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 on 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.

Council Members Gilman? Here. Here. Here. Here. Here. Here. Here.

Please rise for the invocation which will be given by Councilman Damagala and then remain standing for the salute to the flag.

We gather to make decisions for our community. May we use our best skills in judgment, keeping ourselves impartial and neutral. always act in accordance with what is best for our community and our fellow citizens.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Good evening. Before I give my opening remarks, Jim is going to give us some updates on things around town.

Thank you, Mayor. A couple of quick things for the public and the Mayor and Council to know. Road paving, since we last met, has started. Last time we spoke, the ADA ramps and concrete work was going to start. That's all been completed now. And the milling and paving work has begun. This week, yesterday, and today, Railway Avenue, major thoroughfare through Westfield, is being repaved, a good section of it. So it's impacting lots of people. But it is August, so it's quieter. So railway between roughly Cotting Avenue area, and Willow Grove Road is being paved. It was milled late last week and early this week. So it's a big road, and that's also one of our state aid jobs that was carried over from last year. So we have about 16 roads or sections of road that are expected to be finished that are all impact school areas. We helped get those done. We're on track to get those done by the end of the month before school opens. And then the remaining roughly 28 or so roads will be done over the course of September, early October, that are less impactful to school areas. So we have 40 roads that are going to be impacted in some way. But thanks to Mike McNell, our town engineer, and the staff at Public Works for coordinating with the contractor and so far working very well. Another update, we did have two storms last week, particularly the Friday storm, very short-lived, but, you know, rather impactful. I want to thank PSE&G with power outages again, but they were also short and restored quickly. We are going to open, well the conservation center is open this Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday as usual, but we're going to allow residents if they have debris, organic debris from the storm last Friday particularly, or any time last week, they can bring it to the center for no cost without a permit. And so there's branches of things came down people's backyards. So again, this coming Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, a permit is not required to dispose of organic debris if you have it from the storm. And last two updates, we have two recreation projects that are underway. One is a partnership with the Westfield Baseball League at Gumpert Park. We are actually working with them and their third-party contractor to replace the two infields with grass infields, natural grass infields at Gumpert. That work has started. It's been delayed. through the storms and rain, but I want to thank baseball for being a great partner and of course their contractor and hoping to have, they'll make all three fields there have grass infields and Gumpert is one of our premier baseball facilities. The second project is the replacement of the turf fields at Houlihan-Sid Fay. Houlihan field has been removed completely, the old field, and being prepped for the new field going down. Sid Fay's old turf is being removed as we speak. this week and also will be prepped and ready for turf. So we expect that we're still on track despite some of the weather delays that we will have the turf fields done by the end of the month of August and then we will parlay to the next project which is the parking lot bathroom storage facility. We're going to have a pre-con meeting on that in the next week or two and that'll be a September, October, November project and that'll be coming next. So a lot of action out there on many fronts, recreation, paving, etc. But Those are some updates and just ask the public follow us on Instagram of course Nixle if you want to as well and look at the website for the list of roads and any other updates out there social media as well So thank you Mary.

Thank you, Jim Good evening and thanks to everyone who is joining us tonight both here in a 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 TV 36 public comment will be accepted in person only and And I have a few brief remarks before we begin our agenda. I'd like to start by remembering Judge Brenda Cuba, who recently passed away. Judge Cuba lived in Westfield for more than 50 years and served as the town's municipal prosecutor and judge for 16 years, from 2001 through 2017, before being appointed presiding judge of Union County. We are grateful for her many years of public service to Westfield and throughout the county. Thanks to everyone who participated in the second and final street sign auction over the past few weeks. In total, there were over 2,900 bids placed and we raised over $27,000 that will help fund town events in the future. In this most recent auction, the highest bid was $351 for Harrison Avenue and the sign with the most bids, which was 45, was for Arlington Avenue. Congratulations to all of our winning bidders. Between this auction and the previous one last fall, the town raised over $114,000 and sold 1,512 signs. On the events side, we have a few upcoming events to put in your calendars this Sunday, August 16th. Please join us from 12 to four in Mendoacan Park for the seventh annual March to Yorktown Day, which this year will also include the dedication of the recently renamed Washington Rochambeau Trail Park as part of Westfield's America 250 commemoration. And on Sunday, August 30th, our Recreation Department will host the fifth annual Tour de Westfield. This free, family-friendly three-mile bike parade is always a fun way to get out and enjoy Westfield all together. Details and registration for the events are available on the town website. Looking ahead to September, this year marks 25 years since the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. and we will gather for our annual remembrance ceremony on Friday, September 11th at 8.30 a.m. in Westfield's 9-11 Memorial at North and Broad Street. This milestone anniversary carries particular significance as we remember the lives lost on that day, including the members of our own Westfield community, and honor the memory together. I hope you will join us for this important observance. So before we get to our legislative agenda, I just want to mention a couple notes. First, the Mindawaskin Park benches. We will vote tonight on a resolution awarding a contract for the purchase of replacement slats for all 65 benches in Mindawaskin Park. Many of these benches have deteriorated significantly over time and are in need of repair. While their maintenance historically has been handled by the Friends of Mindawaskin Park, the town is stepping in to ensure the project gets done and will assume all park maintenance going forward. This contract will provide the materials needed to refurbish the benches as we look forward to restoring them for the many residents who enjoy the park every day. Moving on to 18 Stonely Park. Tonight's agenda is the second reading of an ordinance to remove the local historic landmark designation from 18 Stonely Park. This property was voluntarily designated less than five years ago and remains under the same ownership as when the designation occurred. This request from the property owner to de-designate his home prompted an important discussion within our county review and town property committee about balancing the circumstances of this particular property with the need to protect the integrity of our historic preservation program. Because local historic designation is voluntary, we also believe it is important to respect the rights of property owners while ensuring that the de-designation does not become a routine path for future purchasers or developers. Simply put, sometimes personal circumstances change, and as a governing body, we need to be able to offer property owners a path forward to retain the decisions about their own homes, which is what this ordinance aims to accomplish. We'll also hear a presentation tonight to the council this evening by our consultant, Arterial, to share the current concepts for the Quimby Street redesign. As a reminder, following the public RFP and RFQ process, The Town awarded a contract to Arterial last August, under the previous administration, to produce engineering and design plans for the new streetscape and permanent pedestrian plaza. These plans are being guided by our Quimby Street Steering Committee, which includes myself, Council Members Saunders and Venkataraman, Planning Board Chair Mike Ash, DWC Executive Director Dan Togger, and key members of our municipal staff. The concepts that we see tonight, which will also be posted on the Town website, are being presented for council and public input, and will also be shared in stakeholder meetings with local businesses and tenants. Our goal is to finalize these plans and go out to bid for construction by year end, with the project anticipated to be complete during the summer of 2027. Before we get to Artiero's presentation, I do want to recognize a very special milestone. On August 1st, our town administrator, Jim Gilday, celebrated 25 years in this role, an extraordinary accomplishment and only part of his long history of service to Westfield. Jim is truly a son of Westfield. He grew up here, graduated from Westfield High School, and began his municipal career as a lifeguard at Memorial Pool in 1988. From there, he held several positions in the Recreation Department before being appointed Assistant Town Administrator and ultimately assuming his current role as Town Administrator in 2001. I'm not sure that that young lifeguard could have imagined where the career with this town would take him, but Westfield has certainly benefited from the path he chose. Over the past 25 years, Jim has been a constant through changing administrations, countless projects, requests, emergencies, celebrations, and nearly every municipal issue imaginable. His institutional knowledge is unmatched, but even more important is how deeply he knows and cares about this town and the people who live and work here. For so many of us, Jim is quite simply synonymous with town hall. His expertise and leadership are also recognized well beyond Westfield. Jim is highly regarded by his peers throughout New Jersey and is widely considered among the very best municipal administrators in the state. We are incredibly fortunate to have his level of experience, professionalism, and unwavering commitment to our residents. On behalf of our town council, our municipal employees, and a very grateful community, I want to congratulate Jim on this remarkable milestone and thank him for everything he continues to do for Westfield each day. We're very lucky to have him, and I know I speak for all of us when I say we look forward to continuing to work alongside him. Please join me in congratulating Jim on 25 years as our town administrator.

Just what I love. Attention. Thank you very much. And again, I don't like these kind of things. I don't do it for the attention, but I'm very lucky to work in the town that I grew up in and live in. So thank you.

Thank you, Jim. Now we're going to call up Arterial to give the presentation about Quinby Street.

All right. Okay, so I'll start just with my name. I'm James Roboto. I'm with Arterial, partner and director of operations. Lexi Smaldone, our project manager, is joining me tonight. And we're, again, thankful for the opportunity to share the design progress with you all for Crimby Street. So tonight we're going to walk through the design, highlighting some of the key ideas that have shaped the project from the start. much of what you'll see really reflects the range of experiences and input our team has heard from the community over the past several years. So just a brief agenda of what this presentation is going to cover, and I promise to be as concise as I can. There's a lot of thought in here, but we're going to try and just pick out the highlights. So we're going to jump in and start with Just the project limits. It's really important to understand what the limits of the actual project are. And we're looking at Quimby Street from Central Avenue intersection to the Elm Street intersection. And two points to kind of point out here. One is the Snickle Way is being done, but at a later date. It's being decoupled from this just so that the project can move forward. There's still some things that need to get worked out with Snickle Way. The alley. My laser pointer doesn't work, of course. Here we go.

This right here. There's an alleyway that cuts through from Quimby to North Avenue. It's something we're going to do, but we don't have ownership of the properties. But that's something that will happen in the future. But just for this purpose, Quimby is the scope.

Snick away. Yeah, snick away is how it's referred to as. So yes, the alley. And then the other thing that's obviously important is parking. That's a central piece of the project. And currently, and I want to note this now because we're going to come back to it later, but there are 26 angled and parallel parking spaces on Quimby Street. There's approximately 20 parallel spaces on Elm Street. And... Thanks. And... It doesn't go off. There we go. Yeah, well... And then also zero, this is important to note, on Central Ave on the northwest side, so between Broad Street and the municipal parking lot, there are no parallel parking spaces. So at the outset of the project, the vision statement was put together with some goals, and I'll just read it. Quimby Street is one of Westfield's defining public spaces and the heart of a vibrant, Connected community. It's beautiful, flexible design adapts to the seasons and evolving needs of the town, creating a year-round destination where people are inspired to linger, explore, and celebrate community life. So five goals of the project. Design a timeless public space that bridges Westfield's historic charm and contemporary spirit. Create a flexible street that adapts easily to community needs without requiring heavy equipment. balance the on-street space allocation to appropriately balance public gathering spaces and private commercial space, such as outdoor dining, et cetera. Number four, equip the street to comfortably support events such as music, markets, performances, and the things that are going on that happen all the time on Quimby Street. And number five, to improve curb management to better support nearby businesses, including drop-off, pick-up, and delivery needs. So our inspiration was pretty straightforward, pretty simple. Westfield is a unique place, and the design should really reflect that. Looking at the project schedule and expected next steps, I'll be brief here, but here we are at the council presentation, August 11th. After we present this evening, as was mentioned. We'll then go back out with these ideas and share them again with the various stakeholders over the next couple months. Once we get that input from both tonight and from those stakeholders, we'll incorporate that and we'll put bid-ready documents together for anticipation of the construction kickoff sometime Q1, Q2 of 2027. Now just briefly, looking and speaking of stakeholders, the next two slides contain highlights of a lot of what we've heard so far and what we're responding to, what the design is responding to. I'm not going to read all these bullet points right now, but I want to summarize them just briefly. The stakeholder comments really spoke of a timeless, shaded, flexible gathering space, while also raising practical concerns around parking, utilities, curbside management, pedestrian safety, also with technical input from the county, from the fire department and such, like vehicular turning movements, radii, ladder clearance, all those things. So all of that input has been collected and has gone into what you're gonna see tonight. Okay, so the schematic design, the progress that we have, gotten to this evening. So the following three slides, we're going to lay out the materials and the furniture that is being proposed. And the selection really aims to support that idea of a timeless design approach, which I think you'll see reflected in the materials. They're classic materials. They're real materials. It's not faux materials. They're not fake. It's not stamped or pressed. that really supports that idea of being timeless, that this is going to be something that will stand not for five years or ten years, but hopefully much longer than that. And I won't go into much detail, but real brick, granite cobble pavers as a highlight, textured concrete, and then an alpine blue limestone, which is reminiscent of a bluestone. A little bit different, it's much more durable, it holds up to salt and those kinds of things. Same with the furniture pallet, something that's sophisticated and timeless. You can see the benches, different bench types, materials, but then also backless versus backed, which allows us to create social seating spaces. The backs obviously are for those who are elderly, it's much easier to have a support arm so it helps them get up. Bollards, both removable bollards and semi-automated bollards, and the difference there is the removable has a sleeve, you can take it and move it to another area that might have a sleeve so you can take it out of the ground. The semi-automated bollards basically have a latch on top and you can push them into the ground and that same latch allows you then to push them back up. Again, and we'll get into the theme of flexibility as we move through this. You could see some of that timeless nature coming with the light fixtures. And then I just wanted to highlight the two images on the side here. And you'll see how they go into the design. But the first, the top one, is a gateway planter with seating. And we thought that this could be used as a place where people can sit, but there's branding opportunities for the street itself, subtly in actual branding opportunities. branding on the surface, on the sides there. And then also things like seasonal planting. So you can imagine in the seasons, you know, having tulips, you know, a nice tulip show or daffodils, those types of things, seasonal plantings. And you'll see where we're positioning them on the street. And then the lower picture is of a featured seating element, which we were playing off of the example that exists, although I saw the bench was missing tonight and so was the lettering. But right by the pizza place where there's the vertical faux green wall and there was the bench with the letters. It's one of those moments that as people walk along the street, they're attracted to, they sit, you know, take a selfie, put it up on Instagram. And so we're looking at potentially having something like that where we introduce a playful lounge seating similar to what you see in that picture. So this is just a good collection of images that show how some of these things can come together using really nice materials. You create this space that is more than just a street. It functions as a street, as you can see in the upper left. There's parking. You're able to drive up and down the street, but they can close it. They can have events. It feels like a plaza with the string lights above it. So this we thought was a really good precedent to start to get to understand what we're aiming for here. The next slide is a plan running, which I'm not gonna spend a ton of time on this. Sometimes they're hard to understand what you're looking at. We're gonna walk through a series of perspective images, which will help give you an idea of what we're looking at a little bit better. But there's a few things I do wanna highlight on this. The first is that what we're talking about is a flush, curbless, one-way configuration that allows for daily flexibility and programming. with the ability to open and close the street with events. And I think that's a key, that it's not for long stretches of time, but when an event is gonna come in, the bollards can be pushed down or brought up, they could be moved, and the event can happen, and then when the event is finished, the bollards can be put back in place so that it's acting like a street with parking and all those things. And again, this is achieved with parallel parking spaces. They're a better configuration than angled parking spaces for getting extra sidewalk space, and there are bollard sleeves that'll be placed on the inside and the outside edge, and those can be moved. And I'll show you a section that'll explain that a little bit more. Going from angled spaces again to parallel spaces helps that flexibility, but it also does reduce parking on Quimby Street. So parking on Quimby Street in this configuration goes from 26 spaces to 16 spaces. And we're going to cover a little bit where some of those spaces go and where we can recover some of them. We reconfigured the intersection to maximize pedestrian safety along with better vehicular movements and additional parking. So by straightening out those intersections, making them T intersections, we're able to pick up some efficiency. We can pick up some spaces at those intersections. I didn't mention it, but it was in those notes. One of the things that the township is talking to the county about is ownership of Central Ave between Broad Street and Municipal Lot 7. Well, further than that, but that's where we can gain additional parallel parking spaces. So we can pick up an additional 15 spaces along that run, and then we also get an additional spaces on Elm Street and Central at those intersections. That brings the total to about 55 spaces. So in the existing condition, it's 46 spaces. In this, Quimby and Central and Elm are 55 spaces. So we're in the plus. Okay. I'm going to move on. You'll see, I think, as we move through this, this is a section showing how that works. So in the middle where it's striped, that's where cars would potentially be. the one-way configuration down the middle, and the parallel parking spaces on the sides. On the parking slot on the right, you could see there's a bollard at the edge of the traveling there. That then extends the sidewalk. So you have 18-foot sidewalks in this situation, but then you add an additional 11 feet to that sidewalk when you push that bollard out. On the left side, it shows when the bollard's on the inside edge with the 18-foot sidewalk allowing you to have parallel parking. And again, those spaces are 11 feet. They're extra generous to allow for maneuverability, opening and closing of doors, and things like that. I'll keep moving through. Now we're gonna walk through a series of images that'll just help, again, you understand what we're talking about. I think pictures like this usually make it a little bit easier. So we're hovering here above Central. intersection and what you're seeing is a raised intersection so the intersection is at the sidewalk level there that maximizes pedestrian safety it allows people to cross at the sidewalk level prioritizing them it's a traffic calming measure so that cars will slow down high visibility crosswalks as you can see the white stripes there some additional planting that can be gained and you can see some of the parking spaces if we keep walking down the street we'll get down on the ground here now This is that same intersection. Those are those gateway planters that could have some kind of branding on them. This is obviously just a placeholder, but they could be seasonal stuff with seasonal plantings. You can see the extra space that you start to gain as we walk down the street, wide sidewalks. The bollards are pushed out on this right side, so you can see activity happening in those parking spaces. On the left side, you can see some trucks where you're retaining the parking. Moving further down, this is where we're showing a proper mid-block crossing across the street with some of that furniture that we looked at earlier. Plantings, street trees, you can see the string lights, the lighting, the light fixtures. This is then crossing the street looking towards Elm. And then getting to that corner, you can see nice wide corners. You can see on the left the bollards are on the inside and how the cars can park there. And then coming back up, looking back down now on Elm Street and that corner. So nice wide corners, nice materials, really treating this as a plaza so that when people are using it for events, it doesn't feel like you're in the middle of a street. It really does feel like you're in a plaza. Okay, now, the flexibility of the street. This was very important and emphasized to us. How can we make sure that this is flexible for events? So this is just a bird's eye area looking at the street And we're gonna go through a series of basically suggestions, just things that we put together so you can understand how it could be programmed and how that can work. So the first shows a typical day. Quimby Street is open to traffic. The bollards are in different configurations. So in some of these, they're on the inside of the sidewalk allowing for parking, which you can see, I'll hover my mouse here, so you can see that here, you can see that here. Here they're pushed out to the edge of the parking towards the street so that you can allow for extra outdoor dining. Or you can have different various programming and activities, whether it's different kinds of outdoor seating and sofa seating and things like that, that make it really feel like an outdoor space, an outdoor living room. Then looking at a sidewalk sale or a farmer's market. This is one way it could be set up where the street remains open to traffic, the bollards are at the edge of the sidewalk, so facing the street, and vendors are taking that parking space. And they're facing the sidewalk and people can walk along the sidewalk, they can shop those vendors, it could be a farmer's market. You could also close the street and allow the vendors to actually park on the street and use it to be closer to their booths, their tents. You can then maybe set up some central tents in the middle with extra seating where people are crossing. A winter market. The street could be closed and you can see here these bollards are up and the space down the middle can be used for different types of programming, ornaments, vendors, whatever it might be. A concert or a watch party. The streets close, those bollards are up. The bollards here are all pushed towards the inside of the sidewalk to allow for maximum space. There's a stage set up here. The stage is roughly 12 by 18 so it can accommodate a nice size stage. These people can enjoy that. There can be space then for food trucks, tents, things like that to support an event like that. One of the things that's important that I wanted to note, and I of course forgot, but on this slide, you can see all those green spaces. These planting beds are used strategically to allocate some of the space between the parking, have space for where outlets can be put so that when vendors and events are set up, There's proper outlets and places to plug in so that we're not running extension cords and all kinds of things like that. And I promised to get through it as quickly as I could, and that's it. Thank you.

Thank you.

I just want to make one other observation that we talked about in these concepts, which it was on that slide, a couple slides. Pedestrian, you know, changes. So each intersection at Central and Elm now has a... extra crosswalk that doesn't exist today. And so, again, raised intersection, extra crosswalk. We're trying to enhance the pedestrian environment in addition to the key thing, and the steering committee talked about this a lot, and we heard from the stakeholders last year. Right now, when we do the open Quimby concept, we're starting it in roughly May and in October, and because of how we have to settle up for safety issues, the concrete blocks, it's closed, except for, you know, it can close permanently the three-quarters of the street. In this new configuration, because of the semi-automatic ballers and the removable ballers moving around, you literally can have an event for three or four hours, and then half hour after it's cleaned up, the street's open again. So some of the comments we heard from the stakeholders downtown, business owners and landlords, we're not closing the street on one side of the street permanently for multiple months. It's opening and closing for various events, and access to the people's businesses upstairs and downstairs will be open much more frequently. So just another extra point. If anyone on the council has questions for Joe and Lexi, go ahead.

Is there any, I don't know if this would go to you, so is the intention that the speed limit on the street would remain the same as it is today, or is that something that would change?

There was no intention to change it, but again, that's up to the council to decide. It's something that 25 is what it is today, but obviously a street like this and somebody could be 15, which is something similar to like Park Drive here, but that's something the council could change.

And just to respond to that, too, a lot of times it's not about the speed limit that's posted. It's how the street's designed. So this street naturally would feel much more uncomfortable going faster because there's things going on. So people are going to slow down naturally.

When you do the construction documents, the drawings, at the end of this year, will you also be providing some sort of estimate that we can use to evaluate this?

That will be one. So as we move into... developing those. We'll have early benchmarks. So we'll start to put an estimate together that we can, you know, circulate that starts to kind of give an idea of where this is. And then we can, depending on the feedback, we can kind of move that needle as need be.

Got it. And you're confident that there's an ample amount of contractors out there that can do this sort of work or specialize in this sort of work?

Yes. We've had a lot of contractors that we feel good about that, you know, do a good job. Obviously, publicly bid, you're going to get a lot of contractors. Some are better than others. There's a lot out there that do good work.

For the raised crossing on Central Ave, has there been discussion around traffic implications and how that might change traffic patterns or flow and what other considerations might need to be

taken um since it's a much larger crossing area and might have way more people crossing yeah that's a good point that's something that we're going to continue to study and look at so initially this was the idea to match elm street to really create a a good place for for pedestrians but in talks with the county in looking at the signals there there has to be another level to to look at that and we will be doing that as we move

And just one additional point to that. So part of our discussion is Joe mentioned with the County. Um, we have other sections of County road, East broad street, for example, where, um, it's a County road, but we maintain a certain section of it. So we've already been in discussions with the County engineer, the steering committee knows this. Um, And we've requested to take over maintenance of the section of Central between East Broad and North Avenue. And that will obviously allow for some more flexibility. But in reference to your question, Councilwoman, a lot of the traffic stuff was looked at last year, particularly one-way pattern, right turns, what happens at the open time frame versus, and the impact was very minimal. But, of course, the county has specific rules about their roads and what's allowed on the road because, again, county roads are designed for carrying larger volumes of traffic, which is good because you don't want those larger volumes on the side roads. So that's still going to be some details worked out, and we'll see what the county allows us to do or take over maintenance of that section, and I'll dictate next steps on that.

i think it's interesting just to go ahead and see for the seasons um in considering the fact that is going to be going through seasons we have snow to consider um has there been a plan put together to figure out where this snow goes because it will land indiscriminately obviously on wimmy and there's a lot of things going on here that you have to work around um wondering about staffing to make sure that it's up and running properly and then i think uh also at the same time

I'll address that. No, no, no, good question. So Craig Gibson, our public works director, is a member of the steering committee. So we've discussed, he asked questions specifically about materials being used for durability of salt, snow plowing, et cetera. He also asked questions about the bollards and making sure that they're flat to the surface. If you've ever driven in a plow truck, for those who know, you hit a sewer cap, that's enough. So those are questions we've kind of talked about already. Snow storage, of course, is something we talked about as well, so that's being talked about. But lastly, Sort of the decision of the bowlers that are being chosen and other street furniture, a lot of it's permanent. And that's for storage reasons, but also we're talking about other areas downtown we can use to store things in the downtown rather than having to go all the way back to Public Works or the Conservation Center and some smaller materials. So some of the movable bowlers with the sleeves, easier to store in a truck and put somewhere in a small shed. The semi-mechanical bowlers could be just pushed down and flushed to the ground. So we've talked about all those things, and the furniture as well, same kind of thing, to make it mostly permanent. Some of the furniture you saw is actually like granite block versus a movable bench. So it acts as a decorative piece, but a multifunctional backless bench and a decorative piece as well. So those are all good questions, and Craig Gibson has asked all those.

I just have one question that we didn't really cover in the committee, but downtown, are the businesses responsible for removing the snow in front of the sidewalk, or is it the town? And the reason I ask is because now it's confusing where the sidewalk is or isn't.

So, yes, technically every property owner is responsible for the snow removal for their property, or in this case, budding their property. In this case, we're creating a, for lack of a better way of saying it, a festival street. likely we're going to be responsible for clearing that street to the councilman's point. We are figuring out now obviously details about snow storage equipment to use on the street that would not also be just a normal plow truck. We have other smaller pieces of equipment that we're going to actually either have to purchase or use that we have already.

When you say street, it's sidewalk too.

As Joe said, the whole street is going to be curbless. Even though it's going to be designated by different materials, so we physically see where separate spaces are, it's going to be a one flat surface.

Yeah, that was my question. Where's the business owner going to start and stop?

Yeah, exactly. So we're going to have to take care of that, which is not unusual for streets like this.

Is there any thought, since it's curbless and there's a lot of flexibility, if you go down Quimby in the middle of December, January, the reality is people are not going to be outside. Why in the wintertime from November to February when the weather is terrible, can't be two ways, you know, because if there's a lot of flexibility, there's no curves, you have plenty of room to make it back to two ways for the times that it's not going to be used. Just asking that question.

If you actually show that, that like, because I had the same question, we asked it a lot, but I think when he talks about it, when he shows this one, that one. Yeah.

So a couple of things I'll mention about this. So the two-way discussion really was deep dive into it last year. When we did the scope of work for this project last year, that was already a decision that was made as being one-way. And part of the reason is the flexibility. But if you go to the slide before that, I think it's... When you have the one-way process or ability, it creates a much more flexible opportunity at the new corners to create much more pedestrian activity and bump-outs and pedestrian access. And our experience with Open Quimby over the past number of years is that the one-way pattern has not detrimentally affected traffic which is why the one-way pattern has been chosen under this scope of work to go permanently.

I understand during the summertime, but in the wintertime, there's going to be cement ballads up there, is that right?

Yeah, the ballads can be moved back. And of course, the difference now is the street can be programmed differently. In the winter, we don't have open Quimby, right? It's just a normal street. But now we have the ability, and again, we've had hugely successful watch parties at the World Cup. Doesn't mean we can't have a Super Bowl party. Couldn't have other things. So the programming, and that's, I think, Our executive director, DWC, and the chair are here for that purpose because they're going to be in charge of a lot of the programming downtown, which now can be expanded year-round versus now focusing just on Elvin Quimby. Okay, thanks. Sure.

Can you go back to the project timeline, please? Okay. So the stakeholder follow-up, will that be publicly available to or just the stakeholders that you identified earlier? So will this be available to the public for further discussion?

So tonight, it's council feedback. I'm sure we'll hear some comments tonight, but also after this, this will be publicly posted on our website. We're going to have, I'm sure the mayor and council members will receive emails as part of the public input. The stakeholder input is really circling back with the state closure met first time to anyone else that's interested. So business owners downtown, first and second floor, landlords in the downtown, we had a pretty good response back in October and November of 2025. Revisit this new redesign concept with them, which will still be evolving a little bit with the county input. and then getting their feedback with anything that might be something that we didn't cover in the first time, making sure that all the pieces are factored into the designs. Because after that's done and any public input we get from tonight on will be factored in, and then basically they're going to be deep diving into the bid spec process so that by year's end we can be done with that, out to bid, and then going on to public view the council will be looking to authorizing money, back to the question by Councilman Keefer, Estimates will be provided so that you'll be authorizing money, i.e., to do them in the first quarter for this project. Whatever the design pieces are, you want to include the project. So the first quarter, second quarter, next year will be a lot of activity about authorizing funds, finalizing bid specs, out to public bid, awarding contracts, et cetera.

The other thing about the timeline that we talked a lot about was some of this construction can only happen when it's warm out. So there's going to be some overage into the summer months that I think we won't be used to, but that'll definitely come up. We tried to avoid it, but you can't do some parts of this construction when it's cold out. Correct.

Any other questions from the council? All right, well, thank you, Joe, and thank you, Arterial. And again, just as a reminder to Councilman's question, so this is a presentation publicly presented tonight. It will be on the website. It will be shared. And we encourage people to email mayor and council members on the town with any feedback questions. And then, again, as I said, stakeholder feedback will be going in September, October. And parallel to that, working with the county and they'll be working on the final designs of the plan. So thank you.

Thank you, Jim, and thank you, Arterial. Ms. Lausche, are there any advertised hearings?

Yes, Mayor, we have two advertised hearings tonight, starting with General Orrin's 2026-14 in order to amend the code in the town of Westfield, Chapter 13. Anyone wishing to be heard on General Orrin's 2026-14, please come to the microphone and state your name and address for the record. Seeing no one, Mayor, you may close the hearing.

This hearing is closed.

Next is for General Orants 2026-15, an ordinance removing the designation of 18 Stonley Park, shown on the Town of Westfield tax map as block 4209, lot 7, as an historic landmark and modifying the zoning map to reflect such a de-designation. Anyone wishing to be heard on General Orants 2026-15, please come to the microphone, state your name and address for the record.

Jennifer Jaruzelski, 210 South Euclid Avenue. Good evening, Mayor Berman and members of the town council. Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this proposed ordinance on behalf of the Westfield Historic Preservation Commission. As you are aware, the commission voted unanimously at its July 27th meeting to recommend against passage of this ordinance. The planning board also voted unanimously at its August 3rd meeting that the proposed ordinance is inconsistent with the town's master plan. Stoney Park is listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places and is Westfield's only nationally recognized neighborhood. It is considered one of the earliest planned communities, and the master plan specifically cites the designation of its historic homes as a priority action item. This de-designation request is unprecedented, not only in the town's history, but in the professional experience of our preservation consultant. 18 Stoney Park was voluntarily nominated and strictly followed the criteria and process for designation as a local historic landmark. Nothing has changed that would invalidate this process or justify the home's de-designation. While the commission recognizes the difficult circumstances surrounding the designation, Mr. Furrer has demonstrated no hardship or burden stemming from his home's landmark status. Westfield has earned statewide recognition and become a model for neighboring communities since the adoption of our strengthened 2020 preservation ordinance. This proposed ordinance tonight threatens to undermine the integrity of the preservation process with far reaching consequences. The commission respectfully urges the council to uphold Westfield's longstanding commitment to historic preservation and vote against this ordinance. Thank you.

Thank you. I mean, it's your right.

I'll bridge it. Anastasia Harrison, 240 Twin Oaks Terrace in Westfield. I'm an architect who works in historic architecture and preservation and formerly the homeowner of 23 Stonely Park, one of the first homes that was designated in the neighborhood. I'm here tonight to respectfully ask the council to vote no on Ordinance 2615, removing the designation of 18 Stoneley Park. I believe strongly in our property rights. Our homes are deeply personal, and homeowners should have considerable freedom on how they live in them. But historic homes are different. When we own a home, we are the steward to a relatively short period in its much longer life, It existed before us and hopefully it will exist long after us. Westfield established a historic preservation framework for a reason. Once we determine that a property has historic significance, that designation needs to mean something. My greatest concern tonight is the precedent this creates. If we remove a historic designation today, what happens tomorrow? What happens when other designated homes may be sold and the new owner wants to have the designation removed? What if we say yes today, on what basis do we say no tomorrow? We are already losing too many architectural homes and the fabric that makes Westfield so special. Once these historic homes are gone, they are gone forever. But I also believe Westfield should learn from this situation. Perhaps we need a dedicated preservation liaison. someone on the town committee or an employee or even a volunteer who becomes the first point of contact for homeowners of historic and architecturally significant homes, not only ones that are designated. Someone who understands preservation, listens to homeowners, and helps them navigate the process to work towards solutions before problems reach a boiling point like we are at today. We should make preservation easier to navigate and not easier to undo. Thank you.

Thank you. This hearing is closed. Councilman Gilman, please move for the adoption of these ordinances.

Thank you, Mayor. I would like to move on second reading general ordinance number 2026-14, an ordinance to amend the code of the town of Westfield, Chapter 13.

May I have a second?

Second.

So by Councilman Armento, any discussion? Please call the roll.

Councilmember DeGombo? Yes. DeGombo?

No.

Stop sign. Stop sign. Yes.

Apologies. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. This motion is carried.

Councilman Pecker, please move the next ordinance on second reading.

Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to move on second reading general ordinance number 202615, an ordinance removing the designation of 18 Stonely Park shown on the town of Westfield tax map as block 4209, lot 7 as a historic landmark and modifying the zoning map to reflect such de-designation.

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

So I am the representative to the Historical Preservation Committee, and I've wrestled with this one since it has come up. This is a big back and forth for me. I am a huge proponent of people being able to do the things they like with their property. I kind of equate this to something that is a charitable event versus something being forced to do something like taxes. This was something that was given, kind of volunteered by this person. I watched both of the council meetings where this occurred, 2023. So that was April 28th and May 8th, I believe. watched from beginning to end to see what the discussions were about. The residents that owned the home were incredibly happy in that moment. You could definitely viscerally see that they thought they were doing a good thing. Now, I understand the back and forth on this. To go ahead and lose something which is of historical value I think is kind of a grievous wrong. I think there's a lot of latitude in the laws that we have in town in order to do work to your property that is of historical value. I think that we probably could have as a town navigated this way better. That comes down to HPC getting the word out to all 300 homes that are in town that could be up for some historical significance. This comes down to the town planning group itself to be able to go ahead and to better describe what they could or couldn't do, when they could do it, and how they could go ahead and work with somebody to do it. I think the piece of information that Ms. Harrison had where we potentially create kind of that liaison type of person for dealing with these types of situations, whether they're on call or they're somebody that could be as a contact, I think is a great idea. It's really hard for me to balance out because I am a huge proponent of being able to have your own liberties and your own freedoms. I could see this being struggled with in the videos that I watched with the original group that voted on it. And none of us were here. There's one Republican, all others Democrats. Every one of them voted for this to be in place. It is tough. We have 18 homes. It will be 17. We have 300 potentials. I think we should use this as the opportunity to concentrate on those 300 potentials, shop it to them, and make sure that they understand the ins and outs of what happens. So, at the very least, this, like you said, can be an educational aspect of it. Thank you, Councilman. Any other comments?

Just, I'd like to say something. I've also been torn a little bit. I'm on the code committee. Obviously, one of our big things is keeping the historic nature of Westfield. You have to balance that with homeowners rights. I think that there are special circumstances as was presented to us in this situation in terms of life circumstances. And I think that's important. It's easy for someone who's not involved in those life circumstances to say, oh, everyone has issues. But in this case, what was presented to us, there was life circumstances that occurred. This was approved less than five years ago. It's not a change of ownership. I don't think anyone on this council would vote yes if somebody sold a historic house to a developer and then de-designate it. I think this is a one-time special circumstance. The goal is not to set a precedent, and I don't think we are. We did our due diligence in reviewing this case, and therefore I feel comfortable de-designing this one property for the homeowner's situation.

If I can, I agree with that. And not only do I think that this precedent is easily to distinguish in the future and fairly unique. But I think you have to be worried about or conscious of unintended consequences. For those who are full-throated about historic preservation and stand by it, which I think we all do at some level, I would encourage you to think about what message it sends if we all voted no today. Because there are people that view the historic preservation mission somewhat skeptically and view it as somewhat cold and unfeeling, as you said. And so what message does it send that we can't reverse course in certain circumstances when they're warranted? It could create a disincentive for people to want to get involved with historic preservation. So I think it's a unique circumstance. I think the council is right to step up and do the right thing. And I think just, I would encourage people to think about all angles, not just the one that they're pushing.

Any others? Um, so real quick, I think it's been discussed more or less enough, but just to give sort of a highlight of goal of, I think how we more or less approach this on ordinance for code review. which is our goal is to create an even-handed rules-based system for what happens when something like this comes up. As people mentioned, it's been unprecedented and in the code we didn't really have any good way of reviewing it within the existing systems. So here we thought long and hard and had discussions about how we thought best to accommodate something like this without setting a precedent that anytime a new builder comes in, they can knock down a historic home. That's certainly, I think, something that nobody here would support. So in that spirit, that's how this ordinance was created to, again, not create that kind of precedence.

Could you describe to me the process in which you've, I guess, kind of approached this from the code committee perspective? If you could go ahead and separate this from any other future occurrence.

Yeah, sure. So I guess as things that are listed in this, one, it's the original owners. Two, it's within a short time period. And three, it was through this program that was voluntary. So those three things, I think, are the key points. I've got some other folks on the... I think I would agree. All right.

And then how do we decide upon that time period?

It seemed reasonable. So here is something of a reasonableness standard. I think five years is about a reasonable amount of time where you would have to review or something to come up, whereas you don't have somebody who's buying a house, paying off their mortgage 30 years later, and then wants to sell it and say, hey, now that I'm selling my house, I want to get rid of this.

Please call the roll.

Yes.

No.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. This motion is carried. May I have a motion to approve the minutes from the Town Council Conference Executive and Regular Meetings of July 14, 2026?

So moved.

Councilman Damagala, second? Second. Councilman Saunders, any discussion? All in favor?

Yes.

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

My name's Kevin Monroe, 307 Windsor Avenue, Westfield, New Jersey. I'm here about the speed bumps. We had a big incident this past Sunday. We're getting ready for our Unity Day, which will be 33 years. And we've been promised speed bumps for years, but we haven't received them yet. We thought we would get them when they put in a new pavement. So we're trying to find out when will they be purchased in our neighborhood, because we definitely need them. We had a big incident this weekend, a guy from Plainfield speeding down the block, kids playing ball, somebody threw a ball at his car. He talking about calling people from Plainfield. It was about to be a big mess out there. So whenever, I mean, we've been promising for years. So I'm here to bring it to the council when it's going to happen. And the other thing is we don't even know our third ward council, councilmen. They don't come out. They don't say nothing. Usually, all the other years, they came out. We don't know who our third board councilman is. I don't even know. And I come down here often. The mayor know. Jim know. So whoever the third board councilman is, I wish they'd come and, you know, represent themselves some time.

And we have been to events on the street in Cat Hill as well. Huh? We haven't been to Cat Hill.

We haven't participated in events. We haven't been on Windsor, though. We've been doing this thing for 33 years. Windsor Avenue Park. It's called Unity Day. You're welcome to come. It's September 6th. I'm going to give you the date now. I will put up flyers. You'll see them in town and everything. Plus, not only that, I've worked with Jim for years in the recreation department.

He beats me every time. Just a quick update to the questions. Unity Games, obviously, as Spud said, has been going on for Kevin Monroe. Excuse me. I'm calling you Spud. For 30-plus years, Windsor Avenue, Windsor Avenue Park, which the town recently redid, and the basketball courts is the next thing to be redone. Speed bumps can't just be put down. It has to be a study done. And in the past, the study was done on Windsor, and it didn't meet the requirements. So what the town did instead, put that solar speed sign that's there that shows the speed. I know, but that's what we did instead. Happy, the one-year Third World Council members, both of them are on the Public Safety Committee. So with this request you made personally, we will put it back on the committee. We'll have our consultant look at the speed data again and see if it meets the warrants for speed bumps or some other mechanism that can be done.

The other thing is the new recreation track. Is he here, Dan?

No, he's not here. All right.

We had three special need kids. The other kids is going to the Y. I coach high school basketball summer league, so I can't bring them to the Y in the evening. So we asked him, it took him a week to get to me. So he says, we can't do it until next year. I was like, wow, one day for the whole summer? So I've been observing the pool. These days, there's not that many people in the pool. I can't understand why he can't get three special needs kids one day. So I'm going to ask him again, because he don't know that I actually worked for the rec before, and I know how it goes. And the other thing is the pool's not packed every day, especially with the terrible weather we had this summer. So if we have to pay for them, we already talked to some guys in my neighborhood. If we have to pay for the three kids to go for the one day, we'll do that. Okay.

And your third ward councilwoman is also the liaison to the Recreation Commission, where this request would go. So we'll have her follow up with Dan and get back to you. Yeah. Okay. All right. Thanks.

Appreciate it. Thanks. Thank you. Councilman, do you want to?

Okay.

Any others? Seeing no others, I close this portion of the meeting and move to bills and claims. Councilman Pecker.

Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to move bills and claims in the amount of $829,372.62. May I have a second? Second.

Councilwoman Gilman, any discussion? All in favor? Yes. Opposed? This motion is carried. Next on the agenda is reports of the standing committees beginning with Finance Policy Committee. Councilman Pecker.

Thank you, Mayor. I have 19 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 refund street opening cash bond. Four, resolution authorizing the chief financial officer to draw a warrant for unused parking permit fee. Five, resolution authorizing the chief financial officer to draw a warrant for dog licenses for July 2026. Six, resolution authorizing the chief financial officer to draw a warrant for Board of Adjustment escrow monies. Seven, resolution authorizing the chief financial officer to draw a warrant for second quarter construction official state permit fees. Eight, resolution authorizing the chief financial officer to draw a warrant for overpaid taxes. 9, resolution authorizing the tax collector to participate in electronic tax sale. 10, resolution authorizing the assignment of municipal lien. 11, resolution authorizing the chief financial officer to issue warrants for Union County and Union County open space taxes. 12, resolution authorizing the chief financial officer to issue warrants for special district taxes. 13. Resolution authorizing change order number one for roof repairs for the Westfield Fire Department. 14. Resolution authorizing an award of contract for sanitary system assessment services. 15. Resolution authorizing an award of contract for the replacement of bench slats at Mendoascon Park. 16. Resolution authorizing submission of an applicant for Kids Recreation Trust Fund grant program. 17. Resolution authorizing submission of an application for Greening Union County grant program. 18, resolution to approve insertion of special item of revenue, National Opioid Settlement. Number 19, resolution to approve insertion of special item of revenue, body armor.

May I have a second? Second. Councilman Aguilar, any discussion? All in favor? Yes. Opposed? This motion is carried. Councilwoman Gilman, please move the items for public safety.

Thank you, Mayor. I would like to move a resolution authorizing an award of contract for the purchase of mobile data computing systems for the Westfield Police Department.

May I have a second? Second. Councilman Saunders, any discussion? All in favor? Yes. Opposed? This motion is carried. Councilman Pecker, please move code review and town property items.

Thank you, Mayor. I would like to move a resolution providing the required findings of reasons under NJSA 4055D-62A for the adoption of General Ordinance No. 2026-15.

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

Councilman Bridget Gilman? Yes. Damagala? Yes. Pecker? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. This motion has carried.

I would also like to move general ordinance number 2026-16 on first reading an ordinance to amend the land use ordinance of the town of Westfield by defining a medical spa.

May I have a second? Second. Second. Councilman Armento, any discussion? Please call the roll.

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

Yes. This motion has carried. Councilwoman Adler, please move public works resolution.

Thank you, Mayor. I would like to move a resolution authorizing the execution of a shared services agreement with the Borough of Fanwood for the use of the Westfield Conservation Center.

May I have a second? Second. Second by Councilwoman Armento. Any discussion? All in favor? Yes. Opposed? This motion has carried. May I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Councilman Packer, second? Second. Councilman Keefer, all in favor? Yes. Opposed? This motion is carried. This meeting is adjourned. Thank you all. Have a good night.