Mayor and Council - Regular Meeting

Adequate notice of this meeting of the Mayor and Council was sent to the Asbury Park Press and the CoStar, our official newspapers, and posted on the bulletin board in this building and the borough's website. Take roll call. Councilman Levin?

Here.

Councilman McKinney is absent. Councilman de Blasio?

Here.

Councilman Maroney? Here. Mayor Donovan? Here.

Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge 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, and our first responders. Thank you. We have two proclamations today. We will start with stigma-free community.

Whereas the Monmouth County Board of Commissioners along with the Monmouth County Department of Human Services support the designation of stigma-free communities in every municipality, And whereas at their June 26, 2018 meeting, the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders unanimously passed a resolution supporting the designation of Monmouth County as a stigma-free community. And whereas Monmouth County recognizes that one in four Americans has experienced mental illness, including substance abuse disorders, in a given year, according to the National Institutes of Mental Health, And whereas mental health problems are more common than cancer and heart disease combined, affecting children and adults, including more than half of our Iraq and Afghanistan veterans treated at Veterans Administration hospitals. And whereas, given the serious major of this public health problem, we must continue to reach the millions who need help. Whereas the stigma associated with the disease of mental illness is identified as the primary reason individuals fail to seek the help they need to recover from the disease, And whereas stigma-free communities aim to inspire public interest and open dialogues about stigma, raise awareness of the disease of mental illness and substance abuse disorder, and create a culture wherein residents who have the disease of mental illness and or substance abuse feel supported by their community and neighbors and feel free to seek treatment for the disease without fear of stigma. And whereas promoting awareness that there could be no health without mental health will break down barriers and encourage residents of all ages to be mindful of their mental health and ask for help when needed. And whereas local resources are available to treat the diseases of mental illness and substance use disorder, so no one resident needs to suffer alone or feel hopeless. And whereas establishing stigma-free communities will raise awareness of resources, inclusive language, Encourage residents to engage in care as soon as a need is identified so recovery can begin. Hope is inspired and tragedies are avoided. And now therefore be it resolved that the Borough of Belmar recognizes the community needs and supports the efforts of the County of Monmouth and designate the Borough of Belmar as a stigma-free community.

Thank you. We have one additional proclamation for Overdose Awareness Day.

for International Overdose Awareness Day, whereas each year, we lose thousands of people from drug overdose globally. Some survive except for permanent injury with devastating impact to their families and friends, whereas the borough of Belmar is not immune. You may have not seen it. It has happened to people around you. Whereas International Overdose Awareness Day provides an opportunity for us to reflect on practical ways to prevent overdose in our communities. Overdose is preventable. Knowing the real facts about drugs and what to do when you see someone experience an overdose does save lives. International Overdose Awareness Day events that aim to educate our communities about drugs can really help. Do hereby proclaim August 31st, 2026 as International Overdose Awareness Day.

Thank you very much. We'll move on to workshop discussion. We have multiple items today on the workshop. We're going to start with the MS4 Phase 1 Watershed Inventory Plan public comment session. I was asked to read this whole page. I'm going to spare you and summarize it. Municipal store water inventory report is available online on belmar.com under the DPW section. In it, we have outlined the watersheds in your community, our various water lines, outfalls, and different pollutants that go into our watershed. I encourage you to read it. It's interesting. It's all things that we brought up here on this 404. The current draft was modified and reviewed and got comments from DEP, the Borough of Belmar, and the public. We will open this up for comment now.

Eugene Creamer, Fourth Avenue. If you have your report in front of you, perhaps you could open to page number 12, where it lists the receiving surface water body and the water quality classification. You'll see that with Silver Lake, There is no water quality classification, and likewise with Lake Cuomo, no water quality classification. Those two bodies of water should be labeled FW-2, fresh water dash two, which is, there's only two classes of fresh water. One is trout, and two is species like largemouth bass, catfish, sunfish. In any case, Silver Lake is a 12-acre surface water, and its classification should be FW-2. Thank you, Mr. President.

Does anyone else have a comment on the watershed report? Okay. Moving on, Mr. Delazio, you are going to repeat a conversation on possible aid for cannabis and machine ordinance.

Yes, this has been a discussion that's been ongoing with Mr. McGill, myself, Chief Scott, and some other members of the PD. The reason for this discussion is really to bring awareness to the borough council regarding the nicotine and cannabis being sold in our This year, if no one heard, we actually had a cannabis vending machine taken out of one of our stores. It was very close to our elementary store. That's part of a statewide rate. So in addition, these stores are selling, some of them are selling

or at least the best way of hearing. Okay. So currently the state statute writes that no retailer can either directly or indirectly have a vending machine owned by the retailer for any purpose that has a characterizing flavor. It also says that there's a civil penalty of no less than $500 for the first violation, $1,000 for the second, and no less than $2,000 for the third. So I know that Councilman Palazzo has spent a lot of time with Chief Scott and with Mr. McGill on various ways of looking at this ordinance and how we can enforce it. I know that Chief Scott has been frustrated because of the way the state law is written. It may be difficult to find a path forward. Mr. McGill, and you had gone through and looked at doing it by different methods.

There's a couple methods. We don't know where they're coming from. We don't know what they're made of. The ordinances, I thought, would come best with fines being enforced by our police department rather than code enforcement. And that would be basically following the state statute. Just to characterize some of what I've researched, any characterized flavor in a nicotine vape, which is any distinguishable flavor, taste, aroma other than tobacco, fruit, chocolate, vanilla, honey, candy. It goes on the list. They are illegal in the state of New Jersey. So if they're being sold here, they're not regulated. That is where the problems come in, because we don't know where they're coming from, and we don't know what they're released with. So with that said, I want to open it up to counsel with questions in what we've really worked hard to get underway. I apologize for my emotions. This one hits home. or about how to properly write an ordinance such like this?

Well, there are three ways. You mentioned one, zoning. Zoning has a problem because whenever you zone something into being not permitted and not permitted use, anybody who was engaging in that activity or use is grandfathered. So you have that inherent problem with zoning. And it's rather indirect to controlling a substance by controlling its use classification under zoning. We also have an opportunity, however, to either outlaw, make it illegal for vending machines, which I think we should do, because we are getting requests to have vending machines with cannabis and things of that nature, and we should just have those banned. Right now, that's questionable. So we can enact a ban on the vending machines and control things that way, and you can do a direct... prohibition and it's not too hard to understand a prohibition of any unregulated substance. Things that should be or are under the control of the state but are unlicensed, we can have an ordinance so that we can directly enforce it against whatever store or outfit may be selling these substances. And I understand that you can have unregulated cannabis. You have that. But there are other substances that I'm not an expert on these substances. They're synthetic. You really have a hard time understanding or knowing what they are. But we could craft wording to put all of those things under an umbrella, and then we could directly, through our own enforcement, do something about this issue rather than waiting for the state come in and take a vending machine or something like that. So the question is, what do we want to do? I'm not recommending the zoning. I don't have a problem with zoning. It may be a nice thing to do in addition, but it's not a direct impact on the problem. Not banning or making the sale of vape shops and smoke shops making those not permitted is a good thing, I think, because I have nothing against those things when they're done legitimately, but they're not being done legitimately. That's the problem. Kids are getting it. The vape shops are selling marijuana. So if you don't let them in, then they can't do it. And at this point, that should be a consideration. But otherwise, I would think about getting proper wording to directly ban vending machines. I think we need to consider that and ban and prohibit the unregulated sale. So I think those are the second two are really

coming from the state, obviously we don't have a licensed

based on some, we haven't learned something that came out like four years ago, five years ago. We prohibit any category of cannabis. The only thing that you can prohibit is the delivery of it. But other than that, all the classifications of the different uses, you know, growing, distributing, retail sales, we ban them all. So we're covered there, but we don't have anything in place as far as vapes, and you're concerned it's nicotine and things of that nature. You probably could ban cigarettes, but I didn't look at that or go as far as that.

Do we actually need to with an ordinance of our own since it's against the law statewide? Can't we just enforce the state statute?

Yeah, we can, but we should have our own ordinance that our police can go in and handle it in the municipal court. I'm not really certain what level of crime we're dealing with, I haven't looked at that. You run into a problem when there's a state statute, you have to enforce the state statute, you can't enforce an identical borough ordinance. And the reason why they do that is because borough ordinance money goes to us and State statute money goes to the state, and it's about money, so they say you can't do it. It's really about money. There's a legal, you know, a primacy argument with the state over the borough, but it's really about where the money goes. So you have to change it a bit to differentiate from the state, and it's doable with, You know, the right wording and thoughts going into it. You make your own statutes of your own wordness about it.

Can we also impose our own volumes on it over and above the state?

Theoretically, yes. As long as we're differentiated from the state.

Being a child of the 16th and 17th, I'm well aware of a lot of this stuff. In my career, I've watched other towns try to do local, and it comes down to the police department whether they can enforce it, part of what you said, George. I understand the issues. I understand whether it's family issues or friend issues. I've got a lot of that in my history, too. But my first opinion here is the state covers an awful lot of it. And we're just duplicating it, in my opinion. by setting up our own ordinances. And I agree with you on zoning, because I've been planning with zoning and enforcement for a couple years. Sorry.

I suppose the idea is to enact local ordinances so that we can take action, take the action into our own hands rather than waiting for the state, because the state's not done it. And I think it's that simple. You have to be careful to order the ordinances not to violate the Constitution or to step on state statutes. However, I think it's worthwhile to take some action. And I'll be honest with you, if it gets challenged, And again, that's fine.

Because that's what I've seen in different boroughs and townships that I'm familiar with is almost always those locals have been challenged.

Yeah. And that's fine. Right. That's fine. We can defend it. Okay. And we won't be in a situation where we're not doing anything because, you know, it's gone past. The situation is, I would say, It's dire, but it's dire in some circumstances. There's no control. There's no oversight. There should be. But once they, you know, we said cannabis was okay, it's just okay. Liquor licenses are controlled. You step out of line, you get smacked. there's really not the same framework with the cannabis. And then you have cannabis, and then you have the synthetic stuff, and then you have a store that looks like a supermarket, which is a supermarket, where you can get some supermarket things, and you can get some kind of synthetic cannabis.

I think all of that should be controlled the exact same way as liver is.

Sure.

And tax the same and all of that. So that's where I'm coming from.

Right. I think we're kind of filling in that gap until the supervision, the regulatory supervision is taken seriously. I think, you know, we have this gap. And, you know, I think. We need to do something.

It's not just the regulatory supervision, too. I was out talking to an attorney who deals quite a bit in Canada's law, by coincidence. And I was asking about these different strands you see being sold for capability. And I'll never forget what he said. He said, the law hasn't caught up to the science. Right. i think it is part of our duty up here to catch up to the science but also catch up to dangerous substances that could hurt the most vulnerable among us so that's essentially it thank you so i guess the next step would be tracking something for us to review and kick that around sure um where do you want me to focus on on the direct

on prohibition on unregulated substances and vending? Those two and zoning? Or do you want to...

I'm not really a fan of zoning, but it's easy to do. I think zoning is going to be ineffective, and we shouldn't go down that path. But I think vending machines, unregulated substances, and I think we could have a repeat.

So zoning's not... Totally ineffective. Zoning is just notoriously slow in having an effect. But if you can prevent, and this is the question, do you want to prevent vape shops and do you want to prevent smoke shops from being in the town? They don't seem like great businesses. Again, in my opinion, because I guess I'm getting old, but that's something that you can do. And you could attempt to define any place that sells those type of products as fake shops and try to attack it that way. It's just another avenue.

even though that would be a minority of their business, you still call them that?

Well, you define it as an accessory use, and yeah, that's what you do. You know, a gas station that sells supermarket stuff, it's a gas station, but the supermarket stuff is an accessory supermarket type thing. Admittedly, it could be a stretch. You know, I don't mind stretching it, though. But I'm not up there.

As far as the zoning is concerned, would that terminate with the current owner or lessee of the building, or would it stay with the building?

Well, it would be a prohibited use everywhere. So... As far as the grandfathering is concerned? Oh, the grandfathering in? Yeah, well, you can change... you can change owners of the use and still be able to conduct that use. So yeah, it's not personal to the person that's doing it. It's personal in zoning. It's not personal at all. It involves the property, the use of the property. So it's not personal to anybody whatsoever. Move forward? Move forward. All right, I'll look at all three.

Thank you. And now we have a presentation from the Belmar Historical Society.

Good evening. Brian McGovern, 207 South Lake Drive, Belmar. Spencer Hewlett, your address?

My address? I live comfortably in a house that is over 100 years old that I maintain at 607 Fifth Avenue, Belmar, New Jersey.

Spencer and I will be representing the Historical Society tonight. And I'll take a cue from the mayor, and instead of talking a long time, the work the Historical Society has been doing with the Mountain County Park System right now concerning the firehouse on 9th Avenue. Last spring, we were invited to a meeting by Mayor Buckafusco, along with several department heads, to discuss the long-range use of the building hard in getting that building on the state list of designated buildings. This way we can be eligible for grants or loans to maintain the building or get work done to put it back in its The short-term use that we heard discussed at the meeting was for the EMS to be there, and which we understand that is something that you need to address. Our concern about that is the age of the building, and if you retrofit it to accommodate those new EMS trucks, you may jeopardize our ability to get sanctioned by the state of New Jersey for historical preservation. Just because you're an old building doesn't mean you get this designation. So we would have to ask that any work that is done there is done in a manner that it doesn't jeopardize that. Also because it's such an old building, if there is any unfortunate, accidental, mishap by the trucks, we're not sure how strong that building is. So we are very concerned that something might happen to that building, and if it does, and it can't be used in the way we want, we would like to see, make sure that the council gets some work done so that that building always remains a public building, that it doesn't go private. And what I'm talking about, quite honestly, is like in 1985, we sold the American Legion building up there on Highway 35. And last month it was torn down. Right now we think that there's probably two buildings left in New Jersey, in Belmar, that might fit historical preservation. I'm gonna pass out some of these pictures right now. Again, picture's worth a thousand words and it'll cut down on how much I talk to you. I'll give the firemen on the council this building first. Can you just pass them along? You'll notice that For many, many years, Del Mar has used that building for tours, and we still do. It would be great that 50 years from now, when Del Mar is 200 years old, that we can still, the Historical Society can still hold tours and invite children, classes, from Del Mar Elementary or St. Rose to go and view the old building. That building will be more valuable as an historical site than it is today. To digress a little bit, you'll notice in one of those photographs a picture of a kindergarten class.

I was gonna ask you about it.

There's two things about that picture there, Mayor. One, it's the legendary Anna Coven. who taught kindergarten at Belmar Elementary for over 50 years. And the other is, there's a five-year-old Brian McGovern in that picture. Stop it.

Don't look at me back. Which one are you? Whoa, wait, come on, which one are you? I'll show you afterwards. Wait, no, I have to file away.

So that photo right there was from 1958. 50 years from now, we would still like to be inviting the kindergarten class to come down and get their pictures taken. We just gave Barry an invitation, or we will be giving Barry an invitation to come down. So I don't know what you can do officially to designate that building as we're working getting state recognition to keep that building so it doesn't get out of the public portion of the town. So we hate to see us lose it. And right now, council, it's up to you because if we don't prepare now, if we fail to prepare now, we may prepare fail. Okay, maybe too late years from now, especially if there's some damage to the building and there's reconstruction and we don't get the recognition. make us ineligible for the loans and other monies that might come through. So that's my spiel. Really encourage, that's such an important building, as we said, there's only two left. Library, 9000. Let's keep them public. Spencer.

So I know where you're sitting that takes a love of town So I'm going to talk a little history, because my interest before you today is 900 E Street, where stands the largest monument to our town of Belmar's past. Built in 1911, it is the Union Firehouse. Within its walls are a steam fire engine once drawn by horses, an original fire alarm, and other fire apparatus used in earlier times. In the upstairs room is where town hall meetings were held. An annex became part of the building in the 1920s. The jail cells, which no longer serve their purpose, are still there and remind us that the addition was constructed as a Belmar police station. When a representative from the county park system came and surveyed this building, I was with her. Her enthusiasm and excitement was evident, not only seen as a rare gem in our town, but also in all of Monmouth County. It is so appropriate that the Belmar Historical Society Museum is located here. There is no better place. Throughout Belmar, You do not see names of the founding fathers and many of the important leaders and contributors that made this town what it is today. But at 900 E Street, they are recognized along with their achievements. They did not just do for themselves, but also for future generations. The building for 115 years has been a testament to their efforts, which we today should honor. It is a building that can be and must be maintained and preserved as the center of our town's pride and rich history. The Union Firehouse is a beacon to the past And from my experience, when things are torn down, they are forgotten. So knowing a beacon to the past and its restoration, it can be an inspiration to all that love Belmar.

Thank you both so much for coming here. Thank you to the entire Historical Society for coming out and for your passion for this building and to the entire town. The work you do is necessary and very, very much appreciated. I just want to address some of the things you said. So first, I think not only is the fire station a beacon of the past, it's also an important part of our future going forward. I have no intention of selling the building. I do think it should be part of, always need to be, thorough property. I also think it's essential that we are housing our EMS, and I know you guys agreed with me when we talked about this before. We have a $250,000 grant for that, It is the first stage in a very phased rehabilitation of the building. And when I say rehabilitation, I mean with the utmost respect and adherence to historical preservation. Our first priority, though, has to be that environmental and health assessment. It needs to be safe for people to be in there. It is an old building. We have to make sure of that before we go any step further. So we want to address any environmental concerns there, and we want to maintain that historic first floor areas, the first floor for the EMS for now. so as more funding becomes available we'll continue rehabbing reserving that building it is so beautiful and we would love to make ultimately space available for additional community programs i don't want it to be an historic empty building i want it to be an historic useful building and one that is constantly not just a reminder but the presence of uni fire company and everything that is given to this town so That's how I feel about it, and I know Mr. Veroni and Michael Bascom, who's our financial management consultant and also is an expert on first response, and I work over actually in that building today talking about how to incorporate these feelings of historical preservation and community pride into anything that we do.

Again, that kid from the 60s and 70s. Is there a fire pole in that building still?

There's no fire pole, but they do have a host tower, which you don't see anymore. So there is some historical things in there that are just not present anymore.

I know it's full of historical. That needs to stay with us.

and no one has ever mentioned selling or modifying that building in any way that would damage the historical preservation of it. So we are all on the same page with that. On top of the environmental, we're bringing structural investigation Thank you for the presentation.

I just have one quick question. You mentioned the time frame. What is the time frame between when you apply for Indiana? Okay, and then when you actually receive the designation?

If I knew the answer, I would tell you, so I'm going to defer to someone who may know better.

Yes, please. The materials are being prepared by someone from our county. Preservation Office. They have not been completed because we need one more review of the building by an architect and a bit more data. So we need to work with you. We can't work independently. We need to know what you're doing because you have the materials we need to submit rather than our duplicating them and spending that money. So we need to be connected to be able to continue the process. The county has been very generous in helping us to get the designation we need. They see the value of the building and it does stand out in accounting. It has a wonderful reputation. So please keep us involved. Let's work together on this, make sure we're sharing materials to be able to get the proper designations.

We have an agenda.

Thank you.

Do we have any additions?

I did not receive any petitions. Can I have a motion to approve the minutes of the July 28th meeting? Motion?

Second.

Okay, Councilman Lubin? Yes. Councilman de Blasio? Yes. Councilman Maroney? Yes. Mayor Donovan? Yes.

Okay, we can move on to reports to council. Councilman Lubin?

I really haven't gotten that involved with that kind of thing yet. I'm looking forward to talking with the rest of you and divvying up something to me for the next few months. I will report that volunteering now at the beachfront, gate checking and all of that, continues to be a wonderful thing. And the people that work there and the people that come there, I know there's issues, but it's a wonderful thing to be up there a couple days a week.

And I understand this weekend, I believe we had our busiest day since July 3rd.

According to what I heard, yes.

Councilman DeLazio.

Okay, we didn't have any meetings with the Planning Board or the Harbor Commission. last meeting, so our next planning board will continue our master plan review on August 17th at 7 p.m. and Harbor Commission is on the 18th at 6 p.m. We did, the council and mayor did bring lunch to the lifeguards on National Lifeguard Day and I would just like to give another shout out to them. We did have an unfortunate situation on the beach this weekend where there was a cardiac arrest with someone in the ocean. We're our first responders, so just, you know, always thinking and praying for them and all of our first responders. Thank you, Councilman.

Councilman Maroney?

Just want to announce that Volunteer Hook and Ladder, I'm a member, full transparency, is having a fundraiser on Friday at Jaxx by the Tracks. It's a $10 cover at the door, and it's where they're doing pianos, and 100% of the door proceeds will be going to Volunteer Hook and Ladder. that just started with us. Six to nine.

Thank you, Councilman. I have a few announcements. One, we have that the Department of Transportation has notified us they will be doing a safety study over on Route 35. This is something that not only the borough, but also many of our residents have asked for. They will also be reviewing the need for new signage and seeing any lost signage. So in their letter, which you can find online posted, they mention a finish date around September, but that may push back depending on different factors. The Silver Lake Subcommittee, we're reviewing grant requirements and discussing lake maintenance, reviewing our contracts, and preparing for an upcoming meeting with the Army Corps of Engineers. We've also completed the first final energy plan and submitted those requirements so you can find that energy plan online on the website. An announcement too, the new newsletter went out today. This is a new room newsletter, it's called Connect with Belmar. If you didn't receive one, you can sign up on the GROW website. on your residence newsletter. You can also click on it and a copy of the newsletter will pop up. So I'm very happy not only that it went out, but we are no longer doing PDF newsletters. So small steps, but you should be able to find links to some of the things we talked about here today and going forward. Finally, we attended a library meeting where there was a wonderful presentation thanking Pat Roddy for his support to the library and as a partner to the entire borough. So thank you to the library and to Pat Roddy for everything he's done and for being just a benchmark guy through and through. The next Coffee with a Mayor will be Sunday, August 23rd at 11 a.m. here in Borough Hall. And save the date, find me for a volunteer fair at Taylor Pavilion, Sunday, October 4th, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. You can learn all about potential volunteer opportunities in Belmar, from the fire department to our borough commissions. So thank you.

Next we have the public comment session on the resolution items. If anyone... Oh, sorry.

We have a resolution authorizing the submission of an application to the EPA for the grant for Silver Lake. This is that $1 million congressional year mark. This resolution is part of the process to which we actually receive the funding. We have a resolution certifying the annual audit. So we do this every year and we certify the audit. I do want to flag though that this year we actually conducted a detailed review with every member of the governing body and our staff. That way we now all have a shared understanding of the findings. We've highlighted and established a clear path forward for corrective action and improved accountability. We have a resolution increasing fees for the recreation, fees for youth club. We're raising them from $35 to $25, which is still such a bargain for what they do there. This covers the cost of the program. We have a resolution for professional services for recruitment. This is for our new VA. Unfortunately, Mr. Varney will not be with us forever, as much as I may wish. So this will start the process of finding our full-time borough administrator. We have two resolutions for new professional staff. Now, we did have some holdover staff from the prior administration. This is the process of getting in new staff. We are welcoming back Susan DeSimone to the prosecutor's office, and we have appointed Avakian Engineering as our primary engineer. We've also sent an RRQ out for new housing attorneys, and within that request, like emphasizing now, development rather than affordable housing expertise, although of course we would expect anyone to have both. We have a resolution authorizing a grant agreement. This is a new grant we've been awarded for $25,000 from the New Jersey Forest Service to support tree pruning and maintenance. So this is part of that process of acquiring the funding. We have a resolution here for the Eastcourt project that's 508 Main Street. we have agreed to delay the project start date until 2029. They asked for an extension, so an environmental cleanup, and we agreed for that. And because this way, it more nicely staggers, frankly, the construction dates over there. So we also have a resolution finalizing a settlement agreement between the borough and local developer regarding pilot payments, in which the borough will receive a payment of over $200,000. We have the execution of a trademark assignment regarding the Bellmark logo. This is a logo created by a resident who trademarked the logo and upon discussion will resolve these issues and the borough now has ownership and rights to the Wave logo. We also have a few ordinances. We have a second reading of license fees that renew after December 31st. This is a adjustment to a late fee of $50 during the first 30 days and $100 after 30 days. We have a second reading of our agreement with SMRSA, that is the Southern Monarch Regional Sewerage Authority. And we have the first reading of a new ordinance dealing with an issue that a resident raised here that will outlaw construction, maintenance operations, or utility work on any Sunday or federal holiday and establishes acceptable hours from 8 to 5 p.m. on Mondays through Saturdays.

If anyone would like to comment on a resolution on the agenda, please step forward, state your name and address.

Hi, I'm Suzanne Madden, Fifth Avenue. My home is from 1894. I happily and comfortably live in my home. I would love to invite the Historical Society to come and see. Anyway, I came up here to just say it's been my pleasure to give the town all of the rights to the logo. It has been over several years that I have been volunteering and I can say that I've been policing the logo. I feel confident that this will continue. The transfer has been for $1, correct? I appreciate Mr. McGill and Mr. Veroni helping me make this happen. So thank you very much. And I will still be available for volunteering if you guys want to do anything going forward. So thank you.

Any other comments? Can I have a motion to close the public session?

Motion. Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Can I have a motion to approve the resolutions as listed on the consent agenda? Motion.

Second.

Councilman Lubin?

Yes.

Councilman De Blasio? Yes. Councilman Maroney? Yes. Mayor Donovan? Yes. Our first ordinance is 2026-17. This is an ordinance amending and supplementing Chapter 20 licenses. This is open for public comment. If anyone would like to speak on the ordinance, please step forward. Can I have a motion to close the public hearing?

Motion. Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

And can I have a motion to adopt Ordinance 2026-17? Motion. Second. Councilman Lubin? Yes. Councilman de Blasio? Yes. Councilman Maroney? Yes. Mayor Donovan? Yes. Next is Ordinance 2026-18. This is an ordinance of the Borough of Belmar authorizing the execution and delivery of a 2026 amended sewer service agreement with the South Monmouth Regional Sewage Authority. This is open for public comment. If anyone would like to speak on the ordinance, please step forward. Can I have a motion?

I just have a quick question. Belmar is a charter member of South Monmouth Regional Sewage Authority. And as such, we have a appointment of a commissioner. And I see in this letter from South Monmouth that Jean Corey, Commissioner from Belmar. He must be there an awful long time. I can't remember which administration actually appointed him. And God bless him, he's gotta be up there in years. Excuse me, does anybody know? We do appreciate his expertise.

He's been the commissioner for as long as I've been here. Probably longer. Pringle. Yes.

There you go. Anyhow, I guess we should send him some sort of memo of appreciation for him having served behind the South Long Beach Regional Sewerage Authority.

Thank you. Any other comments, questions?

Can I have a motion to close the public hearing?

Motion.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Can I have a motion to adopt ordinance 2026-18?

Motion. Second.

Councilman Lubin? Yes. Councilman de Blasio? Yes. Councilman Maroney? Yes. Mayor Donovan? Yes. Last one is ordinance 2026-19. This is an ordinance amending and supplementing chapter 16, section 3, chapter 19, section 7, and chapter 27, section 4 of the revised general ordinances, amending and establishing times for construction in the borough. Do I have a motion to offer this ordinance for first reading and introduction? Motion. Second. Councilman Lubin?

Yes.

Councilman de Blasio?

Abstent.

Councilman Maroney? Yes. Mayor Donovan?

Yes.

Great. Now we're on to the regular public session. If anyone would like to speak, please remember to state your name and address first.

Good evening. Linda Sharkus, North Avenue.

And I don't really understand the email that I received July 30th regarding the volunteer fair. When I talked to members on the council, they had no knowledge of that. I would think when we engage in an activity that requires resources and money to execute, that the board would approve it and it would be brought up in a public forum. So I don't really understand why we didn't hear about it before the letters went out.

Well, it did come up at the town hall, and I'm pretty sure you were in attendance there. So it's been out there for quite a bit. The email you would have received, I believe, would have been to... July 30th. Volunteers. Correct. It would not have gone out. I don't believe it went out publicly to go out to the commissions of the... Right. Correct. So that was in preparation for the event.

But that doesn't get the approval of the council. It's the council who represent the people and looking for transparency. So not all the council people were at the town hall.

Does anyone on council have an objection to the volunteer fair? No objection.

It's a timing thing.

So just I hope in the future we could keep that in mind before things are planned. And second, could you give us an update on the San Gennaro Fest?

The San Gennaro Fest will be September 19th. The dinner will be on Thursday this year at Taylor Pavilion, Thursday prior. We have, I don't know if we have a public list of vendors yet, but I do know that we have some vendors. Is there a particular question you have? Yes, it seems like there is

Concerns with some of the merchants in town that there aren't enough vendors at this point in time. Nothing's really been done to promote, very little's been done. Planning for an event like this takes more than a month and that hasn't happened. Similar to the lack of preparation for the 250 year celebration. So I hope we could have better planning for events in town. just from what people have mentioned to me in the downtown area.

Thank you for your comments.

All right, thank you.

Brian McGovern, 207 South Lake Drive, Belmar. Just congratulations on the renovation of Dempsey Park. Glass backwards. It looks great. I've spent many hours on those courts, so I really test that I spent a lot of time on the wall field. And I just love, love the job that you did there.

Thank you. We are in the process of getting those dugouts in. So once we do a formal opening, and I'll make sure you're there.

Oh, that'd be great. Just one thing you mentioned trees before you got a $25,000 thing. Along the fence of Memorial Field, there are supposed to be 13 trees for the 13 soldiers from Belmar that died. One of those trees is down, so there's only 12 there. So you might want to ask the Exchange Tree Commission to look at which tree. It's over by the fireman's monument. And I think they're American linden trees, so you probably want to replace it with the same type that have been there

Thank you so much.

I would like to inquire why we don't have pedestrian crossing signs on Main Street from 8th Avenue North. We have them south on Main Street, and they are very helpful. 8th and Main is one of the busiest intersections there is in town, and I don't know why. I was told because it's 71, but so is north, and into Avon they have them and Bradley Beach has them, so I don't understand why we haven't been able to get them.

That has been on the list for quite some time. You're not the first person to wire to that, and I agree with you. I know the fact that we have a crossing guard there during the school year because of that very reason. That has been submitted as a request to the appropriate place?

Yes. Okay. I think that would also get picked up in the 8th avenue of pedestrian safety. Grant, we're working on, and maybe Mr. Avakian, we could talk, get in line with that and see what we can get moving.

Hello, Chuck Peters, 202 19th. I'm trying to find out a little bit more information on the water meters. How are we dealing with that? 100%, correct? Doesn't make any sense.

Bill would have a better idea than I do at this point. I know they're working on that continuously.

I saw someone working on a meter that was in the street.

Oh, well, we're working constantly. What's that? They knocked on doors. I can't answer that, whether we're actually knocking on doors, but we are actively installing meters. They're going off of water bills. They're reaching out to residents.

Yeah, I noticed there's like six right around me. Yeah. So I guess, I don't know, meters. It must be dysfunctional. The other thing I have is the library fund. What was that all about? I hear a friend of mine in Spring Lake had a charge of over $1,100. So I feel good only getting $400 plus.

Do you mean the tax, the library tax? Yes. Okay. That is separate from the municipal tax. Oh, who is it? Belmar Library, I'm sorry. The Belmar Library, yes.

We're not part of the Belmar County system. Okay. That's good to know. So their library's more expensive. The other thing was, did you put that extra bathroom in there? In the library?

No, that has not been put in. Is it going to be put in? I don't have the latest update on the schematics for the library updates, but I can find out again. The library is very popular, not only for its books, but its programs. Okay, that's good to know. Thank you. Now that I know, I think they just mentioned in the meeting yesterday that 500 people attend the Pat Rowdy concert and a few bookends this summer, so obviously that would be on the extreme end.

John Judge, 508 11th Avenue. I was here a couple months ago. My neighbor is a hoarder house. . It's a hoarder house. I gave a couple of, I gave a... You sent emails.

My husband and his partner was in the C.S. trouble speaking, but we sent emails to the zoning officer and I printed them out.

I met him in a hallway one day. He ignored me then. I've been here 28 years. A quarter million dollars worth of taxes. He actually posed me up in a hallway. Now, he's an asshole. Can I have a copy? Thank you. This is my only copy. The neighbor has a commercial truck, car, truck on the street.

I don't understand what the problem is. It's commercial. It's a neighbor.

Okay.

Thank you. I'm glad she's talking to Ms. Veroni. We'll definitely look into this.

Thank you for letting us know. Hopefully something happens this time. Nothing ever happens. Thank you.

Carol Moore, 1206 Oakwood Road. This is a follow-up from when I was here two weeks ago. One of my neighbors investigated and found out what the height of this gentleman's work van is. And it is over eight feet tall. I know the chief said that she would have a sergeant go by, but we haven't seen anything and we haven't heard anything. So that's why my neighbor printed that out and brought it. That goes above the ordinance. The other thing is the parking, the regular parking. Little background, Saturday I had a crash show, it was for Noy Cuts. Very hot, very humid. I got home, my daughter had already left to go to a concert in Camden. So her place was empty. I usually park that on the street so that when she gets home at 12, 31 o'clock in the morning, she has a place near the house, doesn't have to walk all the way down from 16th in the middle of the night alone. Since it was so hot and humid and I was so overcome with the heat, I pulled into the driveway because I wasn't going to unload my car Saturday night and I didn't want it on the street with everything in it. Lo and behold, my neighbor across the street texts me and tells me that this gentleman just didn't park in front of my house, but parked between spots. Normally, in front of my house, we can fit three vehicles comfortably. This gentleman decides to park a good distance, a few feet, from that white car, my neighbor, back. So when Samantha got home that night at 1.32 o'clock in the morning, she had a park blocking my driveway. Now luckily, I wasn't going out on Sunday. But if I had to go out before she got up, I would have her car, who knows where, pull my car around, and whatever. We were wondering, is there any way that we can have lines put in on these big spots to indicate to these people that you can park correctly. Because we also get people from the park, the Cleary Park. Because on Sunday, after she went to work, I watched. And some guy pulled up. Pulled up. He was at least four feet from the back line. Went to the back of his truck, pulled everything out that he wanted, and walked to go to Cleary Park. Now, I was lucky. Samantha was lucky, actually, because she closed Target that night. And she worked from 2.30. Actually, she'd get home until 12.30, 1 o'clock. Luckily, they had left. But people are not respecting that. The back line and the front line, enough. Is there any way to divide it?

Thank you. I have every sympathy and everyone up here does. I'm on a very busy street with a shared driveway, so I understand the pain. We do, we did just have the first meeting of the parking committee that happened last Friday? Yes. And we definitely was there as part of that. And part of what that committee will be doing is reviewing our ordinances and looking for ways to ease this burden on our residents.

And I'm not just talking about in front of my house. I'm talking about all the properties that don't have just a one car space in front of their house.

Of course. And there are places where curbs need to be repainted so those delineations are clear. So your complaints have not gone unheard. We are working towards resolution.

And what about this commercial vehicle? It's obviously over the eight foot ordinance. I was trying to say attention to the police department.

Well, I'll have to look up the actual height of that vehicle.

Well, that's what that is. My neighbor had looked it up.

So that's the height of this vehicle.

And he's only there like from five o'clock till six in the morning. So if you send an officer over before 4.35 o'clock, it's not going to be there. Some days he does, when there's no parking where his cameras on the front of his house can see his van, he parks it in the driveway. But the spots anywhere where his cameras can see because he doesn't trust anybody, then he parks it wherever he wants it. And those pictures show however he wants. Thank you. Thank you.

Anyone else? I also received the email from April for the volunteer from the portion of it. And thank you for that. Appreciate it. I thought it was a great idea, bringing everybody out to see how they can volunteer possibly different committees and maybe we could have a table where people can just come up to volunteer for different things that they think that they could help Luton Town. It was a great idea and I personally don't recall Mayor Bob Fusco asking the council if it was okay to have a health fair last year and it was a success, a total success. So I'm sure that the volunteer will be awesome. Thank you.

I just wanted to go back to the historical society. I had the pleasure of visiting the historical society last week and take a tour of the building. And the upstairs room is incredible. It is so charming and beautiful. I thought of ideas of being able to make that a community center, possibly. in the future, I actually took the liberty of looking up grants that we could possibly get, and there's several. I mean, NJDEP historical education, if we went that route for public facilities fund, CDBG, New Jersey Department of Community Affairs in small cities, for an elevator perhaps, an ADA compliance upgrade with a grant program, And if we decided to do programs there for students or for seniors, there's the national endowments for the arts, creative aging grants, environmental community arts, and partnerships. I just want to know that I really hope, I'm sorry, go ahead. Thank you.

That research is valuable and important. You can easily join with us and work on it. We do have someone in the county who's pursuing everything that we can and we need help. So you're welcome to join with us. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

I mean, I just, as I'm walking around the town and hearing what people want the most, they want a community center. And I've been living here for 25 years. I remember In so many years, I would say it was at least 15 years ago, around the time of Hurricane Sandy, before they restored the pavilion. We had a place for seniors to go and dance. There was bingo there. I mean, before that building was renovated for a wedding venue, a party venue, that it is now. I mean, that was our place to go. I mean, we had bingo there. It was like nice enough and old enough to just enjoy yourself. Kids would roller skate in there. I mean, think of all these great things. My parents actually met at a sock hop at Taylor Pavilion. So I'm just saying, we really have to think, like they said, about going forward. This is a gem. I wouldn't want to lose it. And I know you said we're all in agreement to that, but it's just so beautifully designed by a local architect, no less, in 1911. And for myself, in order to ever move this town forward, we have to think about our roots and all the people that fought hard to make this town what it is today. One of the things I'm just going to bring up is that gorgeous steam engine. Can you imagine if your house was on fire back then and you were waiting for a horse and a steam engine to come and put the fire out? A horse named Daisy, no less? I'm just saying, it's just amazing what's happening there. Anyway, thank you for listening.

Thank you.

Johanna Robinson, 9th Avenue, Belmar. And I was, as you were talking, I'm so happy to hear that the town and people and the historical society are thinking about the union building and then also the library which is a building of interest and it's also a Carnegie building which we made sure that when we did renovations in the library that those windows when they were replaced were the exact replica and they still maintained the fact that it's a building of interest when they did different things. So that's the same thing that I'd like to see also with the Union Building as they go forward, as far as making sure that they maintain those things. It is critical that they really look into that as you utilize that building, that you don't do anything that takes away from the authenticity of the building.

And while you're here, actually, can you clarify what's going on in the bathroom?

Yes, I can. So there is a strategic plan that they're doing at the library in regards to moving forward with that. But there's a lot of other things in regards to the bottom of the building that they're looking at, as far as moving different things around, as far as the boilers and things like that, and utilizing the space in the best way. And then there's like a five and ten year plan that we're working on in regards to that building. So we want to make sure that we're doing the things that make the most sense right away. Not that a bathroom doesn't, but there's things that you need to do prior to that so that it works into the whole pool of what's going on in the building. So eventually it will get there. With ADA, they are supposed to have two restrooms in the building. So it's not that we're not aware of it. So that's in the process. And the other thing that I wanted to say about, just with the unit building and the library and the historical society, it is very important, at least to me, in my opinion, with the town moving forward with the growth and development, that we don't lose and forget what Belmar is about, the history. And Belmar has a tremendous amount of history that we don't want to lose or forget about. And I think that can happen very easily because we do have more people moving into town. A lot of people that are in town now have been here maybe 25 years or less. And there are a few people that have been here maybe 70 or 80 years. There's less and less around. We don't want to lose that. It's very important, okay?

Thank you. Any other questions or comments?

Angela Pfeiffer, Fifth Avenue, Belmar. I'm wondering if there's any updates on getting the pickleball courts back in shape.

That'll update for you. But first, as I know you've been looking into, we might be able to do a temporary solution for the remainder of the summer. So we just need to get final funding approval on that after that, because that will be relatively low cost. After that, the full renovations of that will be much more expensive. Do you remember, Mr. Montoya, what the high end of that was?

Don't quote me on it, but I think it was in the $250,000 range.

Don't quote him on that. He said it was in the $250,000 range. So that's why an immediate is good enough to be looking into a temporary solution for the rest of the summer so you guys can get in there. And then we'll be pursuing some grants and funding to see what we can do for long term.

Temporary would be great. The summer obviously is almost over. I was there today, and it was sad. It's all, there's cracks, there's holes. The first court has no net, and there was nobody there. These courts really have 40, 50 people there every single day, and now we're going someplace else. So I understand on the 250, possibly maybe a grant in the future, maybe that's something we could look at. But if in the meantime, if we can just get a patch, I mean, it's a great site for Belmar. You're playing, looking at Shark River. And it brings all these people into town. Right now, we're all going someplace else, so.

Absolutely agree with you. We want to get this to happen for you. Okay, thank you. Thank you.

The woman behind the camera. I would like to be here. I'd like to be over there. Sandy Caputo, Surf Avenue. I appreciate on resolutions that you've included the street addresses on the ones about development. I think that's important and makes it easy for people that we should not be left hanging with the name of an LLC and walking lots. So thank you for doing that. I hope we always do that. Very good. Thank you.

What is this?

The young lady that spoke about the ferry park, that was one of the questions I was going to ask because of having an interest in living in that area, you know, what the status was. And we did.

We used to have...

tennis court looked great, and of course then the pickleball court was put in and on, and that really looks really disgusting, and everybody's going up to Brielle and Spring Lake now, and they're saying, oh, these courts are great, and what happened to Belmar? It's like, well, you know, now we've got to work on that. Just a couple different things I have to be bouncing around. 16th Avenue bathroom, bathhouse, how close are we, and when are we looking for a finish?

The The last time I spoke to the engineer, he said that the contractor wanted it wrapped by the end of August. He thought that people could be in and the roads finished by that early September. So as I told the co-star recently, I expect it to be fully usable by the whole summer.

At least by September. Yes. It's a great idea about the firehouse on E Street becoming a historical building. And I remember when I was a kid, that where the historical office is was the police department. And according to the, with the library, the low reception of the library, that was the police department courtroom.

Really?

Wow. When I was a kid. I can remember all that. The sets used to go down there and you'd watch all the bad guys get yelled at by the cops. Did you see that? That was the courtroom. I can remember that. Would you please tell Jenna, that's in Monroe Hall, she's in the events department, she went out of her way twice for me. Once a cousin was looking for some information on renting Taylor Pavilion, and I called her, she called me back and forth a couple times, and at that point I said to my cousin, you deal with it. You do it, it's your thing, not mine. And then today I called her, because of Belmar Cares Breast Cancer Group, We have our concerts in October, and we have one that's in April. And I asked her, is there any possibility of getting Taylor Pavilion on Monday night for one of our concerts? She gave me a couple dates saying that there was an event going on in the afternoon until 6 o'clock. I don't know if it was a club or a, there was something that was going on with kids that I can remember. She said, we go to about 6, 6.30. She said, you can have her from then until, because we usually use it from 6 to 9. So she gave us the approval for that and booked it. So I just want you to let her know that I think that she went out of her way for me. There was multiple phone calls, different times, changing dates, changing times. And it was a pleasure to talk to her. She was very, very pleasant. So I just think that you should know that.

Thank you. And I'm glad to hear Belmar Cares is coming back again. I'm sorry? I said I'm glad to hear Belmar Cares is coming back again. It was a great event for a great cause.

We've been back and we've been around, but it's just things just, you know, last year we booked Taylor Pavilion and then we had Maurice So, of course, the police department says, no, no, no, you're not going to Ocean Avenue. So that was canceled, and two weeks later, we ended up booking in, and we got to have so many people, but we still had a nice turnout. And then in April, we had the Blue Abyss professional band play, which was phenomenal, and they're ready to book back again in April. So we're going to have, like, two things going on again, which is really good. That part's done, that part's done. I think I covered it all. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Anyone else? I have one more.

This is just one thing that has to do, I know we're getting ready to come to the close of the summer season for the beach run, but maybe next year thinking forward that I've noticed the crossing, as far as crossing, Ocean Avenue, by the Pavilion, by 8th Avenue. They really need to have a presence back in the day. They used to have police officers that were at those strategic areas. And I think that's something that we need to look into having coming back. I mean, there's many times when I've tried to cross where I'm going across, one person said, yeah, you could go, and the other person coming this way and almost turns me over. So they really need to bring that back in. I think that would be a very good thing, especially where you have the kids camp there, you have the kids that are doing the CERT camp, and when they're trying to cross again, it's a mess. So I really think we should look into that again. Thank you.

Like Johanna mentioned about the crossing, if you ever go into Ocean Grove, not comparing towns, you go into Ocean Grove, they have crossing guards at two intersections, crossing guards, senior people. And I stopped one day and I said, can I ask you how long you're here? They said, oh, we're only here for a couple hours, and there's a couple of us that take different shifts. So they have crossing guards from 8 o'clock in the morning till 6 o'clock at night, and they rotate the crossing guard. They are crossing guards, not police officers, crossing guards. What do you think about something like that? Because 8th Avenue, 16th Avenue is our nightmares in the summertime.

I think that's a good point. Can we talk about that later this week and see what we can do?

police officers if we don't have enough or they're busy doing other things. Why not get some crossing guards in there? We do see a lot of police officers on board walking around, and I know they're doing whatever they're told to be doing, but if they're in a corner where there's a busy intersection, instead of we've seen like three of them just hanging out, can't they turn around and say, let's direct some of this traffic for a minute?

Is that allowed? It can be, but how long do you do that for? When do you say stop?

i think our primary interest with our specialists is to have them showing them each right now so i i think it's worth moving into the suggestion of crossing that but thank you well especially when there's movie night you're going to have a lot of vehicles a lot of cars a lot of kids and then you've got 16th avenue where the duncan is and what the bathroom is those are the eighth eighth and ocean and 16th and ocean i see that are the busiest two intersections so something can be done about that maybe for next year You know, just to try to make things a little safer.

Thanks.

Hi, 217, Kathy Gary of 217 8th Avenue. I'm the third one who says, yes, we need someone down here directing traffic on the weekends. When I grew up, we always had someone helping you cross the street. You take your life in your hands. I don't go down there on the weekends because of that. And there's lots of families, and people aren't paying their traffic costs. And I think that's really a necessary thing for our safety. Thank you.

Anyone else?

Can I have a motion to close the public session? and adjourn the meeting.

Motion.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.