Town Council Notifications - Regular Meeting

Adequate notice of this meeting, as required by the Open Public Meetings Act, was provided through the posting, mailing, and filing of the Annual Notice of Regularly Scheduled Meetings of the Town Council on December 10, 2025. This notice was, on that date, posted at the Bulletin Board of the Municipal Building, provided to the Westfield Leader and the Star Ledger, and filed with the Clerk of the Town of Westfield. Ms. Lausche, may I have a roll call?

Mayor Berman?

Here.

Councilmember Gilman? D'Amagallo?

Here.

Pecker? Here. Keefer?

Yeah, here.

Saunders? Here. Adwar? Here. Armento?

Here.

Megatirani?

Here. Please rise for the invocation, which will be given by Councilwoman Adwar, and then remain standing for the salute to the flag.

We meet to serve our community and use our resources wisely and well to represent all members of our community fairly and to make decisions that promote the common good. We recognize our responsibility to the past and the future and the rights and needs of both individuals and community. As trusted servants, we seek support on our deliberations and on our efforts here today. May we act wisely and well.

Good evening. Thank you to everyone who is joining us tonight, both here in person and via the live stream on the town's YouTube channel. As always, the replay of the meeting will be available on Facebook, YouTube, and TV36. Public comment will be accepted in person only. I'm going to make a few brief remarks before we begin tonight's agenda. I do look forward to seeing everyone and gathering with the community on Monday for the annual Memorial Day events led by the Martin Wahlberg American Legion Post III to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice. The day will begin with the traditional solemn ceremony at 10 a.m. at Memorial Plaza with the parade to follow at 1045 along East Broad Street and ending in Mindawaskin Park. At 11.30, the Memorial Day service in Fairview Cemetery will take place. Community gatherings will be held in Mindawaskin Park from 11.30 to 1, and at the American Legion from 2 to 5. As part of this year's America 250 celebration, we have expanded the Westfield Veterans Banner Program to display all banners, approximately 100 in total, honoring our veterans and active duty military personnel since the program began in 2022. If you would like to march in the Memorial Day Parade, please register before Wednesday at 6 p.m. on the town website. We are closely monitoring the weather forecast, which currently does not look very good, and we will communicate via Nixle on Monday morning if events need to be canceled. Thank you to the American Legion, Keith Gibbons, and Joe Mindak for their time and effort to put this day of meaningful events together. I am very pleased to report some positive progress on traffic control measures at the intersection of North Avenue and Elm Street. Following a very recent change in leadership at the DOT, New Jersey State DOT, our previously reported concerns were finally addressed with some initial improvements implemented this morning. In addition to the initial traffic stop bar in front of the firehouse, there are now two additional traffic lights and another stop bar beyond the firehouse that are visible as you travel east on North Avenue. The timing has also been extended on the pedestrian signals for crossing North Avenue. I am grateful to the DOT for their responsiveness, and we have agreed to jointly monitor the intersection to determine if additional short-term improvements are needed. Also on this public safety front, I am sharing some unfortunate news. Last week, two homes on the north side of town were burglarized for car keys and also had their vehicles stolen, which is extremely unsettling. I want to assure the community that we take these situations very seriously from both a law enforcement and legislative perspective, as safety remains our top priority. As always, we ask you to secure your property and always report any suspicious activity immediately to the police by calling 911. Moving on to recreation, I'd like to briefly cover a few items related to our efforts to upgrade the recreational facilities around town. First, thank you to everyone who has already provided input on the proposed elements of the Tamaquis design plan. As I announced in my Friday newsletter, the survey will now remain open for additional days until June 15th in order to capture as much input as possible. I'll also be hosting my next town talks in Tamaquis Park on Thursday, May 28th at noon. We will meet in the parking lot next to the tennis courts and walk through parts of the park to discuss any questions or concerns. Additionally, on the recreational front, We have two bond ordinances on first reading tonight to fund important improvements at SIDFE Houlihan fields. The first authorizes additional funds for the Houlihan SIDFE parking lot expansion and restroom storage facility construction. After the multiple construction bids received were all above the original estimates and bond authorization. This additional $862,000 covers the extra funding needed for the project with a small contingency. The second authorizes $880,000 in funding for the replacement of the two turf fields at Houlihan-Sitfei, which have reached the end of their life and are in need of replacement to serve our youth sports programs. The amount of this funding is in line with the anticipated cost discussed during the annual budget process. On tonight's legislative agenda, I just want to take a few moments, a few things to highlight. In addition to a handful of standard financial actions, we have four resolutions. authorizing the purchase of DPW equipment, all of which were planned for in the capital budget. On the revenue side, we have a resolution to approve the insertion of our clean communities grant funding, which helps offset the costs associated with the conservation center. And lastly, we have a resolution authorizing an award of contract to ACMS for crossing guard management services following a public bidding process. And before we begin our actual legislative agenda, we have Two proclamations and an award to talk about. We're going to start with our proclamations. First, for Mental Health Awareness Month. Whereas mental health is an essential part of overall health and well-being at every stage of life, and one in two people will experience a mental health challenge in their lifetime. And whereas prevention, early identification, and intervention significantly improve outcomes for individuals and strengthen families and community. And mental health is a shared responsibility. and communities thrive when schools, families, businesses, health care providers, and local leaders work together to support well-being. And whereas stigma and barriers to care continue to prevent many people from seeking help, and so we support the important work of Westfield's Stigma-Free Task Force and the New Jersey Crosstown Mental Health Coalition to promote mental health awareness, education, and advocacy. Now, therefore, the Town Council of the Town of Westfield hereby proclaims May of 2026 as Mental Health Awareness Month, joining in the 14-town coalition. Together, we stand united in raising awareness, reducing stigma, encouraging open conversation, promoting access to care and support. We call upon residents, organizations, schools, and businesses to help build communities where mental health is prioritized and supported. Next up, it is Emergency Medical Services Week, and we're lucky to have members of the Westfield Volunteer Rescue Squad here. And here is the proclamation for them. Whereas emergency medical services is a vital public service, and the members of emergency medical services teams are ready to provide life-saving care to those in need 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And emergency medical services fill healthcare gaps by providing important out-of-hospital care, including preventive medicine, follow-up care, and access to telemedicine. And the members of the emergency medical services teams, whether career or volunteer, engage in thousands of hours of specialized training and continuing education to enhance their life-saving skills. And it is appropriate to recognize the value and accomplishments of the emergency medical services providers by designated the Emergency Medical Services Week. Now, therefore, I, Mayor Jeremy Berman, on behalf of this town council, do hereby proclaim May 17th through 23rd of 2026 as Emergency Medical Services Week in the town of Westfield and encourage the community to recognize the EMS profession and the essential services it provides. So I'm going to call up our volunteers so we can award the proclamation and take a photo. And lastly, before we start the legislative agenda, I did have the honor of being down in Atlantic City with Jim Gilday to honor Frank Vuoso as Construction Official of the Year. If we could all give him a round of applause. What's especially great about this is that this is an award that was given to him by his peers of all 564 municipalities around the state of New Jersey, and of all of them, they named Frank for this award. So we're gonna have Frank come up. Jim, do you wanna say a few words?

Thank you, Mayor. Again, as you said, no one more deserving than Frank Veloso. We were lucky. Frank's been with the town of West Hill since 2020. He's really transformed our building department to be a much more open public service perspective, a place for residents to get information for their permits. And he's really built an amazing staff around him since that time as well. One of the staff members, Jean, is here tonight, an excellent person in the office, and she does a great job. So no one more deserving than this. And Frank has just done a great job for the town of West Hill since 2020. So thank you for recognizing him there. Thank you.

for supporting us, and of course, thank the staff for helping me out every day, and the residents of Westville.

Thank you. Okay. May I please have a motion to approve the minutes from the Town Council Conference and regular meetings of May 5th, 2026? So moved. Councilwoman Adwar, second?

Second.

Second by Councilman Damagala, any discussion? All in favor?

Yes.

Opposed? This motion is carried. Now it's time for open discussion by citizens. Anyone may come up to the microphone and speak to the council on any subject on which the council has jurisdiction. Please state your name and address for the record and limit your comments to five minutes. Wait, Flynn. Flynn, say your name and address. Sorry.

My name is Flynn Martin. I live at 921 Pennsylvania Avenue in Westfield, New Jersey. And I'm currently a senior in Westfield High School. I'm here today with some... with some talking points about the Tamaquis Park redevelopment plan that's being proposed right now. My main concern is regarding the piece of underutilized natural area, as is stated in the plan. For me, as someone growing up very nearby to Tamaquis Park, I have spent basically my entire life going to Tamaquis Park and spending time in the more forested areas there. including that underutilized natural area. And I've found that myself along with my friends and many other people who I don't know but frequently see in those areas get great utility out of that space. And as sort of a space that's not school, it's not necessarily home or the town, but it's sort of a place you can go and be yourself. essentially free from any sort of restrictions, and while not an officially recognized activity, I feel like it was very much an important thing for myself growing up, and for a lot of the people that I know, to be able to have a space where we were just essentially free to enjoy nature as it is. And I understand that the plan intends to sort of cut into that area in order to allow for space for some increased parking and some other buildings. It is my personal feeling that cutting into that area should be limited, if possible, because the more space that's available there, the more people feel like they're able to explore and have a natural place that's nearby and to themselves. Of course, we have Huaqiang Reservation very nearby as well, but I feel like this offers, this is both in terms of proximity, especially for younger kids, it just offers a space where you can, it's not necessarily constructed like a playground where you can just go and be yourself, which I really appreciated. So that's been a very influential thing in my life and that was the main thing I wanted to address. I also wanted to address the, in the plan there's also some discussion of like, improved lighting or different lighting for bikers and pedestrians at night, or in darker, lower light hours. In my experience, I've often been told that going into the park later at night that I'm not allowed to be there later at night, so I just don't really see the utility of these increased lights other than to, that could potentially disrupt any wildlife that are living in the park with just increased ambient light. So if that is something that's being considered, I would request that that is also something that you guys think about when you're considering that. And my final point is regarding any potential use of turf fields in Tamaquis Park, artificial turf fields. The runoff from that could be harmful to the creek ecosystem, which is already not doing the best. And I am just concerned about, as well with increased parking, drainage in general. Because the more spaces that you have that aren't paved or covered with artificial ground, the easier it is for water to seep into the ground, make its way into rivers, and just have overall a more natural path through our watershed. So those are the main concerns that I wanted to raise here. Thank you for hearing me. And have a great rest of your day. Thanks, Flynn.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Kenzie. I live at 32 Carroll Road here in Westfield. I'm also a senior at Westfield High School. And I would also like to speak some concerns on the Tamaquis Park developments. Growing up in Westfield, I've seen the ways that Tamaquis Park has shaped the identities and lives of like my friends, my peers, everyone around me. And it's just such an iconic part of our town that I fear that any developments made to it could hurt this like iconic nature or the experiences of those who visit. The developments you currently have planned, many of them are very hard to reverse, especially when it comes to the trees and the forestation. So I would just like to raise some concerns over the reversibility and permanence of such decisions. And I urge everyone to look at this with great care and I know that recently Westfield High School students were able to visit Tumacwas Park for an environmental trip yesterday. And I've been very glad to hear about the ways that my friends enjoyed the trip and were able to connect with nature, especially in such a technology-driven time. So Tumacwas Park is very important to me. It's very important to the people around us, even young people. And I thank you for listening now and for the care and consideration I'm sure you'll put into these plans. Thank you. I yield the remainder of my time.

Thank you, Kenzie.

Hello. My name is Jonah Kluginski. I live at Fourth Thorn Place, Fanwood, New Jersey. I am here to talk about, as well as my peers, the acts to change Tamaquis Park and its surrounding areas. or the area of Tamaquis Park. I have grown up there. While not a Westfield resident, I have gone there with my friends. I've met many of my best friends in Tamaquis Park. While, as my other friend Flynn said, it is not necessarily a designated activity zone, I have found that this is actually very beneficial to the young minds of me and my peers I was able to explore a zone that was free of restrictions and free of mental clutter. From somebody who has struggled with mental health and many of my friends who struggled with mental health, I find it very, very useful to have a place to go that's judgment-free, that is able to connect with not only myself but you know, the environment and nature on a deeper level than just going on a hike and, you know, walking around some nice green park. You know, while that is nice, I think being able to go through trees and other stuff, it's very, very beneficial on a deeper level. And while I do think it is a very good idea to refurbish some of the existing area park and structural structures in Tomahawk Waste Park, I think refurbishing that is a very good idea, maybe, you know, refurbishing the bathrooms and adding a little space is much needed and would be appreciated. I think by going into the existing and the irreversible damage of the forest would be something that we would find later generations would regret. For somebody who dreams about what it could have been like in the 50s or the 60s or even 70s, 80s, 90s, I imagine how green our town used to be. And by us slowly, just a few more feet, just a few more feet, in a few generations, there won't be any feet left. And I think by kind of putting our foot down here and saying, maybe we should take a step and think, what will this be for our future generations? I think that this would be very, something very wise to consider, not just for us, but for the people who will follow us. And so I think that is very important for us to do. I use the rest of my time. Thank you.

Hi, I'm Reece Sharma. I live at 12 Mohawk Trail in Westfield, and I'm here to raise similar concerns about the redevelopment of Tamaquis as my peers. I feel like since I was maybe 10 or younger, the park has been a big part of my life there. For a time, I lived with my grandfather on Norwood, and the park was basically in our backyard. I feel like I grew up there as much as I grew up in my house. When I was young, I'd go with my friends and play pretend. By the time COVID rolled around and we were trapped inside all day once virtual school was finished, we could go there to the woods and sort of just learn some independence and self-direction that couldn't be given through a more structured activity. And in the plans, there's a, or in the proposed planning document, there's an emphasis on providing more structured, more like things for children like baseball, the baseball fields there, the structured activity, which I think is important, but I also think we can't overlook the importance of self-directed recreation for children. I also have more things that I think are more objective and less personal about the redevelopment. Obviously, if we're redeveloping a park, if the town is redeveloping a park, there's a concern about improving it, but keeping it natural. And I think a big point to that is the bioswale that's meant to be put as a divider among the road loop of Tamaquis Park. While I think it looks good on paper, it does require the expansion of the road in both directions. And anyone who walks there, watches their little sibling, sports there, anything, knows that the trees that surround that street loop are very close to the road. And I think it would cause serious harm to expand the road and therefore remove those trees, the old large trees, not little ones that can be quickly replaced. Because honestly, from this time of year on till like even sometime September, October, It gets sweltering hot, and the shade that they provide, I believe, is really important. And for anyone who's sitting watching sports, for going for a run, for a walk, for a bike ride, anything, I think it would do a damage to the open space there to remove them. Also, I'm concerned about any pavement that's added in the proposed plan. There's a large section about a quarter if it's to scale of the size of the field right now cut out of the woods that's just potential redevelopment area. I don't think it makes, I don't understand the point of labeling something as like If it's a proposed plan, I don't see the point of leaving an ambiguous label. I think we should know, the public should know what would be being done before it's done. And any sort of, any turf field, any pavement right there in the Robinson's branch of the Rahway River that goes straight into the basin, any turf pavement, bits of tire, anything worsens our already polluted water and they're not pollutants that are easy to just treat or remove. They're potentially... carcinogenic and I don't think that can be overlooked um also in terms of drainage as we've been seeing in the past few years especially over the summer we get these freak storms houses flood um already a big portion of the creek there is uh paved rather than a dirt bottom which is not good for drainage I don't know when it was originally paved but it already causes overflow of water that goes alongside that alongside the whole not just Tamaquis Park but uh everywhere before and after along the creek there. Anything I believe that prevents drainage, such as pavement that isn't easily removed, turf that doesn't drain, is harmful to that. And I think I've said in the beginning, I'll say it once more, the benefit to the development of children, both young and more adolescent, to have a space to be in nature that isn't like isn't Wachung, isn't South Mountain that you can walk to or bike to if you live nearby where you could meet someone. Like I've met my best friend who also spoke here from another town just in the woods and I think there's something special about being able to run into people or meet people or make your own entertainment in an unstructured place like that. Thank you for listening and I yield the remainder of my time.

So before we have the next person, I just want to applaud all four of you. Public speaking at its best is very hard to do. And to stand in front of this audience in this room and speak in front of this group of adults is pretty impressive. So thank you all for doing that. Do we have any other comments?

Robert Parker, I live at 330 Edgewood Avenue in Westfield. So first, I concur with what you said. So as a resident of Westfield from 1982, so before you were born, I actually agree with these guys and appreciate what they're saying because I didn't come here to do this, but from 82 until now, there has been a decrease kind of in open space. So I think you kind of, I would appreciate you thinking about what they said that I've noticed it in 50 years of being a resident. Secondly, thank you to U5 for saving our lives. And so I'm pretty humbled by being here. And thirdly, to Jim Gilday and his team that, yeah, whenever I've called the town, always get really great responses. So thank you. So with all of that, and I have four minutes left, what I wanted to raise was perhaps not in an articulate way, but I live at the corner of Edgewood and Coleman. And so recently, I guess it's been about 10 days, there was a house broken into on Coleman that I think you all are aware of. And for the residents on our street, I say ours, Coleman, it's kind of really upset people. and maybe more than you perhaps can appreciate. So people have started exchanging emails and email chains, and how do we protect ourselves? What can we do about this? And everybody feels pretty helpless. And I don't have a great suggestion as to what to do. But again, going back to 1982 to now, I've never quite had this sensation of not feeling totally safe when I go to sleep at night and fearful that there's somebody at 4 o'clock in the morning that's kind of maybe walking around the streets trying to see which house, you know, has a, is vulnerable. And it's an uncomforting feeling, a discomforting feeling. So I don't have a great suggestion, but what I would appreciate is for you to consider that maybe there'd be a task force or a discussion or an agenda item because when I look through the agenda, I don't see any reference to a discussion that our town leaders discuss like, this might be a bigger issue than we realize. It might be of more importance to our fellow citizens than we might realize, or I'm sure you do realize it. And I know it's a difficult issue to address, but I feel like it needs to be addressed to say, well, what can we do? Or at least get it on an agenda and have a constant kind of discussion of upgrading and trying to come up with different ideas. So I'm not as articulate as these four young people in terms of the ask, but hopefully you understand the concept of it seems like it should be an agenda item that our town should have that same sense that it had certainly when you know, when I was here that I never worried about that. You know, I never had any fear. And as a senior citizen, you know, for my wife and I at night to kind of say, did we pull down all the shades? You know, did we take everything out of view? Did we hide the car or something like that? It's not what we're used to. So I don't have a specific suggestion. You all are very bright, but I just ask that you consider trying to come up with some way to get it on an agenda and that you revisit it and that you could discuss it and say, do we consider different things? I know I asked about the flock cameras, you know, but there must be other ideas like that that maybe the town could do to consider. And so I just ask you to kind of get it onto the agenda. So that's it. I got 59 seconds. And I guess lastly, thank you to all of you. I'm impressed. that you do this every two weeks and give so much of your time. So thank you.

Thank you. I do just want to say a few things. Thank you for your comments. I do want to assure you of a few things. One is that all of us up here do empathize with you and with the people who have suffered these incidents and the neighborhoods. And I also want to assure you that much time and effort and energy is being spent discussing alternative ways to do this. Our police, we talk to them every day. Chief Badalura was in the back. And we do spend a lot of time. I don't think one thing that's not going to probably happen is we're going to not go into too much detail in terms of means and methods publicly about what we're trying to do to stop it. Some things we can talk about and other things we probably can't talk about. But there are a lot of time and energy and effort and funds spent on trying to combat this. And there is no magic bullet. Well noted. Thank you. Are there any others?

Good evening. My name is John McDevitt. I live at 631 Summit Ave and have been a resident of Westfield for 20 years.

Our three children all went through the school system and played ice hockey at Westfield.

I manage the Westfield Hockey Club and was involved in the initial concept for the Westfield rink, working alongside Ken Anderson and the town council at the time to bring it to fruition. First, I want to thank the council for approving the renewal of the agreement to keep the Westfield rink operating for another couple of years. However, I'd like to strongly encourage the council to now seek a more permanent solution in town.

The current setup was always intended as a test pilot to gauge community demand before committing major town resources to a permanent location and structure. In my opinion, that pilot has been a resounding success.

The rink is heavily utilized for public skates, family hockey, and by local clubs with deep roots in the community. Specifically, it allows our Westfield Middle School hockey program to operate three full teams with over 60 kids participating each season, and it supports five high school hockey teams. To my knowledge, this combined level of youth participation is higher than any other town in New Jersey. Furthermore, the town's own recent park survey highlighted a permanent ice rink as one of the top first priority amenities residents want to see added to our parks. We have proven beyond a doubt that the demand exists and that the facility is actively used. We have also proven that we have an incredibly capable organization to manage through our successful public-private partnership with the town of Westfield and the Anderson family. While I recognize that none of you on the council currently were here for those initial discussions, I hope you have heard from your constituents just how much of an asset this has become. I encourage you to take the next step and make this a permanent part of Westfield so future generations can enjoy it with confidence and long-term viability. Thank you for your time. I'm happy to answer any questions in the future and can provide information regarding Westfield's strong ice hockey community. and history and a historical perspective around the Westfield drink.

Thank you, John. Appreciate your comments. Are there any other comments? Okay, seeing no others, I close this portion of the meeting and move to bills and claims. Councilman?

Can I say something?

Sure. Okay, great.

Thanks. I just want to say that I was very heartened to hear the comments from the young folks here that spoke about the park and I shared the sentiments that you you expressed. And it's good to hear people your age actually talk about the natural part of the park. And so thank you. I just want to tell you, though, that you're not alone on this. There was probably the biggest single item in the survey was maintaining the natural beauty of the park. And so I think what you'll find from the proposed designs is that's sort of throughout the design. So the hiking trails, obviously, absolutely going to be preserved. In fact, we're going to kind of The plan would be to label them a little better so people aren't as intimidated as to go back there because sometimes people, one of the comments we got was it looks kind of spooky and I don't want to get lost. And the other thing is we propose to connect those trails to more of the heart of the park but where the current basketball courts are so people could actually venture in from that direction to be more inviting. And then those little wetland areas that are over there would be preserved and labeled and have a little bridge over there to bring out some more people who can use the park in the ways that you described. So I would encourage you to take, you know, heart in the fact that the proposed designs that we're seeing, and again, nothing's cast in stone yet, But they really are trying to capture and enhance the natural beauty of the park. And I think you'll find that that's the case. The one final thing I will say is it's great that you talked to us because ultimately we're going to be the people that vote on this. But the design team that's working on this is really, really going to capture the comments that are put into the website. That's not just for show. That's real. So I would encourage you to go onto the website For folks like you, it's really easy. You just click, right? You know how to use it better than I do. But you click, and you can write your comments, just the kind of stuff you talked about today. Put that on the website. Put it in there, and then the design team will know about it as well. Okay? Thanks. Mayor, can I comment as well? Sure.

I just want to comment to Mr. Parker's comments. Thanks for coming to the meeting. I've been on the public safety committee for almost three years now. And I will say at almost every one of those meetings, we have this conversation. So although you might not see it on the agenda at this meeting every two weeks, it's on, I think we have a public safety meeting every six weeks, every six weeks. And it is constantly talked about in that smaller committee. I'll say that since being on there, we've approved, I don't know the exact number, but a lot of flock cameras have been installed. I'm sure Jim knows the actual number. And I'll say like, Even outside of the committee meeting, I know Rishma and I had a conversation about it last week. The mayor and I had an hour-long conversation on Saturday. There's conversations happening consistently. I will say as frustrated as we all are, there is no silver bullet answer. If there was, trust me, we would be doing it and spending the money to get it done. The real big thing will be everyone just has to look out for their neighbors, bring your car into your garage, and start to make it that Westfield isn't a place that these folks want to go. There's only so much we can do. I think we have 100 miles? How many miles of roads? 100 miles of roads. So even if we wanted to hire triple the police force, they still couldn't show up. The likelihood of them being on Coleman at 4.41 in the morning isn't that high. But there's other things that we can do. There's other things that the police are doing that aren't necessarily talked about, obviously, for a good reason. But I just want you to know, we talk about it a lot. You might not see it on the agenda. It's a lot of behind-the-scenes work and a lot of stuff that can't necessarily be talked about for those reasons.

I just wanted to share this, I think.

I think it's the deepest concern. I don't think there's anything, like, we can talk here about fields and all that stuff. At the end of the day, public safety is, at least for me personally, I don't want to speak... the most concerning thing out there. Nothing else really matters. We understand that.

We're taking it seriously. Thank you.

And I just want to add that I'm not sure why you didn't come. I took a really good respect for students who came and talked much more particularly than I did. But I want to confirm what I said again. So I was like, it's not business.

This town is less green by the great magnitude that it wasn't.

Okay, thank you. All right, Councilman, yes.

Sorry, I did want to add also to Mr. Parker. I live very close to you. I understand it. I share the concern. I have friends that live on Coleman as well. What I wanted to add was last week, in fact, we did have a public safety forum. The mayor hosted it with the chief. And so it was something that we hosted here that was advertised to the community. So it is being talked about. And like Councilman Saunders said, it is the deepest concern.

Councilman Venkataraman.

Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to move bills and claims in the amount of $735,246.16. May I have a second? Second.

Councilman Damagala, all in favor? Yes. All opposed? The motion is carried. Next on the agenda is reports of standing committees beginning with Finance and Policy Committee. Councilman Venkataraman.

Thank you, Mayor. I have eight resolutions I would like to move as a package. One resolution authorizing the chief financial officer to refund recreation department fees. Two resolution authorizing the chief financial officer to refund police department fees. Three resolution authorizing the chief financial officer to draw a warrant for a board of adjustment escrow monies. Four resolution authorizing the chief financial officer to refund street opening cash bond. Five resolution authorizing the chief financial officer to draw warrants for overpaid taxes. Six. Resolution to increase the bid threshold. Seven, resolution to reappoint tax collector. Eight, resolution to approve insertion of special item of revenue, clean communities grant.

May I have a second? Second. Assemblyman Councilman Armento, any discussion? All in favor? Yes. Opposed? The motion is carried.

Bless you. I have two ordinances. I would like to move on first reading, starting with special ordinance number 202602, bond ordinance to appropriate an additional sum of $862,000 for the undertaking of the Houlihan-Sid Faye Fields parking lot restroom and multipurpose facility improvement project in, by, and for the town of Westfield in the County of Union, state of New Jersey, to make a down payment to authorize the issuance of bonds to finance such additional appropriation and to provide for the issuance of bond anticipation notes in anticipation of the issuance of such bonds.

May I have a second? Second. Second by Councilman Adwar. Any discussion?

Yeah, can I comment on there, Mayor? I just want to be sure, 100% sure on the answers, and Jim, maybe you can help me out on this. What is the total percent increase this is on the total number? And then we talked about it in the meeting, but just for the public, like the sports teams are involved in this, and this isn't all us. If you could just bring that back to the conversation, that'd be great.

Sure. Again, as I just mentioned in the pre-meeting, the previous town council authorized $2,339,000 for this project based upon engineering estimates from last year, but the project didn't go out to bid until recently. In that time frame, of course, the world has changed, the marketplace has changed, and they realized that there was some additional environmental and soil disposal costs that had to be added. So the cost estimates were revised by the engineering firm we used to $3.1 million, We actually went out to public bid, got seven bids, very competitive bids, which range between the low of 2.9, high of 3.3, and we are awarding to the lowest responsible bidder. And then what you do there, you authorize the price, you have to have the funding to award the project, and then you put a contingency amount in there as well. Part of the other thing about this project, when we authorized the funding last year, both the West Hill Soccer Association and and the Westfield Lacrosse Club participated in the down payment money of last year's ordinance, and will participate for the next four years in contributing money in the neighborhood of $80,000 a year between the two of them to offset the town's debt service for the parking lot, building, and bathroom facility. So they are very vested in this, and we're happy to have them as a partner. It doesn't happen very often, but you have private organizations contributing towards the cost of the project on an annual basis the next four years, in addition to their costs that they put in last year for the down payment. Again, obviously very exciting projects for this complex, and when this is all done, we'll have a brand-new facility probably for the next couple of decades.

Thanks. Thanks, Jim. Councilman Damagar?

Yes. So I'd like to go ahead and make an additional comment about the facility itself. I think this project was kind of conceptually brought to us maybe 10 to 15 years ago, like the grand scheme of what they wanted there, and it wasn't allowed to be completed. funds weren't necessarily available and I think this is really seeing the fruition of a dream that the teams really wanted to go ahead and have. I know that there's a lot of conversation whether somebody likes turf or doesn't like turf but if there's any place that turf really belongs is where turf was already existing. It takes a lot of money to go ahead and roll back the clock and go ahead and put in lawns and go ahead and maintain all of that but this is a facility that was built for it along railroad tracks and I think it is appropriate for it to be there to go ahead and make sure that the teams have a space to go ahead and play practice and do everything that they need to do so thank you any other comments may I have a second second second by Councilman Saunders any discussion any other discussion please call the roll council members yes

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. This motion is carried.

I would also like to move on first reading special ordinance number 202603 bond ordinance to authorize the replacement of the synthetic turf athletic fields and the making of other improvements at Houlihan-Sinfei fields in, by, and for the town of Westfield in the County of Union State of New Jersey to appropriate the sum of $880,000 to pay the cost thereof to make a down payment to authorize the issuance of bonds to finance such appropriation and to provide for the issuance of bond anticipation notes in anticipation of the issuance of such bonds.

May I have a second? Second. Second by Councilman Damagala. Any discussion? Please call the roll.

Councilmembers Damagala? Yes. Pecker? Yes. Keefer? Yes. Saunders? Yes. Edwards? Yes. Armenta? Yes. Venkataraman? Yes. Mayor Byrne?

Yes, this motion has carried. Councilman Adwar, please move the items for Public Safety and Transportation Committee.

Thank you, Mayor. I would like to move a resolution authorizing an award of contract for Crossing Guard Management Services.

May I have a second? Second. Second by Councilman Saunders. Any discussion? All in favor?

Yes.

Opposed? This motion is carried. Councilman Pecker, please move Code Review and Town Property Resolutions.

I have two resolutions I would like to move as a package. One, resolution to approve children's amusement device license. Two, resolution to approve peddler's license.

May I have a second? Second. Second by Councilwoman Adwar. Any discussion? All in favor? Yes. Opposed? The motion is carried. Councilwoman Adwar, please move public works committee resolutions.

I have five resolutions I would like to move as a package. Resolution one, resolution authorizing stipend of recycling program coordinator. Two, resolution authorizing an award of contract for the purchase of equipment for the Department of Public Works, Sand Pro. Resolution authorizing an award of contract for the purchase of equipment for the Department of Public Works, ASVRT-40. Resolution authorizing an award of contract for the purchase of equipment for the Department of Public Works, Toro Groundmaster. And five, resolution authorizing an award of contract for the purchase of equipment for the Department of Public Works, Fisher Plow.

May I have a second? Second. Second by Councilman Armento. Any discussion? All in favor? Yes. Opposed? This motion is carried. May I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. So moved. Councilman Venkataraman, second? Seconded by Councilwoman Edouard. Any discussion? All in favor? Yes. Opposed? This motion is carried. This meeting is adjourned. Thank you all for being here.