e right right right e yeah e e e e good evening in accordance with Section Five of the open public meetings act be advised that a notice of this meeting was made by posting on the bulletin board in town hall and forwarding to the officially designated newspapers that this meeting would take place at Town Hall at 7M on Tuesday April 2nd 2024 meeting details and the draft agenda were also posted on our Township website please stand to salute the [Music] flages the for stands Nation roll call vote please here here here Mr May here may I have a motion to approve the agenda so mo may I have a second second all those in favor I may I have a motion to approve the March 19th regular Township committee me minutes so may I have a second second all those in favor I I may I have a motion to approve the March 19th 2024 special Township committee minutes may I have a second second all those in favor okay okay committee woman prus your schedule to present Proclamation for Arbor Day yes thank you whereas in 1872 J Sterling Morton proposed to the Nebraska Board of Agriculture that a special day be set aside for the planting of trees and whereas trees reduce the erosion of our precious top soil by wind and water cut Heating and Cooling costs moderate the temperature clean the air produce oxygen and provide habitat for wildlife and whereas trees are a renewable resource giving us paper wood for our homes fuel for our fires and countless other world wood products and whereas trees in our cities increase property values enhance the economic Vitality of business areas and beauty of our community and whereas trees wherever they are planted are a source source of joy and spiritual Rural and whereas the township of Milbourne has been recognized as a tree City by USA by the National Arbor foundation and desire to continue its tree planting practices now therefore be it resolved that the township Committee of the township of Milburn in the county of Essex state of New Jersey to hereby Proclaim April 22nd 2024 as Arbor Day and urge all citizens to support efforts to protect our trees and woodlands and to support our townships urban forestry program signed mayor Anette thank you okay um reports committee M Stoler would you like to begin okay we'll begin with the uh Recreation committee uh girls softball programs in track and field are starting up volleyball and t-ball are also starting in coming weeks uh we have the fourth 40th annual fishing derby on Saturday May 4th and the annual Four mile race has been scheduled for Sunday June 2nd um the uh Sid the Sid U Restaurant Week was a major success uh saw a lot of people out and about uh dining in Milburn that's fantastic had over 40 Restaurants bakeries food in drink retailers participate uh the team posted 24 Instagram reels with over 193,000 plays and reached over 121,000 individual accounts uh next and major event is founding day as Tara just said uh nothing to report on the joint Fields dispatch nothing to report at this time um I've been promising an update on the flood mitigation so I'll just give that real quick uh during the local the storm on March 23rd we had experienced some minor flooding from pooling or runoff uh but avoided any real River flooding uh I actually had a chance to ride along with fire chief atra Baria who took me across town and showed me all of the different uh efforts we've taken uh and also early Warning Systems there a great ride along uh I put some pictures of it up on the social media as well uh in terms of what we're doing with uh some of the different parts of town uh we actually met with the US Army Corps of Engineers uh and started a reassessment effort for improvements across the greater raway River uh and hoping that we can help contribute to the design and planning work uh to meet our specific needs here in Milburn uh we have an installation of the improved drainage system in the east branch uh which is down along Ridgewood Drive and Greenwood Drive uh uh so that's going to start seeing that work become evident pretty soon uh and that's pretty much it my thank you yeah excuse me I would just like to mention again that the uh the annual book fair the public library is uh coming soon The Collection period starts on April 8th and the book sale which is a major fundraiser for the friends of the no Library will be held on May 4th and the other thing I wanted to mention I'm not sure if it goes here but I'm going to say it here anyway um I was we've been asked by a couple members of the public M Miss Miss Morgan and Mr fines that wanted to know how much money we have spent on the nine Main Street project to date so thanks to our CFO I was able to get the numbers and to date we have spent uh $381,000 um on that most of which is legal cost or um cost for our environmental consultant mayor uh the environmental commission will be having a special information session about ways to reduce the environmental impact of long care on April 11th at 7M and all are encouraged to join uh so that they can learn about potential ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while caring for uh your law um for the historic preservation commission so actually later in this meeting there's going to be a resolution to appoint a resident to a vacant HBC spot um spoken to a number of members of the HBC from an HBC perspective this particular appointment is quite controversial and as the liaison for the HPC I feel it is my responsibility to put the following on the record the HPC is a municipal land use board with well-defined purposes the hbc's mission is twofold first they're responsible for identifying historic Assets in town and nominating them for historic designation and second they are responsible for helping to protect historic assets that have already been designated the HBC does not have the power to designate any properties instead they make their recommendations to the township committee and the planning board given the purpose of the historic preservation commission it seems completely unreasonable to me for this committee to appoint anyone who has taken a public position against the hbc's mission the individual up for nomination tonight fenes has had public position against the HBC and in private conversations I have had directly with him he has made it clear that he is against any new historic districts I can understand the appeal of having dissenting opinions on this board but the nature and extent of the opposition stated by this individual goes beyond what is acceptable for a municipal land use board such as the historical preservation commission to better illustrate the absurdity of this nomination let's consider the following analogy if you were running a nonprofit focused on improving mathematics education of course you would welcome individuals with different views relating to teaching but it would be counterproductive to put someone who questions the very value of mathematics itself on the board dissenting opinions can only be constructive when there is a common baseline from which to proceed denying the very value of historic preservation and being supported by members of the community who have been the most vocal in tearing down the mission of the HBC going so far as to signpost on their lawns the Declaration no new historic districts completely disqualifies this appointment in my view from my count at least a dozen other individuals applied to be considered for an HBC position I'd love to know later on from mayor Romano of these dozen or so applicants how many were actually interviewed before this appointment was made furthermore was ven katach part of the closed door meeting the mayor recently had with residents of the Marywood Nottingham District if so this speaks of a back room deal in light of all I have just said I will be making a motion um later on when we get to the resolutions for this appointment to be removed from the agenda so that the township committee has more time to interview the remaining applicants and find a volunteer who is further in alignment with the defined purpose of the HBC the end of my reports thank you mayor yeah um a few uh brief reports one is just want to remind residents and visitors of the psng work that is taking place at night uh from 7 pm to 7: am at the intersection of Milburn Avenue in Spring Street uh this is to tie in all of the work that everybody's experienced in the uh Washington section to the gas main that runs down no venue uh this is uh approximated for two weeks obviously weather permitting um for for that closure overnight uh in addition uh Paving from psng to restore uh the Washington and Glenwood areas is scheduled to start with Milling on 48 and Paving uh will start on 412 on April 12th um in addition to our notification to the public uh that has already gone out and is on our social media channels and website uh PSG uh will be notifying individual residents of their Paving activities uh letting residents know that there's going to be a police department public information session on April 17th at 12m Via Zoom we were asking residents to provide their questions prior to uh to let us know at milburn.org um this is a uh a way for the police department to uh concisely and prepare uh answers to those questions that residents may have uh and also um give uh information about what's currently happening in the municipality as relates to their activities crime and different things like that an update um on the affordable housing side uh as many residents may know um Woodmont uh was one of the properties that was um or one of the developers that was included in the township settlement agreement they were looking to develop Watershed property at at the New Jersey American Water uh treatment plant approximately eight Acres they had to go to the Watershed property review board for that approval in order to move forward with that uh the township back in 2021 had passed an ordinance to zone for that area pending the approval of the Watershed property review board the meeting was held at the Watershed property review board on 326 and it was approved um that is 195 units um that will produce 39 affordable units uh in the municipality that order is also located on the Township's website under affordable housing page which also includes all the information about the various stages of affordable housing and the projects and developments in the township um on April 18th at 7M there will be a zoom meeting for flood preparedness and resiliency we are gonna have Thomas song from who is a FEMA Region 2 resiliency specialist and Tyler Arden who ardron who is a risk reduction is from risk reduction plus to present to the public about flooding and things that you can to prepare yourself as well as protect your property um and that includes uh Insurance uh as well um just to piggyback on the Arbor Day resolution or Proclamation uh the township will be uh giving out free cheese saplings on Arbor Day at the Public Works Yard um so please stop by and and grab your grab your sapl that is all I have yes thank you mayor um I'm filling in for ATT attorney Jared caner tonight uh my name is Richard Birch I'm associate at Mr Canter's firm uh I'm well versed in the affordable housing litigation just to provide an update uh today was the deadline for us to file reply briefs for the Motions uh that the township filed um as well as RPM and fairshare housing center uh fair housing center has not filed their reply brief yet RPM filed theirs a little bit uh a little bit ago um but we have a court hearing on April 9th at 2m um it's in person at the historic courthouse in norc before judge Santoro um and that's really all the update I have for you thank you um the only comment I have on the HPC appointment is um most people get involved and want to serve on committees and boards and run for office because they're angry at something so um I respect our volunteers and I appreciate all the time and the commitment that they give to our community and I just also want to Ann announce the Essex County clerk's office um has a QR code now available that gives you all information on um voter registration poll worker information early voting vote by mail Etc and there's some flyers uh with the QR code if anyone's interested public comment oh more please to add uh We've also been working with uh you know you've started to see some of these crime updates in town uh giving some updates uh and more frequent updates uh I we've been speaking with the Essex County we spent a lot of money in Essex County we spend $50 million we pay them in taxes so we've been working with Essex County and uh big kudos to the mayor uh they are now going to start helping us uh Patrol some of our neighborhoods and assist us and giving us some more Firepower if you will uh no pun intended uh in terms of helping move across some of our uh lesser patrolled neighborhoods at night some of the neighborhoods are hiring some of their own security firms uh we think this will actually help reduce some of those needs uh but Essex County is stepping up I spent a lot of time with some of the Essex County Sheriffs uh our in town police officers are fantastic as well it's just one additional uh layer of protection that we're trying to bring forward for our town so thanks thank you committee man we also did um increase patrols um in the neighborhood and uh Mr McDonald is working with the police chief on other measures that we hope to put forth in the coming weeks so uh just to piggyback on that just so that that residents are aware um you know yes we have been communicating um now when there are home burglaries or attempted home burglaries so that our residents are aware so they can take the necessary steps to um uh ensure that their property is secure um as well as uh increased patrols they we are up about 40% uh if you extrapolate what we've done so far this year uh over last year and um you know again continued conversations continued efforts um obviously it's on the Forefront of of everyone's mind as you've just heard and uh we'll continue those efforts and you should also remember that um you know as residents we need your help so you know we need you to make sure that you lock your doors and lock your cars and um you know check on your neighbors when you go on vacation don't take a picture of yourself at Newark Airport you know people don't need to know that you're going away save those pictures for when you come home public comment when invited to speak to offer your comments please come to the lecor clearly state your name and whether you a Milbourne resident Andor property or business owner please do not provide your full address seeing our meetings are recorded and are readily available to the public for the convenience of our community there is a remote option if you called in and would like to comment please press star six now if you're attending by computer or electronic device please click the raiseed hand button and be sure your video is on when you comment all members of the public wishing to speak will be put into the queue to address the committee to help facilitate an orderly meeting and to permit permit all to be heard speakers shall limit their comments to one three minute session you will be prompted when there's 30 seconds remaining a reminder that this is not a time for dialogue or to debate a matter and this is a Time during our business meeting for public to for the public to offer their comments I will now open the public comment period hi everyone good evening good evening my name is Rena my name is Rema jafer Nadia halim we're all milour Short Hills residents we are representing the Muslims of Milburn and Short Hills and we are just here for a happy smiley time uh to thank you all as the Town Council and the mayor we are celebrating the month of Ramadan right now and we would love for all of you to join us for a Eid celebration so that's the holiday that finishes the holy month it is on April 21st at the bower Center and we would love to share some baklava if that's okay with you and seal so this is for you this to share and uh a card just a thank you for every thank you you thank you so much thank you muar thank you so much appreciate that thank you okay I'm Ted cun I've been a resident for probably 40 years I guess I just want to talk about the historical preservation committee as well I'm not quite as articulate as Frank but I have the same passion I think you know the criteria you should consider When selecting a new member it certainly has to be the interest and the passion for history the person should have a very strong passion for understanding and protecting our historical landmarks this is essential and we need a person who believes in the mission as Frank said of the HPC and not someone who may be opposed to it they also have to have relevant knowledge and Community involvement we need a commitment to the cultural heritage of the town and not with a focus to redevelop it we also need someone who has a time commitment of being able to attend the regular meetings site visits and contribute to ongoing projects now as Frank mentioned and I know of myself there are several other nominations for this position namely Mike Lan and Christine best both of whom express some some interest now I have known Mike for 30 years 30 plus years he's been a town resident for longer than that I think he's one of the most thoughtful and analytically intelligent persons that I could think of he lives in an historic district he's a great communicator and has a time to commit because he just recently retired so he's got lots of time so the question to you guys is who has been vetted for this position and what is the recommendation of Alison Canfield the H HBC president and what is the recommendation of the HBC committee itself they should have a big say in who they want on their committee so we need someone who's very committed to the historical preservation effort and who can understand the facts about local designation efforts and who is able to communicate and educate the public to help eliminate the false narratives that have been spread so recently so rushing through a nominee without considering the viable Alternatives is exactly the process you guys want to avoid so let's do it properly and let's take the time to get the best candidate that we can thanks thank you my name is Scott Scot redler I'm a resident of Milburn um first of all I want to thank all of you up here for dedicating your time and effort to making the town of Milburn a better place many people in the town actually just complain they rant they make noise and they don't put in the time or effort to make changes you guys sit up here you dedicate your time away from your family your friends and you do your best to make bold decisions in order to make Milburn a better place by hopefully using common sense with stats and with back in but um Progressive looking forward um so like all of you here I moved to Milbourne shills in 2012 for probably some of the same reasons as everyone you know everyone came to Great Schools they want to be close to the city kind of work hard play hard Youth Sports a great downtown you know shops and restaurants you know and hopefully by the time they leave Milburn they could sell their house for a little bit more than they they paid for it like right the American dream right there which a lot of us have here in Milbourne but with that with the experience you know uh towns need to evolve make changes and create special situations so since I only I know I only about three minutes I'm going to go through it very fast because I've experienced a lot in my time here in Milbourne and I've seen many things that needed to be changed okay one of the first things I witnessed when I came here was through Youth Sports I saw that there were grass fields um there was very limited space um there were no turf fields we'd go to other towns to play soccer to play lacrosse and they had beautiful turf fields lights and great accommodations and one of the things that need to be changed was turf fields so for about a year or two I witnessed the the backlash of those saying we can't put a turf field at the library okay because it's going to create traffic for the library it's going to create noise and it's going to change the experience at the library and some individuals in the Town Council took bold steps and helped create the turf field at the library so now fast forward there's about 65% more usage at that field and if you ask any youth sport coach and any kid that goes there and plays they have pride in their town and their sport because they have the proper resources and a great turf field but it took the the Bold steps of the Town Council to go through with it because there were many people in this room that were talking about the lights would obstru the neighbors the the noise would would would interfere with the library etc etc and it went through that's three minutes already oh jeez all right so next next October Fest eight years ago okay there was a bold Town conference Town Council that wanted to you know to help that process go by they said what do you mean we're going to close T Park what do you mean we're GNA have a beer garden what do you mean you know we're gonna close the streets down you know and there was a a committee that put it together and after going through many Hoops PS eight years later there were 5,000 attendees I'm sorry your time is up I'm sorry there's a lot of people that want to speak I'm sorry a second time at the end yeah 30 more seconds I can I'm sorry hello thank you my name is Mike Moran I'd like to be considered for the historic preservation committee and I'd like to thank Ted for that nice plug that you that you gave me uh I've been a resident of Melbourne sh Hills for 37 years uh I've recently retired and I'm looking to stay engaged and be involved in something and to me the preservation committee strikes me is a is a wonderful opportunity uh I'm not angry uh I'm just interested in preserving this community uh before I retired I was an economist on Wall Street and being Economist I'm interested in promoting growth that's really ultimately what the field is all about economists want to promote growth but I'm interested in promoting intelligent growth and I think what's happened in the community recently in the past several years as a lot of things are going on that are not promoting intelligent growth and I think the preservation committee is a is a strong tool to promote intelligent growth uh in the community if we don't think things through true clearly we're just not going to be able to have good solid sustainable growth in the economy in in the in the township some of the things that are being considered are just going to strain the resources of the community the roads are not well suited to handle some of the high-rise projects that are being talked about now traffic in this town is going to be a nightmare our sewer systems I'm told I hear are not up to Snuff in in in handling all the the additional people that will be in time our schools will be bursting at the seams and quality if you're bursting at the seams undoubtedly is going to go downhill uh so I think it's important to think all these things through and I think the historical preservation committee is would be an effective tool in promoting intelligent growth in the community and as I said I'm not angry uh but I'm interested in in promoting this intelligent growth in mbour thank you hello my name is Jeffrey Feld I live in the poet section for almost more than 30 years I'm just going to talk about some of the res resolutions that are on the agenda package some series some questions I have um the first one is when you look at the bill list a Red Flag Warning is when you look and you see that there's some bills being paid from last year or been held back such as the GIF insure and topology I bring that up because I had experience in Orange where they sat some bills in their drawers for about a million and a half dollars but we that's some Red Flag Warning that we had to have there's an interesting resolution today where we're transferring the duties and functions of our local assistance board Essex County why what's the sudden need how many people do does the local assistant board service in this town um two years ago or a year ago I asked the prior um municipal attorney whether um the Democratic chair could sit on the local assistant board because the read I way I read State Statute you couldn't I don't know the answer to his question but I like to have an answer from her M attorney it's interesting that the JFK sell Tower bid that was an issue for the last two years why did it suddenly appear is it for revenues did East Orange not put their tower on the golf course and what is the Miss best was here because she would talk about 5G um I'm happy that there going to be the introduction of the calendar year budget um I hope you'll tell us tonight when there will be the public form not the public hearing but the public questionnaire educational form because there's some questions I have on the um the budget there's also a resolution that's not on the consent agenda where you're authorizing the cancellation of operating fund Appropriations when you cancel that where do those funds go does it stay in the um Parking Authority or does it go into our general Township ability um my times about I I will speak later on the ordinances but one thing I was shocked I don't know how many times I've been standing up here asking for an accounting as to how much money we expended on the nine main street but because I was I'm a denter I didn't get a response but today we do finally heard of an amount of $381,000 I guess you have to be in the club to get the answers thank you good evening uh I'm Mike STS I'm the executive director of Playhouse um mayor Romano Deputy Mayor sakami and the rest of the township committee on behalf of Mark Kobe our producing artistic director and Carolyn falo our board chair and the entire uh paper mill staff and Board of Trustees many of whom are here this evening I want to thank all of you for the very productive conversations we have all had here and in public sessions over the last several months regarding the Papermill campus and the much needed repairs refurbishments and upgrades that are necessary for improving safety accessibility and over and the overall aesthetic of our theater paper mill is the most important economic driver for the downtown Milbourne Corp an investment in our infrastructure improvements will go far in ensuring the long-term viability and success of the theater and we're grateful for your support uh just this afternoon I received a letter which I'll deliver here from the Chamber of Commerce also supporting uh our project and I'll just read a short paragraph from at the middle bur Short Hills Chamber of Commerce firmly believes that supporting Papermill playhouse's Bond ordinance request is a Strategic investment in the future of our community as well as major upgrades to the Township's own asset the success of this project will enhance the Township's cultural landscape attract visitors and contribute to the overall economic well-being of Milburn again thank you for your support and we are here to answer any other questions that make them up regarding our project thank you hi I'm Lisa Cooney and I am director of Education out reach and access at Pap foro clay house for the last 26 years and while I'm not a resident I spent a good chunk of my days here in Milburn and I'm here to speak to on on behalf of paper mill Playhouse um Arts education is not the icing in a student's education it is in fact the baking soda uh the impact of arts and youth are undeniable Arts education in early childhood is linked to increased increase in Social and emotional development teens involved in cultivated Arts experiences have reduced anxiety many children enjoy performing simply for the fun of spending time with their friends but the exposure to music and theater at paper mill have impacts that last longer than a show the skills that children acquire from performing in a Papermill production or in our classes will guide and shape their lives introducing to Performing Arts to Children gives them the occasion to develop Priceless life skills it teaches collaboration cooperation compromise patience troubleshooting problem solving it nurtures their abilities to express themselves to feel confident to excel in school and to exude empathy which will bring them immense personal satisfaction in life learning music dance and drama has wide-reaching benefits for children providing them with the tools to think creatively be Innovative and appreciate diverse cultures and backgrounds it assists them to explore their emotions expand their imagination and develop their own unique voice theater is the practice of telling a story using one's body and voice there are a few better ways to encourage empathy for The Human Condition than a live theater performance when attending students also exercise listening skills paying attention and having respect for artists while watching live theater a child may see themselves in the fabric of the character or relate to the experience of the character they begin to understand empathy that Journey for many students begins here in Milbourne each year approximately 30 % of our students come from Milburn Short Hills paper mill engages with the Milburn schools in a variety of ways and in addition to being the largest foundational group of our after school programs and summer camps Milburn students attend performances at Paper Mill with both their families and their school communities most recently in January when the entire middle school attended a specially added weekday matina of filler on the roof over the years we've collaborated to host the annual Fine Arts exhibit and we attend the annual Milburn film festival and provide free workshops with Broadway artists to the middle school and made our Main Street dance studio free for the high school's K-pop dance club to prep for their performances and each year we book events with the Education Foundation like October Fest sow flake parade and the founding uh Founders Day festivities um our we're clearly at an advantage by having paper mill in our neighborhood knowing that around the corner kids can receive the most advanced arts training that there is in the country and knowing that we are um elevating our students by giving them a HomeTown and a theater to be proud of and I thank you for your time today thank you suatu aari I'm a resident of shills for a couple of years now so I'm here to speak about uh the nomination of Mr venkadesh chatav to the HBC I speak here today with unwavering support for his nomination having closely observed Wes's dedication and remarkable qualities I'm confident that he's the ideal candidate to contribute significantly to the preservation and enhancement of our Town's Heritage here are a few reasons why venkatesh deserves your support technical expertise venkatesh brings a wealth of technical knowledge and Engineering acument to the table his background in engineering will undoubtedly enrich the HBC deliberations ensuring informed decisions that align with our Town's historical significance entrepreneurial Spirit as an entrepreneur venkadesh possesses a rare blend of creativity adaptability and strategic thinking his entrepreneurial mindset will invigorate the company's approach fostering innovative solutions for preserving our architectural Legacy exceptional communication skills Wes's ability to articulate complex ideas with Clarity and precision is commendable effective communication is vital for successful collaboration within the committee and venkadesh excels in this regard unwavering work ethic venkadesh is not just diligent he's Relentless in his pursuit of Excellence his commitment to hard work and integrity is evident in every Endeavor he undertakes his passion for historic preservation wesa's love for the historic structures is palpable his own tutor style home stands as a testament to his dedication to preserving architectural Heritage his passion will inspire other members and Elevate the hbc's mission in summary venkatesh embodies the qualities of an outstanding HPC member expertise vision and unwavering commitment I respectfully urge you to support his nomination recognizing the imens value he will bring to the committee thank you again thank you good evening Jerry Kung Short Hills resident um I didn't intend to speak tonight uh but Mr redler had to finish his statement and I was curious as to what he had to say um so I'm going I lending my three minutes to him um I don't necessarily endorse these points of view um but I think that we pay too much in taxes to be cut off at 3 minutes so here goes uh8 years ago October Fest was created lots of the same people in this room opposed it too much noise the element that it will attract too much traffic not fair to other festivals fast forward last year it had 5,000 plus attendees and the event grossed almost $200,000 and donated over $400,000 for unfunded school programs and upgrades Milbourne schools became a better place to learn and grow and Milbourne grew closer through live music and community and we have a chance to keep building community Through live music and activities All Summer Long on Main Street in 2020 closing Main Street for covid saved many businesses livelihood saved it created The Pedestrian Mall which became the energy of the Town a street for everyone to see each other eat hang listen to music have fun a tr00 star town to help all businesses Thrive I believe the average spent is $85 per visitor but I'm not here to provide exact numbers well Scott's not here to provide exact numbers most understand that June is too early too much traffic schools are still in session the town is still congested so the proposal is for July 3rd through Labor Day 550 plus people signed a petition to close the streets most of these individuals don't sit on Facebook and complain they go out they have fun coach Sports volunteer to help make this town a great place to live unfortunately every situation is not perfect but overall closing the street is in the best interest of the masses of Milbourne it helps businesses Thrive and creates the atmosphere many moved here for please take the B step to consider closing the street versus listening to the small group that has had the loudest voice and oppose some of the best changes to our town our residents that make up our community so that's the end of the statement um and again I was just reading that on behalf of Scott so have a good evening thank you thank you how are you my name is Chris aori I am not a resident of Milburn however I am the general manager of the Hilton Short Hills and I am here just to add my support to the upgrade project of the paper mill Playhouse uh Hilton sh Hills um does benefit greatly from the um theater being Cutting Edge new updated so on and so forth um we do see folks come in for our shows that stay in our hotel dine in our restaurants socialize in our Lounge continuing to have that Revenue stream for us is critical to the support of our hotel both short term and in the long term as well I truly believe having uh the paper mill Playhouse renovated Cutting Edge will not only um benefit our hotel but also our community as well thank you thank you good evening mayor committee members my name is Steve gillo I the executive director of explore Milburn the special improvement district and I am not here to talk about Main Street I here to talk about another resolution issue um so as executive director of the improvement district I would encourage the committee to support resolution 24114 regarding the revolution New Jersey program uh the program will commemorate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the nation and the significant role that New Jersey played in that process over uh the past six months I've attended multiple workshops hosted by downtown New Jersey the league of municipalities and Essex County Arts on how small communities like ours can leverage major upcoming events including networking with the team from Revolution New Jersey in July 2026 not only will we celebrate the 250th signing of the Declaration of Independence but New Jersey will also host the World Cup final at medlife Stadium just a few miles from here so both re ution New Jersey and the World Cup are excellent opportunities to use major events for economic development in our community and to secure financial support for the Sid through various Grant programs in addition to the contacts that we've made with the revolution New Jersey team my office plans to apply to the New Jersey Division of travel and tourism's Cooperative marketing program which will help fund and organize local events associated with both the Revolution and the World Cup and we also recently applied to the New Jersey Main Street program and if we're accepted we hope to leverage resources of that program uh to support that work as well and finally given our existing work and relationships I'd like to offer the services of explore Milburn uh myself and Amanda and our board members to the committee that will be established to support the revolution NJ effort thank you good evening evening I guess I'm part of the noisy group uh my name is Dr Sabino I've been a resident living in the Deerfield section of Short Hills for 25 years I've worked in the cardiac C Lab at what's now cooperman barnas Medical Center this entire time I'm on call for cardiac emergencies such as myocardial inunctions or heart attacks uh and um sudden cardiac deaths or Cardiac Arrest one week per month so 13 weeks a year for now 25 years I'm here tonight to voice my Expert Medical opinion that closing Main Street in murn to vehicular traffic places residents who may suffer one of these catastrophic events at increased risk of a poor outcome let me explain when someone suffers a heart attack or cardiac arest Emergency Services pick up the patient stabilize them in the field and then transfer the patient to the hospital emergency room as quickly as possible using flashing lights and Sirens the emergency room staff then summon a specialized cardiac team for cardiac it's a yellow team composed of a physician three specially trained nurses and an x-ray technician to transport and render care to the patient in the cardiac cathet during the peak hours of 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. these specialized team members are likely already in the hospital during off peak hours such as the evening 7 P to 7A or on weekend Saturday Sunday and holidays is three this summer these team members are not in the hospital and must make their way as quickly as possible without the benefit of flashing lights or Sirens these events are very time sensitive and unnecessary delay can lead to a poor outcome for example during heart attacks we can minimize the Damage Done To The Heart by opening the block vessel as quickly as possible if a patient suffers a cardiac arrest every minute delay in restoring a stable Rhythm translate to a 10% reduction in survival so in 10 minutes you may suffer a f fatality or restoration of normal brain function thus any delay is critical incidentally it's the same pathway for strokes it involves a different team of specially Tri doctors and nurses That's The Blue Team many of the hospital staff including members of these specialized cardiac cath lab teams live Southeast and west of the township during the last few years when we closed Main Street to particular traffic this led to significant delays traversing Milburn on the way to St Barnabas the hospital staff is the group to query and not cbmc Administration not people who work across the street and do not take call and don't respond to emergency calls I can personally testify that Main Street Road call delays cause delays in rendering emergency Cardiac Care one instance devolving a heart attack patient writhing in pain waiting for the last member of the team to arrive in a second instance procedure was delayed waiting for the physician to arrive these are there are other examples that time does not permit uh the root cause of all these delays in Main Street was um closure of Main Street and impending direct access to cbmc okay so you want me to wait till the end and come back okay I got about another 10 seconds hi good evening everyone this is Char goyel shortless resident well I'm here to talk about Main Street and I respectfully urge you know to approve the Main Street Pedestrian Mall I've seen it as a resident that it goes beyond enhancing our community it unites people revitalizes the very core of our city and transforms it into a vibrant welcoming Hub I feel Main Street isn't just a route but it's a gathering place where individuals and all of us gathered together to to shop Time explore connect and we children you know reveal in music I have two two children who who have been enjoying the live music and playing without any fear of traffic so over 500 voices have also voiced their opinions to approve the Main Street pestan mall and I won't take much time but I'm just here to to respectfully urge to to approve this mall thank you good evening everyone my name is Jackie Benjamin lieberberg and I have held several positions in the town including serving as mayor during covid I'm a multi-year board member of explore mbour Short Hills I currently serve as the chair however this evening I'm speaking to you as an engaged resident who cares deeply about our community my words this evening are entirely my own and I do not speak for the Explorer board in a recent petition over 546 individuals yes 546 sign their names to keep the Main Street Pedestrian Mall going for another year more than half of those residents are Milbourne Short Hills residents twice the number of signatures from the imposed petition when asked the words that come to mind are Community engagement delightful enjoyable the best thing the town does to name a few the TR the petition and the survey conducted last year by explore overwhelmingly reflected a desire to maintain this vital addition to our community while Public Safety is always a concern in needs to be balanced with the overall good that The Pedestrian Mall brings to Milbourne data sourced by the special Improvement ju District showed that 52,000 people used the mall in 2023 in July and August the mall hosted 30 Live Events when users were surveyed it determined that 70% of those visited were from other towns and spent at an average of $88 per visit additionally Summit has decided to close their not close their streets and that's a huge Advantage for mbour businesses think of all the people who could come and enjoy our Outdoor Experience I believe Milburn has an incredible opportunity to capture that audience literally and figuratively we must remain a regional leader for outdoor entertainment and dining in essics in Union County as former Main Street director Jeff Bueller said at a recent Forum hosted by explore downtowns are for equity access engagement and social and economic value to communities as a whole I am confident that explore Milbourne Short Hills is committed to achieving all these things and so much more furthermore I encourage the township committee not to abandon the main street closure use the summer of 2024 to perform the traffic studies the Emergency Services analysis as previous the discussed quantify the data keep the closure thank you good evening uh Richard werman and uh like uh mayor Jackie I'm also just speaking as a resident tonight although I'm also a board member of explore proud board member of explore former deputy mayor uh very involved in in the town in different capacities this evening I stand in support of the main street closure as a resident and along with my good friend mayor Jackie and along with over 545 residents and friends who have signed the petition first I want you to know how much my family and I have enjoyed the Main Street summer closure we've met friends we've had amazing meals there we we've also listened to some great local bands from many of our residents and for the township I believe having an open space for people to gather without cars is invaluable certainly during the past four Summers we've had thousands of visitors and a huge infusion of dollars to our local economy we have turned into the unofficial go-to place for our citizens as well as residents from other towns but as one of the original sponsors of the main street closure I do want to share with you my insight as to why I believe the main street closure is a safe venue for us to have from the beginning in two in 2020 we worked very closely with our First Responders um in case there was ever an emergency and I I was always assured as I am now that our First Responders responders plan accordingly when Main Street is closed I do want to remind everyone that as a Township we have always had summer fairs we've always closed streets for parades um and that has been a long tradition in mbour I do I I remember all of those old cars that used to be displayed on Milbourne Avenue that kind of shows how many years I've been here but as you know our fire police first aid Squad have always had a plan when these closings occur now I do understand there was an incident where a me member of the community was rushed to the hospital and there was a concern that there was a delay in getting him there I would ask the mayor to ask Mr McDonald to review the exact timing of the incident and whether this person was actually delayed because I understand M Mr McDonald after this is happen has has the facts in terms of the timing did he get to the the hospital in a timely manner can can Mr McDonald advised the public as to what the facts were because that seems to be a point of cont attention in the in the discussion here I hope the township committee goes by the facts and not the fears the closure has been such a positive force for our community I strongly recommend that we keep it and um and it will be a wonderful summer and if we do want to change it okay all right that's all right thank you so much I think we're going to the um virtual good evening hello even hi oh I'm on you're on uh hi I'm Jim fines I'm a 31e resident of the town and I'm just uh would like to add my voice uh to most recently mayor lieberberg and Deputy Mayor wasman speak in support of the closure of Main Street for the summer um as purely a resident and not a former uh Committee Member I'll just say it's fun I uh live in the South Mountain neighborhood walk up during lunch a lot um driving back from going out somewhere stopping in and watching the bands um it's a lot of fun it's always crowded there's always people around um there's Advertising Signs up I first learned about Joey's tap and Grill from a sign posted uh you know a Sandwich Board sign posted during uh one of those events and I think it you know I think uh mayor lieberberg said this it adds to the town's cache it becomes something that people know about and they seek out people can talk more eloquently than I about how much it benefits local businesses and uh as Mr wamman said you know I mean you could ask PS and G but um streets do get closed in town and we do work around them uh we have parades we have street fairs we have October Fest and I am confident that our uh our EMTs and our fire department and our police can work around those issues as they do all the time in our town and in other towns and so again I I urge the the town committee to continue the um the main street closure it's it's a good thing for the town and I hope we do continue it thanks very much thank you good evening good evening everyone my name is Christine best I'm a Milburn Township resident and I'm going to apologize in advance I didn't know about all the stuff with um the HPC committee I wasn't planning on getting online so if my dog barks in the background please accept my apologies and I will exit onto the deck um so I'm going to just uh throw some ideas out here quickly in regards to HPC I am a big supporter of Alison Canfield I think she's an incredibly talented woman especially also on the planning board um and I support her goals um and I also want to Echo every single thing that excuse me whiskey every single thing that sakami said this evening I am 100% aligned with that and the mission of the HPC okay so um I also wanted to point out that I I'm gonna go outside I apologize and if you have to cut me off I'm sorry it's embarrassing but I was not planning on coming here um tonight so um I just locked my dog outside he's still a puppy so I I do want to point out that I applied many many months ago um to be on the board of the HPC because I was not only a strong interest but I have a strong background as a qualified applicant to this board and I do want to point out one of my concerns is is I asked to submit my resume and no one wanted to see my resume no one wanted to see that I went to one of the top design schools in the world I I'm a Ry graduate I've been an apparel designer I've designed Home Products for some of the top companies I've also LED startups from a complete 360 de Circle including finance and all business planning as well as Manufacturing in the Far East um I'm extremely knowledgeable I've left teams of Engineers teams of Architects designers um and what concerns me is batash is his skills okay are agile methodologies do Java SOA web services XML Enterprise architecture and the fintech industry and a cash app startup and I'm trying to understand how if somebody has relevant skills in art and Arch Ure history and design the value ad to me from a skill set like I have would be a lot greater than selecting somebody who has basically a fintech background which is amazing he's done amazing things I I just I think that's a conflict right there in itself and it would not behoove milman Short Hills in terms of you know adding value in terms of responsible and beautiful development and one of the things that I wanted to talk about is I do have a passion for design history architect architecture material selection and I have the time commitment available Land Design and environmental and Heritage preservation and one of the most key things is look at all the towns around us look at Summit look at Montclair look at Madison look at chadam and look at Maplewood and South Orange and look at us we're starting to decline and people don't see that and you need somebody who's skilled in designed to see that thank you I hope you consider me and that it's important to me thank you so much bye bye sure come on up my name is Al Carlin I'm a 30-year resident and uh question is how much is a how much is a life worth The Pedestrian wall is a fabulous thing brings in a lot of business brings and a lot of people but someone could die will they die maybe not this year but maybe next year and I love The Pedestrian ball I don't like the traffic but someone could die and asking the police department the fire department the people around here those are not the people to ask they are not the folks and you have to know what the right questions are exactly and what happens if there is a disaster what happened in Baltimore you saw did anyone expect that to happen how do you recover from something that you don't expect what do you do okay uh there's a flood it's raining right now it's raining tomorrow what happens if it continues raining all week and we get flooded and certain things happen well how do we prepare for that and it two people have a heart attack and we can't get by and a lot of different things can happen it's called Disaster Recovery how many different people have to get involved we stretched to the limit in certain ways that's all I'm thinking about I dealt with Disaster Recovery this is what we have to think about I love The Pedestrian more I think it's great idea but we have to think about what happens if if certain things happen what are the Alternatives there are heart attacks and many of the people that go to now cooperman you give $100 million you get a hospital too or whatever the thing is this it's not only the Milbourne residents it is Springfield it is from all over do you see how many different vehicles from all over go through Milbourne on its on their way to cooperman baras from all over from from Livingston not from from from Union from South they have to come through Milburn and if they can't go in a straight line they have to go around I love The Pedestrian Mall but think before you do things close it on a weekend be able to say hey how quickly can I open it up in case of come up with the Alternatives this was my business for a long time I was pretty good at it thank you very much you have a great day hello everyone Joanna Parker lent I live in Short Hills been a resident here for 26 years and I'm reading a statement from my dear friend mle's son mle RoR who assisted me in a lot of catastrophic disaster relief post hurricane Ida I never signed up to be a disaster relief manager but that's certainly what I was for those couple of weeks in between running rocktober Fest and preparing for helping people get their lives back in order after major catastrophic flooding in our downtown nobody loves Milburn more than I do well actually a lot of people love Milburn as much as I do so I take that back um mil mle RoR and her family are certainly no strangers to disaster um her husband suffered a rather catastrophic stroke and he has certainly found himself in several emergency vehicles his son wrote this statement um Ethan Rector is in college he would love to have been here in person he was here last week he was hoping we'd have this session last week but not so much so this is a statement from Ethan RoR my name is Ethan RoR and I'm a graduate of milour high school and I'm currently studying environmental engineering at CU Boulder I wanted to say a few words about downtown Milbourne I believe that it would be a massive mistake to close down The Pedestrian area in downtown milberg downtown should be a place to drive to not driveth through almost all economic studies show that closing a commercial area from cars and opening it to people allows local businesses to generate more money than they would have otherwise many cities today are trying to permanently pedestrianized their downtown due to the economic environmental and social benefits pedestrianized areas also give children the elderly and people with disabilities more space to ro making downtown more pleasant for everyone so this is sort of the RoR family vote for the downtown closure like I said there are no strangers to ambulances and having grown up in New York City myself my father had a massive heart attack when I was 21 years old and I was uptown at Barnard believe me it was certainly not easy to get to hospitals but people found a route um no one wants to put Public Safety you know ahead of or rather they don't want to put fun ahead of Public Safety but I think there's a way to manage everything we don't have to think in a catastrophic Fashion on a daily basis or for the summer thank you thank you one one more go sorry good evening uh first uh Dave boyo uh 21-year resident of Milburn Short Hills thank you for taking the time to govern this town of many complainers it seems uh not an easy or joyful task uh I just want to speak in behalf of supporting the mil the main street closure uh I'll speak extemporaneously without notes appr propo of one of our earlier speakers it seems there's quite a little minority of very vocal people oppos this quite a l quite a minority of very vocal people opposed to the uh Trader Joe's when it opened doing the turf fields every little thing in this town I've seen over the last 20 years has been a small vocal minority who wants to keep things the way they were however rundown that might have been I'm kind of tired of that the main street closure brings people downtown it brings life downtown it brings it brings engagement it brings Community it brings fun to this town to the people who live here and to people who come from other towns to enjoy a nice night out in the summer get some music get some food it's good for all around certainly disasters may happen but that doesn't stop roads from being closed for construction that doesn't stop roads from being closed for parades it doesn't stop roads for be closed for craft fairs and other events I might get struck by a meteor when I walk out of this building but I'm betting that's not going to happen so I again offer my support in favor of main street closure thank you thank you I've been coaxed to come up here and talk this is uh Charlie Bambara I'm a a resident of Short Hills for 27 years there's some Middle Ground between closure and nonclosure simply keep one lane northbound lane available for emergency vehicles and have an electronic gate at both ends have it hooked to the signal lights so that when an emergency vehicle needs to get through he's got a green light on ess6 street and a green light on Main Street the signal Gates go up lights Flash and as siren sounds and and pedestrians clear the path that that's easy this is in rocket science but I'm seeing black and white and there's middle ground that that addresses both and and it's the solution so H that's what I have this is my little sketch thank you got your look this this's there's legitimate uh points from both sides and you know I I I'm an engineer I come up with solution so that's my offer thank you we're just GNA go to the people at home real quick good evening good evening can you put your camera on please there you are oh hello my name is Ron papka I've uh lived in Short Hills since the year 2000 so about 24 years and I'm a Wall Street vet and I'm also an adject professor at uh Columbia University and I'm very impressed with the dialogue that I've heard today and um they talking in support of making sure that you keep music going on in in in in in Melbourne I mean one of the most beautiful things about this town is we heard about the paper mill Playhouse we our kids become actors on Broadway and the music that's going on in this town you know Joanna Scott Jackie spoke about Charlie gave you a solution for our our our our our problem that we have with traffic but guys come on if you have a problem where you have a single point of failure for our EMT that's like two 200 yards of asphalt you got to solve that problem Township committee and Township committee you can't use the coincidental of what what's happened these unfortunate incidents that happened um with people who suffer from heart attacks you you you can't you have to figure out how to solve the EMT problem and you need to make sure you can close Main Street for music because closing Main Street for music and closing the parks for music are two different things when people dance in the streets and people are like really close in in that environment it is a magical experience that only happens in our town and make sure that you don't vote getting rid of a magical experience so make sure you are able to close Main Street during the summer and keep theemt safe and people safe in the town at the same time thank you thank you good evening yep good evening Jean Pastor next sorry let me put my video on Jean Pastak resident of 26 years um I want to say that I concur with Mr sacam and's remarks regarding the historic preservation committee this is such a critical committee as our land use boards are and providing technical advice and ensuring adherence to the Township's master plan um for this Township committee and anyone who was sitting on these boards as appointees who were angry lacked knowledge specific to the board's Mission lacked the time and interest to do the job or political appointees meant to lend credibility to thin resumés before launching campaigns for Township committee should not be on the committee they should never have been appointed in the first place the voters of Milburn spoke pretty loudly last November with 65% voting for Ben and Frank their platform was explicit and specific they said they wanted full trans transparency and accountability restored to the township committee and that included their commitment to having the most qualified people to serve on our committees and Boards you heard tonight the contrast between the background of someone like Christine best or Mike Moran and the person that you have on the agenda this evening there's nothing personal this is nothing to do with people and their person personal issues with them this has to do with qualifications and what makes sense to get the job best done for this town and I don't think from what I understand that Mike or Christine from their remarks were contacted or interviewed by maror Romano in spite of their applications being put in at least in Christine's case uh in back in January um I I really feel that there's something not quite right here it doesn't feel right it doesn't sound right to me um I've personally spoken to vanites very nice fellow very intelligent but he made it clear that his position was not um in favor of historic preservation for his neighborhood which is fair enough he had legitimate concerns but he definitely did not uh demonstrate to me through that conversation that he was someone who was committed to um the Art and Science of historic preservation um I would also say that I saw him at a gathering for Ben and Frank while they were running their campaign and he was very combative in that in that setting and it was really disconcerting so I'm not so sure you know this is the right um choice for our Township and as far as the main street closure I made this remark last time we definitely need to compromise you hear the passion on both sides there's no reason we can't find a solution that keeps everybody a little unhappy um I think there are risks we don't want to make a decision like we did with fair share housing and cast those risks aside and ignore them we need to include them and I think Frank made a very good suggestion to study this summer all impacts of uh critical closure like the artery of Main Street in our downtown what impacts are they how are they going to affect us and then make a decision thank you very much thank you good evening good evening can you turn your camera on please hello hello can you turn your camera on please I don't think I can get it you had it you had it okay there you are is that it yep hi my name is Denise I live in the Deerfield section of Short Hills and we have been residents of Short Hills for 30 something years we do do love Milburn and we do love Short Hills and we also love the energy that it gives our town is presently changing we have more rentals coming up than ever before I was in the township office the other day paying my my sewer taxes and four people behind me were showing their leases to start getting parking permits I think at this time when our area is becoming more transient we really need to think about keeping the town as a town and one of of the ways to do that is to build community and I do believe that by having the streets closed and having people gather and being you visually see each other you able to be with each other you're able to build community and I think we should try harder now more than ever with all the rentals that are going on to try to keep our community a community I do believe that EMTs and the emergencies do need to have their value but as the person previously before said 200 ft of asphalt I have been working in emergency rooms and hospitals for a very large portion of my life and never did we say oh how did the ambulance get here they know how to do it they know where to go and they build a a a a commute by what what's in front of them New York City does it Maplewood does it all the areas do it so I think we could build a great compromise but we must remember to build our community keep our restaurants and ality going of our area thank you very much thank you no one else okay anyone else from the audience that has has not spoken good evening good evening I'm Stephanie malos I bought my first house in Milbourne Short Hills in 1988 so I've been here a long time I want to thank all of you for serving on the board it's a hard job job and it takes a lot of time and I really appreciate your um Civic mindedness of participating it's more than I could do so I'm grateful that you're doing it I'm in support of the road closure on Main Street because it's not going to be when school buses are turning it's not going to be during the week when people are working from what I understand it's just going to be on the weekend in the summer when half the town is not even here so it does pull in a lot of other people from other areas it's something that differentiates melbour and makes it a little bit special and Barnabas is not the only Hospital in the area frankly Overlook is closer so there are other ways to get um Health uh needs met in an emergency and um I think it's something that makes the town um special and I hope that you support it thanks thank you one more online one more online good evening um hi I am on Old shills road so I might get disconnected this is and I'm I'm here in support of venkatesh venkatesh is um was part of the marrywood Nottingham 153 homes that got slapped with the historic um designation and one of the reasons he might have been combative is because it was given to us in such a sudden manner without consultation I think having someone from this uh group is going to be valuable for the committee and we'll share and he'll be able to share uh the perspective that all of us um experienced um but all of us are also new many new homeowners in the area and we are all participating in our community as um as parents as PTO members as Rec coaches and Vates uh will be one of those members who will be uh able to add value to the committee thank you so much thank you anyone else wanted speak if you've already it's only if you haven't spoken please good evening hi my name is Ryan Mason I'm a resident I actually I work for the paper mill but first and foremost I'm a resident I care deeply about our Township and where it's going um I want to make sure that we Thrive my children have done exactly that they've gone through the school system that's why we moved here um but I've also in that unique position working at the paper mill I'm seeing the connection with the community and even people from all sorts of locations throughout the United States a lot of which are from New Jersey um I see the connection the Arts I see the twinkle in their eye I see how it resonates with them I've seen that with my children with the educational program with paper mill I support it because I think we need to instill all these virtues especially with the Arts but I want to make sure that the township continues to thrive and continue to be a destination we're competing with a lot of local towns and we need to be aware of that that's pretty much it we need to continue to be on that radar and be a destination thank you for your time thank you anyone else that has not spoken that wishes to speak come on good evening everyone um so just so you guys all know my name is the one that's been spoken the most today so kind of feeling the heat here so par me about that so let me tell you something very important the most difficult thing about me is my last name right very hard to pronounce I'll make it very easy for you every a in my last name is a syllable so if you pronounce every a one by one you'll get my last name right so that's the only thing Difficult about me anyway so a lot of things have has been told about my experience my intent and whatnot I just want to quickly say something everything that people told me about me meeting Ben and Frank in a in um I guess in an election campaign was all correct and I want to REM remind everybody who is here there were two people running in the past election one was a very good friend of my friend who I know very personally and and uh who ran against Ben and Frank and I was in that room debating with Ben and Frank I came out of the room and I oted for Ben and Frank I'm a very open-minded person I listen to both the sides I decide what is right for the town and for my family and for all of us that's how I operate and a lot of things has been told about my skills and capability let me tell you something um I've been typ cast at I guess some technology terms were used here but guys I did 12+ 4 plus 2E degree two year of my degree was done in NGIT I did Masters in computer science prior to that I did Engineering in India engineering means you got to go through uh civil engineering fluid engineering mechanical engineering thermal engineering electrical engineering Electronics engineering a building is not just a about architecture and design a building is about engineering and more importantly a building determines the economics and the well-being of the Town historic preservation committee is in the Forefront not just of preserving the characteristics of the town but also the economics of the town I honestly feel um that all right let me wrap this up by saying this one thing I'm very happy about me being here the last time when I spoke about people applying to HPC I was the only one who was voicing the concern that my application was not receiv received and seeing so many people being interested to apply for HPC I think I made a change whether I'm selected today or not and I'm happy to bring the change that I did today thank you all thank you good evening thank you for your service uh my name is Elsa Thomas I'm a resident of the poet section we moved here in 2017 I have four children um I'm here as a resident and a member of the paper mill board I just wanted to encourage everyone to just be aware of the gym that we have in our backyard um the art is so important to uh every uh career uh that you go into whether when I was a kid and doing theater and had um you know maybe different difficulty speaking or some fear of speaking it gave me a little bit of confidence um my uh four kids have all gone through Papermill uh various classes they've uh been on stage uh they've had access to some of the best teachers and um I I just want everyone to know that this uh true gem in our yard uh should not be overlooked we need to continue to build the what what is here uh cultivate that uh create more opportunities not only for our own children but other kids to come in from um uh other towns uh by continuing to build the theater uh this past January someone alluded someone mentioned this there was a little bit of um discussion between uh kids in the middle school high school uh with the um tumultuous issues maybe between religions and the school realized we have we have an opportunity we have a we have uh the ability to to to show our kids that we're all you know united we should all be one and we created that there was a funding that was allowed the kids and a huge Grant from the theater itself to essentially do per performance of fer on the roof for our middle school kids um it was it was a true gift for them and I think an excellent opportunity uh but remember this is a theater that's here for our community and uh will continue to increase the value of our community the value of our homes uh my husband's a surgeon and I'll also say um yeah I'm I'm into the township and we have Overlook Hospital too um you know towns EMTs police they know how to drive around traffic so that's another plug for um the township and and closing the street when needed that's all thank you thank you anyone else that has not spoken that would like to speak seeing none I will now close public comment it's to finish the you can I'm sorry you can wait until the next public comment doctor so I came to the very you can't speak I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry you could also leave your statement for the record also if you don't want to wait oh okay okay um comments from the let's start with you Deputy Mayor Sandi so a lot of you came out to speak in favor of closing the street over the summer um we're gonna have a discussion about this later um can you hear me yeah um I think we need to find a way to compromise here I think we need to find a way to balance the concerns from the hospital staff uh we need to to get sign off from police EMT and fire um honestly I I think at this point what we should probably do is leave the street open the summer and gather data and then use that data to inform our decision in the future I also think that this is something that should maybe go out to a referendum I think uh Summit recently reversed their policy of closing their street um and I don't remember if it was a referendum or not but there was broad public support to uh end that closure and um I commend those of you that are in favor of the street closure for getting a lot of people out to speak in favor of it um however I've spoken to many many individuals um more numerous than are in in this room speaking in favor of it who are opposed to it for a number of reasons so I think we have to find a way to compromise there should be a way for us to draw people to our downtown in the summer and have you know the live entertainment and the music Etc without you know hindering emergency vehicles and Emergency Services um see um I appreciate those that spoke out um against this HPC appointment that we have I think it's important uh that we as a committee appoint the best and most qualified individuals for these types of positions um and Vach I appreciate you coming and speaking for yourself um however statements that you have made tonight and and in your uh volunteer interest form are in direct contradiction with statements that you have made to me uh and to others uh in my vicinity so yeah take that with with what it is um let's see I think that's all the comments I have thank you committee woman purose I do not have any comments Comm Stoler oh great uh well such a civic participation and the positive energy uh I'm a forever optimist so I'm not going to address everyone's concerns I I'll just go s you know very similar to what Frank did I think we're gonna get into a lot of discussion tonight as well um first discussion um on closing Main Street um you know I I actually called the mayor of summit and spent an hour on the phone with the mayor of summit to understand the issues and the processes they follow to go through whether to close it or not and actually there was quite a amount of people who did want it closed uh their issues were a little bit different than ours because they were closing Maple Street uh in terms of the longevity how long Maple Street was and actually um it was a little bit different I also spent some time with Jamal Boer who's the West West Ward councilman uh and understood what they did so it's actually not Apples to Apples it's really apples to oranges and uh they were both hoping to come here at some point uh during the summer uh I cannot say loud enough how much we appreciate a safety issue I also spent a you know some time with the doctor on the phone today Dr Tori um and understand his issues uh and their valid issues because it's not so much the EMT Vehicles we're talking about here guys we're talking about the Staffing inside the yellow team and the blue team and I I cannot go into the depths of that knowledge right there it's beyond me but the depths of the yellow team and the blue team they save lives uh and the ability for them to get to the hospital to save lives in the afternoon or at nights on the weekends when they are off they have about 20 minutes to get back to the hospital so it is a difficult decision and we may walk outside may be hit by a meteor um and we do have to understand the pushes and pulls I love the uh Pedestrian Mall and I do think we should have a hybrid uh and we should look at opportunities and ways to benefit downtown uh and have both and I think Charlie had a good idea in terms of having a Cross Lane maybe explore that uh and I don't think this is a All or Nothing proposition but it's something we can discuss and look at the opportunities to do uh to have a high or maybe just close it on Saturday and a Sunday but I think it's a good discussion to have and I appreciate everyone's valid input the other soup toj today seems to be the venites um uh appointment um I've spent three different conversations with Vates probably two of them over an hour long uh and I'm glad you spoke tonight because it gave everyone a flavor of your background I would be angry too if I was arbitrarily when my house was put into a historical HPC designation without input from the residents I understand your frustration um I am so elated by the amount of public outpouring for these positions uh although Christine seems to have the greatest resume ever sorry Mike and Ted uh the finance backgrounds uh but you know there is another position that's going to become open uh very soon maybe two uh so there's a lot of opport opportunities for uh volunteer work here or to come and assist on Township committees Finance committees all these committees are open we're looking for great people so this is so encouraging to have everyone step forward and willing to participate it really is commit Cohen sure I'll now give my opinions as for as for the closure I do think we need to reach a compromise I don't think doing closing it off and uh just collecting data is really a compromise but we have talked about various things including Weekends Only or moving the closure to uh Town Hall Plaza and those are things we should be discussing later today um as for HPC I have to say I do agree with much of what um Deputy Mayor sakami said I don't think it's appropriate to appoint somebody to a committee where they oppose the mission of the committee and so I look forward to his resolution that will be coming later to table the appointment um to Mr Feld and local assistance board I asked some of those same questions before the meeting all that is changing is the method of payment to the recipients of local assistance to make it easier for them to have access to the assistance that's provided so no no deep dark conspiracy there um and then I guess I I would was asked to get the information onl Main Street I got it I I can this to the list of your damned if you do damned if you don't because I provided it and of course rather than getting a thank you I got a snar but I guess that's to be expected L thank you Mr McDon I'm just gonna uh add to committee Cohen's comments about the local assistance board uh Milburn is actually one of three communities only in the state of New Jersey that still processes checks from a public assistant account to those reciting that are in need of Public Assistance the move to Essex County is in the form of payment so that res those residents that are vetted by our our our current social worker and public assistance individual from Livingston as well as the local assistance board uh and can receive funds in the form of a debit card as opposed to a check um this is a move that Livingston is also making and again does not change the process however does change the way that those individuals re receive Public Assistance thank you um Mr bur do you have anything to add or no mayor I don't have okay um the only thing I wanted to add I did want to talk about the general assistance fund um and thank you for mentioning that um like Mr McDonald said um a lot of people don't have bank accounts so if uh if they're given a check sometimes they have difficulty cashing that check so by issuing them a debit card it makes it easier for them to access those funds and it also opens them up to other resources that are available in the community um as far as the closure I also believe it's not an All or Nothing discussion um I am concerned with the safety of residents whether they're Town residents or they're out of town residents uh our Our First Responders do have the ability to switch the traffic lights to Green emergency response vehicles from other towns do not have that so that is a a concern of mine and like I said earlier to committeeman Cohen we've been thinking about this since last summer so we've never stopped thinking about it and we've never stopped talking about it and it's a really hard decision to make that's why I think we can come up with some type of compromise and as far as um HPC or any other committee I don't make those decisions at all none of I don't make any appointments by myself what we do is if someone on the committee is has it is interested in appointing someone to a board we have a discussion about it we talk to each other about it we get consensus about it and we move forward I don't make any of the decisions by myself thank you the township committee will now cons consider consent agenda resolutions are there any comments from the Township from the committee in regard to any items listed on the consent agenda may have a motion to approve resolution 24107 through resolution 24112 which are listed on the consent agenda may I have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Cohen yes M yes secondy yes sister stano yes are there any comments from the committee in regard to resolution 24-13 yes I would like to make a motion that we remove this resolution from the agenda uh table it and um come back come back to the appointment after there's been more time to uh vet some of the individuals that uh spoke tonight and expressed interest and um it you know showed that they have the technical ability and the passion for sitting on this board so I I make a motion that we that we table this nomination second roll call vote a roll call vote please discuss oh is there any more discussion I'm sorry okay so just for my understanding for my understanding uh this is for alternate to position that is a non-voting position and will only vote if a member of the HPC is not available to vote and if the first alternate is not there and presumably the folks on the HPC understand when a vote is coming at a meeting and are usually uh astute enough to show up for a vote is that correct very simple question presumably however okay we we have seen that when there has been appointments to an alternate position when another vacancy comes up the alternates tend to get moved up and we've seen that happen already this year so not a rule well it seems to be the practice that our mayor has been following this year whether it's r or not again I don't make decisions on my own all right we all we all vote equally every single appoint okay I just want to clarify is that a rule or is that not a rule it's not a rule it's not a rule okay understood um and are there other appointments coming up my understanding there's one maybe two other appointments coming up shortly for the HBC that's not that's not necessarily one is absolutely not going to be here he is going to college and he will be resigning this year so there's one coming up okay so understood okay uh second um just understanding the idea of group think uh and you know we always try to avoid in the business World especially in my companies we try to avoid group that we really respect the diverse diverse perspectives uh the improved decision making we receive the Innovation and creativity um right now in terms of the mission as the you guys keep stating the mission um how does the mission not be affected by group Le I want to understand that so the the mission of the HPC is to nominate historic assets to go up for the TC and the planning board to review they are not the mechanism by which things get designated they're the ones that are supposed to do the research they're the ones that are supposed to identify these things and if you have individuals on that board that don't believe in that mission it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense for example it's sort of like appointing an antivaxer to a board that is designed to develop the next vaccine right it it just it's a it's a contradiction and it's a addiction that I I don't seem to be able to get over easily because the check on the HPC are the five of us up here on the TC it's also the planning board so there there are checks in place I I sit up here I've sat up here I've never consulted about anything that happen that's HBC I would say we're a check maybe the designations but the HBC operates and does so much more than just designates correct and and I think what people fail to understand is what happened last year is they went through the statutory process they had to follow to advance a designation to the township committee the historic preservation commission ultimately decided to table that and they did not move forward recommending to the township committee to move forward with that good so so the public outcry the public response worked now can the HPC improve absolutely and I'll be working with them on improving their education component Etc however I still believe that it is important to point people to boards that actually believe in the mission of the board dissenting opinion is great as long as it can be objective and I do not feel that this individual is able to be objective based on multiple comments that he has made directly to me and others close to me understood and and going through you know having spent multiple a lot of time with this individual with meach and understanding that you know we ran on a on full transparency open communication doing what's right for the town getting public input to me it just seems that working away from group think which seems to be the case when they arbitrarily sent 153 letters out to Milburn Short Hills residents with zero regard for how it would be received uh in the middle of the night uh and not having someone who had the fortitude to push back and say hey maybe we shouldn't send these out maybe our mission isn't that isn't correct maybe we should actually take a look at this and would have been upset if I had received that letter now I do live and I think I'm the only person on this on this de that lives in a historical home I understand the benefits of of living in a historical house one being as like they can't build affordable housing anywhere near me you know that's always a positive in terms of where you live in a for in a historical designated area however I just cannot understand why uh rou think uh why why the understanding where gentleman has put himself forward into this position and he has a fantastic background he has an engineering background uh he has come forward he's come to this country he's built a beautiful great unbelievably successful business that's thriving and he's put his time and effort forward to help this community uh and I I don't even look at the part is an effort I look at the individual and the contributions he can make to this and a few comments that he may have made during a campaign season I don't think negates anyone I love com at a time please can I just and you know perhaps a better an different analogy than the antier is we wouldn't we wouldn't support putting someone on the environmental commission who believes that climate change is a host and is against sustainability because that is the purpose of the environmental commission furthermore I also believe that as we've appointed Deputy Mayor sakami to be the our representative on the on this committee if he is opposed to this appointment that is something that we should respect just as the for the Committees that we were on if someone was going to if there was an appointment up that we disagreed with we would hope that the other members of the committee would support us 100 100% very valid Mike uh however I would want to understand have good reasoning versus we want our group think and we want to be able to execute with no checks and balances to me that's not a good reason I need one reason that says hey this is why we shouldn't embrace the knowledge of this of this resident who's gone through this process who can absolutely contribute to the process and I have yet to receive that that reason and and to the antivaxer I think there's a lot of people in this room and in this country are wishing there wasn't group things surrounded by antivin uh I know uh some children that wishes wish they were not vax so let's just put that to bed right now that's not a good example and the nonsensical example of a mathematics versus uh uh you know whatever the nonsensical example given earlier I didn't even follow it uh the example that was given to me over the weekend was having a uh a uh a environmentalist Join one of our boards of an oil company we love having that happen because then we get absolute Clarity on the decisions that we're making that's oil company but you have full transparency and that's what I think we need is a thank you there's there's a there's a there's a different so yes so we have a motion and a second to table resolution 24-13 right and there was a second by there was a second a motion to table roll call there's discussion before the roll call vote I to say we have we have a discussion excuse me one second so we we've had the discussion and everybody's had the opportunity to speak and once everybody's had the opportunity to speak the mayor can then invoke if uh the mayor either permit anybody intial to speak or call the roll call vote so we're goingon to have a roll call vote to table the resolution right okay roll call pleas Mr Cohen yes Miss puus no Deputy Mandi yes Mr Stoler negative Mar no okay so may I have a motion to approve two resolution 24-13 so move may I have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Cohen no M pus yes Deputy Mayor Sandy no Mr stard affirmative May yes are there any comments from the committee in regard to resolution 24-14 seeing none may I have a motion to approve resolution 24 d114 so may have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Cohen yes Miss purpose yes second yes Mr Stoler affirmative may may ROM yes are there any comments from the committee in regard to resolution 24 d115 May I have a motion to approve resolution 24- one15 may I have a second yes roll call vote please second Mr Cohen yes missus yes May secondy yes Mr ster affirmative May Romano yes are there any comments from the committee in regard to resolution 24-16 I have a motion to approve resolution 24116 I have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Cen yes M pus yes second yes Mr St affirmative yes um committee men Co and you are scheduled to sponsor ordinance 2669 d24 I would like to present an ordinance entitled ordinance number 2669 d24 calendar year 2024 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap bank at njsa 4048 col 44514 um my understanding and I'll defer to Mr larsy is that this is something that we pass every year so that um we end up being allowed to save money that is unused for future years so that we don't end up having spikes in in our taxes okay um may have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Cohen yes M pus yes M command yes Mr ster affirmative mayor Romano yes committee install are you scheduled to sponsor ordinance 2670 d24 okay just a second there was a part I was supposed to read That's I was confused um I I move we need to do that vote again I move that this ordinance be taken up and passed on first reading and that the Township Clerk be authorized to have the ordinance published in accordance with law on the item and for hearing and final passage on Tuesday May 7th 2024 I apologize may I have a second second roll call vote please I'm sorry Mr Cohen yes missus yes sty yes Mr Stoler affirmative mayor Romano yes committee Miss Stoler you are scheduled to sponsor ordinance 2670 d24 I would like to present an ordinance entitled ordinance 2670 d24 an ordinance of the township of Milburn County of Essex authorizing the township of Milburn to execute a memorandum of understanding with paper playoffs for 20 Brookside Drive Milburn New Jersey 07041 this is the memorandum memorandum of understanding uh We've ventured into to collect parking Revenue uh as it pertains to uh the 20 Brookside parking lot that has been uh uh uh acquired by the town or will be acquired by the town through an ordinance uh uh and has been uh will be offered to us uh uh to help in with the negotiation for the next uh ordinance that will be passed uh I move that this ordinance be taken up and passed and that Township Clerk be authorized to have the ordinance on first reading and that the Township Clerk be authorized to have the ordinance published in accordance with the law in the item for hearing and final passage on Tuesday May 7th 2024 may have a second second just to I just would like to add a little bit of clarification to this um so we are uh the township committee is going to vote on this ordinance um however um this ordinance is then contingent upon the purchase of 20 Brookside um and that process will start immediately uh assuming that the other vote goes well tonight we'll start that process and then we will finalize this Revenue share agreement after the purchase of 20 Brooks thank you may I have a roll call vote Please Mr Cohen yes M pus yes Deputy May secondy yes Mr Stoler air May Romano yes are there any comments from the committee in regard to resolution 24-18 yeah may I have a motion to approve resolution 24-18 so moved may I have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Cohen yes Miss puus yes Deputy marandy yes Mr Stoler affirmative yes may I have a motion to approve resolution 24-19 so moved may I have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Cohen yes Miss pus yes Deputy Mayor Sandy yes Mr Stoler affirmative mayor Romano yes okay okay um we did are there any comments from the committee in regard to resolution 24-19 we just did that one I'm sorry okay okay so we are GNA take a quick um five minute break please thank you e e e e e e e e e e e e okay everybody we're gonna get started please okay we're gonna get started okay uh we have a resolution 24-120 uh resolution to approve the 2024 budget and Mr McDonald do you want us introduce please thank you thank you uh thank you mayor Township committee um tonight is the night for us to introduce the 2024 U Municipal budget um uh I have Mr larcy who is the Township's Chief Financial Officer here to do that presentation uh I'll certainly jump in on certain points um but we will try to do this as expeditiously as possible all right go ahead thank you mayor and Township committee um we have a presentation we'll put up and I I'll I'll go through it slide by slide if anybody has questions feel free to just stop me and ask um get started here here we go all right so we have uh some major points here we're going to go through the budget process our goals and objectives with our budget um we'll go through the municipal budget the parking utility budget operat separately and our Capital plan it's really a whole year process so we start you know throughout the year we analyze our financial results we meet with the finance subcommittee um the business administrator and I meet with all the department heads in the fall we start to finalize the budget budget um we then meet back with the finance committee and go through everything uh you know in detail till we get to where we are today the process from here is today is the introduction we filed our annual Finance statement and our annual debt statement um we passed the cap Bank ordinance for introduction and we'll post everything on the website after today um we have a public information session scheduled for April 25th uh that's our our you know our meeting um to specifically engage the public on any questions they might have on the budget and then we're scheduled for a public hearing and a formal adoption on May 7th we have General goals and objectives in this budget um I'm not going to read all this detail here but really it's to provide essential services to the public uh provide for infrastructure improvements Economic Development to promote planning and land use um Civic engagement culture and recreation emergency response and to promote fiscal responsibility Milburn has had uh you know a successful budgeting philosophy over the years and and we we will you know do our best to keep that going and we take a long-term approach to what we're doing on the budget the town's going to be operating in perpetuity so we we take that approach um we have conservative accounting measures we don't operate under Gap accounting um New Jersey has a modified Cash basis of accounting um and it's conservative by nature which helps us we do have a formal fund balance policy um and we we we follow the governmental Finance officers of America and their best practices which is uh a fund balance as high of 25% of the operating budget and uh Milburn is a triaa rated Community um we do as much as we can pay our uh capital projects with cash to avoid financing costs um of course it can't always be the case but um we allocate a large portion of our budget towards those needs too fast there not that fast yeah that's all right all right so what we're highlighting here is just um the impact of inflation so obviously it's something that's talked about on the national level but we feel it here um the the lower line is is uh milburn's budget since 2018 has gone up cumulative about 5.44% um inflation since that time has gone up 22.2% um we staved off the increases for a while but we're feeling the effects of that um towns across and municipalities across the state are feeling that next comparison is is our Municipal Levy increases compared to the Board of Education in that same time period um the Board of Education if you see the line has been extremely consistent um they go up about the same percentage each year which is usually what they're allowable um and uh you could see ours the township committee made a a concered effort to stay flat during the covid years as much as we could and that shows this this graph here this last graph is just us compared to some of our neighboring communities and similar towns as you can see um we've been well below um since 2018 the local communities um right now like I said everybody's kind of feeling the effects of inflation and other other pressures on the budget we're obviously just a small part of the tax uh you know the total tax picture the tax bill that everybody's paying the board board of education is the largest percent the library is small the municipality takes up about 24% and as's County takes up about 24% the average tax bill in 2023 in total was so what's driving the 2024 budget our largest portion of our budget salaries Personnel costs um fringe benefits that go go along with those salaries it's about 57% of our budget um general liability insurance across the state is increasing um that's there's a variety of reasons for that um but we're feeling those effects strongly in this year's budget we have over $2.1 million in capital investment this year we hired two additional police officers last year and uh the cost of goods and services just increasing drastically which is part of the inflation discussion so what this all translates to is uh our 2024 Municipal budget our net taxable value that's the total uh taxable value of the Town um that the uh the municipal budget spread over is a little over $9.8 billion um it went up a little under half a percent our Municipal tax rate proposed is 0465 which is a 3.15% increase and the average Municipal tax uh is increasing about $182 to 500 5,9 964 so that's the uh Municipal portion of your taxes will increase about $182 and just a sorry just a note that's on that 182 is on the average home value of $1.28 million right so the average home is one uh $1.28 million um shown here in this chart the impact of this Budget on your taxes based on your assess valuation and all you really need to do to see this is apply the tax rate um to your own personal assess valuation you can calculate the impact I'd like to show this graph just breaking down the budget into a monthly bill we pay a lot of our bills monthly um whether it's Netflix or uh you know your cable bill or um Disney Plus or whatever you're using um this is our monthly Municipal service Bill okay the majority of our bill goes to Public Safety $23 on the average household Public Works is about $88 capital and debt uh reserves is $60 garbage and recycling is about $51 uh administrative functions is $47 public libraries about $42 General Insurance is about $19 Parks and Recreation about $17 and other miscellaneous Serv make up the remaining $12 for a monthly service bill of $539 our revenues are highlighted here on the left for 2024 versus 2023 and on the right side is our 2023 uh some highlight highlighted receipts um construction code that's uh building fee uh building permits um that's been above budget a bunch of years in a row now people are doing a lot of work on our homes and that shows here our biggest windfall from 2023 was our return on investments we made almost $1.3 million um in interest on our uh on our our cash we can't invest in the stock market or we have to be very conservative in nature but we use um certificates of deposit um there's some other uh investment pools available to us we took advantage of that last year the other the other item here which which uh was mentioned is the hotel tax from the Short Hills Hilton um we get a portion of attacks based on the receipts um since Co they have been ramping up each year as they become fully operational so that's a good sign both for them and for us this slide just highlights our expenses breaking down the salaries and benefits operating expenses capital investment and our statutory reserves again this is just a longer history period of our tax rate a penny uh showing the Penny increase um you can see you know since 2018 um you know we've only gone up uh about an average of under one and a half percent per year if we even considering this year's 3% increase another portion of our budget is our sore uh sore user charge we're a member of The Joint meeting um last year we charged $188 per unit this year's $198 $10 increase um it's definitely one of the lowest in the area if not it's not the lowest um uh you know obviously a lot of this infrastructure is aging so towns municipalities are pumping a lot of money into this this infrastructure soore and water utilities um so right now we feel uh $198 as a member of The Joint meeting is well spent the separate portion of our budget is the parking utility so that's um you know theoretically should be funded strictly by user fees um that budget is a little over a million dollars this year we paid off the parking deck debt in full last year so that frees up a lot of money in this budget um we have to kind of get through this budget and then we can start allocating that money towards other Capital needs other Capital Improvements in the parking area uh the graph just shows the breakdown of our Revenue here parking permits make up 57% of the revenue and meter collections make up uh a a little under 40% with a remainder um being usually just interest on investments in miscellaneous fees our Capital plan highlighted here as it says we're a AAA rated municipality is as uh in 2023 we affirmed a triaa rating uh in 2023 we completed a lot of projects infrastructure improvements over $2 million and Road roadway reconstruction um the bow Center assembly room is totally renovated it's now a nice new gy looks enticing and uh it's lined for multiple Sports which is great um and uh we have various other improvements including pickle ball court construction LED upgrades to Gerald Park and uh various equipment purchases so the capital plan for 2024 we're allocating $2.7 million towards Road and drainage improvements this year um the last few years and Alex can speak to it if if he if he wants to jump in but we've alloca a lot of money towards this need again it kind of speaks to the Aging infrastructure and US wanting to not just put lipstick on on problems yeah just just a piggyback on that um we continue an aggressive approach to roadway roadway reconstruction and I say roadway reconstruction because we're addressing you know the the the utilities in the ground including sewer infrastructure and brakes that may be occurring on certain roadways curbing drainage as well as full Mill and pave of Roads uh deviating from the path that had been done for years previously of just putting a nice coat on our roadways we want to make sure that we're building roads that are going to last for 10 to 15 years so that we can you know continue to invest um uh in in in all of our roads and not just hitting some roads like Highland Avenue or haror things that are utilized more often um and this has uh just been an aggressive approach and and certainly a commitment by the township committee as well as ourselves to to to approach that that issue like that thank you we have about 1.2 million in Recreation improvements this year including uh resurfacing of the the Township community pool 660,000 in public works equipment purchases the main purchase there is a sha tree CV and a sore flusher police and fire upgrades of $380,000 and Milburn has done an excellent job in uh receiving grants um and this year we have safe roots to school which was awarded years ago is finally getting going a little under $600,000 we're applying for for an inclusive playground at tayor Park which would be a large scale project and we've gotten a few firefighter assistance grants to tune of about 70 $70,000 just like to also add that we are in receipt of um some federal funding with regard to the police department that is uh in the in the tune of $57,000 as well and the capital plan is just uh it's included in the back of our budget it's despite what we're except for what we're funding directly in the capital Improvement fund line at of our budget the rest can only be funded through an ordinance so there's only three ways we can spend money as a town it's through the operating budget through a capital ordinance or by a dedication by WR a trust fund which is money set aside for a specific purpose um I just like to highlight that because just because we're including ideas or a capital plan nothing happens until we come before you for an ordinance so that's it uh for now again this is the introduction of the budget I appreciate everyone's time I want to thank the finance committee specifically for helping us with this we will have the public uh presentation on April 25th and uh we will be back here for a public hearing an introduction on May 7th if there's any questions I'll take them now does any member of the T committee would any member of the tent committee like to comment on the proposed budget comment is I think Michael and I are under the finance committee and working along Matt just great job Matt uh with what you do and I think it's very relevant for everyone in this room understand those Municipal rate increases versus our peers when you look at that slide I forget which slide it was but that is really the where the rubber meets the road in uh in all of our tax bills for mil bur for Hills residents yeah I'll justo thank you for all the hard work that you do ping us together you're welcome thank you anyone else thank you thank you the public hearing and consideration of ad option of the 2023 budget is scheduled for May 7th 2024 committee meeting oh oh look at that and I said that too which begins at 7 o'clock in Milburn Town Hall Once introduced the proposed budget will be available in the township clerk's office and will be posted on the Township's website is is there a motion to approve resolution 24-120 I move that resolution 24-120 be approved and that the Township Clerk we authorized to have the budget notice published on April 11th 2024 in accordance with law and the item and that the public hearing and final passage be scheduled for the May 7th 2024 Township committee meeting May I have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Cohen yes Miss pus yes Deputy Mayor Sandy yes Mr ster affirmative mayor Romano yes uh committee instol you scheduled to sponsor ordinance 2663 d24 thank you I present for consideration and I present for consideration an ordinance entitled ordinance number 2663-20 bond ordinance authorize the making of various public improvements in by and for the township of Milburn in the county of Essex state of New Jersey to appropriate the sum of $7 million to pay the cost thereof to make a down payment to authorize the issuance of bonds to finance such appropriation and to provide for the issuance of bond anticipation notes in anticipation of the issuance of such bonds uh this is the bonds the bonds for the paper mill Playhouse uh the paper mill playhouse has requested a financial investment from the township to assist in updating their facility uh much of paper Mill's physical facility is functionally obsolete the oldest part of the building dates back to the 1930s and the rest of the building was rebuilt after uh and is fairly Antiquated such as the bathrooms the exterior Pathways The Building Systems uh it's not 8 a code requirement uh it is failing failing retaining walls black ice sheeting hazards on parking lots groundwater penetrations uh in the orchestra pit and boiler room areas Etc they all uh pose liability risks both to the paper bille and to our Township and will become only worse over time uh for those additional reasons uh as such as per supporting the Performing Arts facilities in our Township uh we we are bringing this forward uh we have very very uh rigorous negotiation with the paper mill uh it's gone through the first reading we've had numerous uh public information sessions I've met with all of with the majority of the local uh Proprietors here in town at the restaurants uh and spoken to the owners uh and the managers uh they are all with no doubt supporting of this measure uh right now the direct local impact of the Papermill is roughly $3.8 million a year to our local businesses for dining parking and patronage uh that is significant in that our uh demographics are changing in town uh and the paper mill single-handedly brings seats uh puts behinds and seats in our town and keeps those restaurants alive and thriving uh and as much as we uh appreciate these restaurants would not survive uh here without the paper mill playoffs um so in a spirit of collaboration and good partnership uh we set out to find a viable Equitable and reasonable path forward to economically support the paper mill Playhouse without risking or previously spending tax dollar monies uh we believe we have done that um the best part of our Town's contribution on that paper mill Playhouse of the $7 million will be uh reducing it by $1.2 million cash reserve on day one so it will be a $5.8 million bond with annual Debt Service of approximately 200 million the town the township will receive an average lease payment of over 30 years uh the lease payments will stay in store we will get their annual operating income improvements uh uh in raises and we'll also receive $50,000 per year in parking revenues which was the bond theou we talked about earlier uh for 30 years uh so we will be able to service that Bond as you know in town and as Matt can money is somewhat fungible but the revenues that we're bringing in from the paper mill will more than Finance the payment of the bonds in addition to that uh Papermill commitments to the township uh they're offering many uh programs for K through 12 students they have an adopted School participation for 30 selected freshmen a partnership with the Middle School such as the very popular fither on the Roof Master Class and guest speaking opportunities access for students to final dress rehearsals $20 student tickets uh and more school filt trips uh to elementary and middle school students uh the restaurant hour the restaurant uh upon completion of its renovation project will offer speaker events live performances Cabaret offerings private events Civic events and meeting spaces uh this is an integral part of the operations of the improved facility uh there will also be discount tickets for nonprofit organizations uh discount tickets for families first as well as a student rush in a 30 under 30 program uh based on that I'd like to declare this hearing open um good evening my name is cheffrey Feld I guess a proud complainer um something happened earlier this evening I don't know if many of you quot what happened for the last since public meetings I was talking about does the local land and housing um buildings law apply we were purchasing property tonight there was an admission that we had to comply like we did at 22 East Willow Court that raises several questions what's the urgency tonight if we had to approve two other pieces one before we enter into a lease agreement for them we have to purchase the property that requires two hearings also there's questions as to the memorandum of understanding that we really do not have an opportunity to speak to it's 30 years at 50,000 that basically is $1.5 million where's the balance of the monies that we're giving to Paper Mill I mean I'm for Papermill but citizens have to get paid back the money where is that revenues coming we have an existing lease are we amending the existing lease that was approved in 2008 because something happened in 2008 when how did the monies that were dedicated under that lease payment get put into a reserve that we're giving back to them because citizens were told in 200 that money would go pay the debt service for the acquisition that was done in 2008 um earlier this evening you approved the resolution about the Revolutionary War at various meetings prior I asked Mr burch's um Jared caner two questions does this transaction because the way I structured because I don't know because I'm missing maybe one piece the piece that's not the cash that you're going to pay by the know the 50,000 times 30 where's the other cash coming back for the balance of the monies there is something called our state constitution our state constitution has two specific articles article 8 section 3 paragraph two article 38 section three paragraph three of the State Constitution prohibits the loan of monies or the grant the Monies to a private entity if you're making a loan you get paid but here we're giving to my view because I'm a former tax attorney we're making a gift and I and I until someone tells me how that complies with the state constitution I'm all for the Papermill to do it but I expect us to get paid back money we're helping them out that the money that we're advancing we get paid back our principal and interest that we had to pay out because we did not get that before um I know that I'm contrarian but it needs to be told because this is a debt that we the CI cens are paying there's a state constitution and sometimes as we heard before group think someone has to be a contrarian to help the group thank you thank you uh Scott redler resident I'm gonna just get right to the point so I run out of time um from what I hear I feel like the town council's made a decision already uh about the closing of the streets which I think is unfair some of you guys all been listening to just individuals ranting and complaining I'm sorry sorry yeah this is only on this ordinance on this public hearing on this ordinance oh for uh yeah I'm sorry I'm for the paper mill [Applause] [Laughter] Playhouse anyone else uh for the public hearing for ordinance 2663 d24 okay one online I'm going to make it short and sweet just like Scott um I I support the Papermill Playhouse a th% I think it's amazing I think what they do is incredible I am very avidly into the Arts as a creative person um but I want to make sure that we do things like pave our roads first because my road hasn't been paved in at least 30 years so I don't know where Alex is talking about being 15 but I'm not g to get into that issue my issue is think very carefully how you allocate your funds and allocate them to the core Basics first and when you can do that then you should give money to the Papermill thank you thank you you have to can I speak back to those comments or justum yeah yeah first okay so let me uh uh close the public hearing um and I I just want to be very transparent on to wait dri yeah read the there's a read the St okay I move that this public hearing be closed and ordinance be adopted on Final reading as Township Clerk be directed to published ordinance by title as pass on Final reading in in accordance with law may I have a second second n okay okay thank you so so just for for the full transparency I want to make sure everyone understands the the lease payments were asked to be stopped those are not being stopped those continue that's roughly $300,000 per month in perpetuity for per year per year I'm sorry for the remaining of the lease for the remaining of the lease we would like that uh then we have the parking fees those parking fees are not variable in fact the $50,000 is above what they will actually be collecting off of that 20 Brookside property uh the direct economic impact of the $3.8 million uh is roughly $68 per check for the 55,000 visitors or so uh per year for the performances uh you know on a 30-year basis that's $114 million of direct economic activity Mr Feld in terms of coming into our downtown and benefiting the restaurant tours uh as as really underpinning the economic activity in our town very very important to understand and in addition to that we're also going to receive the $36 million of Capital Improvements which will be completed at the time of the renovation uh directly to our balance sheet it will go directly to our balance sheet as free and clear assets for the town uh in addition to the 20 Brookside uh 20 Brookside property which was just purchased by one for $1.8 Million by the paper mill today it's on the paper Mill's balance sheet and it will be coming to our balance sheet for that $7 million we are getting all of those benefits 9 plus 1.5 114 36 1.8 it's a lot of benefit coming to our town so please I'm I'm not going to equivocate here I'm not goingon to citate it's a lot of benefit for our town residents over a long period of time I want to reiterate that thank you so I have something to say um so i' I've looked at this um this ordinance since the first read um the more I think about it the more I hear from the public about it um the more I tend to agree with Mr Feld that this seems a bit like a giveaway um the leaste payments that were set up back in 2008 when the town bailed out the paper mill were designed so that the money that was spent bailing them out will be paid back over 30 years by giving the paper mill this investment so that they can put it towards uh you know their plan their grand plans for uh renovating their facility sort of you know negates those lease payments actually paying back the town for bailing them out um so quite honestly I just I just don't think this is a sound deal given that our town is going to have a lot of other expenses on other projects I think that if I think that you know Mr Stoler sort of gave us a false choice between either funding the paper mail or having them go out of business they still have many many years left on their lease I think if they don't get the Township's help uh you know for the additional $7 million that they're looking for I think they can go and raise those funds on their own I think that they could also scale back their renovation plans so um I am no longer supportive of this anyone else roll call vote Please Mr Cohen yes Miss puus yes Deputy Mandy no Mr Stoler affirmative mayor Romano yes uh committee woman purose we want to get finished tonight but thank you committee woman proest your schedule to sponsor ordinance 2664 d24 I present for consideration an ordinance entitled ordinance number 2664 d24 amending the code of the township of milb chapter 9 building and housing by the creation of section 9-12 entitled lebas paint Hazard and Seed requirements for rental DRS tonight is the time set for the public hearing and final passage as advertised in accordance with the law I declare the hearing open okay I move that the public hearing be closed and ordinance be adopted on Final reading and the Township Clerk be directed to publish the order on spine title at pass on Final reading in accordance with the law I have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Cohen yes missus yes may Sandy yes Mr Star May R yes thank you okay uh new business Mr McDonald we tree preservation yes um I just wanted to uh this this this ordinance has been out there for a while um in terms of being looked at by the township Forester Department of Public Works as well as um you know various other interested stakeholders um we're getting to the time of year where uh new construction is going to be happening um additional plantings are going to be happening and um Wanted to make the uh what I think are necessary changes to this ordinance uh to improve upon it uh the changes stem from uh increasing definitions within the ordinance to uh creating a registration um for those uh companies that want to do tree work in the municipality as well as uh increasing the fees for replacement trees and um various other various other items uh about uh tree protection on construction sites various standards uh the this is this is uh creating a more sort of robust ordinance in tree preservation ours has already been quite um stringent and and uh and and improved uh you know from from what the state is even sort of mandating now towards towns uh this still goes above and beyond that and the but the biggest point in in this and and where this all started is uh two things one is uh wanting to give the township Forest are the ability to not only uh address on private property dead or dying trees but also trees that are deemed a hazard um our our Forester is a licensed tree expert and arborist all of that um and and to be able to have the the ability to address trees that are hazardous as well as dead or dying uh is important in addition the fee in which people are charged for the removal uh or for a replacement uh is it was I believe it was $250 or $200 that doesn't even buy you a tree anymore um so that is increasing to $400 in this um revised ordinance uh so just wanted to introduce be able to get any questions from the township committee provide those back to the Forester um and and and address any of those uh in a in an ordinance that would be introduced to the to the township committee at a future meeting have consensus to move forward yes definely thank you f establishment reinspection fees yes um another one of those areas where uh so so when it comes to fees uh at times um the municipality and we are actually endeavoring upon uh throughout this year we're going to be working on a a fee ordinance uh right now most most municipalities have a code in their code book that addresses all of the fees right now if you're a resident you have to go look through the the specific code that is applying to your specific situation and try to find the fee for that we're we're we're working on a a revamp of that in the codebook but this uh particular issue is relates to food establishments right now if the health department goes out in specs and they do not pass that food inspection and they come back there's not an additional fee for that inspection this would establish that um it is consistent uh in the memo that was provided to the township committee from Mike Romo the Township's Health officer is consistent with the township of Livingston to make the the the inspection fee $75 and any reinspection $150 great good thank you your to Hall Plaza and substitute of Main Street McDonald would you like to take this um not really no I'm kid no I I I I think look there is a um there is there for the past three years the township has has closed um Main Street uh as a pedestrian mall I'm just providing a little bit of History um and that was originally done for weekends during April May and June and then for the summer uh that has been scaled back to only be July in August uh for the I believe the last two years um I know there's a lot of uh points being made tonight as well as you know throughout the year and throughout last year uh when this took place I think there has there is a desire from the committee to have a robust discussion on this topic so that at least from our perspective operationally we know how to proceed forward uh because I believe whatever we choose to do will require an ordinance uh that would be put before the township committee um for uh for any any sort of closure and then we have the ability to prepare that for for the township committee does anyone wanna just so I'm I'm understand this is the road behind Township town it's yeah it's Town Hall okay so this is the road right behind Town Hall so I guess the new the discussion is instead of closing Main Street closing this 247 for 60 s days and having the programming and the food and such there no well I think I think if if we came to a consensus and that's the way we would go um Steve Gilla would do his planning around that closure versus Main Street so this is an addition to Main Street or this is instead of main stre not days a week or Steve's here and has a pres Steve do you have a presentation or do you want to speak to it no I can answer any logistical questions you have though so then right so then the the alternative is putting is doing all the everything that's done on Main Street right now and putting it onto town hall closet that's what we're talking about right right so you are correct but it doesn't necessarily have to be seven days it could be just oh it could be like whatever could be but then we run into the emergency vehicle situation whether it's right whether it's the weekend or it's Monday through Friday or whatever it is it's still you're talking about keeping it on Main Street no no no I'm saying Town H Plaza but it doesn't necessarily have to be seven days on Town Plaza if there's no programming then don't you know we need to look at that if that makes sense that's what we would look to see to decide is he programming Monday to Thursday if he's not programming it then leave town just just for topic of discussion wouldn't that be somewhat of a of you know do we have the understanding whether people would actually visit that it's kind of a town Siberia in terms of it's away from the downtown area and where I think the 546 people on the petition said they wanted to close Main Street so I'm just trying to understand where the you know is that a direct comparison or a direct solution for you know are we better off closing Main Street for uh Saturday and Sunday for the weekends versus moving it all the ways over here just trying logistically what is more beneficial for the residents for the town for the people who signed the 546 people versus the 80 people whatever that signed the other petition Steve come on up your next contestant come on down come on down so the the programming would remain relatively similar so we would still have music we would have our open streets program which is physical fitness yoga chests Etc that can all be programmed cly the main difference would be that if it's moved to Town Hall Plaza we would not have the on Street dining uh similar to what we have because obviously you have evu fiama and standard that all set up Essen permanent seating for the summer that would not be done on Town Hall Plaza so uh we could have takeout we could have carry out which we did last year we provided vus and information about different restaurants on all the public seating tables but you would not have that experience of sitting at a restaurant and having your meal while enjoying the entertainment so that is a significant difference between the Main Street side and the town hall plus well I guess the question is what you I know you haven't done but could you talk to Mariachi and Tavern and even the the Vietnamese restaurant who are the three closest restaurants to Town Hall Plaza and see if they would be interested in setting up outside dining I I would say just based on my conversations with many restaurants in the town that's probably not feasible you'd have to get food out of a kitchen through a restaurant down the street think about how are you going to get somebody a a new fresh glass of water you have to walk five minutes back to your restaurant um I think logistically it just doesn't make sense you're serving warm food I mean the standard for instance doesn't even have carry out because they have a very specific type of presentation that they want um so I just want to be clear that there is a significant difference in the experience if you are not on Main Street the food experience will be different that's not a biased opinion that is a factual opinion but all the rest of the programming could go um similar to what we have on Main Street so last year did people use those QR codes oh yeah quite a bit but they didn't have permanent seating so that they would use the QR codes here yeah so that would exist but what people come for with the standard evu fyama the the tents the seating that would not exist I understand that those three restaurants wouldn't have what they've had for the last three four Summers correct understood that but the QR codes worked and perhaps Joy's like they're pretty close they and they run pizzas like that's pretty easy they can set and Mariachi and right but they could set up a water station I mean people know how to do outdoor dining they learn that through Co so it is possible that there would be food it would not be the standard would not be participating and it wouldn't be those specific restaurants understood the QR code you just said were yes so we would still have all the programming right which I was a little disappointed about the that petition that was going around because it said no live music no yoga and that wasn't the truth no games all of that still can take place what it should have said is no standard no fyama and no evu dining but everything else can happen there that's correct sotion I wish would be revised to explain that and I guess like it it seemed very much like nothing's gonna happen this summer well and I guess if they're using QR codes you could even do that for fiama and the other want to but certainly maybe the standard would set up a bar right talked about doing like an outdoor license so they I discussed that with the mayor I think that would be um an absolutely essential addition to to create an open consumption ordinance which is allowed by state you could also do something like have food trucks cycle in so that you would have different different options potentially I mean I I I would advise against that Deputy Mayor okay well so so the way I see it these these restaurants right have benefited by essentially doubling their square footage for very little money right they pay a very small fee was like $400 for the season they double their square footage using our streets okay and inconveniencing residents causing potential public safety issues and they're not really compensating the town for it they're not why should these restaurants always be the ones that benefit why don't we move move this around why don't we try this in a different area when you guys first started closing the street you didn't know if people would come you didn't know if it would be beneficial so trying it in a different area we could try it it may prove to be beneficial it may give other restaurants an opportunity to participate on a more even footing why should the benefits always be going to the same few restaurants and by by having like having Main Street open then we are addressing the concerns of the hospital and you know it's just far less disruptive and we can have the same programming as as you pointed out my only my only issue is the safety issue I you know like I've said to fellow committee members I I want to be able to like sleep at night and not worry about that being closed and something happening and so just for the record and I know we've been through this now I guess four years um explore does not have the regulatory ability to close the street uh what we do is we make a recommendation what we think will be the best situation for econom development of the downtown we made that at our March meeting we had a discussion our board made a consensus that they believed the first three weekends only in July and then a full closure of Main Street in August uh Ben brought that to the the committee it's up to you how you want to proceed um what I will tell you is that explore will put on our best professional um operation uh whatever space we have but as Alex said it's really about logistics there's an enormous amount of work that goes into this uh hiring bands coordin with restaurants seating games all that stuff has to be ordered we need to know where we're going and when we're going there so explore has not been part of this discussion um because we don't want to be we don't want to have our fingerprints over this we did our job in March we made a recommendation to Ben he's AR Le aison we are simply asking you to give us direction as to how to proceed um but my best recommendation is uh to to committee woman Pro's point I think the biggest difference will be that those three restaurants that people are are so ACC customed to will not have the same experience if this is moved to town hall again not an opinion a fact um but there's other ways to compensate which we'll do if we're required to yeah I mean those restaurants could also set up when I said food trucks I didn't mean necessarily outside vendors we could have our in town restaurants and perhaps others that aren't in the downtown area could set up stations or you know they could rent a truck and they would have the opportunity to offer their cuisine to people that are enjoying the festivities and I think that probably is a more balanced and fair approach and you add that on top of this addresses the public safety concerns to me this seems like something that would be worth trying for at least a year yeah I'm not here to argue one way or the other um my board made a recommendation it's yours to do with what you will um but if I've given you the answers on Logistics that you're happy with um or I'm certainly pleased to answer more but uh really it's it's our request to you is tell us where and when and we'll get just talk about the ESS and the Ingress and egress of that of that Plaza yeah so uh Town Hall Plaza is a one-way Street going from Essex South to Milbourne today you go down from Essex and you can make a left turn onto Milburn you cannot make a left from Milburn however there's one parking lot that's a small lot that's used for people that live on Milburn Avenue in in apartments um what we would have to do is have a temporary uh Contra flow of traffic so there would be a barrier at Essex Street there'd be a barrier um at the what is today the exit which is the second cutout and then so nobody could drive their car onto S6 Into The Pedestrian Mall accidentally they would have to make a left onto M Town Hall Plaza which they can't do today we'll have a VMS up that will say left turns parking lot only you would go into the lot park and then because there's so few cars we'll use that entrance as an exit as well that's the only way uh that you can actually get vehicles in and out I'm just going to comment on that and not to necessarily Contra contradict Mr gorillo but one is obviously we would go through the police department and traffic Bureau to better understand how we would utilize this uh we do have very few cars that Park in lot six which is overnight and um and business parking permit uh if there is an ability to be able to displace them uh temporarily for the summer um I think that we could look into that as well uh I would suggest that if the decision is to move to Town Hall Plaza that it is a full closure seven days a week that we are not pulling up and taking down barricades and moving things or or needing to uh employ the services of DPW for the entire summer and I concur I think it would just add to confusion of drivers um at least if they know for a certain period of time that left turn is allowed and that there's only one entrance and exit of just keep things safer yeah when is like what's a schedule of letting Steve and explore no like when are we gonna vote on this yeah if you come to tonight then at the next meeting will'll be in first read I can start I can start moving things forward with so you want okay okay yeah what whatever consensus you come to tonight um we'll assume then that you know that will be the final ordinance um and we can start booking bands we can start purchasing equipment and then we'll have to do some work with Public Works um there is the availability for overhead lights um on Town Hall Plaza so we can have that installed Etc so um I I think it's really up to you guys in terms of again it'll be a very different experience but if you feel like that's the way you want to go then just give us the heads up and we'll move forward Mr gillo it's you know kind of why I'm exploring it so hard is it's very intriguing to have the lights and the bands the programming and then having the availability of food on those premises from that standpoint what would the mayor or the T have to approve I guess the liquor the just I want to understand those three points of what they would have to do yeah so first we would have to do first and foremost any road closure greater than 48 hours uh that has sort of a permanent nature like that has to be approved by ordinance and be approved by the dot that's that's one thing um the other thing is if there is a uh a desire to move forward the outdoor consumption license we'll have to go through that process which would likely include some sort of work and is that for can the restaurant set up bars and also B so hey uh you know kind of first time me first time you so we're gonna have to we're gonna have to I think I have an answer good go ahead Steve um so the liquor license let's use Joey's tap and Tavern they're the only one with a liquor license approximate to the area um I don't believe it would carry across the street so then nobody that has a liquor license today would be able to serve liquor in Town Hall Plaza um that's the standard has a liquor license they can serve it in front of their space that's why you can serve it on Main Street Prem it's an extension of premise okay um two years ago Governor Murphy signed into law public consumption uh allowance so um each municipality has the right to dictate a particular space and time where public consumption is allowed um that's essentially BYOB you can bring a bottle of wine you can bring a six-pack uh whatever you'd like there's no restrictions um what I would recommend to you is that you would establish that it would be Town Hall Plaza right between Essex and Milbourne there'd be a certain time uh from duration and then you could even do it to say it's only Thursday at five o'clock to Sunday at five o'clock it is completely within your discretion to how you want to do it but if we wanted to set up say like a beer garden and have different restaurants like run that beer garden yeah could we do that like they do in rocktober Fest why can we do that they'd have to get a separate permit but I mean it Poss is it yes I believe it is but I think you'd still have to go through the state liquor Authority it's possible though that we could set up a beer garden and have different restaurants Stock and run and sell that beer garden for different you could you could also have for instance liquor store so let's say unwine Boutique wanted to set up a wine tasting um we would program that as explore that'd be so fun um they can do wine tastings for two hours and then if you'd like to purchase wine you call they send a runner down you then have that bottle of wine um again it's all about giving us the ability to get ahead of this we're having a major logistical change um and so it's going to be part of what Amanda and I have to do to really revamp this if you guys just do decide to move it so that that's just the the caveat there got it I mean so this seems to address the safety concerns and it potentially allows more businesses to benefit from the closure I think it's probably worth considering to try it for a year see how it goes and reassess next year if need be I also think like it's new and I know that everyone loves the main street closure but I think that considering all the different voices and perspectives like there's some people that don't love it that Town Hall Plaza like you guys can make it great like we don't know and if we go into it thinking like this could be great let's like give it our best and like really talk it up and really give it all the energy like it might be like wow like it's great that we did this and we want to keep it you know like to start off with that attitude I think would be great it could definitely be great I think so lighting plantings I think it could be great yeah I think you know mayor um we would need some sort of set aside in the budget a minimal number but um this was not in our budget for this year um so usually the township covers the cost of the lighting um when we've done like the art alley and such that's a very small um but Planters things like that to beautify it um we've already spent our planter budget um you'll start seeing all of your plants blooming now that it's raining um but yeah something small like that would be very helpful I think you're GNA need some tents too because I I think like the some tents were provided by I don't know were those your tents or no the the tents on Main Street are uh fiama and IU they provide their own gonna need some tents for Town Hall plus yeah we we could do tents yeah we we have a pretty good setup in terms of um benches and chairs um we also programed the space we call the Oasis which is where the fountain behind the courtyard is we have seating there and then of course the art alley has seating as well so um Amanda and I just did an inventory of what survived last year um but that'll that's coming out of our budget but if you have any funding to support Planters would be very helpful how about you I think I think that's you know it's my recollection Town Hall Plaza a relatively new Street I don't even think that always existed um and so you know the only inconvenience is if you're trying to make that left turn you have to go all the way down two blocks to the the other left turn so much less of an inconvenience than M so I think we should try it and um I think it'll be good and I'm sure with all of your marketing skills you'll make it excellent committ installer I'm just trying to Envision it I mean I can really really Envision A Little Italy type fill with lights crisscrossed and and such um the only concern I would have is if it turns into a kind of town Siberia and people don't show up uh but I guess we could measure that as we go I mean there's you know that that's going to be the barometer what the population and I guess you have a couple good programs show up that will drive business too and if you're downtown and you'll still hear the music and so you want to go over to see to see the band and we do collect data on an annual basis uh last year we did a very robust study of users um we used AI data that was collected through a third party Source this year um which gave us the numbers really literally by hour how many people are there um so I I feel comfortable that if uh you want me to come back and tell you whether it worked or not I'll be able to do so and I think I think part of it too is how we communicated you know to the 500 people 550 people or so that that want to close it because it is a a hybrid and in and it is a compromise it is a hybrid it's still being closed uh uh you know I do think it's a hybrid and you know seeing the surgeon there who I spoke to for a long time today and understanding the safety issue um and you said trouble sleeping at night well um yeah I mean I don't want to have to worry about it anymore and the liability for the town I mean last year we got we got lucky that that you know individual didn't didn't pass away right otherwise he could very very well have a case I mean he may already have case but the liability issue is is not something that should be discounted yeah well somebody goes and gets sloppy drunk at the beer garden and stumbles into the street gets hit by a truck I'm sure there's liability there as well so let's know be be be risks and everything you do exactly exactly okay all right we're good I think we have consensus com thank you we're not I don't think we're voting we're almost all right we're not there'll be an ordinance right right so he's just going to plan no I was just say we're not voting on are we right now no we're not voting on I just I just want to be clear though you've come to consensus and that is the direction that St correct all right unless we otherwise tell you something different all right final public comment this public comment period is to allow for final comments from the community when invited to speak to offer your comments please come to the lecor clearly state your name and whether you are a Milburn resident Andor property or business owner please do not provide your full address seeing our meetings are recorded and are readily available to the public our reminder that in order to help facilitate an orderly meeting and to permit all to be heard speakers shall limit their comments to one three minute session I will now open public com Charlie bambauer Short Hills resident for 50 for 27 years um I go to New York airport travel on business they have iPads I can order from any restaurant in the teral they deliver it to me why is this any different on Town Plaza you can have kiosks which restaurants can rent uh restaurants can hire Runners themselves or you they could use services like door Dash or Uber Eats or something I'm sure there's plenty of people that would love some summer employment that are going to school uh it's a food court it works I think it's a brilliant idea and I support it 100% thank you I'll be brief um I'm on heart attack call shortly um so two points one is clarification don't waste your time looking at ambulance times emergency police fire half they can get to the hospital they'll run you over to get to the hospital what we're talking about is the 75 staff memb at St Barnabas Koop Barnabas that have trouble getting to the hospital overnights so if you have a heart attack at 3 o'clock in the morning the staff is not there in the cath lab they have to come there for people and the doctor I have no trouble getting there from Deerfield but if they live in Clark or they live in uh kennworth they're gonna have trouble getting through Milburn on a Saturday afternoon if that street is closed okay so don't don't worry about the fire and and the ambulance say they'll get through it's what what these people are telling you that they don't want to disclose that they have trouble getting in including EMT people the second thing is I'm glad we're hearing the word compromise I would not like to see what happened last year was closed for 60 whatever it was so I can live with the two propositions I heard which is maybe just Saturday and Sunday maybe this school Plaza thing but I don't want to see what happened last year because it was too risky something something's going to happen so that's my only plea I implore you to do something different this year whether it's satday and Sunday less traffic will'll warn them to go around the town or would we change the venue to something else I think that would be a nice comp I'm glad we using the word compromise I don't want to see what happened last year and I'm all for it I mean listen I was down there I saw the kids playing chess it was a good time it's just not the right location maybe I go Mike STS again executive director of paper mill I just want to thank you all um it's been a tremendous uh uh last few months um in discussion about the Papermill project uh we really appreciate the support it's a point of clarification um the this is a partnership the township owns the property it owns the building and the Investments you're about to make are going to be an improving the public safety problems that we have the the some of the Hazardous uh issues that are caused by failing retaining walls um preventing some of those things that you were just talking about that uh are things that the township could be liable for as well so thank you again on behalf of uh everyone who's here from paper mail our audiences we greatly appreciate this and look forward to moving forward real quick Richie cyber resident great discussion about moving it to the town Plaza keeping everybody happy and I'm sure most of the people in the room here have stayed in hotels and ordered room service they bring it perfectly I'm sure the standard can figure it out how to bring the room service maybe they'll buy a couple of carts refrigerated or heated or whatever roll over I'll be happy to go to the town Plaza sit at a nice table place an order we all have cell phones call over there 10 minutes later PS up everybody's happy doctor's happy I'm happy be happy third time all right Scott brother the resident um so in the Spirit of compromise just to let you know this this is totally different what you guys are suggesting is not a compromise it's a totally different experience all right you guys are concerned about traffic you guys are concerned about safety okay by making um next to town hall a Clos Street you know you have to make a left into that spot to get into the parking lot so that probably backs up a little traffic going down Milburn Avenue now if you have to make the left and safety you know if clemenzas and Joy's are going to be delivering pizzas across that street that traffic is continuing to go because that's not going to be closed off then you have waiters and waitresses bringing food you know into a closed off area with traffic this way traffic that way so you're not worried about the residents and the people who are going there or the people working in the area you know so you're putting them in Jeopardy which you guys just have to be aware of that okay you're doing something totally different that will create other unsafe circumstances as far as compromise for Main Main Street you know just to let you know those you know the three restaurants you talk about without Main Street closed for instance two two weeks ago the p uh beaing the Beast was playing at um the high school you know I was at the standard there was a two-hour wait because they do have the best food in the area or some of those restaurants and then people went to clemes they went to kamea they went to a lot of places because those restaurants were bringing people into town and creating the vibrant businesses and the people coming in order to help the restaurants and the businesses you know in the circumference so what you're doing now is just creating a totally different um situation that might might be good you know we could all be optimistic in might work you know hopefully waiters and waitresses crossing the street don't get hurt or hopefully the you know it doesn't stop trafficing either way and people come but you're doing something totally different this isn't a compromise for Main Street a compromise for Main Street would be like you guys suggested a little bit earlier maybe not closing June July and August but closing July 3rd through Labor Day or maybe closing you know Thursday through Sunday and keeping open Monday through Wednesday June there a lot of traffic schools are in session people going into business doesn't work I get it so June should not be closed maybe that's when you can close you know the the section next to town hall you know and then have both of them and then pick up data on what's more crowded what creates more Commerce where the best um experience is so so by changing the circumstances it's a totally difference so it's not a compromise it's like apples to like sour grapes versus Apples to Apples so if you that's what you guys want to do that's what you're stepping into which could work you know I'll come but I'm just saying it's not going to be the it's totally different than closing Main Street and bringing people into our town to build the restaurants and create Commerce and have a great experience with live music and Community out of time anyone online have same dog same Christine okay my last comments I I'm actually um I'm very saddened um by I I have like one thing it's ethics and honesty and um I'm I'm very disappointed that I'm I'm going to start with you Annette that you made a comment that you're not responsible for selecting or putting up the person for the committee you very much are that I I've actually had multiple committee members tell me that and other committee members and in the past um so I I think Christine Gotti even said that once um so I I don't know where you come off saying that it's disturbing to me I'm sorry and I don't mean to go at you personally but I need to call that out I'm sorry um Ben I I'm really concerned how you address this whole group think thing I I feel like that's a strategy to deflect um that there's a bunch of people that think alike on the committee um and that I'm one of those people it's kind of interesting I'm probably the most out of boox thing that's been successful with a bunch of startup companies and I have was kind of offended by that actually um I'm also offended by the fact that you also told me that Annette was responsible for putting that person up and um so that kind of bothers me a little bit um I think you guys are making a very very great mistake I really liked Mr Cohen's comment a lot um it made the most sense to me tonight about the environmental commission you know that you'd want to have in environmentalist not somebody like from Exon being on it having a person I'm sorry for the barks having a person like Mr um and know his first name Vates he is hostile towards this committee he is angry about what's going on and that's something he should take up with the TC committee members because you guys vote on it the committee just makes recommendations he has absolutely zero no skills for this okay it is the equivalent of a difference between a plastic surgeon and a chainsaw operator I'm sorry a fintech person has no capability and spinning it okay like it is I'm an engineer a a computer science engineer is not a mechanical engineer it it's not a person who understands land engineering construction engineering Etc no business and if that's the only skill set you can even add which was like really hard pressed to spin I'm sorry not qualified I'm greatly disturbed by the Township's committee vote on this I think that it clearly shows to me actions speak louder than words that this town is committed to bad development and to basically allowing Builders come in unfettered and just develop and you'll see a lot of big highdensity housing going up in Old Short Hills thank you very much have a nice night anyone else online like let's yeah let's just do yes hi Jean Pastak I'd like to um say a couple things as well uh I I too am really offended by the comments made about people who complain the complainers you know this has to stop and I think the mayor really you have responsibility to manage the meeting and to welcome all people who come to these meetings that have comments and feedback that the labeling and the the the disparagement of members of this community who take take their time show their Interest come give their time to help solve problems offer Solutions sit on committees do the job to bring good people uh into public service I think it's absolutely appalling that nothing is said and that you just sit there and allow that kind of talk to occur in your meeting room tonight the second thing I'd like to say is the um the way in which the conversation went regarding the um hang on the way in which the conversation went on with the appointment to the HBC first of all not all the facts came through uh about this individual how his um name came to be the number of things that went on behind the scenes to get him uh put forward I think I Echo with Christine best said that there are things going on here that are not being uh Direct direct and honest about how these appointments get made and it's high time that people are direct with the public about how the operation of the township committee and its appointments are made thank you thank you have a good evening you too thank you I know you're tired ter Al Carlin a resident for 30 years uh i' just like to for a change commend the committee tonight for doing some really good things as far as considering the safety of the residents and I think you came up with a great idea as far as studying what could possibly be a great great solution and uh as far as helping the town uh as far as there could be a Jitney service going to particular location shuttles from different locations to bring people to an area other than Main Street uh different ways to get people to another location let's explore different ways of introducing people to different areas of the town I mean uh there are ways I mean it's it's marketing let's Market the township I mean besides Main Street just a thought thank you boy good evening Hi how are you Township uh resident Antonio Brock sorry I'm trying to figure this out here everybody's asleep um sorry I couldn't make it this evening um however I do uh we just wanted to discuss that I've had conversations with um many people everyone knows that I've been pretty adamant about the main street closure petition and it be fair or unfair um my my my intent is never to alleviate fun from the toal it was to just kind of make it more convenient and I I believe what the sergeon said tonight uh was was very appropriate that um at least we're looking at a compromise and that there's a possibility I can't get the Halo out at least there's a possibility for compromise and uh another solution and um maybe it does give give some other people some flexibility some other restaurants some flexibility maybe it does give other restaurants some flexibility or maybe it does stay where it is on Saturdays and Sundays um but I think it's better than a full closure all summer long and I know you guys say July and August and that's the whole summer so um I understand you're eliminating June because of school but to me that's all summer um so that's my two sensor again I appreciate the fact that you guys are going looking other options thank you good evening uh Jerry Kung Short Hill resident speaking on behalf of myself this time um I'm a little concerned as Miss best also said um in terms of the two words transparency and accountability um mayor Romano I I saw your body language when you shook your head when someone said that the mayor appoints or nominates um New Jersey statutes annotated 40 colum 55d 107 uh subsection C the mayor or if so specified by ordinance the chairman of the planning board shall appoint all members of the commission and she'll designate at the time of appointment blah blah blah blah blah about alternates my understanding of this process please correct me if I'm wrong is that the mayor nominates the candidate and the candidate is seated with the advice and consent of the majority of the township committee so you know I think again going back to the words transparency and accountability uh I'm gonna call him Frank because I'm allowed to call him Frank Frank had asked you a direct question in that there were probably a dozen candidates for the HPC did you you interview all of them or did you not because in terms of transparency and accountability if you did not actually vet all of the candidates for this position how could you in good conin nominate someone above all the others that you did not speak to is that accountability in terms of good government so I ask you this question did you or did you not speak to personally all of the members of this community who had applied for a seat on the historic preservation commission thank you anyone else so I'll go first since I seem to be the focus this evening oh I'm sorry I'm gonna close public comment um the way that we made decisions on putting uh volunteers on boards was consensus from day one so from when uh committee men Stoler and deput deputy mayor Sandi were elected we made every decision as far as boards together as a consensus and whether or not I'm allowed to make a mayoral appointment or not I have not governed that way since day one and I still I won't I won't I did not interview everyone that applied for HPC or Recreation or community service or whatever other board I forgot how many applications we received last year but I think they were in the hundreds so no we do not interview every volunteer that comes before us we go through the volunteer interest forms and we base it we base our decisions more or less or who we want to speak to from those boards if someone from the committee has a suggestion as to someone that they want to fill a vacancy then it's up to that person to talk to the rest of the committee to see if they have a consensus and if they have a consensus we move forward that's it that's that's that's as transparent as you're going to get so there's no back deals there's no politic there's no political agenda or anything like that so um you know we can we can finish that and I'm not going to get into um political agendas and alter you know ulterior motives in in this setting because um I'm I'm just not going to bring myself down to that level and I'm sorry you're not you're just not going to get a rise out of me on that so as far as the um two-way the um Town Hall Plaza it's not a two-way street it's a one-way Street on both sides of it so there's no traffic back up and um in front of Joe's or clemenza there's a crosswalk there so hopefully you know if need be we could put up little reminders for stop stoper people and cred and crossw there's no flasher there no there's no fles there and that's all I have anyone else want to comment sure okay so just a couple things too and I want to address Christine best because uh the mayor does make the appointment however it's up incumbent upon the the TC members to get that consensus as she said and I pushed very hard for Christine best but I didn't get consensus and I think everyone of this de will say that I did push hard for Christin best but I could not get consensus that's why she was not moved forward I made my vote based on the person that was put forward in front of me now the concern of group think really is is is nerve-wracking to me because we did run on a platform of transparency and the words that I heard is we're concerned about development in Old Short Hills those words just came out of her mouth every candidate that they put forward to replace is an old Short Hills Road um and listen I don't care where they live my when I interview a candidate and I do the research I do the work I roll up my sleeves I ask the questions I don't even look where they live I look at them based on their ability to do the job and to work with individuals and make the commission stronger and that's what I've done uh in terms of Scott uh rather that's a good point you made very good uh and we have to look at that so the idea of food Runners running across Milburn Avenue Essex Street uh and Main Street is going to be might be Pro will probably be problematic so we have to understand that issue uh and you know the surgeon as I talked to him earlier today um the we use the word compromise uh let's think about that too maybe we do do a weekend closure of Main Street because uh I don't want a runner getting hit by a car on istic or or or or Milburn Avenue or Main Street so we have to take that into account as well uh and that's it anyone else I'll just say I mean I guess it's a question of what the definition of consensus obviously the appointment went through I didn't support it but three people did and that's the consensus so that's yeah so I mean I would add had three of us not not including you and that came and said this is who we want on the committee and if you didn't want that person would you still have nominated them what do you mean not including me I'm equal to everyone no so I'm saying let's say let's say theoretically that you and terara were opposed to a candidate we put forward and Ben Michael and I say we want we want to nominate this person we want to put them forward we have three votes that's a consensus but you you are the mayor you can control whether that person gets nominated or not would you put them forward absolutely okay so there there have been times where I didn't agree with you on certain things but I supported you publicly that that is true okay that's it I think she's already proved that that's it I think I've already proved that so I think that's it so you know you know it's um I have a motion to adjourn motion second second you did a great job