Borough Council - Regular Meeting

The record reflect that we have reconvened virtually with all members present. For those are able, please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. That's hard to do in unison. It is uh tough to do virtually.

I want to take a moment uh to remember um longtime Madison residents who we lost over the past few weeks. Uh Carl Hes III, age 85, passed away on February 11th. Born in Elizabeth, uh grew up in Verona and lived in Madison for most of his life. After graduating from Veron Verona High, he went on to get his undergraduate degree from uh University of North Texas and his mers from Montlair State University. Worked as a teacher in elementary school fizzed teacher and finally as guidance counselor for the Paripity Troy Hills School District. Over the years, Carl's skill for soccer was acknowledged as a such things as co- captain of the 1957 state championship soccer team. and he was voted into the Verona High School Soccer Hall of Fame. He received uh many awards including SEOA Man of the Year award, the NJSCA Red Rice Award, NJSO Hall of Fame award, and SJ Man of the Year and Linesman of the Year Awards, and the NFA Official of the Year award. To say soccer was a passion may not would be an understatement. And not only did he play uh soccer after college, he also had fish fish games for 30 years. And I did not know that part of Carl. So it was nice to learn that he was married to the love of his wife Susan for 57 years and survived by his daughters Jennifer and Carrie and the respective spouses as well as two grandchildren. Was an avid gardener. took pride in cultivating uh his garden which abundantly produced enough for him to donate to interfaith food pantry as well as share with friends and neighbors. In his spare time, Carl loved traveling especially to Hawaii where one of his daughters lives, the Caribbean and the Jersey Shore. He also volunteered time as a former manager and trustee of the Madison Community Pool for many years.

And as many of us know, just a month ago, he was sitting at the very first meeting of the Madison pool advisory committee, ready to share his wisdom and experience. And during the month of January, I would often see him in Hartley Dodge as he uh was roaming hallways trying to track down Jim Bernette to share more thoughts about the pool operations. Um, and I also remember him from his days at the Y where he talked with his friends as much as he worked out. Uh, above all, Carl was devoted to his family. He loved family above all else. We also remember Louise Simeonelli, longtime Madison resident, passed away on February 2nd, age 87, survived by her son, Joseph, three daughters, Joanne, Alyssa, and Maria, and one granddaughter. She was predecessed by her husband Frank, in 1992. She was born in Italy to the late Giovani and Giovana Cersiello. And as a young woman, Louise became a gifted uh seamstress. Louise and her mother, who was born in the United States, immigrated to Madison in 1954 when she was 15 years old, settling on North Street, where many members of extended family uh had already lived. Louise met her husband Frank shortly after arriving in Madison. They married in 57 and settled on North Street where they raised her four children. She was a devoted member of St. Vincent Mor Church since age 15. and also Josephine Frierello who passed away on February 1st at the age of 93 survived by one daughter Michelle Goodwin who was here the mass ambulance corps husband Bruce who's a volunteer firefighter and also one uh one son Michael and his wife Linda and six uh grandchildren, one expected grand great granddaughter. Um she was also survived by sister many nieces and nephews and many friends at

Rexford Tucker senior apartments on Chatau Tiri. She was predescased by her husband of 58 years Sebastian uh Buddy Fiorell in 2018 and she lost two brothers during World War II and and she also has lost three other brothers and sister born in 32 um and was raised in Manhattan and a family moved to Benson when she was young. She worked as the mimic room at the Jamman's Corporation in Manhattan and she and Buddy her husband Buddy were married and settled in Queens where they raised her. uh seeking to be closer to her family and grandchildren. Uh she and Buddy moved to Madison where she lived for the past 20 years building those special friendships especially spending time with friends and family in the uh quiet hours spent solving puzzles playing bingo at Chatto theory and shuffle boards club. So let us take a moment to remember Carl Hes Luis Sinnelli and Jose Josephine Phil and let's pass our thoughts on the family and friends that they leave behind. Thank you. And there is no minutes for so welcome all. I want to thank uh Council President John Forte for covering the last meeting while I was out in Portland, Oregon for some quality grandwater time. We appreciate it. Um, and it should be noted that two two minutes ago I made the comment that we were digging out of the largest storm in about a decade. Well, that qualifier did not last too long. That's for sure. Um, the as this one eclipse that by quite a bit. Um, and the timing of the intensity of the storm made for an extra challenge as the storm was ramping up while most of us were heading to a long winter's

nap. But our DPW crew were heading to keep our keeping our streets clear. And as I drove around this afternoon, I saw clear pavement on all the roads I saw. There is a lot more work to be done and they will be heading out to widen the roads, clear the downtown, and reclaim spaces in our parking lots. The good news is the worst of the wind really did miss uh and miss us, but our electric department linemen were were ready had there been any outages. But to put this in um perspective, uh JCPNL at peak repo reported 135,000 out outages. Madison reported zero. Um and police, fire, and EMTs were all ready to respond to any needs. So, thank you all for uh for their dedication and more to come in the uh we hours over the next couple of days. And so, here we are with another virtual meeting within the month. And um bad news is the groundhog did see a shadow earlier this month, but uh rest assured spring is on its way. Um and a couple other business things. We are ready to share a proposed concept for re reconstructed Waverly Place. We have a stakeholders uh meeting scheduled which will include downtown business owners and uh and property owners. Um this will be followed by a um open town hall meeting uh on set for Monday, March 30th at 7 p.m. This will be a similar format to our last one which we did for our housing and development town hall. We'll present the background and the proposed plan followed by a question period from the public and then overall uh public comment. The burough council will be in attendance and there will be a discussion by the uh council but no final decisions will be at the meeting.

We'll just take all the input and uh go from there. And shifting gears from the library, the library's foot traffic has been very good since reopening the main building in April of 2025. In January, there were over 7,000 visitors, which is about the same before construction. And during January, 62 Madison residents registered for library cards. And in January and also had over 19,000 total circulations and renewals during the month. A busy time for the library. And as an agenda update, uh there was a referral from the planning board for the introduction ordinance related to the redevelopment plan for DALA 3. Um that that ordinance which was listed on the agenda, the number will be retired because it's still being worked on and that'll come back for introduction at the March 9th meeting. And that's all I have. So, let's go to reports from committee. Um, community affairs, council president Forte. Thank you, Mayor. From the downtown development commission. Um, applications for the 2026 season of the Madison Farm and Artisan Market are going out uh have gone out and new vendors can request the information by emailing Lisa Ellis at ddc.rosenet.org. From the Chamber of Commerce, Easter Funfest is scheduled for Saturday, March 28th. And from the Madison Community Arts Center, every Tuesday from 1 to 4 PM, seniors play Ma Jang and Canasta. So for those interested, please stop by. Um and um tonight, uh I think I hope it's still happening. Uh they were having a nature of reading uh the nature of reading uh

was presenting how burdening can change the world. That was at 7 tonight. Uh don't know if it was rescheduled. Um and then um Wednesday of this week, show us your shorts, which is every fourth Wednesday at the community arts center. Local film members submit and show their short films. That's all I have tonight. Mayor, thank you very much. Public safety, Mr. Lander.

Thank you, Mayor. uh from the police department. On February 19th, the Madison Police Officers met with Project Community Pride at the Madison Community House as part of their quarterly bagels and brainstorming meeting. Officers from Floren Park, Chattam Burough, and Chattam Township were also in attendance. The group discussed upcoming community events and planned presentations on ebike safety, including an overview of the new law to be presented at the Madison Junior School. Today, February 23rd, the Madison patrol officers participated in goal zero enforcement campaign as part of a coordinated countywide traffic safety initiative. The operation focused on proactive enforcement uh targeting speeding, distractive driving, and other behaviors that contributed to serious vehicle safety crashes. The campaign fa emphasizes high visibility enforcement and public awareness. The police department will be conducting their firearms qualification refresher on two days this week, Tuesday and Thursday. They have already completed today's course. This is the first of four qualifications in 2026. The Madison Police Department is researching the development and potential use of an America 250 commemorative patch for display on patrol vehicles during 2026 in recognition of the nation's 250th anniversary. More on this to come. And I would just like to mention two shout outs I'll say to the police and fire department. During the storm um we had a medical call here at Rose Hall. They responded in less than five minutes and then also there was a lockout for one of the tenants here and they also responded to that in the middle of the storm. So shout out to them for their quick response during these hard times. Uh thank you mayor.

That's it. Thank you and finance clerk Mr. Range.

Thank you mayor. This evening we'll have our fifth hearing on the budget as part of our budget review process. We have previously discussed capital, public works, the electric utility, and the water utility. At the last meeting, we had our first look at the municipal budget and a presentation from the fire department. Tonight, the council and the public will hear from other department heads. The plea, the police department, library, and engineering will be talking about their goals, objectives, and capital needs moving forward. On March 9th, which is our next council meeting, we'll have a presentation from the construction department. And on March uh 23rd, we'll have a budget hearing, a review of the uh financial strategic planning guidelines, and an introduction of the official state budget document. Later this evening, the council will be asked to approve the bill list, which is something we do every meeting. Uh this one however includes over $9 million in payments for various vendors and entities. This is an unusually large bill list due to some significant payments. First is a $3.2 million payment to the county for the first quarter uh county tax as well as the county open space assessment. This bill list also includes uh a payment to the board of education for over $5 million for their monthly share of property taxes. Um so that accounts for the unusually large bill payment uh tonight. And then lastly from the tax collector this evening, a very short report. Uh the tax quarter closed earlier this month and delinquent notices have been sent for those uh delinquent taxes about two weeks ago. If you have questions concerning your tax bill, please contact the tax collector ASAP to resolve those outstanding

issues. Thank you. That's all. And just a quick update since we are remote that uh Russ Brown is able to join us tonight. So, uh, we have added, uh, building department back into the, um, into the presentation tonight. Thank you for correcting that, mayor. Thank you. I didn't want Russ to be be thinking that, uh, we forgot about it. Um, and let's go to uh, public works and engineering, Mr. H. Plutus.

Okay. Thank you, mayor. Hello, fellow council and members of the community. Uh, DPW ended up having a much busier month than they had anticipated. Like the mayor said, we had our second storm of second massive storm of the season. Uh, the first crew came in a little after 5:00 p.m. yesterday on Sunday to begin salting the roads. You might have noticed the Brian insult around. And then additional manpower came in around 8:00 PM to begin plowing. The entire DPW, roads, parks, mechanical services, sewer, and water have been plowing pretty much since 8:00 10:00 last night. No, 8:00, sorry. Uh, multiple passes on the burough roads. The snow was coming down, like we all know, 2 to 3 in an hour. We got anywhere from 15 to 18 in around town. Uh along with plowing the roads, they've been clearing the burough owned sidewalks, train station lot on Kings Road, Green Avenue lot, Waverly Green, Cook Avenue, commuter lots are still in the process of being cleared right now. The crews are going to continue this week until all the roads and commuter lots are cleared. Uh tomorrow morning, Tuesday, they're going to continue clearing all the parking lots and and more side roads. Uh we're asking the residents and property owners to please clear their sidewalks now that the snow is stopped so that people can walk safely on the sidewalks and not in the street. Also, we ask property owners to uh if they if they have a fire hydrant in front of their home to please clear the fire hydrant so that the fire department can get quick access to it. And last, please do not throw, blow, or dump your snow into the roadway because it could cause a hazardous condition. Um, in addition to that, uh, there was a lot of winter events that the DPW has

handled since the last meeting and a couple of, uh, sewer, uh, repair storm drains. Uh, the our town mechanics have been doing mechanical servicing on our maintenance vehicles, snow plows, sort salt spreaders, and the like. Uh, the parks crew has begun painting the bathrooms at all the recreation fields starting with Dodgefield and the MRC. I actually saw the men's room at uh Dodge this past week and it looks like a brand new bathroom and it now has a handicap personal bathroom added to it. I think they did the same on the women's side. There was a water main break on the east side of town and the DPW assisted in repairing that. uh for the community uh to make note, uh curbside yard waste collection is scheduled to resume the week of March 2nd, which is next week. So, I don't know what yard waste everybody's going to be picking up, but if you have a bag of something, I guess some there's going to be a truck coming by to grab it. Uh very quick mayor from the MEC the event that John mentioned before. John did you mention there was event at the library or at the at the um where is the event being held? They had a soldout event how birding can change the world. It was supposed to be held tonight at 7 o'clock but it's being rescheduled to the second week of second Monday of March. They had a 100 people signed up to hear local nature experts talk about how falling in love with birds creates a deeper connection to nature. The event is a partnership with the nature of reading bookshop inspired by Trish Oka's memoir birding to change the world. Birds rescued this author from a deep depression after she lost her house in Hurricane Katrina. Later, the birds

helped her save a park in Madison in Wisconsin with an activism handbook reminiscent of that employed by friends of the Drew Forest right here in Madison. There was guest speakers who will be rescheduled also. RJ Cercio is an ecologist, Drew 17 grad Ted Tedar Whitman and the director of Corora Hartzman Arborita in Short Hills and Bridget Daly was going to be speaking. Um, one of the topics was something the mayor's brought up many times about doing minimal fall cleanup, leaving seeds around and leaves and birds will have more food to forge from in the winter months when the there's snow ground cover. And quickly also from the shade tree management board. Uh in consideration of the past two years of summer heat and drought, the shade tree management board is exploring ways to supplement the DPW watering of the newly planted street trees. Uh Drew Professor uh Yan is the professor's name has updated a study on Madison's tree canopy. It's a work uh that's continuing on which was previously done by Drew Professor Lisa Jordan. Professor Yan's recent analysis indicates that Madison's current tree canopy covers 43.8% of Madison. It's indicating that over the years there has been a steady decrease in total tree canopy. So why we're not replacing the loss of mature canopy trees has to be studied. Uh, one idea is to offer the planting of new trees beyond the right of way on burough property and it would be where the public's own property and we would plant a tree there. Uh, that would be much smaller if it was planted along the street line and after two years it would be the homeowner's tree that they would own, not the town's tree along the street. And that's it. Mayor, one one thing, Mayor, you didn't, and

yet you didn't have to, but we didn't give a shout out to our local Devils hockey player, uh, Jack Hughes, who helped win the gold. I don't know if all of us watched the the men's hockey game or the women's hockey game. They were both amazing. Yeah. So proud of our athletes. And this the speech that he gave at the end, uh, he was not a speech, but he was interviewed. I don't know if anybody saw that. It was, uh, very moving. Yep. Yeah. I I was thinking of saying something. So, thank you for uh mentioning that. Yeah. Sure. Sure. But both games uh great to watch and made us proud. Yep. And let's move on to utilities, Miss Hanahan. Thank you. And I hope we have all of our teeth unlike Jack.

Oh my gosh.

Um for utilities, thank you to Vincent Patty and his team for really preparing well for the storm. Um over the last two weeks, the electric part department has had a class on lockout tagout, which is control of hazardous energy. Um multiple standby calls for icicles hanging on power lines um and emergency markup outs. The electric responded to Green Village Road by Sunday Motor for a fire on top of a pole. a wire was on fire and the electric department replaced that um with no issues. And you may have noticed around um 9:30 uh there was a JCPNL uh disturbance on the 18th of one of the 34K lines and there was a flicker in everybody's lights. Um, but there was no power outage uh from that event. And they continue to respond to calls, completing markouts, street light repairs, and daily substation inspections and readings. That's it. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you very much. And now, health, Miss Cohen.

Thank you, Mayor. As New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection is reporting an increase in migratory birds dying from suspected bird flu, the health department would like to remind residents how to properly dispose of a dead bird. If a dead bird is found on your property, you can use a shovel to pick it up and place it in a double bag trash bag that is securely tied. Be sure to wear disposable gloves and a mask. Never use your bare hands. Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and wash your clothes in hot water. You can disinfect the ground or shovel using a cup of bleach mixed with one gallon of water. Bleach must have a contact time of 10 minutes to be effective. Hopefully, we don't run into too many of those. The health department is hosting a consumer goods lead screening event this Thursday, the February 26th, from 12 to 2 at the Summit Public Library located at 75 Maple Street. The event is free and walk-ins are welcome. A new session session of project healthy bones will be starting on 2:24 tomorrow and will run for 24 weeks on Tuesdays from 10:30 to 12:30 at the Rexford Tucker Apartments. This program is for adults with or at risk of osteoporosis or osteopenia. To register, please contact Amy Lewis, health educator, at a lewisfieldj.gov or by phone at 908789-470. That's it. Mayor,

thank you. Just want to uh add one other thing that uh didn't want to forget to mention. If if anyone went through town late this morning, hopefully afternoon when the uh travel ban was lifted, you saw virtually every store closed. Uh but one operation opened up and that was uh Romanelli's Dominic Romanelli opened up his restaurant primarily to make sure that uh our DPW fire department um police department and electric crews all had lunch after putting in uh so many hours. So thank you for to Dominic for doing that. And uh move on to communications and petitions.

Uh yes, mayor. Mayor and council received several emails from resident Elen Battello of South Oak Court regarding the road conditions and overflow parking on South Oak Court. That's it.

Thank you. And now we go on to our first of uh two invitations for public comment. This is limited to items that are on our agenda discussion and also the resolutions that are present or part of the consent agenda. want to comment on any other topic that will come up later in the meeting. The agenda discussion tonight, as you already heard, is a budget hearing for the police department, library, uh, engineering, land use, and building code. Uh, and these are the resolutions that you can comment on. These will also be part of the consent agenda at the end of the meeting. Resolution 79 is um greenacres enabling uh resolution. Um, this is uh to increase our uh Greenacres funding for the MRC purchase to up to $6.57 million. This is an additional $1 million that will be coming from Green Acres to support that purchase. Uh, resolution 80 is authorizing purchase of two motorcycles uh for the mo police department. These are leased motorcycles. releases are coming up and um we will be buying that out and this not to exceed $27,920. Resolution 81 appointing Connor Benway at the position of perdm public safety telecommunication officer at the rate of $22 an hour 2250 an hour. Resolution uh appointing Dan Daniel Melo to the position of substitute crossing guard at rate of $22.54 an hour. Resolution 83 is approving raffle licenses for Tory J. Sabatini PTO for April 10th. Resolution 84 is authorizing execution of contract for water utility consulting services with MJG services. Uh resolution 85 authorizing use of Madison Recreation Center by the Environment Commission for stewardship

days April 10, 11, and 12. Uh resolution 86 confirming the membership of Timothy uh Gasales in the Madison Host Department Company. Uh and um resolution 87 approving temporary signs for the community pool membership registration. And this will be starting February 24th through May 26. Resolution 88 is authorizing special events permit for Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday events at James Park. Uh this is March 29th and um April 4th and this is for activities by the Methodist Church. Um resolution 89 accepting donation from Jan Fence for the police department of amount of $3,500 for a day to shine. community policing events and we thank Jan Penson for doing that. Resolution 90 is awarding construction contract for Shady Lawn Drive improvements uh to DS Meyer Enterprises the amount of 338,238.75 and this was a funded through ordinances 6 of 2025 and two 2026. Resolution 91 is awarding contract to Silia Selian Sons in the amount of $419,11.50 for uh Dogwood, East Street, Harwood and these are million overlay projects and this is also funded through ordinance 6 2025 and 226. Resolution 92 is authorizing a purchase of utility department vehicle under the Mars County Co-op and not to exceed 69,293 and this is being funded through operations. Resolution 93 is awarding contract for the white wayfinding and

signage program to MS signs in the amount of $135,530 and this is uh being funded through ordinance 2825 and funds through the through the ARPA program ARPA program. Resolution 94 ratifying appointment of Carter Rasmusen and Jack Bergdolf as part-time unpaid interns for Madison Burough Fire Department. resolution um oh I'm rolling into ordinances there and we have one more uh resolution which is uh resolution 95 awarding the professional services contract for left pools management of Greenbrook and this is to manage the staffing operations and and pool operations of the Madison community pool. So you may comment on any of those uh resolutions. Um if you wish to comment uh indicate by hitting the raise hand option on the uh in zoom, we will bring you up and we'll ask you to state your name and address and the the resolution you're commenting on or the agenda item and try to keep your comments at three minutes. And again, if you want to comment other topics, I'll be coming up shortly. Anyone wishing to comment, please raise a virtual hand. Seeing none, I close this part of the meeting and we move on to agenda discussions and it's our budget hearing. Pull up presentation and uh Jim, you're going to tee it off and then we'll hand it off to the department heads.

Uh ve very uh short tea off here, Mayor. Uh Councilman Range um outlined the proposed hearing schedule. We'll hear from some department heads this evening and then we'll be doing uh we'll be going back at the finance department to fully complete the state budget document. Um and then we'll have a presentation March 23rd. So without any further comment um and mayor you can drive the meeting from here if you want to and introduce the various department heads. Um first being Chief Misha. Yep. Chief welcome aboard. Thank you for coming out and again thank your uh staff for all the support through the storm.

Thank you mayor and um good evening everyone. Uh it definitely was a long day today. So um I would like to thank the governing body and um the burough administration for allowing me to present tonight on the uh police department overview. Um next slide or first slide uh staffing. This uh slide depicts our department staffing. departmental staffing. Uh as always, as you can see, the uniform um uh patrol division remains our our largest uh within the agency. Um and um you can see our different divisions that we have um patrol, investigative, traffic safety, community relations, and uh underneath just the uh total staffing that we have. Next slide. on the uh table of organization. Again, um this is the uh shows the direct line of authority from the chief on down. Uh if you look under each patrol squad, you'll see uh one sergeant, four officers, and a dispatcher assigned to each squad. We also have one officer who is currently uh who was just recently hired and is in the police academy, and he's slated to graduate on on June 1, and he's on the bottom left. Recruit Ramos. We also staff a uh officer in charge on each squad and um they're they're uh with the asterric uh next to it and the OIC basically uh just acts as a supervisor and uh ensures supervision and continuity uh at no added cost and that's in lie of the of the sergeant not being uh on shift that night. And you also see our detective bureau and traffic and and other units that we have. Next slide. Uh, annual statistics. Um, I know we have limited time, so I won't go over each and every one of them. Um, you know, the first one you see is calls for service, which is a number assigned to

an officer to, uh, when they complete a task. Calls for service, uh, we're up slightly, 6% in 2025. As you move down, you'll see some, uh, really proactive work by our officers. Um, motor vehicle stops up um, I'm sorry, motor vehicle stops up 18% in 2025 in a two-year span. You know, they're up 61%. Uh, traffic summones increased 100% uh, in one year and 2ear span over uh, 200%. Arrests were also up uh, 70% in 2025 and um, a 34% increase over 2 years. You know, as I've said in the past um in my past budget overviews, um you know, my vision uh increased self-initiated activity, proactive policing, it just makes our town safer. And you'll see the results in the next uh couple slides. Next slide. Um on this slide uh you will see um you know all the different all the different um uh crime reductions over uh several years. You'll see um two major uh on the in the past I'm sorry in the past two years some of the major uh crimes that were faced in our community u and really the northeast uh are drastically down in Madison since 2023. Motor uh motor vehicle thefts have gone down 85% in the 2-year span. Burglaries of motor vehicle, you can see are down uh 55% over 2 years. Thefts are down 52%. Uh assaults um down from 19 to 14 uh 26% which is really uh impressive. um you know the one um fraud you'll see it looks like it jumped up uh drastically

and really the the numbers look misleading from 24 to 25. Um those frauds were result of arrests um or incidents involving uh temp tags that were found on fraudulent temp tags found on vehicles. So, you know, it's just a really good job by our officers, proactive, not reactive, and it's just um driving, you know, these numbers down, which you could see. Next slide. Um I wanted to zero in on the arrive numbers, which uh has been tremendous for uh our town and really the entire county. Um we began to track the arrive call outs in 2024. And um for those of you here who do not know what Arrive is, it's the program which pairs a clinician with an officer for mental health calls. Um we had 90 calls in 2024 and 25 those calls almost doubled to uh an 88% increase to um 169. Um you know, one very important uh caveat of that is we had zero use of force incidents concerning any of those arrived dispatch calls. And if I remember my um last year my presentation, it was the same zero uh use of force calls concerning these arrive calls. And um also on this slide, you'll see overtime is down 50,000 from uh approximately 50,000 from 2024. You know, we've hired, as you heard tonight, we've we we keep investing in our uh in our dispatch um group that we have. We're hiring pdeiums to cover overtime, to cover uh um vacancies on the desk, uh whether it be vacation or sick sick outs. And um we have a recent officer, officer LGRA, who just graduated from the academy, so he's assigned to uh a patrol squad and push into service. And lastly, on the bottom of uh of this form, you'll see um the ATF uh ALPR

related occurrences. Um the reduction of the hits over the past 2 years. It's actually 81% less really fle uh reflects effective deterrence. Uh you know having fewer criminal vehicles operating in town relates to uh you know a decrease in crime as well. Uh next slide. Department training. Um you'll see some of the training uh that we had uh that were some mandatory over uh last year. Um you know as you know I'm dedicated to increased officer training. you know, some trainings on here include deescalation, mental health response, um, crisis intervention. So, I just wanted to thank the governing body, um, you know, for the ability to send our officers year in and year out. Next slide. As you know, we maintain a a strong, uh, community presence throughout town. You can see all the different community outreach that we have done in 2025. It's the list is actually getting bigger each year. Um and as a result, you know, I believe that we have built such great relationships with our stakeholders and uh community members by, you know, just interacting with them. And you know, you see the pictures on the bottom. Those were events over the last several years. Next slide. Uh as you can see, we did a lot in 2025. I'll touch on a uh on a few. You know, we expanded the arrive uh mental health coverage with an additional social worker. And you know, as I stated, responses and follow-ups nearly doubled in one in uh one year while improving early diversion and uh community safety. Uh as you saw the numbers, we had increased proactive policing uh which drove down crimes across multiple categories over a 2-year period. And we also uh strengthened uh the uh school safety by an additional fully funded resource uh officer uh funded by the board of ed. Next slide.

goals. Um I'm sorry, next one. Goals. Some goals to mention. Um we're uh you know, preparing the department for future leadership and and staffing needs through promotions, uh recruitment, uh you know, we're attending so many different uh events, uh law enforcement day, and um and men and arena. We're doing something in the next uh actually in March and ongoing professional development. Um we're also in the process of department reacredititation which is huge. Uh it's every three years and we're on track to complete that this year and um continuing to you know invest in the ALPR program through our yearly projects. And um next uh those are our accounts that we uh that we pull from. Those are all the different accounts operating salary and wages. uh our vehicle account. Next one please. So capital projects um you know each year we invest in uh as you can see we invest in bulletproof vests which are needed. 5 years uh is the end of life. So um we're on a constant rotation and um you know we also have uh money that we pull from uh from a grant that we apply every year. So, um I'm also committed to continuing our efforts on autotheft and other technology uh upgrade electronic upgrades as you see and um you know look into the future. We just have a couple uh couple things on the list uh or ENCR MDTS body worn cameras and car cameras are going to be coming up um for discussion soon. So, thank you.

Thank you, Chief. And um you know, one of the things that I think a lot of people in the community know, we've been recently named one of the 10 safest uh pls in the state, but uh which is something obviously very to uh good to be proud of, but I think one of the things that I haven't seen a um community development rating, but I think we would be way up there, too. And that's where safety and community development come handinand. When you have trust, you have community, you have uh safety. So, thank you. Yeah, we're definitely totally invested in our in our community and, you know, strengthening those uh those relationships, which uh I think we're doing a fantastic job. Um really really good job with that.

And uh Deb, just two quick things. Um first of all, thank you for the continued work on mental health, deescalation, special needs, arrive, autism, all of that. Um I think more communities need to follow our lead. Um so it's much appreciated. And then all my kids are now out of the house. Medication destruction. Is that can we do that anytime or is it only on specific days? Now anytime you can come in um you know obviously just uh come in, reach out, whatever. Uh we uh you know it's right in our front lobby. So we have the um the uh just throw it right in there. No, it's all it's all good. Thanks.

You got it. Any other uh comments or questions from uh council? Well, no. Uh John.

Yeah. So, just just a couple things. So, Chief, I just wanted to um congratulate you on some of the stats that you threw out there and I think what what's impressive to me is that your motor vehicle stops are up and and they're up dramatically, but your use of force is down. So the the I just want to draw this correlation because I think it's important right we're our department is interacting with the public on a one one onetoone basis more than they were previously but the use of force in incidents are down so that's a testament to sort of the training the the way you run the department and and the level of officers that we have in the Madison Police Department. I think it's good to point that out. Um, the other thing that I would just point out that struck struck out to me a little bit uh was the um the ALPR hits. You had I think a hundred in 2023 and you're down to about 20 now.

And that's also while you've added to the ALPR system. So you could infer you could you could guess that maybe you should be getting more hits, but I think the word is out that this is probably not the best place to be coming to if you want to do something nefarious uh and you know come in with a stolen car to steal another car in the middle of the night sort of thing. So, the numbers are dropping and I just think that those are that's just something else that I wanted to point out because I'm not sure everybody that's watching this tonight might pick up on that and it's important.

Yeah. You know, it um it definitely it goes with our you know, the omniresence of of our of our officers, right? They're, you know, whether they're interacting with um so many different people on uh you know, throughout dayshift, night shift, um they're very visible. Um, you know, so yeah, I wouldn't want to come in town either if I'm looking to do uh do something bad. You know, we're we're here. We're we're all around. And um you know, and on the first thing that you have mentioned, um you the use of force, you know, we're dealing with a lot more people, but we're also uh so much uh there's so much more training uh how to talk to people, the deescalation, um you know, and just treating people, you know, like like we want to be treated, you know. So, you know, a lot of things can be done uh through words and um yeah, you know, the numbers uh the numbers don't lie.

Thank you. Thank you. We'll go to Tom and then Eric. Thanks, Mayor. Uh thanks for being here, Chief, and for that comprehensive presentation. John already mentioned a lot of the things that I was going to comment on, so thanks, John. We don't want to waste too much time saying the same thing twice, but you're right. Spot on. Uh, another um compliment I was going to give you. I don't know how how how many people in the community know about the every 15 minutes um it's not called a presentation. It's a it's an enactment

around the the the high school about uh driving while under the influence. And it's a full-blown uh you know uh model. What do you call it? Chief, what would you say it is? It's a um I mean it's really, as you said, you know, basically a reenactment. It's um you know, of a drunk driver, drunk driving um fatality, tragic accident, and then how it affects the families. He you recruited people from the community, from this from the school district, parents and students to participate. Uh it's a great great little uh short video or a show if anybody ever wants to show it even to their younger.

It's on YouTube. It's on Yeah, I know. I saw it. It's available on YouTube. Very touching. So, and it was a lot of work and money to put it together. I don't know much money. Yeah, we have a Yeah, we have a group um Sergeant Glab, our our SRO's um you know, they do a fantastic job. They have a professional um you know, film crew basically and uh and makeup crew that come in and um they really do a good job. It really hits home. Uh we do a um you know a mock trial and um you know death notifications it's it's really you know it really hits home. We do it every other year. Yeah. So um it's sad that it's a reality that we have to deal with too. Yeah.

But uh you know I think adults and children and students learn from it. No doubt. Everything else is great. Thanks Chief. Keep us safe. Thank you. And Eric.

Thanks Mayor. Uh, thanks Chief for for reminding us of all the great work that you and the department do. Um, since it came up a couple of times in the presentation and in some of John's comments, it may be worth um just for the public's benefit of explaining what ALPR stands for. Um, and then there for those that do know what an ALPR is. Um, I know recently, especially with the um the Super Bowl ad with Ring cameras and our friend Milo the Lost Dog, there's been some concern about kind of surveilling and our is our system connected to Flock and there's a lot of uh consternation about Flock and and and that company and just so talk a little bit about the safeguards that we have and um you know that we're obviously not associated with lock um and and and what you know things that the the public may want to know around our systems and the protections.

Yep. Yeah. The ALPRs are um automated license plate recognition cameras ALPR and um they uh they're basically set uh they have different settings. you know, one obviously our setting is um you know, hits on a stolen vehicle, stolen license plate. Uh it doesn't hit on on on Yeah, those are really the the main um flags. So what we found through just historically um when our numbers were really high with uh motor vehicle thefts and burglaries and just criminal activity and really the whole um it ended up being a whole countywide project and moving statewide and um but we were we were definitely one of the pilot programs here with the ALPRS but um you know we we found that most of the vehicles that were if not all that were coming to town to uh engage in criminal activity were either they're operating a stolen vehicle or um you know coming in to steal one car and and dropping the uh the stolen car. So um so that was one of the alerts and um you know we have a whole I'm not going to go into it but we have a whole uh you know process to how we deal with that when they do come through town. um as far as the uh you know the the the the data that um is you know that we see and that is uh um you know it's it's highly regulated. It's um it's held up at the department of um uh public safety up at the county. um you know we have audits so um we're not uh associated with with ring or you know the uh flock and all the other stuff you know this is um you know uh law enforcement uh material and equipment um and only for for law enforcement here

thanks chief thank you thank you chief uh no other questions or comments we'll move on to the next presentation and uh Russ Brown construction department. Hi everybody. Can you hear me? We can. Yep. All right. Sounds good.

Um we can go to the first slide. This is really the 2025 accomplishments of the department. Right. The first the first two numbers are the permit revenues. Uh the 834,000 is what is realized by Madison. Um another nearly 59,000 is distributed to the state. Uh that's their portion of the permit. Uh value of construction that's always a little bit skewed. No one ever puts their actual cost or actual value of their because it relates to their permit. Um the other two numbers are uh just various fees that the is passed through the department. Um, some of the administrative staff collects COA fees. There's also water, sewer, and now electric fees that are collected and moved on. Um, last year we did a little over 7,000 inspections, um, a thousand certificates and and the 1,800 permits. I'd like to just kind of highlight that for a second and give a little shout out to the administrative staff. I mean if I wish I could convey how much work goes into issuing a permit verifying the uh the various prior approvals and on the same on the back end that everything has been completed um another 500 opal requests we have one person that does this now this is shared between Madison and Chadam but it's a it's a monumental task and I just like to note that we did this while uh while we moved the entire office we relocated this year Um, so there was a big thanks to DPW, certainly Louis Amarado and Michael Plesia. I don't think we could have pulled it off without them. We did it all inhouse. There was no interruption in service. Um, and it just went very very well. So thanks to everybody for that. Um, if we could change slides. This is just a continuation of the accomplishments. It's various projects that were uh were

done last year. Um, one that caught my eye was 22 new single family and two family. That's 22 new houses between Madison and Chadam. It just seems, you know, there's so much going on in town. We had a couple of larger buildings. We did a a major apartment building in Chadam, 246 Main Street, and a couple fit outs on the on the right side of the the slide there. Um, couple of the bigger ones were uh the VCA Animal Hospital. If anybody have seen that, it's it's a beautiful fit out but very large. And Riker Danzig was another large one up at Geralda Farms. We could hit the next slide. Some of the things that were projects that are going to be completed this year that we're we're kicking off. Uh Mattaline Housing is is another apartment building that'll be going in Chattam. Um, 30 Central is is underway. I'm sure everyone has seen that. HDM will be an exciting one to see. Um, yeah, this just some of the other stuff that's going on that we're looking forward to. We could hit the next one. These are the standard uh our budget comments. You know, our the off our permit fees offset our our budget. Um, and we allocated money for the state mandate of electronic plan review. I think AJ and the IT department has come up with a solution for that that we'll be in moving forward with. Um, I hopefully when I get back to work would be great. And that about sums up 2025 for the building department of Madison. Thank you, Russ. It's obviously another busy year and uh to reinforce the incredible uh the fact that everything kept on running smoothly despite having to move

from one building to another and uh that is incredible. So job well done. It's a great group of people. That was a record bus Russ couldn't be any faster than that but thorough. Thank you very much once I take the time to read through everything. There's a lot of a lot of detail there. A lot of accomplishments. So, you touched briefly on the construction at the board of ed, but was there a lot of projects that they completed in 2005? There was there was a fair amount. And and again, I'm I'm I haven't been to work in two weeks. I've had Oh, okay. Sorry.

Yeah. Some surgery going on, so I didn't, you know, Amy Gley pulled this together on her own. One of the lines I like to include is is the fees that are waved. Um, yeah, there's a fair amount that, you know, there's still the work still goes on, but the revenue wasn't realized. Um, so yeah, there was a there was a bunch of work done at the high school quite a bit. Uh, some interior offices, some rooftop HVAC units. Um, bathrooms were done at the junior school as well as as um Tory J. So, you know, we're under construction on Kings Road as well in addition on Central Avenue. Yeah, there's there's there's a lot going on there. Yeah, that's a lot to expect.

Certainly is. Yes, sir. So, with regards to the permit revenues, they were like 830,000. Is that I mean, they could change so much every year, I guess, depending on the size of projects. So, absolutely. Yeah, it depends on But we we run right around there. Right around a million dollars somewhere around there, right? Yes, sir. And what do we have coming up this year? Anything big? Well, we have uh like I said, we we've got the the apartments going over in Chadam. Um yeah, what else do we have on here? The mosque is the mosque doesn't pay fees. No, the mosque paid fees, but that was Yeah. last year when the permits were issued, but we're looking to complete it this year. Mhm.

Um Madison Golf Club, that'll be that'll be pretty significant again with with Madison schools. They're not doesn't help with the revenue. Yeah. The solar panel project on Walnut Street, again, another waved and of course Harley Dodge. They Dodge another another wave, you know. So, okay. Hey, you have a lot on your plate, Russ. Thank you very much. Hope you're feeling better. Abs. I'm great. Thank you. Okay. Right. Any other comments or questions? And Russ, thank you for carving out time and again reinforce what Tom just said to best on your recovery and thank you for joining us tonight.

I appreciate you letting me present from home. You guys have a great pleasure. I'm getting spoiled. We'll go to the library. We got uh Lynn Favro, the director. I know we have a couple of uh tr board of trustees also logged in here. Lynn,

thank you. Good evening everyone. Uh and thank you so much for letting us address you tonight. Um I wanted to start by saying that at our at our January 15th uh board meeting, the library board of trustees approved a new slate of executive board members. Our new board president is David Lubber and our new treasurer is Joseph Riapel. Both of whom will be joining me tonight uh to present. And uh while our longtime board President Thomas Bentinger has stepped down from an executive position, he will continue to serve as a member of the library board. And I'd like to take this opportunity to acknowledge Tom's enormous contribution to the Madison Library over the years and to say what a pleasure it's been to work with him as our board president. And we're all looking forward to our new ongoing relationship. So, uh, next slide, please. Okay. So, we began construction back in November of 2023 and our primary goal in 2025 was to complete the project and reopen the main library building to the public. We were very proud to open the doors on April 31st and we hosted an official reopening celebration on June 1st. In addition to the many improvements to the building itself, we replaced most of the furniture with more flexible modern options, made some landscaping improvements, and created a new children's patio. And once our Chase auditorium was no longer in use as a temporary library and with funding from the friends of the library, we were able to replace its outdated audiovisisual technology which has significantly improved the quality of program presentations for audiences and presenters. And finally, we began the process of developing a new strategic plan by analyzing our old one and assessing the impact of our new spaces on patron needs and behaviors. Uh, next slide, please.

We separate our circulation statistics as you can see into the non-digital items uh physical things that people check out and digital items um elements that are checked out electronically like ebooks and e audiobooks and so on. And we do this because the two categories behave quite differently. Uh we can see here that certain trends are holding true even with the reduced collections we had during construction. While physical materials continue to be a very important part of library offerings, electronic materials are gaining rapidly in popularity. This isn't just a local trend, it's a global one, and it shows no signs of slowing down. Programs represent another important part of our offerings, and our staff worked very hard to keep programming going during our construction project, either virtually or in person at local off-site locations. We also worked very hard to broaden our outreach to local schools, colleges, and senior residences. Our return to the main building brought programming back home, and our summer reading program had one of the highest levels of participation in many years. And finally, we registered many new patrons in 2025, and we were able to finally fill several part-time staffing positions that had remained vacant during construction. Next slide, please. In 2026, we have several broad goals. We will develop and complete a new strategic plan with a focus on both library services and continued physical improvements to the campus. In technology, we'll upgrade our security capabilities and assess our long range plans for scalability and future needs. We've already scheduled several events for the New Jersey 250th celebrations and will continue to partner with local

organizations to observe this important anniversary throughout the year. Finally, we plan a thorough cyclical review of our personnel manual to ensure that it remains in compliance and continues to support our staff. And now, our board treasurer, Joseph Riapel, will discuss our 2026 budget. I know he's on here. There he is. On mute.

There we go. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Lynn. Um, as we began preparing this budget, we were mindful of the overall financial position of the library. The first item of importance was the $250,000 increase in the third of a mill statutory appropriation. We then looked carefully at several expenditure areas and needed to ensure that we adequately provided for those in the budget while being mindful that we need to rebuild our reserve for capital improvements after the recent renovation. Specifically, there are substantial increases in several key areas, including statutory benefits, GIF costs, operating expenses and maintenance, insurance, utilities, and other professional services. We also made the necessary staffing modifications to bring us to the needed level for full operating hours. Next slide, please. In our personal services category, we plan for the following increases for the statutory benefits component. An increase of approximately 13% in PERS and social security expenses and an increase of approximately 25% in health dental insurance costs. For GIF, we anticipate a cost increase. We also see projected increases in several key operating expense areas, including a 24% in buildings and grounds maintenance, a 13% increase utilities, and a prudent increase in funding legal and accounting services. We're also responding to the increasing demand by our patrons of digital media by increasing funding for that growing element of our collection. Next slide, please. We are fortunate to have additional resources of a healthy endowment and

active friends group to supplement the bureau's financial support. We have budgeted a combined 15% increase in funding from these two sources to assist in providing the high level of service that our community has come to expect from the Madison Public Library. And now our board president, David Luber, will discuss the recent library construction project and our future capital plans. Um this time last year almost two months to the day before we reopened we had estimated that the final cost of the project would come in at $3 92 1 million. The actual final cost came in $5,722 higher. Of the 3.9 million plus spent, 913,974 was funded by the 2017 state library bond issue and four $456,987 was funded by the burrow for which we thank you. The remaining $2,555,761 came out of the libraryies capital funds, which is why Joe noted that we now need to rebuild our capital reserve. If you've not visited the library since we reopened, and I'm speaking to the public as well as to the council, please do. I think you will agree that the upgrade was worth the money we collectibly spent. Next slide, please. Um, it's kind of blank, but the 200,000 for

2028 is really just a place to holder. We know that we need to upgrade the courtyard and fountain, but exactly what that means and whether we will need your uh help from the burrow and if so, how much will be addressed as part of our strategic planning effort. Are there any questions for any of us?

Thank you, Dave. Thank you, Joe and Lynn. Um, just to uh reinforce Lynn's comments that uh you know, Tom uh thank you so much for your many years of uh being president. I think you've been president of the board of trustees my whole time as mayor and people know that's a long time. So thank you for your dedication and uh it should not be forgotten that you just started a new term. So your dedication continues. Uh a lot of great things are going on at the library and um so this was a very thorough presentation. I think just one quick uh clarification thing. Um I don't know if there's uh anyone mentioned what GIF is. Most of the people in public may not know it is the joint insurance fund. So that's u what that covers. Uh, with that we Bob Landeran.

Okay, this isn't so much a question. It's just a comment about the way the library operates now. I was in there recently with a friend from another town. Um, and he needed to do some work. You know, we needed to get on the internet and it needed to be in private. The study rooms or private rooms that you have there to work in are phenomenal. I could see the improvements that were made in the furniture and the layout of the library. It's truly an amazing place. Uh he and I were both very impressed, especially him because his town didn't have a library such as this. So, I just wanted to thank you for all the work that was done in that library to keep up that good service. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah.

Any other questions or comments from the Tom?

So, Lynn, thank you very much. Your thorough presentation. You're you're always just so organized. you and and your you know um tireless volunteers. It's not an easy building to run and that construction project took a lot of effort. I remember when I was one of your trustees for however long it was and Mayor Bob was there is just constantly going over the projects and budgeting and making sure that everything was done right. And it's a great building. I hope a lot of the community will actually somehow be um made more aware of what's there and they can go and appreciate it and use it. And if I recall correctly, the library maybe next to the YMCA, I don't know the comparison, is the most frequently visited uh public building in the town. Does that sound right, Lynn?

It does. It does

still. Okay. So that so there's obviously great asset to the community. Um and so and you changed the model of the library. It's not just a place to go and take out books and use a computer. Now the the services that are available to the community are phenomenal. It's not enough time tonight to go over it, but hopefully you can get some press and get a message out to the community so they start to to use it more. And it's a great new great addition and you did it right around budget. You didn't go too crazy. I know that the burrow helped which is great. That's our obligation. It's a public building. So thanks again to you to Dave Tom Bittinger like Mayor Bob said it's just been a great board president for such a long time. Hopefully he's going to stay around and help you too and nice to see you Joe. I I don't know if we ever personally but thanks. It's a lot to organize.

Thanks Tom. Sure. Any other comments or questions from the council? All right. Thank you. Great presentation and um we'll wrap up now. Engineering and land use services. Thank you. We got Thank you, James. Dennis.

All right. Good evening. Um James Savage and I'm joined with Dennis Harrington um the burough engineer. Dennis is our assistant burough engineer and planning board engineer and zoning uh officer. And also Bonnie's in our staff and we're in a little bit of transition. We had a gentleman for 24 years retire. He was our uh deputy zoning officer and uh technician. And recently, one of our capital project managers uh moved on. We're going to miss uh Ryan. And uh there's an opening in our department uh for an assistant engineer as we rebuild our staff. Um the team did great last year. Um one of the biggest projects that they helped coordinate was the uh MRC solar carport. Um I'd like Dennis, are you on?

Yes, I am. Hey Dennis, I'll let you I'd like you take the lead on the DOT projects.

Certainly. Certainly. Um the burrow was successful in securing grants for uh four roadways which have been bid recently and I think the award is on tonight. Mayor was awarded for Shady Lawn Drive. Uh and then Milan Overlay which is a reconstruction because there's some drainage work and curbing etc on Shady Lawn. uh and Milan overlay of Harwood Dogwood and East Street um which was awarded and both those projects came in under the engineers estimate. So we're in a good uh financialstead with the uh with the awarded money from the uh the DOT. Uh we also were awarded a grant for uh the Milan overlay of Spring Garden Ashlin and Toth Place if I pronounced it right. Um and um we have also of course uh done the road striping and ceiling uh improvements that we do annually through the Mars County co-op. Um, and that work was completed last year and we are planning on additional uh striping and crack sealing through the co-op again in 2026 um in in the amounts that you see there.

Yep. Um, moving along. Um, we had a tremendous project where we uh cleared uh 30-inch main blockage right at the end of our uh of our line was resulted in a a significant reduction in our uh reduced flow readings and what the burrow pays to the uh joint meeting. So that was a tremendous u savings that we identified an issue and uh we will be actively monitoring that as that goes on and uh working with the police uh chief Misha presented earlier uh and Captain Longo and patrolman Draco we uh have been meeting with them weekly if not uh every you know every two weeks on some substantial projects. So one is an imp improvement to the pedestrian crossing at Green Village Road in Wilmer. Morris County is just about to award a improvement to the one of the oldest traffic signals in Morris County and that's the Woodland and Green Village Road intersection with better improvements to Glenn Wild. So, we're really excited about that getting designed this year. And then working with the police team, uh we're working with uh consultants to improve the signalization at six intersections and uh evaluating the need for a traffic redevelopment at the Geralda Farms Madison A intersection. um all the while working with complete streets and there's a ton of other initiatives that the department and the police and that committee are working on. Next slide. And just on that, Jim, real quickly though, on the complete streets, we need to reestablish our schedule for those meetings. Uh, and several projects have been identified and we will continue to look at funding opportunities through the Department of Transportation uh for pedestrian safety focused projects, crosswalks, sidewalks, and intersection uh improvements.

Thanks, Dennis. Um, Dennis, why don't you talk talk on the trail since you've been actively managing those as well?

Yeah, the thanks Jim. Uh, the Memorial Park Trail uh phase three was been awarded last year. Um, we've had a a bit of a tough time getting it going because of the uh significant snowfall and the deep freeze that we had in January, but we expect that to be completed in the late spring of 2026. um Summer Hill Park Trail. We received a grant from uh the county as well for the design of that project to a local uh landscape architect uh squareacre studio. And that was part of a overall I think it was a five park um evaluation that Square Acre had done for the burrow last year to identify some improvements to several or five of the parks in the burrow. Summer Hill Park was one of them and that was the one we chose for the grant uh design application which we were awarded and kicked that off just a couple of weeks ago. uh the Dodgefield playground. I just uh that project was completed last year, not in 2025, but there there was some some hurdles that we had to uh to get over in order to receive the grant money from the Green Acres program, which was exceeded, I think it was $525,000. Um, and I want to mention and call out uh Russ Brown in the building department and Chris McDougall from uh the public works department. There was some creative work that was done and I believe Councilman Harold Lampudis mentioned the bathrooms and they were upgraded to a familyfriendly um configuration which was a requirement to receive the grant money. uh and they were uh they used their creativity and

local and our own forces completed the work which could have been a real sticking point uh because that when that um when that fieldhouse and those bathrooms were built and it wasn't that long ago about four years ago um it didn't include that familyfriendly um uh restroom because it wasn't a requirement but for a fully inclusive playground. You must have that. And they they put their heads together. They came up with a solution which was practical and was it was it was a a very collaborative and and a great service to the burrow and savings and uh that enabled us to get the $525,000 from the Green Acres program.

Thank you, Dennis. um moving into water system projects. Wellb was reconstructed uh very large effort to get that building uh up to speed and the other thing was they did this uh incredible carbon dioxide treatment which almost doubled our ability to uh pump water out of our aquifers into the Madison water system. We're also planning a tremendous effort um based on the Pas forever chemicals removal of our of our drinking water. um it would result in a large master plan and a pilot study on how to do that in the burrow. So that's um planned for this year um and also the long-term maintenance or replacements down the line depending on the analysis on the water tanks. So we're we're taking a hard look there. MS4 storm water compliance, we've always had to do this. However, the D has much more involved requirements. So we accomplished a heavy lift on our watershed inventory and GIS mapping. And this year we're planning on uh an analysis of our up-to-date uh storm water management system and working on improving it which would be due to the D at the end of next year. Um and Dennis if you want to touch briefly on the land use area.

Yeah, you see the um the numbers on the slide of the zoning permit applications which that 697 is pretty much a standard um over the last five years that I've been involved with them. number of zoning permit applications that we field every year. And considering that's in 240 working days, that's about three zoning applications per day that come in. Um planning board applications, there were several minor subdivisions and I think uh Russ Brown mentioned some of the some of the uh construction projects in town and in fact we've had several quite you know a bit of new homes built. Um these were mostly minor subdivisions, one lot into two. Um but also in the planning board applications, we had the Gerald to one uh redevelopment uh from the uh commercial use, office use to residential. Um and then we had uh of course we had the uh Dunkin Donuts application. They're going to be installing a drive-thru for convenience. uh similar to what we had with the um Starbucks application in the uh the Heler parking lot, the the Staples parking lot. Um zoning board applications, typically those are residential. We had a couple of uh uh uh infill applications. Um downtown we have the um uh the um yeah the H HQM project um for uh affordable housing on central a uh and then we have the tree applications which tree removal applications which are processed through the zoning department as well.

And in in our planning and zoning uh work, we provide support and assistance uh to the burrow and to the burough planning planners uh for the Geralda farms redevelopment as well as the Drew forest and potential development on the Drew campus as well.

Next slide. So, just want to highlight very quickly a couple photos of the heavy lift of managing and making sure that the burrow received uh a quality project uh with the large investment into the MRC solar carport last year. Uh next slide shows a schematic of u of the parking lot. You can see um right off the MRC wreck complex how large that solar array is and um there's an underside shot. They're bfacial so they can get energy from the top and bottom. It's a great great project for the burrow. Next slide.

In conjunction with that, Jim, we also milled and repaved that parking lot which was in need of it. Uh anyway, but with the installation of the solar carport, it the time was right to do that project and that was done through the co-op.

Yep. Um so we talked about the uh Dodgefield project and that's the record drawing, the final asbuilt that we did. Um there's a project to improve the grand stands at Madison Little League and Dennis shared with you uh the Memorial Memorial Park trail which we largely fund through grants. Um and that's going to show right there off Memorial Park uh the new trail when it's completed. Uh next slide. So looking ahead, um these are o the large overarching department goals, but we maintain the assets of the burrow predominantly um all of our infrastructure but buildings as well um as part of strategic planning and identifying like when to invest our our our dollars at the right time. So that's a heavy lift that we do constantly and we work with our um council liaison on that and other committees as well. public construction projects um like planning, bidding and uh awarding uh road construction or anything we do on our infrastructure is something that the department uh is constantly monitoring third party and private construction largely done through Dennis's work on the planning but overseeing um any sort of commercial site improvements uh communications equipment on our water tanks etc. the engine the department handles that complete and green streets we talked touched on earlier but um this is a large way to potentially get large state funding to make our burrow safer and better uh for cars and pedestrians utility development um we shared about some of the challenges or some of the headwinds coming for water but also monitoring and improving our electric infrastructure uh making sure that we can take what been working very well for the burrow for a very long time and continually improve improving it. Um the solar generation facility is one of them that helps offset our costs for uh for burough build owned buildings, land use boards and municipal land use um very involved behind the scenes and Dennis uh takes the takes uh much much of that workload um coordinating with all the

public board members and municipal professionals to make sure that Madison um stays or improves the way we all want it to do through that comprehensive process and the zoning ordinances. We're always looking for ways to make things better and more efficient for our residents. So, we look at our code constantly to find ways to make that better. Next slide, please. Um, environmental implementation. Uh, we work frequently with the climate action committee, sustainable medicine advisory committee, and Madison environmental commission. So, I just want to highlight that the department takes that uh committee partnership very seriously and uh we like to work with them and collaborate as best we can um on their efforts. Elmer Street is a parking lot that we are uh evaluating proposals as we speak to improve that section of town after a successful cookab park uh project in years prior. Rosedale soccer field uh re needs new grass uh or a better turf surface. So that's uh right on our top of our list in the department of uh bidding and trying to get done this year um to make that a better uh recreation facility for the burrow. Hartley Dodge takes up a good amount of our time because it's a very large investment uh in the burrows. Um and so we work with a lot of other professionals constantly on that renovation work. Um Waverly Place uh mayor uh talked about that earlier. we are working and helping uh the team on evaluating those schematics and then a lot of grant applications across the board. I won't go through each one but a lot of them touch engineering and ways that we can offset capital investments u with these grant uh dollars that are available. And the one one that's uh really important we're trying to get is for our su maintenance and lining in uh low and moderate income sections of town, which would be uh right off Main Street to the north, right by Dodgefield. We're hoping to reline about

2,000 ft uh this year through a successful grant application. Lastly, this is just a highlight of a lot of the projects we talked about and shared today. Um, nothing new on this slide and this is the things that engineering is going to be focused on in 26 and beyond. And with that last slide, I believe we're Oh, I'm sorry. Going through the budget here. Uh, just want to highlight um, we take a five-year strategic plan on the roads. Um, while doing that in a tighter, uh, capital environment. So the things that you see here um are especially the Shady Line project is what we're focusing on this year and the Elmer lot. Uh sometimes you see a small value and a and a larger value that is like the design uh portion of the project and then the construction we anticipate the following year. And uh through a a comprehensive asset management strategy, we tried to identify the next roads or streets that need paving or reconstruction or uh investment by the burrow. And this is an ongoing process. So um it can change, but this is a good uh synopsis of the road plan for the burrow as as it uh lies today.

Next, a quick comment on that. Um, as far as the burrow roads, periodically we contract with a third-party service which drives the streets of Madison and evaluates the roads with an automated service um to rate the roads as far as their condition. It's not subjective. This is this is a process uh of an automated system and um the roads get ranked as far as their condition and we will take a look at those rankings and with the mayor and council's uh blessing and involvement you know we will choose roads which have uh are in the greatest need and may you know serve the greatest number of drivers and residents um and you know try to you know do it jit iciously and still make um the best use of of the available funding whether it's local funding or if it might qualify for a grant application.

Um and last uh touch on roads, we did get uh contacted by Morris County. They are paving uh central a ridgel a this year. So we're going to get about a great from Main Street all the way to Floren Park uh a brand new road surface there. Uh next slide please. Million overlay. So smaller scopes u the highlighted ones that are shown are active uh either getting done this year or designed and then uh construction through a grant for next year. Um and we also uh are anticipating using leftover funds from the very successful um grant projects that were bid um and our capital to evaluate more milling and overlay throughout the bureau this year. Uh, one of note is Oak Court and there's several other candidates that uh, if we can uh, spend or encumber extra available capital, we'll do everything in our power this summer to make that happen. And again, it's a comprehensive process uh, choosing which streets need it the most. Uh, in addition to, sorry, uh, go back one slide. Um, in addition to sign, curb, sidewalk, all the striping and annual maintenance that uh helps delay or improve our our assets uh so we don't have to have these major reconstructions or milling over projects. We can extend them on our roads throughout the burrow. And uh we have a meeting coming up with PSEG. They've done a great job the last several years paving many roads uh for Madison. So, we're syncing up on their remaining work and what their uh what their capital plans look like. And that meeting is going to happen this this coming week. Next slide, please. Parks and wreck. Uh we work and support Zach Ellis and the team. Uh we budget uh field improvements that that can be various on an annual basis. Uh the major capital expenditure we're tracking is for ROSA. Um but minor things like improving the lights and making the environments better for players and and safer for residents. Uh parking and walking to facilities, things of that

nature. Engineering works. uh heavily with this department and the and the elected officials um on these initiatives. Next slide, please. Thank you.

All right, Jim and Dennis, great tag team there. A lot of things uh going on, obviously. So, thank you for all the work on that. Um couple of quick quick things. One um clarification for those that may be um the the county road you mentioned the only part of Ridgdale that's county road is from central to the farm park border. So that's uh so for those on ridale don't expect the county to be doing uh south of central avenue. Um the other thing which we saw on the project list which is an interesting one is old greenhouse lane which culde-sac but a road surface that has never been really uh kept up considering it's low traffic. Um and so I assume that that includes the engineering to figure out what what is going on in that area that causes that uh road surface to uh deteriorate so quickly. So thank you for all that. It's a lot of lot of projects. Uh Deb,

first of all, this all looks great, Dennis. I'm glad we finally have closed the book on Dodgefield as far as the grants are concerned. But the question I have, I didn't see it kind of anywhere. Greenwood, Fairview, Rosedale, that whole intersection, that's a nightmare because people don't do 25 miles an hour on any of those roads like they're supposed to and is high accident. Is there any thought to looking at something there? Yes, counciloman, you talking Fairview. Is this is Mars Place? No, no, no, no. Over Rosedale. So, um

Fair View, not Fairwood. So, the uh Rosedale, Fair View, Greenwood. Greenwood. Yes, we we had a a consultant take a look at that with some suggestions. That's the one by the by the um Route 24 in that intersection. Yeah. Cole Cole Park. Yep. Yep. Thanks. That would have been an easier way to describe it.

Yeah. They had a couple of easy easily implemented suggestions which we're going to be working with the police department uh and have them done. Um, I'm not sure if if there are if there's much geometric improvement that can be done with the with the New Jersey highway uh prox proximity there. Um, but yes, we are looking very closely at that to improve that the safety at that intersection. What about and Eric, I know I think you looked into this several years ago. Is it too tight for a roundabout or something similar to that that would help re-engineer it? And maybe

so said our previous burrow engineer. Yes, it would require taking land from the park as well as the residence at the corner of uh at the the the house at the corner there. So, and then on the other side, you're up against 24 and the embankments. Right. The state highway. Yeah. Other than all of those limitations, it's an ideal place for a roundabout. But all right. Well, fingers crossed that people slow down. Those were all my questions. Any other questions or comments, Tom?

So, thank you so much, uh, James Dennis. Dennis was wearing two hats for a while. So, you're a welcome addition to the team, James.

Give everybody a little more time to be very focused on the great projects you guys undertake. And I'm just going to throw this out there since on your overlay, that's the first time I had seen mention of any renovations or upgrades to the Elmer lot. I had mentioned to the mayor and previous council people that that might be a good spot to look at a multi-level parking deck. We do have a a congestion problem in town from time to time. We could use some more parking. I don't think we're going to have less people living in the burrow. Um Jim Bernett thinks we're going to have cars driving us downtown, dropping us off and then going back somewhere. or maybe we'll have the Jetson's option someday to move us around the burrow. But until that happens, we're lucky that there's a lot of residents and out of town people using the town for whatever. And I think we have at least an opportunity now if we're going to spend some money there, a million dollars, and maybe we should spend a little more. It could be a lot more to build the deck. At least something to think about. and then maybe you guys have some brainstorm ideas, pros and cons. I'm just throwing it out there as a as just something to think about.

Yeah, we we we did a quick analysis u we did the issues is the um people feel that parking lot's a lot bigger than it is because the private properties that surround it. So when you look at what the burrow actually owns um it is uh greatly reduced. So when you uh have a relatively small footprint and then have to do ramps and things like that, it would be a challenge and um it would be a exponential increase as you go from uh a uh reconstruction to a um I guess the rule of thumb used to be 30,000 a parking stall for a parking structure. It's probably 30 to 50 at this point. So,

sure,

but it's an investment. And anyway, any something's better than nothing, but at least Bob, I'm happy that you're thinking about it and uh you know, maybe Dennis and Jim and anybody else in on the committees would have some ideas of other options if that's not a good option. But I don't want to just keep kicking the can down the road cuz the 30 to 50 could be 50 to 70 someday and then you know we'll be in a bind cuz we're we're seeing more development downtown which is positive. I I think it's positive. More more retail establishments to visit. We are the coffee mecca of Morris County now for coffee houses in a good way. Hopefully they all do very well. The other thing I um I don't know when you're going to have this uh presentation on the Waverly uh redevelopment project. Uh before Vogle had participated with you, Mayor Bob and uh maybe Lisa Ellis was involved too. So I I don't know if Mr. Savage is going to be involved when you start talking to the stakeholders or who you're planning on including there.

Yeah. So it's the invite went out to uh property and business owners. Um there'll be a presentation by the um the firm we we hired arterial um and then gathering the feedback from the um from the stakeholders and we kind of the format will change a little bit when we go to the the broad uh uh town meeting style because that will be shoppers and those that live in Madison and maybe walk there as opposed to those that have a a business there.

Good. Thanks, Bob. Thanks again, guys. That was a great guy. You got a lot of work on your plate. Thank you.

And thanks, Mayor. So, uh, so Jim and Dennis, thank you very much for a very thorough presentation. Um, I think it's uh very helpful to understand just how much is going on. Um, just one thing jumps off the page just because it's coming right around the corner. Um, you mentioned the grandstand for Little League baseball. I just wanted to get a sense of uh how's that looking in terms of timing. I understand the weather right that what happened today with the snow certainly doesn't help I'm sure but if you could just give a little bit of an idea of sort of where that is and you know how if or how we'll be ready for the season appreciate it.

Yeah. Um so we worked alongside um recreation uh committee and Zach. So, initially, uh, our former, uh, capital projects manager, Ryan, was was helping. And then our building department also, uh, is a great resource. I believe we helped, uh, consult or review or assist in the footings. So, that had to go in. We wanted to see some progress. Um, but then the winter came and it's been a rough winter. So, there hasn't been, to my knowledge, any uh, further construction. So, as the snow is is going to melt, I'm anticipating into March. uh sync I personally have to synchronize up with the uh contractor. It was a little bit of a w support uh donation I believe uh the contractor was uh supporting the department pro bono or yeah the the field and the project. So coordinating like the burough own field and grandstand from the three players plus that contractor we have to get that done before the before baseball season. So, I feel good that it seems like as we ended 2025, the that was the the plan. Uh, but we do need to come out of this tough winter and circle the wagons to to push that one forward.

Appreciate it because uh I'm sure we're with opening day coming pretty soon, I'm sure we're going to get some questions around um you know what's going on down there. So, appreciate the color. Thanks, Jim. Sorry, I don't have a more in-depth uh update for you. Uh, but no, you you you gave the answer you have. I appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah. Any other questions or comments?

All right. Thank you very much. So, a lot of information has been shared with uh everyone tonight. So we will now move from uh budget hearing to ordinances for hearing. Will the clerk please read the statement? Yes. The ordinances scheduled for hearing were introduced by title and passed on their first reading at a regular meeting of the council held on February the 9th 2026. They were posted and filed according to law and copies were made available to the general public requesting save. I call up ordinances for second reading and ask the clerk to read set ordinance by title. Ordinance 7-2025.

Ordinance of the Bureau of Madison appropriating $20,000 from the general capital improvement fund as matching funds for the improvements to Rosedale soccer field. I open the hearing for ordinance 7. Anyone in the public wishing to comment, please click the raise hand and we will promote you. Seeing none, I close the hearing. Mayor, I move ordinance 72025. Second.

And uh just this is coupled with 180,000 from open space for a total of a $200,000 project which was already mentioned in the uh presentation from engineering. Any other comments? Okay. Roll call vote, please. Mr. Landan, yes. Mr. Range, yes. Miss Mr. Harold Pudis, yes. Miss Hanahan, yes. Mr. Forte, yes. Miss Cohen, yes.

I declare ordinance 7-2026 adopted and finally passed and ask the clerk to publish notice thereof newspaper and follow the ordinance accordance with the law. Ordinance 8-2025. Ordinance of the Burrow of Madison amending chapter 137 of the burough code entitled recreation establishing the municipal pool membership fees. I open the hearing on ordinance 8. Anyone in the uh public wishing to comment, please use the raised hand option. Seeing none, I close the hearing. Mayor, I move ordinance 8-2025.

Should it be 202? Yep. It's 2026. Sorry, I'm lit. I'm I'm literally reading what's in front of me. Amen. I'll second. I probably said the same thing when I called it up. Uh council discussion. Just just a note, mayor, if you don't mind. Yeah.

Um, a a resident had asked me about the fees and and I think it's important to note that if you sort of look at the escalation as you add people, you get a larger discount. So an individual and you know this is actually not too much unlike health insurance, right? An individual pays more. When you add a a spouse, you pay a little more but not double. If you add a family, you pay a little more but not triple. Um, and at some point a family plan for health insurance is it doesn't matter if you have three people on your family or you have 100 people in your family. The fee is the fee. So this kind of follows that same structure where the baseline for an individual is kind of higher per person than the two plan and then the family plan so on and so forth with some exceptions for like seniors and and whatnot. Um but that that escalation is very common in both pool fees and other things we see in our lives around health insurance and other things. So that would be worth mentioning. Thank you for clarifi and also a reminder that we have never done this before because up until this year the uh Madison community pool was an independent operation where the membership rates were set by the uh um corporation. So this is uh new for us by setting these. This does pretty much show um the trend that was there recently because the the goal is to keep this a self- sustaining operation. So that that also guides the um the rates. Um and I in some of the discussions with the committee have shared my experience from my few years with the YMCA and membership rates. Any further discussion? Uh John

Mayor I would just also mention um there have been many meetings now every Tuesday uh the committee's meeting and there's been a lot of discussion about the the fees. I mean a very thoughtful discussion with stakeholders on the committee representing uh multiple membership types and I think there's you know a lot of uh pain and consternation and uh let's call it healthy debate and and I think we landed in a very good spot around what the fees are. they make a lot of sense when you when you hear the different perspectives and I would just say that these are these are solid uh for 2026 and um you know the other thing I would say is we've said from the get-go this is a bit of an experiment we we've never done this before and we're doing our level best to get it right.

Thank you. Well said. Any other comments? Roll call vote please. Mr. Landeran. Yes. Mr. Range. Yes. Mr. Harland Pudis. Yes. Miss Hanahan. Yes. Mr. Forte. Yes. Miss. Cohen. Yes.

I declare ordinance 8-2026 adopted and finally pass. Ask the clerk to publish notice thereof newspaper and follow the ordinance accordance to the law. We are now on to our second of uh two invitations for public comment. This is when you may comment on any topic. Um rules are you try to keep your comments to three minutes, but we do give you a one minute grace period and then we'll ask you to stop at uh four minutes. Uh and when you uh if you want to comment, you use the raise hand feature. When you're promoted, please state your name and address. Um and do it slowly because we don't have a it doesn't help us for you to write it on a piece of paper at your home right now. So, we got to make sure we capture it and then we'll start your time. Anyone wishing to comment, please raise a hand. Colette,

good evening everyone. Um, I'm Colette Krescus. live at 7 Albright Circle and I want to thank the mayor and council for working towards a p public health ordinance to regulate the use of two-stroke gas leaf blowers and for equipping our DPW with safer and quieter quieter battery powered commercial equipment. Um I urge the council to pass an ordinance soon please. um that begins with a summer and winter moratorum then transitions to a year- round restriction on gas leaf blowers with a set period of time uh no more than 2 years. Um as a excuse me as a retired school nurse I want to emphasize that the air poll pollution noise and vibrations generated by gas powered leaf blowers po pose multiple hazards to human health. Um I will focus on the air pollution hazards in the interest of time. Uh gas leaf blower engines are highly inefficient and release harmful toxins into the air we all breathe. Um those toxins include carbon monoxide, formaldahhide, benzene, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons and particulate matter. Uh these pollution pollutants negatively impact the overall respiratory health, increase ha asthma risk and severity and are associated with numerous health outcomes including cancer, heart disease and dementia. Um, most at risk are people who operate gas leaf blowers, especially workers who use them regularly and for extended periods of time, and older adults, people with pre-existing medical conditions, and pregnant women, excuse me. And importantly uh they impact children uh who are highly

susceptible to these hazards because they breathe more air per pound of body weight per day than adults do. Thus they inhale more of the pollutants that are thrown into the air by this equipment. Children's vulnerabil vulnerability is further magnified because their lungs, ears, eyes and other organ systems are still developing making them inherently more sensitive to environmental hazards than or than adults. Excuse me. Uh lastly, the communities of Maplewood and Monontlair have been free of gas leaf blower since 2023 and it is working. Um our community deserves the same health protection. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Colette. And uh now Lucy, um since your full name is not written there, please make sure you start right off with your uh full name and address as you come on.

You may have unmuted the wrong person, your honor. Um no, we can we can hear you. We can hear you now. Oh, that's my iPad's name is Lucy.

Oh, this is Brian Mortonson. I'm sorry. The iPad's name is Lucy. Um, I'm Brian Mortonson from 18 Avenue in Madison. My apologies. Um, I just wanted to point out that these leaf blowers are oil burning leaf blowers. They're incorrectly termed as gas. They use an oil mix and when they pollute, they spew out oil residue onto the people who are operating them. and the people who are operating them have to breathe in the oil fumes. The term gas powered leaf blower is very misleading because they take an oil mix. You have to dilute the gas and the oil together. So, it's not just the regular gasoline fumes it's spitting out. It's oil. So, it's much worse for you than just a gas leaf blower. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Brian. And again, that's uh Ryan Mortonson on Myrtle Avenue, in case uh Liz, you missed that. Anyone else wishing to comment, please raise your hand. Nope. Okay. Uh Bridget Dy the hand. There we go. Sorry about that. Okay. Yep. There you go. Bridget, go ahead.

Bridget Dailyaly, 28 Keep Street. Um, I just want to echo the comments uh about the gas leaf blower ordinance uh being requested and encouraged. Um, I just want to make a couple points. One of which is that this ordinance is just focused on one tool, which is the one that poses the greatest public health danger. Um, and when it comes to gas leaf blowers, what happens in your yard does not stay in your yard. That pollution affects us all. Um, we can be proud that the bureau has taken the lead on this by recently equipping our DPW workers with electric blowers, batteries, and charging equipment, including portable power banks. Um, because limiting and then ultimately restricting the use of gas leaf blowers means landscaping workers will be safer during their workday regardless of employer. The towns of Maplewood and Montlair have been gas leaf blower free since 2023 and they are proud of the fact that um like I said their landscaping workers are safer during their workday regardless of who they work for. Um everyone who lives or works in Madison deserves the same public health protection. And um you know, one of the arguments that is made against restricting the use of gas leaf blowers is based on um short-term costs that would be incurred in switching. But I just have to say it's not acceptable to keep exposing the workers and community members to these proven health and safety risks on the premise that it's cheaper to keep using gas leaf blowers. Thank you.

Thank you, Bridget. Anyone else wishing to be heard? Please raise your hand. Uh, Colette, you can I cannot pull you up a second time. So, anyone else wishing to be heard, please raise a hand. All right, seeing none, I close this part of the meeting. Um, I did have a a meeting a couple weeks ago with uh council member Tom Harren Pus and uh Melissa Hanahan as chair and vice chair related to um public works engineering environmental commission. Um we talk about process of of um moving this forward. We will be reaching out to a couple of uh professional landscapers that do quite a bit bit of business in town um including one that is uh 100% electric and just to help help guide us in this process and obviously uh we are not starting from scratch that is the examples that were already been shared from uh Monontlair Maplewood and some other towns we can use for examples. So we are working on this and uh we'll be moving forward um in the coming weeks. So appreciate the uh comments. We now move on to introduction ordinances. Will the clerk please read the statement?

The ordinance is scheduled. Tom, did you want to add anything? You're you're muted.

I just wanted to comment on what Bridget just said about the DPW that they do have all they do have all their equipment there. They uh made a nice investment. the ME the environmental commission helped them get a grant to uh pay for this equipment. It cost approximately $20,000. They have uh I think five blowers and batteries that should last over the course of the day for their staff and they're going to start triing the equipment and we're going to have a real live assessment uh based on their professional you know perspective since they they work as hard as any of the landscapers in town doing that for the burough. So we are moving in that direction uh you know with our climate policies to at least make the burough work with greener practices. So we're moving that direction and the AMAC has been a big proponent of it too and I understand all the health concerns. There just a lot of things that we have to weigh and like Mayor Bob said we're going to be doing that soon.

Thank you for adding that. All right. Now we will move on to introduction ordinance. Will the clerk please read this statement? Ordinance is scheduled for first reading. Have a hearing date set for March the 9th, 2026. All will be published in the Madison Engle posted on the bulletin board and made available. Members of the public requesting copies. I call up ordinances for first reading. Ask the burough clerk to read ordinance by title. Just a reminder that ordinance 9-2026 which was related to redevelopment plan uh for 3 Galda has been pulled and that uh number will be retired. Um we will we anticipate that we'll be coming back at the next meeting on March 9th with the um with that with a new ordinance and new number. Ordinance 10-2026.

Ordinance of the Bureau of Madison to amend chapter 195-20 uh 46 land development article 8 affordable housing development fees. Mayor, I move ordinance 10-2026. Second.

Comments. This is uh an ordinance that is one of a couple tonight um that are put forward to comply with our affordable housing obligations. Um so this one, ordinance 11, ordinance 12 um are all things that we have to do to comply with our settlement and the deadlines that are coming up in the middle of March. So, this just updates our fees to uh update them for the round four requirements. Thank you. Any other comments? Roll call vote, please. Mr. Landate, yes.

Mr. Range, yes. Mr. Harold Pudis, yes. Miss Hanahan, yes. Mr. Forte, yes. Miss Cohen, yes. Right. Ordinance 11-2026. an ordinance amending the land use of the Bureau of Madison to address the requirements of the Fair Housing Act regarding compliance with the burough's affordable housing obligation by establishing an affordable housing overlay zone designed by the fourth round AOH district and modifying the zoning map. Mayor, I move ordinance 11-2026. Second.

Council discussion. Similarly, mayor, this is uh one for the fourth round compliance. This establishes uh or adjusts overlays and establishes new overlays on Bruns uh Shunpike and Kings Road. Um like our third round uh overlay zones, these merely provide the opportunity for development. They do not say there will be development at these sites. They provide additional opportunity uh for affordable housing. Uh and these densities in these overlay zones are very similar to the ones we established in our round three prior overlay zones that primarily followed the um main street corridor on the east end of town.

Thank you. Any other further uh discussion? pretty outlined it very well. Roll call vote, please. Mr. Landrean, yes. Mr. Range, yes. Mr. Haron Budis, yes. Miss Han, yes. Mr. Forte, yes. And Miss Cohen, yes. All right. Ordinance 12-2026. Ordinance of the Bureau of Madison to amend the Burough Code. That should be code chapter 195-47 article 9. Mayor, I move ordinance 12-2026. Second.

Discussion. Roll call vote, please. Mr. Landeran, yes. Mr. Range, yes. Mr. Harland Pudis, yes. Miss Hanahan, yes. Mr. Forte, yes. Miss Cohen, yes. All right. Ordinance 13-2026. Ordinance of the Burough of Madison appropriating $200,000 from the general capital improvement fund to purchase security cameras, card access, and other items for the community pool and Rosedale ball fields. Mayor, I move ordinance 13-2026. Second.

Council discussion. And this is consistent with uh most of our recreation facilities where we've uh increased the security on on these various facilities. Okay. Roll call vote, please. Mr. Landrian, yes. Mr. Range, yes. Mr. Harland Pudis, yes. Miss Hanahan, yes. Mr. Forte, yes. Miss Cole, yes. And uh we uh move on to consent agenda resolutions. Will the clerk please read the statement?

Consent agenda resolutions will be enacted with a single motion. Any resolution requiring expenditure is supported by a certification of availability of funds. Any resolution requiring discussion will be removed from the consent agenda. All resolutions will be reflected in full in the minutes. Mayor, I move uh consent agenda resolutions R79- uh to through R95 uh 2026. Second. Any council discuss discussion or any of that need to be pulled? Hey, roll call vote, please. Tom, one question. Sorry.

That's all right. And I wanted to ask it earlier too that the which is you know the fantastic accomplishment we have to get that million dollars to pay down uh part of the the uh debt obligation we have and I don't need this answer now but if if Gemma Ray has it when we make that payment to reduce our debt how much does it save us like $50,000 a year $200,000 a year because we're going to we're going to relieve some of the debt right Jim so that'll Yeah, let me let me follow up to you offline on that, Tom. I don't have that number right here. It's an open space obligation, Jim. Is that who usually pays the debt or we share it with different funds?

It's it's um we'll we'll talk more offline about it, Tom. It's Green Acres and it's it's Yeah. So, okay. Okay. Okay. Sorry. Thanks you guys. Sorry about that. Good question, but not an easy answer. Yeah, I forget that. Okay. Any further discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Mr. Landrean, yes. Mr. Range, yes. Mr. Harland Pis, yes. Miss Hanahan, yes. Mr. Forte, yes. Miss Cohen, yes. All right. There is no unfinished business. We'll move on to approval of vouchers. Will the clerk please read the voucher totals?

Uh, mayor, I have to apologize with the snowstorm. I didn't have my regular packet at home. I only have agenda. Maybe our esteemed CFO can read the tit the totals and then I'll do the roll poll vote. That's the one item I don't have. Glad I came to work. Yes. Okay, Liz, I don't know how you mayor council received them. I just don't have them at all. What do I read, Liz? Just a dollar. Come on, Jim. No pressure. No pressure. No, Liz does this.

Current fund 8,615,13866. Electric operating fund $291,37328. Water operating fund $65,388.14 and trusts $16,877.16 for a total of 9 million78,777.24 at the end. Well, well done motion. Thank you. I'll move them, mayor. I'll second.

Any discussion? And it's already been outlined why it's such a big total. So, thank you, Eric, for outlining that before. Roll call vote, please. Mr. Landrean, yes. Mr. Range, yes. Mr. Harold Pudis, yes. Miss Hanahan, yes. Mr. Forte, yes. Miss Cohen, yes. All right. There is no new business. I will entertain a motion to adjourn. Mayor, I move that we adjourn the meeting. Second and all in favor. I All right. Thank you for all that join joined us tonight and uh best of luck in clear clearing out and uh take care. Thank you.