Borough Council - Regular Meeting

Yeah.

Notice of this meeting was provided to the Barnesville News and Courier News file with the municipal clerk and posted on the municipal bulletin board on December 4th, 2025.

Please stand so that we can let's move to it.

I was really just in the block.

The June 22nd 2026 meeting of the birds of our Council members of the public will be allowed to speak in the open sessions and during formal public hearings on the agenda. Comments will be limited to three minutes per speaker, which will be monitored and enforced by the borough clerk. Failure of the governing body to provide a live broadcast of this meeting or technological problems encountered during the course of the meeting that affect remote viewing and or participation will not invalidate this meeting or any action taken, including but not limited to the adoption of any ordinance, resolution, or motion. All right, that's out of the way. Now we get to the good stuff. All right, Chief, I will turn it over to you.

We brought a little extra security to get out.

Before I introduce our newest hire, I'd like to thank the Mayor and Council for allowing us to be here today. Nancy, thank you for all your help and trust. Our newest hire, Justin Barlucci. Justin comes to us as a graduate of Randall High School, where he was a Honorable student with a 3.8 grade average. He went on to Centenary College where he made the beans list with a 3.6 grade average. And he recently graduated from the Morris County Police Academy. He's about two weeks ago, right? He attended a reservation. So I'm happy to announce Justin Carlton to be the next police officer in the borough of Barnesville. He has family members here. I'd like Justin to let us know who you're going to have swear in and if you want to introduce who you're going to go ahead and then I'll turn it over to Anthony to do the rest. So welcome aboard. Thanks for joining.

I'll probably have my dad, my grandma, my dad, my grandpa, my other grandma and grandpa, my brother, and my mom. It's nice to meet you all. Great to turn it over to Anthony here.

My name is Dan Cole.

It's both. I just encourage you to solemnly swear. I just encourage you to solemnly swear.

That I will support the Constitution of the United States and the state of New Jersey. That I will support the public association of the United States and the city. That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. that I will very truly pay allegiance to the city, and to the government established in the United States, and to the government established in the United States, and to this state under the authority of the people, this state under the authority of the people, that I will faithfully, impartially, and justly, and that I will faithfully, impartially, and justly, perform all the duties of control and authority in the best of my ability, perform all the duties of control and authority in the best of my ability, and that I will not use my office to grant preference to the state union, that I will not use my office to or to treat or be personal gain favor or managed or to see personal gain favor or not available to the general public for helping out. Not available to the general public. So long. Congratulations.

Congratulations. Congratulations. I appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you all for the briefing. It's exciting. Thank you. Very nice. Congratulations. Oh, thank you.

All right. Moving on.

We do not have any minutes. So we'll be good for that. We now have an open session for the public to address the council for any items that don't have their own separate public area. So any general comments? I know the X is missing. So we used to have a spot where

stand but that's right i i'm a teacher and i've been to many a board meeting and i've spoken there so i'm this is pretty pretty much a name and address so my name is patty richardson i live at one prospect street in bernardsville i have been a resident of this community for over 20 years and i do so proudly i would like to know What is going on with the redevelopment with Prospect and West and the sidewalks, the perving? We have utility markings. They have been here, there, and everywhere, but nothing seems to get done. We have done our due diligence. We have since taken down a very large tree because There's supposed to be sidewalks coming across the front of our property. We did so in good faith because we wanted to make sure that people would be safe because probably all of that food system is going to be compromised. So we did our part. When are we going to have this executed? It's been Peter robbing to pay Paul down the line. This has been going on for five, 10 years. So when is this actually, when is this work actually going to get done is, is my question because we are greatly affected. We had someone come to our home, say that they were going to be doing some testing of the, Drainage system, whatever. And this was supposed to start April 1st. We're well past April 1st. Our lives are being inconvenienced. And because we don't live on West, our front door is on Prospect, we don't get notification half the time. So we find things out like piecemeal. So when is this project going to come to fruition? We have all of this building here, there, and everywhere, but enough is enough. When is it our turn to have the redevelopment and the beautification of our part of town? That's my main question. Which project is this?

This is the West and Boylan sidewalks and street reconstruction. So I can't give you an exact date. We're dependent on the contractor. We had a delay with the OT. They did do test fits, like you were saying. Yes. So I guess they're waiting for the results of that. Oh, no, no, I'm sorry. He's waiting for the grading to come in, like the captions for the training to come in. But as soon as they're done, that work will be done. And you should be getting as much notification as your neighbors. So I have your eyes, and I'll make sure that he... that the contractor includes your street in all of those stations. Okay.

But unfortunately, you know, we keep hearing this, but nothing. The contractor, the contractor, the contractor, the contractor.

And so, like... Well, I mean, this part of the station, and it was a contractor. Plus, we also, we deleted in the beginning because you were inundated with the American Water Works. So we initially delayed it so that New Jersey American Water could finish because that was the major product. Right. And that was done. So then the contractor takes other jobs and then he puts us off. Then we had to wait for DOT because we had to change the plan. So DOT takes forever to get us back. Then he had to do his test test. Now we're waiting for him to get his stuff in. So I am not going to give you a date, but I can practically guarantee that it'll be in the next... It'll be this summer. It'll be...

I've been hearing that for a long time. But if we could just have... There's no communication. We don't know. We just watch marketing and things happening and nothing...

So the reason you have it being your first date, communicate your...

everybody would get notified so that nobody would be like well we know we have a lovely woman come to literally knock on her door and she handed out the paper and she was you know she's lovely but i mean this is now becoming a quality of life issue and this is like enough is enough already and we were standing at right i it's a contractor and they have other jobs like something something needs to be done this can't keep going on you know 10, 20 years. So it's going to be this summer.

Yeah.

Make sure you get noticed. Yes. You know, I want to say that, you know, I can speak for myself, but you definitely want to see this get done. We have assistance sidewalks on the Burns Avenue neighborhood and assistance sidewalks in the downtown. And we, you know, think it would be a convenience to the neighborhood to get that done, get those systems connected. So, you know, we want to get that done as much as you do. So I appreciate you coming here.

But thank you for letting us know, especially that you weren't getting the notices. So make sure that happens.

There's a lot in just my property alone. So we deserve that protection.

Thank you. Thank you.

Anyone else?

Quick question. Jeff Hammond, Football Court. I noticed just actually the day before yesterday on the bubble, the call for comment about the thermal playground. And it was posted actually four days ago in the I checked right before this meeting, it's only been 24 comments and some by the same person multiple times. Was it generated a call for comments through the Friday folder or through the school system? Because that would be the constituency that most likely would respond. I think in order to try and get a greater response, we need to do more than the bubble. Was that done?

It was done on several other Facebook pages as well. Burnsville Community, there's a number of them. And it's really not, you know, that school has a playground. This was geared more to the younger parents.

I get that. Yeah.

And I know Christine went to the daycare center that's nearby and we went to one of the moms. Yeah. So it's more geared to The parents during the day, what they've told us is they can't use the school playground when school's in session. So that's what we're trying to do.

I get that, but a lot of these kids in bed, well, they also have younger siblings, and so the same parent. I just wanted to get that message out. A lot of people don't use Facebook anymore. One of them is backed away for security reasons and such. So I think we need to find better ways to communicate other than through Facebook and those portals but that's my comment.

Thank you. Okay. Then I will close the open session. We have a public hearing on ordinance 2026, 2050. I will open the public hearing on that. This is altering the duties of the administrator and the borough code, to allow our administrator to hire a point or discipline employees that are below the department head level, mainly for timing and efficiency in filling positions or getting positions filled and replacing people.

Can I give you a timely?

Yes.

So we... They mean really turn around and that the number of that. How many came up and up and up and if they if we didn't have. And I don't know that are having better. have enough time to do. So the prior construction official and I had talked about this a long time ago, the possibility of hiring, you know, some other part-time instructors to come in and help. And that's the kind of thing that this will be very, I can just say, yeah, put y'all on, you know, put y'all on, like about after they've been surviving. And so they're not exactly hiring employees, but they're similar kind of employees. So this would be something I would have debated

I mean, especially in the summer. Yeah, very smart.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And like the taco is somebody that we have to have. Yeah, that's required. So

And of course, which is technical assistance. Yeah. Yeah.

Always in the report. Yeah. Yeah.

Anything like that? Just five minutes.

Yes.

Actually, more of a clarification. Are we talking about are we talking about part-time employees or full-time employees under the umbrella of this ordinance? I would have no problem with part-time employees being brought in on a stopgap measure, a per diem measure, whatever. But if we're talking about the hiring and firing of full-time employees, I think that should still remain within the purview, at least the oversight of the elected officials. So what exactly, when I read the ordinance, I thought it pertained to the full-time. Am I wrong? No, you're right. Well, if you are going to produce the example of a part-time. Well, I was wondering whether the council wants to advocate the responsibility of oversight in concert with the borough administrator. I was chair at one point of the personnel committee. I thought that was really one of the functions of the personnel committee. We really want to do this. Yes.

Yeah, I don't think we saw it as advocating a responsibility. We still are in concert with talk to the administrator. She still presents all of the personnel decisions to us. We mandated that it couldn't be for department head, senior level staff inside of the borough. But below that, given, you know, how quickly some of these decisions have happened, we've had real examples over the course of the last year where the administrator probably needed to take quicker action for officials. And we had to wait until the council. So We debated it pretty significantly as a council. We felt that given the administrator, you know, as the head of the staff, giving her the ability to make these decisions, still providing them to us, we still have the oversight onto it, was the more prudent thing to do for the governance of the borough. Otherwise, it would be too slow. And we did stipulate that below a senior level, it still has to come to the council.

Except the... The ordinance, as I read it, said it gets presented to the council at the next council meeting, which, depending upon the month, could be a month later. In that case, the decision has already been done. It's already been enacted. It's a done deal. The council's input then is moved.

But the council in general does not oversee lower than... department head management. I mean, we're not to really be involved in the day-to-day operations of the borough. And those are the people that are doing the day-to-day work. So it's not really our authority to get involved in those kinds of decisions.

The goal here is to have a functioning high customer service entity. And in order to do that, you need to have the administrator be able to make day-to-day decisions that allow you to maintain that level of customer service. Council can't be signing on every single decision if there's something they see places where so we can give way month inefficient as a loss of service to the taxpayer and not to use for their dollars.

I understand that but I also know that there's been a fair amount of turn in terms of our employees and so.

The debate you made your comments. So yeah, you're speaking to that. This is the opportunity to give your opinion or comments on this ordinance.

I appreciate the comments, but we did it as a council.

And one of the other things is we've changed the way the council operates. So we now have a work meeting the week before this formal meeting. And that has been, I think, very effective in the way that we get things done so that we don't use the committee system as much. It's only for Short term, more like for personnel for an executive decision that has to get made. But we tend to do more of the general work in the work meeting to discuss issues such as this. So everyone has input. Okay, so I will close the public hearing on Ordinance 2026-2050. We'll start with you, Richie.

I move to pass ordinance number 2026-2050 on final reading and adopt as published.

Second. Roll call, please. Mr. Rivera?

Yes. Mr. Ruse? Yes. Mr. Zara? Yes. Mr. Painter? Yes. Mr. Zanara? Yes. Mr. Vazimino? Yes.

All right. I will open the public hearing on ordinance 2026-2051 amending the 2026 salary ordinance 2025-2030 to include the full-time dispatchers. And the reason this is here is originally, I think the understanding was that they understood that they had a negotiating unit. They don't really. So they need to be included with the regular employees. Anyone like to be heard on this ordinance? Nobody's watching. Yeah. HAB-Masyn Moyer- Seeing none, I will close the public hearing i'm. HAB-Masyn Moyer- Ross. HAB-Masyn Moyer- Sorry.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- I need to pass ordinance. HAB-Masyn Moyer- On final. HAB-Masyn Moyer- No.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- Sorry, I need to pass ordinance. HAB-Masyn Moyer- published second.

Well, please you know yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

All right, I will open the public hearing on ordinance 20262052 amending chapter 11 of the borough code entitled property maintenance maintenance by amending section. 11 dash 5 in its entirety to establish lead-based paint hazard inspections of rental properties. And I believe this is required by law. Is it?

It's required that we do something to do it.

It doesn't cost the funding on the day the paint hazard will come down. It's the business of the rent. We have to send them to the school, and then we have to buy some equipment and spend it on paddling. Okay.

Anyone like to be heard on this?

Okay, I just say this is only for rental units that were built prior to 1978. Yeah, that's what I was going to say.

Past that, they stopped using it. Yeah. All right, I will close the public hearing. Christine.

I move to pass ordinance 2026-2052 on final reading and adopt as published.

Roll call, please. Second. Roll call.

Mr. Rivera? Yes. Mr. Roos? Yes. Mr. Zerana? Yes. Mr. Traynor? Yes. Mrs. Amera? Yes. Mrs. Vandarino? Yes.

Okay, we now have a ordinance introduction. Do you like to move that?

You gave me the long one. Okay, I move that ordinance 2026-2053, ordinance providing for the improvement of Laurelwood Road in and by the borough of Burnsville, County of Somerset, New Jersey, and appropriating 259-208, therefore constituting proceeds of grants from the New Jersey Department of Transportation to be introduced by title, passed on first reading, published according to law, at a public hearing, be scheduled for a meeting beginning at 7 p.m. Monday, July 13th, 2026. Second.

Okay, and this is part of what we have scheduled for this year, right?

Yes, this is just the, you know, we just never, we got a lot.

Okay. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Aye. Resolutions we've got some pretty standard ones we are just saying that you police vehicles which were in the budget and our capital line item. You finally got all the ABC license is fact which is good. Everybody files. You have the farmers market fees. We are responding to Aaron Duff's lawsuit. Fireworks for Somerset Hills will be the Saturday before. Was it the 27th, I think? We have some new recreation people. And then we were approving the music on Main. for Main Street, CIC doing the Opioid Awareness Day, and the Mountaineers were doing their training day at the Polo Grounds. So those three are in 152. Dayton Crescent, we just have some change orders to get the lines redone. Yeah. Meeker Road will be resurfacing?

No, this is too far for the grant. This year is locally granted. It's too far for Meeker Road.

Oh, right. So we put in for it this year to do it next year.

Well, Valentine's is our first choice, and then Meeker is the second. I think Valentine's was the second one last year. Oh, so it moved up. So it moved up, and then Meeker. We don't but it's not all about today.

Did I see inactive licenses twice? Yeah. Oh, okay. And then we have another one. We have a 157, which is a buyer company, a junior membership in a buyer company. So that's Samantha Scarinzi. Who's Scarinzi? of hard scrapple road. So it's not on here. We just got it today. She just got her forms in. So we're adding 157. Jack. Questions?

I move that section 26-141 to 26-156 be adopted. Do I have a second? Second.

Well, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

All right reports. Mayors update we had and it was June 3rd the I'm not sure what you call is the pre meeting with a Gregory. for his project at the Audi dealership. So finally, that is moving forward. I think he'll be at my board next month, maybe, or August. Yeah, so it'd be great to see that get going. I also attended that day that Robert Wood Johnson in Somerville, their annual meeting, which they invite me to every year, along with other mayors. I attended the Somerset County Stigma Free Summit at Raritan Valley Community College. Community Crisis was also there. A lot of good resources. I attended the senior brunch at the library, which they do every year, and they had a huge turnout. And they always have for entertainment, I always forget his name, their local couple, but he plays the organ at Yankee Stadium. I can't think of his name. I don't know his name, but they're really good and everybody loves them. On the sixth, we hosted at the high school the Exempt Fire Company Convention. So they asked me there to welcome them and just introduce Burnsville to them. I attended the Girl Scouts End of Year Ceremony, the Bedwell Garden Open House, the Patriots Path Council of Scouting American Tribute to Women. We had three of our local businesses honored. Jessica Walker of Jay Walker, Pam Nardone of Hibernate Bedding, and Angela Casiero of Boutique Calia were all honored by the scouts. The other honorees were Jennifer Acey, who is a committee woman in Burns Township, Monica Martinez-Milan, who owns Stumpy's, the axe-throwing place. She is also past president of the Somerset County Business Partnership, And then Anita Cittarelli. So Jack Cittarelli's wife. I attended the Somerset County Business Partnerships happy hour at the Szyminski Theater. If you've never been to the Szyminski Theater, it is the best kept secret around here. It's at Fellowship Village and they do some great shows at reasonable prices. It's fairly small, but it is really, I just got appointed to the board. So you'll hear more about the Szyminski Theater. On the 12th, I attended the Bedwell Moving Up Ceremony for the kids going into the middle school and also the League of Municipalities Spring Board Meeting. I did go to the Battle of Baskin Ridge, which was actually pretty good. It was a nice family-oriented street fair kind of thing. I was invited and went to Flag Day at Bedwell, and they have a new music teacher there, And the kids saying, you're a grand old flag. And they signed it. The entire Bedwell kids all signing that you're a grand old flag. And we have them signed up when we're doing, excuse me, for the 250th. We'll be doing reading the Declaration of Independence on July 8th. And she's going to bring some of the kids to sing and sign for us at that event. So that'll be cool. What time is that on July 8th? Well, 6 o'clock is when we're supposed to read the Declaration. It's a national event. And then we're doing some activities before and after with the library. Okay. And then I was invited and attended the high school graduation, which was, for once, a really nice night. Not too hot, not too cold, didn't rain. So, yeah.

Got a lot better soon.

Yes. So that's my update. Just as for the 250th, we did meet and we were talking about, Charlie was on for that one, doing, what is it, December?

Oh, that was on 13th. That was when I was on too, right?

Oh yeah, you were there, December 13th.

Yeah, December 13th.

Is when Japanese troops stayed at the Bealtown town.

Yep.

So we were trying to do a pub crawl on that night.

So mark your calendars. General, General Lee. Yes. And he was Captain Ambassador. Yes. Yeah. A little brown.

On our side. Yeah. Is that a Main Street Burnsville project or who's going to like, sort of like.

No, it's a borough.

Borough. Yeah. So that would be like, sort of like organizes it and kind of.

It's, well, the 250 committee, which is Nancy and recreation and me and Charlie and Al and yeah, got there.

So we'll be putting that together. Cool.

Yeah. And thank you for the flags. We now have our 250 flags up on all our lake halls. Six of them. Yeah.

Yeah. Looks great.

Yeah. So. All right. Um, Nancy, you're up.

Okay. Um,

I think right now we're looking at just, it's not pain, but it's something right in the middle. I don't know what's going to happen, but the lines are, You can see the little faint bits of yellow here and there. And for the most part, you know, they're so big. And all the signs are in the regions.

Good.

That's progress. Yeah. So there's a well connected to the sprinkler system, that lower polar ground. And the controller is broken. The cost to repair the controller is $7,000. Um, the retail themselves, but apparently, um, gave a good deal because this includes, uh, labor, but we're talking the recreation director and BW director and I today, cause I got this just happened. Um, because of most of the uses on the turf field, uh, We were wondering what your thoughts would be if we just let the field be irrigated by rain this year and budgeted for $7,000 for next year, see how it goes this year, see if the rain is tough enough. We are in a drought. Not today, we're not.

Don't promise to keep in mind, yeah, it's a little The lower. It's this is. Now section now I don't know.

Well, yeah, well, you'll see that we're looking at her. Is it really above budget we have any funds in the budget for of rare tear maintenance. We're starting to get the thing. Another zero.

Right. Is that, um, did that be open space maintenance?

I think we should do it in the end, or Bushfield will be safer.

Yeah, and sometimes it takes so long to bring it back after it does.

Right, if you leave it for years. That's a good idea, then we'll call it open space maintenance. Yeah. Improvement.

Improvement. Yes.

Yeah. And then the last thing. So. The responses for her for more shade or swings and things under kids. So just to bring it to you tonight because, yes, I'm going to post, but I contacted the vendor. And he provided a quote for NPM Patriot. It's been seen swing set of two inclusive swings, one for five to 12 year old and a two to five year old. Two, well, actually maybe two. So this bunny and the duck, they are spring riding for the little one. This umbrella would go over the highest part of the actual playground equipment itself. That umbrella would go over the highest part. This is one of the inclusive swings.

Is there, there's enough room in that section to put swings?

This is... That looks like it holds the swings.

That holds the swings, yeah.

Okay, all right, just to hold on. Okay, but there's only two with that. Oh, yeah, there's two down there. Yeah, they won't look like that, though. There'll be the implicit one from the last picture and I think the next picture.

Yeah, so they will go on there. It's on there, yeah.

This, there would be two of these that would go over two new batches. So you're getting one, is it? Yeah, there's a lot. And then this would be the layout. So this is generally the layout. You see that bottom left corner, that one we can't believe her umbrella's overbent. There's another one, you've gone all the way up. right there. Then the playground itself is not that big, but he has what he called the landing zone, the safe zone is the outer end of it. The swings are on the upper right. And then the umbrella is at the top of the highest point of the playground itself. So It would also include, because if you're expanding the playground that much, you would need to have more of the poured rubber showcasing. So if you were to include everything we talked about the last meeting, plus all of the things we talked about tonight, plus the increased rubber servicing, the grand total will be about $270,000. $270,000.

Yes. 70. She said it on. Yeah.

There was also comments about the foul balls.

So we put up, um, we already put, we already addressed that earlier this year. Um, we put up a fence, a freestanding fence so that when, so you'd still be able to get into the field, but it blocked the, um, I don't have a picture of it. It's lost the playground. It's right in front of the playground where the opening of the, there was a big opening, you know, where the, um, on the first, third base, first base, first base line, there was a big opening when the fence was there. So instead of closing that in, because that was in this hole, we went about probably about five feet out and put, Another event there is pretty high. I think there's one there that lost the playground.

Oh, good.

Yeah. We did that in March, I think. Oh, excellent. Yeah.

And really quick. So what we're, you know, the addition today would be the two spring dock situations and then the one inclusive swimming one-stander swings. And then the umbrellas. And the benches. I just want to make sure, yeah, there are two sets of swings, or is this that one set with the one inclusive one set? Can we go back? You can make any change that you want.

I figured I'd show you. That's the young one. Then what's the other one?

And the umbrellas. So it adds the two swings, the umbrellas.

So that's one swing. The can only go around. It's a shade of umbrellas.

It's the two swings and the volume.

Well, and it's also extending the rubber.

Right.

It has to go out further.

Yeah, because it would be the almost same color. Yeah. 3600, I think.

And I think somebody made a comment about the rubber thing is not ground-up tires. HAB-Masyn Moyer- No, so it's a more of a shock. HAB-Masyn Moyer- It's more like a key is important.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- Yeah. HAB-Masyn Moyer- Oh, it's not not like rubber.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- So you know, a one point playground is to chop up tires and put that out.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- Yeah, but you can't do it already. HAB-Masyn Moyer- No.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- And the school. HAB-Masyn Moyer- I mean, you don't have HAB-Masyn Moyer- Yeah.

And this is open space development.

I just want to be clear, I apologize. The orange one was the one, and then the sandal was the one. I think that one was fine.

I think that one was fine. There it is. Okay.

Can you get out of it? There is a good one here.

And then that one. This is what we're talking about. Right.

Because I did ask about getting more. Yeah. But if you look at this, there's no real need. So one of these. And then one of these. Yes. And you need a lot of room for a swing.

And there's not. Oh, there's that in North America.

that you see that's what they call a state deer landing zone. You have to have that much space around it for safety for .. I mean, the rock wall or whatever the activity is. And you see up on the top, that's on the top right is the .. They have a lot. They have a lot. So

Okay. I'm sorry. I'm just trying to get clarity on this one this year. One standard swing and one orange swing.

No, I'm just... Yeah, they're both big. I think they both look like the orange ones. The ones for older.

Oh, okay.

So ones that are bigger and smaller.

Okay, perfect. I understand. Nits, we priced these out based on comments that came through the various channels we had the posting on, right? I guess my question, like, we were a little bit... bulking up the cost last meeting when it was 200K all in or 150 with the mulch. And we sort of did this to A, get the community's input or B, to see if there's other ideas. And it's actually great ideas, but those ideas that came are just sort of additive to the idea we already had, not like a replacement to the original idea. I just, I mean, I actually didn't, I don't really often go on the bubble. Those who saw the comments, even Nancy, you saw the comments, like what was the level of kind of passion for this? In other words, was it like a couple of people and we priced it out or was, you know, Christine, like the group that you spoke to, were they really like passionate about improvements that they would like to see there? I guess what I'm trying to get at is it's like one third more cost. And is that due to a couple of comments or would we really, get a lot more use for that investment. That's my question.

I think it was only about shade. That was the most passionate thing I heard. Shade, shade, shade.

I think it was a very positive response. People were excited about it and wanted to get it back to good going again. But yes, I agree with the mayor. I didn't ask him to summarize it already. The shade was the key. And swings. Yeah. 2027 project.

I think you're probably okay. If you gave me okay, then it would probably be installed by Labor Day, close to Labor Day.

But if you delay a month, you delay a month. We delay a month.

I think everyone can have that. You just say we'll take a month.

But, but for the purposes, you know, snowing, you know, basically lose those two months of usability, uh, this year, uh, for the playground. So it's not usable until 27 is kind of how it's looking, but, uh, right.

And in other words, if you don't do it now and have the, and basically the fall, you're really looking at 27 anyway.

Exactly. Right. Exactly. So that's a decision. Is it worth doing this now or taking a beat, going back for more investigation, probably the cost. or I decide now, and then it's options A or B. So do we want this by the fall? If so, then it's option A or B. If we decided we want to do more investigation, we do more investigation, we're going to look at a usable project that we're going to go for.

And there are other vendors.

Yeah, and that's where my question would be. And I apologize, I missed the last point I made. But how did we get to select this? Have we selected this vendor? Is it still in the...

The recreation director chose him, and then I asked him why I know that he is on state contract, probably a big reason, because . So we're trying to . Sure. It's just that's . Yeah.

And it is, I think we got the accounting of where we are with our open space fund and the fact that we did not do a lot of the extra lighting projects that we were going to do. So, I mean, I'd like to see it get done.

I think we can come from those consoles. They want to, you know, play their energy. You can actually, I think it's an example of it. Sometimes you don't have, you can't take a year to do a bid. So in this case, maybe the need justifies it for them. I think we're moving forward. I think we can maybe, you know, have a debate right now on the 200 versus 270 as Al pointed out, but I think we should move forward.

Is there a way we can do one and wait for the surfacing, get a better...

It's like, I mean, you could pull off, it sounds like the shading was the, you know, number one comment. Maybe hold off on like the swing. I don't even know if that's relatively negligible or if that's additive, how much additive. It'd be a nice touch, definitely.

But no, I hear, if we can maybe get a better, is that something we could do? Maybe the first main piece, come back and maybe get, see what our, if we have other pricing options for the additional stuff or is that not?

Did he break out the swings as a separate price? He did. Not exactly, but.

There is a getting in the swing, the shade, the shade and the rocker is 70 kegs total. So.

The installation of the, uh, the freestanding shade that's longer than the bed is, um, is $7,000. That, and that by the way, seven to 10 weeks in the timeframe for those.

That's two shades for $7,000?

Yeah. The installation of the plate and benches is $59,000. That's not new. Just the benches are added to that. The forward rubber, again, that was $3,600. So that total cost for that is $8,600. That only went up, I believe, it was close to $70,000 the last time we talked about it. Yeah, $67,000 last time. Yeah. 67%. Okay. The rubber cut, rubber curb blockers went up a little bit. When I do it in 45 linear feet, that's $13,000. He has his planes long in with everything. So the line delivery, all the equipment has shown that last week is 99,000. And then the installation of the equipment and Benches is good enough. So he hasn't written down. You know, it is the only thing that very Senate. Because I think is there a lot more.

Yeah.

We have a consensus on moving forward this year versus next year.

Christine, you're so good. Mike, I think it would be good to, you know, we're going to have to do this either way, just always, you know, trying to see what the options are as far as, you know, potential change in pricing there. But, you know, with your analysis, it sounds like, you know, we're not really going to get necessarily a better deal today. So I think that, and once again, we really think that there's a chance that we can get a better deal next year.

I know. I think one of the council's goals is to improve the amenities at our public places. Absolutely. No, it's a needed thing. Definitely want to get it done. I think it's a priority that you've all expressed. Absolutely. We good?

I'm good. Yeah. Ross, it's good. Like, yeah, we should do it. I just, I'm just sort of struggling with whether we get a better deal if we, you know, if it's,

I think if we were in a better position, yes. But right now, you have taken away an entire neighborhood's park. The neighborhood closest to the library, closest to all the schools, and closest to where there's a lot of kids home all summer that don't have these kind of places to play.

They don't have a place in New York.

And that's kind of what a lot of the neighbors expressed to me is that their kids are home for the summer and they don't have a pool membership. So where else are they going to go play? They're going to go to the library? And the only place walkable, safe, where you can go to the library is that one.

We're still walking to Labor Day. Don't you stop by here either?

Yeah, I mean, it wouldn't be for the summer, but it would be for next summer.

I mean, they're still playing down there at the park. Yeah.

And kick the ball around and stuff, but.

The other proposition I was going to ask, because one of the comments that we did get was the fact that School of St. Elizabeth has a beautiful new playground in their campus, but it's not open to the public. So maybe we could work something out with them where people could use it for the summer. I don't know if that would happen, but I'm just trying to think out. Because there's no kids in that school. They have summer camp, but that's it. They just come.

It's completely, yeah. I think I'm in favor moving forward. I mean, my experience in the council is that costs only go up, you know, year to year. Or some project like Jersey American Water comes through and delays the whole thing. So like, I think maybe just get it done and try to move quickly. gives people, it's an eyesore, people are unusing it. It's in a part of town where we know a lot of young families moving into, and it's the only borough facility on that side of 202 versus the Gowanus Park one. So it is, you know, I had concerns, even though it was at 200K, the comments did come back, go positive, like you're saying, according to you all. And, you know, they even with some suggestions. So adding the shade and the swing makes it more usable for people.

yeah we're using open space funds the recreation improvement funds and that was the intention of doing it so i'm there with him and yeah i was thinking before you know you do it oh we could do the first phase and the second phase that ultimately you're going to be saving something by doing it all together i would suspect right you're going to come back at a higher price we're not just going to be able to add it all next year for the same amount yeah okay so turn it

Yeah, people love Spanish puns. That's a big attraction.

People love those. Actually, Rich and Ross bring up a good general principle when facing these matters. I'm

value of delivery versus the cost.

And since it's not going to be ready until October, do you think we'll be able to reach out for labor? Yeah.

Do we need a resolution? Motion? Yeah.

And we really think we can get this done by labor day. That's what they said. Okay. Okay.

Yeah, it's.

Oh, yes. Yes.

Okay.

And what's our just to reiterate our lifespan on this kind of. At this point, is that important? Thank you know, as much as sorry to stop with that. And that's something that needs to at least be 25 years.

No, I don't think so. They change the codes every 10 years. Oh, I know.

I hear, I hear. Yeah. No, that's, you know, there's only so much we can do about that, but just in a vacuum.

Sometimes you can replace pieces of it. Right. You know, the certain play thing is no longer a model. So you don't always have to replace the whole playground, but you're always upgrading the codes.

And I'd like to just get a reiteration of that.

Next time we'll plan five years in advance and we'll sell bricks or something like that.

Carol, I spent 25 years for this one. I mean, Jack knows this past one was 25 years.

I'd say, whether he was there or not, how old was Adam there? About 20. Is it 20? I would say it was the max you get before it. The brain has changed.

So I've been there as long as I feel like the same as I remember. Am I stopping the rest of the time?

Yeah, I think we're on there. Don't put that in. He was the director.

He's definitely 123.

Yeah.

Because that's how I remember.

And it was there when you moved in. Yes.

Oh, you can call me. I love you. Love you.

Blue and yellow. Is that what we want? You read something about the colors, right? And you don't do green, right?

No green.

Yeah.

Merge.

Yeah.

Let's go. We're talking one question is the structure and one question is the sub. The more. Yes. Go ahead. The more rubber for the color.

Orange, rubber. Yeah, it's orange. Yeah.

I think it's green.

Is it white? Oh, I thought it was blue or green.

It was green. It's green in the picture. I thought it was blue or green there.

I thought it was in the original picture.

It was a blue. It was a blue? Sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Yes, yeah, I know. I find out. I know. So here we go. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

All right.

So somebody say so moved.

So yeah, I'll say so much. So moves to create a resolution to appropriate funds for the destruction of this playground. And purchase the co-op this year.

Call her up with another monologue.

That doesn't have to go in the resolution.

That's not. Is that something we can try?

Yeah. And second. So we probably should have a roll call on it.

Mr. Rivera? Yes. Mr. Ruth? Yeah. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

There's nobody that. And, you know, we have all the state is going to back it up afterwards. Nobody follows the bad doors.

Something retention system.

Official retention system. So.

Nancy, remind us how much you want to do. Is it scope for this hearing?

We can all confirm that as well. I believe some of the beliefs possibly being different.

My view here is if we can scope down, start on it this year, but scope down to the extent we can, so then if this technology improves, if we can get a cheaper price next year, I think that's sore. I think that is scope down, right? Scope down from even the 200, I guess I'm saying. That's correct. As we all know, technology continues to evolve quite rapidly. I know there's a lot of As we talked about, I mean, there are a lot of manual labor hours and actually sorting out some of that. It doesn't go away until, I don't know, I guess robotics come along or something. But just in the interest of trying to be, you know, if it's construction and zoning, zoning are the higher priorities. We do those, maybe put whatever police, the sum into next year, the sum of police. And then that's where, from my perspective at this point, to allow technology to save us money more and more.

No, I hear you. And where would most of the costs would come from really just the amount of documents you think ultimately, or it would really be just like where it would be planned zoning and construction, which is the law.

I can look at exactly. And

Maybe just a little reiteration for the public here, and Councilman Trump has been very effective about this here. You know, we carry all of our documents on paper, and that's a lot of work for our administration with certain requests for documents. And we also do have a physical full floor of documents, you know, in this building here. Can we do a field trip during the session? Okay.

HAB-Jacques Juilland- We're moving back straight to me know. HAB-Jacques Juilland- As as as. HAB-Jacques Juilland- There is a very, very real need for this, and you know Nancy student good job, I think, you know really caring for us long term and also to say so far staff time that we really have to do this manually. HAB-Jacques Juilland- And we need to go from the process and.

HAB-Jacques Juilland- yeah. HAB-Jacques Juilland- They're gone so.

No, they're just saying is you also have the weather could damage what's up there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So let's do that. Yeah, I'm good at that. Yeah, to do zoning and planning and construction. You grew out with it for 200, Mark, or not so much for not getting it? That is me in order. Not a resolution. Right. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Just so you could get to the new number and then do it in July. Yeah. And do we set a mark now? Do we set a price cap now? We're going to... No, we don't.

Oh, for those three. Yeah. what that costs.

And frankly, the idea of also eventually reclaiming some space on the third level is also the fact. We can work.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

And July is when we set the numbers. July would be the public year. Yeah.

And the thing is that, yeah.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.

Well, we also talked about when people make requests, you mentioned over requests, but also realtors or. whoever contacts for records, this would be a huge service.

There's a public-facing, yeah, that's another thing. It's more convenient for the public because there's a public-facing portal, and they have access to it. So a lot of them are open for us. That's huge. I get so many.

people asking me, how do I find out about my open permits if my permit is closed? So to be able to look that up.

Often for that, there's a poll, although interface for this point.

That's probably separate. It has technology, self-service, what you're talking about.

Well, not necessarily those because there's a process there. It's not like just looking up what's in form or Because there's steps in closing out a permit.

You're saying there's other solutions that Nancy's looking at that would deal with that. So I thought that was a permit question.

Well, I think we're different, Dan.

That's what I'm saying.

Yeah, it's a little bit on the deep end.

It's true. It's true. It's true. Yeah.

Then it would be an active document.

We're saying it's different. Yeah, I'm saying what Chrissy was asking for is addressed by your separate work stream on the technology, you know, software.

Sort of, you know. This is the internal digitization, what we're going to be introducing right now for July.

Yeah, no, I think it's a public-based thing. They talk about it. So if you're really going to be

I understand that. Christine, what you were saying was with someone who filed there, they might notice that's there. Got it.

Two separate things.

And the reporting issues is a separate thing.

I'm in favor of moving forward with $200,000 in the capital budget. If we get it down to the right number, $150,000, that would be great. But I understand if We need to be forward. Some of you are preferring to just do a little bit less. You're more willing to just hang out with each other. Well, it's a priority.

We can introduce saying no more than 200k, right? And then it comes in. You could do that. Less than. Yeah. Fair. Yeah.

I can agree with that. So Jack, do you want to repeat?

No.

Right so we know that you're bringing them and we're doing we're doing and I was in the back of the room, we're going to be able to stand and stand.

So who said that would say. All right, so we need a roll call now introduce me.

Yeah, all in favor.

Thank you, thank you all very good is that. Okay, so I need a motion to accept the department's monthly reports.

We'll move to accept the monthly department reports. Second. Thank you, sir. All in favor? Aye.

Opposed? All right. Moving on to correspondence. We did get an email from someone asking for improvements to pedestrian use of along 202 from Brookside, which is actually Byrd Township. down to, was it downtown?

It was in downtown.

Yeah.

She was walking, she called me in the phone. She was walking with a stroller. She was in the office of medicine. And she walks downtown. And there were several areas. without sidewalks, and he had a very close call at the bar. And she didn't want to hear the call name to ask me to ask you to consider filling in the blank spaces with sidewalks. So for example, in front of, I think, Chairman Realty, and in front of Tiantai, and I think the chiropractic, because there aren't any sidewalks. So it goes from sidewalk to sidewalk. I'm like you are interested in this year, but if you're interested in moving into it. I had been there to go measure. We need to fill in and we complete all the way down.

Well, she did for its township to do the other section from Brookside to Madisonville is for its township.

I think we'll decide. Thank you. Just It's basically what you want to do.

This is what she's talking about right there.

It's basically all path. We'll get to that.

Yeah, that ends in front of Verizon.

So Verizon knows.

Yeah, but it was very cool.

It's very.

If I can say one thing that we don't think the hardware is, we need or you get dot. Yeah, hopefully. And then it would seem like something we can look into for an action.

Yes, thanks that yeah, you know. We can have a clear path over there.

Yeah, I think that we have that stretch rotary. That's our cleanup section of the highway. And, you know, while we're picking up garbage and people are just whipping by there, you know, we have to have somebody stand there with a flag just not to get hit. So it is bad.

It's also a section of Finley that doesn't have a sidewalk right by there too.

I was going to say, there's also Mount Airy Road going toward the Y. I mean, there's a lot of areas where you're essentially at sidewalk. So it seems like there should be a more of a kind of a thoughtful like prioritization, like essentially a mass, you know, maybe even in a master plan, I don't know, but that, you know, to sort of like, where should they be and what should the priority be?

the only piece on mount airy is in front of the marine crest that's ours after that it's all bad that is great yeah no but rich is right now that's all there's definitely areas that's mostly there's a lot of areas in town where one can make area for michelle sidewalks this may be one more prominent but there could should certainly be an

cost involved and the fact that probably a lot of people would want to sidewalk in any of the areas. They don't always happen as close as we would like. So, you know, if we could maybe study that and then, you know, maybe the engineer as part of that, we could, you know, one of the next meetings come up with both the linear per linear foot estimate that would be latest and then top five net projects.

Exactly.

We have looked at people ask for them. And some of them we've looked and there's just no way you can get a sidewalk. It's either too steep or there's, you know, stone walls. But our main roads, I think definitely.

And also connectivity to the main roads.

And connectivity to downtown.

Right. That's what we want is to try to get people to walk downtown. Yes, absolutely. Pedestrianize, pedestrianize?

Yeah, I can think of one thing. That opening is Bernards Township. And I will say, between, like you said, our potential grants for sidewalks in the downtown here, but also the Transit Village designation. I mean, I know that's kind of the other side of town and whatnot, but I mean, if the state continues to make these announcements that they're serious about encouraging pedestrianism and the use of public transit in these kind of I mean, I know that's far down, but this is a pretty kind of tight strip of pedestrianism when you're looking in this area as a whole. And I said a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned to the administrator, yeah, anything we can do to ask the state in some of these areas to even, I said on this side of town, you bring down the speed limit a little bit. And now that we have, you know, we have a borough complex here, we have affordable housing going in, we have obviously Rose Bowl down here. I am, if there's some way we can make even a non-official rank order master plan, that would be awesome, definitely.

Why don't we do, maybe it's not a rank vehicle, it's a flashback or something else, but could we solicit public comment to get more great emails like this, get more ideas for where people think there should be sidewalks? I know we'll get further straight. But then we can compare that to, you know, those that are on major streets and we can compare it in parallel, then you will provide a linear cost estimate.

I mean, this is also just like a 35 mile an hour zone, but it quickly turns into a 50 mile an hour zone there. Your cars are going quite fast. So if there's not a safe place to lock there, I think I'm pretty sure I'm, yeah, I think you're good. Sure.

I mean, there's two or two boundaries. So why don't I have an engineer come on, let her be a boss, and then you can decide.

Yeah, we're going to Public Works. Take a look at the committee and recommend a council lawyer.

TAB, Mark McIntyre, or something like you know so. TAB, Mark McIntyre, But also it's like plainly obvious can walk on there and it's like there's a sidewalk and then there's this dialogue and then decide that makes no sense.

TAB, Mark McIntyre, I suspect is different yeah.

TAB, Mark McIntyre, Of course. TAB, Mark McIntyre, yeah right because that's why can't he has to confirm because they're in the new building now right.

I assume it would be a modern domain, but that's fast with me.

I'm going to read.

And then have a, because it's, what do you call that? Vaulting arrangement. From the exile. Right. All the wings of the ginseng. Some of that work.

Yeah. I mean, yeah, I think that's a good idea to have the engineer look at where they are, you know, where we're missing them. Yeah. Great. Okay. Thank you. Do we respond to her?

Do you already do?

Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you.

Do we have any unfinished business?

No? I do have.

I actually have some of them. I did have a little 4K. Very permanent. But then

But I think, well, yeah.

Anybody have a new business?

I do, yeah. I'd like to initiate a formal practice and solve speed bumps or similar solution on a section of Prop 3 where there's a blind hill. We've had it's basically between Conduit Place and Mount Airy. We have had several residents on Prospect who are concerned about speeding on that hill. We've had a digital speed checking sign on it for a couple years. Nobody pays attention to it. I do. I see you driving at the correct speed. I was out there yesterday talking to a neighbor about it. And a unnamed person who may or may not have been a teenager was literally going about 50 miles an hour. I had to step into the street and stop them and point at the sign. I don't want to have to do that. And you didn't get hit? And I didn't get hit. I think, you know, I love, you know, the residents around me are young families with toddler-age children, dogs. I mean, it's just... The cars are not, it has not worked. So I'd like to direct the police department to conduct updated speed studies, ask the borough engineer to evaluate the roadway, and move it through the public safety committee so they can bring a recommendation back to the Ford Council.

We actually have to have an engineer study done. Isn't that what we do for every time people ask for speed changes or road things? Yeah.

And I do have, the neighbor across the street is a civil engineer and they've offered their services. If we can do that, if not, let's go there.

I'll talk to them. Is there a certain time?

You know, it's basically, it's, it's coming, yeah, it's coming down the hill and the, and the issue is there's, there's a hill, right? And we have a sign there that says hill 15 miles an hour. I know that's not speed limit, it's recommendation, right? 15 mile an hour. But the problem is they're coming down the hill and because of the hill, you know, if there's a child in the street and they're going that fast, an accident is going to happen eventually. And I just, I don't, obviously I know nobody wants that to happen.

So, um, yeah, that's what's worse is when somebody who's parked there on the hill.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The chief about it, and he said they start to gather data that they have because they do the sign that you see, they collect data, the speed sign. They collect data. So he can gather that at first step. And then, I mean, if you're OK with it, we do have a traffic manager we hired last year. I could ask them to take a look at it.

Please.

I know that TKW probably prefers the stretch rather than beat-ups.

Yeah, it matches with the plows.

Well, if you're okay with it, we'll start with that.

Yeah, that's a tough road.

Thank you.

One last... Okay, pictures.

Oh, no, I was just going to say thank you for those who have been here before. We have a new audio visual system here and you know. In your report you know that. The.

I don't want to see him or. There.

We will have my on the online on yet. but the microphones don't amplify in the room. They could, but they don't need it. And then there are, because this isn't just for us, it's for more than 70 people, so there's a number of

Handheld.

Handheld lines, right. And then there'll be one on the die. So the clear picture that he took from the camera, so much clearer than that. And the sound will be amazing. I asked him, I begged him to get it done by the department. So we were really close.

Yeah.

Charlie, you won't have to come anymore.

Transcription, I'll start.

But you won't be able to go get some cookies. Pictures. Yeah.

So when I saw this one, it reminded me exactly the type of thing that you've been talking about for

Over on the left, you can spin it.

Go back. Go back up. Yeah, just spin it.

It's not shared, though.

It's on the screen. I will back this up and share it with everyone. I am on Zoom. You can see it. But this is what it looks like for now. But you can see it here first.

That would be the general idea. But then where you see facing the picnic tables would be the contestant window. Right. And then I think this one.

I just want to share it with everyone on Zoom here. Yeah.

That's for Zoom.

Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice.

Anything like this? That's better.

There it goes again.

So if you see in the top left, that design that you see in the top left, that would be the north. And then the bottom right, the bathrooms, Which are in the back. They're in the back. So that's the bottom left. In the back, you see the three doors, three restrooms. One will be a family, one will be men, one will be women. And then that part in the middle, well, the latest version actually has a case, I think, for the utility room that goes between the, in both the standard bathrooms. The more I heard and then in the sand there. And then they see the run. I think this is basically what you've been asking them where we thought it was what we. It kind of means there will be a a family or there will be a word on the station. There are a lot of the work that that there and one of the other.

We're waiting for their bank and the property is the one that is right. By the baseball field?

Right, the back of the baseball field. So we're waiting for a survey to see how we can do this. There's a possibility, I think, for better viewing. It would be better if they dug out on that little baseball field. If that can be moved to the other side. I mean, it's hard to get anybody to use the baseball field.

There's a...

And you may be able to. Yeah, I'm on the target. Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, just basically.

I mean, we're looking at it now. I'm trying to figure out where on the ground it is. I have a bigger big profile. Yes, it's right there.

And if you go back, there's a lot.

Thank you.

And I actually have. And I'm just going to say.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah. It's like made a fence, basically. A fence and kind of dug out. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay.

I have a question about the concession window on the right side elevation. It seems a little small. Thinking about the people in there working consent, it's going to feel kind of claustrophobic. Is there options to make that bigger or somehow make that a little bit more open? Like I'm thinking about what they do at the high school. you know, the sort of swing up. Maybe it's a little more confusing for like where you pay and stuff, but it's, I don't know. I think it's all morphing in there. I think, yeah, this is just like a example.

Yeah, that's a good point though.

Sorry, so this is what I said.

All right, sure.

I think we're.

Yeah.

Based on. Yeah. It's got you two in the back. So just blow it up. Or if you'd like to call me, you can open it. Okay. If you right-click on the image, I think you can blow it up into a new tab now. Where it says full-page photo? I can't blow that up? No, that's as big as it is. You're in the print mode. You're in the print mode, yeah.

You split record and then yeah yeah open with painting your paint. Now it's not shared, but i'll leave it in the room not there eventually.

My goal would be to have it on an angle, so you see up to the right, you see that like.

Oh yeah, right.

That's, uh, there isn't one there now, but that's the, um, that's where the giant for the baseball game. So I'd love to be able to angle it. And even though the light be in the way, still have a better view and angle than the worst square like that. A lot's going to depend on the survey, but that's the general area. And that's, that's the size. Yeah. We did make it a little longer, but I'm not. So if you see the screen underneath where the microphone thing is right under there, that's a slow down. So I guess it would have to be filled a little to make it more level.

I guess the other question is which Why does the open area this is what they say. It's it's.

We're basically taking us.

Thanks to turn field.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. or are we gonna enclose it? We don't like the utility room.

Yeah, that's it. Love the look. That's kind of what we all imagined, but I don't know why the architect couldn't get that.

I like the building, I think it's... Yeah, it looks good.

And then... you can set this down the other side of the fairfields will stay that's there is no risk they don't have a saying yeah you know there's just like a fight coming out of the ground and kids are filling up the water yeah that can become a place historic women yeah actually yeah and

Yeah.

Yeah. They're always new stories. It looks great. And we only make sense of costs or... I don't know if you can learn it from me.

And that's a familiar thought for just the structure, but that doesn't include building. So I read it on a day, but it's cheaper than you think. Well, that's good. Yeah. And compared to the bids that we got when we first went out to bid, I think anything is a bargain. Yes. Oh, and these people aren't on the kind of, so we wouldn't have, you know, is where, yeah. Yeah.

Yes.

So, um, they're also somebody, um, I think it's, he has seen day, uh, involving and he was going to, I'm sorry.

that come up. There you go. It helps us pay for the shade and accessibility. I know. That's why I mentioned it.

OK. We now have our second open session for anyone from the public who would like to make a comment.

I didn't realize this was going to be on the agenda when I first made my comments about the playground. He's going to not have been on the agenda so that the public knew that we're talking about spending a quarter of a million dollars on playground. I'm not opposed to the development of playground, but shouldn't that be on the agenda? What are the rules for what gets, what resolution gets on the agenda and what doesn't?

You can add things to the agenda if you can't, you know, buy something to You can't see it. You can't add things to the agenda. The purpose of the agenda has to include things. This certainly is a problem.

It was. It was. So I only got the new average for the meeting. So we got on Friday after, I think it was after hours, the ARPERS put everything together on Facebook, emailed us, and here's the top three. Because I'm not on the level. I don't do that. So he said, here are the top three concerns. So this morning, I got to the contract. I didn't think he would be able to get it. I think it was $330,000.

That's the question. Thank you. And we heard a discussion about whether there would be any cost savings to delay it the next year. Would there be any cost savings if we had more bids? I mean, how many bids was this based on?

It's not a state contract.

Okay, so the estimate is based on one estimate then? That's what I'm trying to get at. Is he talking about the playground now or is he talking about the concession stand? The playground. Yeah.

Yeah, and again, I mean, this is not a Q&A. Just, you know, state your opinion. Because it's not what we do. This is a public, a council meeting held in public. And we invite the public to make comments. It's not the opportunity to have a Q&A. If you want to do a Q&A, we'd be happy to sit down with you at another time, make an appointment, and answer all your questions. But we're not prepared here with lots of information to...

The public can't ask how many estimates we got on a project of a quarter of a million dollars. Is that what we're saying?

You can ask. We're not... In what form? It's on a state contract. It's not a big process.

In what form can the public ask about the expenditure of money in terms of how many people did we ask, what this would cost?

It would be better to call Nancy during the week because she does most of this, you know, the detail work on whether we're bidding or not bidding. It's really, you know, we don't have all the answers right here. HAB-Masyn Moyer- Well, I don't.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- Like we also just have this they're all in conversation about this 30 minutes ago when we talked about should we delay get more days are going to work with this, so I don't know what more information you're looking for.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- We didn't know we the public did not know that this conversation was going to take place as a boy.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- We didn't have the first. HAB-Masyn Moyer- 100. It's you and you know that. We were looking at getting that out of that is out there with you. I don't remember that ever. You know we reached out to a vendor that the recreation director later with you know that this town. We thought it was a good deal. We brought it here last week. It was $200,000. Then we got some comments and I brought them to the council. We didn't get, we don't want to go out of the bid because you get the lowest bidder. Well, as I said earlier, there's a dozen or, you know, I can think of, well, actually there's probably only five. I can think of playground vendors. I will say that I don't think you're going to get a better price. I think that what I told them in the first half, when we were told we had to close it down, was that this was going to be, you know, $300,000, $400,000, $500,000. I mean, you know, there are really expensive playgrounds. So I guess it's all about the time. So we are either going to go with this or we're going to maybe save $10,000, $20,000, $30,000 just trying to find somebody else. But by the time I do that and get back to them again, and you know, it's kind of the life of the building. So it's a matter of your way, you know, to save a little bit of money, maybe, in payment guarantee, or you get it in by labor.

And Nancy, I think there's an important point being mentioned there, and this may for you and Jack. If we go out to bid, we have to take the lowest bid. So the question we're facing here is do we want the absolute lowest bidder for a piece of playground equipment that very young kids across Burnsville are going to play on? No, I'd rather we choose for quality. In this case, we take a rational approach to what the choices are going to be financially.

If you did it, you may get into a state contract. Right, so they've already done it.

So, I'm having to go on top of the state. And so we definitely can vote. So it wasn't in that respect. But right there, you're saving money because, as Jack said, they had to bid to get onto that.

And you're also saving money because you have to hire somebody to write the specs, which is very expensive, and then advertise the bids. So that's the beauty of using state contracts for you.

So it's a case to try to get it done in life of us.

Thank you.

All right. Anyone else want to speak? Of course. Hi, Mayor. Hi, Council. Can you hear me? Are you guys able to hear me?

Yeah, my camera's on.

Let me check again.

You might have a little thing over here.

Yeah, I turned it off, but you can hear me, correct?

Yeah.

yeah again um chris shank uh 36 old army uh appreciate you um both mayor and council to uh take my time three minutes is not going to be enough to uh go over all the things you guys have touched on so far this evening um i just first want to thank you all for responding to the community's needs um we know that playground was well overdue for a facelift and i think many residents myself included are happy that we're you know, in a position to have an opportunity to really, you know, give it a facelift that it needed. I also appreciate the comments that, you know, Councilman Schramm just said that we want to make sure that we're doing this the right way. I've noted a number of the comments, you know, on the bubble and just speaking to people. And, you know, as I mentioned at the beginning here, this is a true opportunity for us. And I also kind of want to, you know, piggyback off of what Jeff just said that, you know, I think residents feel frustrated in the way that things are communicated, right? We know that there's this opportunity. However, we didn't know this was going to be on the agenda. And then as we move through this, it feels a little rushed. You know, we're making decisions on the fly here. And I totally understand why. And I understand that there's, you know, lot of funding issues that we need to come to sense with and the timing as Christine had come up with. We want to make sure we're responding adequately to the community's needs. But at the same time, I think that this is a really, really great opportunity for us to take a piece, an asset that the town could really use in a central portion of the town to, you know, again, make it compete with other communities around here, not only from an infrastructure standpoint, but from how it is presented to the town. I've seen some great comments about how we could redevelop that section of town, how we can get it to really gel well with how the ballpark is and how that space is used. And I think we need to take a little bit more time. I understand the need to get it off the ground, but I also believe that rushing through things could potentially, you know, obviously create some risks and places for us to miss on. So I just want to make sure that we're going through this and getting more public input. You know, Mayor, I know you said this isn't the place for, you know, Q&A. What I would ask you all to do, and I know we have some other issues that come up in town, is find a way for us to have a public engagement where we can do those Q&As rather than just, you know, individually reaching out to you one-on-one. I know we've done some things in the past. I know surveys are great. It'd be awesome if we were able to have some more, you know, town halls or just, again, public forums where we're able to engage in an open and just, you know, broad discussion rather than being stuck with these three minutes where it's just comment. Again, I appreciate all your time, everything you guys are doing. It's been fantastic to see the momentum that we're carrying forward through this year. And I think, again, this is a great opportunity for us to build on. And I just hope this park really, you know, again, encapsulates everything that we're building on this community for. And thanks for the time tonight.

And you made it right three minutes.

Thanks, Chris.

Yeah, thanks, Chris. Anyone else? All right. We do have some items for executive. I think Jack answered.

I have two items, both involved. And guess what is going on. Okay, but we agreed on this for the nation.

We're the only back of all we're not going to have to go to the motion to adjourn to the executive session for pending litigation.

And we're going to take a sector band.