Council - Regular Meeting

Just let us know if it's too warm in here.

Denise will make it nice and cold. Yeah.

Why don't we get going, guys? What's up? Is it 8 o'clock? 7. 7 o'clock. 7 o'clock. 7 o'clock. 7 o'clock. 7 o'clock. 7 o'clock. 7 o'clock. 7 o'clock. 7 o'clock. 7 o'clock. 7 o'clock. Okay, this is a meeting of the Hillsdale Borough Council on this 9th day of June of 2026. Notice of the time and place of this meeting has been provided to the Bergen Record as well as posted on our website as now pursuant to public law. A copy was also posted on the bulletin board outside of this meeting room and provided to any interested parties. Please silence your cell phones and please wait to be recognized by the mayor during the public hearing and the public comment part of the meeting. You will need to state your name and town of residence for the record. Will the clerk please read the roll? We'll do the pledge. Okay, sure. I'm here.

Council member Camp. Here. Council member Coletti. Here. Council member DeRosa. Here. Council member Mazachon. Here. Council President Rosso. Here. Council member Rucco.

Absolutely. Everybody please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. We have minutes to approve. The minutes from the council meeting on May 5th, 2026. Can I get a motion?

Motion.

Is there a second?

Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Is anyone opposed? The ayes have it and the minutes are approved. The council minutes from May 12th, the public meeting. Can I get a motion? Motion. Can I get a second?

Second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Congratulations, the May 12th minutes are approved. Initial public comments? Time limited, one item on the agenda. Would anybody in the audience like to say something? No, we have one no, two no, we're going to pass, okay. We have correspondence to file. We have an email received 531 from Grayson regarding e-bike enforcement, 55 from Dr. Amy Dalzell regarding data centers in New Jersey, and a letter from Rosemarie D'Alessandro regarding a street sign potentially to be named in her daughter's name. Can I get a motion to file and receive?

motion motion second quick seconds already done okay all those in favor aye aye we have to give a response i we promised in response to uh miss rosemary on the naming if you want to uh pick a name now or you want to refer to a

No, I think we've kind of discussed that in order to maintain some continuity to the process that we're going to refer this to a naming, to sort of a dedicating committee so that we don't want to file if somebody else wants to do it and someone says, why not me on this one and why this one over here? So for the sake of keeping things in order, I think create and refer yeah we create and refer it to a committee uh yeah i just want to point out that a couple of meetings back we approved a uh i mean we have a bench right at stephanie gardens and we had done that here so just as a matter of consistency i don't want to well i think it's different to have a a bench in a garden as opposed to people's homes to do that i think it's a it's a it's a bigger thing to name a road

Well, that's an honorary sign. It's not an address.

No, I understand that, but I want to make sure that we go through a process because I don't think anybody on this board would have a problem talking about something, I don't want to trivialize it, but a bench. But if it's something bigger, and if there are going to be people that show up at a naming ceremony, for example, I think that we should probably put that through its paces. Yeah, that's my opinion.

So we had a committee that we disbanded about two years ago.

Right. We're going to have to reconstitute it. Anthony was kind enough to share his thoughts with me from a couple of years ago. Actually, more than a couple. We're aging quickly, my friend.

Yeah, I know.

Which I thought was a pretty good basis. Did you share beyond me? I did not. Okay, so there are a couple of things that we should talk about amending that. It would be getting stakeholders in town, like someone from the rec committee, and someone from the environmental committee someone from the planning board on so that we would have a holistic view um when addressing this and then we they we would refer to them they would come back with a recommendation and we could act accordingly yeah and they do a little if i may they they would do a little bit of homework to vet the person um you know it

What I'm trying to prevent is there are gray areas where some people may be nominated and they might not be worthy. Right. Okay. So running it through this group of pro-section of the community, I think it's a good way of adding, it's a good precedent to have. I agree. Going forward.

Before we jump off this subject, my understanding was that it was a mayor's committee. Yes, it's a mayor's committee. come up with a list any time there.

But can I do that outside of people on this dais? Can I say I'd like to get a representative from the DPW, for example?

You can appoint anybody you want. I want Barry Peterson personally. I would say that may be a confirming vote at the next meeting. Okay. But I think it's within your purview. Just get it done.

Okay.

okay did you agree no i think i think the no the only recommendation i would make is if you know to be clear on whether or not this committee will be using discretion to do it or they'll be charged with coming up with some sort of a point or grading system determined if it qualifies anthony's anthony's outline which i'm sure he'll he'll share around i i talked to him about it there's a it's a good foundation that gives you sort of a set of criteria there's a couple of things i want to add to it i'll be more than happy to

Give Anthony my thoughts, and we'll give him the credit for putting that stuff together. And then I'll share it with everybody. We'll come up with the people that we want to go ahead and do it, and we'll move forward expeditiously.

Then does it circle back to council for a vote?

Yes, it would. They would make a recommendation on whether or not to proceed, they may say. And this has nothing to do with anything currently on the table. They would say great idea, or no, or there's some middle ground and It's an advisory committee.

Is this a process and something we can get done for Rosemary so we can vet the name of the sign and decide on whether we want to agree to it by September? Or is it something that is going to take- I don't know.

We won't know until we get into it, but we'll- GO FROM HERE.

WELL, THE COMMITTEE SHOULD BE CREATED ON JULY, THE JULY 14TH MEETING. YEAH. SO WE CAN SCHEDULE MEETINGS RIGHT AFTER THAT.

I WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT WE CONSIDER EVERYTHING. THERE'S ALSO POTENTIALLY IF WE START NAMING THINGS, THERE COULD BE COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH IT. THERE COULD BE SOME LOGISTIC THINGS WE HAVEN'T THOUGHT OF YET. I WANT TO MAKE SURE WE TOUCH ALL BASES BEFORE WE JUMP IN ON ANY OF THIS. Are we good to move on? Yeah. Okay, great. So we have filed that. Let's go to the professional reports. We will start with Nick. I don't know why these other two fine gentlemen are not on our- You don't like that? Okay. Well, as long as I get to talk.

Let's start with Nick, and then we'll see if anybody else gets a chance. So we have two paving projects starting soon. It's going to be pretty much our road program for this year. One of them is Liberty and Arcadia, which is the DOT municipal aid funded project, and the other is the 2026 Riverside Cooperative Paving Program, and that's going to cover Willowbrook Road and Cedar Street. so smaller paving program than we normally do but that is everything that we have planned for this year then also the memorial field project they're making good progress the walls at least all the large walls are completed at this point they're moving forward with doing a lot of the drainage work You can see parts of the basketball courts are going up. The parking lot is starting to take shape. There's curves that are in place already. Some of the sidewalks are going in. So the site is definitely moving closer to completion. Um, I know there was some big question always.

When is the completion? It's a moving target that we, it is.

Um, and there, there still is a good amount of work to be done. I think, I think what I said last time is still probably, you know, reasonable, um, target towards it. I'm sorry. You tell me towards the end of July. I think it's July is probably where we're looking to end up right now. Um, But I'll continue to update you as I have information, obviously.

questions for our engineer yeah nick we talked about that swell drain and the area that it's sitting on right now yeah and how it kind of resembles like a skateboard ramp from top to bottom did you just look into uh why that was so wide as opposed to being a little bit tighter to the yeah so um it was it was designed to be that width

um there there is a certain width that's required in order to hold the the volume of water that we're anticipating that's going to catch now the concern of people riding bikes down it or things like that obviously is something that we're looking at now to see if there's some kind of clean easy way that we can prevent that that isn't going to look too out of place so we're trying to figure something simple out for that that's not going to cost a lot of money you know can can still have that added safety benefit there but that that the size of the swell is what was needed for the amount of water that you know that we're anticipating for those areas and putting a asphalt over that's normal yeah so we had we had it originally um specified as concrete and we decided to change to asphalt because asphalt is more workable um concrete is you know has to be formed it has to be shaped very you know exactly and precisely where asphalt you can kind of like push it and mold it to a space so it was a little bit easier from a installation perspective for the contractor to do it with asphalt so we didn't have any issue with that they're both around the same price it wasn't like uh they were trying to do it in a cheap way it just is it was more uh constructible that way

And then with regards to the fencing that's like kind of built on an angle in certain areas, especially around the main wall over there by Washington, there's like, there were like big gaps underneath it. Yep. Like, how are you going to prevent like, yeah, so I think you need only like a couple of inches and it looks like there's like six inches or even more than that.

So I know that that concern was raised a week or two ago and we had them lower the fences in those areas. um obviously because the fence runs straight and the retaining wall steps down there's going to be areas where you know there are gaps created and um you know unless you had the fence actually with posts at each step yeah usually they step the fence right it would have required a lot of posts and a lot of different runs it's more expensive to do that it's possible but when you have that many steps you'd have to have posts at every step so um we we did not design it that way i think once everything is backfilled with all the soil behind it and the landscaping and everything it's not going to look like those gaps are going to be an issue i know on the other side of the site where everything's finished those gaps are like barely anything like you could you know barely get your hand through it type of thing so i think once it's finished those are going to be no problem

And the guardrail, that's been designed?

The guardrail has been designed. We're waiting on an authorization as to whether or not you want to move forward with that just based on the cost of it.

Okay.

Anybody else have questions?

Yeah, just to double confirm, the Liberty Avenue paving, we're expecting to start that at the end of this month?

By the end of this month.

By the end of this month. That's great news for the Pascag Valley Triathlon that happens in August, which goes down that road.

Yeah, it should definitely be finished by then.

Hey, I'm looking out for our competitive athletes. Are you looking for another medal, Chris? Yeah, I'm always looking for those medals. You know that there.

Mayor, just one point for Memorial Field. When you visit a construction site in mid-construction, it's not finished, so things are still in the process. When you see it's not finished, and then you point some things out, It just takes more time to go back, and then we realize, well, that's how it was designed. That's the actual design. One of the problems we have now, which we have to address at the change order, is we designed the corner without a guardrail. There'll be some landscaping there, there's some trees, and we met the standard. Right, Nick?

That's correct. By DOT standards, a guide rail is not technically required.

We don't need it. But the concern was raised that we need a guide rail. So now we're obligated to actually do it because it's actually our obligation now. If we say no and something was to happen, someone says, well, I told you so. So now we have to spend about $90,000. We don't have the money for it, so we have to get some grants, divide the grants, move some grants from Beachwood. So we're working on that.

Mike, to be clear, the guide rail alone is not 90,000. That was the guide rail and all the supplemental landscaping that was requested.

So the landscaping is $18,000.

Plus labor, yeah.

Yeah, so we have labor, equipment, the guide rail, and we actually pay for the trucks to move things around. It's a big number. It's a big number, even if it's $50,000.

Correct, yeah, it is.

It's something that we didn't plan for, but because this was raised, now we're obligated to actually do it. So I just caution you, just stick to the plan, and once it's done, it's like when you build a house, there's always fine tuning after you build the house. Add the window, take the window, change. So we can still make some changes, but I encourage you to just let them finish it.

Little patience.

Little patience. We got a month to go. Most of the work is done. The drainage is amazing.

Yeah, it's looking great. I mean, for people out there, Who can't see it yet, but you guys are doing work, it's just amazing.

Yeah, I was just there this morning checking on it and everything looks really good.

Wonderful. That's great news.

Okay, who wants to go first? We're going to defer to the Department of Public Works. No, you got one. Superintendent Peterson.

Okay, May's monthly report. we've been making numerous repairs up on our irrigation for our field which has finally been taken care of looking into the process of trying to trace the wires that will control that will control the two one-inch hose tips for each of the ball fields and possibly Zone belt control module, which is roughly, you know, 20 plus. And parts from Memorial Bay, corporations that wanted to create it, because it was a great day for Memorial Bay in Alabama. The road we're continuing our pothole repairs. We've done two stormwater basins so far, complete rebuilds, and we've just begun our third complete rebuild of the stormwater basin. Permit for parking only signs from the community center have been received on the 28th of May. We've continually made the streets sign repairs. DPW renovations are still on hold. and we stopped the . We are in the second phase of that, getting ready to send that back down to the U.P., or I guess it's the final portion of that grant.

So yeah. The signs came in for the community center. We're talking about on, so just for the Patterson Street side?

so it would be for residents who are going to attend the event at the community center um again i guess a special parking pass right when they sign up they'll be printed with a sign up and it's a permit for two hours three hours

And those are the signs that will go up. We're talking about along the side where the trains are or where the building is? I just want to clarify for everybody so we understand it.

We passed an ordinance and it's exactly from which street to which street. I forgot the name.

Never hurts to make sure everybody understands exactly what we're about. Questions?

I have a question. I know there was a minor irrigation issue at Cora Field by first base. Was that resolved?

That was resolved. That turned out to be some sod that was pushed over the top of the head of the sprinkler system, and it was so much sod that the head couldn't come up and poke through the dirt and grass. Okay. Cool. So that's been resolved. Okay.

Anyone else?

So phase two already for the Stop the Soot, is any headwinds with that, or has it just been a completely smooth process?

It's been a completely smooth process. That's fantastic. Thanks to Collier's grant writing.

yeah I think we'd really benefit for that going through so I'm really happy to hear that also I know we had that huge like two-hour storm on Sunday that brought a lot of trees down you have any like high-level stats of it I know your crew had to go out there and clean up some trees that went over some of the major roads they've been doing a phenomenal job they started Saturday yeah

uh continued sunday we had a couple phone calls to remove some more trees yesterday and today they killed it out there we bought a bar westwood as a second chipper yeah i spoke with a superintendent down there he said absolutely that's awesome bringing it back and it's made a huge difference the amount of material that we have to get rid of downstairs now it's chips and i can use the chips

So some good came out of it at least. Anything, did you guys have to clean up anything from the trails like in Beachwood?

They're in there now. I would say approximately four trees that came down on the pathway. One of which unfortunately fell on a portion of the new pathway. THERE'S A REALLY DANGEROUS SPLIT TREE OVER A SECTION OF THE NEW PATH AREA. I HAVE TO HAVE A CONTRACTOR COME IN AND TAKE THAT AWAY.

CLOSER TO THE LIBERTY AVENUE SIDE? THE HILLSDALE AVENUE SIDE.

OKAY. A LITTLE ABOVE WHAT WE ARE CAPABLE, SAFELY CAPABLE OF DOING.

ALL RIGHT. THAT'S IT.

ANYONE ELSE? If you don't stay around to the end of the meeting, I just want to make sure. I'm going to say it in my comments. Thank you. Thank you for all you did in the storm and just in general, but the stuff that you guys have been doing and cleaning up and please pass along our thanks. I know I speak for everybody up here. You guys have been killing it and it's noted.

They've been killing it. They really have been killing it. Great work.

Yeah, Barry, I wanted to thank you too for the help with installing Starlink over there at Beechwood. It's going to be a great tool for the coaches and the parents over there.

The bracket, I think, came in today, Raymond said?

Yeah, somebody dropped it off at the DPW today.

Okay, so yeah, we'll get that up and taken care of next week when we get past this storm damage. Yeah, and we did already.

We tested the connection and we were able to stream video, no problem.

And is that with password? It's not password protected?

It is password protected. It's called 1-2-3. It's not the reposition that the agreement was saying?

Yeah, like 43 degrees. 40 degrees or something?

it actually tells you on the app and then soccer just needs to figure out how to darken the screen a little bit so they could actually project in the middle of the afternoon also you wear a couple of hats i'm going to assume you're at the fire at the rawson and i was yeah thanks for uh thanks to the department since you're the only one representing right now but i appreciate you guys doing that

all right thank you so let's cover may um for community policing we did the wounded warrior foundation run at the high school so thank you for the town and or the borough for setting that up um with the paperwork side of it and thank you to high school for allowing us on the last minute uh event to get over there is for a good cause they had a pretty good turnout the weather wasn't great but it's still nonetheless raise money for a good foundation For traffic and patrol, we had 751 calls for service in May, 99 motor vehicle stops, 25 motor vehicle accidents. We did 12 selective enforcement details and 30 parking enforcement details, responded to 37 medical calls. We issued 115 written warnings, issued 56 summonses. We had seven adult arrests and conducted 113 property and school checks. our detective bureau investigated 47 cases they closed 31 of them and generated four criminal complaints out of those cases our firearms investigation unit investigated 15 handgun permanent background checks questions for the chief don't all jump on them on e-bikes no you guys are ready for that next month yeah yeah absolutely okay anything no

Well, you're getting off easy. Thank you. Thanks. Okay. We're going to move on to committee reports.

I think he has some good news that if you want to share now or wait with the cameras, the additional cameras funding.

Oh, right. Okay.

Yeah, we're working on it. funding side of the house making sure everything is kosher we're you know making sure that the cameras are being paid for properly but we're definitely going to be able to assist with the we have some cameras remaining throughout the town that have to go up and also some additional ones that we think would benefit us to have and we'll be able to fund that out of our this will be out of the forfeiture fund correct yeah okay are you good are you is this related at all in memorial So memorial's a second piece of that. We're hoping to help out with that as well. That's a whole thing. I understand.

I don't want to obligate you to something, but I want to understand what we're talking about.

Yeah, so memorial's just looking. I know they have it right now. They're working on a proposal. The camera crew that installed us here. our tech company but um yeah memorial project we're 100 looking to help out what help out with and you'll be monitoring it you'll be able to monitor it exactly yes um so yeah we're looking into that we're just waiting on the proposal back from them um because we have only have the proposal from the original company at this point uh and then secondary to that is the defibrillators um we just got a quote back for that so these are aeds yeah so we need to work out a logistic side of it for maintenance and making sure they're You know properly charge properly maintain weather up and ask around some surrounding towns how they pull them down in the winter when they pull them down, you know charging charge and trickle charge exactly as he what makes the most sense, but we'll be able to come forward with that too so.

Yeah, I appreciate your efforts on that. Yeah, great thing to have it. It's not true.

It's a you know. So if you're good thing to have. We have to work once yeah.

Anything else.

No? Okay, thank you. Thank you. We'll start with Councilman Camp. Sure. On committee reports.

Okay, so an update from the Stony Brook Pool Commission. The Pool Commission last met on May 13th, just prior to their annual open house. At that time, membership revenue was tracking nearly identically to the prior year, and since then, I checked in with Patty today, and membership revenue has grown to approximately $719,000, which remains also very much in line with last season, almost scarily, so very close. As always, weather plays a significant role in the membership activity throughout the remainder of the summer, but we're looking good as of right now. I attended the open house on May 16th and was encouraged to see a steady stream of prospective members touring the facility and learning about what Stonebrook has to offer. Preparations for the season went smoothly. Lifeguard hiring and training were successfully completed. Staff were onboarded into the new payroll system and a new office staff member joined the team and that staff member has strong operational experience, so an immediate asset. The commission also discussed several events that help support pool operations to generate additional revenue, including the senior barbecue, which was held on June 2nd, school events, and a number of scheduled private parties throughout the summer. On the facility side, the competition pool repairs have been completed, and the pool is operating normally. Work is underway to replace sections of piping to prevent reoccurring issues. And the commission continues to monitor the aging infrastructure, including one of the main pool infiltration units, which is nearly 30 years old. The goal is to make any necessary repairs in the most cost-effective manner while ensuring reliable operations through the season.

Wasn't there an emergency pump that had to be replaced?

Yes, that was at the competition pool, and that has been addressed. That was replaced and addressed.

And they had the surplus to pay for that?

Correct. Okay.

And just so you know, that senior event, we brought in a ringer to do the barbecuing. He's not paying attention, but we made him flip all the burgers.

i've had his barbecue i'm sure they were well served it's it's delicious just one report on the regional board of education that's uh pasac valley high school uh they're a year in recognitions at the meeting yesterday last night um they uh a lot of athletic ones especially for the girls pv girls softball team um there are a number of awards for the film club um both uh short short form and long, and it's regional awards, so it's like six different states in our area. And Mr. Sherman runs that audio-video group, and he just continues to do a good job. These are multiple years that they've been winning. They discussed the bell-to-bell, no cell phone, which will go into effect next year. and they actually award perfect attendance awards. So I figured, all right, the kid made it the whole year. No, it was all four years. Four years of perfect attendance. Didn't miss a single school day. That's crazy. And then the last thing was the project crash simulation, which a lot of us were there for. Very poignant. If you have kids or not, the simulation is a drunk driving accident. There were two cars presented to the senior class at the high school. The theater kids reenact victims. One was driving drunk. ems from hillsdale rivervale westward over there riverville fire hillsdale fire hillsdale police uh hillsdale ambulance and there's audio with the call as it comes over the um to the ems people um they evaluated people uh they removed the hood of the cars to get them out triage them yep a helicopter from so joel soldier who's a hillsdale resident and member of the fire department and also an air medic nurse got the um hackensack meridian helicopter to land on the base on the football field baseball field excuse me and um they it's it's totally reenacted to the point where the chief and his officers actually arrest the person who was suspected of drunk driving right and cover them take them away so it's just a reminder to students to just

have decisions to make make the right decisions and and the next day was prom so uh it's uh it's a great thing that that everybody does and yeah it's the if you it's worth it just being there just to see it you don't you you you immerse yourself to the point where you kind of forget that it's a simulation right of what's going on there um this is the second year that they brought it back since covet and you know your heart is up here where you're watching what's going on there um I mean, down to the point that these actors are getting more sophisticated. The one young man who was having a cardiac arrest in the car that got hit they gave him sausages that came through with blood, and it looked like his intestines were, I mean, it's crazy what they did. The young lady who passed away, they put, it looked like she had glass through her head. I mean, it was, it's, you know, last year, Brian Klass, the father of the girl who was presumed, was pronounced dead there, said that he couldn't watch it at one point because it was his daughter laying there. uh you know in the car outside the car just the thought that she had lost her life because of this um there were not a whole lot of kids making any wisecracking comments it was it was amazing you can see on the expressions of their faces yeah it was real to them and and the man with the camera was was there yeah preserving the preserving the images that's all i have yeah thank you Council President.

Thank you. We'll wait for you. Update on the United Methodist Commission. With the support of our Public Works Department and Boy Scout Troop 108, on May 16th, we conducted the borough's styrofoam collection and recycling event. We filled about a third of the container. I would deem it a success. We're going to take a look at the time of year that we actually initiate that event. I think it works better after the holidays where a lot of people have packages that they've been receiving. It was a very nice Saturday morning and you could tell a lot of people were out there with their families. uh with regards to uh tracking of trees removed and added at the beginning of this year the commission for the first time began tracking the number of trees removed and planted in the borough for the fourth quarter of 2025 the commission estimated a net loss of about 127 trees which is significant a tally of the first quarter of 2026 is in progress and is expected to be finalized soon um frederick bell has been working with the business administrator to finalize an update uh to the borough's urban community forestry plan and i think that um you sent today saying that it's been submitted correct um with the rest of the tree ordinance uh fred rubella has also been working with the planning board's attorney on several important updates to the borough's tree ordinance one of them being the fee required to pay um to replace the tree um and it's something that will return back to council for a vote hopefully shortly and uh the next meeting for the environmental commission will be this monday evening june 15th at 7 00 p.m in borough hall and just to remind everybody that it is open to the public Now I'm going to put my John Rucco hat on and hopefully I'm going to step in for him because he's away this week.

Does he wear Psycho Bunny as well?

He doesn't wear Psycho Bunny. He's done. Different hat. Different hat. I think he's more of a Lacoste. With regards to access for all, they met on May 18th. They discussed their annual budget allocation of $2,000, $497 of which has already been spent. There will be a How to Make Wind Chimes workshop held at the library on June 18th at 4.30 p.m. The Access for All organization also discussed the opening of the community center and need for acoustic remediation.

Mike, I think you probably provided an update on that, right? Yep. All right.

um i discussed everyone wins baseball program presentation that was made earlier to the retcom um i think being constantly responded back to uh jay weinstein with regards to uh it being more of a high school organization as opposed to a rep commission organization right and the next meeting for their access for all would be on june 22nd uh for a board of health uh they met on may 19th 7 p.m at borough hall elaine myerson was asked to follow up with ba on getting a detailed 2026 budget by account um mike are you aware of that yes northwest bergen regional health commission report items of interest covid hospital cases over this year than last year predominantly seen in 65 plus continue their normal seasonal decline. May is National Lyme and tick-borne disease Awareness Month, so the CDC reports surge of activity much earlier than normal. Annual audits of public school immunization efforts are completed. Schools are in compliance. Preschool audits are still received approval, rated satisfactory in April. We wish them well. Very nice lady that's the owner of that deli. Demarest Farms, subject of an odor complaint due to storage of farm animals. This is permissible activity for farms. No recourse under Right to Farm Act, but we received a letter with regards to that that we entered into the record, right? The Board of Health will hold skin cancer screening July 8th from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Hillsdale Community Center. And the Board of Health also discussed holding blood pressure clinic during Town Day on September 19th in Beechford Park. The next meeting is June 16th. For seniors, Forever Young program held May 14th in the Hillsdale Community Center. Good to see the Hillsdale Community Center getting a lot of activity. a special presentation was made by the county on aging in place and how to right size and declutter if we could all take a lesson in decluttering a senior lunch held may 20th at the hillsdale community center next one will be held at stony brook at 11 30 a.m on june 2nd we did that all right fincom thank you there you go we are we're at the night yeah okay uh fincom meeting was held on may 29th and uh may 29th uh we discussed pool membership and chris camp provided an update on that so i'm not going to restate that uh the administration keeping a tight lid on now on purchases that are not deemed essential Debt servicing. Needs in 2027 are expected to be higher than originally anticipated on account of the shorter 12-year, not 15-year originally anticipated maturity associated with the $9.1 million bond just issued on May 1st. So when we were going to bond, actually the term was reduced from 15 to 12 years, which actually increased our principal and interest payments, which is putting a little bit more stress on payments going forward. Health insurance, due to the sizable premium increases experienced in the borough's employee health coverage, the borough is likely to switch to a higher deductible plan. If it does so, we'll seek to make employees whole by offering a funding on a health savings account. And Mike, maybe you could update us on that. And we also discussed CMFO services and the shared service contract with OVA. And that's it.

Councilman Coletti, would you like to talk about the planning board, what we can't do? You and I have to recuse ourselves every week.

Yeah. Councilman Coletti. It's been uneventful for you and me.

Yeah. I actually do have a pretty detailed update, though, from the last meeting. Great. Because I think there were two very important votes and approvals that occurred. So the last, excuse me, next meeting is June 11th. The last meeting was May 26th. And just bear with me. I am going to read this. It'll be the quickest way to get the road. Okay. uh during the meeting the planning board approved the use variance for 276 282 broadway at the corner of willsav for the construction of three townhomes on what is currently a commercially zoned lot there was some local resident opposition however the planning board felt the new utilization of the lot was more favorable for the community than the existing use I believe in its current state, in my opinion, it almost looks more like an abandoned piece of property than anything else.

It's been that way for 15 years?

What was the address or the location? It's the corner of Broadway and Wilts.

Corner of Broadway and Wilts.

Uh, then the next one, uh, which the, uh, I know the, uh, not environmental commission, excuse me, economic development committee was involved with at least in the beginning. Uh, they also approved the D variants, adding residential apartments on the second level of the existing retail stores at the corner of Hillsdale lab and Winkler way. uh just as a reminder that's the building across from the west lot as a multitude of stores including the bagel shop the deli barbershop nail salon dry cleaners etc the improvements include adding three two-bedroom apartments parking will be added behind the building for all apartments and some slight restructuring of the side property along the bergen garden center which includes moving the propane filling station from the rear of the property to the front and that's to accommodate the new parking spaces along the back One of the variances was originally for a height variance to accommodate decorative roofing and a clock tower. Although the decorative roofing will remain, their four gables have been lowered from 35 feet to 30 feet, and the 50-foot clock tower has been removed and replaced with a 35-foot steeple. Although the Economic Development Committee recommended the clock tower in the original height, the Planning Board felt the height was excessive and out of place. one unique characteristic of that steeple is that starting on the second floor it cantilevers out about three feet so it's hovering over the right of use of the sidewalk so because of that one of the conditions of the approval is that they will need to come before the mayor and council for approval for that overhang that goes over the right-of-way I expect we'll probably see that within a month or two

Maybe longer, because we have to design all that.

But it will come in front of this council to vote on. And finally, Meredith Cates, the chairperson of the planning board, she had recommended that a planning board member be added to the economic development committee to avoid confusion for applicants, and it would help streamline the planning board approval process.

Any questions?

Fire Department, May 2026 had 20 calls versus 29 in May of the prior year. This is the third consecutive month with a small decrease. However, year to date, we're slightly down at 129 calls versus 135 in the prior year. As we all already know, the fire department responded to a devastating house fire last Tuesday, along with numerous other local towns, local towns fire departments. Upon arrival, the home was already meaningfully engulfed with flames, forcing the fire department to make a critical decision to transition to defensive measures. Really the reason I'm focusing on this is because I think it should be a reminder to us all that the firefighters and first responders deal with very erratic, unstable, and life-threatening situations that in a matter of minutes and even seconds can turn on them. And in this case, they made a wise decision to keep the fire department safe. I think it goes without saying that we're all grateful for them and their service, and I think it's always important to remember that they're volunteers on top of that. On a lighter note, the new ladder truck is scheduled to be completed and delivered in July. The PO for the truck was signed last week, and a few of our department members will be traveling to Florida to perform an inspection on the truck. The cost of that travel is already included in the manufacturer's purchase price, so there's no additional fees associated with that. And our next council fire committee meeting is currently scheduled for June 22nd. That's it.

Councilwoman Mazichon.

Okay, let's start with economic development. The Economic Development Advisory Committee met on May 20th. One of the topics discussed was assigning committee roles to better utilize the diverse expertise of our members. But the biggest takeaway was that we are developing a community survey that will include questions for both with residents and business owners. And the goal is really just to gather that valuable feedback on our business community and identify opportunities for future economic development initiatives. So the committee will review and finalize these survey questions at our next meeting, which is next week. REC meeting. So we had the REC meeting on June 1st. I know Barry said it, despite the weather, the Memorial Day ceremonies in Puri were well attended and a great success, so thank you to all. Hillsdale Rec Summer Program Guide. On the 19th, Hillsdale Rec Summer Program Guide was released. The guide highlights several new programs along with a lineup and schedule for the summer concert series. We'll have our first June concert on the 24th, which is featuring Alan Quinn Orchestra, and it's at Veterans Park, so everyone should get out there and enjoy the show. We talked a little bit about the AEDs in the park. I know we're working with Chief Woods to purchase the AEDs for the parks with the ball fields, and this initiative will really help improve safety and ensure these life-saving devices are readily available in the event of an emergency. Again, sorry to repeat myself a little bit here, but the Memorial Field Project's coming along with anticipated opening sometime towards the end of July. REC is working in partnership with the sports organizations on upgrading the field house. And once that has been emptied, the work will be expected to begin. Community events. REC is also collaborating with HBSA. and the soccer association for the US World Cup soccer watch party at Beachwood. This is where residents are gonna gather to watch the US versus Australia match It's a fun way to celebrate the nation's 250th anniversary, and it happens to be the last day of school. The event starts at 2 p.m. There'll be food trucks. REC has been working closely also with the Hillsdale Police Department and Office of Emergency Management just to coordinate the logistics and ensure their safety, and it's a successful event. So we do encourage all to attend.

Um, there are other towns that are jealous.

There are other towns that are jealous and are reaching out and saying, how are you doing this? So, uh, it's going to be a really, really great event for everybody. And I see it almost as a celebration of the, and the start of this, you know, after school, it's summer for the kids. So, uh, spring sports. Spring sports is coming to a close. Communication and coordination with the HBSA throughout the season have been excellent. Operations have run smoothly. We've also received numerous compliments from our visiting teams regarding the quality of our fields. So thank you and our condition of our fields. We did, HBSA did hold their annual, I'm sorry, their closing ceremony at Centennial Field on Saturday, June 6th. They had food trucks, a dunk tank. I'm not sure if any of you guys made it into that tank, but it was a good turnout for the community, so thanks for them for setting that up. That's it.

Questions? As far as the field house goes, what's the timeline and who's gonna be doing what there?

Well, it sounds like the HBSA and the Soccer Association are cleaning it out at this point.

They're going to clean it out, right? They did the clean out. We're actually meeting there tomorrow at 3 o'clock with the construction official to see what permits is needed. The DPW is clearing some of the things behind it, but there's some structural things that we have to change. So that's owned by the town, so we have to eat some of that. But as far as the inside... THE ASSOCIATION.

YEAH, I THINK WHAT'S IN SCOPE OF THAT PROJECT IS A FLOOR AND KITCHEN EQUIPMENT EXPANDING THE WINDOW TO MAKE IT A LOT EASIER TO SERVE.

WILL THE KITCHEN EQUIPMENT BE BAKING POPCORN?

There's not going to be an ancillary system or any hoods. We're not going to do anything. So Mike's not going to be able to do it. If you don't grill it. No lamb chops.

Not unless he gives you his recipe for dough.

But the football and the baseball associations are very eager to add resources to that project. And Mike Sassano, who does this for a living and has access to resources, is going to be part of that meeting tomorrow with Mike so they can identify the scope and start a little work plan so that they can get the ball moving on that. Great. Because hopefully that gets completed in line with end of July, right, Nick? End of July.

middle july july 1st yeah okay great thanks thanks see at the end of the season that would be very impressive see you at the end of june okay don't worry about it you got 28 games yeah um thank you mr mayor sure so today we finished the migration of our borough cell phones from verizon to at&t for first net service first net service is only available to first responders and government employees For us, it also comes with free handsets and a 20% cheaper rate, which for us is about $400 less per month. So $4,800 per year, we pay less with newer handsets and better service. We also got two new phones, one for the ambulance, to stay with the ambulance so they have service wherever they go. And the other one is for OEM, which I didn't even know they were using their own cell phones. So we got them that, and now we're working on a second phase for the cars, for the routers, and all that, so it's all on the same service. Today also, today was a busy day for some reason. We had a DEP enforcement officer came to visit us. I want to say he was very friendly.

But I would be lying. You'd like to say.

Yes. He came in and we spent about two hours with him at Centennial Field. We had to pull plans. He had very specific requests, which we didn't have on hand. So there's a checklist. that we have to go by and that's all based on the permit requirements because it's a landfill whatever we do in that field the ep has to know he said above ground below ground everything we asked him when we cut the grass that has to be monitored by a professional engineer so he has to get out there with a tank top and a hat and watch him cut the grass so so we have to be very specific very detailed on it just because of what's under there yeah he was he was very impressed with the actual field and how it looked uh and i have to say the field looks amazing like the drainage was always wet Now it's dry, so we actually have to water it all the time, just to keep, and I have to say, say that you were there doing the construction, you would have found 50 different things wrong with it. But thank God you weren't there doing construction, because it turned out perfect. when you stay out of it. The community center, we're working on a sound control, excuse me, so we actually have a professional company that came in, did the sound measurement, and said, yes, there's a problem.

Yes, water is wet.

But based on the size of the problem, they come up with solutions. So it's going to be clouds coming down from the sky, from the ceiling, just enough where the sound is absorbed.

So there'll be testing. So we're not going to be doing the tiles on the ceiling? What do you mean clouds?

It looks like cloud, not cloud, looks like circles. It's fabric. It's fabric, but comes down about two inches off the ceiling and at different levels. So based on the measurements where the sound is mostly to bounce is where they'll treat it.

So that cost- They're confident that they can do this?

Yes, that's what they do. Okay. And they're different types. So we're going with the one that actually works most efficiently.

They're guaranteeing you to, how do we do that? It's all measured. It's x number of decibels and it's gotta be down and that's where they conform to their contract. It's all measured.

The next topic, Shailen Shah is a Boy Scout who built the short trail at Beachwood. And he's completing his project. And the last part of the project, he has to put a small plaque on the trail with a name. And he gave me his top three names. And he's asking if we can come up with a name so we can finish the project. One is, his top name is Beachwood Red Loop. then Hawk Loop or Beechwood Hawk Loop, and then the last one is Everdell Loop.

And this is only going to be known to the people that actually walk by that little corner and look for a little plaque where it's going to be seen, as opposed to it's on the east side of Beechwood.

No, this is a small trail under the trees. It's going to be down a few feet up from the ground. So his first choice is Beechwood Red Loop. If you're okay with that, I promise him I'll bring him to you if there's any strong feeling against it. Anyone? this doesn't really require a vote other than are you guys okay with his first choice he did the work yeah it's fine yeah sounds good to me okay i'll let him know thank you okay uh two quick things and i'll be done uh councilwoman melissa mentioned the economic development uh we've been meeting uh and we've been waiting for the right time to talk about the downtown redevelopment and we think it's the right time. So I'm going to ask Mr. Mayor if we can have on the agenda for the next meeting, a discussion topic for the council in public. Right. To discuss the next steps.

What our options may be and what the steps are. Yeah, I think that's a good idea to do so.

And lastly, the health insurance, we have an all staff meeting with our health insurance consultant on July 1st to discuss the different plans that the state offers. But we'd like to focus on the high deductible plan, which will save the employees money, but will also save the borrower money. That's coming up on July 1st. we'll see what the options are we'll do some financial analysis on it for both the employees and for the town and then we'll report that uh the enrollment is in november so we have about two months to finish this okay uh so we are on target that's all i have questions for the va yeah mike with regards to the the forestry plan are we complying right now we're still waiting back to we sent it the first time to the dep they came back with a few questions right we replied back with the responses and that's what they have now so so we're not in compliance yet they they have it it's under review okay anyone else

Now you get to listen to me read ordinances. I know you're all excited about that. There we go. Ordinance 2617 for adoption. Capital ordinance of the borough of Hillsdale in the county of Bergen, New Jersey authorizing the undertaking of various improvements to Stony Brook Swim Club in buying for the swim pool utility of the borough. Appropriating therefore the sum of $62,500 and that such sum, so appropriate it shall be raised from the Swim Pool Utility Capital Improvement Fund. Can I get a motion to open the hearing to the public?

Motion.

Is there a second? Second. Those in favor? Aye. Okay. All those who wish to be heard? Getting a lot of no's. Okay, well then can we get a motion to close the public hearing on Ordinance 2617?

Motion to close.

Second? Second. All those in favor?

Aye.

Anyone opposed? No. All right, it's closed. Can we get a motion to adopt 2617?

Motion. Second.

Those in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? It passes. Okay, be it resolved that ordinance known as 2617 be passed on final passage in the notice of adoption. of said ordinance be published on the official borough website according to law. Now we're going to go on to introduction of 2618, an ordinance establishing recreation department program and summer camp fees in the borough of Hillsdale. Be it resolved that ordinance 2618 entitled an ordinance establishing recreation department program and summer camp fees in the borough of Hillsdale is hereby introduced by title. And be it further resolved that the borough is hereby directed to advertise that ordinance with a hearing date of July 14th, 2026 on the official borough website under public notices. Can I get a motion to introduce?

Motion.

Second?

Second.

Those in favor?

Aye. Aye.

Anyone opposed? It is introduced. 2619, for introduction and ordinance establishing salaries for the recreation department.

I selected.

Yeah. Be resolved that ordinance 2619. Entitled an ordinance establishing salaries for the recreation department. It's hereby introduced by title and be it further resolved that the borough clerk is hereby directed to advertise that ordinance with a hearing date of July 14th, 2026 on the official website under public notices. Can I get a motion?

Motion. Motion.

Can I get a second?

Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Okay, we have, let me see, is considerate introduced. Okay, 2619, an ordinance establishing salaries for the recreation department. No, we just did that. We did that. We're doing 2620. Sorry, I lost it there. Okay. Establishing the public rights in a portion of West Street in the borough of Hillsdale County of Bergen State of New Jersey. Before I read this, I just want to remind everybody, this is the ordinance where we're going to give up part of the street. on West Street to satisfy our round four affordable housing obligation. So just so everybody has context, we had an RDP, which is a realistic development potential of four, and we're going to satisfy that obligation through that area but part of that part of our contribution is to give them that street so they can go contiguous and make the units appropriate that's sorry so anyway that's just about right just one small note on that yeah the map that's attached to the resolution

is an older vacating map. The final was finished by Nick's office today, and it actually moves the line about six or eight feet.

We're giving up a little less on the street.

But if you see a different map in the next day or two, that's because there's been an amendment.

And it is not considered to be significant, so we don't have to reintroduce. We'll attach it and move on. Yes. OK. so be resolved that ordinance 2620 entitled an ordinance vacating and extinguishing the public right of a in a portion of west street in the borough of hillsdale county bergen state of new jersey is hereby introduced by title and be further resolved that the borough clerk is hereby directed to advertise said ordinance with a hearing date of july 14 2026 on the official borough website under public notices can i get a motion motion second second all those in favor aye is there anybody opposed none it is introduced now 2621 for introduction capital ordinance to appropriate the sum of 194 341 dollars for the improvement of ralph avenue and legion place in by and for the borough of hillsdale in the county of bergen state of new jersey and providing that such sum so appropriated shall be raised from a NJDOT grant, be it resolved that the ordinance 26-21 is entitled Capital Ordinance to Appropriate the Sum of $194,341 for the Improvement of Ralph Avenue and Legion Place in, by, and for the Borough of Hillsdale in the County of Bergen, State of New Jersey, and providing that the sum so appropriated shall be raised from an NJDOT grant is hereby introduced by title and be it further resolve that the borough clerk is hereby directed to advertise that ordinance with a hearing date of July 14th, 2026 on the official borough website under public notices. Can I get a motion? Motion. Can I get a second?

Second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Anyone opposed? Okay, it is passed. Resolutions on the consent agenda 26149 through 26166, but we are going to pull 26 169 from the consent agenda and we will be moving that's an off consent oh it's oh it's off consent all right so we'll get to that so all right so now we're just 26 149 through 26 166. um does anybody have any resolutions uh that they would like to take from consent to non-consent seeing nobody doing so would somebody like to make a motion to pass the consent resolution

Motion.

Second? Second. All those in favor?

Aye.

Anyone opposed? Okay, the consent agenda has passed. Off consent, we have 26167, a resolution to approve the plenary retail consumption license for renewal for Domani Grill, DBA Benzie of Hillsdale for 2627. Motion? Motion. Second?

Second.

Is there any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Is there any abstention? Is there an abstention? Council President has abstained, okay. 26168, a resolution increasing the price for applied landscape technologies for Memorial Park improvements, change order number five. Is there a motion?

Motion.

Second?

Second.

Is there any discussion?

Mayor, maybe Nick, if you can just touch on the soil issues.

Sure.

So- Wait, Mike.

So in the beginning of this project, there were a number of things that we tried to do to bring costs down as as part of just keeping it as economical as possible and one of those items was that we would try to find and work with the contractor to find places to import soil from that was either discounted or free and sometimes those opportunities arise sometimes they don't in this case we were able to locate some soil that was either free or discounted but not nearly enough to satisfy the need for the entire site so we had to bring an import from another site which we have to pay for and that is the reflection of that change order now i will say that the full amount there will not need to be used because i did have a project running in demarest this morning where we brought about 50 trucks worth of good material in from For free. So that's going to help offset that cost. The total import I think that that cost was based on was about 350 trucks. So you're talking about a 15% discount off of that. um but this is one of those things where there kind of is no way around it in order to keep the project moving forward we need to have dirt coming in we can't you know stop and wait for a good opportunity to find something cheap it's just you know we have to we have to bring that dirt in to keep everything moving we're hoping to get lucky but we did what we could yeah exactly so yeah we've we've done we've done everything we can to keep costs down wherever possible and we've been pretty creative in a lot of ways to do that but you know sometimes there's just there's no way so okay is there any discussion any questions for that no just a small ask of the ba is that like when we get into these change orders uh obviously you're keeping a bunch of total of where we were originally and how much we're adding permanently yeah we we also we provide a breakdown with all of our payment recommendations and every time a change order is formally recommended for approval to the borough we give you exactly what the breakdown is what previous change orders were approved how much what what percentage change it is in the contract so all that is spelled out in our in our recommendations yeah i'm just saying we had communicated originally a 5.8 number with the soft cost engineering of another five we were at 6.3 and

want to make sure that yeah we're compiling all of that just couple grants we're trying to reach to to take from the cfo is finding some other old grants but to question the overall you know if you were to ask how much Does this cost us? I will have the full amount. There's one more change order. There may be a few smaller ones coming up, $5,000, $6,000.

That's going to finish in two weeks. We can't have that many more changes. Two weeks, you said that? The timeline keeps moving. That's going to finish cheaper than a week. Are we done before the meeting's over?

We've already taken on the debt for this, right? Yes. So when incremental spend comes up,

Yeah, we built some numbers there just in case for things like this, but we're running very close to it now.

But I think to the mayor's point, I guess from a percentage of completion perspective, if you were to say were this percentage complete to date, what would that be? 75%. 75%. So in the remaining 25% and only because we're approached a lot too by the public and how's it going and what do you think else could come out of this? And I know you can't say there won't be any other change orders. That's not what I'm asking. But with what's left in your professional opinion, are there a lot of opportunities that you think for a potential significant or meaningful change order could originate from?

So there are a few small ones that we're already aware of that haven't been formalized yet. But again, these are not, I'm not talking six-figure sums. These are, like Mike mentioned, $5,000, $7,000, things like that. There's the guide rail and landscaping item, which is a pending change order, which is not a requirement, right? You guys actually have to choice on that one.

And that's about another $100,000?

The supplemental landscaping and guide rail is about $90,000. Okay. um but we can use 50 for the grant yes the grant will cover half yeah yeah so so it would be 45 000 ish or funded there's one other item that i'm aware of that they haven't put a cost to yet but is a necessity and that is the the water service line that goes into the field house building so they run a copper pipe from our outside water service in the pipe that's in the building right now is a poly pipe which is not compliant to code so they have to run copper all the way over to the meter which requires them to punch the floor it's not the simplest thing so that's there's going to be some costs associated with that i don't have a number on it yet but again that's one of those things like we have to do that we don't have a choice um outside of that there's nothing else that i'm aware of currently but there's always potential for for small things to pop up and we're at the stage of the project right now we're tying up all the loose ends we're figuring out all the you know like the little things that need to get done that are not so straightforward you know so this is this is the stage where all that stuff is kind of getting worked through and mike leveling the floor behind the batting cage there um

if somebody had the right idea of building a pictures back 15 years ago yeah we're gonna maybe rent some machineries but yeah okay thanks no problem okay any other questions before we go we've already taken the first the motion in a second so all those in favor aye aye anyone opposed it's passed okay it's time for public comment on Any topic.

Wait, we have to- We skipped 26169. Yeah.

Didn't we? No, we're pulling 26169. We're pulling that, sorry. Sorry, I mentioned it earlier. We're pulling that from the agenda and we'll be dealing with that at the next meeting.

Just a brief comment on that. That is the pretty much standard statutory developer's agreement. It has nothing to do with redevelopment. Any time a developer comes in and builds a project that requires posting bonds, complying with the resolution, posting money for inspections, there is a thing called the developer's agreement. It is absolute boilerplate. It is prepared by the planning board attorney, so it was sent to me probably Friday or so. I looked at it, moved it on to Denise with the appropriate resolution, and of course it didn't make our five days. Most of that 111 pages is attachments, copies of the resolution, all kinds of stuff. You are welcome to read every word of it. When you do, you will find it is essentially a recitation of the statute.

It's reading you go to sleep by.

Right. I understood some people were a little uncomfortable with it. I contacted the applicant developer. They're not looking at pull permits until after the July meeting, so we won't be holding anyone up. Anybody has any questions, please give me a call, all right?

This is not material, but we need to do it when there's time for many of us, so we're okay.

We're just as well to have everyone.

Sorry, I thought that we were there.

No, it works fine. Okay. Just one last piece of information. Tomorrow we're going to be issuing the final CO. to the Piermont development. They filed their deed, we have the receipts, everything is good. On the day that we issue the COO permit, we start to collect on that, so just wanna share that with the pilot.

Thanks.

Great news.

Utilization. I'm sorry? Of what's been right there, the utilization.

I don't have an official number. I have a number, but it's not official.

And it's also, the number that I've got is five weeks old, so.

But they're doing what?

They are happy with the progress that they're making. There are 255 units. They're happy with where they are at this stage of the process. Excellent. So that's always nice to have happy partners.

I heard the golf simulator is also evolving.

Don't tell that to Dan Conti. No, Gabe will be down there. No, okay, you won't let him out of the house. Okay, public comment on items, any topic you desire. Please state your name and town of residence for the record. Who would like to be recognized in the public comment? You're not all here because it's just so fun to be here. Come on up, Megan.

So I just want to talk about the self-service.

Surprise, surprise.

I'm a little confused right now because you've been quoted, all of you, kind of, that cell service is not a nice to have but a necessity, and that it's also a public safety issue, but I feel like nothing has happened since the vote. that I know that in May that you had a conversation regarding some of the ultimate sites that had been brought up. And there seemed to be a little bit of a disparity even during that conversation having to do with, I'm going to say, probably it's like the Green and Eagers, I believe. having to do with behind the high school, but there also didn't seem to be any discussion about Centennial, which obviously I can see that the Environmental Protection Agency's all agree about already, but that was something else that was brought up, along with alternative So I'm not quite understanding, since it's such a public emergency, as you guys have stated, why nothing has really been moving ahead. I mean, even the HBSA kind of figured out a way to combat some of that by having Starlink. I know that that's password protected, but they figured out something to at least make that slightly safer. for while there's games that are going on. It seems that there could be small cells that could still be placed, and I feel like you guys are still, or certain members, are still very much pushing for Verizon. Well, Verizon has been very specific, saying they don't want to do anything but a tower. So why are we still discussing Verizon and not moving on to small cells with, say, like AT&T or T-Mobile? But that's kind of what I have to say. I don't want to see you guys dig your heels in and wait until November. I think that that's not a great idea either. I think that it's important that you kind of push forward and really look into this, because as we've heard from a lot of parents and concerned citizens that they're still having trouble, but it's concerning because It's like we're still looking at just a mono tower, and that's not what people seem to want right now. And then one other thing, I don't know how much time I have, but I'm excited for the soccer. You have about 30 seconds. Okay, I'm excited for the soccer. That's wonderful. The only concern I have is so that street is very, very busy, and if they have parking on both sides, I'm just worried about, like, if, God forbid, there's an emergency for... you know a fire truck or something to be able to get through there i'm assuming for sure that you have that well controlled um and the middle school is also graduating that day um at the high school so it'll be a very very busy exciting day so but i want to say thank you everybody thank you for your comments three minutes and one second couldn't be couldn't be better shocking rick you can't let it go on an ounce you gotta say something

Rick Savino, 64 Westdale Avenue. Last month I mentioned I would continue to remind the council not to let the cell tower issue go back and run to a back burner. Tonight I want to talk about my recurring nightmare and that is to wake up to a smoke detector, run out my door, grab my phone, run out my door and I don't have a signal. That is a lot of us on the east side of town. And this can't be pushed on the back burner. Last month, you looked at a lot, a number of possibilities, talked about the behind the high school, ruled it out. And I just wanna, I'm gonna bring up instances every month when I'm here. It's an emergency to a lot of people. It's very critical. Thank you.

Appreciate it. Okay, anybody else? Jerry, you're the last one. You have nothing to say, Jerry? Anything about 125, nothing? Okay. It's time for council commentary. I'm going to start off by thanking every one of our services in town. This has been a time for us all to be tested between parades, emergencies, fires, Kids getting hit on e-bikes or scooters. You guys, all of our workers in town are doing unbelievable stuff. And I want to thank you personally for what you guys do. You're saving lives and you're making the quality of life so much better here. We really appreciate it. So thank you for that. Our next meeting is going to be after the 4th of July?

Yes, July 14th, yeah.

Happy 250 everyone, right? It's the big one. It's the big one. We don't look a day over 240.

um so hopefully we'll have some events and we'll we'll be celebrating them uh in the coming weeks so uh we started with chris last time so we'll start with melissa now for council commentaries okay as mentioned earlier next week june 19th is the last day of school for our k-8 students so i'd like to wish all of our students teachers staff administrators a wonderful well-deserved summer break and a huge congratulations to all the pascac valley high school graduates Wishing you the best as you begin this exciting next chapter and continue to make us proud.

Yeah.

Councilman Bleddy. They're actually at the senior prom right now. I know. I saw pictures already. I just want to remind everyone that the fire department is having a Texas Hall of Tournament this Friday, so please go and lose some money. They'll appreciate it. And that's it. Happy 4th to everyone.

What time is the event on Friday?

I'd have to double check. I'm not sure.

Well, you didn't tell me about it. You didn't tell me about it. You probably just tried to hoard your victory to yourself. Now I'm reminded.

It's all loose.

I just wanted to congratulate the PV varsity girls softball team for finishing second in the state sectionals. It was one of the best seasons they've ever had, 23 and three. And unfortunately they ran into Ramsey. um which was a behemoth uh and a young lady that is committed to the university of maryland as a junior so it was uh what is truly a david and goliath scenario but they had one of the best seasons and i wanted to give the ladies a mention and a shout out because it seems like girls sometimes don't get the same accolades as some of the boys do councilman de rosa

Um, one of the advantages of being on council for a while is you get to see the progress of things over time. And I was struck by counseling as a John when she said how many comments we're getting of from people visiting our town with the great conditions of our field. I remember several years ago where I was fielding all kinds of negative comments about how the conditions of our field and Prior councils and this council has worked really hard to improve that and it takes a long time. I said this before, the wheels of municipal government turn really, really slowly, but now we're starting to see the results of what we've done over the past couple of years through this council's prior council, through the engineering group and DPW. So it's great to see such progress and the turnaround. So thank you to all. That's all.

councilman camp runner runner camp who wins the events in his age group i mean the age group is uh is the important key there i was beaten by some eighth graders i think uh kid who didn't even run regularly one of the kids in the past all right you don't need to publicly say this They're 19 year old legs. They're 17 year old legs, Chris.

Wow, I'm really getting it today. All right, go ahead. So no, I just want to echo your comment. I thought your comments were great to recognize our emergency workers. My heart really goes out to the family affected by the recent fire. Something that replaced in my head, Councilman DeRosa and Councilman Colletti and I attended a fire committee meeting where we watched a video that showed how items in houses burn at different speeds now with the different technologies in and it's just incredible how much faster that burn happens and like to see it in real time and And being reminded of that, I'm just thankful that everybody was largely able to be safe that night. We didn't have any injuries with the fire department and I know that the families are doing okay. So very, very thankful for that. So thanks again to all the emergency workers. also you know june is pride month and i just want to take a moment to recognize uh all our lg lgbtq plus residents and i i just want to extend the sentiment that hillsdale is stronger when everybody feels at home here thank you thank you the next meeting of the

Governing body is Tuesday, July 14th in this room at 7 o'clock. Can I get a motion to adjourn?

Mayor, real quick. Yeah, sure. Just the fire department. It starts at 7, check-in and dinner at 6.

So I'll be out of there by 7.15, having lost all my money. Putting it all down right away.

I'll be broke by 7.15. You look like you have something you would like to tell us.

Very quickly, on the cell phone service, I didn't give an update. We are working. with AT&T and others on what else we can do. So that's still in progress. I don't have an update. They're looking at Wi-Fi service instead of cell service based on this new cell service that we are looking at.

We're not talking about the Pico cells. I'm sorry? We'll talk about it offline.

Yeah, so we are doing some work behind the scenes. When I have an update, I will bring that back.

We don't want to see it. It's public comment, it's not sort of a back and forth. I couldn't answer you. So we'll be happy to talk to you about sort of where things are.

But there is some background work being done. Yeah, I know. Okay, can I get a motion to adjourn? Motion. Second. Second. All those in favor?

Aye.