Council - Regular Meeting

okay everyone please take a seat we'll just pass over your part then i don't know all right ready this is a meeting of the hillsdale ball council on the safe day of september 2026. Notice of the time and place of this meeting has been provided to the Bergen Record as well as posted on our website as required by public law. Copy was also posted on the bulletin board outside of the meeting room and provided to any interested parties. Please silence all your cell phones. Wait to be recognized during the public hearing and public comment portion of the evening. You will need to state your name and town of residence for the record. Four people here identified. Officers and Jim and Rachel, please come up. You're gonna lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Everybody please rise. And we'll follow your lead.

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. Will the clerk please read the roll?

Mayor Sheinfeld? Here. Council Member Camp? Here. Council Member Coletti? Here. Council Member DeRosa? Here. Council Member Mazichon? Here. Council President Oso? Here. Council Member Rucco?

Here. We are all in attendance. I'm going to turn this over to our Chief of Police, who is going to be the master of ceremonies for this well-deserved recognition.

You can use the microphone because there are people at home.

Wanted to hear from you. All right. Thank you all for coming out.

My name's Travis. I'm the chief of police here with Hillsdale. It's a pleasure to have you all here. Thank you for taking the time out of your night, your day, for a very special award ceremony. So I'd like to start off by saying thank you. I'll do my best to keep this short. Tonight's not about me. It's about the Boone family. Thank you all for being here. the officers in attendance, and Hillsdale Volunteer EMS, the EMTs of the law as well as everyone supported. With that, I'd like to give you a brief synopsis of the morning that brought us all here tonight. On April 6th, at approximately 6.04 a.m., the Hillsdale Police Department received a call reporting a female going into labor in her residence. At 6.06 a.m., Sergeant David Sayers, Officer Dominic Spezia arrived at the residence. Two minutes later, Hill's LMS arrived on scene. Sergeant Sayers took control of what I can only imagine was a scene filled with emotions of all kinds. The officers, EMTs, and most importantly, was Elisa Boone, with the support of her husband, Mr. Joshua Boone, came together and worked as one cohesive unit on this morning. Advanced life support was requested. Unfortunately, Murphy's Law, there was no advanced life support available. Approximately 6.16 a.m. And I apologize if any of these times are off. 6.16 a.m. Mom, dad, our officers and our EMTs all welcome baby Marshall into this world. Desdell EMS transported mom, baby Marshall, to the hospital, both happy and healthy. I would like to reaffirm that this is exactly the kind of call that reminds us of why we do what we do. While this was certainly an unexpected delivery, the professionalism, teamwork, quick actions from everyone involved helped ensure that both Elisa and Marshall were safe. It's my utmost pleasure tonight to have with us Josh, Elisa, Marshall, and their beautiful family. It's also my honor to recognize Sergeant Sayers, Sergeant David Sayers, Officer Dominic Spezial, our Hillsdale Volunteer Ambulance Service EMTs, Jim Clark, and Rachel Broome, with the Hillsdale Police Department Child Birth Award, which I'll be giving them in one second. I'd like to say again, congratulations to all of you, and first of all, baby Marshall. Sergeant Saris would like to say a few words tonight. Obviously he's gonna speak on this way more than I had, you know, sitting by the desk. He's the one that was there and he would like to give you a real in-depth synopsis of the night.

No pressure. There's never any pressure.

Can you guys hear me? Is this working? It works? All right. I tried over and over and over again to write a speech, and it's just not going to happen. So I'm just going to tell you what happened right from the cusp. April 6th, six o'clock, we had Rachel and Jim getting the ambulance ready. They're the Hillsdale Ambulance Corps duty crew for the day. Me and Big Dom, Big Dom Special, right there, my partner. I'm counting him for anything. Well, Big Dom and I were closing out a midnight tour. And the only thing on my mind was meeting up with my crew, my boys, and a couple of people that do a morning workout. Can I get a yip-yip? Yip-yip! So me and the crew, we're going to get ready at 7 o'clock AM to do our workout when 604 strikes. We get a 911 call, woman in labor. This doesn't, this doesn't frazzle me at all. I even told Don, like, no big deal. I could throw a stone in any direction and hit a hospital. No big deal, we're gonna be good. I'll get to my workout. So the ambulance corps actually pulled up at the same time as we did. I rolled in a couple seconds after, and the thing that I think about is how are we gonna extract this patient? How are we gonna get this person out? So I have to think in reverse. So I get up to the house and I see the driveway is an incline. There's a couple holes here. We got a stone pathway. And then we have a couple steps going up into the house. Nice open corridor. Make sure that there's no obstructions. And then we have a staircase that goes up this way. And then, of course, 90 degrees this way. We got railings. And what are we going to do? I don't mind because I got Big Dom. Big Dom will take the stretcher and put it on his shoulder and walk it out. So I walk into the bedroom, and I see Josh. And he was a little bit frantic.

I'm like, that's Mr. Boone, by the way.

I see Mr. Boone a little bit frantic, and I'm like, oh, no, what's going on? And as I turn, I walk into the bathroom. I see a scene that should have been right out of a movie. And I'm like, uh-oh. Get me ALS. We need the paramedics here because this is going to happen. Well, I asked Dom. I didn't even have to ask, actually, which is the greatest part of the whole thing. We all took our positions exactly where we were supposed to. Rachel was... Her plush, her calmness, her at easiness, her knowledge, her temperament was so incredible that I felt at ease. There was no problems. Gym, calm, cool, collected. Took his spot right next to Elisa, Mrs. Boone. And Dom is on the radio. He's got the medical bags open. He's like, what do you need, Dave? What do you need? And we just started working. Me and Rachel took the position of the doctors. Yeah, right? So we wind up, I felt like I was, I took 30 seconds, to be honest with you. I walked in, I took 30 seconds. I assessed the situation, I looked around, I'm like, Let's go. And then that was it. It was on. Game time. We just knew exactly what to do. Call for ALS again. ALS was not available. This was on us. We have a young EMT. that, honestly, I've known but I don't know that well, and Dom, who I could trust my life with, and Jim, who I've known for many years. So we don't have the doctors, we don't have anything, we don't have the facilities. At that moment, I'm like, we need towels, we need this, we need that, and we just started going to work. And it was a cohesive unit at the time, and then things started taking almost a turn. It was time to push. And this baby was coming. And as Elisa started pushing, I got the head in my hands and I noticed that the umbilical cord was wrapped around the neck. And this was not a good situation. And I'm like, alright, stay calm. Me and Rachel knew exactly what we were going to do. We got to continue. Nothing is wrong. Dom knew the urgency in my voice. He went up. He's like, Elisa, you need to push. You need to push. Because now we needed to get this baby out. And as the baby came out into my hands, it was blue. Dark blue. No breath. And It was almost, it was unreal. It didn't feel real. The mood in the entire room was so dense and dark and all of our spirits, we were gasping for breath, all of us. We're like, when is this gonna happen? And me and Rachel are massaging the baby, stimulating the baby, please take that breath. 29 seconds felt like 29 days to me. And at one moment, I closed my eyes and I thought, and it just came about me, that this is impossible. What's happening right now is impossible. This baby's gonna take a breath. This baby's gonna take a breath right now. And at that moment, Rachel and I saw the baby start moving and take that first little gasp and that baby sound. And honestly, it was the most amazing moment of my entire life. There was nothing like it. The atmosphere in that room from darkness turned to light. And we're all relieved and we're like, oh, please keep breathing, keep crying, keep crying. And then I was the one that was able to hand over Marshall Boone to his mother. And it was the single greatest moment of my life. And it was the single most impactful moment of my life. And to be honest, I'm gonna cry in front of y'all. Because I don't care. But that was not it. After those couple of moments we took to celebrate, I turned around and was back to work. We still have a medical emergency, and when I turned back around to give the next step, we had all the cards in our hand. We knew what we were gonna do if that breath didn't come. I know Rachel had the next move, Dom had the next move, Jim had the next move, and I sure as heck did too. I knew what we were supposed to do every moment. And thank God we didn't have to do that. That breath of life was the most special moment And then we went back to work. By the time I turned around, they had all the medical stuff taken care of. Then we had to extract down that crazy staircase, down that 90 degree, down the path. But like I said, no problem with Big Dom on my side. There was no heroes here, but there was two heroes if you want a hero for the story. And that is Marshall and Miss Boone. Thank you for that magical moment. I appreciate it. Can I get a yip-yip?

That's an impossible act to follow. So I'm not going to try. But I just want to say that let's not forget who did all the work here, which was Elise, right? We were just helping out. And she did it as cleanly, I think, as any birth can happen, even though she was to be induced that morning, right? so I'm not doing that I don't want those drugs thank you very much but you know people look at me oh he's the old guy he must be experienced but Rachel has a great deal more experience as an EMT and Rachel just never paused she had exactly what happened had to happen happen next which was even more amazing because she told me afterwards she'd never seen a birth before. I've seen three. I have kids. And the police, these two guys were just like all the people in the back. Every call we go on in this town, the police are there, They're cooperating, they know what has to happen, and we don't see that in every town. It is pretty amazing to see how much they are invested in helping us do our work. And I just want to thank them all.

I know you may not be willing to or interested in it, but if you want to say something about, no, you're good?

They said it for you. Okay.

Oh, and by the way, this plaque right here, this goes to Marshall Boone, everybody.

Yeah, they don't fit.

He's trying to grab the plaque. He knows.

He's like, that's mine. Thank you.

amazing another happy hilltop resident that's it okay wait now i know you all want to stay for the budget part but really why don't we take a five minute recess We'll take a five-minute recess and let everybody go out.

He does. Right here, this spot here.

You cleared the house. Look what you did. That was really cool. Can you follow that? Yeah, yeah, you gotta follow that up. With the excitement. Your economic advisory.

You couldn't make it.

You!

No, I will set it up and Mike will come.

We're good. We're good.

Yeah, you know what? It happens like once a year where it gets cold and then they all leave.

But they'll be back in a couple of months about the survey.

Yeah, yeah, they'll be back. Everybody will be back when they find out about this. We're going to send them your address.

There's nothing definitive. No, no, no, no. I'm kidding, I'm kidding. It's just my life.

So I'm going to guess Big Dom's dad was this guy who looked so happy and smiley. I'd love to see a parent happy with her kids.

We're getting there.

Thank you. Congratulations.

Who doesn't love babies?

Babies.

Babies. I was in college.

Okay, we're going to go back into session and we're going to do initial public comments. If anyone would like to speak on an item on the agenda, one topic per speaker. Anybody interested? No? No? Okay. Should we give you a second, see if you want to speak? Okay. Seeing nobody, let's get into our discussion for economic development. First of all, I see so many people from economic development here. Thank you guys for serving. I'm speaking on behalf of everybody. I know the work you're doing and we're all so appreciative of it. The survey presentation, who's going to lead us in the survey presentation? Melissa's going to start. Councilwoman?

All right guys, so tonight I'm really excited to have the opportunity to introduce the work that our Economic Development Advisory Committee has been doing over the past several months. As we've talked about at previous meetings, one of our goals as a committee was to better understand what our residents want to see for the future of downtown Hillsdale. Before we start making recommendations or talking about any specific changes, we felt it was really important to listen to our residents and understand what they value, what they would like to see improved, and what concerns they have. So we put together a community survey focused specifically on downtown Hillsdale, and we received a tremendous response with about 1,118 responses and hundreds of written comments. So the committee then spent time going through that information, looking for the common themes and priorities and came through, sorry, that came through the responses. We wanted to make sure that we weren't just looking at the numbers, but also listening to what people actually took the time to write and tell us. So tonight's presentation will walk you through what we heard from the community, what the data is telling us, and where we believe there are opportunities for downtown. I also want to be clear that this presentation is not a final plan for downtown. It really is a starting point. It gives us a better understanding of where our residents are, what they want, what they're concerned about, so that we can have a more informed conversation where we go from here. I do want to thank the members of our advisory committee for all the time and work they put into this. We have a great group of residents who have volunteered their time because they care about Hillsdale and want to see our downtown continue to improve while maintaining what makes our town special. Our committee consists of myself as a council, As a chairwoman, Melissa Mazuchyan, we have our council liaisons, Councilman John Rocco and Anthony DeRosa, Mike Casali, our business administrator, and as far as our town volunteers, we have Alan Sotnik, Alan Metzler, Ashok Ginday, Doug Bagwell, Jeff Hansen, Nicole Klass, Stacey Elioff, and Wayne Silverman. So just thank you. And with that, I'm gonna turn it over to Mike Casale, who's gonna walk us through the survey findings and the committee recommendations and next steps.

Thank you, Councilwoman. I, too, want to thank the members of the committee. Very committed. I love the passion. So tonight's presentation was supposed to be done by one of the members, but he was not able to make it. So I'm covering for him tonight. Before I start, I would like to recognize the chairman of the planning board of the neighboring Montvale. John DiPinto is here. He's here to actually see what Hillsdale is doing and learn from Hillsdale.

We're not building a big Wegmans anywhere.

So 1,118 respondents, and that was online, that was on paper. People came to the front desk, they filled out. And 864 people actually took the time to give us constructive comments. Just to think about this, if we were to take out all the children and the teenagers from the population, That's about 20% of the population actually took the time to fill out the survey. That's very substantial. The main theme, of course, and we're not surprised, was the taxes. But then we'll go through on what else can we do. to have less taxes, lower taxes, understanding. But the point we want to drive is that unless we have revenue coming in, we have to raise taxes. So what can we do to raise revenue, rateables, so we don't have to raise taxes? To increase the gap between the expenses and the revenue, and that's the gap. The bigger that is, the more revenue is for us, and we don't have to raise as much in taxes. So looking at the numbers closer, the majority want affordable taxes. 46% said we want to maintain the small town charm. Now the key here, 46 said we want to maintain small town charm, meaning 54% didn't care about the small town charm. But the question was very specific about the small town charm. So we have to keep that in mind. Want the downtown appearance and we'll dig more into the appearance and then again for the taxes as a main theme So we asked them what can we do in the short term very quickly where we don't have to spend a lot of money where we don't have to build anything the short term the low-hanging fruit Is to have a better storefronts fix the facade Some of it is probably 30 40 years old and 42%, they want more outdoor and curbside dining. And I want to remind everybody, it's so easy, if you have a restaurant, it's very easy to have outdoor dining. Just come in, file a permit, and you can have outdoor dining. It's not very complicated. The streetscape, again, so we will try and get some flowers. You see some flowers there. That's not our town, but that's what, as an image, it could look like. And then the traffic flow. We have the main thoroughfare on Broadway and Hillsdale Avenue, and the train that comes in and stops 32 times every day for an average of four minutes. That's two hours where we shut down Hillsdale Avenue between 5 AM and 1 AM, every single day except the weekend. So we have to work with what we got. going into what type of businesses the people want. So restaurants and cafes, and when we look at what other retail can we have, and we have salons, we have nail salons, they're focusing more on what can I do every single day where I can actually walk to a restaurant, walk to a coffee shop, a specialty grocery market, not large stores, a small specialty boutique style. Fitness and wellness, 25% of the folks want that. And then medical and dental, which kind of surprised me. I thought we would have more of a demand for that. But more dentists and small medical offices. Now, on the right side of the slide where we say, okay, well, we want to make all these changes, but something has to give. The density and the traffic, we have to work with that. The big number, the 54.6%, where it says they favor the current approach. Our current approach is less development and almost stay the status quo. It doesn't really work if we stay the status quo because we want to change so we can have more revenue and more rateables. We want to have more foot traffic so the businesses can have more business, more commerce. The traffic, 15%, I think people are used to what we have, but as we get more buildings, so if someone comes in and they want to do a three-story building with the first store retail, they have to accommodate for the parking. They have to ensure that there's enough parking, whether it's underground, a parking garage, they can't just come in and plot the building and let us worry about the parking. By code, by statute, they have to account for the parking. And the last slide, what we will do next. So we want to engage the Board of Planner to take the study. So we started the study in 2022 and 2023, but it wasn't finished in the downtown. I think we can take that. We can expand on it. And I know Mark worked on it. Darlene Green worked on it. Look at what we got now. What can we make better? And talk to the professionals. So the committee we have, we have very committed residents. They could be our ambassadors. And we have the liaisons. And we have the chairwoman. we are just the vehicle to get there but we need the professionals to tell us what to do next and then we need to get the message out that we want to protect the character of hillsdale the small town charm but something has to give and if the people the residents want to make that change this has been done in many places and it can be done here too I'm not saying anything else. That's my last slide.

No, I mean, other than we just want the blessing of the of the council to move forward, we're hoping the next steps could be to utilize Darlene and really just see where see where it takes us. I mean, you know, and like you said, also, we have the we have the final 2022 and expand on that. Yeah. what kind of direction would we be giving her we'd be sharing this information with her right we would tell her that small time small town charm feel that we're sort of looking for and we would probably have we'd want to connect her with the advisor committee because we all did have different opinions so um ideally we'd get on a call with the committee and talk through some of the top i don't know five things that we really expect from it um or you know what we would hope to see um so that's what we're hoping our next step could be

Yeah, so we have a very comprehensive first study. I mean, I need to fix this. I'm sorry.

We have the area in need of rehabilitation study.

Yes. Yeah. I want to try this. Just. Yeah, so. Yes, ma'am. Go ahead. I just want to add this to the.

Nothing's on the screen yet.

This is the one I sent around.

I mean, it's kind of open-ended here, right? So we're talking about, I mean, Darlene is great when it comes to planning and figuring out what zone should be where, but clearly we have to direct her.

Yeah. May I jump in for just a second? What we did was actually Fran Reiner did an area in need of rehabilitation. area in need of rehabilitation, which as it happens is within the redevelopment statute. When he did that, the governing body drafted or I drafted a resolution for the governing body to adopt and designate the area in need of rehabilitation. Before the governing body votes on it, you send it to the planning board for comment. planning board received that from us and their comment was they liked it very much but that the area in need of rehabilitation should be bigger in fact there are some towns that designate virtually the entire town as an area in need of rehabilitation not redevelopment remember we're talking a totally different thing

Expand that to the audience if they understand what that classification does.

So an area, that allows us, if an area is designated as an area in need of rehabilitation, we can adopt overlay zoning. We can do various tax credits. We can sort of aggressively manage opportunities for people to come in and up zone. Okay, very similar to an area in need of redevelopment, but there's no redevelopment agreement and it's really a mechanism to up some. So if I recall correctly, what then occurred was Planning Board came back with their comments within 45 days, which they were supposed to, and their comment was, we like it, could we make the area bigger?

At one point they even talked about putting the school in there.

Correct. They were thinking of extending even further up Broadway. It was really very comprehensive and very positive. I don't know if after that we authorized Fran to expand the study area. no i think i think that's where we left off that's kind of where it died out and it may have been a cost item but there is work product already that we can leverage and that that area in need of rehabilitation study this is the one we're not limited to one bite of the apple with this no no we can we can continue it fran can probably take this data expand the area as the planning board suggested which should go over well with the planning board make a larger area in need of rehabilitation and then what we can do is rewrite that resolution adopting the study refer it to the planning board who has to respond within 45 days hopefully their response will be somewhat more limited or wouldn't re-trigger restarting the process again and we can and move forward with that. That would be a really positive step and unlike an area in need of redevelopment where your designation is an area that's virtually blighted, although no one really uses that word anymore. An area in need of rehabilitation is just an indication, for example, that infrastructure is obsolete. Well, guess what? Everywhere in Burton County, the sewers are over 50 years old. The infrastructure is obsolete. The roads are in need of assistance. It's not as focused on properties being in very poor shape as much as it is a municipal area that can be better and so it's a lot a little less stigmatized so go ahead mark would you have any concerns that as you expand those

borders and you make this area larger and you go a little bit further from the commercial areas that we have in town and you get closer to residential that those people would get upset by the change that could potentially happen as that first step

I actually saw, sorry, I actually saw the opposite when we first started talking about it. There were residents along Hillsdale Avenue that wanted to be included in it because it makes their property more valuable from the perspective of there are now more opportunities to do things and more people can come and approach it.

Yeah, but those could also be speculators. I'm talking about the people that want to live here.

Well, no, but the people who own them, own those properties. Right, right. We're happy to have that.

I know it's specific people that are looking to cash out on certain properties.

Remember also that just because you designate it, doesn't mean you have to change the zoning in that area. There, literally in the statute, it says, which I think is an unusual crafting of the statute, it says, and by the way, if you want to designate the whole town as an area in need of rehabilitation, that's okay too. Now obviously I'm paraphrasing, but it is intended to be sort of expansive But I defer to your instructions to Fran, and I also then defer to the idea that the governing body, even if it's designated, then can be very selective about how they zone it. The decision that I think Mike and I would both agree is up to you is, Do you want to pull the trigger on sort of getting back to this rehabilitation thing? And I think John was at the forefront of that as well. Obviously, you were mayor at the time.

Right, and I think I sent the members of the committee and yourself, Mark, the 2023 document where after Fran had gone to the planning board, He then just took the presentation that he made to them, which was not the area in need of rehabilitation study, but a sort of preliminary presentation, and he put next steps. And among those next steps, he said that the planning board provided the following comments to include George White Middle School to include the Marr Field property, to include contiguous industrial properties, namely 90 through 96 Patterson Street, 80 Patterson Street, 36 Orchard Street, remove St. John the Baptist Church property, and remove St. John's Academy. Now, I don't know how the mayor and council felt about it. I'm not sure we ever discussed it.

i i kind of agree with you john i'm not sure we ever we got those comments fran uh adapted them into a next step document and i don't know that the next steps were taken yeah i don't recall going further than that anthony your recollection as well perhaps so do you agree then we should start the process at least get some more information from the planner thanks well let's

Let's get comments before we quickly pull everybody.

Just one more question. With regards to engaging the planner, how much funding would we require?

I have to get the proposal.

Okay, and then we'll evaluate that, right?

Yeah, we'll have to come back and you have to approve it.

That was going to be my first question, which was do we have any idea what this will cost you to start getting renditions and ideas and some sort of. But two is I'm definitely a supporter of going into this with a grandioso type idea. You've got to go big or this doesn't work. This isn't going to work if we give the owners the same square footage to work out of. You've got to go three stories up. there's architectural ways you can do that and keep a small town feel you can tear back levels you can have greener requirements on balconies there's a lot of things you can do to make this look really really nice um and we gotta have parking right if we go bigger if we increase square footage we've got to have parking so that is going to mean expanding the footprint and possibly purchasing homes and stuff of that nature so that's the type of report I would like to see something really really grand that's all-encompassing and gives us our options yeah yeah absolutely

I was heartened, and I thank the members of the volunteers who hopefully will all stay with us in the coming months. And I looked at the presentation when I got it home, and the key for me was a comment. I think it was on page three. It says, 43% prefer modest character-preserving change, not broad redevelopment. And I thought that was reflective of what I understand many residents here in town want. They want to see the downtown area rehabilitated. They want to see some modernity introduced into the town. The question is, how far? How much? And when you do something like that, it always has knock-on effects. What will be those knock-on effects? What does it mean for the town in the long term? That's where Darlene from Colliers can throw a lot of light and help us understand. We have to make sure that she appreciates what this survey says and what it doesn't say. It gives you a mixed message because everyone, all 1183 or 1118 respondents, They had different things, they were given multiple options. We didn't ask them necessarily to weight all those things in the same way. Most wanted to keep taxes affordable. I took that to mean they're open to redevelopment. But nearly half of them didn't want to see too much because they wanted to maintain that charm. So it's going to be- There's going to be a balance. It's going to be a balance. It's going to be a fine walk that we're all going to have to- John, maybe- I won't have to walk it, but you guys are going to have to walk it.

What will help is once we rezone, once you do the approval and we rezone, say, all the way to the ShopRite, the whole Broadway. Developers will see that there's opportunity here. What we see, our vision is not the same as their vision. We look at one store, two stores, they look at 10 stores or 10 properties together and they will do the rendering, they'll do the traffic studies, and they'll tell us what they see versus what we see.

What I hope doesn't happen is that we and the planning board are at odds. I think we should listen to the planning board members. I know some of them might not be in favor of going all the way up to ShopRite. Some might want to go halfway.

but i think we there's room for compromise here if that's the way that we and the planning board want to move so it's a good thing um it's so with the this is great data by the way we have a great highlight uh high level uh numbers for all this i was wondering if the economic development committee councilwoman um discussed any of the segmentation breakdowns because something that stuck out to me um from a deeper from a deeper level that yes 43 prefer modest change but when you when you look at what's when you look at the segmentation breakdowns by age by how many kids you have under 18 what's driving the what's driving that higher number is the older respondents overwhelmingly um responding one way whereas the the younger families um the younger families and the people with kids under 18 are responding in a very different way so i don't know so if we were to present this information like how do we level level set that are we just going to broadly say this is what the residents want are we gonna factor in the facts that hey segments respond in different you know younger people respond less but there's x number of the population in here and so they can represent a larger piece i'm getting a little bit into the weeds so i'll just let you respond gather that information it's yes we didn't get that granular here just just for purposes of keeping it short and sweet okay but we definitely have that information that we could share with you

We have that data. I think I actually have some of the slides open here, but we did do it by brackets or the amount of kids. How many years have you lived in Hillsdale? There you go. 25 plus years, 13. I mean, we have a lot of data that we could share after this.

Right, and I've dived a little bit into the raw data, and I'm saying that the younger crowds definitely skew a lot differently there. So that should be thought of when we analyze this further.

Any other questions, comments you want to make before we decide whether or not we want to move forward with the area in need of rehabilitation process?

Just from experience, you will not make everyone happy. That's a given. The younger and the older, we can't have one building say this is just for the older generation. Right. So we will have a standing room only here against and for. So be prepared for that.

Mayor, we're deciding on to engage the planner tonight, right? Well, that's what I need to know. But we're not approving funds. No, no, no. You don't even know what it is.

It's whether or not we want to proceed with this idea based on the study to say, you know what? An area in need of rehabilitation is a worthwhile endeavor to pursue. Let's see what it's going to cost. Let's come up with a plan and see if. Take it to the next step. This is just, can we take it to the next?

I think just to that point, Mayor, the most important data point in this thing is the fact that we almost had 1,200 respondents in a survey, which on survey standards is a huge amount. So the fact that the residents are so engaged on this, it seems like a no brainer to go forward with it.

Well, so at this point, I'd like to see a show of hands for everybody who'd like to proceed to the next step, which is to come up and formulate it.

Get a proposal and we'll see what your friend says.

It is unanimous.

Okay, we're going to move forward with that. All right, so I'll get the proposal from the Thank you very much. I see all the guys out there. Thank you.

Great job. Thank you, thank you. It's very good that we're. Moving forward here.

Okay. And Mike, the Economic Advisory Committee will stay engaged with Darlene, right? Oh, definitely. We need you.

We need them, absolutely. We need them.

We need them part of the call with Darlene. We still actually, our next meeting will probably be to go over those things that we think are important to share with Darlene and then be prepared for that call.

Again, we keep saying that, and I don't care how it gets done. Our redevelopment person, I'm sorry, as far as area need and designation, was Fran Reiner at DMR, who's no longer at DMR. Darlene always was just our affordable housing planner. Now, there may be some joining in the two, but the principal planner here And the goal here, in my mind, but of course it's completely up to you, I would suggest that we leverage on what we already paid him, that he already did the initial study.

So will the BA engage Fran?

I was going to get both of them. So get some prices.

Because we know Darlene, but they would work collectively? No. It's either one or the other.

Oh, okay. So that's a fair way to do it. Get prices from both.

Okay. Okey-doke.

Great. You are hereby designated to proceed in that fashion. Thank you. Mr. B.A. Okay. Thank you to the members of the committee. Thank you to our chair. Thank you to everybody out here. and those who couldn't make it to make this possible. It's a great thing. I really appreciate it. Okay, we're going to move on to correspondence. We have an email from Kathy Abney following up on the proposals for a found greenhouse. Can I get a motion to file? Motion.

Second? Second. Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Great. Okay, we're going to go to committee reports. uh we'll start we started down there last time since this week you're in i have nothing to report okay councilwoman same nothing to report reported last week Okay, Council Micheletti.

Just super quick. So the new ladder truck arrived on Friday from the fire department. It's a beautiful rig, modern technology, a lot of safety features. The fire department is ecstatic about it. So needless to say, they're very happy at this point in time. I know a couple, Chris Mayer, Excuse me. Councilman also were there on Friday.

The cameraman was there as well.

Oh, Anthony was there as well. So I got a chance to go down on Saturday and take a look at it. But it really is a nice piece of equipment, and they're extremely happy. So I think the residents should be as well. That's it.

So the Regional Board of Education, that's Pasquac Valley, Pasquac Hills, the board agreed to conduct a district superintendent search at a cost of $15,500. So Dirk Phillips will remain the interim superintendent for the time being. And worth noting, there was an unusually large donation of $650,000 from the estate of Robert W. Hewitt. towards the arts. So $325,000 going to Pasquac Valley, $325,000 going to Pasquac Hills. It's amazing. Thank you. And there was no further discussion on outsourcing the custodians. A decision has not been made yet, but there wasn't any discussion at the last meeting. Local Board of Education, that's Meadowbrook, Smith, and George White, The board at the August 24th meeting approved a five-year contract for Superintendent Lombardi. So he'll be there until 2031. And that is all I have.

Councilman Camp?

Nothing to report.

Okay. We're going to move on to resolutions. There are no ordinances. May I just? Oh, sure. Sorry.

Just two quick things. Today we received the application for Aldi in the place of King's location, and we're beginning to fill out the application for a Safe Route to School grant for about $1 million, non-matching. So if you can think of any sidewalks that we need in town, we're going to do Patterson, we're going to do some of those. sidewalks around the schools, but if you get any complaints or questions about more sidewalks.

There are a lot of people, it's excellent to do Patterson Street. There are a lot of people that have said that last bit from what used to be anger. Across that street in that direction of it.

Yeah, it'll take a year or two because number one is not matching. But the planning and the paperwork and back and forth and all that.

Are we also considering going up the other way? You said Patterson. We have Lake that goes up in that direction. There are no sidewalks up there either.

So a million dollars will cover about 10,000 feet of sidewalk. Lots more. So we're going to measure what we have and what we need and what's left. Okay. Yeah. Just FYI. That's all I got.

Mike, I know it's not necessarily our responsibility, but with regards to all the potentially taking over canes there, I'm sure those employees do not know about it yet. I'm sure they'll find out soon enough, so we should be sensitive.

It's in the public domain. It's up to Aldi, it's up to Kings to tell their employees.

I'm sure they'll find out, yeah.

Okay, we're going to go on to the consent agenda. R26207 through R26212. Would anyone like to pull something off the consent agenda to non-consent?

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to discuss 26211, therefore I'd agree to have it pulled off consent.

Okay, does anybody else want to do that? Is there a second? I'll second it. There's a second by Council President also. So we'll instead at the moment do the consent agenda 26207 through 26211. 210 now for the payment of bills, okay. Well no, 210 plus 212. So we're just taking 211 out, okay. Can I get a motion? Motion. Second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? The consent agenda is passed 26207 to 26210 plus 26212. Councilman, you have pulled it. Would you like to discuss?

First, it needs to be motioned.

Well, we had already agreed to do it. All right, a motion to consider?

I'll motion the resolution.

Okay. Yeah, we did that.

Well, we motioned to pull it off the consent agenda, but now- Right, but to discuss it, we need a motion.

A motion and a second.

Okay, so a motion, is there a second? Is there a second? Okay, since you brought it up?

Yeah. Okay. As I've been pointing out for many years here, we again have before us a resolution asking the governing body to approve an agreement that has not been made public. The residents have little or no idea of what we're going to be voting on, other than the resolution. They don't know what the agreement is. Councilman Camp who has indicated he is concerned about residents not being informed of council business will take up this cause in my absence when I'm no longer here. And if he doesn't, I will be sure to remind Councilman Camp from the audience in 2027.

No doubt.

The proposed employment contract which we are asked to approve tonight, it calls for a 28% increase over the next 25 months. Personally, I view the provision as excessive in comparison to increases afforded to other borough employees. They're likely to spike expectations for similar increases among our staff in the future, whether unionized or non-unionized. I don't see it as the Chairman of the Finance Committee is being fiscally responsible given what I know to be the material budgetary challenges facing the borough and the above average tax increases that we've had to levy on our residents because of those challenges. There's no doubt in my mind. that a robust and above average salary increase for the core QPA is warranted as the occupant who has that position, both those positions, is highly proficient in those roles. And if the size of the increases were reduced somewhat, I might view this resolution a little more favorably. And finally, I'm curious about how The Mayor, who is the head of the municipality and is also an ex-officio member of the Finance Committee, feels about this resolution, knowing that you will likely not get a chance to vote on this tonight.

Well, I don't have an opportunity to vote on it. These resolutions are operable. I guess now that it's out there, the attorney, once it comes out here and we present it, at what point does it become open to the public as far as?

What becomes a public document upon signature.

Upon signature, but not upon consideration? Correct.

Okay. I look at this in a couple of different ways here. From my perspective, it's not always, first of all, we have to have an idea of what the median salary, the average salary is of a clerk in the Pasquac Valley and make sure that we are competitive to retain a clerk in the Pasquac Valley. Now we had some data that's kind of all over the map as far as where that goes. And you're right, I don't vote on this, but looking at that, we're going to have to retain somebody in that range based upon the current market. It's a fact of life. And given the fact that we have somebody that is in town, that has a history, Burrow and knows our operation as well as she does, I would support it. And I think if you ask our BA, he views her very much as a right hand person. And there is quite a bit of value to that. And this is not. give somebody a raise or don't give somebody a raise to find somebody else. I think that we are, as I said, fortunate to have this person. And I would make sure, it would be my opinion that as long as we're staying within that range and going to keep her in that salary slot of where it is, then I would support it.

Thank you.

Okay. Mr. Mayor, I also feel that this serves as an investment to secure a very valuable resource for us for the next three years. So I appreciate the work that the clerk has done for us.

If anybody else would like to have an opinion on this?

I 100% agree with Councilman Oso. This clerk goes above and beyond. I think she has proven that she can do her job plus many others. So in that respect, I think that we need to make sure that we retain the quality of employees that will keep our town running because that's really what she does.

Okay. Anybody else? Yeah, this is arguably the most important role in the borough. Sorry, Mike. i'll i'll go there this is so like in terms of getting a little spicy yeah yeah i have to throw in some fire here in the middle there's a lot going on so it it's very important this is an investment that's very important especially in consideration of of what previous years increases have been um we have we have to we have to do this so that's how i see it okay anybody else want to comment

So I'll just say, and I'll say this quickly. So from day one, I've said that I've shared John's concerns from a dollar standpoint, right? Given our budget situation. But as you analyze this, right, you got to look at it both qualitatively and quantitatively. And you got to understand what the alternatives are, right? And the alternative could always be the alternative could always be adding positions, right? And we know that when you add positions, you're not only adding a salary, but potentially a whole other medical, et cetera. So weighing all this, it's still a very difficult decision and not because of the abilities and qualities of our clerk, who's outstanding at what she does, but just because we're thinking about the budget and ultimately what the best decision is for the town. So, you know, given those, those taking all that into account, I will be voting yes tonight. Uh, but I, I do share councilman Rucco's concerns of our fiscal responsibility, but I think in this case it's, it's, it's warranted to move forward with this.

Okay. Anybody else? Okay. Well, so we've had the consideration, um, We have had the motion to consider it. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? No. One opposed. The resolution 26211 passes five to one. Great, okay, thank you. Nothing off consent. Public comment now for anything that is not on the agenda for those who wish to be heard. Anybody? Please. And Nicole.

Nicole Klass, Elsdale. It's actually on the agenda. I just wanted some specification. I guess I should have asked before, but what's a special event that would require alcohol?

Fall festival? Oktoberfest?

Just because it's a brand new facility there and busy street. Any time you mix kids with alcohol, I don't personally don't like it. I wasn't sure I was going to open the door to baseball games and softball tournaments.

No, this is specifically designated. There are certain events that go through the rec committee that are singled out as part of this.

I just worry it's going to open the door now that you have a brand new complex. People are going to think, well, that's one thing.

They still have to come through to us. It's not like we're going to have beer and softball.

I'm just concerned that it's going to be.

Well, we already do that at Beachwood. We have it.

I understand that, but I was just wondering what a new complex. It's just going to open the door for us.

Regarding the high school parking situation on Liberty, there's a lot of rumor, a lot of hearsay around how that all came about. So I figured I'd come straight to the source. I'd like to understand the options that were on the table around the parking decisioning and the rationale for the decision being made and who made it.

Pierre, would you like to address this? Well, first of all, this is the Liberty for the high school.

We're now parking on Liberty. Across from Holmes, literally on the grass of the whatever you call it. I don't know what you call it.

The back of Beechwood?

Yeah, the woodsy area behind Beechwood.

So this is the first year that we're doing this. We used to do it at Stony Brook. And Beechwood. And Beechwood. They still park at Beechwood. No one's parking there anymore. Because it's closer here. Correct. So we wanted to test it, but if it's a problem, we can change back. That's what we did with the Stony Brook.

Yeah, I mean, if no one has heard this, I mean, certainly I know. I've heard it.

I've heard it from numerous people. I've talked to Travis Woods on Friday. He said they were testing it, but if there were more complaints, I did mention to him that nobody is parking on the other side where they were parking before at Beachwood. They're now using that street because it's closer. Okay. From personal experience driving through on the second day of school, it was a little chaotic. Other cars should not be parked on the opposite side. And there was, I think, a landscaping truck parked there. So you can't get through. 17 year old 18 year olds are going to swing their doors open and walk through the streets with their phones right and it sort of became a little bit of like a doing one of these um and that was just on friday so it was very recent that i spoke to travis but i'm glad you're here is there police on site for like to help direct what's he said that he was going to have somebody there today did you see anybody there today a police officer yeah

This morning? Not this morning. I happened to be walking at my lunch, and there was a police officer there dealing, I think, with an unrelated traffic issue. And I asked him what the situation was. I have a different take than what I've been hearing, which is again why I came here.

Is there any requirement that we fill up along the Hillsdale-Beachwood side before we allow that?

Enforcement mayor is going to be tough there. This was just a test to see how this goes, but if it's not working, we'll go back to the old way.

From my opinion, I wouldn't say it is.

Can you give it a week or two?

Of course, of course. I'll just add, I live on Cottage Place. We have gotten used to the chaos that occurs twice a day. And that is what it is. We can't change where we live. I mean, we knew it lying in that area. That's fine. But this is just another situation that I do think is actually avoidable. There are other options. Understand about Stony Brook. The fact that Beachwood now, no one is using that parking. So your point is that they should be parking on Beachwood at the diagonal as opposed to

Was that filled up during the academic year? Yes, it's filled up.

I try to pass it every day. It's always filled up to the end.

And then what happens to the overflow? Overflow, I don't know where they go. Because we had Stony Brook, but they weren't- Stony Brook, we had five cars last year. Yeah.

We were cleaning and maintaining for five cars.

So how many cars would you say parked? Now currently on the other side of 30, right?

Yeah, at least 20.

Okay. So we can certainly clean up a vast majority of it. If we start by saying you cannot park on this side, if that side is not filled up to force them to go there first.

Yeah, maybe even so we're talking about 2 or 3 versus 20 or 30. Maybe we can do it by permit or by numbers where some can park a beach with and some can park.

I mean, giving them the option, I think they're probably they're going to want to be closer.

I would actually be opposed to doing it in that way, because if we just say. You have to fill up if if you don't fill that up. and we catch you parking there, that's illegal parking. If it's all filled up... Yeah.

Enforcement's going to be tough.

Well, I understand that, but we've already opened Pandora's box with this.

If they have a sticker that says you can only park on Beachwood, and you can only park on Liberty, and we can do it by lottery, let me talk to Chief, give us like a week, just to see what the numbers are like.

So we had opened it for about 40 cars.

The first year we had 40 cars. So we have to maintain it. We have to clean it. Last year there were only five cars. So we were spending more time there cleaning and maintaining for just five cars.

Also, it has to be said, there was a huge security incident that where substantial damage was done to the property that cost tens of thousands of dollars.

And then we had to figure out, do we have the right cameras in the right locations? And it would have been a big investment. And we said, no, we're just not going to do it.

And it was high school kids that .

Give us a week. OK. OK. I appreciate it.

We don't let it go. Thank you. Thank you.

Who else would like to be heard? Please, come forward.

Hi. I'm Michelle Parini. I'm at 25 Hopper Street. You called me today. So we were told that we were going to get the permit parking for Hopper once Memorial Field was done. And you're now passing a waiver to serve alcohol at Memorial, but we can't get permit parking. Yeah, you just offered permit parking for high school students, but we can't get permit parking on Hopper.

Do you want to? Sure. I was going to, I called you and, you know.

Right, I had an email to the chief and the captain. I never got an answer. Okay, well. You just ignored my emails.

They responded this morning. This morning.

Okay. From April.

So the request was for residence only parking. So only the houses on Hopper can park on Hopper.

That's what we spoke about.

Right. When discussing the enforcement of that, we will have to have an officer there just making sure no one else parks without a permit. So we added more parking spaces in that memorial field. Again, the same thing. Let's see the first few games. How many spaces are actually full at the field, and how many are actually on Hopper? If people for the convenience want to go on Hopper, that becomes an issue.

It's always been an issue. Blocking my driveway, the street's short, they park on both sides, even though there's a sign that says, no parking on our side.

Yeah. So as a government, we don't like to put 20 rules until we test it.

But this was something that you spoke about when you were developing Memorial. We did. And now you're not following through.

We did. But now we have more parking spaces than before at Memorial.

But that was determined before. Yeah, but we said let's- So we have to wait for something bad to happen- No, no, no, no. For us to get this resolved.

No, after the first or second full game where it's full, if it's a problem- It's a problem. Well, we don't know, because we have more spaces on the field now.

But you don't live over there.

I'm there almost every day, I see it. You don't live over there. I don't, I don't.

We understand what Mr. Grisali means. We'd love to hear more ideas from you.

Well, these were the things that we were told on Hopper Street that we were going to have. Permit parking when the park was done.

Because what's going to happen, Mayor, is we put the residence parking only. People will park there without a permit. We have to call the police, take them off the shift, off the patrol, and they'll be there all the time. And we try to avoid that.

If this becomes a problem. If, on the other hand, they're going to use the extra spots that we're going to

create on hills on the hillsdale avenue side for parking look we're going to find out in a couple of games real fast right i mean how many extra spots we have like 40 extra spots so i think right but our street is short yeah and you can't have both sides and people accelerate from one side to the other and they flip you off all the time because you're trying to turn onto your street yet They want to go right away.

It's not fair. There's the issue of permit parking as opposed to no parking on one side, right?

But we have no parking and they don't follow the rules.

Can we just be enforcing that? No parking on one side?

It doesn't work.

Well, hold on. We have a police department. If there already is no party.

With all due respect, I've lived there for a long time, and it doesn't get enforced.

Okay. Maybe that would be a good first and immediate step is enforce the existing.

Let's enforce what's on the books before. And we also have the additional parking.

So when is the police committee going to meet? When's the next scheduled meeting of the police committee?

It doesn't need the committee, Mayor. No. I mean, we have- I understand, but- All right. Call the chief.

I emailed with- the chief and the captain, and they said that they spoke to you, and basically, let's see how it plays out. But that's not what you told us when this was all happening.

Yes.

So now we're going to have beer fests down there and all kinds of traffic. But yet, it doesn't matter to the people that live there.

If it becomes a problem, ma'am, after the first full game, then we will have to act right away. Okay.

So nothing.

Right now, nothing. Unless we want to put more rules on the residents, and then we have to enforce the rules. Yeah, well that's the whole point. We already have it on the books.

If it's not- But the place will park on Liberty, you are going to get the permit.

If we have something- It was an idea. Guys, stop it. If we have something on the books that needs to be enforced and it's not being enforced, we need to- But this was something that was promised to us that we are not following. No.

I think you've made that clear. We understand, we understand. Before we start putting out the- I think the mayor is trying to say immediately enforce the one side vigorously with the police. Start that tomorrow, don't wait for anything. Combine that with then also let's see what happens in the first game.

So what has to happen in the first game in order for this to happen?

Can I say something? Remember in Star Wars, there was an episode called The Clone Wars? Remember, right? Vaguely. Vaguely. All right. I've been through The Clone Wars on parking at Demarest Farms, right? We had to bide our time. Mr. Medeo was a great help to me. And we had to tell residents who wanted immediate action, despite promises or expectations, we need some time to work through it, to observe, okay? That's all I think is being asked of you as a resident and maybe your fellow residents. Give the borough administrator and the council a little more time to observe the situation. If they don't act, shame on them, on us. That's what we're saying.

But we're already saying that we're going to be in touch with the police to at least enforce, to make sure that what you're saying is not being enforced is enforced. And we will take it to the next step after, we're going to open this, hopefully, sooner the better, we're going to open a memorial field. We're all sitting here waiting for it. And we'll know pretty quick. As the VA said, a game or two, and we'll know what has to be done or what the situation is on the ground after we've put 40 additional spaces in there while we're enforcing the one side and while we're being persistent with the police to do so. That's our first step, okay? Thank you.

We will add more signage also.

Okay, anybody else want to speak? Not seeing anybody that wants to speak for those, we're going to move on to the council comments. I'm going to defer tonight. It was a wonderful ceremony. Thank the police and thank the EMS for what they've done. was memorable it was really memorable it was great um so i'm just going to leave it at that we have street naming and we let's we started this time last time let's go down to councilman camp starting for council commentaries that earlier tonight that presentation was probably one of the most amazing stories that i've ever heard i was getting a little teary-eyed myself

when uh when sergeant sayers was uh telling that story so just we have the best uh emergency workers police department i'm i'm i'm so happy that they have we have them serving our community and what an incredible thing so yep yep to that and uh i also want to say happy birthday to council president uh oso yes and that's it for tonight

I'm good? Yeah. Yeah, I also want to thank Jim, Rachel, Officer Special, and Sergeant Sayers to save, to give, to bring a human being into the world and to be sure that they are healthy in such a dynamic environment is just uh something special and probably if they did nothing else in their careers just having that having done that is amazing um i want to thank the members of the economic development advisory committee most or some of them are in the audience appreciate you doing work that work all volunteers not getting paid for it and it uh it'll have a big impact on the uh on the borough so thank you um the uh Yesterday, most of us were present for the unveiling of an honorary street for Joan D'Alessandro. If you lived in Hillsdale, you probably know the tragic story of Joan, who was abducted and killed while selling Girl Scout cookies. The family has done an amazing job at turning such a tragedy into passing laws, educating children, and it was great to be able to be there to have that recognition and just see how fulfilling it was for the mom, Mrs. Delisandro, Rosemary Delisandro. So it was a very nice ceremony, and I'm glad we as a borough were able to do that for her. That's all I have.

I echo the words of Anthony DeRosa. I'm very proud of our first responders. Also, I want to thank Rosemary D'Alessandro for all her work, decades of it. And she's been a big proponent of child safety. And I thank her in the early for that.

Councilman Coletti.

Just want to thank all of our emergency responders. Obviously, I'm very happy that they told that story before. And the storyteller was phenomenal. But yeah, just thank you to all of them.

Same thing. Just congratulations for that award. It's truly deserved and definitely a cherry on top to hear it from Sergeant Sayers himself. I think that was some very good storytelling. I also want to thank the Economic Development Advisory Committee. They're here tonight and have put all that work into this presentation. And happy 30th birthday, Clem. 32. 32. Happy 32nd birthday. That's it.

I won't repeat what everyone here has said. I will add this town's 9-11 ceremony is this Friday, and I think it starts at 845. We should not forget the 3,000 people who died in the Twin Towers that lost their lives that day in a terrorist attack, nor the sacrifices made by our firefighters and other emergency responders who answered the call. when others were fleeing that area. As someone who lived through that day and its immediate aftermath, my office was like two blocks away. I had team members barely escape from the Twin Towers, coming back to me in my office, and then we all escaped. Those memories are going to live with me forever. I wish all our Jewish residents a Happy New Year on the occasion of the upcoming Rosh Hashanah this weekend. It marks the beginning of 10 days of repentance, culminating in Yom Kippur, September 21st. I ask all our Jewish residents to include us here as well as our nation in their prayers. I congratulate everyone who is a grandparent. Grandparent Day is coming up Sunday. I'm looking at Jerry Beattie. She's smiling. I know she's a grandmother. Those of us who are fortunate enough to have that distinction, we recognize we play a distinct and beneficial role in family life and guiding future generations, and it is one that should not be overlooked. And finally, the fall festival is Saturday, September 19th. Thanks to all the members of the rec committee and all the community groups that are planning to be represented there, I encourage all our residents to attend. Thank you.

Thank you.

Having conducted our business and finalized our business, can I get a motion to adjourn? Motion.