant the question is do you are you subject to make sure that the contractor provides prevaling wage I just throw that out because that's become a large issue of government contracts and you're getting Grant Ms I don't know that I don't know if you you wrote that in your or your request whether what the the wages that they're paying them are prevailing wages I just want to go back to the main street closure and a lot of this is history 220 in 2020 the main street closure occurred prior to the creation of the Sid and it was done by resolution around in May in 2021 the main street closure was done by resolution and and in 2020 I think Marlo was in charge of getting entertainment and she didn't have the contract that's another issue of the audit in 2022 the state came back and said we had to do by order ordance and then when we started reading the statute he said where was the traffic study and Mr wasman just brought like a onepage report by the police chief last year you did by ordinance but the traffic study was done by the engineer and you and when you went to the statute it wasn't done under The Pedestrian Mall statute it was done under a different statute I just throw that out as we have the history historical record the historical record is yes it has to be done by ordinance but was the need of the traffic studies and how more expansive they had to be because we do not want to have a situation like we did have at the township committee um as to some of the other ideas that were going on just floating at the end be very careful about what your powers is that you do not have want to be the deputized to be the policeman because the original ordinance Sid ordinance the one that got got revoked originally they gave you condemnation powers and I don't even know how a sity ever got condemnation powers I mean there are limited police power Powers you have some of them aren't police powers and you have to be very careful because there is concern by a lot of business owners and property owners of creeping social socialism thank you I'm Gonna Be Quick Richard cyber resident first Vinnie's Oven Pizza you have it as Vinny's over pizza so there's a typo on your page um second $60 a year for unlimited parking it's from a year the day you from the day you pay or from a year from January 1st is there a sticker that goes in your car because I've heard some people that had the 60 Minute $60 but they still got a ticket from the ticket guy without checking that they had the sticker but anyway and third you were talking about being the enforcer property owners have their own objective with their property and sometimes um it doesn't look so beautiful but they're their plan isn't to make it beautiful now but to make it beautiful later after they get all their approvals that they're waiting for so I just have to say that thank you hi Vicky pal uh business owner uh question a couple things the pay station the film is coming off on one of the pay station oh okay you know that there's a chip in the mural I know you have a guy that's supposed to do it a couple times a year I just wanted to let you know um in regards to the Shopper permit I don't know if the town sends stuff out I don't know like with the sewer bills or whatever they do maybe stick a little sheet of paper in there and say hey residents we have a shopper permit par because people don't know that that might be a good way to do that um uh in regards to um in uh the restaurant week are we going to have the flashing thing down there say support restaurant week are we gonna have that do that yeah and also um the flashing thing oh and another post maybe on the Township's social media page because the last one they did was in February um and also um the outdoor dining when uh when you mentioned that so they're not allowed have tables out right now unless they unless the ordinances pass but there's some restaurants that have tables outside I'll answer that yeah okay so I'm a little confused about that and I have to say the social media is kicking it is so good they're doing great I only hope that for girls night out we have the same kind of um influencers because these guys are doing a fabulous job if you have not seen the socials they're all over the place they are just wonderful and you guys so you guys are doing a great job on that um I think that's it goodbye um Steve do you want to answer Vick oh sorry oh sorry yeah good evening Mrs Ursa good evening Harry or so um just a couple questions um Amanda had mentioned that they had someone going around for Restaurant Week um that individual I just I wasn't clear it wasn't clear was this individual that was going around assisting was she a volunteer or was she a paid professional uh secondly on their monthly bill list it's attached to your agenda packet there's things that are listed as General uh operating expenses and can if those can be clarified I mean is this like uh General operating expenses things that are being is there an expense account for our professionals uh within the administration part not sure if they have salaries plus they get um allowances that they could expend um also I have um wanted to mention back in uh when Mr uh you guys were talking I'm sorry about the main street closure I just wanted to mention you talked about plan a plan B I know the executive director didn't really want to bring up um plan C I understand and I appreciate Mr stoler's um mentioning that we should have all of these reports which I think is pertinent however plan C in the event that it was not to um to be passed by the TC that's totally up to them and under their discretion is there something is there is there a plan C and is there something that is um they're working on the event that that closure does not come to fruition considering that you have five districts and what you what your thoughts are as far as uh in the event that that should happen not to say it's going to and then lastly um I'm sure the chair at the time in 20120 was actually the sitting mayor when the Sid was actually in for adoption um she made remember recall that my husband did mention and it's unfortunate that then no one was willing to talk to us and it's nice to see that TC members now today are actually willing to go out to property owners and residents and actually talk to them and uh we were not privy to that type of um engagement but my husband did mention that the Sid would have tentacles and here we are today that certain things have added on uh to the Sid um ordinance so I'd like to tell and mention that we purchased our property without an HOA and there is not an HOA attached to my deed thank you so much and have a nice evening is there anybody else on on Zoom no other hands raised okay um Mr gorilla would you like to respond to or and then if anybody has any questions in case I missed something let me know um just starting in order uh Mr Feld asked a question about prevailing wage I will double check um the clean communities requirements because that is where the money is coming from um I don't believe there's a prevailing wage in that but I will absolutely check um Mr cyber um I so the 60-day or the the $60 resident Shopper parking um I believe starts in the calendar year so January 1 um the ticket potentially could have been issued for a time over um because time limits do apply so that is the possibility um as to why that ticket obviously I don't know what the ticket was but that is um you do have to abide by time limits uh with that program uh Miss Powell um the mural and that will get repaired probably in May we're waiting for winter um winter season to end and then we'll do a a full seasonal repainting um the same with the appealing parking stations um the winter beat them up a little bit but we will order that um the I will ask Alex and the police department if we can get a a variable message sign about Restaurant Week that'd be terrific um as well as the town social post um the idea about the Shopper permit the sewer bills is is terrific I will talk to the the tax collector on that um the question on the outdoor tables you may there are some people who have already submitted their applications and been approved um so they were pretty quick about it so Goldbergs for instance already submitted there as the day of um but if this there's other people they may have them out and have not actually gotten the uh the approval but then again as I said there's only one code enforcement officer for the whole town um so part of the problem you want to enforce the rules you got have the manpower to do it um Miss erso um she asked so so Karen Mahoney um she is a a paid temporary employee um she has a contract with us um and uh that's paid out of our event line like any other vendor would be um and then if the closure doesn't happen we would simply uh reallocate the funds in that event line to something else so whether that's uh you know that that that money just goes from one line to another and that's it is there anybody else that has another question can we reply yes go by all means okay um so to to miss Vicky's uh point uh can you put a um request into Alex for the TC committee message this week to mention shop local and Restaurant Week is coming up to make sure they absolutely amplify that message I would also encourage them to put on the electronic sign board right outside Town Hall sure U and then uh the sewer bill I think that's going to be problematic just because it's a uh I don't think they can stuff that we understand just I understand yeah the S bill I think yeah I think it's the card a c and then um uh to to Jeff feld's comment on creeping socialism obviously we understand your point uh and then uh and I think that goes to Perry aro's point on HOA when they bought their property it wasn't HOA I know it's a legal issue and I'll defer to everybody else on that thank you is there any other uh board member that would like to have I think I would just say it you know we'll be awaiting the feedback on the closure regarding the First Responders and all of that hopefully it's deemed that things are safe and we can all work together if there were to somehow that wasn't that there wasn't going to be a closure again I hope it's not the scenario but if we did need to do a plan C I think I would just ask that we as a group would brainstorm together other ways that we could bring excitement to you know during the warm weather to all of to town and to all of our districts so that that's something we would want to work on together anybody else have anything else they'd like to add I was yeah I just want to mention that our uh our next meeting will be Thursday April 18th at 6:30 and that will include the state of the Sid report and review of kpis and six and success tracker tracker for q1 May I have a motion to adjourn motion second this meeting is adjourned all in favor