Council - Regular Meeting

I can do that again. You want me to do it again? Okay. All right. No problem. That was just a practice. Take two. [laughter] Just practice. Just practice. Now, everyone say it with me. Okay. All right. Frank. You good? All right. Great. Okay. We are calling this meeting to order. Is Hackinack City Council meeting. It is Tuesday, January 20th, 2026. It is 5:34 p.m. If you can read the notice, please. This meeting is being held in accordance with the Open Public Meeting Act, NJSA 10:4-6 at SEC, notice of which was sent to the record and the Star Ledger and was posted on the municipal bulletin board. Thank you. Roll call, please. Mayor Gaines, here. Deputy Mayor Tumi, here. Councilman Carol,

here. Councilwoman Clark Collins, here. And Councilman Diaz. Thank you. Thank you. If everyone can please rise to the flag. 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. Thank you.

Okay, we will now be moving. Oh, we have a we need a resolution to move into executive session to discuss ongoing litigation matters inter uh involving attorney client privilege matters involving the purchase, lease or acquisition of real property andor any pending or anticipated litigation or contract negotiations. I have a motion to go into executive session. All over. I'll second. Do you want the role or all in favor? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Okay, great. Thank you. We'll be back as soon as possible. Thank you.

All right, we are back from executive session. Thank you everyone for your patience. Um before we get started, I just wanted to take a moment and uh ask for a moment of silence for Sister of Charity Emily Marie Walsh. She was principal of Holy Trinity Church um school and she did it for over four decades. Uh Phil knew her well. Our city attorney Rich Malagerie knew her well. She passed on January 17th. Uh she was 100 years old and 104 I'm sorry 104 years old and um while I did not know her I understand that she lived a a beautiful life a full life and was a wonderful person and dedicated servant to our community. Uh and in fact a piece of Maple A is actually dedicated to her and named Sister Emily Wei here in Hackinack. So um if you will join me in a moment of silence and if you are so inclined um a brief moment of prayer individually. Thank you. Okay. All right. Um this evening we are going to start with a proclamation. I believe is Katherine Meera here.

Yes. Yes. Great. Thank you. All right. If you can come on down. I'm going to come down and read the proclamation. Hand this to you. Thank you. I'm sorry. Okay. I'll take those. Let me read this for you and then we'll Great. Thank you so much. There we go. All right, everyone's good. Okay, so thank you. And I'll take those. Thank you so much. Okay. Do you want to come up? Oh, if you don't mind. I'm sorry.

No, you're okay. All right. So, whereas human trafficking is among the world's fastest growing criminal enterprises with an estimated 27.6 6 million people subjected to trafficking globally with cases reported in every US state and territory. And whereas human trafficking occurs when a person is recruited, harbored, or obtained through force, fraud, or coercion for the purposes of sexual or labor exploitation. This crime against individuals violates the most basic human rights and deprivives victims of every shred of personal freedom. hand. Whereas victims throughout the world can be any age or gender, but they have a shared experience of having been forced, tricked, manipulated, or threatened into compliance with the criminals seeking to exploit them for profit. And whereas broad public awareness of human trafficking that is informed by the experience of survivors brave enough to share their knowledge is best practice when seeking to understand and prevent trafficking. And whereas the city of Hackinac stands committed to protecting human rights and individual freedom by raising awareness of human trafficking and supporting efforts by individuals, businesses, organizations, and governing bodies to raise awareness of and opposition to human trafficking. And whereas the city of Hackinack commends the work of the New Jersey Coalition Against Human Trafficking for its survivor inclusive efforts to end human trafficking in our state and beyond through education, advocacy, and assistance to survivors and to increase coordination and visibility of New

Jersey's commitment to end human trafficking. Now therefore, I, Cassin Gaines, mayor of the city of Hackinack, along with the members of the city council, do hereby proclaim the month of January as human trafficking prevention month in the city of Hackinack to raise awareness about the signs and consequences of human trafficking, to promote opposition to human trafficking in all of its forms, and to encourage support for the survivors of human trafficking throughout the state of New Jersey and across the world to put an end to this criminal activity and restore freedom and dignity to its survivors. Amen.

Thank you. Thank you very much. [applause] Great. All right. We will take This is for your chief. There's a big conference coming up for law enforcement. Great. Because of the World Cup, they might want to come by January 31st is the cut off date to get for a lower price. And this is for each of you which has the red flag signs for human trafficking. Thank you. Thank you so much. And this is for you to keep. Thank you. And can we get a picture? Of course we can. They'll yell at you. Here you go. Please. If I don't get a picture of all of us. No, no, no. We don't want anyone to get yelled at. All right. [laughter] Here you go. Come on over.

Take it for you. Please. Hello. How are you? I'm good. How are you? Very good. Rosie. She wants you. Yep. Right here. Here you go. Thank you, ma'am. Oh, were you there? Yeah, sure.

All right. Best city in the world. Listen. Listen. You said it. [laughter] All right. Thank you so much. It's for you. All right. And we will hold on to this and we'll distribute. Thank you so much. Have a good evening. Thank you, too. [clears throat]

All right. You have a fold in there. The folder? Never mind. You have it? Okay. There you go. All right. [clears throat] All right. Thank you. And we are going to move on to reports and presentations from professionals and department heads. I'm going to ask for uh Boswell to come on down, please. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Council. Good to be you with you tonight. Um Basel has a proposal before you tonight for the uh construction inspection for the Clay Street sewer separation project. Um this project is being funded by the infrastructure trust fund bank and it requires that uh a the city engage a uh full-time construction inspection uh contract to be posted before they allow us to bid the project. So uh at the present time uh prior engineers suburban consulting engineers is working with the do uh DP to finalize the plans and get them out to bid but prior to they uh one of the steps in getting out to bid is to have a construction inspection contract. They do require full-time inspection to ensure the plans and specs meet the D required requirements. uh we don't it's in the in the requirements from the I bank allow have an allowance of 12% of the construction cost which is uh determined to be $8 million. So our proposal is 12% of that. We don't anticipate at this point using all of that. Um but uh when you dig underground, you never know what you're going to find. Um we have a relatively large covert going to go down Second Street and in Clay Street. So, um, we're bound to hit something. We successfully did that, uh, when we were here several years ago on River Road right in front of, uh, the mana, the white mana. When we did that CSO project, we were able to negotiate that fairly well. So, this is the proposal. The, uh, the whole project is to separate the sewer from the uh, storm sewer and reduce the uh, uh, overflows into the Hacksac River that contain the sewage and just have the storm sewer be there. So this is one of the phases of

the project that we started and we we uh request your approval of this for the I bank to submit to the I bank for ultimate approval to bid the project. Thank you. Anyone have any questions? Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay. And moving on to our city manager report.

Good evening everyone. I don't have a lot of new things to report from last meeting, but I do want to follow up on a couple of concerns uh that were brought up about at the last meeting. Um we had a a resident um Marty Smith who was still concerned about the speed limits on Summit Avenue. He's voiced his concern several times. We've looked into it several times. Police department has done some surveys on it. Uh Chief Antista had one of his officers reach out to Mr. Smith. I know Mr. Smith told me he was going to be away. Um, but they they spoke and uh he re Mr. Smith relayed more of his concerns. Police department is going to do some additional speed studies and and they're also going to discuss some crosswalks that Mr. Smith is suggesting for Summit Avenue. So, that's progress on that front. [snorts] Um, also had uh a resident was concerned about the garbage cans on Anderson Street. Um, so I would like to just report that we did receive this resident's email uh with her concerns about the garbage on Anderson Street. And [snorts] I was a little concerned that it wasn't addressed right away. However, upon uh investigating with uh the office staff, we did actually respond to this resident within five minutes, told that we would get the DPW there. Uh DPW responded within 10 minutes and said that they were on their way there and the DPW was on the scene within 30 minutes correcting the problem that was addressed. So, I just want to report that back. Uh same resident also had some concerns about double parking on Anderson Street. We brought that to the police department and the chief has assured me they're going to be doing some targeted enforcement details uh specifically on the weekends on Anderson Street to try and address the double parking issues there. Um I just [snorts] remind anybody that has concerns that they want to bring about, you're more than welcome to email me or stop in the office. You're you're certainly welcome to show up at the

council meeting, but if it's easier for you, um you're welcome to stop in or email me. that's typically where it's going to end up anyway. So, uh [snorts] I I welcome that. And last but not least, don't forget our newsletter that goes out every Friday. Uh you can sign up for it on our website. It's very informative. That's all I have, sir.

Thank you. Okay, we are going to move on to our first public comment just um because it is a a I keep saying it's a new format, but it's a newish format. Just to orient everyone to it. Um if you would like to speak on an I item on the agenda that we will be voting on um please feel free to come forward at the appropriate time. Um we have gotten rid of the clock on the screen. I will keep time for you and once you um reach the time limit I will uh politely ask you to bring your point to a close and if you can do your part by politely agreeing to do that um we'll all be polite together. So, uh, can I get a motion to open to the public for agenda items only? Agenda items only this time around.

I make a motion. I second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Any member from the public wishing to speak on any item on the agenda? Okay, seeing none, motion to close to the public. Does the speeding is that the agenda or No, there'll be another public comment in just about 10 minutes. And that Yeah, there you go. Thanks. Um, seeing that motion to close to the public? A second. All in favor?

I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Okay. All right. Moving on to new business. Ordinance for first reading resolution 20-26. Resolution 20-26 is an ordinance for first reading. Introduction of ordinance 01-2026, an ordinance to amend chapter 170 of the code of the city of Hackinac, vehicles and traffic to add and remove handicapped parking spaces in section 49.2, parking for the handicapped. This would be the first reading of this ordinance. Thank you. Um, can I have a motion, please?

Second. Okay. Can you call the role, please? Deputy Mayor Tumi, yes. Councilwoman Clark Collins, yes. Councilman Carol, yes. And Mayor Gates,

yes. Be it resolved that the above ordinance being ordinance 01-2026 as introduced does now pass on first reading and that said ordinance shall be considered for final passage at a meeting to be held on February 3rd, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. or as soon thereafter as the matter can be reached at the regular meeting place of the city council and at such time and place all persons interested be given an opportunity to be heard concerning said ordinance and that the clerk be and he is hereby authorized and directed to publish said ordinance according to law with the notice of its introduction and passage on first reading and of the time and place when and where said ordinance will be further considered for final passage.

Thank you. Resolution 21-26. Resolution 21-26 is an introduction of bond ordinance 02-2026. Bond ordinance amending bond ordinance 21-2025 finally adopted by the city council of the city of Hackinack on June 3rd, 2025. Thank you. Can I have a motion, please? I'll second. Can you call the the role, please? Deputy Mayor Tumi. Yes. Councilwoman Clark Collins. Yes. Councilman Carol, yes. Mayor Gaines.

Yes. Be it resolved that the above ordinance being ordinance 02-2026 as introduced does now pass on first reading and that said ordinance shall be considered for final passage at a meeting to be held on February 3rd, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. or as soon thereafter as the matter can be reached at the regular meeting place of the city council and at such time and place all persons interested be given an opportunity to be heard concerning said ordinance and that the clerk be and he is hereby authorized and directed to publish said ordinance according to law with a notice of its introduction and passage on first reading and of the time and place when and where said ordinance will be further considered for final passage.

Thank you. Moving on to the consent agenda. Anyone have anything that needs to be pulled? Okay, if you can move on to the consent item, please.

The following items are considered to be routine in nature and will be enacted in one motion. Any items requiring expenditure are supported by a certification of availability of funds. Any item requiring discussion will be removed from the consent agenda and consent agenda items will be reflected in full in the minutes including any exceptions and/or additions. The consent agenda includes resolution 22-26, resolution authorizing payment of bills, resolution 23-26, resolution authorizing tax refunds, resolution 24-26, resolution authorizing 100% veteran deduction for 317 Kaplan Avenue. Resolution 25-26, resolution cancelling tax sale certificate due to bankruptcy. Resolution 26-26, resolution authorizing the city of Hackinack Police Department to participate in the Defense Logistics Agency Law Enforcement Support Office 1033 program to enable the city of Hackinac Police Department to request and acquire access department of defense equipment. Resolution 27-26, resolution authorizing the participation of the city of Hackinack Police Department in the interlocal agreement for mutual aid plan and rapid deployment force within Bergen County. Resolution 28-26, resolution authorizing raffle licenses. Resolution 29-26, resolution authorizing the awarding of a co-op contract for the purchase of a 2026 F350 pickup truck with snowplow. Resolution 30-26, resolution authorizing the awarding of a co-op contract for the purchase of a two of a 2026 F550 pickup truck with snowplow and salter. Resolution 31-26, resolution authorizing the awarding of a co-op contract for the purchase of a 2026 F750 pickup truck with snowplow and salter. Resolution 32-26, resolution authorizing the awarding of a

co-op contract for the purchase of a 2025 transit 250 cargo van. Resolution 33-26, resolution author awarding contract to Alimo Engineering for City Hall parking area improvement project. Resolution 34-26. Resolution awarding contract to Boswell Engineering for construction management of the Clay Street combined sewer outflow west of rail sewer separation project. Resolution 35-26 resolution resolution awarding contract to Boswell Engineering for engineering services in support of combined sewer out o overflow maintenance and cleaning. Resolution 36-26, resolution awarding contract to RSC Architects for an elevator feasibility study for the building department and fire headquarters. Resolution 37-26, resolution awarding contract to RSC architects for building department facade restoration and ramp and stair replacement. Resolution 38-26, resolution authorizing transfer of 2025 budget appropriations. Resolution 39-26, resolution authorizing awarding of state contract for the purchase of two 2026 Chevrolet Tahoe police sport utility vehicles. And finally, resolution 40-26, resolution authorizing library board appointment to fill an unexpired term due to a resignation.

Thank you. If I could have a motion to adopt the consent agenda. I'll make a motion. Fleet, you can call the role, please. Deputy Mayor Tumi, yes. Councilman Clark Collins, yes. Councilman Carol, yes. And Mayor Gaines, yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Okay. Um, moving on to public comment. This is general orders, public comment. Um, if uh I can have a motion to open to the public. I'll offer. I'll second. All in favor? I.

Any opposed? Any abstensions? Please, please uh when you step forward, please state your name and your municipality and uh you can have at it. Thank you.

Hello everyone. My name is Ben Vel and I live at uh the Jefferson and uh I've been here four years. Um I love Hackinack. I love its location, proximity to New York City. I'm retired. I live with my wife. We love our community in our building. We're a dog loving and a catloving uh building. And my life has been really really good. I've I've moved from out of state to to New Jersey um from San Diego. [laughter] Yeah. People, but I love living here and uh and I want to preface everything that I'm going to say with the fact that I support the police and I'm not against them. Uh absolutely not. However, there's been a little bit of a dark cloud in in my experience. Um uh I have a dog and my own one of my few joys left in my life, I've had two heart attacks and a stroke is walking my dog and I find myself uh very frustrated doing so in the neighborhood that we live in. Um especially Davis, Maine, uh Kinder Kamak, uh it speeding is out of control. Absolutely out of control. I see it every day. I walk about five miles a day and I can tell you um what I've seen has made the hair on my neck on my neck stand up. There's a tragedy waiting to happen. Um if you know uh I could tell you that uh I see NJ Transit uh transit buses just drive with impunity. Um I wake up early so I see it at 5:00 in the morning all the way through the day and and is out of control. I I'm dealing with them separately. I have a Freedom of Information Act that I'm working on to try to see what their history is. Um my wife used to take the

buses in the 80s and 90s. She said it nothing's changed. Exactly. It's a culture of speeding and uh and it's not just them, it's everyone. I know that the police does what the police can do and that they're limited, but I have been accosted. I have been yelled at. I give plenty of time. I I literally weld neon from the top of my head to the bottom. I have a flashlight that you know that I point to the ground so that they see me. And I can guarantee you uh going down Main Street. Uh people don't don't pay attention. They just don't. Um I they they'll screech their car. They'll stop and they'll tell me uh that I don't have the right away. Um, I give them two 300 yards, but they're going so fast they're on me and in and and and my dog is with me. Um, and it's very frustrating. It's um, it really takes the joy away from my one thing that I have [laughter] left, which I can't drive because u because of my stroke, I've had falls. I have falls. So, I I I you know, right now I'm limited. I can't drive. So, the only thing that I can do is take Ubers and walk. And I walk. Um, I've lost 110 pounds by doing it. Bobby, my dog, is mostly responsible. He's my really good friend. I've had buses pass literally four, five feet, and I see the eyes of the driver. It's it's it's scary. It really is. Um, there is another thing that I want to address, too.

I'm sorry. I'm gonna I'm gonna let you um bring your point to a close. I'm going to give you about 20 more seconds. Yeah. There is one thing uh when you come from Kermak from uh Route 4,

there's a turn there and there's a walkway. Who puts a walkway in a turn? There's no signage. None. So, people pass, they go on their on the crosswalk and people are turning. They don't see you until the very last second. There's something that's going to happen on that. I offered to the city to buy the signage 250 bucks, you know, the the the cones that go on the street. Uh I was told no, it's against regulation. If I place them there, they're going to take them and get rid of them. Um

I'm sorry, where's where was that turn again? So, uh, if you come from Route 4 underneath the bridge, you pass Jefferson on the left, uh, there's going to be a turn right there that takes you into Kinder. There's a site, there's a crosswalk right there. I got you. And it's used all the time by our residents, but I tell you, I've I've seen things that I've experienced things there where people don't see you until the very last second, you know, and the traffic is so fast. Sorry, I I hate my position. I I know I don't have much time. No, no, no. But what I'm going to what I'm going to ask you to do is um

I I can I just say one more thing. I've been in touch with the city uh with the city manager's office and Monica, she's wonderful. We're on firstname basis. [laughter] She's fantastic. She's the only one who's actually made something happen. And uh so kudos to her. Uh she's amazing. And uh so I have been in touch with her and uh I I did write a little list. I don't know if you want it or not.

So what what I'll ask is um if you can give that list to the clerk um and what I'm sure the city manager will do uh is follow up with traffic and PD. And I know that that Monica has been helpful, but I'm sure um if there are some things on that list that can be considered, I'm sure city manager will will ask PD to to look into those things and look at the feasibility. But thank you so much for your comment and I appreciate your stay a nice long time in Hackinson. I will I will I it's a great community I live in. So I I appreciate you guys listen. We agree. Thank you.

Good evening, Reverend Davis. Happy New Year to you all. Um, this has been long gone. It's not it's not a complaint. I don't just don't know how we're going to handle it. It has been addressed many times by the city council, um, past and present. My corner, Stanley Place, um, is a very still a very dangerous corner to make a lefthand turn on. I don't know what the answer is. At one point, we said thought maybe we could make it one way. That wasn't approved. They do have a new sign up um and put uh lettering [clears throat] on the ground so cars don't park to the corner. It is still a bad corner. Um one day when it's warm out because I can't stand outside in the cold, but when it gets warm, I'd like the city manager if you could to just come down there and to see what I'm talking about. Um I don't want to make any recommendations. Maybe it should be no lefthand turn there. A lot of my neighbors may not like that, but all I'm saying is it's a dangerous corner to make a lefthand turn on. It still is. And all the efforts that have been made, everybody's tried to do something, but it's still not working.

At what cross street? Stanley and it's Stanley and First. First. Okay. So, when you're coming out of that corner and you make a left-hand turn, even though it's cars aren't parked to the corner, you still can't see around them. A suggestion my son had who lives in Brooklyn is maybe it's not the cars parked closer here leaving a space in between the cars because I can see through those cars cars coming but if all the cars are you know parked up to here and I'm here I can't see around them but maybe cars parked here and there's a space here I can see I I don't know what the answer is but I just know it is a terrible corner still to make a left-hand turn. Thank you. Thank you.

I'm Richard Serbo, Spring Valley Avenue. And Tim, how are you? I you know, I didn't congratulate you for being in your new position. So, good for you. And all right, I I don't I don't know where to start because we don't have much time. We never did for years and years and years. And it's the same now like, oh, say what you got to say and go sit down and this and that. Okay. So, I I uh I um I am concerned about the the protocol here. It's uh I don't know what time the meeting starts. Okay. I I see it listed as 5:30 on online. So, we try to get here 5:30, you know. Wow. And now for the second week in a row, you're not here. you're in the back room talking it over. So, let us know when and what's going on. What's the scheduling of the meeting? Okay. And um that would help. Okay. Years ago, you know, you could just come to an evening meeting at 7:00. Uh this 5:30 stuff is I I don't get it. I really don't. I don't understand why it's so early. So, but we try to accommodate you and we show up, but you're not here. So, all right. A couple other things is uh last week I mentioned something in the news that um I thought we should talk about and you said no, we don't want to talk about that. It was in the news. It was about the property at Sears. I I thought it was serious enough to discuss it here with with the public although I guess the public is shouldn't be involved in any discussion. That's what it seems like. And the next uh the next item is what about this fraud now in in in the school system? I mean we need to address

that, right? So we should not be involved in that conversation either. Correct. Yes or no? Not yet. Will we hear about anything? Uh the fraud in the school system. I think this is going to become an age of fraud. uh it's going to permeate uh the entire country. Every place you look now, everything is is phony baloney. It's [clears throat]

um it started with uh fake news years ago and we're we're working our way up. It's everything is phony baloney and there's a lot of fraud. Okay? There's fraud on every phone call we get. There's fraud everywhere you go. And please uh so the thing about the meeting uh which was my first uh uh thought was I mean I know I think you're in you're uh obligated to certain number of meetings every month or year. So isn't there something inside of that like a a protocol inside the meeting that you have to be here at a certain time or when it should start or blah blah blah. So maybe we could talk about something instead of me just rattling off. Everybody looks at me, says nothing, and and I get no answer. So maybe. And last week, okay, last week I left you with one crossword clue.

It was a roll in the kitchen. Anybody? Did anybody get the answer? It's four letters. Nobody. A roll in the kitchen. City manager. What is it? Cook. No. Good guess. The answer was foil. F O I L. A roll of foil. Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening. That was a good guess though. I do I just want to say for the record, Mr. Serb, I do agree with you. That was a good guess. Good evening, everyone. How you doing? Jason Walker. Um um Bourbon County Essex Street. Um, I got a recording. I'd rather let you hear it for yourself.

Jason, why? Mr. Walker, do you mind pausing that just for one second? I don't want to interrupt, but before before you play, just because I I have no idea what it's going to be on it. I'm just going to ask, is there any profanity or anything that might be in in violation of we have just a um

decorum. Um it might be a little bit, but it still needs to be heard because this belongs to the township. So, it needs to be heard. No, I I understand. What I'm what I'm going to ask is I'm assuming that you're familiar with the audio that you're about to play. It is. I'll pause it and skip past. So, I would appreciate that. I appreciate Thank you.

If I'm not on, I should have it now. So, therefore, can you please give it to me, sir? And can you please my phone, sir? If I'm not on this because violation I'm not under I'm not resisting. I'm not going to arrest my said enough. There's the case.

Hello, Sharon. Yeah, they're holding my phone. I'm not under arrest. They're holding my phone. Can you give the phone to one of them so I could talk to them? How you doing, ma'am? It's Sergeant Briggs again. Hi. Yes, his therapist. Can you help me understand what's going on where he'll be going? He he made uh he made some statements that are going to have him involuntarily committed to uh Bergen Newbridge Hospital. So that's where he's going tonight. That's where he's going right now. He's going to Bergen Newbridge as an involuntary commitment. And what is happening with the situation at home? The restraining order was put in place and he cannot return.

Yes, he he was served with it. He cannot return to location without a police officer with him. Hi. Is he able to have his phone? Right now he's in handcuffs. Why was he in handcuffs? He almost took a swing on me before and he took off running from one of my cops. It's all Don't worry, everything's on video. So we have all our cameras are on. So he uh he does he was he did have surgery on Saturday on his neck and he was in a bad car accident. He does have back problems. That is all accurate. Well, unfortunately he shouldn't be running from cops if he had surgery. Stop.

Just I'm going to give you I'm pause it. I'm going to give you about 30 seconds because we're a little bit old. Definitely. No problem. I just want to give you the ability to

So I'm a resident of this township. The way that I was treated was very inappropriate, unprofessional. In fact, they detained me unwillingly, not knowing that my therapist was on the phone throughout the whole duration of this situation. I need you to address the corruptness that's going on within our township with people that are here to facilitate and make sure that we're safe. I no longer feel safe. This is a big situation. When I call you, Lieutenant, and his answering machine says, "Leave a message, clear message, and I call you back. It's been a week now. I've been waiting. He did an investigation and said that he found no claim to represent anything that I said, but he never called me or never even called any of my witnesses. He just concluded the case so that way his officers can go free. But they live lied in front of the magistrate.

Sorry. I want to be I want to be respectful of your situation and of the the time limitations. Um what I'm what I'm going to ask I know that you've you've coordinated with Mr. agreement. Um, I'm going to ask for you to set up a meeting to discuss with him further. Appreciate that. But, um, just to be very clear, we certainly want for you and everyone to feel safe and comfortable in the city of Hackinack. And so, um, I'm going to allow you and Mr. Freeman to take it from there, but thank you for coming forward. Thank you. That response that the officer gave my therapist, that was not very empathetic at all.

I understand. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else from the public? Okay, seeing none. Motion to close to the public. I'll second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Okay. I'm going to at the at the recommendation of Councilman Carol. Actually, every once in a while, you don't even know this, but I'm going to give um our city manager another bite of the apple if he would like it. Do you have anything that you'd like to say in summation? and otherwise we'll go on.

No, I I did respond to the concerns from last week. Um, and I'd like to continue to do that just so that residents know that we're taking their concerns and looking into them. And as I stated, you don't have to wait for a council meeting to come around. If you have a question or a concern, please just drop me a phone call, email, or stop in. Be more than happy to uh listen to you and address your concerns. Thank you. Uh, Deputy Mayor,

good evening everyone and thank you for being here. Thank you for coming out on this cold evening and thank you for your comments and your concerns and for bringing them to our attention and we will do our best to address them all. Uh, tonight I'll I'll just touch on um the fact on how cold it is as as we face dangerous dangerously cold temperatures. I want to remind our community of the critical resources available to protect residents who may be unsheltered or struggling to stay warm. Under the New Jerseyy's Code Blue law, counties activate emergency warming centers whenever the National Weather Service forecast temperatures at or below 32 degrees. During these activations, local officials coordinate to ensure that anyone who needs a warm, safe place can find one. If you or someone you encounter needs immediate assistance during freezing conditions, you can contact the Bergen County Public Safety Operations Center at 20117537762. You can also dial 211 at any time for up-to-date information on warming centers, emergency shelters, and code blue activations across the state. If the situation appears urgent or unsafe, please call 911. No one in our community should be left out in the cold. Please share this information widely. Let's continue to look out for one another, check our neighbor, check on our neighbors, and extend compassion whenever we can. Together, we can make sure that everyone in our community stays safe this winter. Thank you and have a good evening and stay warm.

Thank you, Councilwoman.

Good evening, everyone. Um, on Friday, January 9th, I had the pleasure of attending the opening of Sylvia Brown's food pantry. For those of you who are not aware, Sylvia is a Girl Scout who came up with the idea of placing a mini food pantry in the city where you can take what you need and donate if you can. Her pantry was installed at the recreation center. And congratulations once again to Sylvia for her creative idea and winning the Girl Scout Golden Badge Award, which is the highest award you can achieve with the Girl Scouts. I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone of why we should continue to give year round to food pantries. Food pantries are more than shelves of groceries. They're lifelines. Right now, families in our community are choosing between rent, utilities, and food. When we give to food pantries, we're not just donating meals. We're giving dignity, stability, and hope. Every dollar stretches into multiple meals. Every donation turns uncertainty into relief. Continuing to give means no neighbor has to face hunger alone. together we can make sure everyone has a place at the table. I just want to also mention my my coworker told me this today that Shopright is having a can can sale and their can can sales are pretty good. So if you want to stock up and you know uh give a little to the food pantry, now is the time to do it. So as always, thank you for coming tonight and get home safe.

Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilman I don't have too much. I want to thank everybody for uh coming out tonight. Fred, we understand uh that I mean Mr. Serbo, Rich, uh we understand. And Anderson Street, we are working on um so we hear your concerns. We are concerned about Johnson Avenue also. So yes, uh we in coordinance with the Bergen County, hopefully we can make a change there. Uh, I'm glad to see our DPW was out there. Uh, we have new leadership out there. So, um, I think they did a decent job um with our snow plowing. I'm glad to see we got three new trucks on the way. And hopefully we don't get hit this weekend the way they're saying, the way the way the wind blows. If it does, it does. Um, just be safe. Thank you for coming out tonight.

Thank you, Councilman. So, um, I also attended with the councilwoman the food pantry opening. Um, and it was quite inspiring and it was great because she cut her own ribbon, which is a nice break uh for us, but she cut her own ribbon and she had a wonderful troop with her that supported her and it's it's great for us to go out and support and for adults to go out and support, but it's even better to see um the other students supporting uh one of their own. So, um, echoing everything that the council woman said regarding that, um, later on that evening, I also went to the dedication of the gallery at Hackpack for Ruth Bower Newatter. Um, an amazing night, amazing, uh, person. We've spoken about her before from this day, so I won't um, repeat myself too much, but just a truly amazing artist. Um she is also installed in the gallery in terms of her artwork right now. So if you drop by during um business hours, you can go and just walk through the gallery and see her artwork. But it was um a really wonderful evening. Um I wanted to highlight actually um the new snowplow trucks that we have just approved. Uh we went on Christmas Eve actually down to DPW and saw some of the trucks and equipment and um it was it was concerning frankly um it was quite concerning in terms of the the quality of some of the equipment and you can see it obviously if you look out your window when you're outside plowing or doing you know whatever but um definitely in need of getting into the 21st century with some of our equipment And um I was really heartened to hear from Jim and from Tom that the funds for those trucks

actually come out of a trust that has been established by the city for I have my notes here for snow and debris removal equipment. So there was money in the trust for this very purpose. Um, these are not trucks that we have to wait two years for. They will be out this season. So, um, it really is a great upgrade for the city and that's something that we'll all benefit from. Additionally, uh, this was in the newsletter, but for those who haven't subscribed yet, even though we've asked so politely so many times, um, but the city is looking, uh, to create a pocket park on Main Street. There is a survey right now that um we're we're soliciting feedback, but also at the next council meeting, there'll be a dedicated time for people to speak on that particular issue with any ideas, thoughts, in favor, not in favor, whatever your comments are. Um this is a part of our process in um acquiring a green acres grant and the goal is for the city to acquire this park at no local taxpayer expense. And so you can help us in that effort by just taking the survey and sharing your thoughts. You can also email the clerk's office and you can get your thoughts on the record that way as well. But please share that information because the more responses we get um the the better it is for our application. And

uh yes, I also just wanted to um let everyone know that Councilman Diaz is not here today because he is ill. He sends his regrets. He is not being delinquent. He is just under the weather. But I just wanted to let everyone know that as well. And I believe that is it. Can I have a motion to adjourn? I'll make a motion. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed?