Borough Council - Regular Meeting

WE'RE READY? READY. OKAY.

TO ORDER, ROLL CALL, PLEASE. Notice that this meeting was provided to the Burnsville News and Courier News, filed with the Municipal Clerk, and posted on the Municipal Bulletin Board on December 4, 2025. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of Allegiance.

Pledge of Allegiance.

Welcome to the May 26, 2026 meeting of the Burnsville Borough Council. Members of the public will be allowed to speak during the open sessions and during formal public hearings on the agenda. Comments will be limited to three minutes per speaker, which will be monitored and enforced by the Borough Clerk. Failure of the governing body to provide a live broadcast of this meeting or technological problems encountered during the course of the meeting that affect remote viewing and or participation will not invalidate this meeting or any action taken, including but not limited to the adoption of any ordinance resolution or motion. He's here, I see him. Okay, Rhys is here. So our first presentation We have a proclamation in recognition of our newest Eagle Scout, Rhys Donoghue. So I will read that. Whereas the rank of Eagle Scout is the highest honor attainable in the Boy Scouts of America and is earned by only a small percentage of scouts through years of dedication, leadership, service, and commitment to the ideals of scouting. And whereas Eagle Scouts serve as leaders and role models within their schools, organizations, and communities, demonstrating integrity, responsibility, perseverance, and a strong commitment to helping others. And whereas Reese Donahue of Burnsville, New Jersey has distinguished himself through his hard work, character, and service to the community in earning the prestigious rank of Eagle Scout. And whereas as part of his Eagle Scout service project, Reese designed and built trail stands for the environmental center. creating a lasting improvement that will benefit residents and visitors for years to come while enhancing appreciation for borough's natural resources. And whereas Reese was recognized for his accomplishments during his Eagle Scout Court of Honor held on May 9th, 2026, celebrating not only this significant achievement, but also his dedication to leadership and community service. and whereas the Mayor and Borough Council of the Borough of Burnsville wish to recognize and commend Reece Donahue for his outstanding achievement and for the positive example he sets for the youth of our community. Now therefore be it proclaimed that the Mayor and Council of the Borough of Burnsville do hereby congratulate and honor Reece Donahue upon attaining the rank of Eagle Scout and extend their sincere appreciation for his service, leadership, and commitment to the community. The borough proudly recognizes this remarkable accomplishment and wishes him continued success in all his future endeavors. From the state of New Jersey and from Assemblyman Andrew McCurdy that with a nice letter with his congratulations, and also this was put into the record of our state senate. Yeah, so come on up and take a picture. Come take a picture. Actually, one will reach over. Can we do that?

Great job.

Congratulations.

Congratulations.

These are for you. Thank you. Great.

Great job. Take a picture.

Take a picture.

Yeah.

Come on, crowd in.

Squish, squish. You got this all. Thank you. Awesome. Congratulations.

Proud mom and dad.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. We have minutes to approve for April 20th, 27th, and May 11th. Do I have a motion or any additions, questions?

I will move the minutes for the three days.

Second. All in favor?

Aye.

We now have our first open session. So if anyone from either Zoom or in the public would like to speak, just come and stand on the silver X.

Hi, everybody.

I want to share that we have set up an engaging summer for community event, Adult Life, that our summer reading show is on June 13th on a Saturday, so we make it more available to all the families who parents might have asked and don't. So we will have a party on June 13th. We'll have volunteers there to help people register online. fun activities, lots of other fun symbols. And then you have fun events also. So please come join us. And if you have any questions about that, just reach out to me. And yeah, thank you.

Yeah. Thank you.

There's a lot going on here, Sharon. Yeah, I guess they couldn't get the pictures on, or maybe I just have the wrong copy. I'm sorry. It doesn't have to keep touching me.

It's okay.

It's okay.

All right. A dinosaur.

No, I mean, we'll get Adam a dinosaur.

Anyone else from the public wish to speak? Just give us your name and address.

Sure. I'm new here, so we will get it very soon. So go. Yeah, right here. And before we closed, it was very exciting. It's so exciting. And I looked at the specs and said, we're getting a double yellow line. This was back in February. And I said, there's no shot. We're going to get a double yellow line until one way. This doesn't make sense. He said, no, based on the specs and the supply list, we're getting a double yellow line. I said, you're crazy. Saturday, we go down the shore, and I look at our camera, and I say, be the double yellow. Be impressive. So we pull on, we see the one-way, the traffic pattern hasn't changed, but we have a double yellow. So everyone is very confused, I think, of what is going on. The traffic pattern, although I think there are more signs, I think has gotten more confusing for everyone. Um, with little kids, it's a little worrisome sometimes, you know, I moved to the neighborhood to avoid the WLO and it seemed to find me great. So I do love it. Yeah. It's walkable.

Um, you know, you haven't been here for Halloween yet, have you?

Yeah. But, um, we fought hard to get into the neighborhood and so I'm just And we have an answer.

So the good news is both dating and permanence is fantastic. But in the state of Andrews, Flint is the line WLF-5 in there. I know that some of the engineering firms is on fall as well. The we've got out of it. They started stripping after inspector, but Friday after the W. And then kind of a you know, late Friday. Well, I think, yeah, yeah, it actually was John. And then we see. So we're in there. We had to, you know, figure out what's going on. And again, it's never been in the plan To begin with, there should be, there will be, ultimately, striving from Liberty to South. It's a small portion, because that is to let people know we're coming off the wrong way. And then there will be about 100 feet of striving on the southern end from Mount Iridid as we come into Dane. I guess also we'll know that it's too many traffic there. But all the rest of it should be on. The one way should be on. The signing will be fixed. But because those plans were submitted and approved by the DOT, the DOT has to approve getting rid of the survey. So they've asked and asked DOT. I don't think they've heard from them yet. That'd be surprising if they did. I asked earlier today, I asked earlier today, if we could do something short-term, like there is DOT-approved aid to put over the one-way. And definitely take down that sign, because as you're going down, but as you're going down, it says one-way ahead. which is true all the way ahead, but we don't, you know, I don't know. It's just, it's misleading. Yeah. So Shelley has given us an update and like signage that's gonna be changed, but we asked them to do that. approves and they figure out the best way. And there are several ways to remove the shredder. The easiest way is to paint over them. I don't think that that's the best way to do it. You can use a super-thin powder. And there is new mill down the middle of the road. I have the engineers that used to go and work all the way up. It just happens again. But so in the meantime, we send out the smart 911 to everybody in the neighborhood. And I asked the police about it, obviously. And so I know that if somebody's parking by their house, the In order to have them, there are narrow points, and you have to double down one, which is really, you know, they recognize what the problem is. We also ask them, which it should probably be in and out, but the electronic signboard on the corner of Bernie and Dayton, where they're going to start to say this one, because People don't read some of the law and they see that that's right. And that's the danger is that they're going to read those. So signboard should be there. We're on pace to get some things. And I don't know, Shelly, if you have anything to add, if you don't see.

Hello, everybody. Okay. I have not heard from DOT yet. What Nancy said for the striping is what we are requesting DOT to approve. We have talked to the striper. Temporarily, you could use black paint to cover it up. The problem is DOT needs to perform a final inspection. With that final inspection, they're going to inspect it according to the plans. This is why we don't want to take any action on the striping in case they have another party, a third party, not the gentleman I'm speaking to, come out and do their review. Because it has to be according to plan. He knows that we're in an urgent situation, that we need to get the one-way section clarified, so he's pushing it up the ladder. I'm hoping to hear from him either tomorrow or Thursday. When we can do it, this gentleman is suggesting there's a way of power-washing Because the striping is so young, we can power wash the double yellow out. And then there's a method where they use a coal slag to fill it in and then use a clear paint. He's done it before on projects with a lot of success. So that's what this gentleman from the striping company is recommending. So currently I'm looking for two things. I'm looking for DOT to approve. And I currently have the striper who is a subcontractor working with top line, our general contractor to work out the numbers and the method. And then I can get back to Nancy.

And for the record, top line was phenomenal. It was multiple times. I, a young son who was sick, So we were in and out of the doctor and they were very accommodating and wonderful, allowing us in and out. So no complaints.

Well, thank you. Thanks for coming on. And yes, it will be addressed. Nancy, how is the cost going to be handled for it?

How are the costs for the fix going to be handled?

Yeah, I'm waiting for that number. I gave the gentleman from the striping company the number of linear feet, because like you said, it's from 100 feet beyond the Mount Airy entrance that's two-way going around to south is where the striping's coming out. So it's about 1,150 feet, so I'm waiting for the price. Because he's a sub, he's not allowed to provide me with a number, so now I'm waiting for Topline to coordinate with them, and Topline will provide me with the number.

And so, Shelly, is your arm not picked up?

Excuse me?

Is the firm going to pick that up? Have you and Stan discussed that?

Yeah, that's what my understanding is. Thank you.

Thank you, Shelley.

No, absolutely.

That's good.

It's not power washing, right? It's water blasting.

Yeah, to people who don't know the method, it's similar to power washing. But yes, the actual method is called water blasting. But there is some effect to the fines, the fine particles. that are on the top of the paving surface. That's why he's recommending follow it up with what's called a coal slag, which will fill in those fine voids and then seal it with something similar to a concrete sealer. But he said it seals on pavement well, and it'll keep the integrity of the road. So that's what this gentleman is saying that he has used before. He's actually used it in commercial parking lots where he's had to do similar work on striping. So it is a method that's been tested.

Anybody else have questions for Sherry? I have a question for the residents. Sure. So on 16 day in Crescent, you only go home coming off Mount Airy, right? You never go down your road the other way. Like you can't go down the one way. And that's how it's always been. I think that's what I was confused to say. I thought people who lived there could go down.

Well, that was my thought initially. Maybe it's not road traffic. Maybe they're just going to let go of residents.

Who's going to say no?

Really, I think the biggest concern is now street parking. I think because it's a one-way. And another thing I will add is just that the curves on Liberty are all horizontals. the Belgian blocks are all horizontal and now it curves on the impressive revertable. And so where a lot of cities have parked a little bit of their lawn in order to kind of stay open and allow traffic, we've eliminated that. So now there will be more cars in the road and it will be a tighter fit. So that's another thing to observe with landscaping trucks and a lot of other things. And if you have people parked on both sides of the road, It is much tighter, so I think the curve was to make it neighborhood uniform, and it's not necessarily uniform, to be completely honest. And I think there are some residents who are a little bit upset with that. So everyone has their problem. But I do think that that's been an observance, is that it has eliminated things to kind of say all the rules a little bit more. Yeah. It's kind of stuff.

They wanted to drive them?

Yeah, a couple people have a little bit where they kind of just kind of settled off to the side of the road. And so now, because the curve is vertical, you can't really do that. So if you do a parking on a little bit, it does make traffic a bit tight.

But it's one thing.

So we do have... Over here, part of the plot curve. And Shelly, I don't know if you can speak to this, but the decision, it was a time-specific time-specific decision that, right, that because, like, on Berner Avenue, you know, where people make their own little driveways in the right of way, we, you, we collectively decided to put up the hard-knocker curve because one, we started people doing that, and then they're flagged, Oh, by liberty, those are already flat. Michelle, correct me if I'm wrong. I think we did it to kind of continue what was already in place and then make it vertical in places where there was no curb before.

Yeah, it was vertical in places where there was no curb before tying into the intersecting streets. You know, there was going to be a transition, but where there was no curb, the remainder of the curb being installed was going to be vertical with depressed curbs at the driveways and either depressed curb or full height curb as necessary where the walkways were installed. I think we were able to make all of the walkways full height curb going in. We didn't have to do a flush or a depressed curb for any walkways. We were able to transition walkways from the houses. So, so, yes, all new curb was vertical curb.

That's 1 of the issues with that neighborhood is it wasn't designed for multiple cars for people to multiple cars. Unfortunately, it's an older neighborhood. Where if they had people had 1 car, it was a lot, but you can't help from the old pictures.

Yeah.

so it really presents a problem you can't really make the room wider because the houses are close to the street and yeah i don't know is it possible to well they probably wouldn't like that either to have parking only on one side not not allow it on both sides would that work people would put it on and on my side with the yellow one

You just get nervous with people coming to me all the way.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you for pulling together. Thank you for buying a couple of those folks for getting us in order and dollar appreciation.

Yeah.

And thanks to you.

Yeah. Anyone else that I want to speak of anybody else on.

Zoom names. All right, then I'll close the public session.

And we'll move on to ordinances. I will move in the public hearing ordinance 2026-2047, appropriating $1,840,140 from Capital Improvement Fund for various equipment and improvements as listed in the 2026 municipal budget. Would anyone in the public like to be heard on this ordinance? Seeing none, I will close the public hearing. Let's start with the rich.

I moved to pass ordinance number twenty, twenty, six, twenty, forty, seven on file reading and adopt as published. Second, please. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

I will open the public hearing on ordinance 2026 2048, a bond ordinance providing for the acquisition of new and additional firefighting equipment by the borough of Burnsville in the county of Somerset, New Jersey, appropriating 1.5 million dollars, therefore authorizing the issuance of 1.425 thousand dollar bonds or notes of the borough for financing such appropriation. Any would like to be heard on this. This is a fire truck we've been working on for a long time. Seeing none, I will close the public hearing.

Ross. I move to pass ordinance 2026-2048 on final reading. The adopt is published. Second.

Roll call, please.

Mr. Gasvino? Yes. Mr. Mayor?

I abstain because of the bonds. Exactly.

Yes. Yes.

Yes. And thanks for the work on that. Nancy and the fire department. Yeah. And Leslie too, because there was a consultation with the finance committee over a long time last year and this year. Yeah. That works into our debt service.

I will open the public hearing on Ordinance 2026-2049, an ordinance supplementing and amending Chapter 2, Article 19, entitled Background Checks Required of Certain Borough Officers and Employees and Outside Contractors by Requiring Background Checks for All Prospective Borough Employees. Anyone want to be heard on this? And this will be moving forward, so any new hires, that'll be part of the onboarding. Seeing you close the public hearing.

To pass ordinance 2026-2049 on final reading and adopt as published.

I'll second. Roll call please. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

All right. We now have introductions.

Do you want to introduce it? Yep. And move that ordinance 2026-2050 ordinance amendment chapter 2 administration section 2-8.7. Duty to the administrator of the borough code to delegate authority to the borough administrator to hire, appoint, and discipline employees below the department head level pursuant to NJSA 40A-9-136 be introduced by title, passed on first reading. published according to law and that a public hearing be scheduled for a meeting beginning at 7 p.m. Monday, June 22nd, 2026. Second.

Okay. And this is, and we talked about this last week, and it's mainly so that we don't have a particular, like with the taco, we have to require by law to have a taco. And if we're in between meetings and we need somebody to either leave or come, Um, it lets Nancy do that, follow it up with the resolution at the next meeting. So, you may want to sit with talkers. Oh, go with technical assistant to the construction official. Yes. Yeah, it's not it's not a savings. Yeah. So, um. Did I have a second all in favor? All right. Opposed. Abstentions.

Okay. I move that ordinance 2026-2031 amending the 2026 salary ordinance 2025 plus 130 to full-time dispensers the year is the title of passive fishing published according to all and the public hearing is headed for me at the beginning at 7 p.m. Monday, June 27, 2026. We didn't discuss this.

We did not because we just talked about it. So there was I guess I could call it a urban myth that the dispatchers weren't in a union and had a contract and they didn't. And they don't have a contract. So because they don't have a contract, they fall under the regular administrative employees. And so when we went to the same ones that the other non-union employees, we realized that they were not in salary ordinance because non, because union people are not in salary ordinance. So we have to add them to the salary ordinance, then we're going to listen to them at the next meeting, clear them, and then raise it.

How did we always assume they were in a union? Was it under the police?

No. There was the IBEW. IBEW back in, I think, in the 80s. Some of the administrative personnel formed a union with IBEW. And I think the dispatchers kind of helped on to that. And it's hard to tell if they ever really were. part of it around. There's no evidence they were paid.

You're playing do do's or anything.

No, and somebody that I know has been one of the first to discuss both in time and trying to for me, but he never paid dues to give a bid voucher. We know him well. And he was there at the time. He said we never paid dues. So I don't think they were ever officially part of it. And if they were, sort of very short times. And then it just kept going on.

So how did they get raises every year?

They negotiated the contract. I know when I came, when I came here, it was one of the first things that I did. I got an email that they had been trying to get Tom, my predecessor, to renegotiate the contract. And I said, well, what are you looking for? And they said just pay raises. So we just did an addendum for pay raises and then three years of them. And And I was like, okay, let's kind of renegotiate. And I was like, you know, now that I'm actually here, and I see your contract, and I look at it, and what they gave me was this. And so I met with our labor attorney, and we walked through the whole thing, and it doesn't apply to us. They had nothing else. They didn't have anything. So they're not moving. It does create a couple other issues that on the types of labor turning about. I don't know what that does for them. So there's a couple other unusual things that this is their pain to do it the right way because a lot of them do not have to give pay raises to some of these guys. Right.

Yeah.

All right. Good to know. Thank you. Second. Second. All in favor? Yes. All right.

We're back to Rich.

Okay. I knew that we're going to be going to go and see if that's going to get to the end of the chapter 11 of the program title project maintenance. I'm in the second level that five in its entirety is that we're going to be having inspections of rental problems you introduce. I don't have time for three of us for the law and then we're going to be scheduled for meeting beginning at 7pm Monday, June 22nd. Second.

You're required to do this, so all in favor. And. Resolutions we have to to add. We have 138 and 139 138 is authorizing contract with Frank into into consulting which was the man we met with last week for green acres and really. Issues and then 139 is amending the fee resolution for the lead inspections pursuant to Borough Code 11-5. So it is now, we set the fee for inspections at $200. And that's what the homeowner pays.

It's the landmark. So we have that.

Well, this one says $20. We're going to use the one we just introduced.

Yeah, we're going to get an additional be above and beyond. You can see it says that these are set by resolution. And then this is required. $1 additional.

So 11, 5, 6, C says $20. That's the state fee, right?

The fee will be $220 total.

Yeah.

$220 in the state.

Yeah. And that will mainly $200 covers our expenses in doing it as the inspector. Yeah. Oh, wait, they pay to the inspector, so it says the rate for the inspector.

Welcome to the state.

And then they arrest and the way it was in this long time.

So, in a lot of things. Um, do not have to use this company. Um, they can get their own as long as they can produce a valid, but. So, there are all the things.

Okay, so we're just, we have to, we're just giving them equal to call these people. Right?

So what will happen is this company will send them out a letter. landlord saying, you have to have an inspection, you can do that if you're in return, or you have a different bond, you can pass in those.

We don't need to say, Barbara, I think everyone knows now. This is just an adoption of that ordinance, and it takes the fee out of the ordinance.

So who was doing the inspections?

So, before, it was the housing inspector, but the qualifications that are at the center. Yeah.

Right.

Okay. So that's what we're getting on 137. This is the, um, the people were recommending. Yeah. Okay.

Really? Yeah. All right.

Any other questions on any of the resolutions? I think all the rest we discussed last week. I did see Millennial at my conference and told them we really want this grant. So they said, yeah, they know. So you must have made the point that we're serious here. We want this one. Yeah. And just, I mean, a lot of improvements around the train station area and everything. I don't think there's anything else. Okay.

What do we have to do? Bruce, do you want to move the resolutions?

I will move the resolutions. Sorry. Number 26-2020 through number 26-137. Wait a minute. What happened to 137? It's up to 137. It's up to 137. I'm sorry. So are we even moving this? We're not. I think you're missing a page.

Oh, wow. Did you print that? You probably printed it earlier today.

Oh.

Okay. 139.

I actually wrote them down. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So you move.

I will move, yeah, number 26-121 for numbers, number 26-139.

Second. Okay. Roll call please.

Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. All right.

Report. Mayor's update. We did the shade tree committee. We planted a tree, several trees at the high school for Arbor's Ed. So Christine Rivera, who is the chair, kind of organized the whole thing and they used the green team, the high school kids, which was really nice that they helped out with that. Nancy and I attended the mayor's roundtable, which was our superintendent of schools, Brian, I can never say his name right, Rochelle, I invited the mayors from the districts and administrators or council members that wanted to come to kind of give us an overview of the school, their budget, their referendum, and I think we're going to try and do that quarterly so we can Stay in touch with everybody, which we thought was a great idea. And we have speakers come in or so. And I attended the intergenerational prom. Which was at the high school, which is always a good event because it's the. Which club is it? The key club key club sponsors it and the kids are just. Great. We had a visit from the New Jersey and National Main Street to our Main Street people. And they spent the whole day here kind of looking at what we're doing downtown, what we can do differently, how we could do it better. So there was a lot of good feedback from them being here and to make sure that we still get our certification as a Main Street person. I attended the Somerset County Food Bank fundraiser. They are starting a new feeding program in Bernardsville. So we're really excited since we lost the other one. They will be doing it once a month. I think it's the third Wednesday at the chapel on Bernards Ave from 5 to 8 p.m. So I think May 20th was the first one. They're going to start out once a month and then hopefully go to twice a month. I attended the May Day celebration that we approved at the turf field. People were very mindful of not bringing food onto the turf. No high heels. So, yeah.

Really well attended.

It was very well attended. Yeah. I also attended the hard works event for Bob Walsh's 100th birthday. Thank you to Kevin for building the platforms for the band. He's an amazing person. carpenter and the things he can build. Just the float in the parade was phenomenal. An assemblyman, Andrew McCurdy, also came. I attended the New Jersey Conference of Mayors, Mayor's Conference, from the 19th to the 21st down Atlantic City. got a lot of good information that actually I was sharing with these two guys over here. There is a local planning services in the DC area, which got my attention. I was sitting with them for a while that says, do you have a stalled redevelopment project?

So they, for free,

We'll help you give technical assistance to municipalities with professional planning staff at no cost to local governments. That's where your taxes go. So, if it's all right with all of you, I would love to have them come talk to us. So, if we can't move some of our. Store projects. There was also, we had a legislative update. There is a bill, I think it's 1488, I'm not sure if it's Assembly or Senate, that's proposing that the state reimburse 102% for the 100% disabled veterans, which would be really nice because when a disabled veteran gets disabled, Uh, certified, then they don't pay their taxes anymore and we've had quite a few lately and it's the municipality that's being punished in a way. So. There is legislation to try and have the state reimburse us for those taxes that we lose. Which I thought that was a good 1. there's quite a few that we. aren't supporting. But one of the things that the Conference of Mayors does is we have legislative committees. We review all proposed legislation and either support it or make recommendations. So we try and have some influence as a group to affect what gets passed or not passed. So what else did I have for my conference? I think that was pretty much it. from the conference. What else? Oh, I also did my 36th wedding. And I don't know if it's, if you ever go out to Henderson Road at Christmas, on the left-hand side, that gorgeous tree that's all multicolored, it actually won an award one year when we were doing the lighting contest. It is the most gorgeous thing. It's on Eileen Paragano's property. And the guy that does it for her was who I am. And Eileen was there as the witness. And she also makes a generous contribution every year to our police department. So they're real great people. I did attend a mayor's FIFA security webinar update. Frightening. What the amount of coordination for security that is involved in these games being played here, it's unbelievable. So I think I'm kind of glad we're not having anything happen in Kernersville because it is, you know, just what it's, you know, they have every agency involved, every police department. I'm sure our police chief's been involved in training programs. And I know Burnett's Township is doing a big street fair.

Yeah, downtown Baskin Ridge. Yeah. So we'll are, hopefully we'll be in contact in case they're saying Sporo Burn.

Yeah.

Because they're expecting a lot of people to come in.

I was talking to Tim Richard about it at the parade. And he said he expects that they will be offering support over there. So it's a good thing. We're not, we originally were going to have a street fair the day before, which had been canceled. So, yeah. Yeah. And then, of course, we had the parade on Monday, which despite the weather, it just stopped raining at 1030. We almost stepped out. And thank you all for being there. Nancy, thank you for that float, which was designed and built by Nancy and Kevin. We got a lot of great compliments on it. And we can bring it out every year, right?

Yeah, I told them we should make it a program. Yeah.

If we can continue to do it. Great float. Yes.

Yeah. Can I take the credit? Not too soon.

Yeah, I don't think.

But yeah. So obviously rightly focused on the veterans. It was wonderful. The speaker was wonderful. Wasn't he? It was great. And a small part, but who knew Ross had a voice like him? You missed it. He got tagged in.

The girl, there was usually a couple, a boy and girl from the high school that sang the national anthem. She showed up. Her partner couldn't make it. She was panicking because she didn't want to do it alone. She said to Ross, will you sing it with me? No rehearsal. Amazing. It was amazing. Perfect pitch, this kid. We decided we're going to sing the national anthem to start every meeting here.

every week at 530. That's almost the end. That's right.

You ever see that, like, Susan Boyle on American Idol, like, no one thought she was singing? Yeah. It's like, I also got up there and grabbed the microphone.

I was like, you know.

Great event. Well attended. A lot of, I felt, south of the intersection, there was a lot more people compared to last year. Last year was a pretty long time, I believe. Yeah. Thank you.

Thank you.

Well done. Thank you to them and recreation. They did a great job. Very organized. Stay together, you know, it was.

Yeah, it was perfect. And I loved the announcement.

Yeah, it filled out his voice. You know, that's. Then he even pronounced my name, right?

Whoever did call me canoes.

okay administrator i think you gave most of your report um um

I want to keep mine. Let me discuss about the and about how that was going to happen. I had made a mistake thinking that it was a septic tank, but it was sensible to let it there. So that makes huge difference. And so Kevin and Tom and I are being probably in touch with the summer schedule baseball club to discuss, you know, where are we going to camp because we cannot. It goes into the ground, it's not contained. Okay.

Before they knew that, you know, it's supposed to, you know, gets into the water. And one of the magazines that you brought back, one of the catalogs from the, yeah, I found,

an amazing pavilion. So we have a meeting next week with the company. It was perfect. It was a good book. So we'll see. And then the last thing we have for you two Smiles back. Really?

Yeah. It's gross.

The slide. Oh, that's right. It was broken and then got new one and it had been stolen. That's very popular Friday afternoon. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Thank you.

I need a motion to accept department monthly reports. Second. All in favor?

Aye.

All right. I don't know. We do have a story walk at the library. What do we need to do with that?

Say yes.

Say yes.

Randy Lanz here.

Yeah, we get to have a book and laminate it and spread it out and just walk along the path and get to read the book. And at the end, they have a survey, if you want to say. It just goes along, I think, with science. It's mostly about the science.

Just for the science, yeah. It's still broken.

It's a new concept now.

That's the case. That's something that we're going to do now.

He was up for four weeks.

Yeah. So then we would have to approve. Yeah. We would have to approve it now, right?

Yeah. There's a reason we were asked to do it. Yeah. We can do it in the years from now.

Maybe. So around the light, where's it dead? Like on Anderson Road or where?

um and then you came in the patio gate to the other meetings yeah we good with four weeks of science yeah we want you to approve four weeks of science for sort of off the library all in favor do we have any unfinished business

Aldi June 2nd is it? We finally got all the players together that have to have the, what are they calling it? Nice. Yeah, so we can do that.

How about Claremont playground?

We actually have a call next week with somebody from, well, there's three places we're looking at. One vendor, there's another one. Hopefully they have those brands available for those. And then the third is a co-op that we belong to that went to send us an email about a playground. And so we're going to reach out and see what they have to offer. And if we want it to be ADA is flexible. Relatively to the same footprint of what's there, maybe a little bit more. And, you know, this is something I think they're really expensive and it's something that I feel like we should apply for a grant for. I'm not sure what the time will be, so. Can you please?

jake's jake's grant or something especially for earlier in the year yeah and i think it comes up every year i don't know what the time is it was um Actually, Tom was going to reach out to Madison because I had talked to that mayor, and he said they got their wall paid for with grants. But again, grants, it's about timing. Some of them open once a year.

Is it eligible for open space funds? Yes, it would be. So can we explore the option of using open space and being able to reimburse to the grants?

Yes, you can. Well, most of the grants, most of the grants are, you have to have a place before you start to work. I mean, well, look, if there is one, I think that's how to put out the money and pay our bills back, but I haven't seen any of that.

Nancy, as we explore designs, is that something you may give a recommendation and put on just different kinds of designs given upside-down committees? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

And then a couple of $100,000, maybe $300,000-ish. And they didn't have anything to do with, like, lawsuit or anything like that?

No, I think, you know, so every year, they're going to turn it down.

I'm sure every year they do safety inspection of the plant. They let us see if the mulch is running, if you have some fall, and the equipment itself. And in this case, the equipment itself, which is not, it's just not, it doesn't meet today's safety standards.

And they change the standards pretty regularly.

They do, right. And so we have to deal with it anyway. I just wish we could have had length of preemptive.

Morning. It just wasn't. Yeah. And the only 2 playgrounds we haven't won this and that the school and the schools.

No, no, but I mean, it's available in the town.

I'm saying, do we have to be aware of other ones?

Fair point. Yeah, Kiwanis we've replaced three times, I think.

Yeah.

Yeah, usually like every, maybe four or five years, they change the standards because of, you know, there's an accident and then somebody, they look at it again, said, you know, Playgrounds had cement underneath them. No more wood ones.

Really? Wait, we can bring back the wood ones?

We originally had a community built wood one at the school, which I chair.

There was full, but now they're like, oh my God, you can't have wood.

Really? Really? This is mountain. Do you think it's real wood or is it the big stuff?

There's one.

Splinters.

Just between that and the, you know, structure, if you're just getting outdated because of, I guess, log rocking. Yeah, unfortunately, it's.

We don't have one on this side of town. We have one on either side of town. Anything else unfinished?

Something I just wanted to mention here, and I I unfortunately missed it. There was an email that we've got just inquiring about when it comes to the, and I don't know if anybody would have an answer for this now when it comes to the affordable properties. Is there any difference in the inspections for those or it's all standard? I think they're right. It's all exactly the same. Anything else? Just making sure.

That's correct. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. We did have some recommendations for changes. If we are going to continue to inspect the ones the state already inspects, I would like to put in a more for the first, say, three years of the bill because they will need to be inspected in the next three years. This is something that I've talked about for a long time. We have over 400 inspections a year. And so there are some that have never had a violation. And so if you could not have a violation for, say, three to five years, you can skip a year or two, you know, put it on a scale. I'm sure it is probably disruptive if you live there. There's a lot of work for the housing inspector who has a bunch of houses. And it just, it seemed like overkill for the people that consistently pass. We do everything right. So it's something to think about as, you know, as we get to the point where we get to the point where we get to the point where we get to the point where we get to the point where we get to the point where we get to the point

I think we're effectively closing Nancy and some kind of triaging, right? So we know there are basically some properties that we don't need to inspect after a year or two and then continue to focus on the ones where there might be a, have been a violation in the period. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah.

Well, those folks are actually. In violation. Right. It's one that.

It's a good way to incentivize who's passing all the time. So that they don't have to go in the spectrum.

The ones that fail all the time maybe do that more often than you.

Yeah, well, they do.

They have to keep going back. Repeat offenders.

Is there a report for housing that we get? Is that something the public wouldn't be able to access or would like to open in the community, but it's.

Yeah, so it's got people's interests and names.

Well, and I had a request from a resident about a listing of the renters who can disclose that.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Anything else? Do we have any new business? Something new.

Hi, someone, you know, regarding the parking at the library there, just with certain areas, maybe the studio, you know, a lot of use of the library. Obviously, you know, with some of the lines being worn down a little bit, if there's, you know. We are okay. It's already on the thing.

Yeah. Oh, good. Yeah. Awesome.

Yeah, because they're really, and I don't know what, they seem like they're very narrow spots. I don't know if they're actually up to whatever they're supposed to be for parking spots.

Which is fine. It's not that big, but sometimes it's a little bit. It's like when they go to planning board, you know, they squeeze in as many spots as they can. You know, they make them, they make them.

It's easy. They're very narrow spots. Yeah.

One other thing I'm just, yeah, just bring up as a reminder that because we did, you know, go a couple months ago to convert a couple of the, and I have it written down somewhere, we have out of the battle. Oh, really? It was the borough employee. United. For Summit.

Sorry, Dan.

Three for Summit.

It was for Summit Medical. And four for public.

it was taking away they grew up yes yeah yeah so um so at the same time i think we had assigned he was free to and i feel i don't think any were public i thought no i think we absolutely voted to convert some oh i absolutely did i don't know it was just for some numbers No, I assisted. And it was like, because, you know, because it was 15 spots, I believe. No, 17 spots. There's 17 borough employee spots listed, which I, my argument was that that's accepted just for the, you know, use of the building.

Well, were they library employees?

No, the library employees are like 10, 8 to 10 on the room, 12 even on the room, 13, something like that on the room.

11, that sounds right.

But I believe we had 17. So if you're looking at that wall, there's the 11 of yours. Let's say that sounds about right. And then the other, I think it was 17 were borough employees. And visitors.

There's three or four that are visitors all the way on the left because I was brought there.

One, two, three, or four that are visitors. They're all in relation to the borough. A lot, which I thought the 17 was excessive. So I think because they had made a request for a certain amount, and we had approved that, and now I'm here, so that's fair enough. But I, yeah, my insistence at the time was the additional four, so we were going to leave 10, which I also think is excessive, probably.

I might be. We have, so we have four. We have four. They occupied St. Fanny Tribune. Are we? Yes, we were going. William was there for a while, too.

Was he? Right. The right man is now in Cumbria. I think it was like that.

I think I found it in the minutes from February 17th. I think Ross might be right on here. So it says Council could request from Summit Health for additional parking spots. Council consent was to allow a temporary arrangement in which Summit Health would be given three additional parking spaces for their employees and they would install and pay for signage, which doesn't happen. If needed in the future, the Board will revise that arrangement. There are four existing employee spaces in the lot that will be reassigned for public use. Approximately 10 will remain for public employees. Ms. Malolo and Council agree that a broader review of parking regulations and enforcement technology should be referred to the Public Safety Committee.

Oh, wait. Is that for me? What day is that?

Malolo.

Oh, Malolo. Mr. Malolo.

I'll check the minutes on that meeting then. February 17th, 2026. I guess that's what I'm mixing up right now.

Between

Borough visitor and borough employee spots. This is excluding library employee spots completely. There are 17 spots, I believe it was. So right now it's four for visitors, and I guess the 13 were theoretically for employee, and I think we found three out of the... Burrow employee.

I'll just screenshot it.

But I mean, and again, I wanted to get the council's feeling that those spots are not always consistently occupied. And so we need to do something else to, you know, maybe affirm or reintroduce the idea to convert a couple more of those spots with signage and everything to just to get some more public spots out of there. They do. Yeah. No, I'm sure you're right. And you know what? It's not something that we're going to push tonight. If we can get a little bit of input from the most work there in Davis, let's say, about who's actively or who's consistently there to make sure we're not imposing or anything like that. But I just feel that they're not always all consistently occupied, which maybe that's changed.

Well, if Summit doesn't want them, maybe we should make them public.

Yes. Because we don't have to amend the ordinance, but I think, sorry, Richard, we're good.

Yeah. Yeah, I well, we're we're we're doing we're redoing the parking ordinance at the train station. We wanted to do because we're putting in meters. We want to get it now either. Yeah. Right. With a now and We wanted to do the same thing at the train station. We're going to try to work on that. At the library. The library. Yeah. We can do that. I was also thinking, I mean, I know there are tight spaces. And I don't know if we're able to do this. I don't know if there's violence in the planning board or anything. But I don't know how to do this without having to do it. Maybe like in H-Road, get rid of one spot and send them all in one place.

There are 17 spaces, but they're not covered in the ordinance. The 11 spaces on the north side of the driveway from Anderson Hill, 7th and 8th Street, are part of the library. I think those are the same. And then the 10 parking spaces on the south side of the church are shifted and part of the old library. That's correct. And then there's one more.

Well, now we always do the thing for 10 spots to the high school or something.

They just take them.

They don't work there anymore or they don't say.

There are 17 spots here. Sorry. You're right. Four visitors. Four visitors and 13 employees. If we can... I'd like to do that. I'm taking it in.

It's been working on the parking for the train station. So. I was waiting.

This is just to put it in writing about what those spaces are actually for. Yeah.

We're totally overhauling the parking of the train station. and making it easier to stand for residents and for police. Maybe enforcement needs to find out if they're concerned. And then the same thing, trying to put some kind of structure to roll out of the company.

Yeah, it has been kind of haphazardly a little bit. As each thing comes up, we alter it. So probably a better overall plan for it would be what we need.

17 spots now i think we can cut it down to no more than 10 service you know in relation to the borough office between visitors and employees or if there needs to be a cross you know space that's both visitor employee and employee for that protocol and then we have seven to if summit decides that they do you know need A couple of those, that was one thing that they're not willing to, and I'd like to take all seven for public use for now, you know, when we're, when we get those full bills.

So take that under advisement while you're doing your rewrite. Yeah. Okay. Now we have another open session, if anyone from the public would like to speak.

No, Fran. May I just comment on the parking? Absolutely. That we...

Actually, stand on the stages because anybody watching.

We have a lot of spots that are reserved and not in use all the time between summit and staff. I don't know if the parking study ever suggested or public safety can take it under advising to forget the signage altogether and just making parking spots and then you can have four hours of parking or you need a permit with your growth. because we also have tons of juniors now all the way down to the dumpster. And they're there more than four hours. And if you're there on a Monday morning or a Wednesday morning, we fill the entire community with parents and toddlers. So, and then they linger and go play in the play area. And then we have another group of parents and toddlers that come to it. And so parking's a disaster. At all times. And some of us, I'm guilty myself. I have a very large vehicle. I have six grown people in my family. We need a large vehicle. So if you would just talk to us when you're talking to public safety or people, one of the ideas was just to not have any spot reserved for anybody. So just the people who were there can use it because once the spots fill up, people are part of the library staff, people are part of the summit. Some it's not at us. We're not at strangers. Like it just, It's not.

Do you think that was one of the considerations, but we hear from the leases that we can talk about leases, I guarantee, should not, you know.

But maybe it's only just for the leases. Yeah, no, it's not a bad idea at all. We'd love to weigh in.

We didn't do it because we were weird.

And there would be, it would be good to have a time limit on some of the spots too. But yeah, but it's.

Yeah, it's.

Yes, I know.

So the parents, you're just like, you can see the news, please be patient and drivers. Yeah, that'd be a huge burden for two minutes. Thank you.

Question or not, maybe not best. I was going to say that. Um, would that, that wouldn't cause it, if you don't think for your loyalties, but you, you suggest this fall in light of us being able to enforce the four hour thing.

Yeah. Like you can enforce the four hour thing because my employees can't park in the staff parking because they're full of the parents parking. It's already not working. So I don't know that more siloing would matter because some spots are reserved when summits close in my library, I have a big summer reading party. there's people there early in the morning for the doctor's appointment and they have their large vehicles and we also have a problem with people parking along the curb where the book drop used to be because that's where like a lot of the landscaping services and contractors tend to use the bathroom during the day so it's like there's a lot going on there um i don't know where you could get more parking but it's it's pretty hairy sometimes well there was

Columbia Bank will let us buy library employees.

Their lot is always empty.

Yeah. So maybe we could say. Well, Columbia Bank is first out as being sold.

Yeah. And get little name tags for the library people. We already have them. Oh, yeah. So.

And then if they park in Columbia or even across the street where the dentists and Mastro Batista, the chiropractors, Ted Anderson.

Yeah, I know they were all fussing about their parking.

I mean, there's spots. They're not right outside of your door.

And then he takes those. Yeah, that's another problem. That's the other issue.

Yeah. The spots that you're talking about. And he takes them. At night.

restaurants and even yeah yeah but man you know i could see if um like summit if it was certain hours you know, if you have to have the sign, but it says between the hours of Monday, because they're not open on Sunday, they're not open at night, usually, I don't think. So if their hours, you know, except these hours, like kind of like it's got on, you know, you see on parking meters up till six o'clock or after seven, so that people know they can park there at certain times of day.

And thank you for illustrating that.

So, yeah, but those are just, I know you guys got to sit down and tear this ordinance apart. So.

Do we lose a few spots to make it wider? Because then we're losing a few spots. Right.

And I don't know if they're really that tight or it's just people. Can't see the line, so they think that's really all they did. Great service in the spot. That's to now.

I think that people. Yeah, right.

I've sent spots.

And then you have, you know, all the stores that wrap around Olcott, people park back there as well, as well as for the stores.

Yeah, there's going to be new shops.

Well, they'll have parking over there. And then if we ever get the Church Street, that will add more parking. Exactly. There was more than a Saturday.

So I think it's been in the post eight to nine. It's an in-demand that we'd like to make more questions. Yeah, it is a good. And it is a good problem.

Parking problem is when no one's looking for a spot. That's what it is. Absolutely. Yeah. They're not coming here. But yeah, thank you. Yeah, we should get their input as well.

Thank you.

Because you know what the typical times are, when there's the most people, when your story hours are. So I'll... What lot next to it? Oh, that should be metered. Not meter, but you know what I mean.

Yeah, because the lot... Yeah, didn't I? And this is in regards to an enforcement system? It's primarily for enforcement, but it's also for organizations. So if you want to talk about how when you go sign it, well, you should, you know, it's a little haphazard thing to say. Yeah. You know, if you're appointing people to drive into the parking lot.

Yeah. One thing to note on the MV using the public spaces like parking lots around them, which is fine. That's the right to do that. What I've noticed, though, is that the post office lot will fill up and MV will still have several spaces combed off in their own parking lot that they're reserving for, like, fancy cars or something like that. So it's like, look, you've got to use your own parking first before you spill over and take other parking. So, you know, if someone can say something to them or... That just drives me crazy.

Yeah, it's a separate company that does the valet.

And they're constantly having parking in the right and the left... which is private. And they just ignore, you know, Riding Reflects told them multiple times you can't park here. They were signaling.

But they're not there at night.

That's a private issue.

It doesn't matter.

They'll park there when Riding Reflects told them. And it's, you know, of course, the town can get involved at that point.

And it would be nice if the businesses could work together on sharing parking. The dentist has that huge lot in the back, because that used to be a car dealership, and it sits empty at night. You got a free dinner once a month, maybe you need to let them use it instead of... I don't know, they need to talk to each other, that would be helpful.

This discussion shows there is parking stress downtown, so the more indoor we can open up.

It's all about convenience, and I think we can make a lot of changes.

I think there's parking stress in that study show. I've never, ever had an issue getting parking space. The day that happens, it will be

banging on this table that we need to do something parking is yet to happen.

All about convenience. We've never not gotten a spot either, but I have to walk a block. Right. You walk 100 yards or something.

But I think people knowing where it is, that'll be helpful. It is helpful to just sort of know where people are getting to.

Christine got us the blue spot. Didn't you get those little blue signs that say parking? Go ahead. Way back when, but, you know, we do need the revenue, especially now that we have more interest in downtown. You know, there's more going on.

Once we have that, they show you what we have.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Tim also wanted to know if you had any street metering.

Street metering? I don't want to do any metering.

Yeah.

That's enforcement.

One of the complaints that we get the most on through a two, five, four is that we'll get fired and they fire all day. And that is where we jump out and burn a cafe and lunch or whatever. And the spot on a bell. Yeah, do it.

Yeah, I think we do it. I mean. It has to be clearly labeled. It's for residents to be able to park there. You can always roll it back. In other words. Right. We're keeping it really small 25 cents to your point.

Yeah, keep in mind. So Nancy's got a great point in my current parking stress. I think that there are people right outside, not just cafes, but stores where you need to be like, go home. Shops, um, probably buy some 50. You put our, what are we putting here? Are we closing, putting a fee in. For some short period of time that every time you park, you gotta pay 25 cents where we work on the table.

Well, first of all, we should probably bring it to the committee. I feel like there's a lot of. Yeah. Um, you know, we're not, you'd be nice to pay for the.

service that we have to pay for. We're going to need to pay for the enforcement.

A lot of places are 30 minutes free.

Yeah. Yeah. Sending it from that house. And we enforce without charging, I guess, is the question.

I wish we could achieve that.

You can do it on your own, but then you're not getting the service. I don't need to get the necessary.

No, I hear you. Thanks. And that's what I've been looking for. In order to do that, people have to pay funding.

My concern is mainly one of the bigger stressors is getting folks in foot traffic. Stores that we don't introduce and other injuries to folks going there, which by my sense doesn't sound like a lot, but it's annoying to pull out your phone or whatever, right? So if there's a way we could do, and maybe this is where Al was going, something where you have 30 minutes, an hour free, and then we ticket you. And if there's an automated way to do that through an app or something like that, I'd be more open to at least first looking at that.

You can have a few spots that are 30 and the rest are meter. Sure. You could use. Absolutely. Or three. There's some that are the ones. And I mean, I've,

I'm really like, yeah, they should bring it to the flesh out ideas. Yeah. I mean, anywhere, you know, every, you know, you know, but yeah, but then I'm running.

And there is all for that.

That makes sense. We should make it neutral. I think where Ross is going is we want to retain that small field while opening up spaces for our in-demand stores. So public safety can make it good. Make sure you're getting the turnover.

Fair enough. And absolutely, again, open to the, you know, we definitely need to, you know, have some half-hour spots or appointments like this or that, you know, in some key convenience locations, whatever we decide about charging. I think we can make ultimate fees from the transportation.

Right.

All right. Keep working on it. Thank you. It's not easy. There's so much to consider and no matter what you do, we're going to be annoyed. Somebody will love me. All right. You don't have the executive staff. We do not. Not if we haven't We have an hour and a half.

It's $3.40 about the Japanese dollar.

Really?

When did they do that?

Just look. Yeah.

All right.

Do I have a motion to adjourn?

Motion to adjourn.

All second. All in favor? Aye.