e I was going to do it an Irish brog this meeting is called to order in accordance with the open public meetings law in accordance with chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975 adequate notice of this meeting has been provided this meeting of March 17
2025 was published in The Courier News and Star Ledger and placed on the Burrow's website and bolon board bar Hall a copy of this notice is available to the public and a copy of the statement shall be included in the minutes of this meeting mayy Brian Gallagher here council members Teresa
boner Here Andrew KY here Glen Dene here Randy pit is excused this evening gvic here Roger ver here please stand for the salute to the flag and please remain standing afterwards pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America and to the republ for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all I'd like to just ask for a moment of silence um the Somerville fire department uh lost another longtime
uh member George rean uh he was a member for about 63 years um that's a lifelong commitment to this burrow um and to the to the residents of this burrow um George will be Miss he was a member of
engine company and uh he was a fixture in this burrow you'd see him driving up and down the streets all the time and uh George is going to be missed thank you okay can I have a uh motion for approval of the minutes of March 3 so
moved second discussion roll call council members ter of bonor yes Andrew KY yes Glen Den yes Gina straic yes Roger ver yes uh departmental reports and notices uh just the one the school board unofficial election results I
don't believe they are certified yet however uh uh both questions question one and question two did pass um next next up we have our budget presentation the municipal budget and I'm going to first turn it over to Roger
for just kind of a brief intro on uh on what's going on sure so uh as you may or may not know uh the budget process is takes pretty much the entire year as soon as one budget is approved and and
uh put into action the next budget starts being crafted um and it's a lot of time a lot of time spent with the department heads obviously p does a fantastic job Kevin um and uh putting it all together to make sure that not only
are we functional um but that we are highly functional and that things that our departments need and uh you know wants can can be had uh that make the burrow better so uh fantastic job this year and we look forward to the
presentation so Paige if you're ready come on down same to you it looks like we're good now just make sure those microphones are off that be
R both of them yep okay okay we good okay all right so this is the 2025 Municipal budget um as Roger said we we started working on this in October um and meeting with departments and um this
is the culmination of of all of that the six months of time um the finance committee consists of council president Roger vom who's the chairperson councilwoman Gina straic as
the vice chair myself and Kevin Suka this presentation covers three budgets which which is in one document um it's the current fund Municipal budget the parking utility budget and the capital budget this is a look at the uh 25 the
2025 current fund revenues these are our local revenues the ones we generally see every year um they change here or there um the one that we did quite well on was interest on deposits because we were getting a lot of Bank interest hopefully
that continues um but that is helping support the budget we also have payment L of taxes which are pilot payments and other contributions um um the the pilot
payments are the new uh developments you see in town um and then the other contributions are other agreements that were made that wouldn't normally be taxed but because um you know we we are the county seat um the county is paying
for their social services building um and uh RWJ is paying for their bed tax as um they are in other other hospitals are paying in in their towns that's part of state state law
now um these are other offsetting revenues um grants um we have four grants listed here because at the time of budget introduction that's what we know we currently have um and uh we
expect to see a lot more because we generally get about 10 to 12 grants a year um we have a lot of volunteers who put a lot of hard work in to to get those grants um including the fire department and the police department getting their safety
grants um we also have some shared services Revenue coming in um from R Ridin um for fire inspection and for CFO Services um fund balance is used to support the operating and capital
budgets this year we're using five million of of um Surplus or fund balance same thing um 3 million of it is supporting the current fund operating expenses and 2 million is um supporting
Capital um infrastructure so um we're planning to do some Capital ordinances this or a capital ordinance this year and that will be fully funded um these are a look at the 25 Department Appropriations these are
General Appropriations that we have every year a lot of it is Contra contractual with um salary and wages um and then the other expenses um it includes things like Solid Waste
um uh building grounds maintenance um police and Public Works um so that's what this represents and Recreation um we're doing other shared services which are we're paying um but still
there's a significant cost savings because um if we had to run our Municipal Court it would be a lot more money with Staffing and um so so we have the Municipal Court as a shared service and also Property Maintenance we're doing with ridan and we're paying them
their they employing the um the gentleman who is doing that Briant these are our statutory costs um they're the same every year um for social security for all of the employees
um they pay in as well um the purs um public employment retirement system and the pfrs which is the police and fire retirement system and then dcrp which is a defined Compensation Program which anybody over um $5,000 has to be entered
into that's the state law and there's a 3% um on the dcrp there is a 3% match that we have to that's what that that amount represents um these are our utilities
um they oh wait I lost that a bit sorry the utility um they total $ 1,24 th000 um they're for Street
lighting telephone water electricity everybody's utilities is going up everywhere um you know so we we added more because it's really an unknown at this point so um the 20 this is 2025 um employee
health insurance and other other Insurance liability insurance work comp Dental um that's all included in this it amounts to $2,682 th000 our employee group health insurance went up 9% and other liability
insurance went up 7% um The Debt Service totals 3,756 571 and that includes um the onboarding of for the whole year for the emergency
services facility lease the operational expenses for the budget the salary and wages are 8,2 $284,000 and the other expenses are 9,453 th000 that comes right out of the
budget document on seven on sheet 17 I so this is what we're doing some of the things we're doing this year um the Emergency Services is new is completed and new and people are moving in hopefully by the end of the month
everybody will be moved in um walk Park uh pool Renovations that's currently uh I believe they're going out for bid for that um and then see there was um it's kind of hard to see this one um this is
the inclusion area playground at Carol Pedra Park oops thing has a mind of its own um and then the pickle ball courts and resurfacing and reorientation at um
vanir Memorial Park that is going to happen that is happening this year um and the Veterans Memorial Drive construction safe roots to school project with the bike lane that is finally going to be under construction
that's since 2016 I think I that was right after I got here so um okay um so in Prior years the past couple years we had some
tree grants and the Le pool um reconstruction um that was from Somerset County and we and the burrow did match that that was fully operational in 2024 um the tree grants um with the
efforts of councilwoman straic and the environmental commission we've been getting a lot of tree grants um so so we've been replacing trees um you know as as from the storm damage um as
whenever we can and wherever we can um we normally get um a lot of Grants like the local recreational Grant um duee to like Jason crasa and Kevin sluka um and the Recreation Commission they really
work hard to get all of these grants so so we have gotten those over the past two years and we're looking we do expect to get another one this year um understanding the budget this is just something we put in because a lot of people don't understand that whatever
we appropriate the revenues have to match and whatever it doesn't match is the taxation for the the resident so how does that translate to the average household um in
Somerville uh the average house is 276,000 that's the assess value that's the assess value yeah not not the market value right that's correct and you know when a revaluation happens that will be a different um number um and will be
spread evenly um you know throughout it it's the same tax but it's just you know divided up differently so um the average home in
Somerville is 276 200 200 um and that is oops and that is um the the calculation is divided uh the net taxable value is divided by the number of parcels which
gives you the average home this translates to 20 um to the 2025 Municipal portion of the tax bill being $3,142 with a municipal increase of
$27 over the year over the whole year from last year to this year correct um and this is just another chart that shows you know if where you where the ass value Falls where your assessed value Falls it'll show you what
your change was in your property um assessed value and this will be on the website so anybody can go to the website and look at it um this is showing the summary of the tax rate and how it's divided out
between the county the school and the municipal tax and then total tax this is look at our tax increase the last 10 years again our 2025 Municipal tax is
2678 for the year for the whole year our tax collection rate in 2024 sorry that's an error um was n 98.9% and then that brings us to our parking utility budget um we it's
$862,000 in total um just see um and that includes some Capital that we put in um for 50,000 we we are looking to do some um improvements to the parking
utility um our capital budget is 2, 85,86 200,000 and then there's a a $90,000 um cdbg match to that um I'm
sorry Community Development match um and uh we have the Public Works project we had to uh fund an additional $600,000 for the safe roots to school project hopefully that'll be the end of that and we'll get that going um and
then we have um another project that has to be done um it's the petersbrook oops it's the petersbrook head wall restoration and design um they're they're looking to design that and keep that um I know that's a
historic um wall anyway um so so they that that was due to storm Dam damage um and so we need to do something about that um we're doing the library restrooms um some Renovations at Burrow Hall we have a rolling program to do um
uh security C cameras burrow wide um and then there's some other equipment that the Departments needed that we could capitalize on and again the capital is being fully funded there's no debt being incurred for these um and a copy of this budget it will be
at Burrow Hall it's also on the um the uh website and if there's any questions they can um reach out for me by email or um you know I'm always available I'm there so great okay awesome um thank you
very concise very simple for uh all of us to understand and I think more importantly for the public to understand um and and I think the increas is minimal at $27 over the course of a year
that's how much a month $2 a month additional yeah very very you know there's there's been a lot of councils over a lot of years um that have squeezed and pushed and pulled this budget um and uh Dennis Sullivan's in
the audience he was a part of that and over the course of years um you know we've we've managed to put together budgets that um are the least impactful to the taxpayer but have the most benefit to the taxpayer I think uh Roger Gina I think you've done a great job
obviously Paige and Kevin I think you've done a great job as well so uh anybody from Council comments questions statements I I just think um we're lucky to be in Somerville and have the good management that we
have we're we're our town is in in good stead so appreciate that um what I'll do is before page uh leaves I'm just going to open it up to the public for uh comments if they do have any uh I just ask you to state your name and address for the record and just
address your comments to me sir good evening good evening too much celebrating yesterday Denis solivan 8 South Richards Avenue first a comment people always complain about
their taxes but if you look at the tax increase over the last 10 years and you take out the one year and I don't remember exactly I was trying to figure that what generated that big
increase you were mayor at the time I remember but but I was Finance chair Finance chair so we're equally to blame but if you take out that 142 that leaves an aggregate of $196
increase over nine years that's $22 a year that's good management and hardworking management so I thank you for that question U the stats you have pagee
we will know probably tomorrow night what the school budget will be will that affect the calculations here because you made an estimate correct right on% so that might change all right and then the only other question I had the sheet where you show
the pilot revenue is there any way to estimate what the taxes would be without pilot well assuming assuming we funded everything that we funded this year well without the projects actually occurring
yeah I estimated $800 per household uh I you know what I don't know the number but it would be exorbitant and I think people need to understand that yeah because as a private citizen now I'm out and about just as much as I was you know when I was in your seat and I hear about
the traffic and I hear about the highrises but I don't hear about what that Revenue means 25 years ago you couldn't give a house away in suable because the value
of your house based on the value of your taxes was was huge I had four houses on my street alone that sat for over six months now it's less than a month and then that didn't happen by accident so
yes we have growth we have traffic but we also have a lot of incentive to live here so I want to thank the council and the administration you know for for nurturing that and hopefully we're not done thank thank you thank you
mayor any other public comment hearing none I'll close the public session all right uh Paige thank you very much you're welcome all that hard work thank you very much appreciated now start on the
26 to it all right um this is the introduction for the 2025 Municipal budget and user friendly budget uh do we have a motion so moved second
discussion roll call council members Teresa Bonner yes Andrew KY yes Glen Den yes Gina traic yes Roger V yes okay oh yeah I did Skip something didn't
I all right um because I went out of order I will circle now back to uh to committee reports and we'll start with uh Andrew uh nothing to report this okay Gina uh the Board of Health meets Wednesday at 6m if anybody's interested do come by uh at
the county building on Warren Street um I might note that um the reports I've been getting is RSVP and covid concerns are down um although what is up is concerns about child immunizations and the county does have several clinics going on and you can find uh those
clinics at the uh County website um uh regarding the uh Somerville Rescue Squad uh I got a couple different uh uh reports from them uh one February had about 126 dispatches um and also received the febru the 2024 re report
they've got their uh numbers totaled out and they had uh 157 calls in 2024 so 1,517 calls in 2024 uh 13,400 volunteer hours um the response
time in Somerville is 3 .9 minutes so I think you're in good hands uh and then we also have a shared collaborative so they go into other communities and help as well uh and that that report uh time uh is 7.2 minutes so think about trying to get to certain parts of Bridgewater
Branchburg and so on uh 7.2 minutes from calls out of town uh so I think those numbers are impressive um they do great work and um they're like the fire department everyone is looking for volunteer help I think it's a great way to uh spend some time uh doing good for the community
um so thank you to the rescue squad and that concludes my report great thanks Gina glad okay I have a couple different things first we'll start with the fire department uh as stated they are operating out of the ESF they're still finalizing some equipment and working out some of those things uh uh many of
you experienced the successful St Patrick's Day Parade thank you to the fire department for all their help and organization with that and uh bringing the apparatus as well um they also had a successful career day at Summerville High School recently and um and they also wanted to use that as a reminder
that at age 15 you can apply to become a junior firefighter and gain some valuable experience so if you are interested in finding out more about that you can reach out through their website at it's just Somerville fd.org um and then uh for the environmental
commission we met last week uh covered a wide range of topics uh I'll just hit some of the highlights they received a grant $750 from the Native Plant Society and will be working on some Reed bed pollinator Gardens uh at the Vander Elementary School um uh we talked about
there we're helping support some Garden restoration and projects going on at the Wallace house and then there's a number of upcoming dates um there's a sustainability seminar that will be held right here on March 31st at 7M um talking about New Jersey's
changing climate with Dr Robinson our community garden volunteer day is April 5th with a rain date of the 6th uh you can also apply for rais beds in the community garden by signing up for a lottery uh as of March 28th and those winners will be announced at the green
Fair on April 26th uh the Earth Day weekend will be that April 25th 26th we'll have a townwide swap with more information on our socials the green Fair will be held from 11: to 2 on Division Street come and learn and experience a wide variety
of ecological environmental activities and experience the booth there uh the first quarterly newsletter came out last month be sure to sign up to look for that as well and then uh also keep out for any eye out for any volunteer opportunities that are constantly posted
on Instagram and Facebook for them and then my final piece we actually have a uh a resolution later on but I just wanted to mention the tour of Somerville uh the committee is working very hard they're very excited it is 80 years of racing we're celebrating a big one this year um so be on the lookout for all
sorts of information that will slowly be coming out it won't just be a one-day event um more Day May 26th but there'll be different things going on in different ways you can participate and donate throughout uh the time leading up to it as well so make sure to mark your calendars for that Memorial Day come to
the parade stay for the races so thank you mayor that's great excellent thank you Teresa thank you uh so the Somerville Youth Services Commission met on Thursday March 13th uh we were we got a
report from Dr shinski at the middle school about the success of eighth grade challenge day um once again it was a fantastic program um it was a day filled with fun
activities as well as conversations on deep hard-hitting topics the kids walked away feeling closer bonds with classmates that they may have previously been at odds with so um and I can personally report that my son came home
and like a weight had been lifted off of him so um that it was a very special day and sumerville is fortunate that we have that program in our community for our kids my son agrees Teresa thank you it was a great a great program yes um and
then the Somerville Public Safety Committee will be meeting this Thursday March 20th at 6m right here in the Civic Center that's all I have great thank you Roger I just wanted to congratulate the uh Somerville St Patrick's Day committee on another amazing job uh I know I'm
sure the mayor's going to be touching on it but it was an absolutely fantastic event it's always wonderful to see so many volunteer organizations uh get to March down our street so many uh children and um members of the community showcasing their talents I think it's
truly tremendous it's done the the uh parade is is organized by all volunteers and it's a lot of time and a lot of dedication and they do a great job every year uh this year was no exception so again just tremendous job and thank you all for your hard work awesome and and
it was an incredible parade um how many people well you know what I've been involved for 30 I started on the committee and then when I became an elected official I came off the committee but I've been involved for 30 years and I can tell you this was by far the biggest crowd I'm guesstimating
probably 35,000 40,000 people somewhere in that neck of the woods the DSA will come out with a number um they they have a way of calculating it based upon you know they count the amount amount of people in a section and then just kind of extrapolate but it was it was seven to 10 people deep the entire length of
the parade and to have a parade of that size um with that many people and uh little to no incidents uh is just it's you know it's a testament to the community it's uh it's a very family oriented oriented parade you have a lot
of parades in different communities and they become something that they shouldn't and that doesn't happen here um it really is is it's I think it's part of it is because it's a it's a 2hour time frame it's two hours for the parade and then everybody just kind of disperses and and goes you know to to
their St Patrick's parties or they go home uh just it turned out very well kudos to all of our emergency services for handling uh things very well DPW was out there as well I saw them they did a fantastic job so it really is a a a very
uh coordinated event between volunteers paid professionals um and uh and and the residents and everybody did a great job so it was wonderful um very quick uh uh Glenn if you
could and you may the environmental commission may or may not know about this on the um on the r River Greenway down behind Public Works there's a section that has the invasive bamboo and it's just growing and growing and growing and I think it's something we need to address before it really starts
to it's it's been there probably for at least about 10 years now and it just every year it gets a little bit bigger to the point where it's actually overgrowing the trail and you have to almost walk through a tunnel and and I it's it's just going to keep expanding and and I think we need to see if we can't
get I don't know if that's our property or if the the county controls that property along the riverfront I'm just not sure I'd have to look at it I would have to look at it too but I think it's something that warrants our attention Okay uh before it encroaches you know even further yeah so
um all right that's all I have at this point I will ask for a motion to open the meeting to the public so moved second discussion roll call council members Teresa boner yes Andrew KY yes lendon yes gvic yes Roger V yes okay
meeting is open to the public Mr Sullivan I just missed the camera time mayor what can I say Dennis suvan 8 South Rich Avenue on the bamboo Channel 12 had a lead story at five o'clock today today really about
the cost and the length of time it takes it could run a property owner between five and $8,000 to remove bamboo from their property we and it's and it's not always possible because it's it grows deep as
well so if you see any public please let uh let the mayor know and we'll get the men out there because it's uh well I believe there was a town were they reporting on a Town that's enacting an ordinance they said multiple towns are are in the process we put an ordinance in place G what two years ago M um
because there was a property uh in town with uh bamboo and yes it it is extremely evasive um Solutions are not simple and expensive pretty much digging the whole yard up to get the roots out and then treating it with uh herbicides so it's chemical treatment I don't know how we're going to deal with that on the
river um but there are not enough pandas in the world to to take care of bamboo uh next comment you have an ordinance for introduction tonight removing some parking correct on West High Street I would just ask that either the council
or the Public Safety Committee take a look at RW street because it's my fear that if we remove about 10 spaces uh three well three even it it could have a ripple effect and the people on Raw Street for years have been inundated
with commercial parking during the day uh also might be wise to notify the school that they'll have they may have to you know police their lot a little bit better because those cars will find a place to park yeah if if it carries tonight which I think it will um it uh
we'll we'll notify the school great thank you all right thank you any other public comment I'll ask for a motion to close so moved second discussion roll call council members Teresa boner yes Andrew KY yes Glen da yes Janus traic yes Roger
F yes okay uh ordinances for introduction we have two of them tonight uh the first one is uh 2758 which is amending chapter 1666 d44 no stopping or standing to
remove parking three parking spaces on the north side of West High Street easterly of Davenport Street Teresa thanks he was just telling me what where Ross Street is I had no idea so I was trying like um yes thank you um so the reason
for this ordinance would be because uh upon a report from officer chudy from the um traffic enforcement division of the Somerville Police Department um we
were told that uh in the past year 14 accidents resulting in 11 injuries seven reports of property damage seven of those accidents were in the past three months um at the corner of Davenport and
West High Street um basically it is the highest number of traffic accidents in at any intersection in town um when we received that report the Public Safety Committee uh it was discussed and
they one of the best options that they came up with was removing those three spots at the corner um and to to basically open up visibility because that is a huge problem people are going through the
stop sign or they're inching up and it's hard to see if you're able to actually proceed because it's blocked by cars on this way blocked by cars on that way and you're edging up it's very difficult so that's the re reason for this or
is to uh open up the visibility on that corner and hopefully diminish the amount of traffic accidents that are happening at that intersection and it worked really well on mountain when the county did the traffic study um uh at the end
of was that also High Street Cliff yes thank you um and according to officer chudy the accidents have pretty much completely stopped there because there's a lot of visibility they can easily pull it out out on the mountain
so that's it okay great um it it's a common sense actually we had a resident here I think it was Mr Cisco had brought this up as a potential uh short-term solution and uh I think it's great that we're taking action on it um public comment on
2758 hearing none close 2758 and I will ask for a motion for introduction so moved second discussion roll call council members Teresa Bonner yes Andrew KY yes Glenn Den yes Janus
traic yes Roger verm yes okay 2759 is am amending chapter 10243 of the burrow L use code entitled filing of applications reducing the necessary time to review applications due to modern technology so if you take a look at the uh the the
reading of the ordinance it's been uh redlined as to what is changing and essentially we're going from either 35 days or 28 days down to 21 days um the uh the planning board in conjunction with our professionals looked at this it
was a hold over from the days of uh paper and and mail and uh there was discussion about they they could go down to 14 but the board felt 21 is probably better just to allow that additional time both for professional review and for public review as well they all felt
that 28 or 35 was a little excessive uh as do the applicants as well so um I will ask for public comment on 2759 hearing none close 2759 ask for a
motion for introduction so moved second discussion roll call council members Teresa boner yes Andrew KY yes Glen Den yes Jus traic yes Roger ver yes okay ordinance for public hearing and adoption number 2757 is amending
ordinance as noted establishing a salary range for employee titles to be paid to certain officers and employees of the burough of Somerville uh this ordinance just uh establishes or reestablishes anytime there's a change in in salaries uh and it establishes the minimums and
maximums for any of the any and all of the salaries within the uh within the burrow um I will ask for a motion to open the public hearing so moved second discussion roll call council members
Teresa boner yes Andrew KY yes Glen Den yes Gus traic yes Roger verm yes all right public hearing is now open hearing n I'll ask for a motion to close so moved second discussion roll call Council memb Teresa boner yes
Andrew KY yes Glend Den yes Gina straic yes Roger V yes all right motion for adoption please so moved second discussion roll call council members Teresa boner yes Andrew KY yes Glendon
yes Jus traic yes Roger FM yes okay consent resolutions there is one uh the resolution itself is is has some minor modifications in it it's number 93 the uh the amounts in the head of the resolution are correct there was some
minor modifications to the actual numbers in the whereases within the resolution um are there any to be pulled off for further discussion okay 82 is approving the Alpha Romeo uh Owners Club to utilize parking spaces in
front of the courthouse on May 30th and August 22nd 5 to 9:00 P p.m. for cruise night 83 is approving event permit for Somerville Rescue Squad to use Le park for a community event on April 12th with a rain date of April 26 from 10: a.m. to 12:00 p.m. 84 is approving the zcar club
to utilize parking spaces in front of the historic courthouse on June 20th from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. for cruise night 85 is approving the final change order and payment for construction cost in the amount of $312,700 to fds Somerville NJ LLC 86 is
authorizing the following salary changes and adjustments for the non-union management and non-contractual employees for 2025 87 is approving the 80th annual tour of Somerville bike race and Memorial Day Parade on Memorial Day May 26 and approving all required road
closures as defined by the road closure and Detour plans 88 is amending resolution 305 authorizing the burough Council of the burough of Somerville acting as the housing agency to administer the Section 8 housing assistance payments program and adopting the 5-year agency plan with revisions as
per memorandum dated February 26 2025 89 is approving road closure of Green Street between Davenport and Mercer Street Saturday March 22 starting at 10:00 a.m. to 4m for the church's grand reopening of Shiloh Pentecostal church with a name change uh 90 is authorizing temporary
appropriation for 2025 parking utility budget 91 is authorizing the temporary appropriation for 2025 current operating Municipal budget 92 is authorizing an interlocal agreement between the Somerville Board of Education and the B excuse me burrow of Somerville for
salting services and related Services 93 authorizing payment of for the remediation of the green seam Remediation in order to close out the remaining Bond balance of $528 127 not required to be applied to
permanent financing for the burrow of Somerville motion please so moved second roll call council members terresa Bonner yes Andrew KY yes Glen Den yes Janus traic yes Roger ver yes
all right bills and vouchers Roger so uh I we have a full pendul swing here uh a few what a few meetings ago we approved over $9 million I think this may be one of our smallest uh approvals that we've had in in me in recent memory so I make
a motion to pay bills and vouchers in the amount of 797874 186 second discussion roll call council members Teresa boner yes Andrew KY yes Glen Den yes Gus traic yes airm yes all
right Mr Den I will ask for a motion for adjournment motion to adjourn second discussion all in favor I I this meeting is ajour