e meeting call to order this is the March 26 2024 Municipal govern Oakland council meeting like to uh call the RO please I actually do the statement of compliance okay this meeting is being held in accordance with the open public meetings law duly announced advertised and posted at in the municipal building the meeting will adjourn no later than 10 p.m unless a ma the majority of the council members that are present vote to extend the time I'll rise for the Pledge of Allegiance a moment of silence if somebody from the Fire Department chief lead us in the flag Sol please to the flag of the United States of America and to the for stands one nation God indivisible andice for I'll St for a moment of silence just want to remember the victims of the Francis Scott Key bridge that collapsed the accident that happened today be SE roll call councilwoman Garo here councilman mccan here councilman Pig nelli here councilman saliani here councilman cinski here councilman talamini here and mayor Kamala present all right so I'm going to do the mayor's report and then we're going to take the order business out of order in a little bit to recognize our wrestlers and and swearing of our for Department uh for the mayor's report I want to report to the May to the council members of the public uh Mr Sally Andy will report on Easter egg hunt under his report uh I want to talk about the lenar property behind Indian Hills uh we kind of got off to a bit of a rocky start with the developer back there um they had several violations they're working on a weekend where they weren't supposed to they were shut down uh they started working at 6:45 in the morning and they were also told to shut down at that time uh there was a dispute with them cutting trees outside the area that they were supposed to be working on and there was also a condition with the silt fencing because we had to make sure that there was no problems with the dirt flowing down into the rivers so what I did was uh last week I had called into the carpet myself the bur administrator the engineer uh representative from lenar had a meeting and we reset expectations to let them know that we're not happy with the way you know this we're off to a rocky start and this is not a good path forward I believe that the outcome of the meeting was that we reset expectations and hopefully we'll have compliance with the builder going forward um let's talk about the dump real quick um the recycling center was supposed to be in West Oakland AV I know it's of concern for a lot of the residents uh I had called uh council president saliani and councilman gofredo last week we attended the County Commissioners meeting in hackensac uh we made our case to put it on the record for the County Commissioners who will be voting on this should it come in front of them okay uh M grao went in front of them councilman saliani and myself and we got a concession out of them to come here and visit Oakland and the site and we're having this meeting with them in the first week of April okay it'll be members of our environmental commission BR administrator our planner uh several Council people and including a couple residents that live in the area that are impacted it's really important that they understand that if this should come to a vote that they know what they're voting on the impact it's going to have on our community and our water and our air and everything else that goes along with this so we are now on record they'll be out here to visit us and after next council meeting I'll give you an update on how that meeting went uh Bush Plaza as you can see down by the end of yo the machines are working down there the bush Plaza is now getting built we expect that to be completed sometime mid to end of April and the clock pin clock will be installed sometime June July and then we'll have a grand opening for that Park and it's really going to start cleaning up the whole downtown are area I don't know if you noticed there's a lot of work going on downtown dpw's been out there working on the trees and the brush when you come off the highways and everything we're going to that's all being cleaned up right now it's been cleaned up now we're going to put mulch down there and really clean up the downtown areas in areas that we have control over so it's you know we're really putting a lot of effort into the downtown area including signage we're going to have new signage down there faded signs are going to be remove and see if we can get rid of some of that sign pollution uh roads I know there's a lot of Roads is a big top here in town uh we are currently working on finalizing the road program here in town so that we can get the paving there's been a lot of work that's been been going on not only from Public Service uh but we also with all the sewer work and water man work we've been doing in town so we are really moving very expeditiously getting the paving program forward so we can get these roads button up we also I had also requested a meeting with public service so we can get our arms around when the completion of all the public service uh gas main work will be completed and we can also we also wanted to discuss when they're going to start Paving the roads for all the damage that they did for all the openings and that's also on track so we'll have updates as soon as that Paving program starts uh also had a meeting with a New Jersey Department of Transportation uh one of my pet peeves is when you come into town first thing you see when you come into town is the West Oakland guardrail that's been dented for about 15 years uh dot will be coming in in next two to three weeks they're going to be replacing all that dented guard rail so we're going to create a more welcoming entrance into our town uh they're also going to be doing litter Patrol for all behind the fences and along 287 to get all that garbage out of there so that's going to be taken care of in the next uh next month or so I want to announce the styrofoam Drive April 6th from 9:00 to 12:00 p.m. that'll be held behind the library and another program that I'm also putting together is called the Hometown Heroes program flag program you know when you go to other towns and they celebrate Veterans Day in the 4th of July and they got the pictures of veterans and people in our community that serve so I've been in contact with the American Legion and the Marine Corps League here in Oakland and we are working together in a partnership so that we can have Hometown Heroes Flags put in place of going down to Downtown Quarter for the major holidays Fourth of July Veterans Day Memorial Day and also put some nice Flags in the downtown and really you know let's bring patriotism really back and put it on showcase it here in the town uh that's the end of my report I would like uh somebody from the council to make a motion to suspend the bylaws so that we can move right ahead to saring firefighter motion spend the bylaw so we can saring the firefighter second all in favor I I all right with that being said let's bring up anley mazala and his family hold the Bible or all right where's the Bible back there there we go there let's go this way so take some pictures I'll let you hold the Bible so before we get started I had the privilege of meeting Anthony yesterday on the back of the firetruck and I was asking Anthony and he didn't know who I was I said so Anthony who are you and he goes well I'm Anthony mul and I said well what you what are you doing here he goes I'm the new Junior firefighter I said that's terrific so I asked Anthony he said so what got you interested in the fire service so Anthony was gave it a little thought and he told me that it was his friend Andrew from Galloway Township that talked you into this is that correct so I want to understand why he wanted to be a firefighter so we certainly look forward to him joining the ranks and I see you got support of the firefighters here as well with that being said why don't you put your hand on the Bible and you're going to repeat after me I Anthony Mah I Anthony Mah do solemly swear you Solly swear or affirm or affirm that I will support that I will support the Constitution of the United States Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that it will bear true faith and that it will bear true faith and Allegiance and allegiance to the same to the same in the governments established in the governments established in the united states in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people and that I will faithfully and I will faithfully impartially impartially and just and justly and justly perform all the duties of the office of Junior firefighter and perform all the duties of the office of your firefighter according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God congratulations [Applause] than why don't you just go down and Shake everybody's hand and I'll have you assign congratulations thank you than congratulations congratulations thank you for doing this congratulations thank you congratulations thank you Anthony one more thing once you sign this official this you sign right there that's for the new fire truck what you say contract for what can't contract that's my yeah yes okay at this time since we've suspended by laws we'd like to honor our wrestlers here is Austin wall here a why don't you have have you come up and we'll have you introduce the wrestlers sh I just got out of work just came to support come on are you for the sweat so Austin why don't you explain to the public what we have here as far as the state champions and what led to this and give us the backstory okay our wrestlers um spent the year working hard prac practicing and at the end of the year uh they have a state tournament and uh unlike most sports uh where everything is regionalized uh the wrestlers actually meet down in Trenton at uh at the Cure uh Insurance Arena and it's everybody in the entire state so you know we go through this a lot at the rec commission we celebrate um a lot of teams that win League championships and um divisional championships and it's really nice um but wrestling is pretty special sport in that everybody gets together from the entire state from Kate may all the way up to Bergen County and you see um who the one Champion is so just to qualify for states is for me is the equivalent of any League Championship that we celebrate or divisional championship that we celebrate up here and it's a heck of an honor and um and the kids should feel really good about it and their parents should feel really good about it and um that's what we have so we had some guys who placed top eight that at the state tournament they give you medals 1 through eight um because you know I don't know how many high schools there are in New Jersey it's about 350 high schools so you can you know you can kind of scale that to what it would be like in terms of high schools and um and the kids did a fantastic job so we have some State medalists here and we have our some of our state qualifiers here and um it's really nice that they should all be celebrated for their hard work and their dedication absolutely you want me to call you can call them out what we'll do is we'll line them right up in front of us and then we'll uh okay Shane wendowski Rachel [Applause] Lera stay come over here stand right there Carter [Applause] Rowan Eli [Applause] balentin Colton [Applause] [Music] Barrett Jordan [Applause] Madonna can that's who who's all end that's it maybe we could take a group picture yeah let's put everybody in front here have a quick picture Mike you want to get in the picture Leave Me by myself huh thanks line over here on Rachel's in front they don't want to take a picture of me come on you got to be come Christmas you did all the work what about Thanksgiving don't move yet still get c one one more we got one more one more one more one more one more one more one more one more one more chees got it good job good job everybody thank you good job [Music] guys same thing have just a minute all right do I have a motion to unsuspend the order of business so moov second all favor all all right we're up to open a public comment anybody wish to address the councel I make a motion that we open to the public all favor all hello and 33 Winding Ridge um I had a couple questions about the um the agenda today um the first question I had was about the ordinance I think there's only one or was there more than one I think one just the one so I just had a question about um I just if you guys could explain what was the determining factor for needing to increase the 3.5% or the budget by the 3.5% and is that going to be addressed or voted is that going to be addressed as part of the presentation in April and that's the budget presentation in April right so I had a question about that um I had a question about uh resolution 24112 uh to read the budget by title only uh if you could explain what that is and what the purpose of reading it by title only and then I had a question as to why the budget would be only posted at the municip municipal building and copies only available if it's requ if it's requested as opposed to having it on the website or maybe an email from the mayor um and I just wanted to confirm that this is all this is the budget presentation that's going to be on April 30th um I had a question about no I didn't but resolution 24123 I believe has a typo in it I think it's supposed to say December 31st 202 for I had a question about resolution 24126 I was curious um what the ongoing Legal Services regarding rampo Mountain Lakes that the burrow is being is involved in um I didn't think that we were involved in anything having to do with rml thought that was their association with their residents but you could explain that and then I wanted to make a suggestion that sometimes I notice that that when we when you have public comment and residents come up and ask questions our questions aren't responded to I know there's not supposed to be debate and whatnot so maybe we could amend the bylaws to have some type of uh section after public comment where you can address the questions and answer them um since that isn't done every time that we speak especially when now it's second public comments it's gone I think that would be helpful thank you anybody else not seeing any motion to close don't move second all in favor I do we have approval of the minutes March 12th 2024 some move that second second roll call councilwoman gfo yes councilman McMahon mcen sorry yes councilman patelli yes yes councilman Alani yes councilman cisi yes councilman talamini yes do we have approval of minutes executive session March 12th 2024 some move second roll call councilwoman Gedo yes councilman mcken yes councilman pelli yes councilman Sally Annie yes councilman Solinski yes councilman Talam yes all right moving on to special announcements uh authorized raffle RL 1492 for a 50/50 for the mothers club on 51722 24 at PTO Bellow New Jersey for cancer research and an Oakland resident battling cancer do I have a motion to approve I move second second all in favor I authorize raffle license RL 1493 for the raffle for the mothers club on May 17th 2024 at Port of Bellow's Oakland New Jersey uh for cancer research for a resident battling cancer is that move second okay yeah they're two separate ones okay all favor I all right we have a couple appointments first one is going to be appointment to the Arts committee this for mayor and councel uh I'm appointing Joan ventner we have an this is with Council consent all in favor any discussion I all in favor I appointment to the zoning board um recommending JPI caparelli uh this is also with Council consent some second all favor I and we have one more appointment to the shade tree this a mayor all appointment I'm appointing cha peruso all right moving on to the budget well you're a lot of your question is going to be answered in this uh this is we're going to be introducing ordinance 24 code 944 I would like to now turn this over to our CFO or whoever wants to take our CFO or administrator would like walk us through the process thank you mayor uh so there are a number of actions here uh to introduce the budget this evening resolutions 111 through 17 12 13 17 as well as the introduction of the ordinance uh so we'll go through what each of those does why they're there so the public understands uh and um in terms of a budget presentation uh I do just want to point out that we've had two uh two presentations in overall presentation as well as one that was Department specific two separate budget meetings totaling about 4 hours of time uh those uh videos of those meetings are posted up on YouTube for anybody that would like to see them uh and the budget materials that are introduced tonight will be on the website post meeting uh what you'll hear from David is some of the language there uh in the resolution that you're talking about where it's at Burrow Hall and whatnot that's just sort of standard language for the resolution U but they will be available electronically as well uh David with that if you'd like to sort of walk through the various actions that were taken toight certainly the uh the ordinance to allow us to establish a c bank and exceed the municipal budget appropriation of the state restricts you to a 2.5% increase on things that are identified as inside cap um we're actually only going up by 1.53% inside cap but we do the ordinance anyway so that we have the ability to establish a cap bank so what we don't use in terms of that percentage this year if we need it in a future year you can Bank it for two years so it's kind of a standard practice for municipalities to do the resolution for the cola even if it's not required for this year's budget this year's budget is not required um the resolution uh for self-examination this allows us to go through the budget process and adopt the budget without State review um every three years we're required to do state review we are not in that cycle this year we will be under State review of the budget next year next resolution authorizing the read by title only uh when I was on the council I made that mistake once and I had to read 86 pages of the budget out loud and you don't want to do that if you don't have to um so that's why we read ity title only and again we will post everything on the website uh will be up there tomorrow morning it will be the uh presentations that we've made the user friendly budget the official state budget document um I think those are the three items that we'll get up tomorrow morning and the final is the certificate of compliance with EEOC this is a Equal Opportunity Employment certificate that we have to do in order to have the budget approved by the state thank you and 113 itself is actually the resolution that's the action you actually take to introduce the budget itself and this is typical this is what we've done every year the past year nothing is is new to this right this is pretty much Pro for yeah same same process as in Prior Years thank you anybody else not seeing any uh councel I just have a question do we introduce the ordinance or the resolutions first what order do we do that uh doesn't matter I would do the ordinance first and then the resolutions you do together as a consent okay all right with that being said do I have a motion to introduce 24 code 944 in ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits into to establish a cop Bank pursuant to njsa 4A callon 4 - 4514 so moved do you have a second second roll call councilwoman grao grao councilman mccan abstain councilman M Pig nutelli yes councilman Sani yes councilman slinsky yes councilman talamini yes okay now we're going to have the supporting resolutions we'll do that as a consent agenda that'll be 24111 through 2417 do have a motion to approve so moveed second roll call please Council woman gfo yes councilman McAn obain councilman Pig nelli yes councilman salani yes councilman cinski yes councilman talini uh yes you um we're we're doing 111 112 113 117 correct right okay that's yeah because you said 11 through 17 and it's not it's not consecutive yeah it's not consecutive uh yes that every okay uh final adoption will be April the April 30th uh council meeting all right moving on to resolution and mayor if I could not sure if it was mentioned I believe the public hearing on the cap rate ordinance uh will be the 9th April 99th okay yeah thank you okay resolutions 24114 through 24127 consent to agenda does anybody wish any pulled out I just pull 126 real quick 126 uh let's put out uh 24 123 I believe one of the residents had a question about that anything else I think it was 126 1266 oh6 okay that's it there's no question okay that's pulled out okay okay uh do have a motion to approve 2414 to 127 with 126 pulled out so moved have a second second roll call councilwoman gfo yes councilman mccan yes councilman patelli yes councilman saliani yes councilman cinski yes councilman yes all right pulling out 24126 Mr Coons care to give us an explanation uh right while we're not involved in any Act of litigation right now there are sometimes calls for the use of an attorney to look at certain matters negotiations discussions that we have where we would like to have some legal counsel uh if you're going to notice that the not to exceed amount here is rather small at $7,500 for the year as you know we have had some discussions with rml earlier this year uh and the decision was made last year to keep uh Brian CH house g board to handle that matter uh because of his prior familiarity with the issues that were involved yeah I mean uh several times we've had people from rml come here asking for assistance and um Mr chowski who's been involved in negotiations for 20 years at least has the history a background in order to talk to them about this so they want us to get involved but we uh we uh are handling that with kid gloves I'm put it that way so far but it's because they've asked us to get involved any further discussion motion to approve do have a second second roll call councilwoman gfo yes councilman mccan yes councilman patelli yes councilman Sally an yes councilman cinski yes councilman T yes uh we have no ordinances we have nothing on work session does anybody on the council have any new business they wish to bring forward um I have some counc tell me first uh so at uh at uh Recreation last night at the meeting there was uh some discussion about um people using the tennis courts um they their uh people are giving out the code um and so you didn't buy a badge and and you give it to your friend and they go in there and they play tennis without buying a badge and and they and some kids have the have the codes and they're going on to the court and and and just you know they don't belong there um so there there was some discussion that maybe we could put um the the fobs on the on the lock and then and then maybe just have some kind of uh fee attached to the fob that that when you return the fob you you you get the money back but um uh this way we'll know who's going on the tennis court who's who's who's not and and it won't be any different but but if I give you a pass or I give you my f is the same thing but but then but then uh I I know you're on it and if somebody's saying you don't belong there then then then we can and and then there how would you know that though well you you have have there right sure um and then there was talk about Franklin Lakes has has a like a stiffer ordinance about it that that that the police would be able to to do something don't take a look at the ordinance so so if we could do something like that think the F would question what was the opinion of the recommission on this uh they they seem to think that that fobs would be a a good a good way to go any other further discussion uh not right now other than I think it's an interesting idea I know it's been an issue in the past with the sharing of that code uh Mike and I have tried a number of approaches including using monitors who get abused uh so that may be that may be doable uh we have a conversation with our it coordinator tomorrow about it uh and I'll see you know how we can you know the ordinance you can say if you give the code out or the fob out you get suspended from using the uh court for two years or whatever have have a penalty atted to it because there's no penalty yeah sure here yeah there was some thought that Franklin Lakes had a a better ordinance does Franklin Lakes have actual people checking the B I you know I don't know there's no T any you got to put in there you suspend it for a year or two or whatever you do it I can't do it no I'm just saying we all right so let's let's let's let's we'll take it back we we'll discuss this internally and we'll move that forward anybody else have any new business Council m k um uh mayor as you probably know um the governor signed the the fair housing act a couple days ago and what this is is the back in the 1980s uh to through two New Jersey Supreme Court decisions um new it's Unique to New Jersey no other state has really followed us uh where each Community is responsible to maintain uh um a a housing that contains a moderate to lwi income housing component in each uh Town whether it's a municipality burrow uh so forth so for years um it's it's gone back and forth um we once had a an organ um State entity called Council on affordable housing which was a commission that was appointed by the governor uh under the Christie Administration uh Christie failed to make appointments uh around 2014 and so what happened was in order to uh enforce the law the the um it went to the courts it went to the uh Superior Courts in each County and what and what the law basically says is that you uh for x amount of property that you have uh uh that you have in your town and there's a component whether or not you have a sord or not sewage or not and things of that nature the bottom line is every Community is responsible to to maintain low income in moderate income uh properties um the the beneficiary of this law since the 80s has been uh the developers of the state of New Jersey it's an economic boom for them uh they come in and they basically say to a town look um you're not meeting your obligation uh for for f for low-income housing or moderate income housing and we're going to come in and build a project and and if you don't agree to the the the density that we want they would take you to court and um and most 99.9999999% of the time the municipali will lose it was a loser plus it's a fee shifting component because it's considered a a right guaranteed by uh New Jersey so uh after Christy didn't make the appointments I went back to the courts and uh we and for the most part for the last several years the judges in Bergen County uh been making the call on what density requirements were for each community and that was good because it was a local judge it was a judge in our County that would have to live with those decisions well it started last October Rumblings and Trenton um to take the power back out of the hands of of of the of the of the local judges and put it into the bureaucracy uh in the state well they did one better they just they just C modified a bunch of a bunch of law essentially from the initial draft of the legislation the legislation's it's to rubbe Goldberg of trying to figure it out a bunch of attorneys um uh in northern New Jersey been talking about it looking at it uh it's from what we can tell right now it's very bad in terms of uh density requirements uh for a town Like Us in fact I don't know of any Suburban town when any AB Boreal areas that it's going to be good for in terms of the amount of density uh it's the enforcement provision is serious uh the the the L to fight these types of lawsuits is extremely costly to the taxpayers money if you've been on government councils and Through the Years everyone know everyone's familiar with but I find that the public is generally not familiar with it but one of the things that we can do in Oakland uh in some of the surrounding communities too is um I think what we need to start doing is instead of just reacting acting to the changes of the law or are these requirements that that are going to be arbitrarily put on us and it's going to happen very fast this year is a lot of Tim taes I think it's good that maybe what we need to do uh is take put together a some sort of committee com uh ad hoc whatever you want to call it uh some sort of forward planning committee because it it's it's very involved uh it's really not in the hands of of the zoning board or the planning board it's really in the hands of the council now and um we're we're coming out of what is commonly known as round three and we're coming into round four next year and that's when the new law is going to take effect uh January next year so and it's going to have a long-term effect it's going to have in my opinion a deleterious effect on the character of our town um but one of the things we need to do is get ahead of it and the forward planning committee is uh we've I've done this when I was in creskill it's not just dealing with the low-income housing or the moderate income housing component forward planning committee can Encompass a lot of of uh what a what a burough wants to do in terms of population uh what's a Dem much like a school board does with the demographic studies and stuff and that way uh our government here could be uh proactive and and in putting together maybe a three five and 10 year plan uh through a committee like that and the committee can comprise of citizens uh professionals anyone that would be of uh help in terms of uh trying to draw up plans for the town and what we what we hope to see the town look like 10 years from now that's that's that's my thought thank you Mr Maran uh that ra an interesting uh Point uh Mr Coons are we are scheduling our planner to be here for the April 9th meeting correct uh yeah she'll be here on the 9th and I think our affordable housing attorney will be here as well so that'll really give us an opportunity for us and to also educate the public on the new law is that correct yes okay Mr Mr Ken I like your idea why don't we get together after you know the Side Bar we'll start see if we can get this thing going anybody else have any new business mayor just so you're just so everyone's kind of aware of what kind of dates we're looking at yeah uh so under the previous affordable housing round we filed uh declaratory judgment and basically the court then decided our number now the state's going to tell us our number by December 1st and then we'll have until Jan January 31st to challenge that number and then it's only a two-month period for you that they expect that to be decided and in the meanwhile if you're going to challenge your number you still have to have your new housing element done by March 31st 2025 wow so we're really talking about uh a pretty quick turnaround here so really we got to do this sooner than later because we have to update our master plan with this and everything it be better okay and again that's part of you know getting input from a from from citizens and committee you know businesses in the community look Oakland is Oakland is a is a a boreal suburb we have a lot of we have a lot of um property uh with trees we we know we have great Wildlife here uh maybe a little bit too much deer but you know our community um for you know our type of community is generally targeted in this type of legislation and as as as the attorney P points out is there's a reason why these timelines are compressed they don't want us to react but it's also expensive because we have to engage our planner we have to engage just to just to determine what that number is and um as I said uh as Matt pointed out and for the third round the num was was was was provided by the court when when you have a judge in in the county they tend to be a little bit more sensitive to the needs of the county when you have someone in Trenton telling us what the number is going to be they don't care about Oakland they don't care about Wayne they don't care about Franklin Lakes it's it's it's really what's it what's driving those numbers is what they feel and what they think belongs in Oakland um some people uh some attorneys have commented that uh ever since the 80s when this happened this is the urbanization of the suburbs by the state and um I I I I I completely agree with that it's it's it seems to be a deliberate attempt uh to change the character of the town where we want to move where we and where we want to live where we want to do our wreck and um but there there's some strategies we can place put in place to make sure that Oakland has some aicum of voice and what and what's going to happen thank you for John is this committee a full-time committee or Project based or well that would be for for us to discuss but it but it worked really well um and again it it the the important part of it Steve isn't it isn't just the government isn't just the count main counsel it's getting other people invol like said businesses people on recck um you know people that have a stake at you know what the demographics are going to look like and uh it's just an opportunity and you know we don't know everything someone says a member of the committee says hey you know do you know that this is coming you know uh someone so wants to build a recycling center okay so uh it helps it just it just instead of reacting we get to be proactive about it El any comments on this on the council not seeing any anybody else have any new business not seeing any new business does anybody have any old business yes I do councilman pet Telly uh at the last council meeting I brought up about um having a plaque for uh Fred Burks uh put by our OCC room there um Fred was involved in OCC 25 30 years ago here uh he he really put it together for us he's he's helped us make all the changes and the upgrades that we've made and uh it was very sorrowful to see him pass away um uh Ryan uh from the OCC uh had sent us all I think we all got it a text an email um about the plaque which which I do agree is a nice picture of him that we could have imposed on the plaque and put it by the OCC room and and uh you know have his wife come here and uh you know have a little bit of a ceremony because he really did work hard he worked very very hard so I would like to move forward with that second all in favor all favor okay so who are we gonna have uh take the bu by the horns for the plaque Ry as far as Administration take care of it I'll I'll talk to Ryan Ryan okay yeah yeah yep I I'll talk to Ryan about it thank you thank you any other old business just um do we have just an update on the bridge what's going on with the project Mr CR it's funny that should just come up oh yeah we're in the process of scheduling a uh a what will probably turn out to be first of monthly project status meetings uh with the engineer and the contractor uh We've also been working on implementing a number of uh uh number of items that came up from the public meeting that we had uh regarding traffic concerns uh things like reflectors and various signage that we've been getting quotes for uh so all there's a lot of that sort of work in process right now yep and also uh Mr K also there's a all section on the website as well once we start getting these monthly meetings so we can start pushing information out to the public so that they can see you know where we are in progress yes anybody else all right committee reports uh Mr Tomy you look comfortable um we uh we met I met a Rec Rec meeting last night we met that I I missed the Arts uh committee meeting because of the they they moved it but uh the rec meeting um um we talked about uh the the locks on the bathrooms and uh and some uh lights on Truman field trying to figure that out and um and just I just want to say thank you to the the committee they do uh a great job um Austin you see what he did with the with the wrestlers he's he's one he's very enthusiastic and uh he's he's a little bit of a lightning rod they seem to tease him a little at the at the meetings but uh uh it's good it's good for the it's it's it's good for the committee he he's um the wrestling program is amazing uh from from just to how much it's grown uh but uh and just thank you to the volunteers thank you Council yes thank you mayor uh for the environmental commission our next meeting is April the 2nd at 7 p.m. also there's going to be a town cleanup team up to clean up our parks in town on April the 20th 2024 rain date would be the April 27th from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. uh meet at the direct field at the Danny D building and you could register by email and that email address is EC Oakland d nj.org uh they need you to provide your name uh email address and a number of participants or you can register the day of uh the cleanup at the Danny Delite your building at uh 900 a.m. please wear a long sleeve p uh shirts pants sturdy shoes gloves and bring bug spray uh you'll be assigned and ACC company to your Park cleanup area uh remember together we can make a difference after cleanup lunch will be hosted at Great Oak Park and the Board of Health uh will be meetting next meeting for the Board of Health is April the 16th at 6:30 p.m. at the uh library and that's it mayor thank you councilman s president DPW asked me to inform the residents that um the water department beginning tomorrow will be starting their annual fire hydrant flush um all fire hydrants will be flushed pressure tested inspected as required by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection this program I expect to get to do throughout the summer there will be no impact to uh anyone's service um Board of Ed local local schools the uh Dr Cafaro asked me to let the residents know that on April 29th at 6:30 p.m. at VMS is the budget hearing for the k r schools she wants to make sure all residents know are available to attend also good note from the Board of Ed thanks to the lack of snow Oakland k38 schools will be closing on Thursday June 20th as the mayor alluded to Bush Plaza we've started construction and uh public events the Easter egg hunt was on was on Sunday um great job everyone get through that the all the rain that happened on Saturday and uh the amount of volunteers that were there it was funny there was 6,000 eggs put out and when it started like 6,000 kids were running right right towards each other and almost going to hurt each other um but it was a great event um all the volunteers from the public events commune the access access for all was there uh I don't want to list names I might might miss someone and don't offend anybody but I want to thank for all all volunteers for that it was a very very well-run event so um it was a good time thank you very much Council k um last week uh the Public Safety Committee uh met and sub the administration committee uh some of the action items were taken tonight with regard to uh from the public uh from the administration committee uh appointments were made tonight and on the Public Safety Committee was with the police and fire and OEM um we're just putting into the succession placement plan for the of anticipated uh changes to the police department this year and that's it thank you Council thank you mayor um from the uh Public Safety um in February uh police officers uh conducted 347 motor vehicle stops and issued 382 motor vehicle summonses officers also made one arrest for possession of Narcotics uh from the Green Team on April 7th at 11: a.m. uh first Sunday hikes continue participants meet at the lower level parking lot of Skyline Drive registration is required and you can register at first Sunday hikes oakland. eventbrite.com on uh Saturday April 6 at 9:00 a.m. uh they will host the styrofoam drive at one Municipal Plaza uh volunteers are needed so if you can help out that would be great uh from the library uh this Thursday at 6: uh30 they will have uh the floral wreath craft for adults registration is required uh and on April 2nd uh they will have this spring decluttering presentation at 6:30 uh registration is also required um on April 4th they will host seed saving Basics program with brco farms at 6:30 p.m. registration also required on Saturday April 6th they will have their first children's yoga class which will be part of a four class series that allows children to engage with and learn the basics of yoga um and on Tuesday U April 9th at 6:30 p.m. uh yoga with Sonia uh kicks off again uh see for uh the kids they will have weekly story times uh Tuesday preschool Story Time Thursday tots Library club and Fridays terrific twos and 3es uh check out the library's website for registration and other information uh and lastly uh the opl will also have free eclipse glasses for residents uh for the solar eclipse on Monday April 8th thank you Council yeah councilwoman thank you mayor um I've already done my committee reports for the month um but I would like to just highlight on Sunday this past Sunday that Easter egg hunt with access for all um it was it was nice um it was cold um but the the kids that were there uh really enjoyed themselves and had a quiet area and it was really nice um access for all's next meeting will be April 3rd at 7:30 p.m. at the senior center uh shaery commission will meet on April 1st at 7:30 p.m. in the senior center um one more announcement OCC uh the Easter egg hunt is currently on Oakland TV at 8:30 a.m. and another time to be scheduled but you could also see it on YouTube uh occ's next meeting is May 6 at 700 p.m. right here in this room mayor before you close just one one thing it it's shade tree environmental commission etc etc we had uh Mr coin I believe we got a $20,000 grant for a lantern fly program uh actually we'll be applying for that we we received the $115,000 grant last year for that okay uh this is the followup program for that from the state uh you approved that Grant submitt tonight uh it's for $20,000 over a 3year grant period I just wanted to to we didn't explain that not seeing anything else bills to be paid M gfo thank you uh total bills to be paid 1,748 195 so moved second it roll call councilwoman gofredo yes councilman mccan yes councilman Pali yes councilman Sally Annie yes councilman cinski yes councilman tal yes do I have a motion to adjourn some move do I have a second second roll call councilwoman it's all favor fav all right next council meeting will be held Thursday April 9th 2024 at 7 p.m. here at council chambers have a good night everybody thank you to help let for