##VIDEO ID:b0vqflAioVI## [Music] e e e e e e e e e public meeting of September 23rd 2024 of the township Council of the township of Washington adequate notice of the meeting was given in accordance with the open public meetings act by the Township Clerk to at least two newspapers in January and this meeting has been posted on the township bulletin board electronic message aard WCTV and on the township website please notify the municipal clerk for any disability requirements necessary for attendance at Council meetings the fire exits are located through the double doors to your right and through the door on your left please silence all cell phones if you are unable to attend the council meeting in person and would like a topic to be addressed at the council meeting please please send an email to the township of Washington contact all council members at once TWP of washington. us could everyone please stand for a salute to to the flag I pledge algi to the flag of the United States of America and to the repic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you roll call councilman Casio here councilman Sears here councilman Omen here Council woman valz here council president the sen here let the record reflect also in attendance mayor Peter Camari Township administrator Mark D Carlo Township attorney shvan Bailey and Township Clerk Susan wowski at this time we will be having a presentation from the njsa cop accreditation program by our Police Department by Mr Henry Del excuse me Harry Delgado good evening Mr Delgado good evening council president so I come here tonight to recognize the police department uh for having uh achieved their accreditation status now to add context to what I'm about to share um all the out of all the agencies in the state of New Jersey nearly 600 agencies that would be eligible to apply for accreditation only about 54% of them have made it and that is because the process is so rigorous so the town of Washington Police Department actually can count themselves as one of those within that 54 uh exclusive group of 54% of agencies in the state of New Jersey made made it to accreditation so if if you indulge me for two minutes I'd like to share with you the significance of the achievement so the town of Washington police department has made a commitment to adhering to best practices at the state and National level in a highly regarded Statewide law enforcement accreditation program this program administered to the New Jersey State Association of chiefs of police and New Jersey Law Enforcement accreditation commission has help to transparently demonstrate the professionalism and preparedness of stes law enforcement agencies it is purposefully designed to enhance professionalism and transparency in the state's public safety system now during this uniquely challenging times and the threat to health and safety encouraging police departments to follow standardized practices and policies as a potentially a life- saving and coste effective investment of time and resources now accredit accreditation gives the town of Washington Police Department a preparing plan and a verification of excellence in fact the accreditation process highlighted functions and processes within the organization where necessary on approach to updating in priority in this processes and undertaking the task of properly managing these functions has been undertaken and will be ongoing and I should say that typically when we come to an agency that tries this process for for the first time we find and identify issues uh and that we have to at the very own site when we come to visit a resolve in the case of the T T Washington Police Department there were none so that indicates that they had a remarkable final on-site assessment right on site now in closing i' like to uh to say that under the leadership of retired Chief Richard Skinner and now Chief John calamary both recognized for outstanding service by several police and Community organizations a high level of confidence competence excuse me leadership and professionalism is evident within the agency community policing we say proudly is an essential part of the town of Washington's Police Department so it is the opinion of the assessment team that the town of Washington Police Department is a highly professional and committed agency which exemplifies all of the tenants of law enforcement and creation at the state and National level so it's indeed here my honor tonight on behalf of the New Jersey State Association of chiefs police and the New Jersey Law Enforcement commission to congratulate retired Chief Richard Skinner I know he here there he is um and now Chief John calamary credit manager Sergeant SE Fano the members of the town of Washington Police Department the mayor council president and those citizens that they so proudly serve for having achieved the state initial accreditation joining a very exclusive group of law enforcement agencies that have made this important commitment to Excellence in policing so to all indeed congratulations you can [Applause] congratulations the next years Chief you want to do it up here get a wel thank you Harry thank you for taking the time to be here and I would like to recognize Harry he he runs the accreditation program uh he was a tremendous ass asset and a resource during this entire thing uh he was always available you know our accreditation Mar manager uh Sergeant Fasano and uh and it's really a phenomenal program but I would like to give a little historical context on this uh five years ago uh when Rich Skinner took over as police chief and I became Captain this was this was part of our initial vision and we had some housekeeping to do first as Harry articulated uh so we had a few things we had to get in order before we took on on the program and the challenge and uh when we did the time frame is generally one year it took us a little over that and because it took us over that in that time Chief Skinner retired but I would like he he he deserves the opportunity to come up and address his men in this group because he really had he had the vision the for thought uh he believed in some of us some of our abilities when even we didn't and uh that's the the corner on a great leader you know he inspired us to get here and so I'd like to give him an opportunity to [Applause] speak I'm sure that uh Chief Kari will uh have some more words to say but I think uh you know everybody's up on the de deserves a lot of credit you know uh our um catch administrator Mark D Carlo comes from accredited Police Department he was a chief there and uh you know Mark was a help along the way um you know we had discussed this with mayor Camari um as we were going through it and he was fully supportive and of course you know there uh there's some fees involved with this and we had some professional Consulting done to make sure we got there um so you know thank you to the council for for having that vision and for always supporting the police department um and I'm going to really let uh the current chief say say a little more because it was him and uh Sergeant fasana who kind of led the process but I think what for my part in this what I'd like to say is um this goes out to each and every member of the township of Washington Police Department um every time an arrest was made there was a little more work to be done and when that report was was written there was a little more that had to be in that report and had to be documented and then when those records were filed there was more in those records and Leanne's back there took took took a lot of extra work by her but really sometimes police officers are a little resistance to change and the word when we started accreditation from police departments around us was that it was kind of a pain in the neck to do all this new stuff fortunately most of it wasn't new we were already doing it we just had to document it but I think for my part today I just want to proudly thank the men and women of the Washington Township Police Department that are sitting here tonight so I think we should give them a [Applause] hand with that I'm going to turn that pick over to Chief Kari thanks rich rich touched on many of the things you know that I was going to say gratefully I would also like to recognize our director James Giblin uh comes from a law enforcement background he was supportive of the process and uh and again just a tremendous resource to to take this on uh what rich said about about these guys you know and our female officer who's not pres a phenomenal group of people you know change is one of the most difficult things to manage as we all know and they truly embraced it here in Washington Township everyone has a bit of a specialty and this I I said it from the beginning this forced us to literally take everything that we do put it under a microscope inspect it examine it see if we're doing it right if we're can do it better you know are we following best practices Etc and it was an amazing opportunity to do that and every one of these guys played a role in that because everyone plays a role in everything that we do they have Specialties they have Subs Specialties they have different areas that they're specifically trained in they were tapped as resources to to create policy and to formulate policy and everything else that that that we do so they really had not just what rich said but you know a much a much more active role than most agencies would especially most larger agencies they don't get the opportunity to get everyone involved and we truly got everyone involved because we had to and they stepped up so we really can't say enough great things uh I want to recognize our accreditation manager uh you know Sergeant Rio Fano did a phenomenal job his organizational skills really came in handy we tapped the right guy for the job and uh he rose to the occasion and really did terrific so uh very very proud of of the job that he did you know was happy to work with him he made it a pleasure he made it a challenge sometimes uh you know but he kept us on task and he kept the project moving forward and on schedule so uh you know I'd like to just close out with that like I said ter terrific group of people you have here and we're really honored that we were able to to achieve this so thank you all for your support your ongoing support and I promise we'll keep it up [Applause] well thank you everyone at this time uh for presentations under the agenda it says 2023 Order review uh Mr Vincy was not able to make it tonight or anybody from his office so uh M wowski has asked that they come to the October 7th meeting so she's verifying his availability um under payment of bills resolution number 24317 authorized payment of bills August 30th 2024 to September 19th 2024 do I have a motion so move second any discussion I have nothing call well I'm sorry I mean I had some questions I don't know if uh I did get him to the administrator uh later than I'm sure he uh anticipated but uh if he has any response I'd like to make a a general response uh if you wouldn't mind handing these down today mik sure um well that's coming down um that that's a list of the uh bills that councilman Alman uh is questioning um they came in today at um 12:13 uh via an email to the administrator Sue and the council president there are 40 items on there um you know some of them are grouped together so I don't want to mislead anyone um but in my opinion when the bill list uh was adopted for the council to review um it was meant to answer one or two questions that came up not 10 15 20 um yeah to me a lot of these are budgetary questions that should be asked as part of the budget process I believe that you know the the council approves the budget and then it's the administration's job to execute the spending of those funds properly um you know one of the things on here um why are we purchasing oil for police vehicles um you know for $89 um you know I you know I understand it's all taxpayer money but to you know to send these questions at you know after noon time today and you know the volume of them I just think is you know should be safe for the budget process many of these questions and not uh at every single council meeting so I I appreciate the council listening so I may uh the mayor has pointed out a uh a line oil for Tahoe and purchasing oil but the second part is really a followup to have having a pit in the new DPW building which I inquired about last meeting and we said that we had a shared service so this is sent out uh if we are performing repairs either scheduled or emergency should the building have a pit so this is not about $89 of oil this is about asking a question about a five three four5 million building and do we need you know a p to service the vehicles so you could pull that one out you could highlight that uh that's fine if that's how you feel about it you know we have a recycling contract okay and there is a recycling fee for August for geta can and for August for Atlantic Coast I'm not familiar with Atlantic Coast uh maybe everyone else is which is why you didn't ask uh but you know why why do we have that fee you know is it something uh that we can expect regularly is it a component of our regular recycling so yes these are things that are talked about in the budget process but there's still questions that I feel are um you know relevant uh amaroso you know these are going against 2003 uh accounts so are we getting bills from amaroso nine months later that we're now charging to the 2003 I again that's a question uh the the 20,000 that we're moving funds for arpa I don't know if everyone knows what orpa is if someone wants to share it with me from the deas I would appreciate it uh I did have a question about why we have people going uh for three nights versus two nights to the uh conference you know and if we if we are doing that shouldn't we be at a uh a fiscally conservative Hotel so there were two questions embedded in that um the emergency service building one two 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 of the 40 are related to one charge I just ask it's a new building we're looking to build a new DPW is there something that we should learn from this expense when we're thinking about what we're doing in uh the DPW and the second is uh the last one I would say is the uh Frank's Truck Center you know what do what do we replace here you know it just seems like it seems like a lot of money what are we doing here is it something that we can expect on a regular basis what's what vehicle is it for so mayor you're absolutely right uh to have or you're absolutely entitled I should say to have your opinion um but you know we put this ordinance in place uh I believe these are legitimate questions I don't think these are like nitpicking anything and you know if again if you're going to put uh highlight an item and call me out at least give the full explanation because I am not asking about $89 for oil I am asking about a long-term situation where we're making a significant investment and do we need to consider it so that would be my answer to your question and if the administration chooses not to answer this that's fine you don't have to answer it but I'm going to continue to ask the questions thank you I I would just like to say you know I reference the purchasing oil because that to me is a bill list question regarding the DPW having a pit in it what does that have to do with the build list it has everything to do with the BU as to bring that up as a DPW when we're talking about the DPW but if we don't have that discussion if we you don't ask now in the bill list when it's coming up you know I did ask when we did it I did ask in the uh DPW discussion and I was told we send everything out that there's no need and we haven't bill for 90 bucks for oil so I don't know are we buying it and we have to bring it to uh paramis for the uh oil change is it like bring your own oil okay I mean I I would you know I'd like a straw vote from the council if they want to continue uh with this process of answering the questions during a meeting and taking up valuable time during a meeting uh for just one member of the council or do you you know do you want to uh have Mr Alman councilman Alman submit these and have the administrator get back to him offline uh you know because again I can't see any of these holding up the bill list because the administrator you know although he has a good memory might not remember some of these and again the council is a body of five and so you know if uh but this is an ordinance that was put in effect by previous Council well it was put in as an ordinance to review and again in my opinion not so Happ yes but again the spirit of the ordinance I think is being abused a little bit but that's my opinion okay and if I may um you know yeah there are times that we we're all going to have a question on something you know and I think it's um imperative that we're able to ask the administration on the day while we're here you know during a budgets budget season very long we do forget things and I think if we bring stuff up on a regular basis it'll keep us refreshed the other portion or part of the bill list is that um technically the way the the way it's written is that bills should not be paid unless it's approved by the council that's that was the origin of it not that we're going to review a bill it would be approved approved on the day and then you may pay the bill we have gone the other way that's and that's how that's how we have Peter prior to I I sign all the checks and I know when they leave the building I want to hear what you have to refute that prior to your being on the council okay prior for me being on the council that's the way the ordinance that was the spirit of the ordinance okay and it has and it has evolved over time time and I think this is a good method to to address things that come up on a bill list if we have a question with particular line item and a lot of times I don't but there are times I do you know that Mark right and I have no problem I do want to take that right away from any of us if we want to review something okay now this time there seems to be many uh items that are listed and they do fall into a particular category but there's a time that you know Daisy wants to ask about a particular thing or Tom or me and I don't think that's too much of an Ask that's the the purpose of having a council is to ask the questions right and I think if you take that apart or away from a council why are we here you know our our function is very very limited and you want to limit it more I don't think that's appropriate and I think the you know going offline is one thing but I think you know maybe the public wants to hear some of these things and I wouldn't want and we're all about transparency right right I think it's very transparent if we do it on the DAT I'm not saying go through every bill and we never do that we pick out certain things that are particular to us you know I might be interested in Recreation and Daisy might be interested in public public uh uh public uh events and Tom the fire department or whatever so I think it's it's it behooves us to you know listen ask the questions and you answer you know it's not supposed to be confrontational it's supposed to be you know working together as a council okay and as an Administration and I don't see why we would we would take that away you know and again and I understand your feeling that yes Mr Olman submitted this late I get it and you know it probably doesn't give you a lot of time to um prepare and I would ask maybe Mr Man to get it in a little earlier but we all do that you know we're all very busy and sometimes we look at the packet late and then we have those questions so again I think this is not a bad um a a bad thing to do to ask questions and get some answers and most of the times the answers are you know your answers to the council are are um well received and there's no confrontation but there are questions that we do have Peter so that's all I'm going I I would just like to ask respectfully what bills are you aware of that are going out before the bill list gets approved I'm saying in the past that's happened not in the recent past I didn't say the rec prior to your prior to your tenure my tenure ited and that's why we changed it okay but it hasn't hasn't done that you know in the recent recent past I I didn't realize how distant you were talking so okay thank you for talk at least you know six seven years e than so okay roll call well I think Mark would like to answer some if not all of them uh based on I'm prepared to answer I'm prepared to answer for all of them okay uh the first one if you notice in the First left-and Column is a 23 purchase order so the service was rendered and encumbered in 2023 as part of our organization and cleaning up in reconciling our open 23 posos it was discovered that we were missing an invoice for both jobs uh sometimes our vendors are um not the best at following through with an invoice these mechanisms help us catch this in this particular case there was you know some health related um concerns with some office staff at this particular vendor um so that's why it is getting reconciled this evening um Township of Washington move funds to cap Improvement that's arpa so during our audit exit interview it was discovered that there was 7,000 $185 of unused arpa money that's American Rescue plan act that was not used in the budget in 2022 it was in a budget line a 22 budget line it was called arpa arpa storm water improvements I did not have anything to do with that however we did utilize some of that I should say it had nothing to do with the budget process for 2022 I don't know why it was originally um included in the budget for 2022 but there were $7,100 that was unused in 2023 Council approved us um funding a capital I'm sorry I'm just looking for the name here it was arpa but I think it was for acquisition here it is General acquisition of equipment and program and it was not neither one of these lines were funded with taxpayer funds it was all funded with the arpa money that was given to us from federal dollars in 2023 it was called General acquisition of equipment and program the council members remember that's how we bought the boat for the fire department we bought some light towers for OEM and couple other things as well as uh going to pay for our first year of uh Prime Point our new payroll it was not um necessary to pay in advance so there was 20,000 for the prime point so 20,5 $596 51 was remaining unused from the 23 budget line the significance here is um over the years of arpa being distributed to municipalities or governments there was strict guidelines as to what you could use the money for those guidelines and restrictions were lifted and it was made a lot broader for what you could purchase therefore boat the light tow is the prime point the money has to be used by the end of 24 so we can't put it into Surplus so the money from 20122 we created a general ledger account the initial thought was to utilize the leftover 23 money that you see here tonight that $1,738 and 21 however we cannot utilize 23 budget money for 24 expenses if a bill came in from 23 I could use it so in Consulting with our accountants and our financial advisors the only way we could get this into the means of utilizing it this year was to write ourselves to create a purchase order to essentially pay the township of Washington from that account line that you see there that charge account so the money will essentially be transferred if approved this evening for a total of that 9,738 21 and the $718 in change that I mentioned a few minutes earlier that money has to be used by the end of this year again it's not taxpayer money it was all arpa money this money 10,000 of that will be used to pay for our joining The Coop um yeah the other the $800 is going to be how we pay for the shared service the ambulance yeah with the ambulance so right there's 15,800 um you know I've I've told you an email we're anticipating some funds being needed for those two litigations so it's giving us a little bit of buffer so that's the explanation of where that money came from and what we're doing with it tonight so again it'll be transferred from that 23 account to that General Ledger account where we can then create purchase orders off of that uh that line number uh there were several questions regarding the three nights day uh for certain uh Township employees attending the league of municipalities conference in Atlantic City uh it is a three-day two night conference however going it's Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday however going there Monday night does afford US the opportunity to begin informal networking with our U professionals consultants and our fellow employees of you know from other departments agencies governments the members that are staying the third night did take into consideration the cost and we are at one of the least expensive hotels for those three nights um one of councilman alman's questions you know should we have Re Max reimbursement and have individuals pay difference I imagine that's something for Council to discuss next year when um when discussing budget however just so everyone knows this is an appropriate use from our Council I'm sorry our dues meetings and conferences lines it was appropriately budgeted for it's not over encumbering anything from us staying the third night um the Air Center ink charge for the es Building Maintenance that is the compressor unit that's over there it's a rather significant piece of equipment that needs to be maintained and inspected every year that's why you see you know nine or 10 lines of charges for that piece of equipment with recycling Mr Mr sorry so so that is an anticipated charge that we will have for the employee services building going for I believe so Sim of similar magnitude because same things they probably get maintained PM preventive maintenance on it will cost us this much yearly yes I did talk to the fire chief today to uh confirm what I thought it was for and I did ask him if we think it's going to be a yearly charge we only got it last year so I'm not sure if it's going to be in every year inspection or every other year inspection but I'll have to check into it but but this is something we should budget for ESB for future well thank you yes no problem so with curbside pickup as you know G has uh was awarded the bid for curbside recycling pickup right so two trucks come in the the town one picks up the Fiber One picks up the the aluminum the glass the can so forth that costs $133,000 uh a month that's by contract will never be up I'm sorry this year it will never be below or higher than $113,000 again sometimes office staff sends us invoices at different intervals sometimes it's the same sometimes it comes in L that's why you see August and September Atlantic Coast Recycling is where G dumps the recycling so Gat is just pick up Atlanta coastal is where they take possession of the recyclables it's actually significantly less than last year they have a new plant um that's in Patterson I think or or somewhere off the uh outskirts of Patterson so so there's a benefit to the value in some of that recycling that's why it's less so that 751 is actually uh really good it used to be more last year um the oil for toos I I honestly can't tell you why we purchased um the oil went through that uh Frank's Truck Center this is a 2006 garbage truck um it was brought to Franks because the engine was rebuilt several years ago and there was hopes that whatever was wrong with it um we didn't know uh was going to be um fixed under the warranty there were some items that were fixable under the warranty and as you can see there was a slew of stuff that wasn't it is a 2006 um you know vehicle you know I don't I'm hoping that um it's not going to be on a continuous basis as you know these trucks are running every day all day you know pretty much every week of the year whether it's brush or you know um debris week or or leaves or whatnot they always run um we talked about Caesar's hotel and then Amar roasted tree service if you remember during budget season um the Green Team under recycling we were going to request 12,000 as we have done uh in years past however we will able to supplement that $112,000 request with a $3,000 green communities Grant so in the recycling green teams line we only asked for nine instead of 12 it was then supplemented with a budget line called greine communities Grant the reason that Grant is in the current fund as opposed to it being a grant number with a G is because it was an unappropriated Grant meaning that the money had never gone through the budget cycle so the only way for us to uh get unappropriated Grant funds is to bring it through a budget cycle if we did not use this $33,000 or say we used half of it or a portion of it at the beginning of 25 our CFO would then create a Grant Line and put that balance in there so that's how that's how Grant lines you know because you 99.9% of the time they're always reimbursable we're not getting the money up front so that that money was um utilized to pay for the 30 green Giants that were put over at Sherry field and uh that concludes the questions on the bill list thank you thank you Mr Dara roll call councilman CIO yes councilman Sears yes councilman Alman yes Council yes council president to sener yes PSA for September 23rd 2024 psng is replacing existing electrical and gas meters with new smart meters throughout Township as required by the BPU please please be sure to respond to any letters requesting meter replacement if you do not reply your service is in Jeopardy of being shut off please visit our website for further information important election dates September 21st mailing a vote by mail ballots begins October 15th is the voter registration deadline October 26th through November 3rd is the early voting period October 29th is the deadline to apply for a mailin ballot by mail November 4th 3 p.m. deadline for inperson mail and ballot applications November 5th is the general election polls are open from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. the town hall elevator modernization is expected to begin as early as September 25th and hopefully will be completed by November 4th Township employees are prepared to assist residents that are unable to utilize stairs we encourage the use of the exterior Dropbox for paying of taxes as well as other correspondents the township of Washington's first annual Washington Wicked 5K and kids fund run will be proud proudly sponsored by VFW Post 6192 and be held on Sunday October 20th at 9:00 a.m. fund starts at Gardner field please visit our website for registration info the board of election is happy to announce they have joined with the New York Giants to conduct an event at MetLife Stadium to recruit pole workers voter registrations and mail and ballot requests the event will be held tomorrow Tuesday September 24th 2024 at Giant stadium Lot G there will be giveaways meet and greets and light Refreshments the Bergen County satellite office and passport Outreach service are coming to the township this Wednesday September 25th from 10:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. please visit our website for further information our annual flu clinic will be held on Wednesday September 25th from noon to 1 p.m. at Town Hall pre-registration is required please visit our website for further details the quanas club is a global organization of volunteers dedicated to improving the world one child and one community at a time the quanis club of the pasak valley formed for the Township in Westwood meet on second Wednesday of each month 6:30 p.m. at the Westwood Community Center if anyone would like more information please contact Ralph culi at 516-5813 one9 or pasak Valley kaanis gmail.com our next council meeting will be held on Monday October 7 107 thank you everyone um followup report uh Mark you have one pleas yes um and before I forget we notified this morning that the elevator work is going to start 9:25 so it is correctly yes hopefully nothing changes but it will start 9:25 thank you all right good evening everyone council president uh to sen Council and mayor this is my followup from Township meeting on September 9th uh there was no resident Council um I'm sorry no resident concerns or questions to follow up on Council concerns and questions DPW building Anthony iovino has been given approval to move forward with the architectural design of the new building in accordance with the signed proposal for services additionally Mr iino has been requested to repair an alternate bid to include a brick face front of the building and three sides to be comprised of split face insulated block Glen beckme Township engineer will be conducting the Engineering Services for the site design the new DPW building and the parking lot area he's working on the site designed to include a cost estimate that we hope to get back to council as soon as we can Council had questions pertaining to resolution 24309 awarding of bid to appraisal assistance Council was provided this information on September 11 2024 there was a concern as to when the Actual appraising would begin based on the date of October 1 2025 that was written in uh the resolution hopefully I do my best to explain this but the October 1 2025 is representing the date established by state law Division of Taxation for the valuation date every year October 1 is the date of valuation this means all the groundwork must be completed by this date for the 2026 tax year at the end of that meeting I I thought council did not approve the resolution that's why I was trying to get it to you so quickly so I was very thankful once I came to uh reality that it was yes so um there was a couple revisions going back and forth um between us appraisal systems and U Miss Bailey today we're hoping to have it reviewed and for the mayor signature tomorrow which will unlock the the beginning of the working um on those appraises I did meet with our tax collector and tax assessor to discuss the items just mentioned there's no involvement from the tax collector during a reassessment process therefore there was no need uh does I'm sorry she does not need to review the bid further questions asked by councilman Omen that evening is the company insured yes and the Certificate of Insurance is was provided in the bid packet do the employees of appraisal systems need to have background checks appraisal system conducts a background check of their employees all information pertaining to the individual and their vehicle will be provided to the town and the PD the info on the employee ID consists of name picture license plate number and vehicle description once we have that information we'll disseminate on our social media platforms question of what does cama the acronym stand for stands for computer assisted Mass appraisal how will information be integrated appraisal systems works with our tax assessor and the files are electronically integrated in regards to the lighting ordinance I spoke with our code enforcer quarter administrator and Township attorney a recommendation on ordinance was recommended to the council and will be discussed during conference agenda there was discussion on the utilization of older Capital ordinances to fund current projects within the township fortunately there are remaining balances in a few capital accounts to fund project projects to support our infrastructure examples include much needed Ro repairs repairing of sink holes repairing of sinking catch basins and drainage problems the repairs and improvements are non-discretionary and address safety and property damage potentials on occasion I have found that we do not have the benefit of time or sufficient advanced notice to plan for expenditures although greatly appreciated and at no fault of the County Road Department we were informed that van Amberg Washington ab and Ridgewood Road would be paved in the very near future in 2023 we were told the resurfacing could happen in 2024 or 2025 part of the Township's responsibility is to identify sanitary manholes and structures that need replacement or repair on those County Roads DPW inspected approximately 80 sanitary manhole structures out of which 30 need to be repaired or replaced under these circumstances the township only has to pay for the items not the labor the items cost approximately $14,000 we had funding in older Road Improvement Capital lines to purchase the it items if we did not and the county roads were resurfaced repairing afterwards the township would be spons responsible for purchasing the items and the cost of Labor speaking with our engineer those repairs may have reflected a cost of $75,000 of course if they had to all be replaced at once at the end of September staff members and I will complete our quarterly review of accounts and expenditures Council receive the review of all accounts as they have been receiving this will include the balances of all capital accounts recently we discovered several open purchase orders from the early 2000s there was a total of 12 for azalina and fury engineering there were no longer these were no longer needed and were closed this plays a total of $9,250 55 back into capital account lines that previously had a zero balance these account lines will be part of our review and the council will be updated with our recommendation on the most productive use of these funds under update I did tell you I will be providing a more comprehensive update on the project tractor Goering conference agenda I did want to update the council in the residence on two other things um recently well starting in June we were made aware of a property at 558 Beach Street that was not being tended to because the home was essentially abandoned it was being worked on by our clerk's office and Health Department as well as our code enforcement officer uh sometime later it was brought to my attention by council president and also uh by some neighbors that were very upset with the unsightliness of and condition of the property I did meet in person with a group of three or four of the women there um that represented the larger group of maybe seven or eight residents um I informed them of the update it's apparent it it seems as though the house is in transition from the previous owners to becoming HUD property so essentially HUD is is right now responsible for the cleanup we were able to make um good relationships with them as well as the property management group and we're happy to say that last Saturday they came and cleaned up the property there still is work to be done we's also got them to commit to coming every two weeks moving forward until the house is you know reoccupied by by whoever is going to you know take ownership of the home and do it themselves part of the problems were over on Weeds trees brush um there was garbage in the front that our DPW took care of which was a health related issue um there was a couple of uh Vehicles one of the two were moved which was a motorcycle there's still a vehicle there and there was an enormous amount of just personal property kind of trash in the backyard the problem is that personal property could not be removed by the HUD or the property manager because it was personal property belonging to the current owner so we able to at least get it put inside one of the structures either in the garage or the shed was there so they did tell me that they're coming back to finish cleaning up I went there today it looks good it looks great Mr Dara thank you and Cornelia for all your hard work case as well whoever because it looks incredible today thank you so much Dino uh committed to stopping there last Saturday while the cleanup crew was there to make sure it was going well they did a great job thank you for so I know they're happy but they they would like to see even better Improvement so that's good and then as far as the paving on um on Van Amberg in Washington you know as far as van Amberg last week not that apology is needed to go out to the community but there was a little bit of miscommunication um as to how the information went out a lot of residents thought that the resurfacing was going to take place last week where it was actually just several days of trench work and repiping in preparation of uh the resurfacing that is going to begin this week and next week the police department Department as well as our social media meaning the township did put stuff out but why have it if I could steal some of your thunder of a PSA Tuesday September 24th Washington Avenue is scheduled to be closed from pasak road to Van emberg Avenue Cruise will be milling and Paving on Wednesday Washington Avenue is scheduled to be closed from pasak road to Van urg Avenue again uh with cruise million Paving one side will be the West Side the next day will be the east side on Thursday Washington Avenue is scheduled to be closed from Van urg Avenue to where Miss Road in hokus there'll be million Paving and then Friday East Glenn Avenue is scheduled to be closed from Ridgewood Road to the Ridgewood border next week I don't have the specifics as in you know what determinations of lengths on these roads however it's important to know that nine on September 30th and uh October 1st there will be Milling on Van Amberg and there'll be Paving on East Glenn on October 1st and then October 2nd and October 3rd there will be Paving on Washington and Van urg and I'm sure the police department will be updating us later this week as to what sections of Van urg will be done when and uh thank you council president that concludes my update thank you Mr Dar I I have one question with the with Wasington Avenue and repaving how are they going to and you probably know as a law enforcement how are they going to um deal with the uh ramps going on off the park or what's what's the plan because so when they're tomorrow when they're doing westbound they're going to only allow right turns only on the Washington Avenue okay and they'll have it blocked off with an officer ass sign there and then the following day when they're doing eastbound they're only going to be allowing left hand turns onto Washington AV okay so there'll be traffic control devices as well as the police offic okay thank you you're welcome I have a followup yes just um about the background checks so I appreciate that appraisal does background check I mean I don't know what they're checking um for a resident to take full advantage of the appraisal or reassessment uh I believe it's required that an individual enter their house uh to do an inspection they count the rooms they make sure that you know the cards are the same uh although we haven't done it in quite some time you know uh a property that I assist with recently had it done and I guess you know if you don't allow the person in you potentially are uh penalizing yourself because they cannot get in they cannot see the um uh state of the house they they can't uh do the inspection the interior that they are required to do and I guess if we're telling people that they need to let these people in to get the full advantage of their reassessment I believe we should perform a check on the people that uh are doing this this is not a contract between the the individual and a utility provider if they don't want to let psng in that's their problem but this is a municipal requirement that we are uh putting upon the H uh the homeowner or the property owner and I believe that we should check individuals who are going to be going into Township houses potentially with you know small children potentially with elderly adults uh I don't see why um you know we shouldn't make that request so uh I do appreciate that they do a background check I don't know what they're checking are they checking you know for financial stability are they checking for uh criminal records are they checking on you know uh Registries so you know that that's that's why I brought it up and that's why I bring it up and give to the council to see if it's something that they want to pursue further so you want the police department to do a background check on the on this company it's employees on the employees who are going to be knocking door Todo and doing an interior inspection M Mr Alman just hold on Mr Dar Cara are you I believe you are the caretaker of records for all background checks conducted by Township of Washington for for for for volunteers or is it the police chief I know was you were the police chief at one point I know Mr too and the police chief used to go back and forth but it's it's most likely the the police department but as you see with them being accredited there's going to have to be policy so I can certainly speak with the chief of police but I'm just saying can we just ask appraisal systems like I know like when I run backr checks on my volunteers I'm see them you mean they it just comes but it just comes back like this is the person's name they've come back clear from the FBI registry sex Registries all that it comes back clear so if the police chief and your and whoever is the caretaker of our Municipal Township records for volunteers could review that and determine that it's in proto it's in the same alignment that we do for our volunteers would that answer would that be acceptable Mr Alman sure I mean you know yeah so all all you got to do is just ask appraisal systems if they could just show us but that's that's what it says here it says all information pertaining to the individual in their vehicle will Pro be provided to the town and the police department so we're doing that that that's more like the bad they're going to be wearing like their ID name in a picture's asking for the actual background check so like you do get a file like if I run like Michael Des as a volunteer which I do every year it comes back that I have no I'm not on the sex Registries and all that stuff so and then we we keep it we the Little League of America international keeps it in their database I don't I only see it luckily knock on wood we've never had somebody come back not good I I will ask ask them if they're will if they're just willing to if not we just have to run it really quick I mean it's it's it's not bad that that's the part I don't want you know to make lead the council to believe that can be done because there there is requirement certain things so you know are we going to be able to tell you that their license is is not suspended you know you don't care about that but being able to wear run their fingerprints for criminal record that might not be able to be done so let me see how I make that with appraisal systems and I'll talk to the chief of police and see what actually I think if if you determine that what they've run is in in almost alignment with ours of what we run and we could just say hey just show us that it came back clean we're in good shape yeah I mean hope you know in the end the resident's still going to just be taking our word for it so um you know I will ask this question thank and I I would think that a company that does this would probably not you know knowing the circumstances of children and elderly at home they wouldn't be employed folks with that kind of record you would hope so but you know what I think we've seen in the news and uh where you know teacher it just because it I think it gets publicized a little more say but teachers who are you know entrusted with our uh children you know on a regular basis are on a regular basis in the news so I to me to ask you know are they given a thorough background check or at least the equivalent to what we do when we hire someone to work with individuals so in the rec department and the coaches they we do something we run them through and we determine that they're safe to be around our children so we're giving a so maybe we have like a series of let's say 10 and those are the 10 that only work in town well that's why I'm asking Mr to just speak to appraisal systems and Just sh the information with the police chief and if they determine that it's the same it's an alignment to what we do for background check and they determine that it's acceptable then we're good and if you can just report back to us saying yes that yes or not and then we'll take it from there yes I think councilman is correct putting another lay of security is well worth it the amount of money we're paying and I think adding another layer of security would probably ease some of the residents in the township yeah absolutely and I I don't think we should check every I don't believe we need to check everyone it's goes no the ones that are going in the homes that's that's what I okay thank you uh motion to open the public meeting so move second all in favor I I would anyone in the audience like to come up and address the council good evening Mr ziko good evening Kevin Zito 661 Jefferson Avan Township I'm here today to discuss the closure of Colonial Boulevard for Halloween after participating in this event last year and over the last several years both as a parent and a first responder I shared many of the same concerns as Chief calamari recognized in his press release um however I also recognized that it was a great Community event until it grew in such size and scope largely because it was such a safe and enjoyable event I know many residents were disappointed to learn that it would not take place this year last year I had developed the plan as a suggestion or starting point to improve the safety of this event due to my concerns over the crowds that were present I didn't present it at the time because I wanted to see how things unfolded this year now that the event has been cancelled I'd like to offer a plan again as a potential working project and starting point to the residents of Colonial Boulevard and to the township as a potential framework for allowing the event to continue in the future while addressing the concerns raised by both the police chief myself and many other residents in town I would be further happy to share these ideas at a later date with anyone interested in collaborating with myself and and potentially taking a lead to potentially revive this event as a safe and enjoyable Community tradition um as it was originally intended as opposed to kind of what it grew into um I did email everybody I hope everybody did get I was going to say is your plan what you emailed the my plan is what I emailed thank you um and again it's a starting point um I am involved heavily in emergency services for the last 30 something years not only in this town but in others as well um and I see myself as kind of a puzzle Sofer so things like this when I see the inherent good and the inherent the the good-natured intentions of it I really like to find a way that maybe could work to allow it so I I I appreciate your plan Mr ziko I think your plan very in a very summed up way is to close Colonial off right and have check-in points at Colonial right partially but there's a lot more involved to it well I'm saying but and then handing out tickets to Residents correct and obviously not for this year um and I would but the plan is to to to to block it off so the public couldn't and I think that I I've asked Mrs Miss Bailey for some legal advice if we can close a public road to the public you know and have it ticketed like I know you were saying like have a pass to say hey I live in Washington Township I get in I don't have one I don't get in right that's pretty much your idea right I know I'm I'm very you you had a lot more eloquent you put it a lot more eloquently in your in your email but the the the objective would be to not let anybody that doesn't have a ticket onto that portion of colonial that's closed off for the event yes yes so can we close a public Street and have a ticketed event on a public street so generally a town can prohibit non-residents from allow you know from aend ending a public event public funded event no on a an event a public event on a public Street an event on a public Street it the it implicates violations of the First Amendment right to assembly 14th Amendment equal protection a town can place reasonable restrictions on events it just can't be based on residency and I and I have not looked deeply into the question on what kind of restrictions I haven't seen your plan unfortunately the reasonable restrictions can be crafted as long as they're not in violation um of the Constitutional Amendments understood that and i' I'd like to present this anyway um because there are maybe things that could grow out of it to do something we do allow block parties where streets are closed off um now those are privately held uh so it is something maybe that the residents there there there could be a potential workable way with an attorney's advice and without um so I would like to at least go forward I spend a lot of time here waiting um and if it legally can't be held certainly then there's an answer um but I do think I tried and the biggest part was and ironically I had done this before he came out with his press release uh Chief calamari and shared many many many if not all of the same concerns that I had had last year when I had attended the event uh so the goal of this was to allow this event to continue um reduce red the number of Out of Towners to a manageable size um promote the family atmosphere of the township of Washington and continue what was a safe and fun event by enjoyed by many uh so the initial plan was to have ticketed entry points at Colonial and Kenneth and Colonial and Eaton tickets sold prior to the event to Township residents with no limit on tickets per family child um who were residents and four additional tickets per family for out of town guests I gave suggested prices that doesn't really come into play right now uh ticket holders would get either a printed entry ticket or a specifically colored trick or treat bag uh again a work in progress to figure out how to make something work and allow a very good event to continue uh without risking the safety of our residents um while promoting safety of our trick-or-treaters two to three volunteers at each gate which would likely be Colonial Boulevard residents um with police at each entry gate um and concrete barriers or water barriers preferred where possible closure type to be at the discretion of OEM um hard closure to vehicular and pedestrian traffic along the length of colonial both sides um from Eaton to Kenneth uh I'm trying to summarize it a little to speed up for you one side of the street parking on adjacent streets with the most closest adjacent streets to be zero parking um and see if the high school would provide availability for parking as well the residents on the Block would coordinate candy donations um specific hours two hours which again could be adjusted based off of conversations with OEM um residents would be responsible for clean up of their own property residents would request DPW for street cleaning possibly with a street sweeper um garbage receptacles be placed about every 500 feet or at each fire hydrant with pick up by the DPW the following day meet with OEM police Fire EMS at least two months prior one month prior one week prior and one day prior as needed and at the discretion of OEM and requesting permits through the town if needed uh and for the financials and this is where it becomes more of a private event as a public event um residents wishing to continue this tradition would set up a nonprofit organization uh work with the town to determine Police salary DPW salary to be paid for through the event um as opposed to the town fronting those costs donation of any extra to fire an EMS for standby Services um and for candy purchases uh any remaining profit to donate to a local charity at the discretion of the trick-or-treating committee and to set up a committee and a Board of Trustees um and then there were some other ideas to kind of start ahead of time but at this point I guess it would be more to see at this point if there there's a legal way to allow this to do so um and kind of start from there and you know if we come up with a committee if there's no way to do it there's no way to do it um but if we do come up with a committee I'd be certainly happy to serve on that thank you Mr thank you I make a comment sure Mr um so Mr ziko um this looks like you put a lot of time into it and I think you would be a fantastic volunteer on the public affairs committee um because this is the kind of work that needs to get done and I'll tell you when I read your your the information you presented over email um this sounded like a great event at the hopefully future Swim Club whatever it becomes something that it could be a full blown and a community party that is Halloween Halloween um driven so I think there's a lot of great ideas here again because of the legal nature of it and on Colonial public that would you know leave that up to the attorney but I know you put a lot of work into this so I appreciate you taking that time to do so um it's a lot easier said than done so thank you for taking the time to to think outside the box for our community thank you yes thank you Mr Z you did put a lot of time and effort into this endeavor um I I I would appreciate if the mayor could share it with uh our Township attorney to see if there's any uh real restrictions on leaving it as Mr ziko presented it on Colonial but I think you know Miss Le brings up a good point when the swim club is finally able to be utilized maybe we could have a like you said a community bag you know you can't enter without buying a bag or something and that would fun the part how IDE no but that would be the way like you know buy a bag and you get to enter right it's like trick or like Trunk or Treat right you paid by the trunk right so you you buy your you buy your spot but here you'd be buying a bag so your kids could enter the event it's a safe en closed location so you kind of getting that whole vibe without my fear behind this you give me another minute or two my fear behind this was this is going to happen regardless of whether we actually close it or not um and through years before this started I trick-or-treated Colonial even as I was a kid and that was one of the top streets to go in town since 40 years ago because it was a long having 5 to 10,000 people on long stretch of road that it was easy drop the kids off at one end drive my parents would drive down the other and when I got there I was done trick-or-treating except for my own local neighborhood there you go um and it grew to a point where just the town residents were so many in number that it became a safety issue and I mean trick-or traing in general at night is a safety issue um every street could be dangerous there's lots of streets with no sidewalks um so it's that's how it kind of grew into what it did to start with and then the publicity and the word of mouth got out and that's kind of what really triggered it to I think last year it was probably close to 4,000 people there yeah which we don't have 4,000 people in town TR could treating that our residents much less on one block in two hours 4,000 people two hours um but a lot of residents there did enjoy it so you have Mr Zik's number to get him on the public so him and Sasha him and Sasha should be talking soon so I just thought that you know that there there should be a way to make something somehow work without what it became right so that was my Genesis for your for giving me the time to to talk about it thank you thank you seeing no one else in the audience is there may I just since this came up uh I'd like to just read the chief's statement for the people who don't have access to social media since it came up as a topic um so if you indulge me I can get through this in about a minute and a half I think um several residents have raised concerns regarding the decision to not close Colonial Boulevard on Halloween to vehicular traffic so I would like to share the basis for the decision the scope of the event has grown Way Beyond what was initially conceived and intended what started as a small local Town event for the residents was unfortunately broadcast and advertised significantly beyond the town and Beyond the county and state the number of out of town out of County and out of state people who attended now significantly outnumbers the residents it was never envisioned to become what it evolved into the size and scope has grown beyond what the available resources can effectively manage there are other concern there are other safety concern concerns in addition to traffic that have to be taken into account myself and many of my officers have training in event Safety and Security planning we have also consulted with and work with outside agencies I can assure the residents that safety is the top priority and that extensive safety measures will be in place thank you thank you motion to close the public portion of the meeting someone second all in favor thank you ordinances adoption second reading ordinance number 24-14 an ordinance permitting overnight parking for active First Responders of the township of Washington resolution number 24- 318 authorized second reading and opening of public hearing for Ordinance 24-14 do I have a motion second there is no one here from the audience any discussion roll call councilman Casio yes councilman Sears yes councilman yes Council valz yes council president the Senate yes motion to close the public hearing for ordinance number 24-14 do I have a motion Some Mo second roll call councilman C yes councilman Sears yes councilman Alman yes Council valz yes Council presiden uh yes motion to adopt ordinance number 24-14 at second reading by title do I have a motion so move I'll second it roll call councilman Casio yes councilman seers yes yes councilman Alman yes Council woman valz yes council president Des Sena yes ordinance number 24-15 an ordinance to implement goals and objectives of the township of Washington 2019 master plan reexamination report resolution number 24- 319 authorizing second reading and opening of public hearing for Ordinance 24-15 do I have a motion so move second roll call councilman Casio yes councilman Sears yes councilman omen yes Council valz yes council president to sen yes motion to close the public hearing for ordinance 24-15 so move second F councilman Casio yes councilman Sears yes councilman Omen yes Council bz yes council president yes motion to adopt ordinance number 24-15 at second reading by title I'll make the motion so second second roll call councilman CIO yes councilman Sears yes councilman Alman yes Council bz yes council president the sener yes ordinance number 24-16 an ordinance to implement goals and objectives of the township of Washington 2019 master plan reexamination report by resoning specific properties resolution number 24320 authorizing second reading and opening of public hearing for Ordinance 24-16 do I have a motion so move second any discussion no one here from the audience roll call councilman CIO yes councilman Sears yes councilman Alman yes Council valz yes council president Des yes motion to close public hearing for ordinance 24-16 so move second R call councilman Casio yes councilman Sears yes councilman Alman yes Council bz yes council president to sen yes motion to adopt ordinance number 24-16 at second reading by title do I have a motion so move second councilman CIO yes councilman Sears yes councilman nman yes Council blz yes council president the Senate yes ordinance number 24-17 an ordinance to implement various goals and objectives of the township of Washington 2019 master plan reexamination report resolution number 24321 authorizing second reading and opening of public hearing for Ordinance 24-17 do I have a motion so both second roll call councilman CIO yes councilman seers yes councilman Alman yes councilwoman bz yes council president D yes any discussion and there is no one in the audience for this motion to close public hearing for ordinance 24-17 so move R councilman CIO yes councilman sear yes councilman Alman yes Council bz yes council president to yes motion to adopt ordinance number 4-17 at second reading by title do I have a motion so move second roll call councilman cazo yes councilman Sears yes councilman Omen yes Council bz yes council president the Senate yes ordinance number 24-18 an ordinance amending chapter 223 article 3 of the ordinances of the township of Washington entitled parking standing and stopping motion to introduce and pass ordinance number 24-18 at first reading by title MO second roll call councilman CIO yes councilman Sears yes councilman Alman yes Council valz yes council president to Sena yes resolution number 24322 authorizing publication of ordinance number 24-18 and scheduling a public hearing do I have a motion so move second second Council Casio yes councilman seers yes Council V Alman yes Council yes council president yes resolutions on and consent agenda the following items have been determined to have the unanimous consent of council and will be enacted in one motion should any item require independent consideration any council member may have such item removed from the consent agenda does anyone have any resolution they' like removed at this time yes which one Mr uh 336 the last one 336 okay and uh 324 3 that's the second one 336 and 324 any others ladies and gentlemen ask 323 323 we ask here they should be T until the order presents well the certification has to be done tonight right mowy the certification has to be done but 323 uh has to be done tonight by uh statute 324 can be tabled I was going to ask that to be tabled until the order it comes for the next but let me go any others before and I'll go through them and we'll come back to three so I'm going to table 32 I mean excuse me I'm going to uh do them separately 323 324 and 336 is that correct want 333 323 324 and 336 is what I was told okay any others I'm ask Okay resolution number 24325 authorize release of remaining escrow balance block 43103 lot 11 in the amount not to exceed $1,115 50 resolution number 24326 authorized release of performance guarantee for Block 2201 Lot 4 and the amount not to exceed 5,400 resolution number 24327 authorized release of remaining engineering escrow balance for Block 316.027 resolution number 24- 328 authorized release of remaining balance of performance guarantee for Block 456 lck 54 in the amount not to exceed $27.75 resolution number 24329 authorized release of remaining engineering escrow balance for Block 3305 lot 72 and the amount not to exceed $1,321 resolution number 24-33 authorize release of remaining engineering ASC balance for Block 25033 lot 5 and the amount not to exceed $362 125 resolution number 24331 authorized release of a portion of engineering escrow balance for Block 4314 lot 7 in the amount not to exceed $488 resolution number 24332 authorized release of remain remaining engineering es balance for Block 2318 Lot 21 in the amount not to exceed $145 resolution number 24333 authorized cancellation of any current tax liabilities and all future property tax bill due to US veterans permanent disability block 4210 Lot 2 and authorize repayment refund the payment of quarter 3 2024 property taxes to core logic in the amount of not to exceed $2,862 15 resolution number 24334 authorize repayment refund of over payment of quarterly 3 20202 2024 property taxes block 3301 Lot 8 to core logic in the amount of not to exceed $3,115 and 38 cents resolution number 24335 authorize the mayor to execute the Joint Defense agreement for COA do I have a motion to uh so moved second roll call councilman CIO yes councilman Sears yes councilman Alman yes Council bz yes council president to yes motion to approve consent uh resolution number 24- 323 governing body certification of the 2023 annual audit BL God bless you I have a motion for 323 to discuss yeah I'll make a motion to discuss discussion on 323 so this is for the certification of uh of the um 2023 corrective uh plan annual audit no this the audit yes this certification of the audit we're doing 323 yeah yeah and it was asked to be pulled so we have questions I know Mr vincey won't be here till next meeting but you have to don't you have to resolution because tonight so I wish Mr Vincy was here to maybe highlight some things that I think we had questions on but he's not here so I'm I'm going to vote uh yes for because it has to be done okay any other discussion roll call councilman CIO yes councilman Sears yes councilman Alman no councilman yes council president TOA no resolution number 24324 approval of corrective act action plan for 2023 audit I'm asking that to Beed until the next meeting when Mr Vincy is here thank you can we take a quick vote we need a motion make a motion to I make a motion to table uh 24 324 I'll second that roll call councilman Casio yes councilman Sears may I ask you a question yes Mr will this affect us in any way no it doesn't we wowski check right and it's fine for us to present at the next V is yes yeah because you have 60 days after receipt and that'll bring you to actually October 21st okay thank so we're okay the the certification needed to be done tonight that was the only thing that was true yeah Council valz yes sorry councilman Omen got carried away we're table heing council president yes res motion to approve resolution number 24336 authorize the mayor to execute the agreement and general release between the township of Washington and Sergeant Steven ryell so move any discussion yeah my discussion was and I think there was um disagreement we were looking into that final uh figure if that was going to be added on to his pension bow uh it's not was you sure yes okay that was my that was my question any other discussion ladies and gentlemen councilman CIO yes councilman Sears yes councilman om man yes Council bz yes council president to Center yes can make one comment yes M just the at 323 the certification basic that is just saying that you took the time to look at the recommendations and the acknowledgement in the back you know you're not approving the audit itself but you were just saying that you went over those certain sections those pages that I comments and recommendations comments that's basically what that acknowledgement is that's all it is thank you Mr motion to adjourn to conference agenda second all in favor all right okay uh Mr Dar Carlo the project tracker do we have one tonight or [Music] you have it more you was the last two items mistaken starts with the difference card right Mr still cond investigation the building once that's completed we're hoping to be soon theing talk about way Township provide man equipment made by the contractor we spoke about that goes for rwood as well as far as the capital projects um the infield Rehab on the set of the ball field had Parks projects underway we're hoping to complete um Cherry field if it wasn't completed today for tomorrow that will lead to the apron being done by just at the beginning of sh field there Town elevator we discussed um for 925 the submitted Grant was for Calvin Street for next year I'm sorry uh I have no idea I feel like this wasn't my apologies next can you uh Mr D if this is a can you just send this the right one tomorrow or no it's the right one but it's no no I'm saying if he has an updated one he's saying he has an updated one this is the update initiation process ctif we're trying our best to that process my apologies for being page project were done sharing you know process can you turn on your microphone Mr starting with PDW building first and then moving on to um whatever would be next the ambulance and then the police if ultimately approved that concludes the project Checker again my apologies [Applause] someone um regularly inspecting the area squap in Brook every week we do documented checks and that's done by DPW they make in inperson inspections to the two exposed manholes thank you uh sidewalk recommendation I had asked uh I know Mr D and I and M you were in some discussions um I'd ask that if if our Township attorney could give us the recommendations of what is in is required to make our ordinance um in compliance with the ADA requirements Mr Carlo I know we had some emails going back and forth between all of us yeah we felt we felt probably best just the whole Council can be brought up um at the same time as to where we stand and I think Mrs baile is able to kind summarize it very quickly as it if it's going to affect our road programs moving forward especially our D grants and getting our final reimbursement so I was asked generally whether um the Township's existing ordinance about on sidewalks in particular would be sufficient in order to um uh pass the cost of uh you know upgrades and improvements to make the sidewalks ADA Compliant often to the ab buding and boarding residents in front of those uh sidewalks um and and I it the the the ordinance in my opinion is not and um is not sufficient to do that and to to empower the township to pass that cost off and generally um you you know there are two bodies of law that generally cover uh assessments and and one you I think we know is the the local improvements that allow for assessment of certain improvements undertaken by the municipality that derive a specific benefit sidewalks are different though those are governed by a different statute and the municipality may make these types of repairs and upgrades of of the nature that we're talking about here assuming the cost as a general Improvement or assessing all or a portion of the cost to the abing property owners but there's a procedure that you need to do you need to give notice and you can do that by way of providing a copy of the proposed ordinance to the specific uh Property Owners after first reading um and then but before passage giving them a right to a public hearing and that could be presumably on second reading and giving those specific Property Owners a right within that notice ordinance the specific information about um you know what the improvements are the you know the project cost and so forth would be included in there as well um and the residents need to be given the ability to do the work themselves failing which after 30 days the township can go forward and do it and depending upon how the township wants to proceed um passing the entire cost part of the cost offer to these residents or um you know treated as a general Improvement bonded that's that's up to the township so Mr Robin can I I I sat up here for six years and this this topic has come up a billion times and it came up 24 years ago when I bought my house and I spent thousands of dollars to have my sidewalks replaced at my own cost because I was told by the town that we own the sidewalks and it was my responsibility if I wanted my sidewalks to not have these usuge tripping hazards I had to repair it at my own cost and Mr par has sat up here for all the years in existence of his 38 years and tenure and said we don't own sidewalks and it's the responsibility of the homeowners and that's what we've been told the whole time so we saying that that is not the case that we we that we own the sidewalks or do the homeowners own the sidewalk because we've been always told and quote me if I'm wrong I know the six years I've been here and the 24 years ago when I asked hey can you come fix my sidewalks I felt it's your problem by somebody else well certainly the the township has a right to take that position I don't know what procedure uh you know you were advised about I I can only give you my opinion as to what the procedure would be in connection with the specific Improvement that's been uh you know upgrading for ADA compliance well upgrade for ADA compliance at the corners I agree should be part of the project but like what Mr beckme presented was hey I have a tree upheaval in the middle of Calvin Street the homeowner should be responsible for that tree because we don't own the trees and we don't own the sidewalks but the Ada portion at the intersections this our municipality is always paid for it on County Roads and on all dot projects we've always picked up that cost but only for the portion of the Ada ramp at the corner so if the homeowner wanted to say the homeowner had 100t of Frontage and 10 ft was in the corner which Incorporated the Ada the township would fix the a ramp but if he or she wanted to pay redo the 90 feet they'd have to do it on their own so is that a correct statement well the two things as I understand it Mr Beck Meer in order to certify the project and to complete um you know the the funding process from do it's his belief that the entire length of the sideway not just the apron needs to be done so that's where this question comes up so who who's responsible and how do we get there so if the township like I said for this particular expense expenditure Improvement and I'm not speaking to to trees or or you know a sidewalk coming up and lifting up I I think that that General ordinance can be improved to cover that you know I don't maybe in practice I mean because we have because because Mr Mayor you have a list right didn't we like I know when I was on the council last time you had sent out the code enforcement officer to prepare a list by voting district of sidewalks that needed replacement and he here he was supposed to notify the owners which I thought we did right that their sidewalks were not in compliance and they needed to be replaced is that a fair is that a statement because I could look back but I know that's what we did as my previous ten on counil I I I do recall that U he com he made us a list I don't recall if we sent notices out to the the property owners so we never I I just know I don't recall for sure your first part I definitely remember getting the list the second part I just can't confirm right here just don't remember but we did we but I I'm not like going crazy like we did we did have our code enforcement officer Let Go by voting district and say hey you have a tripping haard in front of your house you have 90 days to correct well I guess if the list was never sent then you know sorry to interrup no are we are you um combine two issues here when we when we talk about an ADA how it refer to in here uh you know curb extensions curb extension so on the corner so I live on Clark I had a a regular curve corner for 20 years that I lived here and it was decided to pay Clark as part of a uh repaving and before that could be done they put a c ramp into the corner are we saying that we want the resident to now be responsible for that no that was never the case that was never the case on any project so like you didn't get charged for that curb ramp and neither did any of the residents on a DOT or a project that like like like years ago we went up and down I know we just recently redid more on the county roads but right the county required us right Mr Mayor we signed an agreement with our former engineer to do all the curb ramps up and down Washington and Ridgewood Boulevard and pasak right because that was part of our agreement any road that they're Paving we're responsible to do that but just the curb ramps we did but not like so what I was always told is the curb ramps are ours but the remaining sidewalk like I don't have a curve ramp in front of my house I have you know Neighbors on both sides I don't have an intersection so that 100 ft aside walk his mom and I paid to have it replaced so we can't arbitrarily now say like all the residents including myself that I put their sidewalks in for years and years well now you're going to get a free sidewalk but is this happening because can I take a stab at while ask for is just give me the time to explain it without interruption and I I don't say that snotty it's just it's going to take I need you to S need you to sink in we're not asking Administration is is is on par with Council to not take taxpayer dollars to pay for this the problem is the problem arose is we used to have a different township engineer that didn't have such a strict interpretation of the guidelines set for set forth by the New Jersey DOT grant our new engineer interprets it that it's not just the intersection the ada8 ramps it's including everything in the middle the township is responsible for the intersections if there's a sidewalk there we can use the dot grant funding to fix that what we in order to certify or sign off on that his you know to where he's comfortable to do it our Township engineer he believes that everything in the middle of those intersection ramps has to be ADA Compliant so you're absolutely correct and I don't know if Miss Bailey has the ordinance there but it's basically like a sentence and a half or two sentences that says I'm paraphrasing the resident responsible for impediments in the sidewalk so the argument is what does impediment mean so we could say it's snow we could say it's grass we can even think you know we can correct me Miss Bailey if I'm wrong but I think we we agreed that we could stretch it even to a root upheaving it like six inches or a foot the problem is the Ada requirement is like less than half of an inch so the way I understand it there something like that so right now the predicament is we're due like let's just say $225,000 for the reimbursement we got the first big installment is like 75% we we're do that's 25% our Township engineer doesn't doesn't feel comfortable signing off on it and sending at the do so right now it will impede us getting that final reimbursement say it's 25,000 the bigger picture is he extends his interpretation to mean any road that is resurfaced by the township and I Believe Miss Bailey we we met with you and we provided that document to you I don't want to speak for you and say you're in agreement with it but it wasn't it wasn't off the- wall that he had this interpretation why it's different between our previous Township engineer and this one I can't tell you you know I I say this humorously like you know I don't think the idea is to get rid of this Township engineer and find one that'll sign off on it and again I know no one's suggesting that so the bigger problem is if you guys approve six roads next year we're going to have this problem with with six roads that we're going to have to um have this addressed what I understand is but there's no sign offs for those six roads because they're being done as just resurfacing we're just resf that's what I'm saying so our Township engineer says whether it's a DOT Street or not any Township resurfacing program it's the Township's responsibility to make sure it's ada8 compliant not to pay for it but to make sure it's ada8 compliant and then from why would I understand is Miss Bailey you know totally agrees that the township um has the en forcement ability to say you need to shovel your sidewalk you need to blow the grass off it you need to fix it because it's uprooted but there's nothing we have in the ordinance that says it has to be repaired to an ADA standard and I agree with that yeah so that's why we just want to bring that to the understanding the council and then I think Miss Ba's ready to draft an ordinance that would um account for that because the problem is we tell them hey you got to fix it and the resident says no I'm not doing it what do we what Foundation do we have to stand on to say you're gonna do it or else you're gonna get a ticket or we're gonna do it according to Mr PA we had a 90 it was a it was a a letter from our property code enforcement officer and they had from 30 to 90 days depending on what he he or she felt whoever the code enforcement officer or we do it and and and lean the property for it that's what we were told was happening you know years ago and that's what Mr par was said was okay I think his inter ation was for the types of things that like Ro but I agree it had nothing to do with Ada you're right that that is orance yes in my view it could be strengthened a bit so and clarified but in terms of this particular issue I I believe that the statute requires individual ordinances that affect the separate residents where the sidewalks are duplicated we're not bling on the fact that a resident is responsible for those up that's what I I want to make sure that's that's what it seemed like all of a sudden we're going back and say well we're responsible for all the sidewalk we're looking to beef up we want the ordinance tightened up yes we want it but I don't think it's I don't think but I think if you if you look at our past practices anytime we've gotten a DOT Grant with any of our previous engineers and even why Mr Beck Meer was on day is here we never performed Ada intersection improvements unless it was a DOT Grant and the like all like I know when all the streets got repaved and it was a DOT they would do the intersection improvements but then they would stop where they could tie in where they could tie that ADA into the existing sidewalk so whatever that stretch was was picked up by the grant that's a good question that's the only thing I don't know and I'm not suggesting that like say next year you guys approve six Street and all six of them are not do funded I don't know and I'm not saying that the township has to pay for the intersection r that answer I don't know but I don't think it's fair to put it on the on the homeowners no we're just talking about the sections in the middle I can fall up and ask about yeah so the sections in the middle I think you know if if if if we need to strengthen it a little bit to say hey the impediment is a 3-in gap in the sidewalk because the tree raised it three in or you know it broke or it's cracked like you know I have I I have a stretch on my block which we just got a DOT Grand 4 on beach that every single slab it looks like somebody took a sledgehammer to it and it's been like that for 24 years and the kids have been tripping on it for 24 years and nothing's been done about it that I understand like hey you got to fix this but to say hey you got to put in you know the Ada uh detectable warning strips and all that to a homeowner when we've never done it before I think that's a burden to the homeowners that's you know you know it should be incorporated by the the grant if it's a Grant Street well that that's true you know and and here's here's Bizarro world when you think about it you have roads in town that that have no sidewalk and you're putting one of these ADA Compliant ramps to Nowhere talk about an impediment between cross street to cross street that's nuts right it's my understanding that you don't need them if there's no sidewalk Mr Alman had one installed on his property have well you know I've seen it in other I've seen it in other towns where they have this beautiful new road and there's no side it's an it's an area of Refuge for pedestrian to be on a corner safely that's what it's for that's that's Refuge yeah better run F better run fast that little two square meters of of and it's how how could be Refuge because it's cut out there's no curve there's really technically a curve 6 in here you can stand on it and look at traffic without being in the roadway that's what it's so can I bizar world the corner ramp are we putting that up for f discussion as to who is responsible should we decide to pay the street so are are we contemplating that because the township has decided to PVE a street and there is a corner that that homeowner is responsible for the rent I believe that's what's being asked no it's the sections in the middle but that is a good question I'll find out the answer so if it's not a do Street and we're resurfacing it do we have to put the Ada ramp at the intersection is that answer I don't know but what he is saying is the sections in the middle because they're going to have a beautiful ramp at you know Clark and Van urg or you know there's not really another intersection Street except for Washington and theg but you know everything in The Middle's junk that's a problem right they can get up onto the side Ro beautifully because it's new but then it's you know crack Snapple pop because but that's when we need our our the code officer to go there and make him replace it right but it has to be replaced a standard and that's what Miss baile saying we don't have anything to to what are the best words Miss Bailey to say like there's nothing you don't have the power to enforce that you don't have the power to assess that cost off to the the bordering property owner you need a separate ordinance per I think we need more discussion with Mr beckme because like you know right now it says like a lot of sidewalks in town are 4et wide right yeah new Ada sidewalks 5 foot wide so we're not going to put a new 5 foot little piece tying into 4 foot CU that makes it even worse is that what he's asking us to do like so let's just say there's sections along Beach that we didn't replace during the repaving last year and all of a sudden now we got to put a 5 foot stretch tiny into for foot on both sides because that's what the new Ada standards are yeah I I don't know that it's that far but I agree with you if you if I would appreciate if we could put it back on the agenda and have him come back in that'd be great you know because believe me I I did my arguing not that he was on the deserving end of it but I'm like you know if 88 standards a half of an inch I mean we could go around town and do every sidewalk block so but yes I would appreciate that if he could come in and speak on his behalf then thank you can can we though and I'm sorry because it's just only because I live on a corner and in theory if it wasn't done last year would impact me in the future can we break this question down into two components the in between y for lack of a better term and the corner yes if the town in my mind if the town whether it's do or nonot is doing that work and decides to put in an ADA ramp I don't believe that that burden should fall on the homeowner that's what I that's my regardless the space in Queen is there is the homeowners responsibility um you know as I always understood to me that's to me when I think uh Miss biley mentioned local improvements and reimbursements and passing the upgrades like when I heard that what I hear is where red doing uh Washington Avenue and there's 50 corners on you know east and west and we're asking those 50 homeowners to fix and I don't think that that I don't believe that that but we didn't do that when we did when we did but I'm saying the town picked up the cost with the county to do those corners but I'm saying everything after that corner is really the homeowner if their sidewalk there is the homeowners resp I agree but that's not what I up to the township if the township has the ability need to put all or a portion and it sounds to me like this this Council takes the position that the corners or are the town's responsibility they you have a right to do that and you have a right that's what we've done yeah and you have a right in the middle Mr Beck Meer is not going to sign off on the do certification unless the entire length and in the middle is also a DA compliant that's the problem so where do you get the how does the township want to handle the cost for that do you want to fund it as a general Improvement do you want to pass it off partially or fully on to the to the abing property owners in the middle you have the right to decide that but there has to be a procedure and an ordinance uh you know that's compliant with the statute for sidewalk improv but I thought we had that discussion with Mr beckmar that night said we did we're not asking she she's just giving you a to just saying but that night we had a discussion with Mr beckme saying anything the middle is you have to notify the homeowner and say hey you got to fix your sidewalk but it's an ordinance process it's not a here you have to fix it well no that that that would not empower the township to do it in my opinion we're not coming back to readdress who's paying for it I think Miss Bailey's just giving you a total picture of what the options are thank as far as what council man man says yes definitely agree I'll get that you we're not suggesting that the residents should pay for the corner ramps I'm just saying I don't remember what his answer was as to what gets done on a non doot funded street so but we'll get the answer next okay all right thank you that was Sher field proposed change order can I I'm sorry can I also ask yeah um have have we looked at any uh creative ways to help our homeowners so in terms of paying for these types of expenses the in between so when I lived in Riveredge which is a number of years ago uh the town undertook a townwide uh sidewalk Improvement and they individuals could subscribe to it and the town took uh undertook the repair and they placed a tax lean uh against the homeowner and I think it was like a fiveyear repayment period um you know to assist with that type of expense uh the other thing is things like uh I think Boda recently just did a townwide sidewalk program and as part of their program they have it in their contract that the residents can use the same vendor at the cost negotiated by the town to do their sidewalk replacement so as part of the bid uh they bid for the municipal portion but it is written into the bid and the contract that if a resident chooses to replace their sidewalk it has be done at that big price and the specifications are there so it sort of uh alleviates or lift some of the burden on the homeowner uh to ensure that you know the work is going to be done it's a reli it's a reputable contractor and things of that nature so have we explored any of that because it sounds like we're going to be hitting our residents with the hammer so so the answer is yes and we were actually prepared um to do something similar with sending out a letter and that's when we put on the we just put the braks on it and you know in perfect world it would have been better if we could get all the concrete work done before the pavement right so let's say we get this all figured out and there was 30 properties on Calvin Street we could potentially have 30 different contractors coming in with who knows what kind of equipment and trucks in our beautiful new pavement but we just didn't have the time frame to do it so that's why we said let's pave it and we'll address this problem with Council you know moving forward so what I can say is if we could figure out how to do it that would be a tremendously easier for us administrative wise and it' be tremendously more costeffective for the resident because if we doing as part of our Pro program the resident wouldn't have to get a Road opening permit they wouldn't have to set up an escrow they wouldn't have to pay for an engineer to inspect it they wouldn't have to set up a performance bond right there's not all the work of our of our workers our employees in the middle and then we have one contractor doing it for consistency plus just like you said we're going to get that concrete work at the bided price as opposed to you know Mark D Carlos's curbing coming and totally RI you know we used to so in some of my accounts Mr D we used to put out a a 12-month or a 36-month contract right and they would bid on it right so the lowest bidder would be awarded to contract and and it was basically a contract for the homeowners so would say like hey you know you you call up the five you know you you put it out to bid and you bring it back and it would say hey each square foot of concrete can cost you no more than $25 a square foot I'm making up numbers you're not going to get it that cheap um $25 a square foot for removal and replacement of the cost and because they are a town approved vendor that there is no other cost associated with it because you know we're going to we're going to choose choose the contractor have his insurance have everything we would ask you know and burden the you know the clerk's office or your office it would it wouldn't be a burden because as long as they use that vendor they would be guaranteed that price and they would be guaranteed the work got done at that price and it was just a bid we put out you know every we do it like some town we do it for a 36- Monon period some would like to do it every year because they thought they'd see the numbers dropping but it's it depends on the you know the economy but um so sometimes it's worth to do every every 12 months but you're locking in the price and then that vendor whoever the low bidder is he or she has the ability to go you know when when the town sends out a letter before the letter goes out they would attach their quote to it right but I yes and I and discuss discussing that Miss Bailey I think it sounded easier like to discuss it than to implement it because I think we talked about well you still have to give people an opportunity right to to whether they want to get it done because maybe they own their own comp business so um I can talk to Miss Bailey more about it after this we can set up for next conference agenda and have Mr Beck Meer hopefully here you know because I appreciate that because it's it's gonna get more and more and more in our face yeah so all right thank you Sher fi proposal I just have one quick comment go ahead mayor um the only concern I have and maybe you've seen it in your other towns is if we recommend a vendor and then that vendor does work that the homeowner does not like or it thinks it's substandard are we on the hook having recommended no the okay good it's still there still there they're they're signing an agreement between them and that contractor not between the township of Washington isn't the okay they're not paying us they're paying them directly so I just v no all we're doing is supplying a vendor you know that we you know our engineer is saying meets the uh do CR okay great thank you yes thank you coun just thinking out of the box here um safe Street Community grants if we have a certain stretch of property uh that sidewalks need to rep repair I think we can use of that money to repair these sidewalks or offset the cost of putting these ramps in um they offer 50 60,000 in Safe Streets will that be a question for Mr beire to see if it would fit into that I mean there I think there's one town that got I think it was $700,000 that we do with sidewalks in South Jersey in South Jersey yeah yeah have so it's it's the town May own the sidewalks there though I I could not tell you can we I know there's grants because I see them coming across all the time yeah but there it depends on yeah right I'm sure our grant consultant if there was something would hope he's listening uh Mr Mr Dar Carlo can we also look at what our surrounding towns do with this issue can we just do a quick survey of what you know like Hillsdale and Westwood does yes for this just so we have an idea of what happens there and Mr beckmar does uh he did convey how we handle it I think it's Rutherford I think he's a contractor but you know different kind of can be apples to but we yes I we'll find out thank you Sher field propos proposal change order okay real easy I just want to take all the pavement off uh off the uh off the table for this year and the quick reason why is he wants to do a little bit Beck Meer wants to do a little bit more research because we think actually a good portion of that parking lot can be paided because of the limit in water restrictions and that first 20 by 20 I think was going to cost us 10,000 in the packet I gave you a bigger picture of what could be done that price was going to exceed our 20% trying to think of how we can say this emergency threshold what is it the emergency threshold yeah like the 20 we can only threshold yes 20% threshold so at this point um if you don't mind I'll just back off it we'll research it do it right and then answer for Council approval for actual funding okay next year make it a little nicer but we're still going to do the apron that'll still be a change order that you guys see thank you uh sidewalk recommendations we just went over under the ordinances and legislation the lighting ordinance draft right you said you uh you broke this up a little bit before you met with uh yeah Miss Bailey provided a couple of um referenced local ordinances I spoke with Miss Bailey our code enforcement officer and then um Janine Ben bendex she was our our court administrator she's also the court administrator in SLE River so we just felt with the actual implementation and enforcement of it the one we're recommending tonight um is better and I can ask I can let Miss Bailey expand on that I forget which town it was now because I'm mistakenly referen it's better than the two we had no it's it's one of was it is it old pan toan where recommend old toan and CRF I just remember as a short form and the long form yeah the short the short firm was the form was the preferred I think the other one just gets too technological and with you know having to have certified devices and certified people it's the one that Miss Bailey's recommending so is everybody okay Miss Bailey and the administration's uh recommendation for that ordinance for the next council meeting yeah so it gives us a little more leeway with the with um enforcement is that correct as opposed to the other one with the um technology yeah it's it's I I think that that was the product of extensive expert opinion giv to the town and I mean or or you're I think you're code official didn't believe that that was necessary so what chapter would we at this a 225 255 or 291 do we determine between um yeah let me get with Sue and whoever see makes sense my only I think there's you know when I look at this there's existing issues of lighting so you know a neighbor complaining about their neighbor uh but for new developments or new construction do we want to have or do we want those sort of technical aspects you know how many candles I think we have that already that's usually in the planning board stage planning or Z zoning I know we we review the lighting plan for zoning to make sure amount not a half a foot candle at the property L I know at least the zoning board does so then what is planning does and what is this this is for the neighbor complaints of hey they put a spotlight shining on my children's bedroom which is on all night long and I'm going crazy so we needed an enforcement tool to say you know you can go out look at this now but would so the planning only under new Planning and Zoning is only under a new application do we check it and I believe if I may I if there's a complaint on a an on an approved development let's say um I think that would go to the discretionary there discretion of the judge like hey I brought my plan before the planning board it was reasonable it was compliant with the S of ordinance and I think that that would be you know a per se defense to any complaint under this more General ordinance and and the and the and the planning board engineer would have the ability to go out and check those light levels if they did receive a complaint Mr al man like so if the planning or zoning board you know approved an application with the lighting levels approved and then after it was built one of the owners felt that it didn't meet the criteria presented the engineer like I know we had light meters and stuff in my office that we'd go out and check them at night and be able to say yes it does or no it's not in compliance you are correct you have to adjust this you know but this is more for a complaint against neighbor to neighbor on an existing you know like you just change your lights at your house to LED and now we and yeah you never saw the light before but now it's 10 times as bright and you can't you know so does this should this align with the planning because we talk about uh flip candles and point you know letter e uh intensity at the property line 6 foot candles I don't know what our planning is we may have to adjust that I think Planning and Zoning is 05 foot candles at at the property line should it be harmonized yeah I think that might that number may have to be harmonized on letter e it says 6 foot candles at the property line but I think our zoning and planning vs 8.5 thank you I think you are correct Mr no probably not but if we could look at it anything else and this this is only if there's a complaint correct yes it's not for the code enforcement officer go hunt lights down it's it's just giving us something to have that so it's there just for because I know people when I we about lights there was there was uh some people that were you know I brought up at the last meeting they apparently people watch this meeting um and they were concerned about their holiday lights I said I don't think it's going to apply to your Christmas lights or whatever it is so that's that was a couple of concerns so can it's not on for closed uh so perhaps at the next meeting can we have an update on 450 450 can we finish this is everybody okay with I thought we oh no I'm sorry is everybody okay with this being on the next agenda ask a question would there be a preference that there be an exception justs but Holiday Lights during a particular time frame yes during the season yeah dur people that extended yeah there's still people with their Christmas lights on from last year I know so gotten that complete maybe that needs to be established sioban are we on a slippery slope with that as far as the finding a holiday and religion and yeah I guess yeah just leave lighting all right Mr you had one final question before we adour no just um we don't have it on this evening's uh agenda for Clos session but if we could for the next meeting uh have an update on for and wasn't there also an open litigation with regard to the trees and cutting that property wasn't that still in negotiation on on on um on mine court on Maline court has that been resolved Mr Mayor or no um it was a court case I don't recall if it's come out of the court or not do you [Music] upate from okay thank you council president on the misscellaneous yes I may have one second um VFW Post 6192 we've received the highest recommendation from the Department of Defense for our continuous recognition of the Vietnam veterans and the end of the world war we have um received a plaque from the Department of Defense we are only one of uh three three posts that have received this High recommendation from the Department of Defense if you like I'd be honored to read the plaque at the next meeting if you I will I will bring we put on the agenda for next me be honored to read a few thank you any other things before we adjourn motion to adjourn Mo move second all in favor thank you everyone for