Mayor and Council - Regular Meeting

Okay.

Adequate notice of this meeting has been provided to the CoStar, the official newspaper of the Borough of Belmar, and the Asbury Park Press. And notice of this meeting was posted on the bulletin board and on its full website. Take vocal. Councilwoman Donovan? Here. Councilwoman Kinney? Here. Mayor Buckaflusco?

Here.

Councilman de Blasio? Here. Councilman Maroney?

Here. With allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please remain standing for a moment of silence for our troops, their families, first responders, and also Carol Lawrence. Thank you.

Okay, the proclamation recognizing June 2026 as Pride Month, whereas the Mayor's Council of the Borough of Belmar recognizes and proclaims the month of June 2026 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer LGBTQ Pride Month throughout the Borough of Belmar. Whereas the borough of Belmar joins the county of Monmouth to observe Pride Month with pride flag raising ceremony to honor the history of the LGBTQ liberation movement and to support the rights of all citizens to experience equality and freedom from discrimination. And whereas the rainbow flag is widely recognized as a symbol of pride, inclusion, and support for social movements that advocate for LGBTQ plus people in society, And whereas all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, LGBTQ plus individuals have a memorable impact to the cultural, civic, and economic successes of our country. And whereas the borough of Belmar is committed to support visibility, dignity, and equality for LGBTQ people in our diverse community, while society at large increasingly supports LGBTQ plus equality, it is essential to acknowledge that the need for education and awareness remains vital to end discrimination and prejudice. And whereas this nation was founded on the principle that every individual has infinite dignity and worth, and the Mayor and Council call upon the people of Del Mar to embrace this principle and work to eliminate prejudice everywhere it exists. Whereas the celebration Pride Month influences awareness and provides support and advocacy for Long Beach County's LGBTQ community and is an opportunity to take action and engage in dialogue to strengthen alliances, build acceptance, and advance equal rights. Now, therefore, be it resolved, the Mayor and Council of Monroe-Belmar hereby proclaim the month of June 2026 as Pride Month in support of the LGBTQ plus community. Be it further resolved that the rainbow flag will be raised during the month of June, recognizing all LGBTQ plus residents whose influential and lasting contributions to our neighborhoods make the Borough of Elmer a vibrant community in which to live, work, and visit. June 9th, 2026. Thank you.

Let's move on to a workshop discussion.

Any workshop issues? Just to give an update, last week we heard a presentation from our LSRP on the 12th Avenue project, and there were a lot of questions from council, some public comment on it. So I did some researching with them, This week the first thing we found some price adjustments in their bid because I was questioning some of the construction costs. Their bid did come down to $575,000 versus $770,000. So that's one thing for the council to consider. In addition, I started looking into grants for the DEP. An HDSRP grant is from the DEP which is for remediation on sites like this. with millennium millennium is working with the dep right now millennium is our grant writer so we could be eligible it's an application process it does take about six months but depending on what this is a higher percentage in what we can get in a grant if we determine the end use for example if we determine it's going to be public service we can get a 75 construction grant and this is retroactive including the money we've already spent I got from the DEP. It would be 50% if we use affordable housing, or if we decide to not choose to end use and just see what happens with the property with the cleanup, it could be 25%. So this is something that we're continuing to work on. I think it was a pretty important update to give to the public. I understand this was a project that needs to happen in the summer because of the water table. grants and hopefully get up to 75% funding for it.

Thank you. I just have a question, and this might be for Mr. McGill, who's not here, but was there an issue with the contract that would have disqualified us from a lot of grants? With the way we closed the amount of time to do due diligence, I thought there was an issue there that precluded us from qualifying for grants.

things that we need to get to before they can give us the grant but i'm sure they'll let us know and if there is we can we can go back and look at that see what's going on thank you but that's a great savings i mean we can do that we've done so many other things with grants and it would be great to be able to do that also absolutely and you did like you said it could potentially be retroactive in some of the three hundred thousand dollars that we have already spent in cleaning up this area from the dp itself

are eligible for reimbursement but there's no guarantee in funding so you're more you know likely more likely it's a rolling grant uh funding uh so you're more likely to get the um the current project but yes to go back and get the initial 300 000 would be would be obviously key to really reducing the cost on that that's right i mean i think in in light of that obviously the council probably should be looking at

So like you said, if it's public, it'll be a 75% reimbursement. That's a future agenda item that you guys can work on to try to, either with public input or whatever, to try to figure out what the use of that property would best serve the community.

Being that it's probably a six month answer, getting that start, if that is the start, is determining what end use we want to commit to. affordable housing would be a good idea. So any public comment and council input is key in the next few weeks to get this application started.

Any other items for workshop?

I have a workshop item. I've been I've been in contact with both some of the administrative staff here in the building and some of the DPW And they're both working without a contract right now. They're very concerned about it. We've been paying a labor attorney, by my calculations, somewhere around up to about $20,000 at this point with no real progress. Not asking for an answer tonight, but what I'm saying is that we might need to reevaluate our relationship with that labor attorney if we're not going to be able to make some progress. The people deserve the contract.

and i'd like to see that happen so that's something we do need to consider moving forward yeah if i could just make a comment on that as you know the negotiations or labor contracts are a multi there's two sides so each side has to be available to be able to have the negotiation and i think if we uh if we look back and we can tell you this And so the amount of time that it's taking is really something that's a function of how both sides can meet. Obviously, the labor attorney doesn't get paid unless he's at a labor session. So I think we're all in the area where we want to get paid.

since day one. One of the union reps had some family medical issues and it delayed a little bit, but we're meeting with both of them tomorrow again.

We'll schedule a one-at-ten, a lot of one tomorrow. Any other workshop issues? If not, we'll move on to petitions. Do we have any petitions?

Mayor, I did not receive any petitions.

Okay, approval of minutes, May 26th minutes.

Can I have a motion to approve the May 26th minutes? Motion.

Second.

Okay, Councilman Donovan? Yes. Councilman Kinney? Yes. Councilman Delazio? Yes. Councilman Maroney? Yes. Mayor Buckfusco?

Yes. Okay, reports of council.

thank you mayor um the harbor commission is supporting efforts to make it a better environment for the residents and the stakeholders it's been really gratifying to work with the group to see exactly what we can do with the time and funding that we have so we're looking at replacing two of the older stumps in the parking lot addressing idoc and i want to just thank our staff over there they have been absolutely invaluable The Environmental Commission is looking to do a community survey on noise pollution and leaf blowers, so I will continue to update you on that. And that will go out probably on social and through the Environmental Commission website. The website's also where you should be able to find a copy of our Clean Community Energy Plan, and we are still looking for a couple of comments on that. And finally, the Patchwork for Wildlife is seeking the arts to evaluate new work. This is a wonderful program that looks for the arts that are doing sustainable landscaping practices using any, so if it's yourself, if it's your neighbors, whatever you want, you can nominate someone and they'll be recognized. And that's a program that's in West Pleasant, Red Bank, here in Belmar, and in Lincoln. And finally, we're wrapping up our Army Corp Engineer Grant. That's a really exciting place to be right now. So when we are completed with that, we will have three distinct plans from the RN Corps of Engineers to present to the public, get your input, and decide which way to move forward. And finally, the softball field program today. So we are moving forward with that. It's very, very exciting. Thank you, guys. So that will be the... The big work, which is resizing and putting in the new clay, will be this week. We're really hoping we're gathering, pricing out right now the dugouts. We're hoping that can start this month as well. So thank you.

Thank you. Council President Kinney.

Thank you, Mayor. Recreation, the old-time baseball game, is this Saturday the 13th at 11 a.m. on Memorial Field. The teams are the Monmouth Furnace versus the Hoboken Nine. Friday night concert series this week, the Friday night concert is Curbside Pickups. It's a folk orchestra and it starts at 6 p.m. Summer tennis lessons are ending along with the kids' running club, so check out the website for when they'll be finishing up. And the Luckinville Orchestra will be performing every Monday night this summer starting July 6th, and the Taylor Pavilion shows start at 7 p.m. So a couple things around the schools. Everybody's wrapping up the school year. Belmar Elementary has their PTA, PTO Color Run. This Thursday, June 11th at 3 p.m. at the field. The eighth grade dance is June 17th at 6 p.m. Eighth grade graduation is 6 p.m. on the 18th. The last day of school for Belmar Elementary is June 23rd. And St. Rose High School, their last day of school is today. They have finals until Monday. So the next couple days, last day of finals and last day of school is Monday. Same with St. Rose Primary School. Last day of school is Monday, June 15th. State Street Commission and the Environmental Commission are doing a combined meeting this Thursday the 11th at 6.30 in the library. All are welcome. And Belmar Elementary School wanted us to know one more thing. They will be doing a summer food service program, which is any child under 18 years old can get free lunches from 11 to 11.30 a.m. this summer from July 6th through August 6th. And that is all I have.

Thank you.

Councilman de Blasio. Thank you. I'm sorry. We brought up the AVP tournament. We haven't had a meeting since and I thought that went well. The lifeguards are going into Belmar Elementary School tomorrow, one or two lifeguards. I know my niece is one of them, to give some more ocean safety presentation and tips and talk about lifeguarding and the junior guard program. Planning board, we did not have our meeting in between the last two meetings. We do have a meeting scheduled for the 15th at 7 p.m. We will continue looking at the canopy ordinances and other items. We don't have anything on the agenda yet, any presentations. The hardware commission has already spoken about it. Our next meeting is next Tuesday at 6 p.m. the 16th.

Okay, thank you. Councilman Maroney? Just a reminder that on Thursday the 18th the library will be handling their annual Juneteenth celebration at Taylor Pavilion and the ADA committee will be meeting next week, probably on Wednesday, to set up the anti-bullying campaign that's going to be in conjunction with the Recreation Department.

Okay, thank you. Last night I attended the library board meeting and two things to report. If you haven't noticed, the library has been repainted and there are new front doors and that kind of completes the renovation of the library. In fact, I forget, a number of months ago they got all new windows which were quite a project to do because they wanted to keep it in the same Libraries looking good. The other thing they're starting to think about, and it's a new concept that maybe some of you have heard of or not heard of, but there's a concept called a library of things. And it goes, basically, you know how we have a library and it gives out books? Well, there are some libraries who give out things, things that people might need for a host of different things. For example, you might need a... a drill, you know, to do some work, and you don't have a drill, you really don't need to go buy one because you're just going to do this one thing. So you can go to the library and borrow a drill, or it could be, you know, like a 50-earn coffee pot. You know, you're having a party, and you're not going to go out and buy a 50-earn coffee pot for one party, but if the library has it, you can go in and borrow the grill. Apparently, the Red Bank Public Library has been doing this for a while, and they have a lot of experience in handling this. And it kind of works out pretty well. Obviously, there are a lot of steps that need to be taken in terms of making sure that the items that you're giving out are not hazardous or dangerous or whatever, and keeping track of who has it, if it's damaged, if it's not damaged, and so on. But I think it's a step in the right direction. It could be anything. It could be like games, you know, if you're having a party in your yard and you wanna have the bean bag game, you know, and you're not gonna go out and buy one. If the library has it, you can borrow it. So they're working on that, and I think it's a great concept, you know, within reason, because many of us don't need to go out and buy things for a one use or two use operation or event or something that we're doing. So they're gonna be working on that more and they'll have more detail for us in the future. But it's something that I think would benefit the borough and the residents.

I love that you brought that up because there was a great article in the New York Times, I think a year ago about it. And I brought up the Environmental Commission and it was highlighting one that was in Maine, I wanna say. And they had everything from like a KitchenAid mixer, It's so bad for the person who's trying not to drop that on their toe. I've seen that crap before. To electronic leaf blowers, if you want to try those out, to even lower cost items like . I think it's really interesting, especially when you start thinking about just buying and accumulating less stuff. So put those to the library. I love that.

When I was part of the ADA commission, we had talked about this very thing for things that you might need in your emails. have a handicapped world, perhaps a walker or crutches or things that you might need for mobility, a wheelchair, things like that that you might need only temporarily. And we were discussing this very idea, so I think this is a great idea. I think our challenge was just, and the library's challenge, really storage, right? So I think that was the only thing that we were really having to... Am I wrong?

Does Bradley have something like this?

I'm not sure if they do. They only mentioned Red Bank, I believe. I think Red Bank is the only one in Monmouth County. Apparently around the country they have a bunch of these things. It's only limited by your imagination. They're envisioning maybe a 10 by 20 shed to to put the things because there's really no room in the library but it's in the very very you know beginning stages of this and then i wonder would they accept donations well that's the other thing it depends on you know like i have a feeling if it's like an electronic thing i would have to say probably not because they want to make sure that the devices work you know but if it's like i don't know you know i have an extra rake or I have an extra pole thing that can cut branches or whatever. Obviously, you can see if it works or not. It's not a problem. And I have half my garages like that, so I could probably fill up half of the 10 by 20 things. They'll get to the point where I think you'll hear more about it, and I'm sure they'll accept certain things from individuals. Anything else? Okay, let's move on to the public session for the resolutions on the agenda. This will be the public session for all of the resolutions. So if you have a comment you'd like to make, please step up to the mic. I will remind people, this is a comment section, and we limit comments to five minutes.

Okay. Can I have a motion to approve?

I have a comment or two about resolution 2026-120. This is a resolution to This is a resolution to hire a contractor that does a lot of work at Belmar. In fact, I think they have a lot of institutional knowledge. And this is to replace the 60-inch check valve on the Lake Como pipe. I'm not too familiar with the 60 inch one, but on the A Street pipe we have a 48 inch one. And if my memory serves me correct, with the A Street pipe we had a 50 year guaranteed warranty on it. And from what I hear, I guess the public works has said that these don't last that long. So I'm a bit concerned about that. I don't have any problem with the contract here. But this is stormwater. We have a water utility. We have a sewer utility. We don't have a stormwater utility. Now that's back to the rain tax. Perhaps we should start working on a stormwater utility. The benefits there are the reduction in the water and sewer bill that we get from the municipality. Right now, when we sell somebody a gallon of water, we charge them to dispose of two gallons of water. It's taught that that's all stormwater, one way or the other, that's finding its way into the store line. The benefit of a stormwater utility would be moving that over to the tax column and away from the bills that we get every four months or so. I guess I would like to see the mayor and council moving forward to see whether they can establish a stormwater utility. I did look up actually the city of New Brunswick and a lot of other towns. I heard that Cranford more recently adopted a stormwater utility and I would ask the mayor and council to The Board of, excuse me, the League of Municipalities supposedly tracks these sort of ordinances that towns are trying, are either working on or have adopted. I look at the New Brunswick primarily because Rutgers Rutgers is located in New Brunswick, along with Johnson & Johnson and some big companies, but this is where the brain trust is located. Rutgers has become the think tank for climate change, and from what I've read so far, it seems to be very comprehensive and may very well be made to suit the role of Belmont. With that, like I said, I have no problem with the with the contract. It's just that I think that this going forward should be moved over to a stormwater utility. Also, having a stormwater utility would help in perhaps with recovering some of the cost of these maintenance items, like from St. Lake or Lake Como. If you had a stormwater utility where the watershed leads to Belmar, then you would have the opportunity, one way or the other, to collect money from the other people that are benefiting from it.

And I think it's a great idea. Perhaps the council can take a look at that and see if it's something that they may want to recommend for us here in Baltimore.

Yeah, I think, by the way, as far as the seniors are concerned, we would perhaps be able to cut the sewage disposal charge by about 50% if we had switched this over so that the people that are already locked into taxes which would be a lot more stable than just increasing those costs.

It's definitely something that's worth looking into. Thank you for your comments.

Can I make one more comment?

Sure.

This has to do with 2026-121. I believe it. I won't check right now, but I believe it's also posted on D&L. I did check, and actually I left a comment on the Environmental Commission website, but I could not find a copy of the draft plans for...

But if it's not there, we'll make sure that it shows up there, and we'll let you know at the next meeting.

Can you table the resolution and tell us if we have an opportunity to take a look at the plans? Yes.

That's up to the council.

I'm looking at it. You're right, there's a place for it, but the plan itself is not posted, you're correct. Please tell us, is it on the borough website?

I've got it up on my computer here. We will send us an email.

No, we're talking about publicly posting it, yeah.

The only question I have is,

time regarding the, it's a grant, so I don't know if we know that that's time now or not. We don't know. Yeah, we can...

I'm looking at my notes. I asked a bunch of questions about that this week.

Doing research as we speak.

The resolution does say it was submitted to the borough. It doesn't say anything about the borough hosting it. Actually, it doesn't even mention the environmental commission.

I think it's still in draft form.

Actually, I'm thinking the foundation grant is an issue because it says to do, I assume, the New Jersey Clean Energy plan.

I can't find the email about it because I was asking whether or not it needed to be tabled anyway for a different reason.

Can I just ask a quick question on that resolution specifically? If we're going to table it, which I agree with, how are we going to manage that? Is there going to be a commission like the Harbor Commission or something to make sure that that's being handled properly? There's a whole lot of different moving parts on that program. And being in the energy industry myself, I don't know that it should be left up to just, you know, we shouldn't have a plan to how we're going to implement that.

Well, in general, the Environmental Commission is the one who has worked on it and put it together. And they would be working to come up with a plan on how to implement it. And we always, of course, welcome everyone to come and join us. And we welcome your contributions as well.

If we're going to table this, I assume we need a motion to take this out of the consent agenda. Then we can vote to table it. Yeah, we can.

Oh, here it is.

We can do it after we finish the public session.

Okay, yeah, we'll finish our public session and then we'll do that.

Would anyone else like to make a comment on the resolution? If not, that's fine.

The resolution just approves submitting the plan, so this is not a... It was presented, though, publicly, just so that's clear.

Motion to close the public session?

I'll make the motion. Second.

All in favor? Aye. Can I have a motion to, well, let me just clarify before we get into that. Resolutions 117, 118, 119, and then 124, 125, and 126. We pulled out to make a separate consent agenda, so we'll have two. Consent agenda number one, can I have a motion to amend to remove and table resolution 2026-121? Motion. Second. Councilman Donovan? Yes. Councilman McKinney? Yes. Councilman de Blasio? Yes. Councilman Maroney? Yes. Mayor Donofresco? Yes. And then can I have a motion to adopt consent agenda number one as amended?

I'll make a motion.

Second. Councilman Donovan? Yes. Councilman Kinney? Yes. Councilman De Blasio? Yes. Councilman Maroney? Yes. Mayor Buckafusco?

Yes.

Next we have consent agenda number two. As I said, that was resolutions 117 through 119 and then 124 through 126. We have a motion to adopt consent agenda number two.

Can I ask a question about that before we do this? Sure. Just to make sure that we're not doing anything incorrect. I've spoken to the borough attorney beforehand. Are we okay to if there were campaign contributions made, but not this calendar year. Yes. That's our interpretation of the ordinance. Yeah. Fair enough.

Yes. Can I have a motion to adopt consent agenda number two? Motion.

Second.

Councilman Donovan? Yes. Councilman Kinney? Yes. Councilman de Blasio?

Abstent.

Councilman Maroney? Yes. Mayor Bucafosco?

Yes.

And then we have three more resolutions. First one is Resolution 2026-113, Resolution Authorizing Payment of Bills. Do we have a motion to adopt this resolution?

Motion. Second. May I have a comment on this resolution, please? Yes. In the bills, we have... quite a list from our engineers at RVE. In January, there was discussion on who we were going to hire and bring in as our consulting engineers. Three of the five of us up here voted no on RVE, and the reason is because we're getting charged $225 an hour for an engineer, or $220 an hour for a project manager, when the competitors were $155 an hour. For that reason, I will not be voting yes

Any other comments? I appreciate that, and I think that's worth considering. But I also want to point out that when we don't pay our bills, our credit rating suffers. So I think that it's important to pay our bills for that reason. I think we could have a longer discussion about whether or not what we should be doing with our professionals. But I don't think not paying our bills is the way to handle it.

I was actually expecting that specific bill I am not going to hold back the vote on all bills, but I do contest that. And I know we talked about rates in January. I thought they were going to be adjusted to meet, and they have not been. So that's why I asked them to be separated.

Just to clear the record, in January, it was determined that I want to make is, in general, when you're comparing the services to professionals, you have to make sure you're comparing apples to apples. It's not always that the cheapest is the best. And I think we would be going down the wrong path if that's the criteria for selecting professionals moving forward. If we're only going to pick people who have the lowest rates, I think I think you're doing a disservice to yourself and also to the borough, because there are other factors that go into picking a professional. Now, I know, Mr. de Blasio, you're a contractor, and I'm sure you go through that same process when you're picking subcontractors. I mean, I'm sure you're not going to pick the cheapest electrician if you're suspect Or if you've heard it from the client, well, he doesn't really do the best work, but it passes, but whatever. So there is a quality aspect to that. And you also have to look at the work that's being done and the expertise. So it's very hard on a professional level to compare. Now, if we were buying automobiles, for example, then I would say, well, then you're right. We're going to go to the firm that gives us the cheapest automobiles. a point that I'm trying to make moving forward, that it's more than price that you need to look at. I understand your objection. It's perfectly fine. But just moving forward, I'd like the public to know that cheaper is not always better.

I live by that, because I'm not the cheapest contractor in the world, and I don't negotiate that way. I'm also and I understand it and the rates are high. And we have three competitors who are very well known in Monmouth County and do an excellent job.

So it wasn't a cheap, not good engineer or other firm in these other ways. So it was not how I was facing my decision. You're entitled to your opinion and I respect that. Okay. Can we move forward?

Okay, so we have a motion and a second. Councilman Donovan? Yes. Councilman McKinney? Yes. Councilman De Blasio? Yes. Councilman Maroney? Yes. Mayor MacFesco?

Yes.

Okay, next is resolution 2026-128, resolution authorizing the issuance of a club license to the Belmar Fishing Club. Do we have a motion to offer this resolution? Motion. Second. Okay, Councilman Donovan? Yes. Councilman McKinney? Yes. Councilman de Blasio? Yes. Councilman Maroney? Yes. Mayor Bucafosco? Yes. And last one is resolution 2026-129, resolution of the borough of Belmar regarding the position of borough administrator. Do we have a motion to offer this resolution? I'll make the motion. Second. Councilman Donovan? Yes. Councilman Kinney? Yes. Councilman de Blasio? Yes. Councilman Maroney? Yes. Mayor Bucafosco?

Yes.

all right next we have our ordinances first one is 2026 11 an ordinance amending and supplementing chapter 25 uniform construction code fees we have a motion to offer this ordinance for first reading and introduction person second okay councilman donovan yes councilman mckinney yes councilman delazio i've seen councilman maroney yes mayor bug fesco yes Okay, and next one is Ordinance 2026-12. This is an ordinance amending and supplementing Chapter 29 of the Borough Code entitled Water, Sewer, Utility Department. Do we have a motion to offer for first reading and introduction?

I'll make the motion.

Do we have a second?

Second. I'd like to have a discussion on this. One question on it. Sure. Just so everyone understands, this is about tapping and re-tapping your water main.

as I'm getting through this. So it turns out that right now the owner owns your water main all the way to the main in the street.

So your water service from water main to the street, including the curb stop, is resident owned. I guess that has presented a problem for some emergency services in replacing that main and then issuing the owner's bill.

It's very common as a contractor up and down the shore all the way to the street, and if you have to redo your main, you have to pay for the road opening, the paving, all the way to the, your service all the way to the main, and a new curb stop or water meter pit. So I guess I'd like to know where the conflict is coming from and why we're going back to borough owned.

It might be a little confusing for everyone, so I'm going to do this now. I know, I'm trying to get it. Come on. 2003 version of the 29-2.4, which is under the applications section of the water utility ordinance. And it talks about the old ordinance says the water sewer service has to be made by the water sewer utility department where possible or is authorized And I highlight the schedule because I'm going to come back to that later. And then it says, if it is determined by the board of stewards, superintendent, or borough engineer that an outside contractor should be hired, the applicant will be responsible for all charges. And the third part of that ordinance says it is expressly understood that the borough shall be the owner of the service from the city main to the current line. as well as the curb stops, valves, curb boxes, and roadway boxes, which are to be used by the sewer utility department for turning on or shutting off the water supply. That ordinance from 2003 was modified in 2020, and it was modified in a number of ways. One way, in the first paragraph, they changed its authorized agents to a licensed professional in New Jersey. It still refers to as per the schedule. You'll note that the second paragraph of 23 has been taken out. So there's nothing in the new ordinance that says, you know, if the superintendent or engineer says an outside contractor should be hired, the applicant will be responsible for the charges. So that's not in the current ordinance. Then it goes to say that, well, it's understood that the homeowner shall be the owner of the service to be used by the water sewer utility for turning on or shutting off the water supply. And then the other part of the ordinance that was changed, it talks about what the homeowner has to do before they can open up a roadway to the curb line and they have to post a pond. Now these ordinances are covering a situation where There is not an emergency. In other words, if I'm a homeowner and I want to repair my water line and I want to repair it out to the main, under the old version, it said obviously I have to get permission to do that and I might have to hire an outside contractor and I might have to pay for that, even though the borough owns it. Under the new version, it says that I own it and then I have to go through these steps which is fine. The problem occurs when there's an event that happens, an emergency, when that line between the curb stop and the main breaks. Before I get further, I'm just going to go down to the other. You remember up here it says as per the schedule? Both versions say that in every case charges as per the schedule according to the size of the tap. Now if you go down to 29-7, And it clearly says here, service is requiring excavations not exceeding 35 linear feet. And this is an ordinance from 2018, and it lists what the charge will be for different diameters of pipe. So one inch pipe on a by two minutes service, 1 1⁄2, 2,800. On concrete, 2,900. I'm not going to go through them all because you can certainly read this. So this is an existing part of the ordinance. And then they talk about the sewer mains also. And then they have 297-8, which talks about whether or not what we have to do if it's more than 35 feet. and it tells the homeowner what you have to pay for that. And then there's another 7.10 that talks about excavating and a trenching charge. So this is the first area of conflict here because what typically happens when a break occurs is that the borough will send the contractor that we contracted with without contacting the property owner, without providing a proposal to the property owner, without letting the property owner bring their own plumber in to fix it. And it's something that was foreseen when they did the modification, but it causes really a problem for the property owners. that property owners have received for over $20,000 to repair each, to repair the service line that went from the main to the curb in front of their property. And a number of things that I found unfair about this. Number one, none of our ordinances state here that the utility has the right to repair my service line. The borough gave it to me, and now they're saying, well, when it breaks, we're going to fix it, and then we're going to charge it. But nowhere in the ordinances say that they can do that. But being a lawyer, I can argue, well, you know, they have a right to say, well, we don't want the water to be wasted, so we're protecting an asset, so we're going to go and fix it so we're not leaking water all over the place. So they might have an obligation to repair it. But there's nothing that states that the contractor's bill to repair that, that the DPW or the utility has hired. Nothing says that I, as the property owner, have to pay that bill. And as I said, we have two property owners with over $20,000 bills. And this could happen to any of us as homeowners. And the third thing is, even if they were to change So one inch, $2,400. So why am I being charged the rate of the contractor that did the work? So I think we're not being fair to the property owners here. Because number one, the borough, since I believe day one, in terms of having a centralized water service, the borough has always owned the lines from the main to the curb. And that is probably the vast number of towns in Monmouth County follow that practice. In fact, if you get the same advertisements that I get in the mail from American Water and they want to sell you insurance and they have a little diagram on there and they typically say, This is the responsibility of the borough, and they have their main going to the curb. And then they said, this is your responsibility, and if that line breaks, you're gonna have to pay, and you're gonna need insurance. So I think the standard is that the borough owns the line, or the water utility owns the line from the curb to the main. And as I said, that was like that from the initiation of the water service till 2020, okay? Why do I think it was changed? This is just my own opinion. The pipes are getting older. It's costing the town more money. And this was a neat way to shift the cost of that, those repairs, to property owners. Unfairly, in my estimation. And I think that the utility needs to be put back in charge Number two, I don't have a way to control what happens to that line. If I'm on a street where there are trucks going by, like Main Street, my lines are getting more wear and tear than somebody who's living on Inland Terrace. So when that line breaks, I'm responsible for it. If the town doesn't fix the road there and there are all kinds of potholes there and trucks and buses are going by and slamming down on the road and the line breaks, that's my problem. It's not the borrower's problem. So I think the only fair thing here is for the borrower to take back their responsibility for the water service lines. And I think this is the way to do it. And obviously this is just the first reading. It will come up, if it's passed, it'll come up for a second reading at which the public will have an opportunity to weigh in on this issue. And if it does pass, I urge members of the public to come to the next meeting and voice your opinion. The question is gonna arise invariably, well, how much is it gonna cost the town to do this? Well, what I say to that, who can bear the cost more? Can the water utility bear it or can you as a homeowner bear it? Can you afford a $5,000 bill next month or a $10,000 bill next month because the line broke in the street I think if you're being honest, the utility is in a better position to absorb those costs than the individual homeowners. So this is my push to get that done. I only have one more meeting left, and I want to finally, this is my final thing to do,

Thank you, Mayor. I think the timing on this is a little odd considering we just had such an enormous increase for the water sewer utility. I'm worried about the water sewer utility. I'm worried about its solvency. And this is a very thorough reading of the ordinance, but it doesn't provide any type of estimate or report on what it could cost the water sewer utility. to go forward. It seems like it very well could be the right thing to do, but I don't feel prepared at this point to make this vote without any type of financial report.

I would second that. The utility was just in trouble. We just heard that from our CFO and raising the rates.

it puts a lot of more weight on the utility to maintain lines. And two weeks ago, Billy, you were at my house and I was having an issue with my water, right? I'm sorry, Corey was there and I said, oh wow, I might have to replace my line.

I might have to go all the way into the street. And I called Rick Wolzak and said, this is what we might be doing. It turned out I didn't need to do the line, but unfortunately, it's an emergency. Get the insurance, be protected. So in the towns I work in, I always have to pay to go to the street and the customer owns it.

But anyway, I think it's a long, something to discuss and maybe get some better status of our water utility budget and then consider this to help the residents.

Well, that's a good point. Does homeowners insurance cover that? Some do, some don't.

And I guess my other thought was that This is one way that's presented of addressing it. We could also address the rates that we are charging or how we apply them rather than take back full ownership at this juncture.

I don't think there have been many lines broken in the past. I mean, I don't know, Billy, you know from breaks in the street

It all depends on the winter. Most of the breaks are in the wintertime due to freezing, the ground freezing, but all given year, it's up in the air. I couldn't guess off the top of my head. But it would be easy to pull a report and see what kind.

I got something from our CFO, and it averaged, since 2019, There was no, this is for emergencies I'm talking about. And then from going on, it kind of ratcheted up and it averages to about $70,000 a year. the meetings we have meters that are not being fixed and they're not being read properly and the borough is losing money every quarter because those meters are not being read and utilizing the amount of money, the amount of water that they're using. That just came to my attention and that is just not The water utility should be going out as a top priority and fixing every meter that is not recording accurately. I don't care how much money they have to spend on overtime. Anything they spend will come back ten times in the amount of revenue that we'll get from our water utility. The second thing is... Second thing is that we have started our project in lining the sewer lines that are going to the sewerage authority, and there will be a savings in that. And the last thing is, I think it's a very weak excuse to say that we have to see about the health, the financial health of the water utility. The people sitting out here, have a financial stake in things. And when they are given a bill, who are they going to go to to pay that bill? When a senior citizen gets a bill for even $5,000 and says, oh, we have to pay that bill, the town has to pay it anyway if they can't pay it. And then we have to go after the person. So we're not really saving anything. their property. But my point of view is that this was never an issue in Belmar. It was never an issue. And we're going to face it again, too. There's another part of this that's not fair, and that is they just paved Fifth Avenue, correct? All the water lines from the sewer in the main to the curb How's that? And now we have a lead line project that the state is asking that the borough has to replace all the lead lines in the town. That has to be done by the borough at a cost But right there, a lot of these lines will be replaced over time because the state has mandated that these lead lines have to be fixed. So on the one hand, you're gonna have people in the borough getting their lines fixed at no cost. And on the other hand, you're gonna have people who happen to be on a street or whatever or a bad winter and their service line breaks So that's another fairness issue that we have to deal with. Some people are getting it done at no cost, and other people now in an emergency have to pay. And I don't like paying, but I didn't negotiate those rates with the contractor. That was done in a public bid. That was done because our water utility doesn't dig holes anymore. We have a contractor that does that. If we were like the old days, Three or four guys from the water utility would come out with a backhoe and a jackhammer, and they would dig up the line and fix it themselves. But now we went through a contract now, and we have to pay that contractor's rates. And those rates are being forced on you as a property owner without any way of saying, I think that's too high, or let me get my own guy in to do this, all right? So that's my view. And to take it one step further, if I'm on the line and I don't want to use that person, then the borough should be able to shut off my water until I get three quotes from plumbers that I want to use. But no, they won't because they say, well, it's leaking. Well, you know what? Put a valve in and shut my water off. Maybe I don't want to fix it this week. Maybe I don't want to fix it this month. And I don't care if there's water in my house. Just shut it off and I'll fix it when I come back. But we don't have that option. Because what happens is as soon as it leaks, the contract is curled, it gets fixed, and we get the bill. And that's it. So I think I belated this as much as I possibly can. i think it needs to be remedied i think you know it is something that is a positive for the residents and i think it's a shame if if we can't do that and fix this problem according to meters i did have meetings with our degree after that first person came up and said about commenting about meters

We are checking the meters. They are reading meters every quarter. Now, if the meter cannot be read, they are knocking on doors. So you made a statement that almost sounds like our DP is not doing their job about them reading meters. I think that was unfair. So I talked about that we are working on everything we can uncover with meters that are not working or not or not being read properly and we are proactive on that we're not sitting and waiting on meters that are not being read nothing yet that's all i have to come up with are not operating correctly the last list i looked at were 500

I don't believe it's that high. I believe it's in the mid-200s. 200. There you go.

200 meters that are not being read properly. And it's probably 300. We did a report. We have it. And it's just been allowed to lag on. Lag on. And it's something that to be honest with you, it should be zero. But things happen, maybe 10, 50, or whatever, but we can't use that as an excuse. I'm not saying that DPW's not doing a good job, but there are priorities that have to be done. And when you're in a situation where you have a unit or a utility that can bring in revenue, that should be the top priority. That should be the top priority. Ask for overtime and say, we'll go out and do this on overtime. Because the overtime that we pay will come back tenfold with the correct amount of gets a bill for like three thousand dollars and they're like oh i didn't know i used all this water well yeah you know and it's technically the water meter is not broken it's the electronic piece that's on the top that reads the meter those little dials are still going on every time you use the water it's just that nobody's you know got a rope gotten down into the meter taking the electronic thing off and looked at the looked at the meter and said oh yeah these are the numbers and we don't do that until after we've while the meter was broken. So there's a lot that needs to be fixed. And I only say that because I think there's revenue sitting there that can be utilized and it's a fair thing to do. So I guess we need to take a vote.

Yes. Councilman Donovan?

Can we vote to table this?

I won't agree to table it.

Excuse me, Mayor.

Why are you on the table?

Because I was right time to review it and then vote on it another time.

I'm against voting on the table.

Okay. No.

Councilman Kinney?

I'm going to vote yes.

Councilman de Blasio? No. Councilman Maroney?

No.

Mayor McFusco?

Yes.

Okay. Next we have the public session. If anyone would like to make a comment, please remember to state your name and address first.

Suzanne Ann in Fifth Avenue. I have to talk about this with, again, going back to water that you just wanted to not table. Because I live across the street from you, and I had to replace my line. And I had to pay $5,000. And when you paved the street, in 24 years, I had no problem with my sewer line. And then all of a sudden, it was backed up. I had to pay another $1,000. You may remember, Mr. Kane, because I was asking, can the town split it with me? I went through so many emails, and no one got back to me. And you're right. I don't have to be a senior citizen, but I could have two kids in college, and $5,000 is a lot of money. $1,000 is a lot of money. So if you don't have a solution for this, you should be suggesting for people to get the insurance for the American water. And I'll tell you why. I have it for my father, who's 94 years old. They encourage it in the senior citizen building in Sarahville. And guess what? Guess how much it is? It's about $15 a month. His water line broke, and they paid for it. American water. Thank you.

Any other comments?

Not on water.

Well, this is an open, this is an open.

It's not about water.

Open the comments.

Hi. Hi. I'm Amy , 1703 River Road. We're back to talk about river road safety. Anybody drove past 35, you saw that my house doesn't have a hole in it anymore.

That's been really nice for us. Thank you. I look at it all the time now.

Thank you.

I'm missing the 1703 on plywood, though. I keep driving right past it. I know.

I know. I know. I should have saved that. So what we actually did is we went and had a discussion with the DOT. They were actually great. We got through with Assemblyman Keene's office. Kate, his Joint Chiefs of Staff was great. So she set up a meeting. And it was a Zoom meeting, not the big. But they did give us the next step here, which goes to the borough. So what they say has to happen is you guys, through the borough, the council people, you guys would submit to the DOT a request for a safety inspection, where they would do like a speed inspection, safety, pedestrians, paving, resigning, lining, Those kinds of things. The DOT was nice enough to send us sample verbiage, and we took it upon ourselves to write you all a lovely letter. If you would like to use it, it is all written there for you. And we can submit it to the mayor for sure. It does have to be signed by him. If you look at this signature on the back, it does say mayor. So it does have to come from the borough. So we are here respectfully asking that you would submit this on behalf of the residents on River Road and 35. Absolutely.

You can give it to Business Administrator Kane and we'll take a look at it and I'll sign it.

Perfect. Great work, Amy. Thank you. I know that takes a lot to get through all that. I have a couple questions though, real fast, if you could. Yep. Now, is this like a long-term study? Is it something that happens for several weeks? Or do they give you an idea about?

They didn't. They didn't. So I'm not sure what it would look like. So, you know, hopefully when you guys submit, they'll get back to you and say, hey, you know, we can definitely do this. I mean, we definitely want the survey. But at this point, we'd be happy if, again, we talk to the police. And I think they have to... You guys have to petition the DOT also, just to get a speed sign, like this is your speed, restrict your speed. Of course, we would love to get more police on 35, because summer traffic already started, it's crazy, people are speeding, the noise is crazy, there's definitely more people walking on the street. And again, we say we still walk every morning, and it's dark. We have also spoken to JCP&L, DOT put in a request on our behalf to have those lights that we specified are still out. So, of course, their answer is, well, underground wires. Things are old, blah, blah, blah. So it's only been like a couple of weeks, and I'm ready to go back to JCP&L. And my husband's like, give them time, give them time, give them time.

We love that you are on this, honestly.

Listen, I'm on top of it. It's crazy. It's crazy.

Because I do know, isn't the round road crossing also DOK? And we've been waiting for how long? I mean, be patient, be vigilant. They are not.

Yeah, I know.

Just as a great start, but I hate that they just take so long.

So long. And we would just hate to see, like, I mean, we already saw a tragedy on Monday, Memorial Day, you know? Like, we don't need to see that again. It's crazy.

Anyone up here would love to join any student calls you get on DMT, so send an email to us.

Hey, can anyone jump on this?

This is the date, and I'm sure Someone would help if we get another call back. Totally. So always reach out, please.

Absolutely. I attach my business card, so whoever forwarded, obviously it's going to be the mayor. So if somebody could just email me, I left my card, my email, my cell phone. If somebody could just let us know, hey, we submitted it, and then maybe in a couple weeks, obviously, we will follow up with the DOT. And then if we can schedule another meeting, we'll get as many council people on as possible. That would be great. Love it. Thank you. Thank you.

Linda Sharkis for that. I want to thank the council for all the hard work you guys go through. You're all working and I look at this that we're in need of a solution and I'd like to propose since here tonight we talked about three different issues that require studies. The 12th Avenue building, the storm utility and the water utility that we set up something similar to Rutgers, a, what was it? Well, essentially a brain trust, talent trust, and we have it be composed of residents in town because we have such a wealth of knowledge that's being underutilized and we can make it nonpartisan So it would sustain the test of time when we transition from one administration to the next because as a long-term resident, I'm tired of hearing it's not invented here. So if we had studies going on with people from the borough, they'd be able to share that knowledge year after year until death do they part. But I think it would solve a lot of problems and help because you guys all have a lot of important jobs. And I just don't see how they could possibly do all the studies that we've talked about just here tonight.

Thank you, Mayor Sandy Caputo, Surf Avenue. I'm going to talk about beach safety. And I've talked about this in public session in front of Mayors Dowdy, Mayor McGovern, and Mayor Wolfsburg. And I didn't want you to leave office without having to hear it from me. Oh, Rachel. Oh, Rachel.

Sorry you had to wait this long.

Me too.

Football playing on the beach, on crowded beach is dangerous. It's not just the football that can hit someone. It's the 200 pound guy running, not watching where he's going. That could trample an old woman with osteoporosis sitting on the beach. And I gotta tell you, that's me. Howard Rowland did not allow football playing on the beach, ever. Anyone that was on this beach 30, 40 years ago, there were no footballs flying. And we have an ordinance against it also. It's still on the books. I'm asking all of you to go to one of our crowded beaches on the weekend, 9th, 10th, 16th, 18th, and watch this for a while. And you can see it. and see for yourself if you think the rules have to change. Lifeguards used to enforce this, but the rules, it's just been slipping away. Thank you.

Thank you. I think that's something we can bring up with the chief in terms of the, you know, I said a patrolman up there take your suggestion and look into that.

was McLean Park. Since then, Lake Como, Spring Lake Heights, Spring Lake, Wall, Neptune, have all built new pickleball courts. We have done absolutely nothing in the pickleball courts They have a water tower. This is the third time I've been here without the water tower. The water tower is an absolute disgrace. And nobody does anything. We don't maintain what we have. Why are we spending a million dollars to get something new? Why don't we start maintaining what we have? State park. Hey, don't even use skate parks anymore. Why is it, well, okay, well, let me ask you this. Why is it that Lake Colmar and all these other towns have built the Pickleball Courts, which is the fastest-growing school in the United States, and nobody else is building a skate park? Why don't we have Pickleball Courts? We used to be number one in southern Monmouth County for Pickleball. Now we're number zero because we don't have three courts that are unusable. It's a disgrace. And now you want to build, let me ask you this. We have 6,000 retailers. are going to use that skate park when it's built. Can you tell me? We don't ask questions directly to the council people. You can ask me.

All right, may I ask you? I'm not going to answer your question, but I'm going to point out to you that the skate park is being funded through donations. There's not one penny. No grant money? No.

Well, we're looking for grant money. You're looking for grant money. No. You get the grant money. Why don't you paint the wards out?

Well, let me. too because you said nothing's being done we did a comprehensive water utility capital plan and in that capital plan there are a number of things that are planned to be done and one of those things is the painting of the water tower Okay, so there are things being done. When is that going to happen? I don't know off the top of my head, but I want you to know that that painting of that water tower is probably going to cost over a million dollars because of the repairs and everything else.

I agree, and next year it's going to cost more than a million dollars. Well, we have to plan. I've been living across the street from that water tower for 10 years. Since then, people have come, rang my bell, running for town council. And I always said, here's my number one issue. And everyone said, oh.

The issue is there are things being done that you don't see.

I could now do 15 things that should be done before we build this game park. If we paint the water tower, if we fix the pickleball, if we...

I just wanted to tell you, I don't mean to interrupt, but the basketball courts are going to be completed being done.

Correct me if I'm wrong, aren't the pickleball courts relatively new? We took a tennis court away to make three pickleball courts.

Yeah. How long ago was that? You paved over the tennis courts. Okay. And now it's all coming up because it was done on the cheap. Now I always say... I always say... So if you go to Lake Como, Five years ago, if you went to the Cleary Park at 8 a.m., there would be, and I'll bet you this number's correct, 60 people playing rope and pinball. Where are the 60 state boards going to be? There are well more than 60. Yeah, well, I don't believe it. I don't believe it. And I'm curious as to who's behind this state board. I know there's a couple of state board members

I'm the liaison to that committee, and I can tell you there are a lot of passionate people about...

I'll tell you what I'll do. How about you and I, we go and... But you're correct that I'll go away. I don't think we're getting anywhere. I know we're not getting anywhere.

Your points are very well taken.

I've heard that before. They are. You said that the last time I was here. That my points are very well taken. But nothing happens. Nothing happens. Nothing happens. I can say something. I will. If you want to keep talking, that's fine. Well, all I'm saying is, Before we go out and build new projects, spend a million dollars, okay? And plus, let me ask you this. What does that say we do build the skate park? What about the increased liability on the town? Who's going to pay for that?

Did you hear me say before that the town is not building the skate park?

Did you hear me ask what about the liability?

That all has to be done through where it's operating, the skate park. We'll see about that.

You either can believe me or you don't believe me. No, I don't believe you. But what a talent.

You know how much the capital plan for the water utility is? How many million dollars? Let me ask you this. 20 million? 25 billion? Let me ask you one question. Excuse me. Excuse me. I'm trying to be polite. So can you let me talk? Absolutely. And then you talk. And I talk. And you talk. Okay, all right, so now I'm talking.

Now Jim's gonna talk, okay? So we planned out a 10-year plan of water main replacements, addressing pump replacements, water tower painting, lead service line replacements. Over a 10-year period, that's more than $20 million.

Okay, so the town is not able to do everything in one year. because we cannot raise $20 million to do it all. If we could, it would be done. So that's the answer to your question. Everything is on a schedule to be done. The more you want it done quicker, then we have to borrow

Taking down the chair.

Hi, Maria Rondonaro, 1246 Pine Tree Way. Go skate park. I'm excited for the skate park. I know that Councilwoman Kinney has worked hard, as have many of our Belmar and local residents in that initiative. I also want to thank the borough so much for replacing the sign, the electric sign, at the marina at 35. It looks so vivid. You can read the advertisements. It's going to be great for our local businesses and to get out the word of what's going on in Belmar. So thank you so much for that. Thank you, Mayor, for your leadership on the library board. The library looks amazing. And the facade now has its, you know, its shell, its membrane, if you will. nice and protected. We know with the Belmar Housing Authority that the facade has become quite an emergency and it's very costly to fix once it is broken. So thank you for that. I want to thank Councilwoman Caitlin Donovan for her groundbreaking with this softball field that our youth are going to use for years and years to come. And I just want to thank you all for your hard work in making sure that we're able to get things done and improved in Belmar because I see the improvements and I know how hard it is. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else?

Angela Pfeiffer, Fifth Avenue. I'm going to say my pickleball comment to the end. I'm going to do comments about that. The grant money that you spoke about for 12th Avenue, is that a matching grant?

No, those were, well, we were applying for them, but they were not matching.

Great, so that would be money that we would not have to match. And also, you mentioned that depending on the use of the property, I've been out of the loop for a while, so I'm not... Do we know what we're doing with that property?

No. No, we don't.

When we bought the property, did we know what we were going to do with it?

The property was originally slated to be used for the EMS slash fire slash whatever else could be fitting there. But the two main things were the EMS and the fire. That's what I thought.

Is that?

If it were up to me, I would build another library there and have a nice conference room and a senior center and all that stuff, but it's not up to me. I figured I would just put that in.

I get that, and if we can get grant money that's not matching, that's amazing.

There's always expenses, though. Let us not forget the grants, because there's engineering things that have to be done, so grants are not totally free.

point out um that i think this is an issue that gets charged really quickly people strong opinions about 12th avenue um but what is obvious is that the circumstances under which it were bought are different than they are now because we have fewer towns in our ems for instance um union fire station is now available for use as well so i think some type of town hall or a conversation where we're putting all ideas on the table and then going forward thoughtfully. Right.

That's why I was wondering if it was still a possibility. And then just quickly on pickleball, I am a pickleball player, okay? We played every day in Belmar. We were there, okay? There are over 300 people on our Belmar team reach site. And Mayor, we sat down. I mean, I have a petition with hundreds of signatures that we're just kind of sitting with. We're willing to put time in, we're willing to put money in. Those lines that were painted on the other tennis court, we paid for the paint, we did it ourselves. Guess what? Nobody's playing in Belmar anymore. Send this to me, we'll talk. We're all playing at Burt Willis, we're playing in Spring Lake, and Belmar's missing out, because after Pickleball, we hang out, we get together, and now we're not in Belmar anymore. None of us are playing in Belmar anymore. The courts are in total disrepair. So we really appreciate it.

I think it's another grant option that we have in McCleary Park. Would any of our environmental grants be able to support this?

Environmental would do pickleball. You'd have to go maybe for the space or something like that. But that being said, if you're going to talk about McCleary, environmental commission is starting to put together a plan for McCleary where we're really interested in addressing that. I think pickleball courts are a great idea. I think we should spruce those up.

does we were there every morning monday through friday unless we were there tuesday i didn't play at night but they do tuesday nights they do thursday nights we're all hanging out together we're in melbourne we should have a little trolley that brings me back sorry that was not big i swear that was not like at your expense it's more of an ongoing joke with everyone because now that the summer and the weather's getting better everybody's saying well What are we going to do?

What do you mean we're not playing at Belmar anymore? And we can't. It's dangerous.

One of the courts is taped off. And it's a shame because the tennis courts are empty for the most part. And we would be there. And we would be playing for hours. And now we can't. It's a loss for us, but guess what? We'll find someplace to play.

It's a loss for this community. It really is. I would like to see us doing more fundraising for recreation in general so that we can address those issues. I feel like I'm learning a lot from the softball fundraising and tapping into where the community wants those money spent is just the best way forward.

Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

We have someone in the back. Why don't we let this gentleman go first?

I just want to say thank you very much to the mayor and the council for raising that flag up there, the pride flag. It's very important.

Thank you very much.

I guess I would have liked to see the entire council there, but not just work and things like that. I just wanted to say one thing. Gay pride was not didn't come from a need to celebrate being gay, but the right to exist without persecution. So instead of wondering why there isn't a straight pride movement, be thankful that you don't need one. Again, thank you very much. Thank you.

May, I just want to respond to what you said. Lifeguards always did control for this type of thing, because they're the ones that are there, right there. And nobody was drowning. They blow the whistle, and just like everything else, lifeguard blows the whistle on points. You don't even have to speak English to know you're doing something you shouldn't be doing.

That's something that the chief will have to take up with the chief lifeguard so they can work out what the right protocol is when that happens. Thank you. Okay?

And I have a motion to close the public session and adjourn the meeting. Motion.

All in favor? Thank you.