roll call please miss fesa present Mr kamsky here mayor Morgan here Mrs Joffrey here Mrs mcnight here salute the flag I to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all the public me B council is coming state New Jersey adequate notice has been given in Accords with PL 1975 chapter 231 that an annual notice of revision was made in conformance of section 13 of the ACT okay we have uh two class two officers that are here tonight that we have to swear in let's do the two resolutions and I'll call you up one by one I need a motion for resolution 124 so mov I'll second yeah can you read it I can read it please resolution 20241 124 is a resolution appointing Lindsay knf as Class 2 special law enforcement officer for the Bureau of New Providence County of union state of New Jersey and I just need a roll call too oh call um Miss bisa hi Mr kamsky I Mrs joffre yes Mrs mcnight yes resolution uh 125 have a motion so moved I'll second please read the title resolution 2024 1225 is a resolution appointing Wayne brutin as Class 2 special law enforcement officer for the bur of New Providence County of union state of New Jersey roll callot please miss bisa I Mr kamsky I Mrs Joffrey yes Mrs mcnight yes it's a big deal after me I enough I enough do Solly swear do Solly swear that I will support that I will support the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution and the constitution of the state of New Jersey of the state of New Jersey that I will bear true faith that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and allegiance to the same and to the governments established and to the governments established in the united states in the United States and in this state and in this state under the the authority of the people under the authority of the people and that I will faithfully and that I will faithfully and partially and partially and justly performed and justly performed all the duties all the duties of class two special police officer of class two special police officer according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability congratulations congratulations [Music] [Applause] congratulations up at least it wasn't your nose I Wayne brutin I Wayne brutin do Solly swear do swear and I will support that I will support the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution constition of the state of New Jersey of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and allegiance to the same and to the governments and to the government established in the United States established in the United States and in the state and in the state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people and I will faithfully and that I will faithfully and partially partially and justly perform and justly perform all the duties of Class 2 special police officer the of class special according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability congratulations [Applause] conratulations okay now we have a proclamation recognizing mental health awareness month so can we have a the mental health committee come up here with us before I read this I just want to say that uh M and Lisa came to me three years ago and talked about mental health awareness and I said go for it and uh I know they got Deb involved be shman and you done a lot of good in the time especially after co uh there was lot of had problems so we're happy to uh be a part of this and you got uh Berkeley Heights and Summit invol which was nice so you go along Springfield Avenue you'll see a lot of green and you know I like pioneer green so whereas mental health is essential to everyone's overall health and well-being and whereas mental illness are real and prevalent in our nation and H of us will have a mental health diagnosis at some point in our lives and whereas all Americans experience times of difficulty and stress in their lives and should feel comfortable in seeking help and support to manage these times and whereas engaging in prevention and early identification and early intervention are effective ways to reduce the burden of mental illnesses and they are to reduce the burden of other chronic conditions and whereas there's a strong body of research that identifies behavioral health risks and supports specific tools that all Americans can use to protect their health and well-being and whereas with effective treatment before stage for all individuals with mental health illnesses even serious mental illnesses have make progress towards recovery and lead a full productive life and whereas jails and prisons often have become the F places of custodial care for even nonviolent people with serious mental illnesses and whereas each business school government agency health care provider organization and citizen citizens have a responsibility to promote mental health and well-being for all therefore I Alan Morgan do hereby Proclaim May 2024 as mental health awareness month in The Bu of New Providence as mayor of The Bu of New Providence I also call upon the citizens government agencies public and private institution businesses and schools in the BR Providence to recommit our community to increasing awareness an understanding of mental health the the steps our citizens can take to protect their mental health and the need for appropriate and accessible services for all people with mental illnesses and I want to thank you all for all that you have done over the years it's you guys want to say a few words I think we just GNA give a out our students that's so we had this year's poster contest was a huge success we had three times the number of posters from last year both from Southbrook and awr did a fantastic job in in depicting what it means to take care of your mental health and so we want to there was an award for every grade first through sixth and third and fourth had a lot a big showing so there was some ties in third and fourth but we're going to call your name and if you can come pick up your certificate that would be great so our first grade winner was El Peter fun [Applause] smile conratulations [Music] should I stay down here those early grades okay up our second grade winner Parker [Applause] Ben good job the third grade winner Benjamin Lou [Applause] come our second third grade winner Holly Peter [Applause] [Music] right bring fourth grade winner ARA Aral [Applause] second fourth grade winner [Applause] Alicia our fifth grade winner [Applause] bar I was like you know I should have G to the gym you need the double green and our last but not least winner is as but she's not here today so her sister we'll we'll send her award home with her sister let her sister come a double dip huh we the come's all the come on up again bring your award bring a take picture of everybody together we also have positive pickles for you the SM thank you thank you so much [Applause] thank there's positive [Laughter] pickles that's aad joke Debbie's propagating dad jokes you know it's always fun to see uh young kids come here and see what they do and it's not only a testament to them but to their parents yeah definitely and um you know it makes you feel good how great this town really is okay we have public hearing on on the budgets uh the resolution 126 what just before those we have two other ordinances for public hearing um three and four I can read those it's right before we get to the budget oh yeah well that's what I meant I'll just read the title yeah uh 124 read the title please okay it's ordinance 20243 is calendar year 2024 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap bank and I just need a motion so a motion please so moved second uh if anybody has a question about this ordinance and this ordinance only please raise their hand uh Kathleen Dolan 12 Laural Drive um what is a c bank I think uh Jim you can explain it better than any of us it's the amount that you can increase the budget year to year um we passed the ordinance to go to the max to 3 and a half% we go to 3 and a half% but then it allows us to carry that over to use in another year if we need to so you could have two budget years that you use it before you lose it so it it creates a bank in case we need it the unknown's out there so that's what that does okay so that's actual money that's going in there to no it's not actual money it's a cap limit um it's actual doll okay the term is a little misleading okay thank you okay anyone else see no one I can clear that hearing Clos rro please miss bisa hi Mr kamsky hi Mrs Joffrey yes Mrs mcnight yes ordinance 04 please read the title an ordinance amending and supplementing chapter 243 section 10 entitled Towing and storage fees of the code of the burough of New Providence have a motion please so moved second second anybody wishing to address councel on this ordinance and this ordinance only please raise your hand seeing no one I declare the public hearing close roll call please miss Bosa I Mr kissi I Mrs jofre yes Mrs mcnight yes okay now we have the public hearing of uh budgets uh resolution 126 please read the title resolution to read um resolution 2024 1226 is a resolution to read the budget by title um resolution to read budget by title njsa 4A 4-8 provides that the budget may be read by its title only if at least one week prior to the date of the hearing and at the hearing a complete copy of the approved budget shall be made available for public inspection and shall be available to each person upon request okay can I have a motion please so moved I'll second roll call please miss bisa hi Mr kamsky hi Mrs joh yes Mrs mcnight yes okay this is a Time fixed for the public hearing on the municipal budget and tax resolution for 2024 the budget was introduced by the governing body on March 26th 2024 was advertised as required by law on April 5th 2024 together with notice of public hearing for this time printed copies have been made available to the public at the burough clerk's office at the municipal library and on the burrow website during the past month the 2024 Municipal budget that is being heard tonight is summarized as follows total General Appropriations are 2,873 5181 anticipated revenues 8,895 total to be raised by taxation for municipal purposes 15 m798 $419 183 the tax increase on an average assessed home is 0.89% or a $58 increase annually okay okay at this time we'll have the public hearing on a municipal budget and it will be only on a mun ipal budget which would does not include the school board or the County taxes so if anybody has any questions or comments please raise their hand give their name and address yes cathine Kathleen Dolan 12 Laural Drive um could you help us understand the difference between Surplus and reserves when you're talking about they're FS basically the same are they the same because they're used I mean they're used differently so it makes it sound like it's two different things Surplus is unreserved unreserved it's unreserved fund balance um the other other items the key reserves are not part of surplus um that's reserve for insurance Reserve from Storm repairs which is not part of that okay so when you talk about the amount that you're holding for Surplus there's a different amount that you're holding for reserves for certain reserves yes certain reserves that's correct okay it's very hard to tease that out from what we're seeing in the presentation well the presentation only focuses on the unreserved which is Surplus it's not focused on the reserves that are held for purpose than okay okay thanks um and then what about fund balance which is shown in the budget revenues P chart on slide 10 is that part balance is Surplus unreserved Surplus unreserved okay okay um so in terms of the Surplus balance uh that's on sheet 39 of the budget uh it's showing a surplus balance of $7.4 million that is before you take the money out of that's being anticipated for the 2024 budget so there's about $4 million that's anticipated to be used in the 2024 budget so it comes off to 7 million so it's really approximately 3 million or so in unreserved fund balance Surplus unreserved on another page okay um I guess that leaves the you said um sorry uh three Point what was the 3 million 3.2 million 3.2 million approximately 3.2 in unreserved fund balance which is Surplus okay I just I uh the point I'm trying to make is that there's a like almost 29 30% of the budget seems to be allocated to reserves or Surplus or unreserved Surplus or something where it's not actually allocated to something specific and that seems like a lot of unallocated budget money so that's my question is it's a very prudent number um it is something that has served the burrow well over many many years it's kind of like a savings account as a homeowner it would be prudent to have money in your bank so that if you're your roof suddenly is leaking you have money for that if there's um storm damage in or um of bad storms in uh the town I mean that's actually not a good example but there are specific reasons that we have those so it's a very prudent it's something that we've done and it allows us to keep our AAA uh Bond rating actually uh the storm is a good good example hurricane Ida oh true there was a lot of storm damage we had to put out millions of dollars to to fix what was uh uh happening mhm and fix roads uh uh walls everything and um Bridges we had to pay all that out of surplus FEMA doesn't come up with the money for like two or three years so if you don't get that money you can't we don't have that money we can't fix what what's destroyed by a town so another thing is uh snow ping some years you get inundated with snow a lot of towns got caught a couple years ago they didn't have money for salt they didn't have money in their overtime to to pay for the guys going out for snow so like like Diane said it's a very prudent number and I think that's the pretty much the percentage that the state says you should have well I did ask the Auditors for some guidance on this and they said good practice is 25% of your budget or one month's expenditures including the school and the county which I did that calculation comes about million um our financial cash management plan says anything over a million that the council strives to have we're right in the middle um it's also good for cash flow so I think we're at a good you know position with regards to our Surplus um so okay I think the county just increased their Surplus this year too um let me just look through I'm give me one second to see if there's because a lot of my question were around the Surplus and you're explaining some of it um yeah in terms of the AAA rating um can do you have information on the calculations that enable you to determine the net savings each year in our operating budget or Debt Service from having three AAA ratings versus having two or one we just have that once uh or to to be very simplistic we have the one slide that um if you had AAA rating versus a double a rating it saves you about a million and half dollars over the life of the um of a 20year um Bond it's hard it's hard to come up with an exact number A bonds are layered right so they come due um over time right so we're trying to just provide an example of what would happen if we weren't AAA rated U which obviously you know a higher t a higher interest rate would result in higher taxes right so it's just information that we're trying to provide okay it just seems like if we're one of the few municipalities that has all three AAA ratings that might be we might be overreaching a little bit then there might be want to go backwards what would you cut out to get rid of the I'm not I'm no one asking the questions um everybody in the world wants a AAA bond for all three agencies why would you not want that well I'm just saying that there's other towns that have obviously because they they don't have the respon the fiscal uh responsibility that we do there's a handful of of towns in New Jersey that that have that and we're very proud to have it and we save a lot of money everybody strives yeah why would you want to pay more money for something why would you want an a settle for a SE I I think I think to your point a lot of other towns don't have it there's a lot of reason for that right some being that they may not have enough Surplus uh and when they when there are uh tragic events that they can't pay for uh you know the bond agencies look at that and say you know they're they're a risk right they can't pay their bills right we don't want to be that we've never wanted to be that we wanted to be you know at the Forefront uh and the AAA Bond rating you know we talk about it a lot because it really truly means a lot to to us uh and to the burrow yeah I mean my question wasn't should we not have a AAA rating it was do we need all three agencies so the impact of not having all three is it enough that you have to stay with all three or could you save some money by not having that much Surplus which you're getting from taxes partially I me just what the what's the calculation I I don't think it really works that way I don't think you can just say okay I'll drop one rating agency a lot of times they work together and the ratings um you know they research with each other so it's kind of not like okay I'm going to drop moodies it it helps to Jim I maybe I mean you know when we're bonding things if we want to go out for Bond right I mean people buying those right or the rates that are set on those are are set based on the financial position of the burrow and and the ratings right so those those all have to be uh reviewed right before you can issue bonds so um not having that when those go out basically you know dictate what rate you're going to get uh so that's why it's important also looks at the community tax ratables I mean looks at a whole host of things so it's not just Municipal end of it it's also what's at the community so there's a lot of other factors that are with the rate but you know it's great to have a triaa rating and you know once you have it you have it and then once you go out for bonds it gets updated gets Revisited so okay oh yeah thank you okay anyone else seeing no one okay go to the next um that's are we on to am we just read 127 yeah you ask for a motion to amend budet oh um resolution 20 24128 right yeah that's where we are Okay resolution adopting the 2020 27 still I thought we did s public good I I scrolled down too much I apologize resolution 20241 127 is a resolution to amend the 2024 Municipal budget um based on the state review of the budget an adjustment need needs to be made before final adoption with regard to the downtown improvement district contribution and other licenses Revenue accounts the total revenue amounts in the budget the total budget amount and the amount to be raised by taxation does not change the burrow received state approved on the 2024 budget okay State approval excuse me so moved second R call please Miss bisa I Mr kamsky I Mrs jofrey yes Mrs mcnight yes Okay resolution 128 uh resolution 2024 128 is a resolution adopting the 2024 Municipal operating budget for the burrow of New Providence can I have a motion please so moved second second roll call please miss bisa I Mr kamsky I Mrs Joff yes Mrs mcnight yes okay the budget is uh passed Okay resolution 129 please read the title resolution 2024 1229 is a resolution adopting the 2024 Authority budget for the New Providence special improvement district have a motion please so moved second second okay at this time we open a public hearing anybody wishing to address councel on this resolution this resolution only please raise your hand seeing no one I declare the public hearing closed uh roll call please miss bisa I Mr Kaminsky I Mrs joffre yes Mrs mcnight yes okay the uh Sid budget is adopted okay we have a need approval of minutes for April 9th motion please so moved second I'll second all in favor yes I I no so be it okay we have some correspondents from psng about the covid-19 recovery charges uh PSC and again about their green programs recovery in charge uh County a union um about the mosquito spring uh Robert schi about purchasing portion of the property on Pearl Street um you know that's something I think we were going to have to uh discuss um that piece of property is a full building lot and he just wants to BU build a portion of it and that makes no sense to the burrow at all so I think we just uh we should put that out for bid and maybe a developer will come in or or that that homeowner Mr Schmid could uh by the entire piece because selling a portion of it makes no sense whatsoever is everybody in agreement I agree okay great thank you okay uh fire department uh Robert Vos uh we thank him he's resigning and we thank him uh for his service he's relocating he took a full-time job I believe down in the Carolina so good for him yeah that's awesome Ellen Piccolo about uh the garbage complaint and I talked to uh Keith about it and uh he's going to go over and talk to the individual and I talked to Mrs Piccolo uh Joe Sylvester uh About Belgium Block repair and that's already been taken care of uh Board of adjustment on 136 felway uh Township of chadam uh flood Hazard uh ordinance adoption and board of adjustment uh 575 Mountain Avenue have any uh comments no seeing none we'll go to council business Advisory Board Lisa I'll take this one mayor uh resolution 2024-the the application to the New Jersey clean energy planning grant program this is a $10,000 Grant opportunity that is through the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities the community energy plan Grant program provides support to municipalities in developing climate action plans at the local level based on their assessment of which EMP strategies are most applicable in their respective communities okay uh Matt community activities thank you Mr Mayor resolution 2024-the uh baseball program as well as two Camp counselors resolution 132 is a resolution approving requisition r2400 811 for MJ Pepe and Suns in an amount not to exceed 8,780 for Paving of walkways at Lions Park uh we're going to be using Capital funds to to remove uh and repave the walkways in the driveway over at Lions Park uh and resolution 133 is a resolution approving requisition r2400 812 for Ben schaer Recreation Inc and an amount not to exceed 10 85213 for playground borders at Lions Park uh under State contract uh escnj 2021 D2 Co-op 65 MC escc PS I if that's important but um the uh this is approving uh the purchase installation of a playground border and mulch uh also using Capital funds at Lions Park Lions Park is going to be gorgeous yeah it's going that new playground equipment is really nice it's a really nice addition to the neighborhood okay uh engineering who's going to do that I am bis you are yep keep it going okay ordinance 2014-06 is an introduction it's an ordinance of the burrow of New Providence County of union state of New Jersey amending chapter 220 of the code of the burrow of New Providence um this ordinance amends chapter 220 which is the storm sewer system to add Article 2 privately owned salt storage the purpose is to prevent stored salt and other solid deicing materials from being exposed to storm water this is a state Mandy right this was a state thing yes ordinance 2024-the removal and replacement regulations Within in the burrow of New Providence um it is an introduction of our revised tree ordinance that includes required updates from the D um there was a lot of work put into this by our burrow um Council um men kogan and um kitki and I worked on this um we also received some input from one of our Council advisory committees the sustainability committee and um I thank the burough for all the hard work and Paul Rizo um on this Ordinance one more yeah um resolution 2024 d134 is a resolution approving payment number three which is the final payment for Riverview Paving ink in the amount of 5,584 5 for the NJ do fiscal year 2022 Fairmont Road Bramley court and woodrest drive improvements project okay this nice final payment okay keep going Diane finance my show today um ordinance 202 24-5 is also an introduction Bond ordinance providing for various Capital Improvements in and by the burrow of New Providence in the county of Union New Jersey appropriating $4,299 four four that sorry 4, 29,900 89 therefore and authorizing the issuance of 2,814 se5 bonds or notes of the burrow to finance part of the cost thereof the introduction of this board Bond ordinance is to fund capital projects in the burrow for 2024 the ordinance includes the pool Bridge replacement project Maple Street drainage and Paving project road paving replacement of a DPW truck truck with plow attachment um replacement of a jet vac for the wastewater treatment plant installation of pickable quarts Oak Wood Park playground improvements The Replacements of SCBA units for the fire department and that's just a few of them resolution 2024 135 is a resolution authorizing payment of the attached bills payable list in the amount of $456,500 include Horizon healthc care in the amount of $30,380 3,250 Grand Sanitation in the amount of $332,450 and uh Union County utilities for $11,330 5 thank you legal please thank you mayor resolution 20 24-36 is a resolution approving person-to-person transfer of the plenary retail consumption license to hinel hospitality LLC um this is transferring license number 2011- 33-5 d002 next one oh next one resolution 202 24-37 it's a resolution authorizing the extension of lease agreement between the Bureau of New Providence and the New Providence Community pool and Recreation this is extending the lease for the community pool for 90 days or until an approval of a new lease agreement is reached so whichever occurs first okay we have a raal application for rord swim Association ra 1217 and the the application was properly prepared and reviewed Public Works Diane you're up again resolution 2024 138 is a resolution approving requisition r2400 815 and r24 850 for Rapid pump and meter Service Company Inc in an amount not to exceed $1 4,485 for low lift pump number three variable frequency drive replacement and 12 in check valve at the wastewater treatment plant Bergen County Co-op number 21-13 and it's basically um approving the purchase of a variable frequency drive and check Val associated with obviously low lift pump number three um and this is uh going to be uh using Capital funds okay Matt your services thank you resolution 139 is a resolution of approving shared service agreement with Union County for emergency dispatching service services and this is just our 10-year agreement with Union County uh for our dispatch Services is just um solidifying that agreement yeah I'd like to comment that uh switching over to County dispatch has worked out very very well hardly any hiccups whatsoever it was actually a very very good move that we wait made and uh all the emergency services are very happy with the uh with the uh service that we've been providing got a couple of them in the audience giving us a thumbs up yeah yeah and we and we were locked in on our our rate for 10 years right this is escalating a little bit I mean it was absolutely right the best decision we ever made and and and our other dispatch Services were going the other direction so yeah significant savings to borrow for sure exactly okay uh let's go to committee reports um I want to thank the police department for doing a drug take takeback day which was Saturday um EMS Jess they they have a open house on 5:14 that's Tuesday night at 6:30 that'll be before our council meeting and we want to thank you for all you do for the community just you guys are are just amazing uh the PBA fishing derby is on the 11th which is not this Saturday but the following one and that's at Oakwood Park which is always a good time for everyone so um you're up Dian I'm up sorry I have a lot um and just to continue the wastewater treatment PL um Tony and his crew do a great job keeping everything up to date and just I can never shout them out enough um Alex kogan and I uh joined bernardet Cindy Reese and lieutenant John Don stovich at the film ready workshop on April 23rd that was excellent um it was a great foray into that World um with a lot of valuable information we missed Lamar um but he was he's back there he on vacation so um now we have the tools and are working on setting the burrow up to be part of some really exciting opportunities in the film ready world or in the film World um we have the presentation um Historical Society on the 11th is having their craft fair which is always really cool um it also includes the Garden Club sale but you have to get there apparently very early in the morning to get the good plants but also if you want to um donate any plants uh you can donate those on the Friday before if you have anything in your garden that you want to get rid of or split uh we had our downtown Improvement uh district meeting our annual meeting was on the 24th there were some great ideas um to help spruce up the downtown including the lights um some of the projects in the past were the hanging flower baskets which are now out wrapping the poles with lights etc etc um also shout out to the did who sponsors um a lot of events including the summer uh concert series and we have a board of health meeting tomorrow so have nothing to report on that okay M okay uh so let me start with uh this uh this is typically councilman daros or kogan who aren't here tonight unfortunately um Mr dis AR's a little under the weather but the green fair I just want to mention was Saturday April 20th uh what a wonderful event for the community uh sustainability committee does a great job there and I just want to thank Mr uh councilman Doo uh this has been a passion of his from day one that uh Co almost derailed right and and he he stuck through it with the with the committee and and and really got vendors together got location together worked with the recreation department uh and the burough Ser Administration um and and this is really growing into a pretty neat event um and I think you know coming out to see some of the electric cars that some of the residents also bring by and you know just just pretty neat to see um uh for the community to see you know what a sustainable life uh living a sustainable life could be uh and some of the opportunities that they have uh during that green Fair uh we did uh name three locals as sustainable Heroes uh and they were presented Awards by uh mayor Morgan and I just wanted to uh publicly thank them again uh and all the volunteers that that helped out in the event uh but the sustainable heroes are the New Providence High School teacher Alex Martin uh a New Providence resident Donna Zayn and another New Providence resident Robert Keller um I want to thank them again for all their efforts in making New Providence a more sustainable place to live uh planning board planning board we saw like I mentioned last time um we saw the Wonder restaurant application uh and it was approved so next steps uh that's going to be in the Wells Fargo uh building over there and so the next steps would be uh for that resolution to be adopted by the planning board and then uh I believe there's a wait waiting period for appeals etc etc they'll be able to get their application their permits and uh they are Wonder's building I what was the number 20 24 something like that restaurants within New Jersey is a lot so they're they're going hard and fast so wonder is coming don't they have one in Westfield they have one in Westfield exactly um the let's see what else okay so uh community activities just wanted to touch base on a few items here um we talked about the Lions Park Renovations we passed a couple resol tonight uh they're going to have a new patio area repainted bathrooms as well so the park is going to it's going to be great um and and it's really the recreation did a really nice job of of getting that uh with the with the playground equipment Etc uh our decorso Center I'm not sure if we we talked about this you might have mentioned this quite a few times but uh um our um generator has been completely installed and up and running there uh which is really really cool you know they have a you know a generator now at the at the Torso Center uh obviously if we have any outages in town or we need places for our seniors to to get warm if we need places for people to to charge up things of that nature um that's going to be always available so that's a great that was a great addition to the bar it um you know even though we had the shelter here you know the seniors feel very comfortable the course Center so it was really a good move to do that yeah uh the Memorial Day Parade on Monday May 27th 10 a.m. we're the recreation still looking for groups to March or classic cars so if you have if you are a group out there uh and you would like to march in the parade please reach out to the recreation department um you mentioned the fish and Derby fish and Derby Saturday May 11th fish and Derby has literally been one of my favorite events in this town it's a free family event at Oakwood Park um you know I my very first fishing derby I I literally tripped upon it when I brought my two young children down to the park during the fishing derby I didn't realize it was there I live close by and we were just happen to be walking by um and one of my neighbors new neighbors um on the Block threw in a fishing poll handed it to my daughter and she caught a fish in like literally 30 seconds and it was the greatest thrill of her life so fishing derby is near and dear to my heart so uh it's always a fun time uh that's 8 to 11 on May 11th uh summer registration is open in community pass so there's still room available for summer uh Recreation uh events so you please go to the recreation website and check them out and lastly just wanted to give a huge thank you to our DPW for all of our getting all of our spring fields and parks in in play Ready play condition uh you know it's it is a little effort as the all of our parks and Fields sit all winter long these guys go out there and they really clean them up and get them ready for action just saw a tball game on my way here uh across the street and uh I mean I watched the game but I just saw that they were playing and and it warned my heart to see them out there and uh and playing baseball so that's all I have okay can I jump in for one second because Pete's next and I forgot about Board of Education um just a shout out the Board of Education appointed appointed right um our new superintendent doctor Lauren zery so huge shout out to her um I know that the Board of Ed had uh create um gone through an extensive search process so and they're all elected um officials in our town so kudos to them thank you to them for all their hard work for the Board of Ed and I'm excited for Dr Zury and the budget was passed too right good than thank you uh so prior to coming in here this evening we officially kicked off Mental Health Awareness Month uh right out on the Gazebo we had um instead of a ribbon cutting that we usually do we had a ribbon tying um so we had mayor Morgan uh we had the May May from Summit Elizabeth Fagan and we had um councilwoman Lisa Lisa Lisa Allen Lisa and um from Berkeley Heights um Manny quoto and Bill Mas and Bill mashada um we all came together and they tied a ribbon around the tree to kick off Mental Health Awareness Month um they are joining us by Painting the Town screen so if you drive up and down Springfield Avenue you'll see the storefronts are painted you'll see um light are going to be green at Adam Shopping Center in Harley's and you'll see ribbons tied around all the polls some with QR codes for kindness um so we are um looking to expand this uh program to towns around us again to start conversations to reduce stigma around mental health which is amazing um in addition to that um the elementary schools will be chalking the walk so they'll be writing inspirational messages so people will see them um along the way um we're encouraging residents to um either put out green light bulbs or put like um a green filter on their lights to light the night green um as well as we have lawn signs um with the be kind to your mind messages or hopeful messages this year as well so our residents can be actively involved the poster contest you saw at the beginning and then with the schools we're doing something called Morgan's message this is the second year where our um high school athletes will also be talking about inspirational messages uh for mental health awareness again anything we can do to put this topic out there in the Forefront um so everybody is aware that it impacts everybody um thank you again to our committee they were here they were outside um Debbie is you know Debbie Merrick is just um a power to be dealt with and she she has the passion the drive uh to take us forward with this so thank you to her and the whole committee for everything and we look forward to a good month so keep your eye out for the green that's it for me everything else operations normal go ahead Le I don't have anything except I'm just going to jump on community activities for a little bit and just um it's spring so it's a shout out to the community garden it's up and running I really just wanted to thank the DPW they did a great job of fixing up all the plots they were kind of falling apart so they came in uh in the in the dead of night I don't know when they did it they fixed up all the uh the plots they delivered soil and chips and they just really take take care of the community garden it's all great awesome and you had the main the library library oh we had the main um so I I've I've been talking about this for a long time our library joined the main Consortium which has been an amazing um transition and it's it was just such a a smart decision um it's really expanded all the resources that we have available to us you can download if if you haven't yet you need to go on the website download the Libby app you can download the Wall Street Journal you can down you can read uh Consumer Reports you can download any ebook that you want um the resources are just phenomenal but anyway we had a little celebration last week to uh welcome New Providence into the Maine Consortium some of the um Executives from Maine were there to welcome us and uh most of us were there and it was a good a good day thanks very nice okay bernardette thank you mayor um the last few days the mobile MVC unit was parked in our parking lot out here at the municipal center um we worked with the Motor Vehicle Commission to accommodate more than 110 residents um with getting real IDs licenses registrations returning license plates um and we hope to bring them back again um probably towards the end of the summer uh depending on what their schedule is um good news is psng began Milling on M Lane Radcliffe Whitman and cottington bad news is they didn't tell us they were coming um so after uh learning that they were out there our Engineers went out and they're further inspecting um some of the um channels that um are not in the best of conditions so there's some remediation work that's going to have to be done there before they can pay um tentatively they're they're thinking they may pave on Friday but we're not hopeful um Division Avenue project is underway uh this is a joint project with Summit and um the city of summit and New Providence uh Colliers engineering is overseeing that project for the both townships so it's a it's a nice uh marriage for the two of us um South Street water main replacement um after last Summer's um two major water main breakes in the downtown we had written a letter to uh the Water Company asking them you know where we were on the water main replacement list uh we got an unfortunate note back from them saying yeah we're aware but not yet and then somehow out of the blue a few weeks ago they they reached out to me and said you're up next um so in the next few weeks um we're going to start replacing the water main on South Street I have a meeting on Thursday um with the water company the engineers the county our DPW our Police Department um trying to formulate a plan that will be um the least invasive on our residents at this point and the downtown businesses um and last but not least Maple Street is also scheduled to be repaved this Paving season um as you guys remember uh last year the burough received about $252,000 in grant money uh the total total estimated cost of that project is well over $500,000 um there's been some money allocated in the municipal um Capital plan uh that was introduced tonight uh Colliers will go out to bid in the next few weeks uh to get a real estimate on what their project is going to cost and we hope to award it as soon as the um Capital plan is adopted that's all I got thank you all your work on Jing everything yeah okay at this time we have public comments see opportunity for any member of the public to be heard about issues that are not separate topics scheduled for public hearing tonight to help facilitate an orderly meeting and to per everybody to be heard speakers are asked to limit their comments to three minutes okay anybody wishing to address councel seeing no one I declare the public comments closed uh we go to formal action um I need a motion for items 1 through 14 please so moved I'll second R please miss bisa I Mr Kaminsky hi Mrs jofrey yes Mrs mcnight yes well can I have a motion for adjournment so moved second all in favor I no so be it thank you all for coming tonight and uh thank you Mr uh thank you berad all the department heads and uh our finance committee they're uh doing a great job with this budget this year so [Music] [Applause]