##VIDEO ID:qgczBtSL9oc## we should have members of our youth Advisory Board here this evening you are welcome to come up to the podium my friends good see you all welcome presentation okay hello my name is Hal Palmer I'm the head chair of the youth Advisory Board sadly we are missing our secretary and Sergeant at Arms but the rest of the executive board will introduce themselves hi my name is Liam Fletcher and I'm the media specialist hi my name is Kayla bman and I'm the vice chair and we will continue with our little library's presentation a little library is a system in the community where people can take a book and leave a book it is a freestanding Library we were brought this idea by Seline Wong founder of free reads she previously presented this idea which was accepted we are also collaborating with Parks playground and Recreation Advisory Board we believe this is a good way to connect our community encage read readings support literacy and comprehension throughout the township free read started this around four years ago the plan is to eventually have libraries at all 26 parks in EK to to support this it would be a collaborative effort with different organizations in the community each organization would adopt a library in a park they would take control of said libraries the amount of libraries per organization would depend on the size of the park there are over 150,000 little libraries around the world where will our libraries be located we will start with two libraries at voty Park one on the southern end by the r Center and one at the Northern end by the basketball court these these two at V would be the youth advisory board's little libraries and free reads would take over Brooks Park which was formerly known as Tron Park maintenance so each organization that participates in this will adopt these libraries at their said Park to maintain it um how the youth Advisory Board is going to maintain the libraries at vot we're going to supply the books via free reads and the youth Advisory Board and we will be accepting donations and then we would have a weekly check in at vot to make sure the books are have good quality condition and they're fully stocked and if there are any issues missing um that we don't see during our weekly check-in there will be a QR code on the box that can directly message us just so we have updates on it when we're not there this is the size of our little library in inches so how much will this cost we'll start with two libraries and it'll be $584 157 for one little library and this includes the price of the box which is $369.99 the shipping cost for the box which is $985 the topper kit which is the support stand that holds the box which is $89.95 and the shipping cost for the topper kit which is $26.52 and if we're getting two of these that totals to 1,169 and4 and this includes subtotal and shipping and with taxes it will be around $1,250 our goal overall as a community collaboration with free read and the PAB s encouragement reading throughout the township um the library is currently under renovation and we are missing that element within our community and this element can continue once the library is done to encourage young kids teens and even adults to continue reading can we please give them a round of applause you guys did a fantastic job and you absolutely have my support is there anyone on Council uh Deputy Mayor G thank you so much for that presentation it was very thorough and precise I really appreciated it I'm curious if we would like to make donations how do we go about doing that um so like I mentioned before the QR codes we would have a page setup and um we can always accept donations from the public like that um if you want to do it personally then you can always email one of the advisers or the organization itself and we will correspond that privately awesome thank you and do you have a plan for which locations would be next um we would do vot um next person uh preferably the one closest to the r Center um free reads will deal with their libraries at Brooks Park thank you Miss Belcher I thank you so much for that presentation I I think these these little libraries are such a a Marvel idea and it's it's a quaint idea it's a uh an idea that really encourages people to read and I I really love it so um kudos to all of you for presenting Miss Goldberg so I just want to thank the the two advisers and you guys for um I know you guys talked to pprb and and I think what I heard from M no no pprb and I think I heard that um from uh Alison David the chair of pprb mentioned that she spoke to Dwayne that you guys are going to come to the next pprb meeting I think that's what the plan is so I'm G to wait because they had some specific questions and I'm gonna let them ask their questions um and my colleagues already answered them um but I think this is a great program and I'm glad that you guys are going to come to pprb because they they they have some have some questions about maintenance and how vot was chosen um and so I think this is a great program and they just want to help collaborate so looking forward to next meeting Miss Oregon so I think we were all blown away by your last project um the youth Advisory Board um with the defibrillators and this is a great follow-up project also I would love it if you would share um the information with us so that we can share it with the public um as far as donating I know that M Wang has been um trying to get this project off the ground for a while and I think this is a great way to get everybody involved uh Friday I took myself finally to the bagot library I haven't been to a library since Tex shut down and I saw so many ten residents there so this will be a great way for T um residents to get books I hope we can get this off the ground before um or in the near future so that um people can get books before the library reopens um and if you need any help from us reach out um I'm sure we'll all be on board to help you out yes Deputy m g I just want to clarify do you all already have funding for the first two or you looking for funding for the first two oh can we can we support them Council Deputy Mayor G there was there was a discussion with uh with Dwayne and uh the chair pprb they want them to come to the next meeting because they have some construct feedback for the help it succeed before we do that personally okay because I know we have some dollars set aside in The Advisory Board budget so I'm just curious if there's you know they had some they the advisor already spoke with prb and that's why they mentioned it they're going to come to the next meeting they have some questions to go like maintenance kind of a stuff and spacing I don't really understand but that was the ask and then okay to we continue then miss hashmat I think you wanted to say something um yes after they um go to their meeting and you get the specifics if you guys could give us the um the amount that you need I'm sure we can find the money to support the first two once again you guys oh please go ahead mayor oh sorry sorry um Deputy Mayor C let the let Liam speak real quick and then then you can speak one more thing to the of course please do yes we' probably link an Instagram page either for the Youth Advisory board or make a new page specifically for the little libraries in that QR code and through that we can add a link to either a GoFundMe or a patreon to make that transition easier for people if they would like to donate sounds good sounds good and I'm sorry I'm sorry Deputy Mayor cats I didn't see your hand go up it's okay I just want to also congratulate you div board for this great project and enhancing the parks and the community um you know I do like the idea of uh getting in donations so that we can maximize the amount of uh units that we could put out there obviously council member Goldberg is right uh you know the The pprb Works uh tirelessly to keep our Parks uh you know as beautiful as they are so it's important that we do collaborate with them and make sure that we address any concerns you know and uh open issues that they have as well um but I I think this is great and I'd love to see more of these all over town thank you Deputy Mayor catch Deputy Mayor G um finally I just wanted to acknowledge the parents of our youth Advisory Board students could you stand up I see some of you in the room and all the youth advisers the can you also stand up so so parents I just want to say thank you for Lending us your children they are awesome and they provide so much to this community and we're so grateful for you and that you did such an amazing job raising these amazing kids so thank you I just want to acknowledge you because you're here and then all the advisers who volunteer to support them thank you I love how you let the students lead every time there's a new initiative and it really speaks to your support as well so thank you thank you we appreciate you coming out tonight and we hope you have a happy holiday you so much all right our next order of business is work session items and first up is miscellaneous does anyone have anything under miscellaneous next order of business is old business does anyone have anything under old business new business councilwoman beler thank you Mr Mayor I just wanted to uh to acknowledge as many of you may already know that Quanza uh begins uh this December 26 and runs through January uary um 1st and K Quanza for those that may or may not know is a uh cultural holiday that's celebrated by many within our community and I I thought it was uh nice to be able to to really just kind of like recognize it and celebration of of Quanza so um I just wanted to to uh spend a moment to just um speak to a resolution uh that acknowledges or celebrates um this very very important um holiday day so give me one second and I'm going to bring it up computer yes you have it on [Music] thank you thank you okay so this is a resolution for Quanza and whereas Quanza is celebrated annually from December 26 to January 1st as a holiday that honors uh African-American Heritage culture and community and was established in 1966 by Dr Mala Malaya kenga and whereas the name kuanza is uh derived from Swahili phrase uh meaning first fruits and the celebration reflects African um Harvest Traditions encouraging reflection unity and Collective purpose whereas Quanza is Guided by seven core principles known as Saga which represents the uh values and practices that strengthen individuals families and communities whereas there are seven principles to Quanza first one being Unity to strive for more and maintain unity in uh in the family community nation and race two is self-determination to Define ourselves name ourselves create for ourselves and speak for ourselves uh third is collective work and responsibility to build and maintain our community together and make our brothers and sisters problems our problems and to solve them together the fourth is collective econom e omics um Cooperative rather e economics to build and maintain our own stores and shops and other businesses and to profit from um from them together the fifth is purpose to make our Collective vocation the building and developing of of our community in order to uh to restore our people to their traditional greatness uh six is creativity to always do as much as we can in the way we can to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than We inherited it and seventh is Faith to believe with all our heart in our people our parents our teachers our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle whereas the town of tenek values the rich diversity of its community and recognizes the importance of celebrating Traditions that promote Unity culture and share purpose whereas Quanza provides an opportunity for all residents of EK to reflect on these principles and um and their uh relevance to building a thriving and inclusive community now therefore be it resolved by the tenek Town Council that the council formally recognizes and celebrates Quanza encourages all residents to join and honoring uh K Quan's principles as a way to strengthen our shared values of unity purpose and Community thank you you're making a motion to add this to the content agenda yes I'm making a motion to add it can I second mm sorry if I can just ask a question I know we discussed it it was Council in Oregon she had mentioned we do a great Christmas event we do a great Hanukkah event if we could please start working on a quan event if it can't be for this year I don't need to sprint on you I know we discussed it briefly this week also if you may I could probably just Google us when does it start in general is there like a it it starts on December 26th every every year every year December 26th and it runs to January 1 and every uh day there is um lighting of a candle representing all seven of the principles okay so I think if we could definitely set something up this year or next that great I'll ask Jackie if if you can help with that for next thank you thank you Miss beler Mr clerk we have a first by Miss beler and a second by councilwoman Goldberg councilman Schwarz councilwoman beler yes councilman Goldberg yes councilman Oregon yes Deputy Mayor Catz Deputy Mayor G yes mayor Gan yes added to the consent agenda as resolution 350 as 2024 thank you Mr cor does anyone have anything else under their new business no moving along Communications moving along committee reports by Council aison Deputy Mayor G um so wanted to share on behalf of abcr that um they are hosting an in-person meeting on Monday December 16th at 7:30 p.m. it's going to be open to the public at the Roa Center um rooms 2A and 2B there will be some light Refreshments served and the purpose is really to bring the community together so all are welcome it's not going to be a formal sitdown meeting it's meant to be Transit you know an opportunity for folks to talk to one another and so we are really encouraging everyone who is able to attend get to know your abcr members get to know each other over some light Refreshments thank you Deputy Mayor December 16th 7:30 p.m. Rota Center 2 a 2B uh sorry 7:30 p.m. and and just so you know most of the abcr meetings are held virtually so one of the things that they're trying to do is try to get in person more frequently um I think nothing builds Community better than seeing each other face to face so Prem does anyone else have any committee reports councilwoman Goldberg yep so pprb met the first of this month um and it was Glenna and Lisa's last meeting um so they did a nice farewell there also James Brown decided that he was um he didn't want to continue to serve anymore so it was nice farewell for him too so first of all I just want to thank Glenna Lisa and and James um so I'm gonna kind of go through this Jackie there's a few things questions so it's just faster this way so they asked about an update on um the pickable courts um since the they seem to have stalled for a little bit so can we get an update on that they were also asking if there was access to Bergen pack tickets for the senior wreck program since it seems to be available for free in other towns um they've also continued their Parks tour so at the Matty Feldman Nature Preserve they felt that it would be a nice addition for some I don't know how many people have walked through there but there's it's it's literally a nature preserve and there's there's bird signs and so they were saying that can we make it can we embellish the fact that it's a nature preserve and have some bird stations in The Preserve which I thought was an interesting idea they also um went to Francis Hall Park and they've been discussing heavily the concept of quiet parks and pocket Parks um but the quiet Parks actually have a nice tie into the yab little libraries which is one of the reasons that they wanted to talk to them um on that same note there's a small parcel of land on Hargraves and Arley black 5507 Lots 9 10 11 12 14 and 15 um they're already on the rosi and they're identified as a place that they want to potentially look into US creating a pocket a quiet park there so they asked that if we can set up a time for um I guess maybe myself Jackie and the chairs or maybe the whole board whatever um to go with Farah to see if it would even be feasible to for them to start designing a quiet park over there so it's a small parcel it's very small and the block again is 5507 and it's Lots 910 11 12 14 and um they also had mentioned in their Parks tour that there's some equipment that might just need to be looked at at MLK Park um and they wanted us to kind of see if we they had any ideas that they feel that the splash pads they're great in the summer but they're a big space in the winter if there's a creative idea that anyone has on how to winterize The Flash Pad so that they're usable in the winter um they've also started looking into senior playground equipment which I know that the pprb looked at I want say 2019 or 2020 um other cities are doing it um and then the last thing before I turn it over to Jackie was they had an ask for Council which I do support um they wanted to see if we could amend the membership there to include a liaison from the senior citizens Advisory Board um we have one for most there and hackin saac River but since senior citizens Advisory Board does a Parks update at each meeting they felt that it would just make sense to have a liaz on there for collaboration um that was a unanimous ask so I don't know what everyone feels about it I'm okay with that um I'm fine with it as well can we connect with the chair yeah they they they had wanted I don't want to say names they had wanted the person that does the updates every time but um I spoke to him he wasn't sure if he was interested time wise so but yes so um I don't know if everyone else I want everyone else okay with it or that for the January meetings can we update The Advisory Board to add in a member to pprb so it's a liaison from senior senior citizens Advisory Board please not a not a problem thank you anyone else on yes Miss beler uh kind of briefly I just want to give an update um historic reservation commissions doing some U wonderful work around town many of you may have noticed the markers that are out um that have been placed by DPW um so uh we're really excited about that uh and then just affordable housing um our um Town manager will be uh reporting on on the the fine details but we are in the um phase of of really reporting to DCA and and um really identifying uh Parcels of land that we uh can identify um to use as a means by which we can somewhat push back on the requirements in terms of high numbers for afford affordable units so um one thing I just want to mention too is that uh many I I attend and some of my colleagues attended to the league of municipalities this year and there was a lot of discussion about affordable housing um of course and also adus one of the the the most well attended uh Workshop was the one on adus it probably had upwards to about 400 people um in the room so um some exciting things that are happening around um the state that I think our Township can certainly glean and benefit from thank you thank you Miss Belcher anybody else on Council committee reports Mr Schwarz Mr clerk where where where is that report is it in the it's in the agenda no problem okay just want to make sorry um last week we had a sub zoning committee report okay last son sorry about that last week we had a sub zoning committee report we had some excellent updates going through over the next uh few weeks uh you'll see 100 State Street and 140 State Street come to the council um based on the presentation that was made to the public in November we also discussed a potential new development where the reginas is uh no action steps are being taken right now by Council on that uh additionally in the report report we discussed uh sheeper woods and um state of um New Jersey as it relates to some land swaps for uh the root for widening Bridge renovation traffic I uh report um uh amongst that there were some a few other small items that were discussed please take a look at it we um such as a Redevelopment agency which we were instruct which we reviewed the pros and cons there were no Pros so we're not taking any steps also interestingly enough um in hope the Housing Authority was discussed and what we've learned with the Housing Authority is one goal or one idea that this council's always wanted was how can we take our low-income housing but keep it in house when we work hard to develop it and a Housing Authority allows us to do that but a Housing Authority that those units do not count towards our affordable housing commitments which were already behind the apil as is every town in New Jersey so we decided to take no action on that because it's just we'd have to build hundreds of more and then hundreds more so uh that was really the the gist of the zoning committee it was a great meeting lastly our our fence representative is here tonight uh some changes about are going to be coming up in the next few Council meetings as it relates to Corner lots and fencing and the settlement the back and forth which was interesting was um and our applicant wasn't too happy with it was we'll allow those fencing on the corners but will require the top six six or so inches of it to be lad or see-through to kind of a not make it look like a stockade so some interesting things coming I thank everyone that participated in that and if anyone has any questions when you read it members of the public as well always feel free to reach out to me thank you thank you Mr Schwarz any other committee reports our next order of business is Council listed items first up New Jersey traffic camera law Mr Schwarz yes um we've unfortunately had some hit and runs in the last uh few weeks we actually had another one uh another pedestrian struck yesterday not a hit in a run that the victim was okay um unfortunately that was not the case last time and many of us who drive in New York New York have speed cameras there's red light cameras and people are like why don't we have that here and it's just incredibly to learn that the state of New Jersey does not allow it they don't allow it they came with a ton of excuses and the fact is is that we need it and what I like is for our Council to draft a resolution for our clerks to send out to the Bergen County towns as well to urge our assembly members to get this going I can't think of any reason why we are not pressuring our legislators to allow for it and it's embarrassing when a member of the Public's like why don't we have cameras and I'm like they don't allow it I mean it just makes no sense so if we have some nodding heads i' like our attorney in our I have a question for the attorney I don't know if he knows so I know that this hasn't been a thing since like 2014 why did they it was a pilot program and then it went away do you know why I'm just curious the state passed that that abandoned there were do you know why there were some concerns over your uh essentially you're being charged with any criminal offense you have the right to face your accuser and there's some concerns over the right to face that is computer where it's not a person be cross-examined during case so over those concerns so it's I think it makes half States country allow allow these kind of cameras about half don't but New Jersey has adopt a law it I have a followup question if we were to have them who would get the revenue from the ticks would it be the local municipality it would be the local yeah I mean we're here for the safety but yeah I like the question but we're here for the safy anybody else thank you Mr Schwarz I like the idea and I think you have uh at least four ning Heads next order of business Street spart New Jersey Miss Goldberg all right so I have two back toback counil listed items so the first one um Street Smart New Jersey so the agenda packet has the print out thought details for everyone's curious so we've had two recent hidden runs in Tac one unfortunately had a fatality and I think that there's really an urgent need for us to address the traffic and pedestrian safety um both but we have the unique um issue that a lot of our roads are County Roads so Bergen County is currently undergoing a local Safety Action Plan so um with I'm going to get the name of the place jtpa so New Jersey Transit planning Authority um to work on the the safety on County Roads which is good because that means they're spending the money um on roads that impact te residents um so uh it's basically they're formalizing the data so that the county can identify and then prioritize the road safety projects on the county roads so we have panr queenan Road River Road Cedar Lane I don't know if I'm missing anything um so I'm asking first of all that um we have our manager make sure that the survey there's a survey through the county that it's on the website a lot of the other towns of mg County have done it because the more data that they're getting from our residents our police DPW about problem roads the more that we can prioritize and get some of the funding when they roll out the next piece of that the other part of this is same umbrella organization has a program called Street smarts New Jersey orell is doing it right now um and it's it's a combination of an enforcement and uh Public Safety campaign that has been proven in municipalities I think it's like 200 municipalities across the state have done it um it's literally done for you like you we have to um which I'm going to ask in a second that we form a task force with members of council the manager police and I'm was thinking the engineer and a member of uh complete streets probably make sense um just given their expertise um and then it's it's literally it's it's done and I think we miss the opportunity for grant funding for it for 2025 so depending on how it works but they do cover the police overtime there's a grant for it for the um enforcement and Community um forums that the police would have to do um like I said ell is doing it right now so if anyone wants to just look at their social media and get a sense of what's going on they're they're doing this uh it's it's a whole traffic pedestrian safety um uh I like this is I'd like to be on the task so I my ask is that we create the task force to and the task force would one work with the manager and the whole task force to roll this out and then to you know help make sure that the lsap is on the website um I think the fact that mayor PKS of the county is it's actually your department even better all day long um and my last ask also and again we have number of County Roads and I think the police need to kind of give us the data first but I believe that we should be asking the county to do a traffic study at our more dangerous intersections and it's their roads they would be able to do the traffic study those are my asks though I I have an addendum I don't want to I mean we first if going to ask the county if they could do it this Century be great just saying um and to explain to maybe given directions how to get to T um the second thing entirely different but I do have an update under roads uh the manager just got a small little update on the potential um circular um roundabout that we were discussing as it relates to Queen an aers core and State Street so I am more for the public because people have asked me for an update we just got that like a little schematic an hour ago so we'll we'll we'll get that out into the public in the next you know week or so as released there's a cost a heavy cost six digigit cost to do that but that's extremely do matter that that's oh wait a is that on queenan Road Queen it's not so queenan is a County Road oh hey interesting so we could put this in the recycling B to Nowhere or we can keep pushing it Forward I did speak I did speak with one of the Commissioners about this and and they were the ones that Rec so we can do one on queenan road oh hopeful yeah um so my that's my ask so I'm I don't know if anyone has any feelings on this or so so this would be a task force it would be a task force yeah okay with it okay um I so I would like I mean I did a lot of the homework on I would like to be on it do we need a third I mean up to not otherwise the other the the packet the rest of the members is based off the packet from Street Smart so it's the manager a member of the police department um they say a member of a community organization focused on like pedestrian safety so my thought was the complete streets program they're very heavily involed Michael Rockland okay um eight zero for him yeah and and Engineering I gave your cell phone number the traffic department falls under police yeah so and you may want to think about like age um friendly because of the fact that you know we're talking about the input of sen that's a good idea so okay I'm good with that so do we need a moot yes good I would like to make a motion to formalize the task force what was the name of it Council I'm sorry Street Smart task force yeah and it's a member from the police department the manager you mayor and Rockin wait hold on and uh the engineer and I like the idea of somebody from age friendly phck um are we also okay with asking the the county to do a traffic study on our County Roads I guess we'd have to get the specific intersections from the police department for the high areas but given everything else it and it would come out of their budget when or you could meet first come up with a plan and then um reach out to them well I reached out to one of the Commissioners and this was their recommendation that we asked because they have the funding for it right now through the LSA program so I just don't know what the intersection is so I'm going to defer to the police andw to advise that okay thank you um have another item I do so social media so we've heard a lot from um I know another so advisory boards wanting social media accounts um and I had reached out to the attorney so I wanted to just kind of see what everyone thought we don't have a policy as far as the social media and the advisory boards are an extension of council which means that they are subject to Oprah um so my ask is that in order to protect the town as far as Oprah and I don't know any other legal issues that I'm just not thinking of um that we have the attorney create a policy so that the advisory boards can um have their own social media accounts while the town still complies with the regulations and LA that we're required to do um the other part of that I was asked um I I don't know what post it was there was a post and there was kids and I was got a message that you know did the parents sign a waiver I have no idea but I I guess that was a thing that we should probably consider as well um so I don't know if anyone has any concerns about it but I know the advisory boards want social media and I think this is a good way to make sure that we're protecting the town and making that work for them too so I really think this is a larger discussion um my concern about the social media Pages I'm not sure where I land on this but the more social media Pages we have the harder it is for us to Wrangle um and whose job is it going to be to monitor all the pages um I think the other I think issue that we have is that folks don't even know where to go um they get more content from non you know uh Municipal Pages than they do from official government pages and I would love if we somehow work towards directing people to our Township page um I think a better system would to make sure to be would be to make sure all of our advisory boards provide content to whoever is managing the government page and we put it all there um maybe for some advisory boards it makes more sense than others um so I'm not sure how I feel about a policy that applies to all um yeah so I I have mixed feelings about this one quick um I'm actually a little alarmed and concerned about this because at the county we have a policy and the county has way more departments and divisions and there were some issues in the past with certain divisions that were posting things that they were not supposed to and then there had to be they had to create a policy at the county where it goes through the county Executives off and so each division Department want to post something I know it slows things down because when it comes to social media faster but um they were able to avoid a couple of lawsuits because there were a couple of people that were a little offended some divisions and departments did without consulting legal and or the county Executives office and I'm not trying to compare and contrast us to the county because the countyy is a way bigger animal than we are at the county and we have less departments and divisions and staff but um I actually do think we should have a policy when it comes to social media and I thought we discussed something like this in the past I guess we never finalized it do you remember that Mr clerk we we had discussed at a point establishing in a policy manual update a social media policy for our entire organization because that is needed and I know that it's something that's still in the works that we we should zero in on which it sounds like that that was in the consideration also right employees volunteers council members board members how to conduct ourselves on social media in such a way to make sure that the organization's not liable perhaps for words that an individual shares just to kind of answer I guess both questions so who I don't know who manages our social media now but I think that the no like I'm I'm serious like but we have Oprah VI like we have to like there's retention issues there and I'm sure there's like I said there's other things and I was asked about a a waiver I have absolutely no idea I don't know Scott what do you think and Miss beler after Scott sorry I apologize I mean we can easily create and create all these things I think it's um really question of how actively it's wor and used if draft use it consistently then help but ifs on boards on board that they're actually GNA do it then they can't hurt but it's it's not then it's not a good thing to have not just delure you had so I I kind of um remember this discussion about social media and coming up with best practices and some type of standards of practice um almost like a Cod of conduct um and I really I kind of agree agree with Deputy Mayor G that we really I think we are best served to drive traffic to our own website to our own social media because of the fact that when people are looking for information they want we want to ensure that they're getting um clear information accurate information and so forth so we have social media pages I I would suggest that perhaps if we have Advisory board members um to work with um that want a social media presence is to work with our clerk to say these are the posts that we'd like to see posted these are the things that we'd like to communicate to the community because I think you know having each Advisory Board manage their own social media page can be kind of you know recipe for a problem so I I would recommend maybe bringing those indiv idual advisory boards and maybe convening a meeting with Doug to have you know a clear-cut idea as to exactly what they want to post and what what kind of social media presence they want that would be a policy I mean we just heard that yab wanted to have an a Instagram which I'm fine with but that Instagram is owned by the township and then subject to Oprah and whatever other rules great Point who's better able to speak to Oprah than our clerk that's that's literally exactly yeah 100% that's literally why I'm saying I want to do this because I want to make sure that we're covered they're covered literally 100% but but I would say let's build upon our social media footprint as opposed to allowing our advisory boards to create their own oh that's that's didn't come across that's what I meant yeah I I apologize I didn't come across I meant and the township should own the page like what I mean yeah so we speak to compliance is it in compliance is it a standard is it is it outside of what we want our brand to be I think that one of the discussions we need to have and I remember speaking about this is that we do want to have our social media presence speak to the brand that we want to uh portray to the outside world yeah you're 100% that's I what I don't want is the the the boards have what you're saying is is spoton like the The Advisory boards are a function of the town so we want to make sure that it's uh uniform Miss organ it sounds like everybody's saying the same thing so we just bought Doug another hat MH yeah anybody else Mr clerk got that oh wait um because there was a lot of back and forth you can you do that for next for January not a problem thank you thank you Miss Goldberg next up Township manager report thank you mayor and good evening Council and Township residents please join us for the Township's monora lighting scheduled for December 26th at 5:30 p.m. on the municipal green all are welcome welcome to attend please join us at the reorganization of our Township Council scheduled for January 2nd at 700 p.m. at the rotor Center in gym number two all are welcome as well the next planning board meeting in reference to the master plan is scheduled for December 12th at 7 p.m. at the Rota Center please see our website for additional details and documentation the Department of Public Works is closing out our 2024 leaf collection efforts but continue to have four Crews systematically picking up curbside leaf piles the township offered an extension until December 9th no additional leaf piles can be placed curbside for collection to date a total of 16,300 cubic yards of Le leaves have been collected I would like to thank our DPW director Travon Romeo and assistant superintendent Mike caban for overseeing this operation and to all of our DPW staff for their hard work as we know this was a very difficult leaf collection season any questionable areas that should be brought to our attention please do so as soon as possible as we will be closing out the leaf collection season the Cedar Lane Paving project is complete with the exception of some roadway lines being painted this week I appreciate the cooperation of our residents while we navigated the difficulties of this very busy roadway I would like to an acknowledge the outstanding efforts of our traffic Bureau who personally assisted the Cedar Lane business businesses during the paving project our annual toy drive continues until December 13th drop off locations are listed on our website and a holiday gathering for family pickup is scheduled for December 19th at the Rota center from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. our covid memorial stone was delivered today and is on display outside township hall we will plan an an unveiling ceremony in the coming weeks in response to the Drone sightings in our area the Teek Police Department is is aware of the recent surge both locally and across the state while there is currently no known threat in the public safety to Public Safety the FBI New Jersey State Police and the New Jersey office of Homeland Security and preparedness are urging the public to remain Vigilant if you spot a drone or any related suspicious suspicious activity in your neighborhood please report it immediately I have posted the contact information on our social media platforms for your convenience some Grant updates I have for you tonight we have two Grant hearings coming up tonight for both argon Park and vot park the Argon Park Grant is an njde grant for Green Acres this grant will focus on the upgrade of the restrooms and installation of of a splash pad total estimated cost of this project is $750,000 and the grant is a 50% matching Grant the vote Park Grant is for the Jake's law program Grant and it will focus on the enhan M and upgrade of an all of our existing all-inclusive playground the estimated cost of this project is around 1.5 million and we would qualify for 50% um of this grant since the cap is $750,000 we are currently in the application phase for both of these grant opportunities and I will keep you updated as to the status the township has also advis the township has also been advised of a grant award in the amount of $381,000 through the J DP work clean diesel Moder modernization grant program we continue to work on our cdbg grant applications and a FEMA assistance to Firefighters Grant due the end of this month moving on to some of our project updates the VOE Park restroom building is being delivered sometime next week I'm happy to report that the Bell Avenue drainage project has been officially approved which means we received the digitally signed document from the EPA in the amount of the $1.3 million I have confirmed with our Township engineer that we are still on track with our design phase for this project the survey has been approved and we are still in Communications about the compensation fee our heric Park project update the baseball field diamond is complete fence posts are in place and curbing for the basketball courts is complete as well the contractor is now working on the gravel base for the walkway the spray Park equipment has arrived and the restroom Foundation is ready for delivery the playground foundation work is scheduled for later this month and I continue to work with our project link for our town with our Township Engineers so residents will be able to go on our website and click on a project link and it'll give you um upto-date information I'm looking to go live with that link sometime in January so I'll give an update next meeting uh the Palisade AB Improvement project the construction is complete and the contractor is just addressing some punch list items to include the pavement markings bike lanane improvements are in the design phase and we will plan to include some of the Lucy Avenue drainage upgrades to this project project which was brought to our attention um last meeting the Argon Park tennis courts are design phase is complete and the project is Du to go out to bid within the next few months the Sagamore Park Improvement project is also in the design phase and we're exploring vendors for that project the 2024 Road resurfacing program is underway we have currently identified the roadways and we're preparing the budget lastly the Grayson and uh Grayson and Prince um intersection I have an update that both solar speed signs have been installed um on that roadway for safety lastly I just like to wish everyone a happy holiday season and a blessed new year thank you mayor that's all I have thank you Miss hashmat Mr sammon Township attorney's report yes thank you mayor so as we're coming to the end of my uh my first term uh as Township attorney I want to give a quick recap of some of the things fall department has been up to the past 17 months I think it is I think it can be hard for residents to see what we want to see what we're doing one of the secretive you saved us a lot of money yeah that's the that's the first thing on my list one of the most secretive departments nature of it so I just want to give president a little bit of insight into some of the things we come to uh first thing is saving money we've been able to last year we were able to decrease our legal budget by about $50,000 uh to to say the taxpayers money this year or we're keeping our budget flat I'm expecting that next year we are in for a significant decrease as well so even more money next um alongside that we have resolved approximately 21 uh long-standing lawsuits against against the township some of them were three four five years old uh bring our total number of AC cases down to five uh which is more in line with Municipality of our size I'm expecting that to have some long-term ramifications long-term benefits I should say for the the township uh in in terms of cost both from the lawyers are going to be charging less with fewer cases it's also going to help with our insurance bills uh over time you know gfes that we are not a legal liability um third in working with the clerk's office namly Doug and Kristen who are here uh We've significantly decreased our backlog of of op requests most part we are getting our responses uh within within a week or so uh which is a significant significantly increased turnaround time from what we've seen in previous uh and last uh We've helped the council drafted a number of significant ordinances including one that cleaned up our Township Charter for the first time 19 1988 when it adopted uh we helped to draft call a hotly debated uh ordinance related to back chickens uh maybe most importantly an ordinance that is up for adoption tonight that will significantly line or land use boards and make them much more transparent and accessible to the public uh that's just some of the things that we've been doing and I would just want to take this opportunity to thank the uh the many many lawyers uh that helped the township conduct its business and thank you to the council as well thank you Mr Sam and you and your team are appreciated our next order of business is formal meeting items and first up is a public hearing on a New Jersey Green Acres application for improvements to argon Park Mr clerk do you have to to read anything into the record before we open up the public hearing no sir we have this uh application information in the agenda we actually also printed out some hard copies uh for the public tonight if they were so behooved take a gander um and this public hearing two separate public hearings uh one for Argon Park one for vote Park it's part of our grant requirements so we need to hold a public hearing just on one at a time one on the Argon Park application one on the vot park application first up is argon Park so if we have anyone from the public that wishes to speak for No More Than 3 minutes on this specific application now is your time uh General good and Welfare will be coming in a few minutes again this is a public hearing just for our argon Park nobody want to talk about argon park in that case the public hearing is closed thank you mayor and we need to do the same thing for our voty Park application and for uh a reminder to council these resolutions are on our consent agenda so we will be considering them with our sweep in a little bit does anybody want to talk about the Green Acres application for vote Park seeing No Hands the public hearing on that is closed thank you mayor and councel you Mr clerk our next order of business is our public hearing and Adoption of ordinances Mr clerk can you please read the titles of the ordinances into the record yes sir these are the last ordinances we consider for the year 2024 we have ordinance number 28-22 24 amending the township code to revise parking laws regarding Towing fees we have ordinance number 29224 amending the township code to Revis Municipal fees ordinance number 30224 amending the township code for the township ATAC to modernize and clarify procedures for land use applications last but not least again the last ordinance of 2024 ordinance 31224 amending the township code to revise development reg regulations regarding fence permits and that's all mayor thank you Mr clerk does anyone in ch I'm sorry go ahead Mr sammon so uh the the F the F the fence permit uh ordinance I'm going to ask that the council table that one uh we had referred it to the planning board as required to do because a um uh it's a development or regulation the plan board was not able to consider it but because of the timing of how our meetings worked we uh we can't the council can't adopt it until the 35 days have expired uh which which haven't expired yet so um we're not going to be unless the council wants to have a special meeting before the end of the year we're not going to be all consider consider again before then so it has to be tabled and we can bring it up again in January okay so you're talking about ordinance number 31 yeah that's correct in that case I move to table it second sorry uh councilman Schwarz um yeah that motion to yes yes Council belger yes Council Goldberg yes Council Oran yes debie may cats debie May G yeah he had the bounce G May beon yes TBL does anyone in Chambers want to talk just about these three ordinances and three these three ordinances alone Dr Powers stuck Powers tck I don't know where it came from but ordinance 30 2024 is one of the best ordinances this Township has seen to deal with our land use questions we certainly need to know when we get to a meeting what is the complete application and we certainly need to have the full 10 days in preparation for any site plan approval and I don't know who brought this forward and uh I believe your attorney drafted it it is a extraordinarily important ordinance to try to clarify and get our land use boards much more available to the public and I also appreciate the attorney uh moving to table the venes I don't know where what the purpose of that was and until the planning boards had a chance to talk about so we can understand why that's an ordinance that when I will come back that um that would have said that fences private fences do not require a permit they were Exempted from all the permit rules and this ordinance would require defenses be included but how and why and I think that's something that the planning board should certainly decide is consistent with whatever master plan we happen to have by then byebye thank you Dr P anyone else in Chambers Mr s Alan sonck resident as a resident and as a um member of the planning board I've I've seen from both sides the opacity the the lack of information about applications that are in front of the land use boards whether it be the board of adjustment or the planning board uh and I share that that thanks uh to say that there should be a clearer process where every applicant knows what they're going through where the members of the public and the members of the land use boards themselves have a clearer understanding of what's coming forward what documents are available what is being considered uh so that there's much greater clarity as to what's being reviewed I think this helps everybody involved it helps the applicants it helps the township it helps the building department it helps the members of the land use board it helps the members the professionals the attorneys who are working for the land use board uh too often I've seen things falling through the cracks and that should never happen in a in a Township of this size uh I think that whether it's members of the public having notification knowing what's going on with these applications this is exactly the kind of process that should have been created a long time ago it's a credit to this Township that hopefully it will be adopted tonight and again I think that whether it's members of the public or members of the land use boards uh everyone involved in this process will be better off going forward this ensures that things don't slip to the cracks that the township gains those resources especially escro funds to cover the costs of of much of the process that had not been collected before I think this goes above and beyond uh in terms above the savings that that that the attorney has described uh this is a process that that really improves the way this Township works and the entire uh application process has functioned again I hope this passes and again thank you for doing so thank you Mr son anyone else in Chambers want to talk just about these three bills seeing No Hands Mr clerk the person in Zoom we have Keith Kaplan please feel free to unmute working on that can you hear me loud and clear hello so I was uh just taking a look at uh ordinance 30 d224 and had a couple notes I just wanted to mention one um it seems that uh the ordinance in Section 3 creates article 7 which was already created in ordinance 42024 from earlier this year it remove one might think it was a scrivener's error but it does remove 33-39 and makes it reserved which was part of the electric vehicle infrastructure ordinance which was 42024 but it adds seemingly 33-40 which was also included in the previous 42024 so there's something strange going on there on the substance of the ordinance in section 33-40 under M Conformity required it adds a line digital copies shall be required for all documents submitted to the administrative officer and this is for any application which requests of variance or uh site plan approval I had um had this idea when I was on Council and asked the experts uh and The Architects and whatnot and the response that I got was for most most large applications it's not a problem they can gladly submit a digital copy but for the grandma whose AC unit goes out and has you know a hard copy survey of her property and she comes in and asks for a permit to do a new AC unit well that's fine except with this ordinance because once you do that she's going to have to have electronic uh surveys and that means she's going to despite the ordinance that says you don't need to pay for a survey again she's going to have to go and get surveys again and you know sit sweltering in the house and you know for lack of any other reason what we did when I was on the planning board and when I was on councel was just ask the uh applicants for a digital copy I think 100% of them uh wound up giving it to us and there were no large applications that the public did not have the benefit of the electronic copy but requiring an electronic and digital um uh application and um uh digital copies of everything required including the surveys and the uh expert uh information is going to pose a very big detriment to those on fixed incomes and uh seemingly for no benefit uh someone comes in for a fence application I mean yeah you need to know where the fence is going but uh just knowing the survey that you've already had on file for the past 20 years suffices but and you know several thousand for them to now have electronic requirements in addition to the raised fees is going to be uh burdensome so I suggest some sort of update there to make it uh better for the residents while still achieving its purpose thank you Mr Kaplan Mr clerk you have one more person on Zoom Michael Katy uh good evening Council thank you Mr clerk um I'd like to weigh in on this topic as well um to just continue one second one second Michael sorry we're having a little technical difficulty here for a split second no problem it's it's not on your end Mike just one second sorry can you hear any oh Michael the floor is yours Mr okay thank you very much uh Mr Clerk and uh Council I'd like to uh continue this topic of conversation about the electronic plant submissions and the surveys and other plan documentation as well um I've had the opportunity to do quite a bit of this over the past couple of years in other municipalities and it seems that the one of the ways that people do get around this issue which is a very real issue when somebody comes in for a small thing like and in t the AC thing is actually quite common um whether they're giving in some like building plans or electrical plans mechanical plans from the manufacturer whatever it is none everybody has access to a large a wide format scanner to create digital files or the AB ility to convert their document to PDF to send it off and so on and so forth and then you have people who aren't or just whether they're just not familiar with creating these type of files and so on uh there there is a solution there seems the solution seems to be to create a kosk at the building department where somebody who has a paper application they come up to they walk up to the counter and they you know they they chat with the with the clerk there and they talk about their application they say they have some files and so on and for the purpose of creating a digital a digital twin of all your paper files the the the administrative staff who's at the counter can go there to the kiosk with the person who's not familiar with digital plan files and they can go and they could scan all the paper with them they can type in the information into the system they can if they have a big uh plan chances are that somebody's doing a apartment building with a 300 page plan set they're going to want to send it to you digitally they don't really want to print it 10 times it's like $1,000 in printing costs um but if you're talking about the homeowner who's doing a small thing has a paper survey that they got when they uh bought the house or when they refinanced their mortgage they might have that fold it up somewhere in a file they can bring it to town hall the the administrative staff can take it to wide format scanner scan it really quickly maybe it'll take like you know a minute or two save the PDF file bring it along with the application kind of walk them through it and this happens fairly infrequently because these type of things don't come up every day um the majority of applications um at most building departments are either through like you know whether it's through attorneys expeditors and stuff like that um you're really not going to see that many of these cases come up so it is manageable for the staff and that's how I recommend that the council consider moving forward with this if they do that thanks have good evening thank you Mr Katy seeing Mr Rose good evening Howard Rose just a quick question uh I don't know why it's not valid to just use a survey that everyone supplies when they buy their property initially if there's been no changes and it's on record with the township why isn't that record available and it could be scanned by the township or photocopied by the township or just used I mean it's there it's correct it's appropriate why is there a problem thank you Mr Rose seeing no further hands this public hearing is closed Mr attorney before I open it up to council you wanted to address a couple of items sure uh thank you Mr May so I first want to say the the the numbering issue is not a substantive issue and my opinion it's something that gets can either be adjusted by us or be adjusted by the by ecode uh when they upload the uh the ordinances to the um uh the adopted ordinance to the to the internet um second for the in terms of the discussion about digital copies you know we spoke with uh all the Township's Professionals in drafting this we consulted with more than a dozen other municipalities uh in New Jersey I think it was closer to 15 or 16 different municipalities that we consulted with in drafting this every single one of them had already adopted an ordinance that required digital copies every single one agreed that it was a best practice uh it made think significantly easier both for the board professionals to interview made it easier to uh get everything to the members of the board so don't necessarily visit Town Hall frequently to pick up paper copies of things it makes things cheaper in many instances for uh for residents in that I think as Mr Katy said they only have to provide one digital copy as opposed to a dozen or more uh paper copies um and that it also makes it easier makes it easier to for public transparency sake and that uh we are able to easily up upload everything to the to the internet uh and make it available to members of the public um as it stands now the township uh either is I'll say supposed to be uh uh making digital copies themselves or simply doesn't in uh in a number of instances and therefore makes it harder for members of the public to access this think it's a um again both a best practice and something that is money well spent um and a minimum requirement of people who want to apply to the land use boards so we would we would stand behind that but Mr classy's suggestion is to make essentially a kiosk available I think is a good one um I think that's something that that the township can do I don't think we need to make any changes to the ordinance to do that um I don't think we I think that that be something we do through um I'll say through the back end and don't need to do through a public boat or anything thank you Mr attorney anyone on Council have anything in that case I move to approve all three ordinances Mr clerk that's a first from our mayor is there a second Schwarz councilman Schwarz s yes councilman beler yes councilman Goldberg yes councilman Oregon yes Deputy Mayor G yes mayor Pagan yes all ordinances adopted thank you Mr clerk our next order of business is good and Welfare any member of the public wishing to be heard at this time will be called on and will come forward and state their names for the record comments shall be limited to 3 minutes per person if you are on Zoom please list your first name and your last name so our clerk can call on you and please turn on your camera when addressing Council thank you I see a cute little baby in the room so I'm going to ask her mother first if she would like to speak since it is a school night it's nice to see you again miss Feinberg Mr Mayor Deputy Mayor and council members thank you very much I came this evening in part to say I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving unlike those of us on Bell Avenue who spent roughly half the day bailing our basements out again in the rain this problem I know we now have funding but we keep getting these kind of very amorphous platitudes it's in the process it's working so I'm here tonight to ask for specifics I want to know what the engineers are doing and what their deadline is I want to know when their plan is going to be complete and when we're going to break ground and when the tanks are going to be in Sagamore Park so that I can stop bailing out my basement during holidays with my family this is really hard my my house has dropped value all by almost a third while everyone else is in Teck has risen during the year that I've owned it I can't move I can't do anything because I can't lose a third of its value you don't have to worry about it I'll pick them all up at the end thank you so much um and I would again put a plugin for the single moms out there who have a vested interest in the way our town is run to see some level of good and Welfare at the beginning of a meeting so that you don't have Toddlers and infants screaming and walking around and parents trying to balance in the middle of a meeting so that we can simply speak for literally a minute and 20 seconds to be two hours past bedtime thank you thank you Miss fineberg I'm going to call on a couple more people in chambers before we go on to zoom anyone in Chambers want to speak sir hi Council Robert lazarof tck resident in the past few years residents of tenek who live in the vicinity of Beverly Road and the Stop and Shop supermarket have learned that the nearby parking lots have been designated areas in need of Redevelopment by the powers the be and tneck there have been many presentations given by Town employees and representatives informing us that we need parking garages that we need apartment buildings there but to me and many of my neighbors the real area in need of Redevelopment is Cedar Lane and I'm not talking about the surface of the road repaved or the condition of the sidewalks I'm talking about the commercial ghost town that once was the heart of Tek while many main streets of our neighboring towns are joyful hubs this time of year much of Cedar Lane is commercially deserted these dark and empty storefronts seem to Define Cedar Lane as 2024 comes to a close I walked down Cedar Lane this past Sunday December 8th beginning on Elm to Palisade Avenue then back I counted 99 commercial properties on the stretch and of the 99 16 are vacant storefronts 16% of the storefronts on that that stretch of Cedar Lane are vacant more than one out of six and some of these dirty empty windows were once huge stores or restaurants remember dollarland right next to Noah's Arc of course you do because even though it closed years ago it's dilapidated sign minus the r an empty Hulk of a storefront is there to remind you like a depressing ghost of holiday's past how about the taipe Noodle House how many years ago did they serve their last meal and like dollarland it's an empty shell of a storefront with a big aging sign indicating what is no longer there and we can now add the now shuddered Kentucky Fried Chicken to the list the iconic Bishops that was briefly reborn as gueros and is now vacant and Empire Hunan is also gone which had been a Cedar Lane staple since I moved to tenek in 1993 it is insulting to the residents who live nearby that so much energy of this Council has been spent trying to convince us of the need to build multi-level parking garages and apartment buildings near Cedar Lane it is insulting because the wish for this new construction does nothing to address the fundamental issue of the commercial neglect that is visible to anyone walking down Cedar Lane if there's any place in Teck that has earned the stigma of an area in need of Redevelopment it is Cedar itself not the nearby parking lots thank you thank you Mr lazarov the gentleman on the aisle I saw his hand go up first Simon chrisher proud resident of tck for close to 35 years is this better Simon chrisher proud resident of EK for close to 35 years member of the TX swim club for close to 30 years this has been a tough year for everyone uh not aided by people from other communities uh being bust into this uh Town council meeting to push their own agendas to spread their own vitriol for whatever purpose this is a Tek Town Council and I come here now to speak on behalf of the t swim club it's a it was a it still is a driving force in bringing people into the town um it's one place that truly believes in hate has no home here no matter what your religion Creed Color Race orientation everyone is welcome there um during the summer time no matter what you'll always find there are no us or them there are just people who want to swim people who want to dive people who want to Splash in the water uh teenagers who want to mingle and socialize children who want to play with friends adults who want to sit around soaking in the Rays uh meeting and chatting and talking no matter with whom and now after many years the swim club is falling on hard times and the town wants them to default please don't let them default please don't make them default please remember that this is something that brings people into Teck thank you thank you Mr chrisher Mr Yuck good evening everybody Dr Philip yuck Bell Avenue so first of all I want to second what Mr lazarov was just saying I couldn't have said it more eloquently he SP spoke so well uh he's absolutely right 100% um I want to uh first of all there are number of things I want to say first of all I I want to encourage the counc and the um the reorganization is happening in just a few weeks and I want to encourage you to reelect Michael Pagan as mayor of TK he has done an excellent job through some very difficult times in the town and uh I think he is the best suited for the job so please keep that in mind uh couple of our uh residents who don't live in my area who don't live in in the neighborhood association that I sometimes represent have asked me to speak on a couple issues one is that they would uh these are people who live around the queen an Road area in in the Southeast section of town uh they asked me to appeal to the council to consider building a foot bridge to stop and shop uh so that they don't have to walk over to Cedar Lane and then all around and and back across um multiple streets uh I think it's not a bad idea I know you know we haven't fixed the foot bridge over the tracks yet um uh on the other side of town but uh I think that that's uh something you you ought to just keep in mind for the future they also asked which I think really makes a lot of sense I was there today and I sat there for several red lights before I could turn uh that that you put in a left turn light on Queen and Road similar to the one that exists on palate Avenue and Cedar Lane it would make traffic move much more readily so I encourage you to consider that in terms of the development you know where I stand with all this development but I just want to ask a question to the council what are we getting what kind of consideration or compensation are we getting to give away multiple Acres of Municipal land to a developer I would like to know other than a pilot who's paying for that land that land is worth millions of dollars who's paying for it are we getting any money or are we just getting apartment buildings thank you thank you Dr y the gentleman in the front row with the cane take your time sir take your time I'm glad you didn't include that in my three minutes um I've never spoken before the council before I've been a uh Michael I'm sorry uh Michael Robinson uh I've been a member of the we've lived in this Township for 31 years and I've been a member of the TX swim club for 30 years um I'm not going to speak as a board member I'm going to speak as a person that uh thinks this is an incredibly valuable asset to the community we have a main pool we have a lap pool we have a kitty pool we have tennis courts uh we have games we have a snack bar we have adequate parking uh it's a place to go and be with your friends uh and and to Schmo and I heard several things mentioned today the term community and it is part of this community and I believe that the only way we're going to be able to maintain it is to have a public private partnership with the township I think it's valuable for the township I think by doing that it makes the swim club more more afford affordable excuse me for its current members and affordable for members of the town and I think it's important that we include everybody in the town to be able to have the opportunity to use the swim club and it would be a shame if this facility was to close because we were not uh had enough foresight to do what I think would work best for everybody not just the members and not just a small group of people but for all of the residents of our Township thank you thank you Mr Robinson the lady in the third row in the aisle seat sure thank you you're welcome good evening Council uh my name is Gina manx I'm a longtime T resident I've lived here for over 45 years I've been uh with my family a member of the Teek swim club for almost 40 years it's a wonderful asset for the community and I know that the the uh you know the club has had some difficulties financially and has been in conversations with um members of uh the the council and the U Township and I urge you to consider making this work for the town it is a wonderful asset um you know we've got three generations our our family um numerous uh neighbors who've enjoyed the swim club it's just you know at the time when you're um investing in the Parks this is an incredible recreational and social opportunity and a community building um opportunity so please make this work save this asset and enhance living in in EK thank you thank you Miss Manis Doug we're goingon to call on some people on Zoom now I'm bringing in thebolt Gilbert tbolt sorry he's actually a good friend friend of mine he's he's a t-bo y he's yeah hey it's good to see you my friending your name hey dog uh so yeah my name is TBO Gilbert and I've lived in t all of my life and I've gone to the TX Swim Club almost all of my life I think I went first when I was two I'm now 12 so that's 10 years it's a great place to be it's a great place to cool off during these excruciatingly hot summers we've been having recently and it's a great place to have fun with your friends you can play sports there dive off the diving boards swim some laps or just cool down in the water I admit that there are some things that could be improved but most of the things are just great uh my family goes there almost every day in the summer to swim dive pickle ball and pingpong and when we go we also see lots of other people there talking having fun working out or just relaxing but disappointing all of these people letting this place of fun andjoy just die off that's just not right also it's the only place I can play pingpong so yeah also I'd really want to still be able to invite my friends there like like I have before and maybe even get them to join as members whether it's friend friends from my school Thomas Jefferson Middle School or my soccer team I would love if you strongly considered supporting the TX Swim Club to make a lot of people in Tac happy thank you thank you Mr Gilbert Doug someone else on Zoom great to hear from you Mr Gilbert adner straws adner straw you're free to unmute you st sorry can you hear me yes sorry for mispronouncing your name you have three minutes and one second okay listen I'm calling you from downtown Frisco California I mean Colorado where was minus five today and no drones uh what I want to say is this uh I've been a member of the uh TX swim club for about 20 years it's a wonderful place it's an oasis my wife and I we get in the car we drive four and a half minutes and we're out in the country and then we drive home and we say we just had a vacation it's a treasure it's something that the council and the township should treasure and do everything to preserve now the council has a wonderful opportunity it can act proac it can be proactive in finding a way to form a private public partnership partnership which will keep this facility open for years and years to benefit the entire town Township this could be the Legacy a positive Legacy of this Council and they have to look deeply into the situation and do everything possible to preserve it as a wonderful resource resource for the entire Community we need to diversify we need to reach out and the present board has every intention to do that now I want to just say one last thing I'm always so impressed when I attend these Council meetings I'm so appreciative of the council members the time and energy they put into this somewhat thankless position often their uh they don't get credit for all the wonderful things they do and I when I watch the council meeting see how they're good people and they want the best for the township and this is one way to put their money with their mouth is and find a way to preserve this wonderful resource for the entire town of tck if they can see that and make that happen what a wonderful Legacy for them and that's what I have to say from downtown Frisco Colorado thank you very much someone else on Zoom Doug we have Michael Rocklin on Deck good evening that good loud and clear we can hear you thank you Mr Rocklin awesome um good evening Council and public um I want to really express my heartfelt thanks to council members um Schwarz and Goldberg for really stepping up and taking Street safety in this town seriously we've had over the course of the past few weeks two horrific hidden runs um and these were a matter of when they would happen not if they would happen um our County roads especially um Cedar Lane tenek Road River Road these are all places where we have unfortunately as a town see people get seriously injured um crossing the street and these are things that are preventable these are incidents that the entire country is grappling with especially after covid there's been a real Spike in reckless driving I believe that 2024 will be the deadliest year uh in a very very long time for pedestrians in the state of New Jersey and we know as a country as a society a lot of the tools for how do we avoid these senseless tragedies um and it's really important that the town of tenk is stepping up for our Township streets um whether it's queenan Road or many of our streets that don't have sidewalks or many of the crosswalks by our houses of worship that see tons and tons of people every single day every single week crossing the street um and it's also really important that we are proactively engaging with the county this is probably the most high visibility thing that the county does is own operate and repair our streets um and so I'm very excited to see the county take sorry to see the town take this very seriously um and thank you again for your service and have a good night thank you Mr Rocklin Doug someone else on Zoom we have Lisa Schwarz on Deck hi there can you hear me clear okay great hi so first of all this is the first count meeting that I'm attending since the election so I do want to congratulate the winners of the um Council election and also um I am here to talk about the Teck Swim Club I've been a resident for 45 years in tenek um when my husband and I Ron and I were looking for a house I remember that was one of the selling points for us moving to Teck uh we were informed that there was a wonderful Swim Club in town and we loved that idea unfortunately at the time over 40 years ago there was a quite a long waiting list for the teenx swim club and we were unable to become members um most recently the last five or six years uh Ron and I have been able to join the swim club and I have to just um Echo what other people have said about the swim club it is a wonderful resource in our town um you know at a time when there is so much divisiveness um there are several places in town that really bring people together I think one of them is um Sports you see people coming together from all parts of town I'm a member of the Garden Club that's another area but the swim club especially is a place where um people from all parts of town come and get together and just enjoy this wonderful facility um what we're asking the council to do is to open up negotiations with our board um so that we can have a working relationship um kind of a public private I I mean I don't know how this works but for the council to really truly consider working with this board to help the swim club at a time when we are in dire need financially as a lot of other organizations are having difficulties um to lose the swim club I think would be disastrous for the town it is just a wonderful place and again the thing that I want to highlight is it is a place where people come together and um you know for the love of swimming um to just hang out in the summer and it's quite a selling point for our town and it is one of the great things that we have in town so I am going to urge this Council to please please work with our board to open up negotiations to see how you can help us in keeping the Swim Club alive thank you very much thank you Miss Schwarz I'm going to go back into Chambers and the lady in the second row with the glasses hi um thank you all for your um attention to all this detail there's a lot of detail there's a lot of attention on your side your name for the record ma' please my name is Helen Faber Goldberg I live in Tac the last 40 years uh I also remember um I'm talking about I want to talk about the swim club now and that we shouldn't default for a number of different reasons that I know have been laid out to you but I want to tell you that the swim club is really there's a little bit of Magic In The Swim Club um you walk through the portal to get into the grounds and there was a breeze there was like a 10 degree difference between the swim club and the minute that you walk out of it to the parking lot um it's a place that is such a sweet place and I personally have a number of grandchildren they look forward the whole year to the swim club The Swim Club there's nothing in all of Bergen County like the kitty pool In The Swim Club where you get to know everybody and the kids get to play together there's a beautiful playground there's a a a great Vibe going on there The Adult Swim which you could go at any time um is it is so quiet and peaceful and then in the morning when you go 7 a.m. you just there's no talking I mean you can talk but all you hear is the lapping of the swimmers and the main pool is big and friendly and there's no place like this I belong to to vote for a while while I was on the waiting list to get into the swim club and um it's really a surpris to me that you would cons that the there was consideration for uh putting um a million dollars into an upgrade I don't I don't know if that's exactly uh the the amount but before you upgrade the pool uh in V which is a nice little pool but it is another dimension that you're talking about you really that the swim club Is My Summer Vacation um so the board is so committed we have so many people that have just come up and and have put so much work and effort to keep it going it is a gem and to default will make things it's kind of going like this it kind of doesn't make sense you can really lean in to making our whole Community Stronger by by doing a public private cooperation and and I know that Barry and everybody else here um is familiar with it but I have to tell you that it's Priceless thank you ma'am Miss Roven evening Paula Roven um I'm talking about cannabis which is not on the agenda but it has been on the planning board agenda um but this I want to talk to you about this it's astonishing that some of our former and current council members enabled a cannabis proposal for 4555 Alfred Avenue this site is well within the thousand feet of Denning Park that where there's a soccer field baseball court and a playground the federal control substance act says that that is illegal to have a cannabis operation within a th000 ft of a park I went with an engineer and we measured the distance you can do it on Google Maps it's so much less than a th000 feet to the C from Denning Park to the Cannabis to 455 Alfred Avenue it's kind of shocking that this proposal has gone forward even at the planning board people said this is not our business what goes on in that Park it's angle Wood's problem it's not t next problem it's not the problem of the planning board well there's it's less than a th000 feet now I'm not even against cannabis but I don't want to pay the tax bill when we get taken to court on this it's illegal under federal law and we should really be following the law I wonder where have you been why didn't this come to your attention before why has so much time and money been wasted on this proposal again I'm not opposed to cannabis except this one which is at this point in history it's illegal I'm als but I am opposed to the addition of a cannabis facility that will add to the pollution in this environmental justice Community the area is already overburdened by pollution from track traffic on Route 4 decar Avenue truck traffic in the industrial Zone in tck and on coolage Avenue in Anglewood it will be impact Ed even more by the pollution from vehicles from the hundreds of new apartments on Alfred Avenue the planning bir board heard from a so-called traffic expert who said ah no problem regarding the traffic from the new apartments 1.5 cars per apartment are you kidding no problem really would you choose to live there in that kind of pollution do you care do you care about environmental justice it's not just the Cannabis additional parking from Cannabis but it's the the mix of pollution from the whole area that is the problem thank you Mr rova Mr seagull good evening my name is Rich seagull I'm a 25 year homeowner here in tenek I'm Jewish I'm watching the Industrial Level extermination of the Palestinian people in Gaza continue and um when I first started uh organizing demonstrations against the uh real estate events here in Teek I've been doing it for 17 years um I made the point that they're illegal because they're selling illegal West Bank settlement real estate and um I couldn't prove that they were illegal but it's been proven now okay um several months ago uh an attorney did some research and uh came to the conclusion that 22 different laws are being violated by these Israeli real estate events and they are uh state laws federal laws and international laws that are all being violated and uh the Jewish Community here in EK was served a cease and desist order and they have ignored that cease and desist order there have been at least three more Israeli real estate events since then now the tactic the tactic that's being used is they're being done clandestinely one was done in um a wedding venue in South hackin another one was done in a private home in Bergenfield but basically what it looks like the non-jewish community and what it looks like to the people who care about the victims of genocide is that the Jewish Community is saying we're God's chosen people we're Above the Law that's what it looks like that's what you all are saying okay and as long as I have a few more minutes I'd like to address the way I've been treated by this Council the last time I was here Hillary Goldberg turned her back on me for the entire time I was speaking and I don't why she's still here I'm not speaking to her I'm speaking about her and I have the right address Council Mr seagull you should give me that time back because I did not break any rule I talked about her continue she should be removed from the council that's disgraceful behavior I'm a constituent I need to be treated with respect thank you for letting me speak gentleman in the front row my name is Barry oit I've been resident of TX since 1983 and I'm currently the president of the TX swim club for the last few years I've been a member of it for a long time but I've only been involved at this level for a few years the reason why I'm getting up to speak is because I'd like to clarify how we got to where we are today especially with all of these members of The Swim Club speaking and possibly clear up some misconceptions the TX Swim Club has been talking to the township about a public private partnership to make the club facilities available to all residents of t for well over a year first of Dean kazinski then to Jacqueline has hashmat and most recently to a council committee until very recently it has always been the town's position as represented by the previous Township manager the recreation supervisor although I don't know the position of the council at the time uh that they were interested in having the club uh continue to operate for the benefit of the town as a nonprofit public private partnership um to make it more open accessible and inclusive to all residents but they had no real interest in in running or managing the club um at the last meeting that the that the um uh committee that the uh board or subcommittee of the board had uh with the township uh committee that was formed to discuss this uh it was it was kind of a a big surprise that was that was uh that that we had at that meeting uh where the township attorney um basically said that they wanted de Club to default on its lease after a one-year period of management pursuant to a management agreement the town would be ready to take over the club and run it and manage it directly at that time I expressed uh skepticism as to whether the Board of Trustees could willfully and voluntarily default on our obligations so long as we were able to meet them them financially without a formal resolution at a membership meeting a default notice was served nevertheless which I agreed that I had no problem with that default notice being served uh due to non-payment of 2024 rent the board determined in consultation with our legal council that it would be a violation of our fiduciary duties to our membership to allow such a default and furthermore that our officers and directors and insurance would not protect us from personal liability if we proceeded in that manner although the swim club continues to to believe that a public private partnership is the best way to achieve what I believe we all want thank you Barry your time is up sir I'm going to ask one more person in Chambers to speak in case they want to continue what you were saying before we go back to a few people on Zoom ma'am prepared something slightly different um okay hi uh I'm Nicole Chandler um and uh good evening everyone I'm a mother of two children ages eight and three um I'm a mother of two kids ages eight and three and um an eight-year resident of this wonderful town uh moved here when my first was born um and I'm also proud to serve as a member of the the Board of Trustees for the teenx swim club um I'd like to share a little bit about the club and what it has meant for me and my family um I joined the swim club during the pandemic during looking for a safe outdoor space where my family could connect with others during an isolating time growing up I was lucky to have access to a pool um similar in Englewood and um it gave me some of my best childhood memories learning to swim spending time with my friends and simply enjoying the summer I wanted my kids to have those same experiences and the swib club has been that place for us it's more than just a pool it's where we wind down after camp with a splash in the water or some playground time a place where my kids are learning to love swimming and where we've built new friendships in the community it's a space where families come together kids develop lifelong skills and our town feels connected as a trustee I'm proud to share that we're making effort to increase our membership um and ensure the club continues to thrive as a vital part of our Town's culture thank you for letting me share my story and I hope we can work together to support and strengthen this incredible resource for All Families in our community thank you Miss Chandler Doug a couple of people on Zoom please bringing in Evan Cohen hey everyone uh I am a Teck resident oh uh I'm a Teck resident and a member of the Teck swim club I'm just echoing what we've been what a couple of people have said before and that the TAC Swim Club is an invaluable resource to us in this town I personally believe that it's in the town's best interest to work in partnership with the TX Swim Club in direct connection because ultimately we want to be competitive also with other towns New Milford has got a great town pool ridgewood's got a great town pool vot te is nice but it's nowhere near the level of what the swim club offers and there's no sense in why we can't have both there's a lot that can still be done with the swim club to make it even more attractive for potential buyers in in tck it's great for families it's diverse it's fun it's a respit from hot summer days we love it and we want to see it continue so um just asking the town to get more involved to make sure the swim club itself doesn't default I believe the swim club has a bright future ahead with correct m with correct partnership with the town and we can really make this a jewel for TAC and open it up not just to members because it could be a little bit expensive for some but opening up the gates a little bit and broaden the appeal to more people in town so it's not just vote but it could be the swim club for everybody uh and really make this uh one of the most special parts of our great town so I thank you for your time and um want to just continue to Echo what we need for the future here at the Swim Club thank you thank you Mr Cohen Doug someone else on Zoom we have Deborah blerg on Deck good evening everybody first of all I want to congratulate everyone on their WIS for the um Council and Board of Education I wasn't at the last meeting and just to Echo what Dr y said you should listen to him um I'm actually calling in with regards to the swim club when they say it is a place of true tolerance I think me being a member for what 10 years shows how tolerant are um when you go to the swim club it is you step through um into a place where everybody is just sits down and it's just a lovely place to be and I would like the town to seriously consider what they are proposing with a private public partnership I have always been of the opinion that we should be looking to bring in more members figuring out a way to make more members bonded members need to make sacrifices to bring in the members never been an argument I think it is a great place where you get to meet people and get to know people on a completely different level and it was lovely to see my fellow swim club members speaking out it's nice to see them clothed now I know what you look like with your clothes on so I've always loved that Jake anyway so I just want to reiterate what the swim club members are saying and then I also just want to talk about the um the hit and runs because there someone who actually child was knocked down by hit and run on the corner of fight in Teck Road at the Crossing like when he was crossing at the Crossing because someone decided to turn right on a red and I just want to say without officer Marino detective Marino I don't know if he's been promoted or what his position is but he from the tin Police Department he saved my son's life and it's never been really said out loud and it really needs to be recognized that that man has he not been where he was stood at that time and noticed my child and then not notice my child I do not even want to think what have happened because he said he just saw a coat on the ground um so I just want him to have the recognition that he needs and to say yes we need to do something and we all need to make sure we slow down and are aware but the other part is is the headlights on the other cars have become much brighter in past years and whilst we're looking at all different solutions maybe we should be looking at reamping for the car industry I know it's a big one but these headlights just blind people and then it's dark out and you can't see anything and that is part of it everyone even if you slow down in the rain when you have those Bright Lights coming at you it's too much so maybe those are things we also have to consider in all areas with trying to make Street safe and um have a good evening and yeah listen to Dr y thank you very much thank you miss playberg someone on Zoom Doug I have braser gold feel free to correct me if I mispronounced your name thank you you this isn't about the town clerk it's about Miss Miss three minutes good evening everyone uh my name is braa fine and I'm a proud resident of EK I would like to take a moment to encourage the council to reappoint Mike as mayor during the upcoming or reorganization throughout his tenure Mike has shown unwavering dedication to Public Service consistently prioritizing the needs of all T res presidents regardless of background or perspective while his leadership has been impactful and marked by significant progress it is his genuine commitment to serving every member of our community that I believe will be the unifying force our town so desperately needs Mike is a dedicated public servant and his steadfast focus on fairness and and inclusivity makes him the ideal person to continue leading Our Town forward I firmly believe that Mike's continued leadership will help us move forward in the most positive and collaborative way possible thank you all for your consideration have a good night thank you ma' um we have a couple more people on Zoom Doug Michael katsky Mike you're free to unmute whenever you're ready oh thank you very much Michael Katy uh tneck resident um good evening uh Council good evening uh Town staff and public um we've heard a lot tonight from folks from The Swim Club I think it's great I think it's awesome place that everyone who's a member of The Swim Club enjoys a lot and there's nothing I have nothing against that I think that's awesome um I think that there seems to be a an idea that seems to be thrown to the Town's residents tonight that there's an idea that the swim club is going to close forever um if the town doesn't do something um and perhaps the town should do something and what I want to suggest tonight to the council and the public and to just generally to the swim club at large is that there's there there is an issue with the swim club um many communities like that are similar in size and scope and density to tck um they they go ahead they acquire land they build an aquatic center um many towns in nasso County have that a lot of people you know thousands of people enjoy it um our neighboring communities have that the fairon pool is a place that people love it cost them $200 a year for an entire family the Ridgewood pool is a place people love you go to Rockland County the uh The Spook Rock pool complex is place people love the town of havestraw has one of those the town of Clarkstown has one of those I can go on and on and on and talk about public facilities that are required with public funds that that open to the public and uh the history of this facility is interesting it was uh you know it was it was given over to the township um for a small sum of money it became kind of like a deric site from in the 60s and early 70s the town had thought of building an aquatic center never really was able to pass a bond to do it and then a private nonprofit was able to raise the funds to actually do something with this site that was basically like a place to just dump old cars and burn garbage and stuff like that and that's a very commendable activity um but the ensuing decades is that there's a private club on public land and that's got to stop it's got It's Over You talk by telling us all the great things that we can't use because we don't want to pay a $500 Bond on land that's owned by us it's it's frustrating to hear it's not the right way to sell what you're trying to sell I think that we should have a public private partnership I think that the swim club should be the con sire operator of the t swim club that's a public swim club I think the town should you know it would be great if we even paid you it should not be a country club on public land any longer thank you have a great night thank you Mr clasky Doug someone else on Zoom we have Keith Kaplan On Deck hello Keith Kaplan TX resident also a former councilman and uh current vice president of the TX Club club the club has not only been a nice getaway for residents for the last 45 plus years but it's also been a good neighbor to the town when covid hit and the club grounds were uh made available quiet in the audience please can we please have quiet the were made available for high school reunions uh for TAC high school for uh the public since the indoor spaces weren't uh permitted when the V Park Pool couldn't open uh sometimes because the PIP were cracked sometimes because the cement needed uh to be redone as a member of the board and the council I was able to work with the board of the club and manager kazinsky to bring all vote Park badge holders to the club and that was done for significantly less than it would have cost any of uh those people to come to the club and I know Deputy Mayor G was one of the people that came as a voti park uh badge holder got to enjoy the facility so uh you have real life experience of what the town has offered uh uh what the club has been able to offer to the town and what wound up happening postco is that a lot of uh new members simply didn't join they went on vacations they went on trips and it affected the club's bottom line like it does for everybody one of the options that was brought up was the idea of a partnership with the town uh that the town could help uh the club the club can help the town so what is all this default stuff that people were bringing up the club started in 77 as someone mentioned and it had a 30-year lease and it had another 30-year extension in 2007 and part of that lease is that the club pays rent to the township and what was uh suggested during one of these meetings between the board and the town was that the club simply stop paying its rent uh the checks are due twice a year in June and uh September and they said just stop paying we'll issue a default and once you're in default we can take the place over and that would certainly stop the club's you know issues it just wouldn't exist anymore and in the future I'll go over the specifics why a public private partnership makes sense but for now I wanted to mention that the town spending millions of dollars on vote is a significant problem when there's a better place to put the money so why not have the town take it over is the obvious question right well if you lived here long enough that you remember there was a Felts Park Pool before the dog park was there there was a tree growing out of the pool and the uh the VOE Park Pool is constantly having problems simply because of budgetary issues keeping the necessary maintenance from occurring having the town take over the club is a recipe for disaster but there is a wonderful medium of a public private partnership and that's what we should go for thank you Mr Kaplan Doug someone else on Zoom we have one more on Zoom please state your name for the record as it is not shown good evening it's Lillian Lewis res how are you Doug three minutes okay I want to first thank councilwoman Denise beler for introducing the K Quanza resolution I want to wish everyone happy K Quanza merry Christmas and happy Hanukkah my prayer and desire is for our entire tinic family to celebrate together each of our celebrations Christmas Hanukkah and Quanza secondly I appreciate the mention of my proposal of the Ary Court hard Graves area choir Parks Council I pray that all goes well with surveying the grounds to see if it is feasible for the park I have already given the park a name speaking by faith I propose the quiet Park to be named the Mal good quiet Park park now for those of you who've never met Mal good Mal good was a longtime resident of EK and he was the first black TV network News correspondent for ABC Mal good is best known for being one of the first correspondents to cover the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 unfortunately Mal good passed away in 1995 I pray that all goes well as I stated earlier and the spring of 2026 we have a celebrated ribbon cutting of the opening of The malood Quiet Park thank you now do I have any time left yes Miss Luc you do okay well since I do when I was a member of the community relations Advisory Board I was invited to the swim club area it is really beautiful I also ask that the council consider becoming partners with the swim club to make the swim club a public park hopefully it will becoming more affordable part for everyone thank you God bless have a great night thank you Miss Lewis Mr Rose Howard Rose tck resident for well over 40 years and a swim club uh member for about 20 yard years way back when gentleman earlier transition from California to Colorado in one sentence uh and he indicated that was a thankless job that Tina council members perform not true I thank you there's been many times where I've been in strong disagreement with your decisions there have been times where you've been very thoughtful and I've agreed with your decisions it's not thankless it's difficult Swim Club I'd like to see it expanded to the river become T's Riviera I mean you know you walk through the gates there and it's no detriment to to T in general but you feel like you've left Teck when you enter it open area the swimming the games the sports uh you know it's an entity that if you lose it it's never coming back and if you lose it what's the next step raise some money to reduce taxes and put a 12 14 stor building there or Condominiums I I made mention in an article in a letter that uh my concern is that the EK Council has an edifice complex please don't expand it let's keep te Pleasant usable for everyone for years to come Food Bank you know people in the food bank need food not just during Christmas time but all year round I don't need an answer from you right now but I do wonder how many council members set an example and contribute towards TX food bank and that would encourage members of our community not the community our community because of people who receive the food the people who give the money to get the food they don't need cans of beans or cereal from you they need money because they know at the food bank what people need but again hopefully everyone contributing people who are listening as well at home it's necessary it's year round and you can do it we're looking forward to a new year I'm optimistic that all of you even if I disagree on certain areas really have teenx well-being at heart with that in mind the best situation you can make is a transparent one where everyone knows what you're thinking why you're thinking it and where we're going with your thoughts transparency please thank you thank you Mr Rose Dean hi I'm deip I live on pomander walk and the swim club is my closest neighbor I've been a member since they opened in 1977 and the place is absolutely fantastic it's an oasis of relaxation of Health you can go swimming you can have a picnic you can have friends over you can socialize with other members of the club they do a beautiful job of maintaining the property and that for me is a very big issue because if you have this neighbor in your backyard and they don't maintain it um it falls on me generally on PO Andrew walk you know quite often I take care of the historic burial ground where tck has not yet worked out in the past few years they had a private contract with a private landscaper this year the contract was up and I've had my landscaper actually maintaining the burial ground where the DPW lags off at any rate we need the swim club and the best way I believe is a partnership with the town to uh work with the board of the swim club to keep it going the way it is and I don't know the technicalities but opening the club to the entire Township and um keeping it the way it is just very very beautiful place well-maintained people learn to swim there they have swim lessons in the morning kids play in the kitty pool it's absolutely beautiful for small children and then you have a an olympic size uh lap pool for public health and swimming and then there's diving boards and there's a general pool and there's pingpong tables and a tennis court and a snack bar what more can you ask for I think it's one of the best places in all of Bergen County so uh please do not default I don't understand the purpose of that but rather a public private partnership to keep the place open thank you thank you deian anyone else in chers Maxine of course hi good evening hi thank you so much my my name is Maxine angel I'm a t NE resident I live in District 3 congratulations to the winners of the recent election it's great to have you serve us and thank you all for your service to Tac I am here for a couple things um bu on the street safety um it's a concern for all of us the street light situation is severely lacking all over town um and I just want to ask what can be done to improve the the Street lighting throughout tck uh on the main streets as well as a number of side streets which feels it's it's very quaint it feels like you're driving on a a dark country road but it's very dangerous and um kids are coming home from school and it's dark so that is a major concern and I I know that Tac has a very difficult budget situation um this has been a long time coming and it's imperative that we figure out a healthy and productive plan that sets us up for our success for a long time and this is going to um include a number of Revenue sources and you probably guessed it I'm here to talk about cannabis and my opposition to that um specific to the issue about cannabis is um um how how unifying this issue is that there are um there's a a wide range of residents who have come together on this issue and I've gotten I've had the privilege of of working with some amazing residents who um feel strongly about this issue as well and I want to thank the Fantastic research and writing team of atinc voices for bringing this to our attention and I printed up um their their research and um and writing about the existing um ordinance 7 2024 having to do um forgive me there's a lot of legal language so I'll just summarize this that TX says that there can't be a willful violation of any applicable law or regulation um what Miss Roven uh presented before in her her research as well that the 455 Alfred location is um is about 600 feet from Deming Park so I want to make sure that you're aware of that we don't want to see this escalate into another legal battle and um you can read more about that and I just want to use the rest of my time to um to honor the memory of detective Joseph seals a uh Bergen County resident who gave his his life uh 5 years ago today in the Jersey City shooting I think it's important that we um remember him as well as all of the victims but detective seals especially um prevented a larger attack and saved countless lives and left behind a wife and five children so thank you happy holidays to all of you happy New Year thank you always for your service and you know how to reach me thank you Miss Angel Dr Powers Powers tck almost exactly in your December meeting of 22 two years ago you had a presentation made by a group that almost the entire Council said where did this thing come from it was a presentation about the 455 Alfred Avenue facility and the fact that the um National Group wanted to uh come and set up a cultivation and a real retail function there the problem with 4555 Alfred Avenue as you have just heard several times tonight is that it violates the very the absolutely clear Provisions any person who validates who violates section 4 8 841 and 856 by Distributing and Manufacturing a controlled substance in or within a thousand feet of a variety of facilities but very specifically a playground and you've heard tonight that there is such a facility within 600 ft of where it is those folks want to to not just um involve five grams of marijuana but a th000 grams per month now a lot of people say well there's a lot of confusion about exactly what it is that happened that the F that federal law I just cited once it once it turned out that the um State wanted to legalize and it only set rules of 100 ft for some of those same facilities you're as you probably know the league of municipalities said well that's fine for the state to say that but there is this federal law and then you folks last May passed a very interesting ordinance and you were very clear in saying not withstanding the foregoing when the township administrator has been notified or has reasonable grounds to believe that a lensey has engaged in deliberate and willful violation of any applicable law or the public health safety and a general welfare the work working with the administrator is supposed to take make sure that that license is suspended until a a remediation can occur but no remediation could possibly occur for a facility that is in direct violation of federal law and I think you folks ought to get about the business of getting your ordinances in order with the actual law that you said governed your Activity thank you thank you Dr PS I think I saw a hand yes ma'am hi I'm Martha applebomb I've been a member of the TX swim club for about 26 years um I'll be brief because everything's been said just want to Echo everyone's comments tonight of what a what a great place it is and in these times where temperatures are getting hotter summers are getting hotter this is an amazing resource for the whole Community not just the great pools but the shade the breeze that everyone has mentioned I mean this is really an amazing asset for our community so I I hope you'll consider the public private partnership to benefit the entire Community thanks thank you Miss appom anyone else in Chambers want to speak ma'am hi I'm Sharon Schubert um I've been a tneck resident for 40 years and a swim club member for probably 35 of them I I'm not going to repeat what everyone said it's a wonderful place there's no doubt about it last summer um the town pools had some problems and so for I think about a week those PE The Swim Club opened their doors to all the members of the Town pool and there's room for everybody it's a big place the joy the kids running around having the greatest time the diversity I it was thrilling the same thing happened I think in tenly with a with a pool they had some problems and um I I think um the pool got some money from ten ofly to um to let their kids come and swim in the mornings or something like that it just it makes my summer I'm the first one there at the at the lap pool I swim my laps it's it's so healthy it's so wonderful I see the same people every day um it's just a fabulous place and I beg you to um help support us and so that we can go on thank you thank you Miss Schubert anyone else in Chambers nobody in Zoom so good and Welfare is closed Mr Schwarz would you like to start us off sir yes thank you very much as it relates to the swim club I'll leave my comments to others um just a quick question on on the um comment I should on the vacancy of the land indeed um there are quite a bit of stores that are actually closed Cedar land itself from CH road to hackin sack is actually 96% leased um dollar land which does look horrible is is leased and there a permit out for the renovation type noodle house has leased is a permit out for the renovation KFC has the lease has not yet been signed though there's several leases out let's hope it gets signed um the the comment of the foot bridge to stop and shop I me I mean we'd love that but unfortunately that's probably about $10 million and that's really not in in in the um in the books right now uh we looked into the left turn light from Queen an row that' be Queen an Row north to Cedar Lane the county I believe denied our our um request because there's not enough um the intersection is not wide enough it we would have to take Land from the adjoining buildings which are act actually occupied 222 Cedar Lane and the bank are all encroach quite close to the curb so we were denied on that and they did give us a left turn onto Palisades but it is unfortunately a dangerous intersection um very interesting on the comments regarding that with the Cannabis and a th000 feet um New Jersey changed their laws which allow for it because they actually took legalized cannabis off the controlled substance list um it' be for people far smarter than me to to discuss how it relates to the federal law but the state law fully allows us to open up also interesting to note that the park is separated from Alfred Avenue it's it's around the corner it's a block and halfway way and there's a stream that separates it so um I'm curious to know how that that works out because New Jersey fully does allow the store to um the store to open up um thank you very much beler hey I want to thank everyone for um calling in and coming out and speaking tonight um just a couple points I just want to make um uh regarding what Mr Robert uh Lazareth had said about Cedar Lane and also um um Dr yuck had um spoke about um the re revitalization of of cedal Lane is important it's a topic we we talk about a lot um I I'm a 20y year um business owner property owner on CED Lane so it's hard for me not to see it every day so essentially um I think that one of the things that that I learned from or I'm and continue to learn from uh attending like the um the leg of municipalities is that our state has a lot of resources uh and those resources speak to things like Redevelopment um help in terms of um finding opportunities to uh incentivize Property Owners to see a vision to see a vision that that speaks to development so those are things that I continue to to um pursue and want to work on uh not just for Cedar Lane uh but all four of our business district okay um Safe Streets has to be uh a priority for us uh it's very troubling to to to you know come home and hear about you know um someone has got hit or hit and run I mean just horrible sit situations so wherever we can collaborate and create task force and work with the police and do whatever we have to do we're going to do it because it's it's just not um it's not right to see that uh I continue to say that t neck um has a brand uh we have to protect that brand that brand speaks to diversity it speaks to inclusivity it speaks to things that we want to see um and I think that um the problem that uh we have to really guard against is uh having venues that are not inclusive so uh what whatever it takes for us to work to create that if you want to call it whatever uh the the whole idea is that we need to make sure that every everyone partakes everyone partakes that irregardless of membership or dues or fees or whatever so I am a proponent of that um and I just want to say that uh thank you for those that came out and spoke about cannabis I am concerned with the Divide between the state law and the federal law um and and I think that we we we definitely need to continue to to monitor that and find ways in which uh we doing the right thing with um in in in the end uh lastly I just want to say um to um to everyone I wish everyone a Merry Christmas a happy Hanukkah a happy Quanza and just an overall happy holiday thank you Miss beler Miss organ so I get the swim club I was I was having a quiet night um I'll I'll start and then if um if the attorney could answer anything I I don't answer um I just want to speak about psse and first for the dark streets psng has a website um you can actually click on the streetlight that you think is off that's dark and they will come now I think they come within a day or two and fix it and if there is a street that's particularly dark you can email us and we'll have them come out and take a look but if there's a light that's out you can go directly to them and I've been told they come within a day or two to um to take care of it so I have no lack of love for the swim club I've lived in tenek for 50 years um my family and I were on the waiting list to get in we were weekday members to start as a child I went to sports and arts during the day and I spent the entire afternoon with my friends in the pool and my parents sat with their friends and talked and at night they brought dinner and we sat at the tables and I ate Maran Shear's macaroni salad cuz that was my favorite um and my mother still goes every day in the summer and swims in the lap pool and when I got married and I had children uh we joined and I sat at the kitty pool when my daughter was an infant and when my second daughter was an infant and we went back all the time and we taught them how to swim there and only when they were teenagers did we stop our membership because they they didn't want to go anymore and there was no reason for us to go without them but I've spent the majority of my life as a member of The Swim Club um both as a child as an adult and my mother is still there and I understand the feeling when you walk in there um as well as anybody else I understand your love for the swim club I do I understand when on the Ambulance Corp we did our water training there I understand being a good neighbor I understand opening up during covid for everybody um I understand everything that everybody said in favor of it and I understand that right now you need financial help when Karen Sach sent us an email asking us to come tour I was the first one to answer and I took the tour and then I understood that she was asking the township for financial assistance because you were within one year or two years of not being able to open the doors and that's why we formed a task force to work with you and um to try to figure out what we can do and when Barry explained the the extent of the financial hardship um we agreed not to to um to to take a large step this year but to try to give a cash infusion from the town this year so that you could open the doors and then we could work out the structure of what the swim club would look like the following year for the entire town at no point was there ever a discussion of not opening the township I heard there were rumors going around that the town was going to develop there and put buildings there at no point was there ever a discussion that there would not be a swim club there but there was a discussion that this would now be a swim club a public swim club for the the entire town not for 350 families but for 42,000 tck residents and that means that if we are putting public funds into the swim club and we're putting tax money from Teck residents into the swim club it's now a public club and there can't be a public private partnership where there are other people there might be people that the township management chooses to work on a board and and work on um how the the the club would be run but that would be a Township decision a council decision a manager's decision it's not going to look like the swim club it does right now the facility might hopefully it would be a better facility because now there would be more members and more funding and and more availability who knows maybe uh over the years there could be upgrades there could be more that could go into it it's a huge space that hasn't been upgraded since I'm a child and uh while Mr Kaplan says that there are um you know there may not be people in the business of of running pools running it it doesn't mean that there can't be or that there wouldn't be um but the first step towards that had to be breaking the lease and that's legally where the default came in and if it's not something that your um your insurance would be comfortable with with there are other ways to do that and and that's something that the attorneys have to talk about but there can't be money coming from the town there can't be money coming from taxpayers Pockets into a private club um that can't be it's not a thing so we're very happy to help if you need help opening for this coming summer but that has to come with the land reverting back to the town and uh if if you want a better more legal explanation from the manager that's fine if you want to come back to us and have further discussions that fine that's fine but there was never at any time um a point where we didn't want the swim club to open it just now has to be a club for the whole town there would be no VOE Park Pool anymore we wouldn't put funding towards that this would now be the place where the whole town came together and the vision is wonderful we can now come there to watch the fireworks in hackin sack the vet is looking for a pool for to for their teams to swim in it could be that one day there would be an enclosed pool a bubble over a pool where they could swim in the winter or funds could be raised to put back into the pool like the the sky the limit if if we could dream about it together but the one thing that can happen is public funds can go towards a private pool and that's where where we were stuck um happy to happy to start working towards something again happy to sit down with the attorney again and happy to answer any questions but the one thing that everyone needs to understand is a lot of the chatter that was out there there was another campaign of misinformation a lot of that that was spread was never true and the only thing that we wanted when we started speaking was one place for everybody to come together and be together and that was long overdue you we have the people and you have the space and um we want everybody to to come together there I don't know if Scott has anything he wants to add I have nothing to add that was well exactly what I would have said Thanks so sorry first I just want to say I'm not I don't want someone to say I'm not addressing something I'm a 10year bonded member of The Swim Club so I'm accused of not taking part in any of these conversations um Cedar Lane has been a topic of conversation and to my surprise we've been having it since where I was born there's a plan from a planner in 1970 about Cedar Lane that I found on the County website and it could have been written today with what it said we need to find a way to address cedarlane and it's something that I completely agree with and I've heard every member of this Council say the same um I will also say the zoning subcommittee has reached out to the owners on Cedar Lane even with the offer of free food and we couldn't even get them to come conversation as such we need to have visions what is Cedar Lane going to look like a State Street going to look like we need to have a plan an economic development plan with a vision and I know that there's an RFQ out for a new planner and I hope with that new planner there's a plan Rebecca I don't know if you're watching um I'm sorry that you had to leave I know it's very frustrating and as the manager said previously it's on it's hope the the project is on schedule the manager did a great presentation on September 24th the PowerPoint is on the website again thank you Jackie for that transparency you can see how important is to our residents I really appreciate that um Rebecca I'll give you a call tomorrow for any questions um when the water comes tomorrow and I know tomorrow is going to be a stressful day the DPW is already on it we are on it and you can reach out anytime um Mr Rockin thank you um I'm looking forward to working with you on the task force pck is a very pedestrian town uh Miss playberg I'm very sorry that that happened to your son and I'm really glad he's okay I personally witnessed a child get hit while riding a bike to school in 2021 on Palisade Avenue um and myself and another witness had to call the police and they did an amazing job so hopefully we can put an end to this um as in it's the last meeting so to speak of this term I want to thank my colleague my partner my mayor my friend Mayor Michael Pagan for his service to this town and as mayor for the past two years thank you for being an ally when the world turned their back he's led us through very difficult times in this town and this chamber and he's done so with Grace and he has done so despite threats made against son leadership isn't tweeted into existence or swn into jackets leadership is lived thank you for ensuring that everyone has had a seat at the table for the past two years I hope in 2025 Tina can come together um I think my colleagues answered most of the uh or addressed most of the comments that were brought up but I do want to speak to the swim club um I did have a chance to visit I visited during covid um when the pool um when the town pool was closed and my children loved it it was a lovely experience the grounds are amazing it's like a child's dream to be there all day in the summertime so it I hear all of you and thank you thank you so much for coming and sharing your stories um I want to just double down on everything that Karen said there was never any thought not to engage in some sort of partnership of course we want to see this um Swim Club survive into the future and we want to see it get better better over time but to Karen's point if we want to do that and if we provide an infusion of Resident taxpayer dollars then we have to open the club to the entire town that would only be fair um and when you think about the history of the club and how certain um people were traditionally excluded from joining it really is a unique opportunity to open up Township own land to the entire um teet Community I I really want to emphasize that that's what we all want to see we don't want to see devel there we want it to be a swim club into the future and really think about how we can make it better over time but thank you everyone for coming and sharing um your thoughts and then sorry just want to end with happy holidays to everyone uh you know in whichever way you're celebrating this is a special time for us special time of the year and I look forward to seeing you uh all in January thank you Deputy Mayor G as always I want to say thank you to all of the residents who came out tonight to participate and as a point of personal privilege I I want to say thank you because I am filled with gratitude and humility as I reflect on The Incredible Journey that we've shared together these past two years serving as your mayor has been one of the greatest honors of my life and I am deeply thankful for the trust you placed in me to help lead our beloved hometown of tenek because when I think of our hometown I think of its heart and that heart is the people we serve the residents they are the ones who help make us the vibrant diverse and unique community that we are because EK is more than just a community it's a family and like all families we have our ups and downs sometimes we argue sometimes we fight but together we have faced our challenges with resilience and celebrated our victories with unity from fostering economic growth to championing inclusivity our Collective efforts have made a difference in EK and none of this would have been possible without the dedicated members of this Council or the tireless work of our Municipal staff and of course the support and passion of our residents you have all been my partners in progress and I am so proud of what we have accomplished together these past two years and as we look to the Future I'm confident that teenx best days are still ahead of us because this Township's Spirit its resilience and its commitment to progress will continue to guide us forward and whatever happens at the reorganization meeting on January 2nd and regardless of who our mayor and our two Deputy Mayors will be my commitment to Teek remains unwavering I will continue to advocate for our shared vision of a town where every voice matters and every resident feels seen and heard so thank you tenek for your trust for your partnership and for your belief in the power of what we can achieve together as a community going forward it has been the privilege of a lifetime to serve as your mayor and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart and with that said happy holidays I hope everyone has a good evening Miss hashmat is there anything you want to address from any of the residents tonight no Mr salmon is there anything you want to address from the residents tonight nothing from May m all right in that case our next order of business is our consent agenda and all matters listed on the consent agenda are considered to be routine and answer by Council and will be enacted by one motion there will be no separate discussion of these items if any discussion is desired by Council that particular item will be removed from the consent agenda and will be considered separately Mr clerk can you please read the amount of the bill list into the record yes sir mayor we have four sets of Raffles resolutions 322 down 350 because we walked in our Quanza recognition and we have the bill list in the amount of 11,721 7259 so move anyone oh I'm sorry Mr Mayor I need to pull 323 340 and 347 hang on one second count3 323 340 and 347 let's let our our set clear real quick those three are pulled for now wait I didn't hear her she said 32 323 340 and 347 323 those are pulled for now and I think Mr Schwarz was going to make a motion to I don't want to put any words in your mouth Mr Schwarz Schwarz second to approve the consent the G Mr M Schwarz councilman beler yes councilman Goldberg yes councilman Oregon yes deput mayor G yes mayor Pagan yes all except for those three adopted thank you Mr clerk Miss Goldberg the floor is yours for 323 my question on 323 so just so everybody knows this is a shared service agreement for vehicle maintenance with paramis um from what I can see we started this in 2022 but the costs have gone up um 80% from 2022 I did check with Issa and Jackie that this is an emergency use only so I think it was like $20,000 that we've spent in the past two years on it but it it's a huge rate increase so I know I had asked Jackie if pamis had a justification for the increase from 2022 again 80% did they get back to you uh they haven't gotten back to me but I will I will let you know it is just if we need the services it is not yeah it's it's not a day-to-day um yeah no I get that I just you know everything goes up so I just wanted I that's a lot so I just wanted to check on that um on 340 my question is it's a reimbursement from the county for uh the Culvert on I don't remember what three I believe it was 211 Tac Road yes but it doesn't have the amount we being reimbursed do we have that like it's not clear I know isa's on does he have it I don't think Isa would have that okay um I know that's something that I was working on with Scott and Farah and uh there is a shared services agreement here one second it doesn't say how much we being reimbursed that's the agreement that they'll reimburse us up to $32,000 but I don't know how much we're getting back for this well without a specific dictation it almost SL oh recommends reimburse in the township of teac for their proposed corrective action plan in accordance with the attached persistent Construction Company cost cost proposal dated September 22 in the amount of $39,990 oh 39 okay thank you um so I'm gonna I'm okay with those so I'm going to make a motion to move on those because in the last one I need to make a motion to amend motion councilman Schwarz counil one Bel yes Council Goldberg yes Council one Oregon yes Deputy Mayor G yes mayor Pagan adopted all right so 347 it's the year on budget transfer so I reached out to the CFO just to find it find out what the budget transfers were for and he actually emailed me about an hour ago um that the resolution is backwards so um I'm going to let him explain and then I'll make the motion to amend it Mr Abasi are you online with us sir yeah bring them in so which number are we talking about this is 347 it's the budget transfers thank you good evening can you hear me yes sir yes so my apologies uh and kudos to councilman Goldberg we're catching this in my haste today and getting dug the resolutions there's a lot of moving parts to this resolution the two and from essentially or swap so you know budget transfers are allowed based on the budget law between November 1st and March 31st of the next year uh for overe expenditures we are not allowed to make transfers at any other time the bulk of the transfer 200,000 is for health insurance um health benefits we had a few other minor accounts salary and wages for the fire department due to overtime uh telephone water and advertising have overruns so the resolution as printed on the agenda has those flipped so those five groups should actually have money going to them instead of from and the other groups that are funding those groups should have money going from them instead of to them I've sent Doug the revised resolution and that's what the amendment is to basically adopt it as revised so I'm going to make the motion to amend the resolution to swap the to and from based on Isa is that how to do it Scott that's correct yes okay councilman Schwarz councilman beler councilman Goldberg yes councilman Oregan yes Dey mayor G yes may pan sir adopted I don't think we have anything else make a motion to adjourn all those in favor please say hi hi thank you everybody for joining us tonight we hope you have a happy holiday season get home safe and there we have it the last meeting of our Township Council 2024 everyone have a very successful happy ending to our calendar year as we look forward to 2025 new things similar people we'll see