##VIDEO ID:6VO-K4c-uEo## [Music] ready order good afternoon welcome to the first meeting of the Year today's January 1st 2025 Alyssa can you please read the notice of publication in compliance with chapter 231 of public love 1975 notice of this meeting to be held at the south of Middle School cafetorium fre Montgomery Street South River has been published in the home News Tribune on December 19th 2024 posted on the municipal building bulletin board the bur website in the front door of the South River Middle School at three Montgomery Street South River may call to order a presiding officer um we will be calling Matthew Des sanis I will be doing the oath let me get up first before I start once again good afternoon happy New Year you know standing beside um Matt Des sis uh for years uh growing up in this town my parents living on the corner of Johnson and Willet um my brothers and I so many other kids whenever they walked up to that corner the the person at the post was our Crossing and the crossing guard through so many years through so many years she became more than just a Crossing C to us she became a mother she always taught us the values of go to school do well be part of uh Sports get involved in your community and as the years went on decades went through whether it was raining snowing blistering hot cold and whatever it may be she stood that post today I have the honor to actually swear in her uh son Matt Mrs Des sanis I can't thank you enough for what you have done for us and for that matter to community so you [Applause] ready thank you all right repeat after me I state your name I to say this do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will that I will support support the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state and the constitution of the state of New Jersey of New Jersey that I will bear true that it will bear true faith and Allegiance faith and allegiance to the same to the same and to the governments established in the United States and to the governments established in the United States in this state in this state under the authority of of the people under the authority of the people that I will Faithfully that I will faithfully and partially and partially and justly perform and justly perform all the duties of all the duties of office of bough of South council member office of burough South council member according to the best of my abilities according to the best of my abilities congratulations councilman for so proud to be here I've looked forward to this moment for a long time one heck of a campaign uh Nick John compas please step forward it said that uh South River has a very proud past and a bright future and I see these two things right here and my friend Nick and we couldn't be more proud of because he served South River in the past with honor and dignity and strength and I look forward to the things that Nick can provide this burrow burgeoning with ideas never short on a vision he's got great plans with the mayor and the Council of this wonderful burrow and I expect the great things that you are all hoping for to materialize from these men and women on the board and of course the mayor's office so I'm very proud uh again I'm I'm gushing to see that you're here and that you are realizing just one small part of your great potential and I think everyone here is looking to you to see some great things are you ready second guessing take a breather call up that's right that's right that's right that's right right good after me I Nick jop I Nick giop you soln we swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey that I will bear true faith that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and to the governments established in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people that I will Faithfully that I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly perform and justly perform all of the duties of the office of burrow of South River council member all of the duties of the office of burrow of South River council member according to the best of my abilities according to the best of my abilities so help me so help me God congratulations [Applause] [Music] Alysa roll [Applause] call mayy here Council B here councilman CA here councilman STIs here councilman desian here councilman gianis here councilman grensky here please stand for a salute to the flag flag United stes please stay standing for a moment of silence you may be seated Lisa can you please read off the borrow ofer uh the administration to the oath of office for the second assistant chief uh Steven drugo I st your name I st do Solly swear Solly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States I support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey constitution of the state of New Jersey that I will bear true faith and allegiance that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same to the same and to the governments established to the governments established in the united states in the United States and in this state and in the state under under the authority of the people under the authority of the people that I will Faithfully that I will faithfully and partially partially and justly and justly perform all the duties perform all the duties of second assistant fire chief of second assistant fire chief according to the best of my abilities according to the best of my abilities so help me God so help me God than [Applause] Alissa can you please do an Administration to the uh oath of the office for the first assistant chief Scott wolf I state your name I Scott wolf do solemnly swear do solemly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey that I will bear true faith and allegiance that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same to the same and to the government established and to the governments established in the united states in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people and that I will Faithfully I will faithfully and partially and partially and justly and justly perform all the duties perform all the duties of first assistant fire chief of first assistant fire chief according to the best of my abilities according to the best of my abilities so help me God so help me thank you [Applause] congratulations what's up Minister uh the oath to the fire chief William Smith I state your name I William Smith do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey the constiution of the state of New Jersey that I will bear true faith and allegiance that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same to the same and to the governments established and to the governments established in the united states in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people and that I will faithfully and that I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly and justly perform all the duties of perform all the duties of South River fire chief South River fire chief Accord according to the best of my abilities according to the best of my abilities so help me God so help me God [Applause] I will be now asking for council member comments from our new council members uh starting off of Matt Des sanis so i' first just like to say happy New Year to everyone obviously it's the start of a fresh year and a fresh opportunity for me I'm very thankful for all the support especially my family which is a big part of of why I'm here my my wife Jill my daughter Molly and my other daughters Ella and Maddie who are of course in the bathroom they come um you know in the last few months you know I had I had taken a seat in August and I I learned a lot about the process and the people um I was born and raised in this town uh stayed in this town and decided to raise my family in this town uh the burough sou River means a lot to me um I don't want to get too long-winded but I'm not going to stand up here and promise everyone that we're going to be perfect but I will promise you we're going to make progress we're going to we're going to try things we're going to do things we're going to get get things done and uh the burough and its health and and the direction it goes will always be my first priority uh I'm going to be approachable to all of you come see me talk to me I want to have conversations a lot of people I'm looking at are people I grew up with Steve Jos I graduated high school with he just got installed as Chief or assistant chief and it's just what it's all about um faces of people that I grew up with they their children and that that to me is what south is so I plan to continue to be a big part of that but just because we have this Outlet up here that we are in a governing body I speak with and for all of you and I want you guys to come to me as you need and I've just planed to listen and do my best for you so thank [Applause] you I'll call up Nick chopis uh good morning everyone thank you for coming out and uh Happy New Year um I just want to say thank you to the residents of this town and other friends from around that really helped me through this process and the council and our committee that got me you know to run and thank you for everyone that it voted for me and got me to this position and I just want to say that I'm here to do whatever I can to help move this town forward and for the people that voted me for the people that didn't vote for me I'm here to work for everyone in South River and to try to make South River as good as it could be with the help of everyone in this Council and I will do that to the best of my ability I just want to say thank you to everyone [Applause] I will be opening our floor up to the council president nomination like Nom second is there any other nominations motion made by Council uh councilwoman Ballas seconded by councilman kashinsky Council Ballas yes Council M santis yes Council M deian yes councilman Jan CIS yes Council msky yes council president C yes council president do you have any comments just want to thank all the members for their support and I definitely look forward to working with everyone for the betterment of South River We're All Die Hard River people everybody up here lives here graduated here and uh everybody has South River first place thank you Lissa can you please read off the consent resolutions organizational consent resolutions 20251 to 202 59 number one rules of council two Council Liaisons 3 2025 meeting schedule four 2025 temporary budget five official newspapers six appoint burrow attorney seven appoint burrow engineer eight appoint burough prosecutor nine appoint bur planner have a motion yes motion by Council Wan Ballas second by councilman dimian bis councilman de santis yes councilman deian yes councilman Janis yes Council M giny yes council president CA yes thank you Alyssa I will now be opening it up to the public for any comments please state your name and your address first call second call motion Clos by motion by council president attorney siola second by councilman Jan all in favor I I will be opening up to the governing body I will like to start with councilman kushinsky thank you mayor um first off I'd like to wish everyone a very happy healthy New Year um thank you for coming out to the council meeting and let's hope this is going to be a very profitable and full year for us thank you may thank you Council woman D yeah happy New Year everybody thanks for coming out like to get your input and again happy New Year and congratulations to our members again welcome aboard councilman diaman good morning everybody happy New Year um congratulations to Matt and Nick looking forward to a year of working with you um I want to thank John kenzel for all his years um he was a mayor this past year many years a council member also and this past year our council president um he served many decades of uh to South River um thank you to Craig Miller for his outstanding job as past year as far and congratulations Tony as our council president looking forward to working with you this year thank you mayor for everything this past year and looking forward to this year moving forward like we had this year and working with this fine group of people up here like Tony said everyone's from South River we strive to do the best we can here and that's what we'll do and have a new to everybody thank you mayor thank you [Applause] councilman Des sanis I just want to give everyone another happy New Year and again I look forward to working with the team here and uh making it a prosperous 2025 for all councilman jop again I'd like to say thank you and uh because I didn't write down the speech I forgot a few things I'd really like to thank my family for helping me through this running for campaign and my wife for walking door knocking and uh being my assistant and uh also part of what got me here is uh being on the zoning board for a really long time and uh I really enjoyed that and that really helped me with the whole process of getting to this point and uh it was a great great board love being on that zoning board and I'm going to miss you guys as far as a zoning board but of course we'll be seeing each other again and uh that's all I wanted to put in there and thank everyone again and congratulations to the uh council president it'll be a great year thank you council president Tony Seer thank you um want to wish everybody a happy and heal healthy new year uh moving forward to a productive year with everybody move South L forward even more I want to congratulate Matt and Nick welcome aboard um I look forward to working with you guys and uh we have a good team here so we got to keep it up and lastly I want to thank Mr John kenzel for his years of service to this burough um John has taught me a lot over the years and uh he'll be missed but again Happy New Year to [Music] [Applause] all want to first of all thank judge Spiro Colin blackis for coming here and doing the oath of office I also want to congratulate uh councilman je Nick johnop and councilman Matt Dan sanis Matt sorry I had to put you in a suit for a third time but it will not happen again I also like to um thank uh Council our council president Tony for taking the position I know it hasn't been easy in the last past year you've been traveling a lot hopefully it doesn't keep on continuing uh I wanted to do a recap of what we did last year and this was what you call a scratch on the surface moving South River forward is what I call it it's not about winning it's about succeeding that's what I say we re we paved five different roads in this town from leonardine to barl to daily to darl Street to even John Street we did so many new park improvements DA's Pond saw a new basketball court it saw a netting behind the soccer goal gaski Park we won a uh a grant of almost well over half a million dollars from just the Green Acre Grant and 79,000 from the DCA Grant where this year we will we will be renovating and replacing a lot of equipment at the glowski park drainage water lines we have the plans in play now we're moving forward no more talking about Brown water now we're going to start doing what we said we were going to do last year we're moving forward on it we added a new basketball court at at lardan Park it's packed Bailey's Pond is packed this is for our kids we are going to continue to work on the project for uh uh recreational facility which Matt desus is going to be leading a charge on it's a it's not an easy process but it's a process that we need to get done for the kids we we've got well over $2 million in just grants alone last year and we're still continuing to get grants the ibank which we're working with now we have allocated hopefully about 20 million dollar towards our water lines and a lot more to come a lot of meetings but we're going to get it done for us the battery project phase two is underway by the year of by this summer it's going to be online we also purchased multiple DPW Vehicles as well as a new fire Tru the water meter project is in process which I know a lot of people have been cringing over it but we are going to get it done right and we are moving forward on it what to expect this year so many more roads to be paved for Kowski Park you're looking at a turf field you're looking at a baseball field that's going to be done uh we're looking at so many more grants that we applied for that it's going to help with volunteers Park we are looking at the pickle report to be introduced to Varga Park last year which I forgot to mention this we broke ground on two Redevelopment projects moving South River forward we got a lot more this year with the Redevelopment committee as well as the new land use board you're going to see a lot more improvements moving this uh moving on in South River and there's a lot more to come this is just a scratch I urge each and every one of you don't hide behind social media to complain about something come to the council meeting send us an email approach us we will get it done it may not be easy in the beginning but I promise you I will show up to your front door if there's a complaint I thank you all for being here today happy New Year again and a healthy one let make let 2025 become a very good year for all of us thank you and do I have an adjournment motion to adjourn adjournment uh motion by council president siola second by Council M all in favor I meeting is adjourned thank you thank you do