Philipsburg Town council meeting March 27th 2024 call this meeting the order the open public meeting act statement C vice president Council woman PA would you like to read it sure this meeting is called pursuant to the provisions of the open public meetings law this meeting of March 27th 2024 was included in a list of meeting notices sent to newspapers of record and posted on the Bolton board in the municipal building and has remained continuously posted as the required notices under the statute in addition a copy of this notice has been available to the public and is in it is on file in the office of the municipal clerk everyone [Music] please iedge Al is a flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one na God indivisible andice allil man skura would you please do the implication sure Lord we are meeting today to conduct matters of business guide our hearts in our minds in the spirit of fairness right thought and speech impart impart your Supreme wisdom upon our activities so that our Affairs May reach a successful conclusion thank you for being our source of guidance today amen amen amen Susan roll call please councilman Park councilman Kennedy here councilman sco here Council vice president paulus here council president Marino here bills list please the total regular Bill list March 27th 2024 82396 447 the prepaid Bill list is26 $2,533 for grand total of 1,864 7760 motion please so move second I'll second any questions on the bills list hearing none seeing none roll call please councilman Kennedy yes councilman scuro yes Council vice president paulus yes council president Marino yes okay the minutes of February 28th 2024 regular session minutes as well as the March 6 20124 work session minutes you got a motion please so move second any questions on the minutes hearing on seeing on Ro call please councilman Kennedy yes councilman serbo yes Council vice president paulus yes council president Marino yes okay at this time we'll be going into executive session contract negotiations councel uh yes contract negotiations with filbur housing authority will be in there for approximately what man 15 minutes and we're not taking action when we resume no action will be taken when we resume we're going back [Music] there oh yeah we need a motion we need a motion all in favor okay counselor how long we we executive session Recon motion to reconvene to regular meeting so Mo second all in favor right all right all right we're in executive session for approximately 22 minutes during the time we discuss one matter to CR negotiations with the F Housing Authority no action was taken thank you sir I'd just like to read this Proclamation first before we move on from the town of Philipsburg proclaiming the month of March 2024 as women's History Month whereas women of every race class and ethnic background has made historic contributions to the growth and strength of the town of filbur and countless recorded in unrecorded ways and whereas women have played and contined to play critical economical cultural and social role in every sphere of the life of the town of filbur by constituting a significant portion of the labor Force working inside and outside the home including our own municipal government and whereas women have played a unique role throughout the history of our nation by providing the majority of the volunteer labor force of our nation including on nearly every board in Committee of the town of filbur including Town Council thank you and whereas women were particularly important in the establishment of ear early charitable philanthropic and cultural institutions of our nation and whereas women of every race class and ethnic background served as early leaders in the Forefront of every major Progressive social change movement and whereas women including many natives of the town of philis furg have served our country courageously in the military and whereas women have been leaders not only in securing their own rights of suffrage and equal opportunity but also in abolishment movement the Emancipation movement the industrial labor movement the civil rights movement and other movements especially the peace movement which create a more fair and just Society for all now therefore be it resolved by the Town Council of the town of filbur County of Warren state in New Jersey that March be designated at Women's history month thank you to all you want without you there be no man that was right I didn't say nothing okay okay three sentations I Chuck Fred Executive Vice President of the Cal Ren senior Foundation is here with uh Jeff finin and Dr Jim brenon Chuck it's all yours yeah we just wanted to take a minute uh to come and give you a status report on the project probably hadn't heard uh from us in a in a little while Jeff you want to yeah yeah so uh kind kind of give an update on the fundraising led by our committee and then I'll give you an update on the construction piece of things in a moment so it's been uh a year and a half I think since we were in front of you folks Dr Brennan and I came in we'll be first pitch the program uh we' come a long way there's still some work to do uh but we're uh commitments uh we're at about 1.8 million in change uh so we're uh most recently uh through a a friendship of uh with uh with Chuck from Kevin Harvick the Nascar driver uh he and had been friendly for a long time he gave us 100,000 uh the Philipsburg rotary uh gave the largest single gift they've ever given they recently gave us 25,000 uh Joe caller lilow out of shop rate uh just a quick phone call never really did speak to him he gave us 25,000 uh so there's some local support as well as support uh like like the Kevin Harvick's of the world uh who again through an association with Chuck thought we had a really nice project going and reached out with a sixf figure uh donation so um of course the MC Wayne donation of a million dollars really breathe uh immediate life into the project and we've got some other commitments that we're hoping to come in soon one that we're working on over the past couple of days Matt and Rich uh to uh to get us hopefully to the uh to the roughly 2 million Mark uh that we're shooting for so questions thoughts anybody thanks Jeff I guess in conclusion I just want to give a little bit of an update on the construction side we have uh engaged van CLE uh engineering to start all the Civil drawings um so they're working on that and the town will see those uh plans submitted shortly um go through the permitting process we are talking and engaging some local subcontractors uh in particular um right now the site work contractor to do a lot of necessary site work out there and we're we're talking with some others as well uh we did get a little bit of sticker shock that we're dealing with now when we found out uh what prevailing wage would add to this project um being that we don't do a lot of work in New Jersey a uh a surprise but we're again we're working through that to kind of firm up our budget um we truly anticipate physically breaking ground this summer and being done in the fall which would be about one year from last October when we had our official um uh groundbreaking so we're excited things are moving uh in the right direction um any little bumps we've run into we've been able to overcome so uh so we're we're excited and want to thank everybody for their support I think everybody up here in the front has been very supportive Jeff and and Dr Brenan and all of our committee members have really been the backbone of of making this happen locally uh so we're excited to get this done I'm excited to get Cal up here to filbur and show him around show them R play baseball and maybe take a couple ground balls at B here you thank you very much for allowing us a couple minutes on the agenda Chuck and I'm glad that you gave everyone an update on that when you say you're going to finish around what September October that field won't be ready for another year yet right before they can play on over a year probably no it's a synthetic T field it'll be they'll be able to play on it the days the contractors pull out of town um so whatever you know maybe Little League football I don't know if they start earlier but it'll be ready in the fall for play any questions from any Council I just have one um so is the project staying the same size um what have we originally talked about before yep it includes a football field SL soccer and many other it'll be lined for many other recreational um or rectangular Sports field hockey I think is part of it lacrosse lacr soccer and football um there will be a uh a baseball diamond uh Incorporated in one part of the field we were looking at trying to see how we can incorporate two baseball diamonds um which we could but you couldn't play two games at once it just wasn't enough space The Outfield kind of you know conflicted with with each other but there will be um you know a baseball field and then a rectangular field with all the sports lines to host all the sports that you can cool thank you for that if you look at all the lines you can get a little dizzy if you look down at it because there's lots of lines you know kid these days know which lines they're playing on you know the soccer guys know it's the white lines the field hockey women know it's the yellow lines they all see it and understand it we see it all over the place may be confusing for guys like us but yeah well I want to thank all three of you for all your hard work and bringing this project to the town um it's very exciting well we uh we appreciate the support from everybody here we were just in Baltimore last weekend for the ripen gala where they raise uh $25 million doar in one night and uh Derek Jeter was the honor so if you're a Yankee fan it was kind of neat to see Jeter being honored by noral which was a little odd but uh nevertheless it's a First Rate organization and it's chure of the point home on many occasions uh when they come to your town they stay with you so little follow up uh throughout the year sending people to run clinics uh they just don't do a take care of that putting that field in for you and then forget about who you are so we're we're hoping to be able to maintain that continual relationship with the Ripken Foundation out of Baltimore so it's got should be a a great asset for the town will be a great asset for the town Jimmy did you want to offer Council kened uh yeah I know some residents had uh some questions about the of the field um and the fact that the artificial turf lasts approximately 10 years um well two things on the maintenance pretty easy to maintain but it does require maintenance there's a uh and I guess probably Greg at the at the high school can talk about how they maintain their turf field but uh there's a Synthetic Turf groomer that basically you know about once a month you run the groomer over the field and it keeps the synthetic tur fibers standing up and fluffy and it and it evens out all the infill in the field um we the first field we built was at Old Memorial Stadium in Baltimore in 2009 if you go out there today and it's a youth field just like the one we're building here uh the field looks like uh the day we cut the ribbon on it so there's a guarantee a manufacturer's guarantee on the turf of 8 to 10 years but the realistic life of the turf if you're not using it for high school football with cleats and if you're using it for kids activities you get much more useful life out of the turf particularly in this climate the biggest thing that breaks down Turf is heat so in Texas and you know places down south the turf may not last as long but in this region of the country we're we're experiencing it you know that's 15 years since our first one was built and it looks like you know it's still in great shape okay along that those lines keep our hope is to keep a committee Together made up of volunteers and residents where we continue to raise money on an annual basis um in in some capacity with the Ripken Folks up here with weekend tournaments lacrosse tournaments again you got to remember we're going to be the first and only Ripken field in the state of New Jersey so it has a tendency to be a meca and uh our hope is once we turn it over to the town you guys manage it to the point where uh there were a lot of people that want to come here and uh my son played travel baseball they paid big money for a a place to hang your hat for the weekend so we think that's going to be good for the town more than one way Council you mentioned a groomer um how much does a cost um 1,800 bucks okay it's cheap it's a it's a piece that okay that is pulled along behind a probably some kind of utility cart that I'm sure the town owns for maintaining other projects how much time does that take to do the entire field you said once a month hour or two okay it's as if you were cutting the grass you know except that's fine the groomer is just being pulled it's not cutting anything it's grooming okay thank you yeah Mar you have any questions um no no I'm good thank you gentlemen very much let's get this project going get these kids some activity keep them busy thank you very much thank you he moving to have aity hearing South Main Street Council president was communication with his advice recommendation council is to carry this for 45 days to the May 8 meeting the uh homeowner and the town are working together and are agreement as to uh The Next Step so just a motion to that effect thank you sir we need a motion for that I'll make that motion second any questions from Council hearing on seeing on roll call please councilman Kennedy yes councilman scuro yes Council vice president yes council president Marino yes thank you moving on public discussion on agenda items only three minutes state your name um CC president uh we do have the chief here uh collected did I neglect the chief so I have to walk not my problem excuse me let's back up I don't want to get a ticket Chief you're lack of communication sir I'm pretty sure I can't and not for me I'll be very brief I just have two things I wanted to report on uh last time I was here I spoke about the shot spotter we are all full and operational if we have had a few incidents with it um one of significance where we were able to locate Two Fire grounds and the exact location that the shop spotter told us it would be and the other incidents it seems we're still calibrating in with the uh the pistol range so whether it was the wind blowing or we can't figure it out our other program that we run with it we can detect every shot at the pistol range but there were two that kind of threw off and said something near Howard Street in that area but it is up and running the company still fine-tuning all that stuff but quick report on that the other is uh a talked about the uh neighborhood patrols that will be starting uh easy access for everybody we just finished uploading the map of all the zones to our website and it lists all the officers in which zone they have so it's easy for the public to reach out to somebody has their email address right there they hover over their Zone it'll show on the on the desktop it's actually very easy you hover over it'll show the email you could click on it and email your your officer in your neighborhood uh not easy on the mobile mobile you can see the map but it's the numbers are listed in the email addresses that correspond with the numbers are underneath it the officer numbers that's what I got for this month okay I have something for you g you got it sir now I gave you time to talk Captain Mas was here what are we doing with that parking meters we have what three venues that are doing it what's the update with that I believe we bagged them and we're using Park Mobile is a public not thank you that's all I had anyone from Council while he's here thank you Chief have a great evening okay now we go back public discussion on agenda items state your name three minutes Joe go ahead you're it's real yeah you're Senor I'm Joe we have to speak up there I'm I'm thrilled that the the a police report it's been years since we had a monthly one please keep it up thank youe wow Joe next meeting Matt Proclamation so I can give it for joee uh hi there David Moret five be viiew Heights pH Jersey I'm proud of where I live um so yeah I'm not against her Feld um if the town's going through with it I think that's great looks like it has strong support um I did have some concerns I kind of still do the fact that U the planning and the organization for the turf field that's being built on government property is outside of the Town perview um I don't know if the town can somehow make those connections is a little bit more official um so U one of my questions seems to have been answered um the he mentioned that the turf fields used Lightly for uh literally football and uh soccer and things like that the uh field doesn't need to be repaired so quickly however my understanding from my previous conf uh conversation with Council I think about last August was that the town's looking to R out the field to recoup costs and bring in soccer teams from over and Easton and I assure you many of those soccer teams play like semi-professionals um so the field probably will have more wear and te than just a little beig football uh Town money is not being used for the field I understand um and I gather van CLE is doing some um doing some work in preparing the field so my assumption is is that uh either that's coming out of the $2 million of donations or van CLE is uh uh doing it for free as a uh favor to the town and uh so um I'm still looking forward to hearing uh my understanding is steel Hill is ma spot they can't get more volunteers I mean that they're like running at full capacity that that's my understanding so will there be new teams formed uh one of the things that the Cal Ripken uh program uh assures is that they're going to expand opportunities for uh the youth so will there be new uh Sports organizations coming up to help expand opportunities for the Youth or is steel Hill what we got um I think Ste Hill is great it's not a it's not a CR criticism when still Hill um and I'm also there's also a bunch of other programs that they show at the Cal Ripken website um I'm waiting to hear uh how they're going to run those programs who's going to run them um they talk about a lot more than having some PLS uh so anyways that's where we're at and uh thank you very much for your time I'm looking forward to answers sure anyone else from the public discussion on agenda items okay hearing none seeing none okay we're going to move into ordinances this is going to be the second reading and the public will have an opportunity to question it ordinate 02244 in ordinance of the town of billsburg County of Warren state of New Jersey the leading and replacing Chapter 93 open space of the code of the town of Philipsburg a motion motion so move second roll call please oh oh public now excuse me anyone from the public like to question anything on this sir now Road councilman Kennedy no councilman scbo yes Council vice president paace yes council president Marino yes okay second ordinance 020245 in ordinance of the town of filbur County of Warren state of New Jersey amending various sections of chapter 422 Parks reging the use of parks and other facilities so move second anyone from the public see none hearing none R call please councilman Kennedy yes councilman scuro yes Council vice president paace yes council president Marino yes third ordinance 02246 an ordinance of the town of filbur County of Warren state of New Jersey replacing chapter 67- 7ad truck restrictions and schedule for with chapter 67-78 truck rout a motion so move second Public public discussion on that seeing none roll call please councilman Kennedy yes councilman scbo yes Council vice president callus yes council president Marino yes 0224 d07 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap Bank NJ sa 48 col 4 or 4- 45.4 so moov second anyone in the public see none roll call please councilman Kennedy yes councilman scuro yes Council vice president Pais yes council president Marino yes okay the resolutions on the Cent agenda and Council want to pull anything yeah council president can we pull 2023 48 48 okay any others okay I'm going to abstain from resolution 20 24-65 resolution 2024 d67 okay roll call please a motion motion I'm fast man F so move second roll call please councilman Kennedy yes councilman scbo Council vice president paace did he no no I actually have a question on one of these so um am I allowed to have discussion on it should pull it pull it pull it all right um it'll pull R 2024 66 66 okay so 66 to start over start let's do okay councilman Kennedy yes councilman scuro yes Council vice president paace yes council president Marino yes except for the extensions on 2024 65 67 for the record okay councilman Kennedy first okay uh the one I pulled was regarding budget um it said that this uh 18 Cent increase on our budget uh is because we didn't pay our bills last year um I can tell you the only Bill that we didn't pay from last year's budget was a bond payment which was deferred we had the option to do so to try to keep taxes flat um had I known that for this year's budget we would be undergoing a reorganization of Municipal services with new positions being created new new hires raises promotions Etc I would have voted no in last year's budget and insisted on making the bond payment now mayor pza and council president Marino while they voted no to a flat budget last year neither one mentioned any need for a re reorganization of Municipal Services everyone knows taxes cannot be kept flat forever but knowing that this Bond payment would have would have to be made this year I feel was irres responsible to undertake a reorganization of Municipal services with additional salaries promotions and raises on top of the burden already placed on taxpayers with the bond payment this reorganization Municipal Services is based on a handdrawn organizational chart that goes back to the Ellis Administration and possibly before that nobody really knows for sure I asked our business administrator for a copy of this chart but I haven't received it yet Perhaps I can get that prior to the next meeting in the interest of transparency if many of these positions were not needed for that many years the positions in my opinion should have been deleted and if there is a need at some point to fill these positions the responsible thing to do would be to introduce them one by one with Council approval no one likes to raise taxes at times it is necessary but the tax increase in this year's budget did do not have to be this extreme later in this meeting I will be making a motion for a municipal hiring freeze for the remainder of this year thank you council president thank you mayor sure um yeah I I can agree with uh councilman Kennedy more if I would have known what the plan was for 2024 when I asked for it in 2023 on multiple occasions I asked for it to be emailed to me in writing the financial plan based on that budget because there was a lot of concerning things in that budget that um you know we were shouting from the mountain tops that I I think at one point in time I said I predicted a 15 uh% increase in 2024 last year we were able to knock about $200,000 off of um discretionary fund to drop that down to 11 cents I asked multiple times what the plan for 2024 going forward was get an answer our mayor last year sat there quiet he wouldn't email me I said if he didn't want to speak in public he could send it to me privately I got nothing so had any of us known what 2024's budget would have brought we could have made a better decision last year I do agree with that but unfortunately 2024 is what it is we had no information from last year and we had to deal with the the decisions that were made without really being informed last year so I apologize for uh doing the best we could with the little information that was provided from 2023 thank you mayor I won't read off anything come from the top of my head 20 years ago president of council at that time the budget the first year I forget what it was raised because the fire Administration didn't catch up it was about over 10% then we kept it around the 2% always money in the bank on school boards always around 2% maybe one year it went up to 7% there was things major levels last year and you can check the records all you people want to fact check me I asked the mayor bring it back to do something with it I'm not the mayor I'm not running to town if he doesn't know enough to raise it 2% shame on him not on me that's why I voted no so in my defense councilman Kennedy I would have went with 2% I would went 2.5 even which usually I don't but I like the 2% and you had said one meeting before about school district 2% I was on the board for four terms that's why they have money and Phils spurg ran out so it's not the current mayor Pia's fault or my fault that we voted no we weren't the administrators why should we tell the mayor what to do when he didn't listen to us he did not answer us when we said to him here's the budget take it back if I'd have been the mayor at that time I'd have raised the taxes 3% knowing cuz he was there all the time right the mayor is supposed to be there not me it was only a councilman so in my defense councilman I would have raised it but I'm not going to tell the mayor how to to do his job unless he wants and pay me the money right he didn't pay me the money so why should I advise him I'm not an adviser so therefore I like to you talk transparency that's transparency it should have been raised every look no one wants to see anything go up especially when you're retired but the sad part all the contracts we deal with it goes up but it's not fair to say the two prior councilmen from last year voted no we voted no because then the president of council and I won't quote him said we're going into a disastrous year this year 2024 a man of 16 years experience sitting at the top thinking hey he might go along with us too and say hey look guy you got to raise it a little he didn't so it's unfair that mayor pza now and myself were taking a hit when we would have done something different the mayor of that time did not answer any question I asked them about the budget so it's an unfair statement and I want to clear it and that's how I feel I have nothing to hide council president okay uh maybe you didn't understand my my objection is not to toward raising taxes to to cover this Bond payment my objection is was the reorganization of Municipal services with all these new positions raises and promotions on top of it that I feel wasn't necessary this year and and I think the the tax increase would have been a lot more moderate had we not gone with this reorganization at least for this year council president yes yeah I have some words on this uh so I had a chance to meet with Mr Merlo today um to go over the budget some more to see if there was anywhere where we could possibly look into cutting um and got some background on the bond payments and what was paid last year um if we go back to since some of my colleagues want to play a Blame Game up here um if we go back to why this town is in the mess that we are uh to begin with there's two things that happened in the past um there was a a chiller that was put into the old municipal building that wasn't up to specifi specifications and now we're paying millions of dollars to remediate that building and that's on the taxpayers the person that was in power at the time I don't need to mention names people could figure it out that was negligence when you're overseeing projects like that you're the you see over the town those things shouldn't happen so things like this in the future happen to us that thought happen to us that's one thing um we also have to pay for a new pool which is beautiful and a great thing for our community people have to think about it when we have something new there's a bond we have to pay every year to pay that off um we did not pay a bond payment of I believe 600,000 last year when I were paying 900,000 to pay which which Mr Merlo uh schooled me on is basically on10th of what the bond is so he tries to maintain that every year to be fiscally responsible and that's what we have to do um as far as the Staffing the new Staffing and things that were aligned where it should have been I believe in the past I only believe that you can hope to believe that that's going to help our town run better and provide a better service for our uh Community um if people are objected to that um I would see I would question what would you think would happen if we don't have that kind of structure um things could get very worse and we would be in you know higher taxes going up for things that are being neglected or or therefore so those are my thoughts I I appreciate uh Mr Merlo for explaining a lot of things um I thought with budgets 100 some million on school board for six years um this is kind of a drop in the bucket for that but um he explained to me it it's it's a little bit different on the municipal level so I appreciate your time uh Mr Merlo thank you I actually you know can't agree more with uh councilman scuro and everything that you said um that $600,000 payment that wasn't made is half of the increase this year um and I think it it was uh quite ridiculous to use the one-time revenue and exhaust all of that money just to keep the taxes flat um for the last couple of years knowing that the economy is so bad and everything has been increasing I think that and I brought this up at last year's budget meeting that maybe some people needed to take some accounting classes and you laughed in my face because if you had done a couple of small increases es the increase this year wouldn't be as bad as it is now okay so will we have that uh want to make a motion second so we can pass that R 20 23- 48 I'll make that motion I'll second it okay roll call please councilman Kennedy no councilman scbo yes Council vice president Pais yes council president Marino yes okay councilman Turbo R 2024 -66 yeah I just uh would like to know what uh what the place of the bid was for the roof um for Roseberry House the so we received two bids uh on Roseberry House we we did receive one bid it was approximately 40 I say $47,000 um unfortunately we received one other bid that was high higher uh significantly higher um unfortunately the low bidder uh did not uh have a New Jersey Public Works contractor certification uh which is required for bid uh bidding on public work in the state of New Jersey they didn't realize that um they had they have New Jersey BRC business registration certificate they felt they were one and the same in fact they're not um so unfortunately they were not a qualifying bid um and the other bid far exceeded project budget so part local public contract law we were able to reject all those and go back out so where would These funds to fund this come from in our government so uh this project is actually not being primarily funded by the town of Philipsburg the town of Philipsburg owns Roseberry House but the project itself is actually being undertaken by the Philipsburg Historical Society um they received a $50,000 GR Grant from Warren County uh to undertake this work the Town in I want to say it was the 2022 budget had set aside $8,000 as a as a match uh to that Grant uh which allowed them to receive the Grant in 2023 um so we're just getting around to bidding it now so it's actually majority of the funding is coming from the county to do this project we're we're going to have to go back out because of the uh uh nonqualified bidder and the only other bidder being far exceeding the budget go ahead man May councilman scbo this was part of the same uh uh line of grants that uh provided the town with rails Trails money from the uh County and um the train station uh with money it's the municipal and charitable fund from the county the majority of it's coming from from there okay thank you for explaining all that appreciate it can we have a motion so move second on R 2024 d66 second second okay roll call please councilman Kennedy yes councilman sto yes Council vice president Pais yes council president Marino yes are there any old business councilman Kennedy no I don't have any councilman sco uh yeah I just wanted to follow up I know I mentioned about irn Street um there's been a lot of speeding um different things going on over there for the past couple months uh residents had reached out to me I just wanted to know whether we communicated that to the police or um where where we're at with that that was P Chief all right thank you coun got him vice president nothing nothing nothing for me any new business councilman Kennedy I have nothing Council me gbo I just want to keep uh the families and the victims in my prayers uh the parished in the the bridge collapse the other day um I just want to put my prayers out there for everyone that affected that's all thank you Council yeah um in reference to uh the sewer rates I'd like to make a motion um to repeal ordinance uh 20223 and freeze the sewer rates for 2024 instead of instituting the uh projected increase for this year uh looking at the budget it looks like uh we should be able to meet the anticipated expenditures um based off of last year's Revenue so are and and what I'd like to do then you know take a a step further and look at the possibility of other changes to increase the revenues for this year so for the the time being um would it be repealing ordinance 20223 because that had a 5year increase for sewer rates right so if my my my my preference would be for us to look at that ordinance and present it to the council at the next meeting just because we refill the entire ordinance I don't know where that leads us with rates you know in terms of in terms of what we're charging our our users and it's and the ordinance 2022-23 I believe is also tied in with the sending districts and um uh commercial res commercial indust it does well I don't know about the sending districts uh to be honest with you but it does include uh the rate structure for commercial properties multi-units and stuff like that but what I'm saying at this point I'd like to just freeze them to the 2023 rates and not Institute the uh increase that was in that ordinance for this year Okay so until we can look into it yep understood so in order to for us to do that we would have to we would do an ordinance yeah do an ordinance capping or freezing those those rates I can that works so we can look at that next meeting yeah we'll have that for the next meeting for the council's consideration yep y thank you okay I have no new business okay uh motions we have special events Shad I have a motion council president as I said before uh I want to make a motion uh for a municipal hiring freeze for the remainder of this year okay is there a second motion dies Mo second okay special events Shad tournament April 24th 2024 Relay for Life May 4th 2024 hope day June 8th 2024 before we go to public petitions Tim do you have anything you would want to address council with yes I do excuse me R call Susan did we get a motion and second I didn't get a second so move second okay councilman Kennedy yes councilman scbo yes Council vice president paace yes council president Marino [Music] yes earlier today a resident um through the gas company submitted a permit for a new gas service on Columbus the address is going to be pull up but they're going through a process to convert from oil to gas they recently purchased the house in over the summer and to complete the conversion they'll need a waiver from the road opening permit because the road is under moratorium it is a near side um service so it's closer to the curve line not going to have to S across the entire Road near the corner isn't it 10 yeah it's um just want to make sure I get the address right for record so 706 Columbus is the property there's some sense that with the conversion they might be able to save money on their home utility bills you need is a waiver from Council Council I don't believe the resident is here Council any questions of 10 um yeah uh this is always difficult we have these moratoriums for a reason they're newly paved streets obviously um in the past I've voted to Grant wavers uh in cases where people had like no heat they had no alternative uh but to you know dig up the street and convert um some little hesitant for this I mean if you if you give a go go ahead for this you know why even have the moratoriums at that point so just wanted to make that point any other concerns from Council than you SC another question off of what Mr Kennedy said so is there any other uh passes on this street that have done this already I can't speak to that U usually what the council sees by the time the waiver comes persons already removed the heating system before getting approval for the conversion we have experience yeah though I do agree with Council Kennedy those kind of things do frustrate me too as a resident when I see a new road being paved and then a couple months later they're doing all kinds of stuff to it um we've seen it the past four years here in town so um I am sympathetic to Residents that are looking to save money on their bills because everyone's looking to save money on their bills in the economy we're living in so I um I guess as we look into this more with the paving schedules goes on um I like to see a lot of these streets redone again because they were just redone and now when you go down the street there's a hump every time you hit one of those patches so do agree with Mr Kennedy with keep digging up the ground um but if everyone else was allowed to do it at this point um when these things come up we shouldn't be shying away from this individual either [Music] so I had no problem with it for the following reasons we granted them in the past could be a financial hardship oil or gas you don't know what their income is like and we've done Heckman Street 20 30 times and they keep digging it up so how can you say no to one yes to them and no to another I I'll support and not that I'm a softy but if you have a problem with a furnace and what they're charging for people to replace and you got to go along and have a heart you know so you know I'll Grant the waiver I mean uh you're absolutely right they should get the uh permit before they do anything but we're human okay so what's Council feeling that you need a lotion to grant that well is it is it in this case that they already removed the existing the property owners indicated that their current oil heating system is still operational so they are not in a case where they do not have heat so we need a motion to Grant the waiver I'll make the motion you have a second I'll second it okay roll call please councilman Kennedy uh reluctantly I'm going to vote no councilman scbo I'm going to vote Yes Council vice president paus yes council president Marino yes thank you D anything else that's it I'll let the property owner know thank you okay move M on public petitions state your name you have three minutes want Paul us I would like to know about Filmore Street all of Filmore Street is two ways exact where the municipal building is and since that is no longer a school there's no kids no school buses why can't that part of filbo Street be opened up to two ways can look into it we'll we'll look into it Matt look into that I mean I think I think the one way was based off uh an engineering plan from uh is Tim still here Tim was that based off an part of an a oneway engineering plan that uh traffic plan previous um that pre dates made but likely at some point you design it as one way because of school traffic so kids getting off the BS and dropping off still do have quite a bit of drop off but it is part of your circulation plan you recently adopted is to generally revisit your traffic patterns through the town um by changing that block you want to look at the rest of the roads sure and um that particular area you need to keep in mind the police and fire circulations so really that's going to be LS Street which is two way on the North one way on the South Chambers Street and Washington Street and then Dugan alley one is one way and the other is two-way so we would have to look at that entire Hill correct you should look at it as um you have a isolated item but the bigger neighborhood is the as part was identified as part of the circulation including IR Street the whole Hills all screwed up we can look into that all it is I mean they come flying down leou street street right they they see a stop sign they don't even well to go to Glenn Avenue you either have to go all the way around one way or around the other way well it's the only part of Filmore that isn't two ways I don't mind reviewing it back okay I I think that whole fill should be red really I'd like to know about Hudson and Schultz why can't that be made a four-way stock because it's really bad to get out of schz we can look into that as well so that was brought up for about I think two years ago and it was uh shot down yep and my third one is the highway and it's um the West Lane and I don't know if you've ever sat and watched cars but they'll be all the way over in the leftand lane and shoot all the way over to the right hand lane I don't know if this would be the town or the state but why can't you put signs up like back by ingera Road where ingol comes out to the light and bits his Z on the other side ingol why can't you put signs up that tells you that the right hand lane is for South Main Street and the bridge the Middle Lane is for the bridge and the left lane is for the post office in M Street that way people that's backways at least they can see the signs and they know enough to get over one day somebody's really going to get hurt there they shoot across into them Lanes like mad and the other day two cars were right alongside of another car and that car had the blinker on to get over in the lane well he couldn't get over because there was two cars right there so is that the state's problem or the town State can't it's isn't it up to the town to go to the state about it well poose I could do I'll ask Matt Hall to write a letter to the state do and see what we could do how's that oh I think that would be fine and T right here the resident can't make a request like that to do only the local Gover in body to make a request uh to complete saf the A and that way finding signs so we'll do everything in one plan pay them one time instead about four times how's that okay thank thank you you're welcome council president um since we mentioned that area and I mentioned irwins right across the street can we re revisit maybe putting stop signs in I think we tried that a few years ago yeah that's what the mayor just right it got voted down so we can get ptim get them all the streets and question espicially I Hill okay sounds good thank you yeah we bring it all bringing in a work session something okay hi Pierce I just have a quick question I'm looking at the budget here and I noticed that under different things it says other expenses can somebody explain what the other expenses are because those numbers are pretty high so what's the other expenses was that under Capital oh it's under everything current expenses under every department so we I'll just say Recreation for example so under a municipal pool it says salary and wages and then it says other expenses So like um salary wages was 110,000 and then it says other expenses 46,000 so other expenses is going to be I mean for the in the case of the pool chlorine candy for the snack bar um whistles for the LIF cards okay here's what I found you got your answer you it's salaries and weaves let us know so every department has other expenses so Public Works other expenses 2,000 $25,000 would be what fuel blacktop uh salt uh yeah Auto you know vehicle parts and then we have other Public Works salary and wages twice other expenses and we have a lot of it through the whole budget so instead of just listing other expenses which is a lot of other expenses we're talking big bucks so maybe we should be aware since it's taxpaying money that we have a list of what these other expenses are because I know I sat on a board and I went through a budget and I wanted to know what every penny was spent for because 11% is kind of high so so you're looking at the um uh budget overview there I mean online the the line item expenses so the the other expenses is broken out into the different line items within each department so for you know the pool you know pool would be pool chemicals it would be um you know snack bar food it would be I don't know that and I'm sure a lot of people here don't know that I know right but you can go online and see I'm not computer savvy not to be disrespectful a lot of us here might not have a computer I'm not trying to be disrespectful I'm really not but it's a lot of expenses and a lot of money that us taxpayers don't know what it's being spent for and we're looking at 11% increase in taxes and I'd like to know because our money was being spent and okay John 3 minutes sorry okay anyone else under public petition none yeah okay on the record there is none Council open time councilman Kennedy uh yeah I don't have much I just wanted to wish everybody a happy and healthy Easter that's all I have to say thank you councilman scuro yeah um I just want to know moving forward now we able to post for interest for open space and wreck um like to possibly if we could do that as soon as possible maybe tomorrow or when you when would you think would be the best time councelor well there's an a stopple period on the ordinance of 20 days before the ordinance takes effect but there certainly you know be any harm in front loing uh request with that Proviso um it's still subject to uh the order coming effective but yeah we we can post to the website tomorrow okay and I just want to wish everyone a a happy Easter as well Council vice president happy healthy Easter stay safe happy Easter for everyone happy holidays and now we have executive session counselor uh thank you council president we have an executive session need for contractual negotiation 75 South Main Street and also 540 Marshall uh no action is going to be taken when we resume open session and we'll be in there probably 22 minutes need a motion favor than