Borough Council - Regular Meeting

If we could find our places, please. Let the record reflect. We have reconvened with all members present. For those who are able, please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I ask you to remain standing after the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Take a moment to remember a few long-time Madison residents we lost over the last few weeks. Dorothy Pecola, a long-time Madison resident, passed away at her home on July 30th. She was 99 years old. Born and raised in Summit, she was a graduate of Summit High School, married her late husband, Frank, in a union filled with love and partnership that lasted until his passing in 1986. They had settled in Madison after they were married, which is where they raised their family. She survived by her two sons, Raymond and Frank. Frank was a long-time borough employee in the finance department. She also leaves one grandson and one great-granddaughter. who represents Madison Pride. The great-granddaughter's name is Madison Rose. Known for her impeccably kept home and culinary skills, she poured her heart into caring for her family, cherished moments she spent with her grandchildren, Felt great joy in being a great grandmother, her warmth, kindness, and ready smile left a mark on all those who knew her. We also remember Joseph Sedano, another long time Madison resident, passed away on the 30th of July, age 90. Born in 35 in Montclair, son of the late Dominic Sedano and Josephine Amato. Grew up in Montclair before moving to Madison with his family in the late 1960s, where he remained a devoted member of the community for many years. He dedicated 42 years of his career to PSCNG, working as an inspector in the gas department. His strong work ethic and reliability and commitment earned him the respect of his coworkers throughout his long career. Family was the center of his life. He met the love of his life, Carol, through a mutual friend. They were married in 1958. and they built their loving home and shared many happy memories for Carol's passing. Outside of work, Joseph enjoyed simple pleasures in life. He loved visiting casinos and playing poker, an avid fan of Joe DiMaggio and the Yankees. Don't know how he liked the current Yankees, but one of his favorite pastimes was relaxing on his front porch where he enjoyed watching the neighborhood and visiting with family and friends. As the last surviving nine siblings, he treasured large extended family memories they shared over the years. He survived by his sons Patrick, Joseph, and Dominic, also survived by four granddaughters and one great-granddaughter. And in addition to being pre-deceased by his parents and wife, he was pre-deceased by granddaughter Victoria, his brothers Patrick, Andrew, Anthony, and Michael, sisters Anne, Mary, Lucy, and Rose. And we also remember Florence Zukowski, longtime Madison resident, died on July 29. She was 100 years old, one month short from turning 101. She survived by her two daughters, Karen Mizaki and her husband, Peter, and Marissa Snow and her husband, Charlie, one son, James Zukowski, and his wife, Mona, one brother, Jack, and his wife, Marie, 10 grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren. She was pre-deceased by her husband, Stanley, in 2004, also by her son, Stanley Jr., one daughter, Maria, two brothers, Jimmy Cirillo, Augie Ciriello, and also two sisters, Mary Clark and Jenny Tobin. She was born in Italy in 1925, came to the United States by boat in 28 and settled in Madison. She attended St. Vincent School and completed her education to the ninth grade. She had to quit school as both of her parents became ill. She worked the infirmary at St. Elizabeth's Convent where she met her husband, Stanley, and they were married in 1949 after he got back from serving World War II. She worked for Sandoz Pharmaceutical in East Hanover for 17 years in retirement. She enjoyed arts and crafts, crossword puzzles, and taking care of her grandchildren. Now let us remember Dorothy Piccolo, Joseph Stano, and Florence Zukowski, and pass our thoughts on to the families and friends that they leave behind. Thank you. All right, can I have a motion for the executive minutes of July 13, 2026?

So moved.

Second. Already have been discussed. All in favor? Aye. And a motion for the regular minutes of July 13, 2026. So moved. Second. And one correction had been sent in by Deb earlier, and any other corrections or changes? All in favor? Aye. welcome all to a much more comfortable room than it was this morning as uh as we came out of the weekend with failed air conditioner in this building so it was quite warm and i thank all the employees in this building that survived the day and kept serving our residents throughout the hot day in the building and just a reminder that this is our only council meeting in the month so our next meeting will be monday september 14th And a couple of things that were going on the last few weeks. Last Tuesday was the annual National Night Out, and this may also be part of a report, but I'll cover it quickly also. Held at the Public Safety Building, the third year there. There was a great turnout by our residents who enjoyed ice cream, hamburgers, hot dogs, and pizza. And those that were in the know got in line for their ice cream first and then had their dinner because the line got pretty long. And the residents were also able to get a lot of information from many of our partners who manned tables in the fire truck bay. And I want to thank all our police officers and firefighters who put together a great event under sunny skies, which was very important compared to two years ago. uh... and then last thursday i attended the annual crossing guard uh... breakfast which was followed by by their required training unlike most towns uh... were able to do it in house These are, some of our officers are certified. Many towns have to send their crossing guards to the complex on Hanover Avenue. And just a reminder, our crossing guards not only keep our children safe, but they are the first face that students see, greeting them every morning, every school morning. Actually, as I said at the breakfast, they're also the ones that help The next year kindergarteners feel very comfortable because they already know all the crossing guards and have been greeted every day. There is plenty of summer left, but they are ready for the school year. And this past Friday was our annual intern lunch, where we thank our summer interns who have been working in many of our departments, completing very meaningful work on behalf of all our residents. Gives them not only a summer job, but a sense of accomplishment, but gives them a feel for borough operations and maybe learning about a possible career path. And then from the library, summer reading concluded, and it's a summer reading program, hopefully everyone's still reading for the summer, on August 7th with a drawing for the summer reading prizes that was held earlier today. There were a total of 697 participants this year, which was great. And Madison residents borrowed 46 museum passes in the month of June, and this amounts to an average total cost savings of over $1,700 for those residents. And thanks to a $2,000 grant from the Rotary Club of Madison to friends Madison Library, a pass has been added to the very popular museum program for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. So if you're carrying a library card, you should keep that in mind if you want to enjoy one of the great museums in the area. And lastly, our employee of the month, Cynthia Mahaffey from the joint municipal court is our employee of the month for August for achieving municipal court administrator certification. Achieving the certification is a challenging process with both written and oral elements. Cynthia pursued this goal and was successful while keeping up with her normal workload as our deputy court administrator. So if you see Cynthia, please congratulate her. Even if you see Cynthia because you got a ticket. So we will now... Move on to reports from committees. Community Affairs, Council President Forte.

Thank you, Mayor. From the Downtown Development Commission and the Director of Business Development, the next meeting of the Downtown Development Commission will be held on August 20th at 7.15 p.m. in the second floor committee room of this building. The public is invited to attend. The 2026 Madison Farm and Artisan Market is open Saturdays through December 12th. The market will be closed on Bottle Hill Day. New vendors can request the information by emailing lisaellis at ddc at rosenet.org. And information regarding Bottle Hill Day 2026, which will be on Saturday, October 3rd, is now available on rosenet.org. And from the Madison Community Arts Center, typically seniors play Mahjong and Canasta every Tuesday from 1 to p.m. except for this month, which they're not doing because it's closed due to camp. Wednesday, August 12th, this Wednesday, at 7 p.m., is Music Open Mic, which is every second Wednesday. Local musicians perform two songs each, and all are welcome to perform or attend. Friday, August 14th, from 6 to 8 p.m., the Summer Stage Series featuring two bands, Brian Hansen Band and the DTs. There will be a food truck and local craft vendors. Wednesday, August 19th at 7 p.m. is a comedy open mic, which is every third Wednesday. All are welcome to perform or attend. And Friday, August 21st from 6 to 8 p.m., the summer stage series featuring Water Street. There will be a food truck and local craft vendors. saturday august 22nd at 8 pm steal the spotlight 2.0 is a drag competition show and wednesday august 26th at 7 pm is show us your shorts every fourth wednesday local film members submit and show their short films friday august 28th from 6 to 8 pm is a summer stage series featuring another amazing big band rhythm of the hearts there will be a food truck and local craft vendors And Wednesday, September 2nd at 7 p.m., the Platform Literary Open Mic and Writing Workshop brought to you by Arts by the People. And Friday, September 4th from 6 to 8 p.m., Summer Stage Series featuring two bands, School of Rock, Chatham House Band, and What's What. There will be a food truck and local craft vendors. And Saturday, September 5th at 8 p.m., Vivid Stage presents The Flipside, an improv comedy show. Tickets for all this can be found on the Madison Community Arts Center events homepage and the calendar is rosenet.org slash MCAC. And from the Madison Community Pool, the pool season is still going strong. Since our August family memberships became available just 10 days ago, we've welcomed a great number of new members taking advantage of this discounted one-month membership. Our annual family fun day was a roaring success with members enjoying everything from wiffle ball and canoe races to a variety of poolside activities. We even managed to run out of lemonade. Thank you for everyone who came out to participate and thank you for our dedicated staff for planning and hosting another memorable day for our pool community. This past week, we also hosted our rescheduled preteen holiday hoopla in July event, where even on one of the warmest days of the summer, it was snowing at the pool. Yes, snow. We're also looking forward to hosting one more Moonlight Swim before the close of the season, so stay tuned as that date will be announced soon. And as a reminder, the Madison Community Pool follows the Madison Public Schools calendar. The pool will be closed August 31st through September 3rd, which is Monday through Thursday. and will reopen for the final weekend of the season on Friday, September 4th. The final day of the 2026 pool season will be Monday, September 7th. Although there's still plenty of summer left to enjoy, we're already preparing for the 2027 season. This year's success would not have been possible without the support of our members. Thank you for making the Madison Community Pool such a vibrant community destination. We look forward to spending the remainder of the season with you and welcoming you back to poolside in 2027. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. Finance and Borough Clerk, Mr. Range. I'm sorry. Jumping, playing checkers, I guess. Skipping over there. Let me try that again. Public Safety, Mr. Landrigan. Thank you, Mayor.

Okay. From the police department, the Traffic Safety Bureau would like to remind motorists following the paving of Woodland Road, Danforth Road, and Prospect Street as a speed limit is 25 miles per hour. Several enforcement campaigns have been and will continue to be conducted in the near future to reduce speeding. In preparation for the beginning of the school year, all school zones will be inspected by the Traffic Safety Bureau prior to the start of school. This to ensure that no view obstructions or any other issues that need to be rectified. This also includes school radar signs as all should be operational. Next week, all police officers will be participating in defensive training tactics. These techniques are necessary to effectively manage physical confrontations while ensuring personal safety and minimizing harm to others. All officers in the state of New Jersey are now required to have this training annually. Special thanks to Patrolman Nash, Kapilis, and Strafacci, who are now certified by the NJPTC to be our MPD instructors. The Madison Police Department is also seeking school crossing guards. Interested applicants should visit rose.org for more information or to apply today. From the fire department, for the month of July, the fire department responded to 210 incidents, 75 people were transported to the hospital. Two volunteer firefighters just started their basic firefighting training at the academy. For the next 19 weeks, they will attend the academy every Sunday and Tuesday night. The fire department is enjoying hosting the National Night Out with the police department. This event was very well attended by the residents of Madison. We'd also like to thank the elected officials who attended and chatted with the members of the department. And finally, for the last month, the Fire Prevention Bureau performed 73 inspections in the borough. There were three fire permits issued as well. The State of New Jersey of Fire Safety performed a monitoring of the Fire Prevention Bureau and has issued a report with some recommendations. The department has started an internal review to address these recommendations. the joint municipal court when comparing revenue madison's revenue has increased by approximately 5.5 percent in july as compared to the same period last year and then i have two other additions um it's hard to believe but the 25th anniversary of 9 11 is coming up and i'm working with the patriotic celebrations committee to prepare a memorial on that day to be celebrated a condorsal way right now it's slated to begin at 9 00 a.m uh names of those from madison who passed away will be read aloud at that and um there'll be more could be some more changes to come but that's currently scheduled for 9 00 a.m on the 13th rain or shine And finally, Councilman Forte and I approached the borough in regards to some of the pavers along Main Street and also on Waverly Place and I guess around the Museum of Early Trade. Some of the pavers, this has been a rough winter, and some of the pavers are in need of repair, and I know right now the borough is working up a plan to get them addressed so nobody trips and falls. Thank you, Mayor.

And now, Finance and Borough Clerk. Mr. Range.

Thank you, Mayor. From the Finance Department this evening, as noted at the last meeting, administration has begun preparations for the 2027 budget season. Administrator Cody, CFO Jim Burnett, and Director of Operations Michael Pellissier, and the tax collector, Chrissy Muller, will be meeting with the department heads over the coming weeks to discuss capital and operating needs for 2027. We anticipate a budget calendar very similar to the one that we used the last few years, which means our budget hearings will start in December. A one sheet flyer was included in all recently mailed tax bills. This document includes a very high level budget review of the 2026 budget, as well as other pertinent information on municipal operations, including the details of where all of our tax dollars go. It also has short summaries of three major initiatives that the borough has taken on over the last few years. Those initiatives include the borough taking over the EMT ambulance services from the volunteers, the community pool operations, and the steps that have been taken to date to purchase the Drew Forest. I strongly encourage residents to review this document or the version of it that is on rosenet.org. From the tax collector this evening, the tax collector reports that tax bills and pilot payment bills were mailed in the middle of July. The tax rate was delayed because of the county, but you should have received that mailing at this time. Due to the delayed mailing, the third quarter grace period for the taxes that were due August 1st has been extended to August 20th. Very important though, there is no further grace period after the 20th at 4.30 p.m. And those that fail to make payment at that time will have interest charged back to the statutory due date of August 1st. As a reminder, the borough cannot accept postmark dated or post dated checks. And if you haven't received your bill by now, please contact the tax office so they can get another copy of that information to you. The tax collector also reports that the annual tax sale will be held on September 10th. On that day, any property owners with unpaid 2025 balances from their taxes or utilities will have a lien placed on their property. The official tax sale notices were mailed out to affected properties a few weeks back. The tax sale process is a way for municipalities in New Jersey to obtain the full amount of property taxes and other charges needed to support the annual budget while providing the property owner additional time to pay off what they owe. And finally this evening, I'm happy to announce that today, earlier today, we received a check from the federal government for a little over $607,000. As you may recall, when we built the solar carport at the MRC, we discussed that it would be partially paid back by federal dollars. A corporation or other for-profit entity is eligible to receive tax credits when they install solar, but as a municipality, we don't have that same tax advantage. So the IRS created a program called Direct Pay where government entities and nonprofits could apply for direct payment equal to the tax credit, and that's what we received today. Special thanks to tax collector Chrissy Muller for sorting out the paperwork and submitted the filings to receive this payment. That's all this evening, Mayor. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Public Works and Engineering, Mr. Helen Poudis.

Thank you, Mayor. Welcome, members of the community. From the Department of Public Works, prepared by Robert Duffy, the DPW assisted the Water Department with a water leak and made some necessary road repairs around town. DPW continued repainting road stop lines and crosswalks on newly paved roads and existing roads with worn out. The Parks Department continues to maintain the recreation fields as well as parks and the community pool. The DBW started groundwork to install concrete bases to put up the RFB pedestrian signals for the police department. What is the RFB acronym?

You remember? Rapid. Rapid.

I asked him and I forget.

Wait, what are these? Rapid flashing beacon. Okay. Yeah, it's the push the button and it starts flashing right for crosswalks.

Okay, so we're going to install some of those around town. I don't know the exact locations yet. That's all from Public Works. From Engineering and Zoning, from Michael Plessier, Director of Operations, our new engineering officer hasn't started yet. Our engineering is working closely with the Traffic Safety Bureau and our milling and paving contractors to finalize the schedule for the borough's 2026 road improvement program. Once the dates are confirmed, the impacted residents will be notified in advance. The New Jersey Department of Transportation will soon begin paving Main Street from Greenwood Avenue through Chatham Borough to minimize traffic impacts workers expected to occur overnight, which would be fantastic. Our borough engineer, Christine Bugle, will begin soon. During her first few weeks, she will be reviewing active projects, meeting with staff, and establishing priorities for current and upcoming initiatives. We look forward to welcoming her to the borough. The Planning Board and Zoning Board continue to have full agendas and are making steady progress on development applications at their regular scheduled meetings. And as a reminder, the Rosedale soccer field remains closed while the new turf continues to establish. We anticipate opening the fields in time for the soccer season. For those of you who don't know, the grass soccer field on Rosedale was currently re-turfed with grass. Looks fantastic right now. Hopefully we can maintain it that way. Engineering is coordinating repairs to the Cook Avenue Municipal Parking Lot. Once a project timeline has been established, The staff will work closely with affected businesses to minimize disruptions during their repairs. From the Environmental Commission, Mayor, the MEC reports the native plant enthusiasm is in full flower. 106 residents signed up for a free native plant on last Saturday's giveaway, which was held at the Farm and Artisan Market. The MEC handed out a total of 365 pollinator favorites, huge, wow. All of which were potted up from members' yards or grown from seeds that were saved last fall. Resident Alan Sawyer contributed a flat of swamp milkweed. The reason why native plants are important is that native New Jersey butterflies and moths cannot lay their eggs on imported plants, such as hostas, peonies, and pachysandra. They can only use native plants because when their caterpillars hatch, they need specific leaves to chew. Those caterpillars are an important source of food for birds. Zigzag Goldenrod supports 121 species of butterfly and moth caterpillars, helping to rejuvenate our ecosystem up and down the block. On a separate note, the MEC reminds residents that Morris County is still in a drought watch. Though we have had severe thunderstorms which produce a lot of rain, not much of it replenishes the aquifer. Water from heavy rains races into the streets and ends up in the Passaic. Madison gets 100% of its drinking water from wells under our feet. Please observe the town's mandatory water controls or skip routine watering. Left un-chemicalized, grass browns up in hot weather and greens up when the return of cooler weather is here in the fall. And that's it, Mayor.

Thank you very much. Now utilities, Ms. Honahan.

Thank you, Mayor. From Jim Finnelli at the Water Department, the Water Department dug and repaired the main valve at Albright Circle and Sampson Avenue. The department continues to run wells manually to meet demand while SCADA repairs and communication upgrades are being installed. There was a repaired water main break at Albright Circle. They searched and removed old iron service abandoned and leaking at 212 to 214 Main Street. They repaired a water leak at Woodland, a two inch water service affected by a roller during paving. Working with a contractor at Three Geraldo Farms to facilitate the proper water disconnects for demolition and hydrant upgrades and replacement schedule is in place and we await hydrant delivery from the bid. from Vincent Patty at the Electric Department. They've been very busy and the crew has been working a lot of overtime with storms. Electric Department responded to the area of Douglas Avenue and Roscoe Avenue for a power outage on the 30th. Standby was called out to Vinyl at Ross for a wire that was across the road. Standby was called out to Fairwood section of town for a power outage. The Electric Department was called to Laurel Way for a tree down with wires on August 7th, which broke a pole and needed to be replaced. Perhaps one of the largest issues the Electric Department faced was a standby being called to Green Village by Hillside for a very large tree snapping. a pole and taking three additional poles with wires down. It was a major outage. The large tree had to be cut up and removed before a new pole could be set. The full electric utility crew worked all day to erect the two new poles and run new wires. A big thank you to the crew and a thank you to the borough of Madison residents for their patience as power is restored and safely and as quickly as possible thank you mayor thank you and health ms cohen Thank you, Mayor.

The Health Department provided the following activities during July. They inspected 19 retail food establishments, investigated nine environmental complaints, and 16 reportable diseases. The department continues to monitor their cyclosporiasis outbreak, and no cases in New Jersey have been linked to the national outbreak. There are no active cases in the jurisdiction. However, the department encourages all residents to wash all produce thoroughly and to wash hands before preparing food. The Board of Health passed two ordinances at its meeting last week, an ordinance to permit managed care for chickens and an ordinance to require proof of extermination during rodent infestation. Thank you.

Thank you. Now move on to communications and petitions.

Yes, Mayor. Mayor and Council received an email dated July the 29th from the Friends of the Drew Forest regarding donations raised toward the purchase of the property. And they also received an email dated August 7th from resident... Bruce Goodwin of Surry Lane regarding the operations of the community pool.

Thank you. We now move on to our first of two invitations for public comment. This one is limited to our agenda discussions and our resolutions that are part of the consent agenda. I will go through those in just a second. If you want to comment on anything that's not on this list, that will be coming up after our ordinances for hearing. It will come up shortly in the meeting. So these are the things you may comment on now. Our agenda discussion is pre-qualification for the restoration of the Madison Heller Center. That's the former Masonic Lodge. And these are the resolutions you may comment on. Resolution 238 is authorizing execution of engagement letter with Keefe Law Firm. This is regarding potential litigation involving certain contaminants adversely impacting the public water supply. Resolution 239 is execution of historic preservation easement agreement with the County of Morris for the Museum of Early Trades and Crafts, and this is done a 30-year preservation easement, and this is part of any time we accept a grant, making sure we keep it the way we agreed to. Resolution 240 is authorizing an agreement between the Borough of Madison Police Department and Center for Family Services to participate in the Morris County Crisis Receiving Stabilization Center program. Resolution 241 is authorizing the term of current Madison Police Department Sergeant Promotion List, and that includes Patrolman Jimenez, Detective Montone, patrolman Duraco patrol patrolman Clancy Resolution 242 is conform confirming the members membership of Luke Eller in the Madison hose company resolution 243 is adopting pre-qualification regulations regarding restoration of the Madison Helmer Center, which will be here and shortly on the That's comes out of a discussion coming up resolution 244 is authorizing a So it spread Matt expressing Madison support for Senate bill 1643 assembly bill 1745 which is authorized in use of ranked choice voting in municipal and school board elections Resolution 246 is approving international wire transfers for the year 2026 and that's to allow very specific wire transfers and then resolution 246 246 is the school crossing guard hiring for the upcoming school year. So you may comment on those resolutions or the one agenda discussion. If you want to comment anything else, that will be coming up shortly. And when wishing to comment on those things, you may step up to lectern. You state your name and address and the resolution that you want to address or if you want to speak on the Heller Center. And when wishing to speak under those guidelines, please step forward. Seeing none, I close this part of the meeting, and we move on to ordinances for hearing. I mean, we move on to agenda discussions. I'm doing a little skipping thing here today. I don't know what it is. Yeah.

And this is our pre qualification restoration Madison Heller Center I can take that mayor The governing body is committed to try to reopen a senior center Back in Madison and get our seniors back from Chatham Township as soon as possible So as part of that involved the acquisition of the historic Heller Center, which also preserved the oldest brick structure in Morris County at the same time we've gone to two rounds of bidding with uh first round no bids whatsoever submitted and second round the bids came in five times the available budget for that project so we met with the state of new jersey and in order to change the requirements and hopefully encourage more competitive pricing and more bidders they're allowing us provided we have this hearing to change the regulations for what's called pre-qualification of our contractors and the reason we want to pre-qualify is because it's a historic building we want contractors who have experience in those type of historic structures and have done it before and the changes that we're seeking that the state has approved but they want us to have a public hearing to announce them is one is that the experience dollar value previously was five million dollars And we noticed that that reduced the pool of potential firms that were eligible. So we'd like to reduce that and the state is comfortable with that approach, the dollar value. And the other was the look back period that the experience of those contractors had to be within the last five years. And we felt that if we could expand that, we might capture some additional contractors and we're making that from five years to eight years. So those are the changes that we're asking and we're required by state law to have this hearing Publish the notice and the goal would then be if this is approved this evening this resolution to then go out to bid again the other part of it is The scope of the project we've requested the state to reduce it to make sure that we have sufficient funds to reopen at a minimum the ground floor for a senior center and so the project will now be done in multiple phases with the priority being to do what's required to stabilize the foundation the roof and to make the ground floor accessible and available and excellent space for our seniors to come back home so that's what we're asking for tonight and we hope that we have the council supportive so we can get moving and our goal is to get this work underway and get competitive bids and do this work in 2027 and get our seniors back in town

Thank you. As this is a hearing, before any council discussion, I invite any members of the public that wish to comment on the pre-qualification for the restoration of the Madison Heller Center. Anyone wishing to comment on that, please step forward.

I think it's a great move. I like the approach.

Good idea. What is the reduction amount of $5 million?

Hey, Brian, just tap the microphone button.

There you go. One, two, three. Do you need that again? We're good.

If it's OK to answer the proposed budget for phase one would be $1.1 million of which we have that those funds. We have a large grant from the State Historic Trust and we have a large grant of over $500,000 from the Morris County Historic Preservation program. So if no local tax dollars we can do the phase one work and open the building as a senior center and get it back in operation on our seniors back home.

I'm sorry, I meant for the qualifications. The dollar value? You said the contractor qualifications for prior jobs was $5 million.

Right, it's now going to be reduced to $1 million.

Oh, to one way. That's a significant reduction.

Well, the goal is the nature of the initial work without by breaking it up into phases is primarily roofing, masonry work. So our architects and the state felt that there were a sufficient number of contractors who had experience in doing that and you didn't need to have a historic specialist. We're not doing marble restoration like this building would be or restoring light fixtures of that nature. So they felt that it was a appropriate to reduce the dollar value to try to get more competition and try to get bids you know we went out the first time we got zero bids nobody bid on the job and the second time we had a million dollars and the bids came in over five million dollars so five times the amount of money we had that's why the project's been delayed so the goal is to get out of the starting gate get our seniors back home and then try to then do the next subsequent phases which would involve an elevator the upstairs restoration and other things right now we're going to focus on the ground floor to get everybody back home

Makes perfect sense. Thank you.

Any other comments from the public? And as Ray mentioned that the next phase probably will have a higher qualification for as far as historic restoration background because it'll be more along those lines. Any other comments from the council? Deb?

Just a quick comment and question. Thrilled to hear that we now have a plan to hopefully move this forward. If this works and more bids come in and somebody comes in that's acceptable, what would be a rough, holding nobody to anything timeline? Would it be like the end of 2027 or 2028 potentially?

Our architect believes we can complete the phase one work within one calendar year. So depending on when we would start, The goal would be is we get approval. We have bids within 30 days Select a an award a contract and start work Hopefully bite before the end of this calendar year and then complete it by the end of next calendar year So I would say January of 28. Well, hopefully we'd have our seniors back in town.

Awesome.

Thank you Any other comments Tom?

so Ray and mayor and then whoever else is involved in the project the goal is to make the first floor a refurbished and usable for the seniors and the community. Not adding an elevator, we're not really gonna- Elevator would be later.

And a big part of making the first floor, because if someone walked in there and they said, first floor looks fine for For use reality is it's a 200 year old building with 200 year old foundation issues and so really you know We've joked that the one program you can't do there is playing marbles because they'll all end up in one corner so there definitely needs some foundation and structural work

Tom if I could I mean if for those who are able to get into the basement the basement structural the support beams are actually tree trunks so they're actually it's kind of hard to believe that the building is held up for 226 years now so we actually need to replace those and stabilize the ground floor there'll also be a handicap accessible bathroom added on the ground floor to make it accessible for the seniors so they don't have to use the stairs

So a lot of the work, unfortunately, won't be totally visible.

Right. Well, the new roof, the masonry will be repointed. The exterior will be painted and fine-tuned. We'll remortar. We're also going to be doing some landscaping on the exterior of the building to make it a better streetscape. And we've got some local talent. I see you had some... I think Chris Kellogg was here earlier. We have some great expertise in the Historic Preservation Commission, also with John Forte. So we'll take their advice and try to bring the history back to that building.

That's fantastic. Thank you. Thank you.

Just a quick comment. Number one, it will be great to see the seniors back in Madison. I think they'll find it very convenient as opposed to driving all the way out to where they go today. But number two, while we are lowering the criteria, I still hope that we're going to be very sensitive to the historic elements of the interior of the building, particularly that first floor. I mean, there are some spectacular spaces with some really cool period details. So I hope that that will be preserved at least as much as possible, because I'm sure the seniors will enjoy getting the benefit of that as well. Thank you. Thank you.

Any other comments? All right, and this is resolution 243 on our consent. And now we move on to ordinances for hearing. Will the clerk please read the statement?

The ordinance scheduled for hearing was introduced by title and passed on the first reading at the regular meeting of the council held July 27, 2026. It was posted and filed according to law and copies were made available to members of the general public requesting scene.

I call up ordinance 33-2026. And for second reading, I ask the clerk to read said ordinance by title.

Ordinance of the borough of Madison amending and supplementing chapter 98 of the Madison borough code entitled filming.

Mayor, I move ordinance 33-2020.

Not so fast, sorry. I will open the hearing to the public. Any in the public wishing to comment on ordinance 33? I turned the page already. Yep, please step forward. Seeing none, I close the hearing.

And now, I guess I wanted to get out of here, but Mayor, I move ordinance 33-2026. Second. Any council discussion?

Roll call vote. Yes, Deb.

Just a quick comment that we had, I'm sure everybody knows, Adam Sandler and crew in and seeing the posts of the kids getting to meet him and some of the other things and them entertaining them while they were doing the filming and using our spaces I think was an added bonus to having them just here filming.

I think just because he used Madison in one of his movies as a name, but I think he loves Madison as a town also. Roll call vote, please.

Mr. Landrigan? Yes. Mr. Range? Yes. Mr. Haralamputis? Yes. Ms. Honahan? Yes. Mr. Forte? Yes. Ms. Cohen? Yes.

I declare Ordinance 33-2026 adopted and finally passed and ask the clerk to publish notice thereof and file the ordinance in accordance with the law. And now we move on to our second of invitation for public comment. This is one you may comment on any topic. Before we start, I just, I normally don't do this, but I know there was some Social media comments about some things going on related to Drew University redevelopment So I just want to touch on some clarification related related to this and then we'll open up for comments on anything The for one there was a layout that was posted on the Fairwood Fairwood neighborhood Facebook page which I'm a member of as a alum of Fairwood and it's it is a what drew presented probably as their dream. Development which showed development right up all all the front yard it showed no Madison house and. And with townhouses and bigger structures in the back, that was their dream. And one of the reasons why it took us so long to get to the finish line we drew with the settlement, that was not what we would even entertain. So just from clarifications, and some of these if you've been following the planning board we are actually doing redo on two key things one redo on the subdivisions and then they also want the declaration redevelopment let me just touch on that very quickly both of those have to be redone by the planning board which will be meeting next tuesday the 18th virtually at 7 30 so you can watch via zoom for that The subdivisions that was done and will be redone again is for the forest and the Madison House, areas that are called A, D, and F. Thank you. And so A and D are the forest and the zook arboretum. So that is approving subdividing almost 50 acres of land from Drew University so that it can be purchased by Madison to be forever preserved. Also in our settlement agreements with drew it was we wanted to preserve the streetscape along Madison Avenue so Area F is the Madison house the if you attend the planning board meeting you'll see it's a fairly tight lot But it would forever preserve the Madison house and then there's also an agreement that the lawn between Madison house and Lancaster Drew would retain with the agreement that it would never be developed. So any redevelopment is pushed back between Madison House and the turf field, and also the second area is behind the Methodist Church. So just to be clear, on Tuesday 18th, there will be the hearing for the subdivision, and then an area of redevelopment. What you will hear at Declaration of Redevelopment is what justifies redevelopment for these two sites, which includes different criteria, but it also includes the fact that it is part of a settlement with Drew University. It is also part of Madison's affordable housing obligation. What you won't hear is conversation related to the look of the buildings. the what happens to trees that are along vinyl place and all that because that happens in the next round as a redevelopment process comes through and that would be part of a redevelopment plan that Madison is always committed to preserving trees. We have a very strict tree ordinance and one reason why we're buying almost 50 acres of land. So we would have conversations about how to preserve that stand of trees along vinyl. The look of the buildings would be part of that conversation, the mix of the apartments and so on. So this is all to come. So I just want to outline that right now. And right now I'll open up for public comment on any topic. And the rules are, as you come up to the microphone, you state your name, your town, write the same on the clipboard along with your address, and then try to keep your comments to three minutes, but we give you a one-minute grace period, and we'll stop you at four.

Good evening. My name is Therese Talmadge. I live at 8 Ross Court in Madison. As a matter of fact, on August the 1st, we celebrated our 35th year here in Madison on Ross Court. So that brings me to this. I have two things to call to your attention. The first is, why are we still having Zoom meetings? The planning board, which makes significant decisions for this town, on zoom and here we are all in this lovely room why can't we meet with our boards and commissions in person you and I can make eye contact you can look at me I can look at you we can talk about things together and get a vibe for each other and our concerns when we zoom with them with the planning board I get the feeling that everybody's on their own little TV and we're not really getting heard So that's my first comment. I would really love to see Zoom because we don't have COVID anymore. Let's eliminate Zoom. Let's get back to our in-person exchanges. The second thing, and I know you just brought this up, is our concern on Ross Court. is the development of vinyl place. The mosque, which is a beautiful building and a beautiful development, we still don't know what that traffic is going to be, how many cars are going to be looking for parking, the parking in their property is limited. Ross Court and Vinyl Place will be the next place that they look for parking. If we have a development along Vinyl Place, what is that going to do to the Vinyl Place Ross Court and the traffic? I would suggest, and I'm calling it to your attention because you are the final decision makers, We need to make sure that Vinyl Place is not an access point for any development that Drew does with their housing. The tree preservation is key. When Drew sold the property up on Lawanika Terrace, hundreds of long standing canopy trees were clear cut, just absolutely clear cut. I would hate to see that happen with this little stand of trees on Vinyl Place. It's the only barrier between the stadium lights and the stadium noise and the people on Ross Court. So please, keep that in mind when you're looking into these plans. That is a crucial factor for our little neighborhood of eight homes. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else wish to comment, please step forward. I'll also give some answers to some of your questions you had before there, too, at the end.

Hi, I'm Kylie Hoess, 7 Vinyl Place. I'm here with a group of my neighbors in the neighborhood as a neighbor, talking to you this evening. Obviously, the mayor had noted we have a lot of concerns about this potential redevelopment, and I'm here as someone saying that I'm not opposed to the development itself, but I think some consideration in how that development is going to meet our very small neighborhood of eight homes is taken into consideration. These are small private residential cul-de-sacs. They have a private residential character and the trees in the woods along Vinyl Place are the natural buffer that provides privacy for our homes. It provides a habitat for wildlife. I know we talked about a lot of native plants earlier. And it gives us a separation between what is a residential neighborhood and the much larger Drew University campus. I personally have three small children. They love looking out the window and seeing deer and birds and groundhogs and everything else that pop up across the way. And I think it's important to acknowledge the work that's been done to preserve the Drew Forest. And we just hope that that same type of courtesy can be extended to what is the nature between all of our properties and what will be a much larger development. I know we spoke about the proposed lot concept that was a dreamscape for Avalon Bay that's not happening, but when you look at something like that, it's terrifying to us because that's right along where our homes are. Our primary concern is obviously that those woods are completely cleared and that they totally changes the character of our very small neighborhood. I think if there's opportunities to shift those buildings, preserve those trees, Reduce any clearing that's going to happen We'd really like to see those options explored and I know obviously the developer is going to have their own motivations But we're asking you as as neighbors to give us some consideration and really push back on on our behalf Thank you anyone else wishing to Comment, please step forward

My name is Mark Talmadge. I live at 8 Ross Court. You heard from my wife a minute ago, and she did it much better than I could ever do it. But I just want to, I'm not going to repeat, but I would like to emphasize a couple of points. Well, I hate Zoom, and I have to deal with it every day. As a lawyer, the courts are using Zoom a lot, and it loses a lot in translation. I don't think we need to do that. And I also would point out that trying to read maps and plats on your computer is not easy. In fact, it's very difficult. And we're trying to have these meetings to make it easier for residents. Well, you're kind of forcing us, which I did, to come down, obviously, next door now to the ambulance building to visit and to look at the maps. When those maps were available at a planning board meeting, it's a lot easier to look at and to deal with. I urge you to consider restoring in-person meetings. Obviously, you could always have the Zoom access for people who want to watch, but I think that's really important. With respect to the development, it is a zone of single-family homes. The mosque was a significant change. Obviously, some of you may remember our participation in that discussion. The house of worship is generally considered a beneficial use, so it was put into a single family zone. Again, it hasn't opened yet, so we don't know the full impact of a 14,000 plus square foot building with only 35 parking places, but I have my concerns those were expressed They were expressed to the police department as well, and they're well aware of it It was kind of a tit will have to wait and see what happens, but that's exacerbated by the thought of an enormous development right across the street from our zone of single-family homes and And I would say I urge that there be no vehicular access to vinyl place from whatever development is going to go up there. I know it's going up. I mean, the affordable housing deal is done. Something's going to go up. But I urge no access, vehicular access to vinyl place from that. The street can't handle it. It's a narrow street. It's already difficult. It's been difficult for the last two years with the construction trucks parking there and trying to get around. and to have parking on that street and access from I don't know however many hundred apartments or townhouses or whatever are going to be built there would be exceedingly difficult and detrimental to our community. And I will just indicate for the record that five of the eight homes on our block are represented here tonight. The sixth was supposed to be here. I think she got caught at work. So it's a unified front, if you will, of this concern. And I want you to be aware of that. One minute.

Yeah.

Thank you, Mark. Anyone else wishing to comment, please step forward.

Mr. Mayor, council members, good evening.

Name and town, please. I beg your pardon? State your name and town.

Yes, I'm getting to that. OK. I am Peter Hinge, and I live at 24 Green. But for most of the 27 years, my wife and I and our kids have been in Madison. We lived at 3 Ross Court. We were very much impacted also by the mosque that was brought up. But let me get to something else first. On Saturday morning at 7 o'clock, my lights went out. We wondered why that was, waited for a little while, and thought they would come back on, and they didn't. I found out through somebody else commenting on Facebook, I suppose, that an enormous tree had fallen across Green Village Road and fortunately snapped the pole and not the wires. So I'm here to express my thanks, our thanks, to the crew that worked diligently all day long from shortly after 7 o'clock in the morning, and I believe they were finished about 7 o'clock at night. So if that belongs to you, ma'am, please pass on the compliments to a job well done. So that was the good. Here's some bad. We all received our tax bills, most of us anyway, and I think there was a few numbers that went up along the way. Maybe the multi-million dollar School renovation had something to do with this. I'm here to encourage whoever is in charge of it to invite us as citizens, once it's all done, back to the school as we were invited initially. to see what had to be repaired and why. I would personally love to see how our money was spent and what it looks like after it's all done. So wherever that belongs in your group, I would hope you would perhaps consider that. And now back to Ross Court. I was encouraged when I heard that we love trees. I love trees too. My wife and I disagree a little bit. But speaking of trees, our house, 3 Ross Court, is facing the entrance to the mosque. Not that we don't think the mosque actually turned out okay, but we'd like some separation, and the separation was there. There were a couple of very large trees which, unfortunately, during the construction period, bit the dust and had to be removed. We were told that somebody looked at them and said, yes, they are goners. They had to be taken away. And one minute. I beg your pardon? We have one minute left. One? Yep. OK. Thank you. Now my question to myself is, what's going to be done with that? And more importantly, when this massive project takes place on vinyl, and the same thing happens to the trees there, either deliberately, by accident, or whatever. Are they going to be put back up, or are we going to have little siblings that will take another 50 years to come back? Please consider that maybe the construction crews need to get some instruction that they cannot just dump stuff around the trees or dig around the trees. There should be some respect for them. I guess if we live long enough, there will be some trees separating that home from the mosque again. But please take that into account. Traffic has been addressed. And time. I'm out. Okay. Traffic has been addressed. I'll speak on the way out.

All right. Thank you, Peter.

Please keep that in mind as well.

Yes. Anyone else wishing to comment, please step forward.

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Thank you, Brian. Anyone else wish to comment? Please step forward. Seeing none, I close this part of the meeting. Just a few follow-up comments. Thank you all for coming out tonight and sharing your thoughts. Most of your thoughts related to the trees, the traffic and all that, that will be part of the hearing process with the planning board, so I encourage you to continue to follow that. You are all within the 200 foot, line from Drew University I'm sure. So you probably get the notifications and so that process will go forward and certainly all the topics you talked about from trees to traffic and so on is very high on the list and will certainly be discussed. zoom meetings for land land use boards we have we found coming out of uh the pandemic that um and this happened a lot of other towns also even though we've gone back to in-person meetings with the council and some of the other boards um that for land use board boards it's been very productive doing zoom meetings because the people at home get to see the exact same thing that the board members see so when a map is shown and i get it if you're on your phone it's different than if you have a big screen in front of you but you're you're seeing exactly what the board members are seeing and i also understand the You don't see the interactions and we don't see the faces in the audience and so on. So there's pluses and minuses with Zoom. Each of the boards review their meeting process every year. We can't really change mid-year unless there's a crisis that would force you to go to zoom so the both boards the zoning board and planning board are committed to staying there because otherwise it shows that you're treating one application different than another so come a new year both boards can review that some of the concern about the parking on vinyl place we've already passed an ordinance that limits parking on one side with understanding the- We didn't hear about that. We did, right?

Yeah.

I don't think we posted anything yet, but we did. So there would be parking on only one side of Vinyl Place. So there should have been a reach out to the neighborhood from the police department, and that's when it really came back and said the neighborhood was comfortable with it. And so that was put in place.

Vinyl. Yeah, sorry, you can't tell from the audience.

We can't have this interaction. I think it was just vinyl, but we'll double check. And we can get back to, we'll get information to the neighborhood as to whether it included Ross. really don't remember myself. The comment about the plan that was posted on Facebook being terrifying to you to see that today, it was terrifying to us to see that a couple years ago. So we're on the same page with that one. the uh thank you to the crew i greatly appreciate when people see that uh the our staff and employees of madison step forward and our electric crew certainly has had a uh eventful summer so uh melissa will pass that back on um tax bills we can we'll pass that on to your uh to the board of education uh just as stated the biggest driver behind uh your increase It was certainly not the municipal budget. It was the school budget, which includes the referendum, and that was overwhelmingly approved by the residents. And yes, the residents approved it. And now it's very fair that you want to see the final work. So we can tell that. And very good point with trees during construction. There was a whole, during the approval process, There is a tree removal plan and tree replanting, but also, as mentioned, sometimes trees are lost during construction. We have guidelines as far as tree protection during construction, and we will make sure that if things were not followed, that we can follow up on that and see if there's any plans for replacing the trees that were lost. And certainly with future construction, make sure tree ordinance is followed as far as protection.

Just one second here Mayor I've got the vinyl place Parking if you want me to share it Yeah, but so it's just vinyl it's yeah ordinance 12 2025 Put parking only on the west side of vinyl place from Madison Avenue to Ross Court So it eliminated the east side parking and it doesn't look like there's any restriction the other other way or so says No parking

shall be amended as follows. Final place, west side. So the west side would be no parking because that's where all the driveway curb cuts are. So the parking would be allowed on the east side. And if there's a, we'll have the police department check back because if there's a desire for the same thing on Ross Court, we can address that. Okay? All right, and now we move on to, My notes, I think I have them memorized. We move on to introductory ordinances, which we have none. So we now want 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 resolutions R238-2026 through R246-2026. Second.

Any council discussion or any that need to be pulled? Roll call vote, please.

Mr. Landrigan?

Yes.

Mr. Range? Yes. Mr. Harold Amputas? Yes. Ms. Honahan? Yes. Mr. Forte? Yes. Ms. Cohen? Yes.

And there is no unfinished business. Move on to approval of vouchers. Will the clerk please read the voucher totals?

From the current fund, $1,023,515.29. From the general capital fund, $357,353.68. From the electric operating fund, $477,275.20. From the water operating fund, $31,263.12. And from the trust, $217,172. The total is $2,106,508.01. Mayor, I move approval of the vouchers.

Second.

Any discussion? Roll call vote, please.

Mr. Landrigan? Yes. Mr. Range? Yes. Mr. Harold Pudas? Yes. Ms. Honahan? Yes. Mr. Forte? Yes. Ms. Cohen? Yes.

And there is no new business. I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

Mayor, I motion that we adjourn the meeting.

All in favor? Aye. Thank you very much. Thank you all. And again, our next meeting is September, so all have a good rest of summer.