##VIDEO ID:b9T_LQPh08Q## GNA have an audio all right there we go all right good evening this meeting is being held in accordance with the public laws of 1975 chapter 231 an adequate notice this meeting has been provided by a notice sent the Asbury Park Press the two of our times and the Star Ledger and posted in the main lobby of the municipal building and on the municipal website um our Zoom meeting is not an option tonight at least video we do have oh we just have an audio oh okay oh so we're on everyone okay then opma authorizes municipalities to conduct public meetings through use of streaming services and other online meeting platforms the redband council is meeting in person as well as providing an option for the public to participate via Zoom video meetings please note that the option to attend is being provided as a courtesy therefore Zoom becomes unavailable during the meeting and it cannot quickly be fixed Council will continue with the remainder of the meeting for those joining us via Zoom please raise your hand or in designated times to be recognized for a comment whether you were appearing in person or via Zoom you must provide your your name to be recognized please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge alance the United States of America the it stands na indiv roll call please Lac Tas here council member Cassidy council member facy Blackwood here council member FL council member Jan here here mayor here thank you all right we have one Proclamation tonight this is a proclamation for the burrow of Bo Bank the 76th anniversary of the Halloween parade whereas the burrow of Red Bank is proud to celebrate the 76th anniversary of the Halloween parade and whereas in honor of this spooky season the burrow of Red Bank will hereby be renamed boo bank for the entire month of October and whereas the Parks and Recreation Department in partnership with the Red Bank River Center will be transforming the downtown area in preparation of this auspicious autumnal anniversary with flags and Banners that will surely send a shiver down your spine and we're ask the theme for this year's Halloween prade is a tale of fright from broad to White promising a night of ghoulish fun and hair raising excitement now therefore it it proclaimed that the burough Red Bank officially celebrates the s 76th anniversary of the Halloween parade and proudly Embraces the spirit of Halloween by becoming boo bank for the entire month of October now therefore I William Portman Portman by virtue of the authority vested in me as mayor of the burrow Red Bank I hereby encourage all residents in visitors to join us in the festivities down your most frightening costumes and partake in the spine Shilling events that await in Bank happy Halloween the clerk really went all out on this one you got to look at this a piece of pitch Art thank you okay next up we have a presentation from the environmental commission about gas powered leaf blowers what was up D is that you or you just hear as moral support all right I was gonna say Paulo is walking in right now okay we can give him a moment your timing is perfect you're on that's all right we're ready for you okay perfect thank you all right just have a seat in one of the chairs and talk right into the microphone good evening everyone do we have the presentation um for those online yeah the screen is not working so people who are home watching it are seeing it oh okay oh they're seeing the presentation oh yeah the whole meeting they're seeing the whole thing they just correct we can't see we can't see it okay well you're missing out all right well hopefully it'll be we can post on the bur website okay so I should just pull it up because my notes are on there as well but um good evening my name is Paulo Rodriguez I'm the chair of the Red Bank environmental commission and the presentation that I'd like to to give tonight is on the subject of gas powered leaf blowers and everybody knows what what they are um quite frankly until this issue was I was informed about it from a a seminar that we attended um I didn't know quite how devastating they are like the impacts to the environment and human health you of course you hear people complain about the the nuisance of the noise but it turns out that there's really something um more going on with regards to gas power leaf blowers um so with that there's a the goal for tonight is to start the process of educating uh the community and this is a this is a process to inform people about gas power leaf blowers um and it is a part of a campaign that the environmental commission has embarked on to get the word out on the issue and build um some sense of education on the issue both really as part of our overall effort to emphasize sustainable Landscaping practices so when it comes to maintaining Lawns you know some some people for example want to have the perfect lawn and what we're realizing is you know the amount of environmental degradation that goes into that in terms of pesticides that find their way into the surface water body like the navasink river um and then the the leaf blower and all of the effort that goes into it um it comes at a cost and what we're what we're emphasizing is to take it down a notch and you know leave the leaves as they say um incorporate more native plants that are endemic to the area and don't require as much watering using our limited resources um so it's part of an overall campaign and um so that being said the people who I'm working on this with would be denell godic Johnson she's here tonight as the vice chair of the Red Bank environmental commission uh Dave Johnson also on the Red Bank environmental commission Pam MacArthur from the red B Green Team Stephanie bricken is an informed and very helpful citizen from Red Bank and then I'm joined by uh tonight by Lois Krauss she is the co-founder of advocates for transforming Landscaping in New Jersey the ATL NJ and she is also a member of the Westfield Green Team and she has been instrumental in advocating on this issue as well as other environmental issues um she was just in Trenton today about the skip stop uh proposed legis ation but instrumental in helping to shape the actions for gas priate Lea flow reduction in sustainable Jersey um and also the state uh regulations that are in um that are being considered at this time and then helping for other municipalities such as what we're we're doing tonight um so one of the primary issues with gas car leaf blowers is air quality um the it has been um studied that the pollution from one hour of a gas power relief blower is the equivalent gra the equivalent toxic air pollutants as from driving a car 1100 miles you might be wondering how does that make any sense well the technology that you can put into cram into a tiny little engine is not the same amount of cleaning technology you know they don't have a catalytic converter for example and so they belch out really this disproportionate amount of fumes that are um not only bad for the environment with ozone depleting contaminants like um volatile organic compounds but also carcinogenic compounds like Benzene and fahid and other contaminants that are difficult to pronounce and um they also can activate asthma um from the particulates and then lastly climate change components like carbon dioxide and methane um so these These are toxic to you know the population at large but one of the main things that's concerning for me is you know we've heard a lot about environmental justice issues and gas power relaf blowers fit into that category the if the engine from a gas power Le lower were on the road it would be banned for not being able to pass like smog tests but we allow landscapers to operate them eight hours a day day in and day out you know and at best a landscaper might have you know eye protection and ear protection but I mean I've never seen somebody wearing a respirator when they're operating a gas power LEF lower and um so we realized that you know as part of this campaign it's it's about getting the word out you know that this is not just a public nuisance um although they are annoying it is so much more than that um they cause there's health risks to um to the workers in terms of asthma increased rates of cancer from these type of contaminants heart disease um dementia the hearing loss in and of itself is caused for concern um anything greater than 85 DB can cause permanent hearing loss um these operate at levels of 90 to 110 DB and the other thing is the frequency of the sound is a certain like a lower frequency that can more easily penetrate walls so the battery powered equivalent they're they're not they don't reach the same level of decb and the frequency is higher pitch so it doesn't travel as far it's not nearly as um dangerous and annoying in that for so these can cause permanent hearing loss they can create um anxiety and depression hypertension also known as high blood pressure and these chemical compounds can cause cognitive impairment in children they they pose quality of life issues um you know for for people who are even not using them the amount of homes that one be blower can you know you can hear them going um it's it's pretty phenomenal as opposed to a battery powered equivalent I have a slide that shows the radius of influence from the sound from a battery powered um a battery powered gas leaf blower you know you're only hearing it from sort of like the immediate vicinity because partly of the deel level and partly of the frequency whereas the gas power equivalent it's going to emanate throughout the neighbor and then one other reason here is the impacts to Wildlife so the air that comes out of it is blowing at upwards of 150 to 280 miles per hour and that is very disruptive to Habitat for all kinds of small animals like from bees butterflies moths and small mammals and so it's um you know these are animals that we're actively trying to care for and maintain their habitats and this is this can be pretty destructive I have a you're missing out I'm telling you this slide is so cute with the little squirrel that is looking stressed okay I mean if that doesn't do it I don't know what will and and um it blows you know the the top level of soil and um all you know the just the the dust that that's liberated that can also have people matter um just to hammer things home that we don't want to be breathing that in so realizing all of that and realizing how it is not just a matter of maintaining a property but it is more critically um people's livelihoods right and Red Bank in particular has I think um a very diverse Community here with a large amount of our constituents um coming from the land Landscaping community and we want to be mindful of that um and not naive to the fact that that you know we're we're trying to protect people and at the same time not taking away or compromising people's ability to make a living um so that's why public Outreach is so important you know so that people don't feel that we're trying to impose you know we're not imposing a regulation but impose a potential regulation even on somebody that's going to curtail their ability to operate their equipment to make a living but to help build consensus and to help educate the people who are probably arguably being impacted the most by by these um these harmful contaminants so what you know what we're proposing is to continue this public Outreach campaign you know we're asking all of you to um you know certainly ask questions I'm I'm just going to continue here but tonight you know to generate um some feedback and see where this goes we would be following um we wouldn't be first in the state that's never fun to be the guinea pig we would actually be following on multiple other municipalities that have already enacted similar um you know there there are well we're not necessarily looking to get in line here because it takes it could take multiple years to to till you build enough consensus and see where it goes but just for your information there's a handful of municipalities that have um partial bans on gas power leaf blowers and what that looks like is they would allow them in the fall and the spring when they're needed the most but then curtail them and and allow battery power of equipment in the winter and summer um there's like Princeton Morristown Leonia and South Orange have them there's three more towns pending for 2025 and there's more than a 100 municipalities Nationwide including the state of California um now um some of the responses I mentioned um at the state level uh there's also proposed legislation that has um that that would issue this policy on Statewide level um as far as curtailing the sale and use of gas powered lawn equipment but it would also incentivize the transition with tax credits for replacement um and then the BPU there's also another uh proposal in the assembly that the BPU to establish rebates for battery power Leaf flowers um we would uh be drawing on the support of numerous local nonprofit Partners including uh Lois CR from ATL andj um Lawrence gonsky is here from sustainable Jersey they've created actions around gas powered leaf blowers um anjac has conducted Outreach as well that's how actually um how we initially heard of it the American green zone Alliance agza and last but not least the New Jersey nursery and Landscape Association so as I mentioned our rbc's approach is to encourage sustainable landscape practices and part of that would be the reduction of gas powered leaf blowers leaving of leaves no mo may as May part of that native plants encouraging battery powered Alternatives we have generated a very um artistically sophisticated flyer it looks fantastic that one of our members Dave Johnson made and we've been um pushing that out to the community um at every chance whether it's tabling at any of the community events and getting the word out um we also have a website that we maintain red bank. site that I would encourage everybody to visit and we have a section on there for leaf blowers and we also push information out through social media one of our members also sat down with the dpu um to get their initial take on it and you know we'll continue that dialogue to um encourage them to switch to guest um battery powered equipment and so besides tonight's presentation one of the things that we'll discuss is having sort of uh separate meeting with the community um including the the Landscaping Community um and getting their their feedback and with that um I'd like to turn it over to anybody who has questions and thank you so much for your time thank you any have any questions then um M so have have you SE the businesses and you know how many um Landscaping businesses do we have here so one of the things that other municipalities app is a registration list for landscapers which would be advantageous but we don't have that so to answer your question no um I don't know how many Landscaping businesses or how how we could actually contact them except we' have to find some way of get in touch with that just want sure I understand so we're not talking about a b or ciling the use of them at this point correct you're not recommending them that is correct so this would be an education campaign right um now there different flavors of Le flowers like I know there's two stroke engines and four stroke engines when it comes to combusion of course I believe this just there there's battery powered ones as well um you gave me a little bit on that right so the my understanding is the battery powered equipment has come a long way and you know they have certainly for your your average homeowner they're more more than robust enough um and they've they've also come a long way where you know commercial uses can uh even be met with the battery powered equipment four stroke I believe I'm not sure if they have four stroke they do two stroke is separate chamber between oil and gas that's what the loud ones you're hearing are dirtier right yes they're very dirty it's think of it like the engine of a t you remember seeing those that you know out in I don't know they're still out in India they have same engine as that a four stroke is that's combined so it's cleaner but those are much bigger so those are the turbine or the Buffalo blowers that are either push like they have that big round cylinder those are typically used on golf courses cemeteries because they're very heavy so they would pack the soil they would be packable on a residential and you don't mind what's your name again Lois are you the visitor from um okay um now uh the social justice issues here I mean um how what you have a timeline and you have a goal a metric of how much less use you'd like to see the commission you know from this campaign say a year after it's enacted or you start the campaign right I think the goal would be to do like an iterative approach you know we could um encourage people to participate in voluntary program and see how it goes you know having that those discussions with their landscapers so it's it's sort of like two sides of the coin one of them is educating the Landscaping community on the health effects and the other one is educating the public on where the the folks who are the clients of the landscapers that it's okay to tell your landscaper not to get everything off your property and you know just to sort of adopt these more sustainable Landscaping practices so that way um we would we would encourage people to participate in a like a voluntary pilot study for example you know and then take the data from that and assess you know and then continue to dialogue with the community and see what would make sense for the next step after that does that make sense and actually the most concerning thing to me that you brought up and I didn't really think about it's always been a noise thing I'm impacted in our house because we my wife doesn't like air conditioning so we have our windows open so when the floors are going we can't hear anything right um but I hadn't thought of the health impact especially gu from those two SK engines and how serious that is and what an issue is because so many Red Bank residents work in that industry um you know something I'm just processing that now I had really thought of that and I do appreciate you're coming that out I want to thank the environmental commission for um for all this work um how long have we had these things and it seems like my entire life now but I don't really know how how long we've been with this 20 years I mean it seems like we did somehow manage I remember kid raping with the r Rick I mean I remember Rick I know that sounds crazy but somehow we survived with just a RI um how long have we had these just that way everybody can hear you I I'm 62 so that's old days so um they came in the 70s originally um for stadium cleanup but they started to proliferate with L count with all the perfectly green manicured wands and have gotten progressively worse since the 90s so yeah you're little all right and one other I have this issue has been when I'm when I campaign this isue came up a lot pro and con um one issue that a landscaper articulated to me was that you and then the problem is that the the battery powered ones aren't there yet for commercial use so I can't carry around 16 battery packs with me on my truck and always get out and do wwns and uh you know we can't really switch it's not really there yet that's what I said a year ago I know what that story is I know we're not talking about B yet but so they are getting better coupl with as we get more landscapers that are using F-150s where they have panels on them so they can charge through their truck that's also going to help but again as PA said if you really want to it's not just a matter of supplanting a gas powered flow putting in a battery to get people to change their behavior so one thing that I want to highlight in Maplewood mon also have bands those are both year round you should know in Maplewood because they and mon they did so much education on mulch mowing leaving the leaves their street leaves for like fall removal has dropped Nancy Adam said by 60% in tonage so it helps with storm water management it helps your costs on when you're cleage but um to the back of the landscaper we love to recommend a seasonal approach it's a way to ease in the landscapers know this is coming it's there are other states Washington DC has it um Columbia County Maryland has it so they know it's coming you know you said California has a ban now they have a ban now also so they're they need time and money that's what they'll tell you time and money the average gasly blower lasts about three years so the idea is that they hopefully will replace over time as we put improves but if you are there's no reason to blow grass clippings in August in 95 degree weather it just it's just silly it's generating so much pollution so much noise pollution H and unheard and denuding the soil so we're really trying to get people to get comfortable with using them if you feel you happy for the fall clean well you know one of the things that bugs me is that very often I see them used for very minor tasks like you know there's a few things on the driveway let's for know 20 minutes to deal with that anyway so that's it that's my rent May I'm done question um to the environmental commission I want to thank you so much coming oh yeah that helps right okay is this better okay so I want to thank you so much for coming and sharing what you've been working on with this um how do you plan to reach homeowners with the educational material with the Flyers is there a cion to work with the B to maybe put that in a mailing or create a little postard that can go you know through the B anything like that do you have any plans yeah we were thank you for the question we were talking about the if there's some some integrating into some mailer that's already being sent like a like a tax bill or if it's possible you know with the technology whoever stuck in the envelopes and could start with the newsletter that also gets put out through the Civic alert system via text the digital newsletter that would be great we could do a little hyper link and we understand that the b as a new community outreach a community engagement coordinator ad yes um one also thing um I'd like to ask and maybe Lois might know this because I know you're more more closely associated um has any of the bills in the New Jersey leg legislature are they still in committee or they have they haven't made it out of committee yet no um Senator Smith's think it's s I've got all my bills S1 95 or whatever that did pass move out of committee so it's now we're working on some amendments with his policy staff and it has go Appropriations um in addition Lisa Swain bille went through the assembly which one is that the a466 the bill so the one for BPU to establish rebates so that also went through committee so again they have to go to Appropriations now um Barnett Pauls is 466 that's hasn't been yet oh thank you um one more thing it's a plug for the environmental commission um I would like to say that they have a fantastic website which got initiated through a grant we had with destination Redbank and on there they have various links so it's what to do in Red Bank who are interesting people in Red Bank how to do your walks around Red Bank and also an environmental section and they have a lot of good information on there so you know I just want to put a plug in for a red bank. site and take a look see so that's all I have mayor thank you thank you anyone else yeah just a quick question for Paul or for Lois um do we know are there any resources for landscapers to become more educated in kind of the new paradigm that you're talking about maybe even become preferred providers people who are interested in this I absolutely so um the total Pro conference which is sponsored by NJ n La Jersey landscaper and Earth Association they have a whole track that is all sponsored by AA American green zone Lance so think of them as consumer report for landscaping equipment with education so they do do training teaching the landscapers how to buy the right equipment how to store it how to use maximize batteries the financials so there is certification um a few towns have also hired ad to come in and train their Public Works and I do want to highlight that that the towns and there are six right now that have ordinances on the books they also have the Public Works make the conversion over so you have to model the behavior starting with yourself so that would be a good place to start thank you I believe got a gr for the a Outreach yeah they got and also to work with their Spanish speaking that's any questions okay anyone else thank you for thank you very much thank you for starting with education I I myself have worked on multiple education Outreach campaigns before being up here I'm a former chair of the environmental commission before I served here Nancy's a former chair of our environmental commission here uh but education starting with it is Paramount to see that there other towns that did six years of education um in your presentation here I had the fortune of sitting next to a computer um but to see that there was six years you know maybe that's not what's right for ring there certainly starting with some education I also had the opportunity to sit in on that dpu meeting I happened to be in the office upstairs when it happened um and I know that we were dedicated to when the lead mun municipalities happens to go and look at vendors and see options for our personal DPW so that was a step that was talked about and put in motion um and yeah but thank you so much for education and Outreach and I know that Audrey would be happy to help with that and including you in the a newsletter at a time of year that's appropriate um to to reach people I'm unsure if you want it to be in the November one but if you do it's it's not too late so okay great yeah it'll be a great opportunity to engage with Community you and the Landscaping Community as well so we'll look forward to that and the newsletter comes out in English and Spanish great thanks everybody okay next up we have uh public comments on agenda items only we're happy to hear from you but only on agenda items so can I have a motion to open the floor for public comments on agenda items only I'll make such a motion that a second second all in favor you define agenda what's that you define agenda it's this agenda right here it's at the it's on the table here at the front if you want to take a look yes but you'll also have uh a couple other opportunities to speak as well okay anyone else have any uh comments ments no anyone online right can I have a motion to close the public comments on agenda items only who makes motion have a second second all in favor I can I have a motion to approve the minutes for 926 2024 I have a second second all in favor I and can I have a motion to approve the minutes from the executive session on 92624 so have a second second on favor I okay we have our resolutions any any needs to be pulled out or can we authorize everything on the consent agenda anybody have anything on there they want to highlight no good okay can I have a motion to approve resolutions 24- 217 through 24-230 on the consent agenda I should myself 2422 okay we're going to we're going to we'll do a roll call on it too so you'll have an opportunity okay all right so then we're going we're going to do that one separately then I'm going to we'll pull that one out thank you um this is for 24225 okay so um can I have a motion to approve 24225 the award of low benefits for 2023 have a second roll call please L yes council member Cassidy council member facy Blackwood yes council member yes council member Jan yes Deputy Mayor mayor for yes for those of you following along uh Deputy Mayor Triano and councilman Cassie are both active volunteer firefighters which is why they abstained okay can I have a motion to approve resolutions 24- 217 through 24-230 excluding 24225 make that motion may I have a second second roll call please council member Bas yes council member Cassidy yes counc member py Blackwood yes council member yes council member J yes Deputy Mayor yes mayor yes all right um just letting everyone know some special events that are coming up John Street my street best Street in Red Bank is having its block party uh this Saturday from 2: to 8: um Dog Days oh so oh these are the for next year right yes so we have Dog Days that's already set for next year Riverside Garden Parks it'll be September 6 2025 with a rain date of September 7th 2025 now the block part is this year Saturday Saturday that's Saturday yeah you got to know somebody though if you want I might I might sneak in all right all right it's a good one um that's really good about 10 o'clock or so um all right we also have the uh the town lighting with Holiday Express on November 29th we have the Westside tree lighting on December 6th at 6 p.m. in Johnny Jazz Park we have the downtown Red Bank holiday trolley running December 7th 8th 14th and 15th and we have something called the downtown ice carving experience on December 22nd if anybody knows what this is please let me know as soon as possible where and where's it happening ice sculpture carving through River Center around the downtown in the special improvement district there you go my question was answered instantly can I have a motion to open the floor for public questions and comments make s a motion can I have a second second all in favor I all right anything that's on your mind on any topic yes your hand first 25 sen Street um I just wanted to take a minute to recognize a member of the community we lost Jim Chanel he uh was actually on the council he took an expired term he was the chairman for many years of the GOP party in town um he ran New Market real estate and had a lot of great stories um I just want to bring your attention you guys as the former member to set up IND is I think we miss um one number two I appreciate um Council woman Nancy Blackwood and the mayor coming out uh to the West Side to hear uh for which is really good um most of the issues were brought up many many times prior but it was nice to have more voices uh bring the attention of issues on the west side from roosters to uh parking issues and overcrowding and trash on the ground dog on the ground uh intersection uh Mr keeps wanting to get fixed um I did see someone say they for before stop I mean something needs to be done maybe sooner than later even if it's temporary because it's because it is sometime the streets are very there's nothing going on but when it's busy on the west side it I mean and unfortunately a lot of things are not reported I actually spoke to someone today when I was walking my dogs um they said uh they saw a car hit a person on the bike and he didn't want to report it for whatever reason so unfortunately a lot of things are not being reported not your guys's fault just mentality fail they just don't feel confident pring everything but that said because it's few the numbers right because you're only you know a say x amount of accidents happen when we are reported so I hope things do get reported so you do have the true knowledge of activity that's going on um and you can make the right decisions uh for for safety one of the issues and I'm not speaking on behalf of the school board I'm just happen to be two different places one issue somebody mentioned was l in River Street um you know if you please work with the um Dr rage uh ises as far as tra FL we definitely want to look out for the safety version kids we have a lot of Walkers and everything so um please reach out I know e is willing to be a partner with you all thank you yeah that we we we talked about it a lot that Forum was was very helpful in fact we were I was talking with uh with Jim about trying to do that on a much more regular basis I mean look some of those items I can't help the traffic on shrewbury Avenues they develop around here but there's other items that are really actionable um and it's helpful just to hear them directly from the community so we're definitely going to be doing more of those on both the east side and the west side so just the residents are feeling hurt yeah I think Mr Bo said there was about 51 or three people that came so you defin reach a lot of people of course I for many years fixed but recognizing it and you can do a little at a time to show fate that things are getting done because people are getting hurt and I mean honestly the S up it's like the W West some days on the west side yeah in fact one of the things we talked about I'll you know haven't even discussed it but I'll bring it up anyway and see if I get in trouble after um we talked about hiring another parking attendant just for the West Side um we have two or three now I think we've hired in in the past year and we're clearly writing a lot of tickets if you saw the Asbury Park Press um we're only behind Asbury Park and the most uh parking tickets written in MTH County at 60,000 they are yeah we wrote 14,000 tickets so um par at 60,000 yeah so um we we talked about hiring another enforcement officer just for the west side which came directly from that meeting or I can give you the timing of it because honestly I had to go down for somebody and I drove back my walls and everything and at night and there were so many cars walking intersection and sidewalks just drive through at night you can see how unfortunately he's repetitive because he was having music car for the day but I will be honest I so the first time I saw a a parking enforcement Park home down Bridge Adam and I'm always outside walking with it was the first I ever saw because it is needed so hopefully we see some impact so I appreciate it yeah thank you anyone else sir you have your hand up in the back there just going to ask you to come forward and you got to just state your name and uh address in the microphone so people are listening at home okay can hear your valuable question good evening my name is Charles J jigan at 165 Spring Street okay and right now are we working on the agenda of the downtown trolley is that part of the agenda that I would bring that up you can it is on the agenda yeah but you're this is open comment you can you can talk about anything so three minutes though three minutes okay I can do that let see I am new here in town for two years welcome okay thank you um the town is a great town and I think it can be greater I just came with one simple request uh on Marina Court there now the Hedge is completely out of control it's where the new condos are 21 West is on the corner you have that sloping access uh the drain is there we're going to have a big flood eventually and the drain the main drain the cement is completely broken up it's it's the whole thing is out of control that corner by the boat Center okay that's why I came here I stopped at two other establishments on the way here and I was added a g to bring to attention of the town is one by a single mother with her child is why are the head shops vape shops the dispensar is taking over the kids ask what's that my kids do when they come to visit from Beren County and quickly just to keep it moving is I have a whole list here we'll talk about that another time from there's 10 pieces here your vendors on Monmouth Street who right now I calling the Forgotten Street uh to keep it simple we'll just stick with the trolley and their complaint is this is the quote the town needs a new Direction not body that concentrates on one thing Broad Street a weekend of free parking June July and August to have people come to town we have great restaurants stores the trolley Drive should be open more often and that makes sense and I don't have enough time to get into the three minute Mark but there's a lot we can do in this town um that corner I was talking about the 21 West is it 26 West you mean where the restaurant yeah ex me 26 West yes yes uh they have a beautiful view of the skyline and I love that view but now there's a hedge that's just taking over the whole window the poor folks are losing their view so with that I'll wrap it up quickly and this other 10 uh this is from your own vendors and whatnot we can go over at a different time appreciate it and I'll give you this and I'll finish it up all right and thank you for coming to your first council meeting you got it thank you very much anyone else look at you right on you took a moment to celebrate I like you can just bring those notes up if you'd like we'll take them like a photo cop all right oh I can take a picture of it if you want okay and Boris did you say you have your hand up you can you can bring it up let talk first appreciate good evening Riverside Avenue I just wanted to thank the environmental commission for all the work that they've done on on this really important issue um I learned myself and I thought I knew about it but I learned things about it tonight and I'm really encouraged by what you started with and looking forward to actually having this you know implemented in next few years thank you very much thank you anyone else have any questions or comments online can I have a motion to close the public comment Mo I have a second all in favor I all right uh Christine you have anything you want to address it's it's been kind of a heavy new s but uh I'm to focus on a couple of good things in townly um one of them uh I'm happy to announce the uh historic preservation commission was actually awarded a $45,000 Grant from the New Jersey historic trust um and that is going to go toward developing design guidelines and also an architectural survey of the burough um so that's going to greatly reduce our costs and reading those should be uh really valuable um items on our progress with the commission so very excited about that um and secondly is a little more person first because I get to embarrass my neighbor here and congratulate pass passing the bar earlier I said I can't be embarrassed not true uh I just want to briefly mention it's October we talked about this last meeting it's fire prevention uh Dey mayor Triano and I both R over at the primary school and I just want to acknowledge the incredibly hard work of our firey Marshal's office and of our buyer Chiefs and of the rank and file members um who are all turning out um across from whether they are private public daycares the schedule was the most robust I have seen in 16 years and it's just important work that people are doing and the kids just love it and I just want to acknowledge that hard work of of our Chiefs and our fire commercials office because they're doing a fantastic job and it's always so much fun to get to go hang out with the school kids for for a few hours but that's it do a great job first and foremost I'd like to say congratulations to David Cassidy for passing Lavar first try that's awesome and um moving on I just want to say that we we had quite a few um events in town this past week uh we had porch Fest which looked like it was a success um we also worked with easy ride to lay out the temporary bike Lanes I did see a lot of Walkers and I did see a lot of people on bikes and um between Laura I and Marta I think every person that came by in a bicycle we accosted them like please fall out the bike survey so hopefully we'll be getting the results from Easy Ride to hear what people thing and that would help us as we move forward um as you know past this past summer red Dan passed the complete and green streets ordinance and we and through that we are holistically looking at the Town Street by Street as we're working on them to see how we can truly make them a complete Street which would favor pedestrians cyclists and cars in that order um I have so um thanks lur so so um that was good I attended a community engagement event at the um for people on the west side that was hosted by Fredy Boon and I get there you know there were a lot of concerns raised about um a walkway you know the path that kids go to school and asking for four-way intersection and um I think and I've said this before you know the way that the roads are is such a way they have three speed bumps so what happens is people slow down for the speed bump and they they fly down slow for the stop sign of Dr James Park Boulevard then speed up to the next speed bump SL down and then speed to the next speed bump so it is something that I believe as a borrow that we're looking into and I'm looking at Jim Jim for that uh some a little bit of Guidance with that um yesterday we also met with uh Harrison Avenue that is a street that is being worked on as part of the 2023 Road management land it's a lovely wide Street and you know what that means people speed right so we went there to talk about and because it is a wide Street and there are bike planes on the Fair Haven side uh we talked about putting in bik plane so we met with Easy Ride and they all came to this meeting we met with the engineer she laid out the plans talked to there about 22 Community people who live on Harrison that came down to intern concerns and course one of the first things they said was what are you going to do with my water lines and you know because it's a full remill of the road so um Jacqueline talked about all the stuff that happens under the ground and uh then they talked about speeding and you know they explained how putting in a bike lane will help slow people down and of course every time we look at a road we plan to take a look at highlighting intersections or daylighting intersections is the word that they use and try to make it safer for pedestrians cyclist hearts in that order so um that's about all I have and I'm gonna now hand it off to Jun I mean to Ben okay actually I want to thank sue for bringing up Jim Janelle I did know him I remember when I think he sat in this very spot actually when he was serving for Council um he was our I guess a republican chairman for M you mentioned and he certainly concerned about red bag issues and um think I spoke to him at the campaign I ran into him and Jerry quite play so thank you to for U bringing his name up today um also on my mind is our sparing in tomorrow or chief it's uh huge I mean I Liv here I just since 96 and maybe I've seen three Chiefs at police SW in over the years I think be two um you know it's a long time coming and a lot has happened and been quite you know we've been at this this Council has been here for a a little over a year A lot's happened so it's a big deal um and I'm kind of excited about moving forward and um let me CH police and um let's see also I did attend um the meeting that Fredy boy organized the when the I wasn't up on I wasn't nobody asked me to be IED just sat in the audience and I did find it very useful I think the team here handled it well Jim you were there we had a police officer there mayor you were there um and Nan he was nice I didn't mind not being up on the table so because you guys were getting a lot of lot of tough questions but I think it's important to be reminded of these quality of life issues that come up like the traffic one of the overriding things in general was traffic related stuff and it it's a tough issue and I get a lot as a councilman you know we are Crossroads and nobody really consulted Red Bank when they decided to build out all the towns around us and I think once upon a time when most of the area around Red Bank was Rural and I remember some of that as a kid um now you know I don't know how much of the percentage of traffic on shuberry Avenue in any given day is from out of town but I'm going to say at least %. I mean and you know you hear rage and frustration and I have rage and frustration just coming here tonight Crossing judbury Avenue unless we build walls around the town there's not much we can do to stop people from driving through Red Bank we're just going to have to do combination of enforcement and assorted other things that we all know and of course everyone wants a police officer at the end of their block at the right time once somebody does something I want that of course every time we hire a police officer it raises taxes and it costs a lot of money so we have to be mindful about those CES as well because I get a lot of concerns about our property taxes anyway um do grateful to be here and that's all I have I think I gave all the updates from Parks and W last meeting I don't need to do it again thank you very much mayor thank you Ben Laur I wanted to congratulate the to first try congratulations um porch Fest was a great success um this is the third year uh Joel and I hosted at ebur and the bike lanes were a big hit and talked to a lot of people that were on the bike bikes that came from Middletown and uh Highlands and they weren't just using their bikes they had scooters they had um skateboards and you know a lot of people just gathered across the street from my house with their bikes because the front lawn and the driving was all filled up so it was really nice to see and yes I ran around with the survey I hope we'll get some good results of that um already want it post next year to me it's one of the most fun events we have in town all the time um the two committee oh this morning we had a national faith and blue weekend clergy cops and community prayer breakfast that we all most of us attended um it was really very nice to meet all different uh the police were there and they we blessed from the community people parked a clinic uh lunch break a lot of resources that we have in town and then we had a nice breakfast where we could share ideas and I I really enjoyed that Library um Library leison so I have a couple things here a lot of things around Halloween turn into YouTube to watch freep Chronicles with Christine there's a new episode that goes in every Friday at 3M cozy up by the fireplace for Fireside story time at Wednesday 6 PM come to the library for night of ghostly Le tales about red bay with uh P Tuesday October 22nd at 6:30 p.m. it's online and in person and Wednesday uh October 23rd or Halloween at hogw bash The Whiting World opens at 5:00 pm um come in to witness the Thrills log on to canopy for a selection of spine Shilling films and you they still can get free red library on the part that was the library and then we had Animal Welfare this week and we Let's see we had update we had a meeting with Jim and the chair of Animal Welfare with Mammoth County SPCA and we talked about some of the issues we had and a lot of them have been resolved um we're going to buy a scanner for the chips um for dos gives to the police department along with um a resident in our town who's was at door days and got a lot of contributions from W Street and then we're going to pay the other half of that so we're going to get that so that when dogs are lost that we scan here at the police department we want to host another food drive in December Laura we always get those boxes and we put them around we put them at put um fins and feathers and then the municipal building and they collect do food and cat food and we give it to lunch break and this year we're going to add um Bingo house civic association um Pantry also um we're gonna have a Raby clinic and I think it's in December at the fir house um west side yeah um and little silver uh vets are going to be giving riby shots and while people are there getting their dogs Ry shots will have registration form so that people register their dogs December 7th December 7 thank you was December um there's also going to be a presentation by one of our members um at the November meeting Mir Warner is bringing in um speaker to talk about natural habitat I think she talked to you about that Nancy at yes uh yes her dog is Betsy bety yes she she's doing a presentation on the national natural habitat that will be there November meeting and we're getting a few new members um to anal we down a few M so we have interest from two people in and we got an update on the uh TNR from the the cats and that's ongoing on why and on west side thank you very thorough Laur thank you hey oky does uh so from Red B Community engagement and Equity committee which I Lee on to uh we have a new member that was just put on tonight Anita Pierce so she's been a member of the Comm for a long time look forward to her input uh the community engagement and Equity committee is uh looking for submissions of family recipes to share with the community as a way to share our diversity and our cultures uh so please go to their Facebook page right back Community engagement Equity committee you can see some of the recipes that have already been shared you don't have to be shy it doesn't have to be you know written by your grandma on a special piece of paper if it tastes good and it works good for your family then you know maybe somebody else in redit bank will like it too we just really want people to to participate uh for the Red Bank bro Education Foundation I'm not on but I'm just covering some things they're having their trivia night uh fundraiser October 16th um October 18th is the Halloween movie night in the park it's going to be nightmare for Christmas um on October 20th is the town Halloween parade on October 24th uh it's wiches night out uh this year uh River Center and Town's partnered with 180 turning lives around uh to bring awareness to domestic violence so you'll see that the town has been painted purple we discussed that the last meeting but October 24th is which is night out also on October 24th is going to be a jackal Lantern drop off this is a new community event with the parks and wreck and River Center and the burrow um essentially carve a really cool Jackal Lantern bring it to Riverside Gardens Park the night of October 24th they're going to be judging for the best Jackal landn that person will receive a prize and those Jackal LNS will be on display in the park uh through Halloween I believe so for for three days so great Community event it' be really cool to be able to visit the park and see that as a display um looking forward to uh frezy swearing in tomorrow that's a really amazing day for the burrow uh and then I think everybody else covered everything because we have the best Council ever so that's all thank you thank you I also want to congratulate Dave for passing the bar on his first uh first time very impressive I think also Kim Kardashian passed her first time's just trying to see um I am very much looking forward to uh Captain fry swearing in tomorrow it's going to be here it's a special meeting you are all invited it's at 3:00 and then afterwards we're going over to the Elks to celebrate so um it'll be a good good day for the B that's all I got Jim you got something oh yeah all right I'm going to triple dip and congratul Council you I always like heing re for well here we go I just want to say um that I was actually honored today to to go to the fourth annual community prayer breakfast for our law enforcement around M County our nonprofits and our community leaders it was definitely a great event that was coordinated by reporter here in Red Bank um and it's great to see how he's able to just bring a lot of different community members and Community groups together in one place um also met this week as we we spoke about at Masonic lodge number 36 on the west side with the concerned Westside residents I thought that that was a great meeting um it was definitely obvious that there was a lot of people and Su I was actually interested too on the number but you said around 50 people so yeah 50 people so that that had concerns that wanted to voice their concerns and we sat for two hours we had some dialogue back and forth and we I took a lot of notes and um there was a number of concerns that were that were voiced and I think there's a lot of as the mayor said a lot of actionable items on there and some that people I think Comm members just want to vent too and say this what affects them and we hear that um the other meeting that we had this week on Harrison at inside Park I thought that was kind of a great just impromptu setting we sent letters to Harrison have residents to advise them of the New Jersey do grant that we received for this project this was a 2023 Grant which is being expected in 2024 uh for the the Milling reaving underground infrastructure and then we did we took that holistic look to see if we would be able to incorporate a bike bike thing there which would actually remove parking on one side the street so that was the concern that we might want to get from the Harrison out residents and I was kind of surprised to to hear that that wasn't their main concern was removing the parking or add it was the speed it was you know what can we do to address that and I do think that potentially adding the bike Lanes can can bring that road a little bit more pinched and naturally when you see paint on the road naturally people slow down a little bit more um so we're looking to increase hopefully it has that cause and effect too of increasing safety on the earth um I am also happy to say the mayor and I attended a meeting today at the M County hall of records uh with the County Commissioners with it pleas with the County Commissioners to uh meet with them and learn that the burrow is uh receiving the 20124 open space Grant in the amount of 475,000 County for our marine par project y wow that's a big deal this is why I told you hold on man I got more to go so uh also in the vein of Grants um you may have remembered at one meeting we had U the um help was the name the realtor oh yeah the realtor the national New Jersey realtor New Jersey Realtor Association heard of one of our concepts of trying to you know increase uh bike racks and just making things more bike friendly around the bur um we got in contact with them we were able to be awarded a $7,500 grant for the purchase of bike racks we placed that order last week three pallet worth of bike racks arrived at bur Hall so we have 24 24 u shaped bik rocks that will be installed around the world in various locations um close to our Parks you know in the downtown on the West Side um in various locations and it also includes a bike repair station that will be here at Hall probably next to our our bike our bike rack our bike shaved bike rack out front of of Hall um so the $7,500 Grant covers all that material uh we'll work with our public works department to install those around the town and that bike um the bike repair station also includes the bik so station also by I had a flat tire por how embarrassing terrible so um another thing that I wanted to highlight is that I know that we had some members I believe the mayor Nancy Shauna from our community our director of community um director of Community Development uh went to easy rides champions of change where the bur was a recipient of three Awards there the gold level safe routes to school Awards and a gold and silver certifications for electric vehical adoption and Leadership there for those Awards so there three Awards um so congrats to you guys for the work on that especially yes n's always on this stuff and keeps us on our toes with so it's very appreciated uh you may have noticed obviously the resolutions that were pass was a service a professional service for sdl spatial data logic is the company that we're looking to transition to it's a online system that will replace our current do pilot system um because there's a little bit more functionality that as a bur we want to Institute one of those main functionalities is actually the ability to accept online payments here we are in 2024 yes I see people like happy about that because if you can eliminate a trip and you can get everything done from start to finish uh on through a bur program we want to make sure that we're we're trying to enhance those Services as best as possible right now a lot of our forms are through Adobe that we create or we have to change and there's copies of forms and terrible copies of forms over and over this program allows us to build forms directly in the program it's interdepartmental our departments will be able to talk to each other as far as how we are through maybe a permitting process the police department will have access to this to see what typ or permits or at certain properties with condition issues or um other things that they should be concerned about from Public Safety perspective um so it's going to be a great um integration of our departments and an enhancement to Hope of the residents from their experience from start to finish without and I too am very happy about tomorrow's um swearing in ceremony I think that it's time for Captain frzy to move to that role is Chief frzy here it'll be here tomorrow at 3 o'clock we'll start in the courtroom just to call the meeting to order and we'll go to the Courtyard out right out front of pearl Hall where I anticipate a large crowd of law enforcement and firefighters and community members and some esteemed guests that will be here tomorrow at 3 so very happy for him these dates Thanks what all right that's a lot do we have an executive session we do all right so can I have a motion to adjourn to Executive session I'm except a motion can I have a second second all in favor I okay for the Public's benefit the executive session will pertain to pending litigation the tax report matter entitled Red Bank versus RW Medical Center no action will be taken following the executive session we will simply adjourn the meeting and the executive session will take about 20 minutes or no more than 20 minutes I should say take five minutes we're going to take a five minut break I'm going to ask everyone else to clear the room and