Borough Council - Regular Meeting

Mayor and Council of Municipal Corporation and Mechanics Association meeting will begin We stand for a flag salute.

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. The Western Samaritan Council is to deliberate on the best of politics. in accordance with the new jersey open public meeting act adequate notice of this meeting has been provided the time date location purpose of this meeting and agenda was posted on the municipal building bolton board transmitted to individuals requesting notice and published electronically on the official website of the borough of pompton lakes roll call please here council president kent here

Here. Yes. Excuse, yes. Scott. Here. Thank you.

Can you hear me?

Yep, we got you.

Here. Here. Okay, thank you.

Under presentations today, we're going to do a redevelopment design standard that we've been working on for numerous months, put together by our burrowing planners. So just before we start, this group was made up of individuals council, our planning board, our redevelopment board, and some other individuals from the town. So it wasn't just one group. We wanted input from every different direction. And I think Kristen did a good job in kind of answering everybody's concerns and questions. And we had numerous meetings with a lot of concerns and questions that were brought up and then addressed in the following plan. So with that, I'm going to ask Kristen, the planner, to come up and do her spiel.

Sure.

Good evening, everybody. I probably look familiar to you. But if not, I'm Kristin Russell with Colliers Engineering and Design. I am your borough planner. And the borough asked me to kind of facilitate a process where a design guide would be written for for the borough and that as the mayor just um explained this was a group of many people from you know council president kent was there um some planning board redevelopment agency municipal representatives um the sid so we had um direction from um a lot of different angles and a lot of input And so I'm just going to summarize for you this evening what is in this document and what the document, how it will be used and what the intent is for those of you up front. Your document looks kind of like this, so mine's black and white. Yours will be in pretty colors. And what I present to you tonight will be a summary of what's in there. I am not going to go through every single regulation and recommendation. I'm happy to discuss anything in detail that you feel I don't cover thoroughly enough, but I just want to give you a sense of what is being covered. So to start things off, the purpose of this was that the borough expressed that the existing zoning standards and design standards within both your zoning code and some of the redevelopment plans did not bring enough specificity and nuance to the look and feel that was desired for downtown Pompton Lakes. This document will essentially fill that gap. It will help the borough, any developers, any property owners, anybody who is actively owning, using, building in downtown should refer to this guide to get an understanding of what the borough sees as the aesthetic of downtown Palmton Lakes. This is intended to work in partnership with the zoning code or the redevelopment plans. It does not conflict with them. It adds to them. Can you move to the next slide, please? The image shown on the screen includes several zoning districts. The downtown redevelopment areas and the downtown business districts. Anything that's colored is where the design guides will apply. So this is not something that will apply to residential neighborhoods, for example. This is really for a downtown application.

And if I could just jump in, and I'm sure she'll probably cover this, but when we first put redevelopment together, Rightly or wrongly, we gave the choice of in or out of the redevelopment zones to the businesses. So that's why you'll see on the maps that she presented, there's some businesses that are in the redevelopment zone and a business right next door that's not, because they got to choose if they were in or out.

Yeah, and that's kind of, that impacts where this would apply, but it is not being modified by this document. Okay, so this document starts off with two pages of definitions. I've just put some up here to give you a flavor of what's included, as well as the graphic that goes with it to help the non-architect understand what we're talking about. The definitions talk about everything from architectural features such as facade, display window, cornice, mention signs, we define ground sign, projecting sign, and kind of concepts like building scale and streetscape. so that when we use these terms in the document, everyone's talking about the same thing. Again, none of these definitions conflict with the definitions in your zoning code. They either mirror them or they complement them. I also should mention that some of these and regulations are also found in your SID, and we worked with them carefully to make sure that there was no conflict there as well, either in definition or in requirements expectations. Next slide, please. So I'm going to now give you a sense of how things are being regulated. Again, this is not every word that is in the design guide, but I'm pulling out some highlights to help you understand. We talk about things like materials. and we say that all facades facing a public right-of-way, we say they need to be masonry or natural materials. This will include wood, fiber cement, brick, stucco, stone, metal, glass. What we're looking for is not vinyl siding, for example. We want a material that is going to reflect the historic era of the building where appropriate, where we have old buildings. Material that is going to stand up to the elements and to time and it will age nicely. And just have a nice downtown that doesn't look cheap, right? We also talk about the facades. We're looking for articulations such as bay windows, balconies, and demarcations, accentuating individual storefronts. In the case of a long building, we want that to be broken up into vertical bays or elements so that it doesn't look like one long building, but it still carries the look and massing of what would typically be smaller storefronts along a street. We also require a street, sorry, a cornice along the street, a cornice at the top of the building, and midline cornices are encouraged. So midline cornice is what you would see above the ground floor, generally retail, to kind of break up the difference between the retail at the bottom of a building and often residential above it. In terms of colors, we're looking for muted hues on the main body of the building with some brighter accents. We had a lot of discussion in our group about what kind of colors we want to see in Pompton Lakes. I shouldn't say we, it's you, not me. there's a really careful balancing act that needs to be taken between telling people what shade of a color they can use, but also directing them into what would be appropriate in a downtown like Pompton Lakes. So at the end of the guide, and there's a slide for this later, we actually provide some resources. And those resources are from major paint manufacturing companies that publish online or in paper information about the appropriateness of colors for the era in which a building or a downtown was built. without knowing what, you know, one building in historic, in Pompton Lakes may have, you know, significance from 1920 and another might be from 1940. And so there is a difference there as to what would be appropriate in that building. And we're going to direct the property owners or the developers. A new building would be a different story. There's not historic significance, but property owners to really consult with the borough, the CID and these guides to help them understand what would be appropriate. Having said that. Because the materials as encouraged or required by this guide are going to be natural materials like brick, stone, there shouldn't be a whole lot of opportunity for crazy colors that we're not expecting. But in the event that somebody wants to paint the brick, this guide would direct them as to what might be appropriate.

So this is an option, what she was just talking about. It's just to kind of steer the developers or people that are building when they come in that we're not looking for a pink building in the middle of a historic downtown that we have. So we want to work with the colors that this group has come up with. And it's not we're saying it has to be this color. There are shades, and like she said, there's many different shades within the colors that we think will look good downtown. But we know like a bright pink or a bright orange probably would not look good. So that's why the standard was put in place, so we can kind of steer people the right way that the group wanted it to go.

That's right. So next we talk about the architectural elements. One thing that I know has come up recently Before the redevelopment agency for example is the treatment of corner buildings and those should really be the most important or the most eye-catching buildings in a downtown where we have these intersections and corners and You want to they serve as anchor buildings? They typically had more ornate architecture in some cases. They may have been taller so we're looking for developers of new buildings to take that approach and give corner buildings special treatment. Make sure that there's lots of windows so that there's interplay between what's going on in a store and what's going on in the sidewalk that's shown to activate downtowns. And along the same lines, we have some guidelines for windows and entries, making sure that the windows are big, that the, you know, the windows are not blocked with the storage of materials. We regulate the glazing that, you know, at the ground level, it'd be 75% of the storefront and above that residential, more like 25%. And we ask that doorways be recessed. That is a traditional downtown style where you might have display windows right up against the sidewalk, but then an inset area where the door would be. It's not deep. It's like maybe two or three feet sometimes, sometimes more. It really protects the sidewalk from the swing of the door so people walking around aren't getting hit by the door, but it also really helps show off those windows as a real eye-catching element in the downtown. Next slide, please. Put in regulations related to the signs which mirror the regulations that already exist. to not reinvent any wheels here, but we included graphics and dimensional regulations for wall signs, projecting signs, window signs, and ground signs, all with this, I think, really nice imagery that helps people have a visual, you know, they can visually see what kind of sign we're talking about, even if they don't know the terminology. Similarly, we've regulated awnings, how long they can be, how much lettering can be on them. Identification signs. Oh, this is actually a new one. An identification sign is basically a wall-mounted or freestanding sign that would be permitted to identify a building name, including for multifamily residential uses. So if this is the Sarah building, let's say, first name that was sitting right in front of me, There could be a sign that says, like, this is the Sarah building established in 2026, but that sign is going to be more, it's going to be smaller. It's not an advertising sign the way that you would have a sign that says, like, Sarah's Pizza would be a bigger sign, right? This is, it's meant to give identity to buildings without serving as an advertisement, okay? There's also an allowance for second floor business signs, which can only be window signs. That's an already existing regulation. Flags with commercial advertising are prohibited and no flagpoles in sidewalks. We don't want to disrupt or interfere with passage along the right of way. And lighting, there is language that requires dark sky compliant lighting, lights be pointed down. We don't want to have a lot of, it's called light trespass, when the lighting of one building is suddenly illuminating a much larger area than is necessary. And for signage, we have some pictures here of gooseneck lamps, which are a style that the group saw was favorable and thought was a nice way to illuminate the wall-mounted signs in the downtown.

And I can just go, we have a building going up right now in the middle of downtown that does have flag poles. And this is why we discussed this a little bit about what could be on those flag poles. We don't want for lease flying in the wind there. So what we've decided is it can be a federal flag, a state flag, a town flag, the name of the building, and that's really all that can go on those flags.

Yeah, and actually what it says is, and please correct me if I do not understand the directive accurately. It can't be commercial advertising or business signage. So non-advertising would also include things like holiday flag would be OK. If you're celebrating fill-in-the-blank month of any cultural or social whatever, that could be there. It's just not an advertisement. OK. Also, okay, balconies. So it was decided that the front of buildings facing the street could have Juliet balconies, which are limited to a 12-inch projection. So it's really not a like hangout on the balcony type of place, but it does allow those units to have French doors or whatever and the look of a balcony and enjoy the air that may come with it without the risk of having either an unsightly clutter along the street front or too much the potential for behavior that wasn't desired along the street front. Real balconies, balconies with depth are permitted on the rears of buildings or internal sides of buildings where there would be less of an impact to the public in terms of the visual of those balconies. Roof decks are permitted. We did require a setback from the roof edge for the same reasons that we've regulated the balconies, and we've limited that to 50% of a roof's usable area, which should you know, provide the residents of a building with a decent amount of outdoor space on an otherwise, you know, downtown lot typically don't have a yard, so this should give them a nice amount of outdoor space without becoming problematic. Structured parking, the regulations here work to ensure that any structured parking does not look like obvious structured parking from the street. You're going to see a requirement for, well first of all the ground floor The structured parking, you're obviously going to need an entry from the ground floor, but that should go deeper into the building and then the rest, the street side portion of there needs to still be lined with a non-residential active use. And even on upper levels of that garage, there needs to be proportion, materials, and massing that is reflective of what a residential or what a real use in that building would be. So you're not just going to see ramps from the street. You're going to see some sort of treatment that, yeah, you probably might know that it's a garage, but it's not going to be glaring and in your face. It's going to have quality treatment and proportions.

So my attorney just reminded me, I'm sure it's in our ordinances, but we would, of course, want no profanity on any of the flags or signage that was put up, you know, if they're starting to make a statement.

Yeah.

So is that, I'm sure that's in our...

I am just about certain that that is in your code somewhere.

Yeah, it's got to be, but I don't know, we've got to make sure.

We can check, yeah. Okay, so we also have some sections in here about landscaping, buffers and trees. I'll note that for the tree section I did talk to your shade tree commission and your forester to get their input. I didn't want to contradict their expertise on the matters. So they gave me some good points of reference that I've incorporated into the document. Of course, in the downtown, there's not a whole lot of yard space, but we've included language that clearly states that all portions of the property not used for buildings, so on and so forth, should be landscaped with buffers around the perimeter. a street tree along the right-of-way every 30 feet, as is appropriate on a site-by-site basis. Plaza and courtyards, we certainly encourage. We understand that not every lot is going to be conducive to that. You need a really big project in order to make that happen. And just on a related note, I made it clear to the group as we were talking a lot of this through and I'll make it clear to the audience this evening that if we have a very big project, a project that's so big that a courtyard is a viable concept, there will be a redevelopment plan written for that property and we will get into the very nitty-gritty of it at that point where we get into much more precise requirements than this guide even offers. This guide is meant to apply, as you saw at the map at the beginning, to many, many properties. And if we're at the point that a major project is coming in that needs its own special attention, this will be pulled into that plus more because that's how redevelopment plan works. So things like plazas and courtyards within this guide are kind of high level I'm reluctant to even say details. They're high-level wish list items so that a property owner or developer can get a sense of what we want. And that will be fine-tuned if and when the opportunity presents for such an improvement.

And that being said, I would think that the redevelopment agency and planning board would always push if there was possibility to have courtyards. Oh, for sure.

But if you have like a 25 by 100 building, it's not going to happen. Same with streetscape and street furniture. We talk about materials and making sure there's sufficient space for pedestrians to get by and so on. This is really something that comes into play when you have a project that occupies a full block or the better part of a block. So we really touch on that here without going into the nitty gritty. So this is the color resources that I mentioned earlier in my presentation. This is just a full page from the document at the end of the document where we refer people who may be looking to build something, to paint something, improve their building to three resources that could steer them in the right direction. I should point out that If somebody is just going to paint their building, there's not a whole lot of arm twisting, well, regulation that we can impose upon them. The catch is that the CID has grant programs and so on and so forth that a lot of property owners would want to take advantage of. And so if they want to get their bite at the apple of funding, then this is a way to twist the arms and say, we have this funding available, but we really need you to honor our wishes with the color of your buildings and things like that in order to enjoy that funding. So it's really... the CID and the borough working together to encourage property owners to do this and give them incentives to do so.

And just for the public who's watching at home, I know she's saying CID. The CID is our bid.

Oh, I'm sorry.

That's okay, but the public hears that as the bid.

Yep, the bid. And to that end, the final slide is The bid and the building department, if people have questions, if they have contacts, people at both of these email addresses and phone numbers were part of this process and hopefully into perpetuity their predecessors will be as well and will be able to help guide any property owners, business owners in the downtown and of course this document will be available should you adopt this document it would be made available online and paper copies can be distributed to anybody who is in any of the applicable districts.

All right, so what I think I'm going to do, thank you for that presentation. It was quite condensed from the time and energy she put in.

We had many meetings.

So it was well done, condensed. Thank you for doing that. Before we ask any questions, I do have some people in the audience that might want to add to it, just because they're representatives. I have Abby Novak, who's our redevelopment chairperson, if you want to come up and say a couple words. And who was also part of the group that made this talk.

Thanks, Mike. I didn't prepare anything formally, but... Thank you, Kristen, for helping us put together a well-organized design standard. I hope that you will support our efforts here as a council. I've been on the redevelopment agency since conception, currently the chairperson of it, and I think it will help us immensely to be able to look at a project and have like some of the simple questions of aesthetics addressed right away. And when you get a large project like some of the ones that you see up in town now, it's an overwhelming process. and to have the design standards already communicated to the developer it really takes um it kind of sets the tone for what we're looking for we don't have to start from square one we don't reinvent the wheel each time we have a developer come up so it's um something that i look forward to using with um in the future and i think it will make a nice presentation when we see it start to really happen we'll see it can concise, cohesive design shining through with the new development. It will have a nice aesthetic. I hope you support it. Thank you.

I agree with what you're saying. When we first started, we didn't look at the process as a whole. We looked at it as one individual building at a time. This gives us a future plan as we move forward to kind of guide our developers and how we'd like to see it. I also have Glenn Dominick here. He's our redevelopment director. Anything you want to add to it?

No, I think the chairwoman summed it up well. It's about consistency and being able to apply the same guidelines.

All right, so what I'm going to do is first I'll explain to the council what we're going to do. This was just a presentation. If we're all in a straw poll kind of idea that we like this idea and we want to move forward, we'll have an official vote probably in August. Is that what we're going to do?

Yeah, if I may add, Mayor, so as part of this process, our borough zoning map had to be rewritten, and we do have several zoning and other code amendments that Ms. Russell will address as part of the process.

All right, I'm going to let the council ask any questions first to you. Stay there, stay there. Anybody have any concerns, questions they want to mention or talk about? No? Okay, now.

Yeah, I'll just touch on what Mr. Crowley just mentioned. Kind of as a second... prong to this assignment was that as you may have heard come up periodically, your existing downtown redevelopment areas as of now are embedded in your zoning code. It's legal, it's fine, it's hard to use. It's there's a lot of cross references and most towns have their redevelopment plan as a standalone Document like you know here's a packet. This is the redevelopment plan and we hand it out to the three developers in town and So what I've done is that I have extracted the downtown redevelopment area language and from your zoning code so it will be its own standalone document that is, I would argue, significantly more user-friendly. In so doing, I did not change any of the regulations in it. There's renumbering. The DRA 1 and 2 now As of now, you have DRA 1, DRA 2, and then a whole bunch of other things that says, oh, except lot 1 is this, and oh, except lot 15 is that. What I've done is I've renumbered it so that it's DRA, I think it goes up to 6 or 7 now. So it's just called the DRA zone, and then there's all these sub-districts, 1 through 6, and as other ones become, they will be numbered in the next consecutive order. I want to assure you that there has been no change to the standards, the use standards, the bulk standards, the requirements in any way, even though the document looks different. I have also had, there have other sections of the zoning code may also make cross-reference to DRA 1 and 2. So I've gone in and I've found those locations and edited that out so it doesn't make what I assume will be an outdated cross-reference. So there is a zoning code amendment, but it's really administrative. And the third part of that is we have updated your zoning map, to take out the DRA 1 and 2 and just have a DRA and then within the redevelopment document itself you'll have a sub-district map that has all of these 1 through infinity sub-districts. I have not prepared a presentation on that because honestly it is no change to the content, it's a change to the format. Those, along with the design guide that I did present to you, should go through first and second reading, as you always do. But there should also be, you should ask the planning board for comment.

We'll go back to the planning board, correct?

Yep, yep. Go to planning board before you have second reading. And we can do them all at once. unless you have reason not to. It might be most efficient to do them all at once. But the design guide is not dependent on those other documents to move forward. Those other three documents are dependent on one another.

So I can tell you that when developers came, one of the concerns they always had was We had overlays and everything in our other zones, and it was very hard to figure out. They were reading an older overlay, and then we got the wrong information. So this is why it's all condensed into one now where they can get the one piece of paper or whatever it is and explain exactly what we have. It was well overdue. We should have done this a while ago because it was very confusing to try to figure out. But I think the most important thing, and she mentioned it already, we are not changing any of our bulk standards in anything we do. We didn't increase heights or setbacks or any of those things. None of those things changed. And if they need to change those things, those are going to go for a variance. And through the redevelopment and through planning board, ask for those things. So I just want to understand, this is a conceptual plan for what we just talked about, but not setbacks and heights and widths and things like that. Any questions on that? No. Okay. So Mike, just explain what we're going to do.

Right. So at the August council meeting, we'll have an introduction for the land use slash zoning amendments that are required. There is also an ordinance on lighting that we will be presenting. Okay. That we'll move forward with it in accordance with the design standards. And we will have a resolution adopting the design standards document at the next meeting as well. So we'll work with the borough attorney on that and with Ms. Russell and move that forward.

Does anybody have any issues with anything that was said so far? No. Okay. I thank you guys for your time coming down and helping us. Thanks for all the time you put in. Again, I just have to remind everybody, our planning board and our redevelopment agency, they spend a lot of time, a lot of energy. They are not paid positions. I know people think they are. They are not. And they spent a lot of time in doing that. So I thank everybody on those boards. Thank you. Okay. Let's move forward. Thanks, guys. Okay. Can I have a motion to open the meeting for public comments?

Motion.

Councilman Bennett? Second. Councilman Vague, all in favor? Aye. Against? Aye. Anyone from the public like to address?

I don't.

Please step up.

Good evening. Randy Pratt, 322 102 Avenue. I own Randy's homemade ice cream. OK, what I've heard this evening is sounds fantastic and I hope it comes to fruition because I get a vision of Charleston, SC or Savannah, GA kind of thing. So I really hope that this is not a false positive that I heard tonight. The main purpose of why I'm here tonight is what's happening in front of my ice cream shop on Wanaque Avenue. I'm noticing way too many incidents with cars speeding up and down Wanaque Avenue. That's the first thing. And I have senior citizens who come into my shop. I have families who come into my shop with small children. And I've seen too many near misses. Now, myself, when I go to my shop to drop off supplies that I need for the day or for the week, and I try to parallel park into a parking spot, people are right on my tail. And they give me, and others, zero room to parallel park. And then they get upset, and they go flying. I'm a good parallel parker. I'm going to admit that. I can do it on my first try. When you're trying to power park, they go across the double yellow line and go flying by you. So that's been addressed in the past. My next point is this, parking. I used to live in Pompton Lakes in the 1980s, from 80 to 87, and parking has always been a concern. Two years ago, I met with Michael over here because I had a problem with the parking meters in front and along Wanaque Avenue. I met with your new police chief back in late February, early March. I've written emails to him as well as CC Michael on that, in which I received the response back saying, I need to speak with the bid. The bid has, and the Chamber of Commerce, has no control and has no authority to implement any kind of a fine for people who are not paying the parking meters. When I brought this up to the chief, he had indicated to me he did not know the ruling when it comes to handicapped parking. Very quickly, I'll give you some statistics here, is that you have 15 parking spots in front of my shop, okay? And the parking meter zone would be 40502. That would be those from the bus stop down going towards Hamburg Turnpike. On the other side of the street, which would be along where the library is, that's zone 40503. There's only 11 spots. In front of my shop in that first zone that I mentioned, there are literally eight cars, eight, that take up 15 parking spots. customers that can be using it to come into my shop and make it easier for them and also safer for them if they had access to those spots that weren't taken up by cars that were there all day long. There are numerous cars with parking, I'm sorry, with handicap tags on them. And I went through your zone, I'm sorry, with your code book. And in your code book, it's chapter 7, subsection 43. It mentions absolutely nothing about handicapped parking not having to pay the meter. It mentions absolutely nothing about people overstaying three hours, which is your maximum amount of time on Wanaque Avenue. But yet there are people who feed that meter all day long. I'm now a business owner of Pompton Lakes. I love Pompton Lakes. If you listen to my phone message at the shop, I said, hey, Beautiful Pompton Lakes. I truly believe beautiful Pompton Lakes. And I hope this lady and what the council and everybody else is doing is going to make it even more beautiful. However, parking is a problem in the town. And I don't know who is responsible. I don't know what the history has been regarding a parking meter made. But I can tell you that there was a, correct me if I'm wrong, Michael, business administrator, that I saw something on your website maybe a month or two ago that your $10,000 in arrears and parking meter. Now,

Just so you know, because I know it's the first time, I'll answer you at the end.

So whether it's true or not, this is what I had read. So my comment to that would be, if tickets were being given out, And then maybe people would be putting money into the meter. 25 cents, Mayor, that's a bargain. For an hour? 75 cents for three hours? That's an absolute bargain. You go to other towns, it's a dollar for 45 minutes. Okay? So I just think that the parking situation needs to be addressed and the speeding aspects along Wanaque Ave before it becomes a catastrophic situation needs to be addressed. Okay, so I thank you for your time. I appreciate it.

Thank you, and I'll answer you in one minute. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else from the public?

Good evening. Thanks, everyone. I actually came here for the same reason as Randy to... Can I just get your name and address? Oh, yeah. Charlene Sterfone, 54 Hillcourt, Compton Lakes. I came for the same reason as Randy. There's a lot of overlap. My concern is crossing the street from west onto West Lenox coming up. So I live right near Mike and my daughter is 12 and now she's getting older. She wants to go out with her friends. They want to go on their own without mom and dad. They go up, they cross over the footbridge, they walk up the hill. to Max, and then they cross the street there. They generally like to go to the Lenox playground. I have seen so many times when I've been there, and also she has told me, there have been many near misses to the point where I'm honestly very concerned. I don't want to hold up a 12-year-old from hanging out with her friends, but I just have a true concern about the safety of her and other kids. There's reckless driving, there's speeding. I think there's a solution that we can all work towards, whether it's implementing a speed bump there or just having more oversight. During the summer, there's no crossing guard, but even during the school year, if my daughter or other kids have something before or after school when the crossing guard's not there, we're facing the same issue. So I'm hoping something can be done. That's one. My second question is kind of related. I know there was... I think there was an announcement that there were plans to work on that bridge, the footbridge, behind MAX. From what I had heard before, I thought the timeline was supposed to be over the summer, but since nothing has started, I wanted to see if there's an updated timeline and if anything is happening, if that bridge will be usable for the school year. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else from the POCAflex? Seeing no one, can I have a motion to close the public session? Motion. Second. Councilman Bennett, Councilman Sanchez, all in favor?

Aye.

Okay. First of all, I'm going to agree with both of you, and I'm going to answer you both at the same time if you don't mind. But we understand when there's a situation in 1AQ with speeding cars and just what you said, you know, getting right on your ass when, excuse me for my language, and trying to pull out, you know, when you're trying to get out of a spot. It makes it very difficult. But the other part that I think both of you are missing is it's a county road. We don't have responsibility for that road. How that road is laid out, what kind of spots are there, what sizes they are, is all from the counties. Now that being said, we can ask the county for certain things to try to make that work better. I will definitely talk to, I wish, my police chief is usually here. Every meeting he had to go somewhere, he'll be back in another 15, 20 minutes. He will definitely watch this and get the message. We will put patrols out there for, by the station and by the crossing, which I know is very dangerous over there. But, you know, we can only do that when they're there. the part about the parking and the meters. First of all, we've discussed increasing the cost to park in the meters. Our meters still take a nickel. Show me another town whose meters take a nickel. So we do have to increase those costs. The problem is a couple years ago, there was a law passed from the state that says we're not allowed to chalk tires, which is how we used to keep track of cars how long they were there. And maybe the attorney can help me with this. Now you're not allowed to do that. So then it becomes an issue of how do you know how long the car was sitting there? Now, we have just added cameras downtown in most places. I don't know, and Mike, maybe we can figure this out, if that's something we can use to our advantage for how long cars are parked, because it is an issue. And it's people who go to the city, they park their cars there, they go for eight hours, and then they come back. Maybe they get a ticket, maybe they don't. But at the end of the day, they don't really care about it. And it's been an ongoing issue downtown for many, many years. It's not an easy thing to fix. And we will look into solutions, I think, so we can try to work with that. I'm a big supporter of the downtown. I'm a big supporter of the mom and pop shops we have downtown. I don't want to see them go. And the availability of parking is the key part of that whole thing. I know everybody has parking in the back, but when you're going to get an ice cream, you don't want to have to park in the back. You want to park close to the store and walk and do that. So if we can stop that in any way, getting those cars out of there, I will definitely, and Mike, maybe we'll have a meeting with the chief and our council president to discuss the best way to handle that. On the same time, and I know you know where I live and I live right by the bridge, you know, my kids used to walk up there. We've looked at a flashing light and we've asked the county to put a flashing light there. I think it would help. but it doesn't always fix the problem because there's so many flashing lights now around the towns that people just kind of ignore them. Really it's enforcement and ticketing is the key to the whole thing. And we've done numerous times sting operations where when somebody's standing on the red box in the cross zone and a car doesn't stop, They're gonna get a ticket for that. Once you're in that box, that's why those red boxes are there on the ends, that's meaning you're crossing the crosswalk and the car does have to stop by law. So I can ask the chief to redo those again and put them out. But at the end of the day, unfortunately, and that's what makes Palmton Lake so special, that connection area right there is the connection between north and south, right? So there's a lot of traffic going through there. There's trucks going through there. There's people not obeying our laws. They're not from town and they're speeding down there. We see it all the time. I have people making U-turns right in the middle of the highway there sometimes. All dangerous stuff, especially just like you said, a 10-year-old, 12-year-old kid wants to walk up there, get some ice cream, do something, they should be able to be safe to walk up there when they do that. I have no issues with that. I will speak to my chief to see the best way we can handle that. At one point, and maybe Councilman Bennett, you remember, didn't we talk about the stepping on the pad and the light going on? I don't know what happened to that idea. But maybe the county said, no, I don't know. But they do make some of these lights that when you step into that red box area, the light starts flashing. That, to me, would seem like a good suggestion, and we can go back and try to see if the county will be willing to do that. We can't just put it up because it is a county road, so we can't just do that. Speaking of the bridge, the first bridge was done at Hirshfield Park. That is finished and complete. The second bridge will probably be done next summer. They're ordering it now. It's a big situation, again, because I live in that neighborhood. My kids went there. The, you know, closing down that bridge for five months is going to become an issue because there's a lot of kids crossing there to go to school. And the only way around that is to walk all the way around. So we've made the county well aware that they're going to have to figure that out. And, you know, we've talked about maybe a temporary bridge or even a bus that goes around. But if they're going to do it during school hours and school time, they're going to have to figure that out. And going back to the parking area. I have to ask my chief, because you bring up a point. I've never heard that a handicap sticker means you don't put money into a meter. Does anybody know that? I've never heard that. Yeah. Is that true? That you don't put money in a meter?

You have to put it in initially, and then... Yeah, but people just generally don't.

But I'm saying is that a law that says you don't have to put... Yeah, yeah, they're afforded additional time. It's something in Title 39. I can't tell you what the quote is. But they still have to put money in the meter. They're supposed to, yes.

Okay, well we'll have to check on that because that's a big deal to me too because everybody's got a handicap sticker nowadays and if they're going to be able to park their car there for five hours, then that's a problem.

Yeah, but you may not, that may be a problem you can't do anything about.

And that again, that gets over my head. It gets to the county, it gets to the state. They come up with their own wacky rules up there. They don't make common sense half the time when they're talking. And I'm going to tell you this, and I've been doing this a while. Sometimes they're not very business friendly, especially when it comes to small towns. We know how important our downtowns are and our businesses are downtown. Sometimes the county, and the county's been doing better. They've hired some better people there that are working, but I can tell you the state doesn't really care about our downtown. They worry about their highways. That's what they worry about. So that's something else we'll look into. I usually don't do this, but I'll allow you to ask a question because I know you just raised your hand.

Go ahead. I do, Mayor. On something that you mentioned, two points. The chief did indicate to me that there's an officer, and I don't know if it's just one officer or a multitude of officers, that has an iPad with them that says that it will indicate if they're using the electronic payment system, it will show up on the iPad that the time has expired.

I don't know if that's true or not. Mike, is that true? Alright, so we just put those in, so thank you for bringing that up. We are going to look at replacing all our metered units with that.

the VA because I think those meters are awful. And I think the signage is awful. And I think that could be done.

So that's something we are looking into. And really the real reason we're doing it is they're so old that we can't get replacement parts for them. So it becomes an issue. So we are going to probably go to the full thing. But saying that, there is a population in the community that likes putting in their diamond and nickels to pay for their half-hour parking. So we have to incorporate that, too. But that's a good point, and I will ask my chief about that. And I'm going to ask Michael to maybe you could follow up after we have the meeting with the chief to see with you, just figure out what we talked about a little bit.

I'm happy to sit in with yourself, with anybody. You know where I am. Just come and see. I'll be happy to discuss all put in that email a listing of alternative ideas that might be useful.

And do you have any other questions? All right. Thank you guys for coming. Thank you.

Yes, go ahead. You said that truck and the tires we can't do. But can we number the spaces? And like the officer walking by can see this car can park in this space for three hours, and then You know, the space is numbered, and this way, they have laws of it. We do that, something like that.

I have to look into it, but when they changed the laws with the marking of the tires, it was a whole thing that we're not supposed to be keeping identification of a car on how long they're in a spot. I don't know why they came up with that reason, but that's what the state came up with. I don't know where what you're saying falls into it. I can find that out. I'll get the answer to that. But I think our best route is the two ways is by using the pads because we can actually see the time the car paid the first meter and by using our cameras. Now, just for the public's concern, we just put in new cameras everywhere downtown in the last year. So we're still getting used to using that system and we're going to use it for everything from from downtown uh problems with storefronts to graffiti to illegal parking so we're growing with that right now and um but that's something we'll talk about i guess with the chief mike when we have a chance all right thank you um Motion to approve the following minutes. Regular meeting minutes, June 24th. Closed session meeting, June 24th. Motion. Councilman Bay? Second. Council President Kent, all in favor?

Aye.

Aye. I got a present there, Maria. I mean, please. Okay. Bills and claims, authorizing payment of bills as listed below. Motion. Motion. Councilman Bennett?

Second.

Councilman Sanchez, all in favor? Aye. Consent agenda, anybody need anything removed? No? Okay, Liz.

Where is the Mayor of the Borough Council meeting? Where is the Mayor of the Borough Council meeting? of the borough council does not desire to miss resolution 3. Now therefore we resolve that the following resolutions on the defendant agenda are hereby approved. Resolution 26-294. Do we have a motion?

Motion.

Council President Kent. Councilman Sanchez. All in favor? Aye. Against? Coordinates.

and supplementing the salary ranges of the employees of the borough of Compton Lake and the county of the state and the state of New Jersey.

Motion to approve Ordinance 26-24 for introduction. Motion. Councilman Bennett?

Second.

Council President Kent? Roll call, please.

Council President Kent? Yes. Councilman Sanders?

Scott? Yes, yes, yes.

Councilman Bennett?

Yes.

Final adoption ordinance 2622, an ordinance amending chapter 11 of the revised general ordinances of the borough of Compton Lakes to a section regarding the borough of Compton rents civic centers, civic community center.

So this is just in reference to we're going to start renting out our civic center and we put a contract kind of in place and this is just a follow up on that. Mike, do you want to add anything? In my report. Oh, your report, okay. Motion to open the meeting for public comments on Ordinance 26-22. Motion. Councilman Vanden, Councilman Sanchez, all in favor? Aye. Against? Anyone like to address just this ordinance? Aye.

Seeing no one, motion to close the public section on Ordinance 26-22.

Motion. Councilman Vanden, Councilman Begg, all in favor? Aye. Motion to approve Ordinance 26-22 for final adoption.

Motion.

Council President Kent? Second. Councilman Sanchez, roll call, please.

Council President Kemp. Yes. Councilman Sanders.

Scott. Yes.

Councilman Dunning.

Yes.

Councilman Fitts.

Yes. Why is this one on the second reading?

Is it different?

It's different than this.

Ken, is that right?

No, it's the same thing, but it's different.

Okay.

Motion to open the meeting for public comments on Ordinance 26-23. So moved. Council President Kent?

Second.

Councilman Bennett, all in favor?

Aye.

Against? Aye. Anyone like to address Justice Ordinance 26-23? Seeing no one, motion to close the public session on Ordinance 26-23. Motion. Councilman Bennett? Second. Council President Kent? All in favor? Aye. Kent? Aye. Motion to approve Ordinance 26-23 for Final Adoption.

Motion.

Motion. Councilman Bennett, Councilman Sanchez, roll call please.

Council President Kent?

Yes.

Councilman Sanchez?

Yes.

Councilman Bennett?

Yes.

Councilman Sanchez?

Yes. Okay, thank you. Okay, and in my report, I'll start with some good news. I had a meeting with the builders of the Meridian Building. They are three-quarters approved with their apartments inside. They do have a restaurant coming in. They told me who it is. It is an upscale type of diner that will serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And they're going to start leasing out probably in the end of August and start to move people in probably in the middle of September. So they've got some temporary COs, which you need to move in. They haven't gotten them on all the apartments. So they've got about 160 apartments ready to go. And they've gotten a lot of calls. People are interested in moving in. They've been calling for the last month saying, when can I get, they want to be the first ones to move in. I don't know why, but that's what they want to do. So that's all good stuff. It's all good stuff for our tax base. It's all good stuff for our downtown businesses. This is why we spent so much. And let me just tell you, I've started this project along with some other people, over 10 years ago. And to see it finally coming in is a big deal for me. I mean, I had a fight, and we had to learn as we went. But this is a nice project, and I know some people might be unhappy with the look of the building. But at the end of the day, it brings in what we call walking wallets. These are people that come in who want to shop in town. They want to eat in town. They want to go to a bar in town. They want to do all these things and live in the town. So when we first put this together, two of the reasons we put it together, we were hearing from seniors, especially in the South End, that have been here 50 years. They love this town. They want to stay here. But maybe the flooding has gotten to them a little bit, and they want to get out. And they don't want to have to worry about their yards anymore and everything else. So we were hoping those seniors would move into these apartments. The other group we were looking at are the young adults, 25 to 30 year olds. They're looking for their first homes. They love the town. They want to get their foot in the door, start with an apartment, save some money, and maybe buy a home. So we're looking to have those people move in. This is what keeps the family, in my opinion, this is what keeps our town thriving, right? Young families coming in, bringing in new ideas and new people coming in. So this is something that I think will work out well. I can tell you the first building that we built, which is Lakeside Commons, which that was the first one was only 62 units. That got rented out completely in six months. It was rented out. So I foresee good things here. The developer is not somebody who's new at this. He's built many, many buildings in the state of New Jersey over many years over this. He also helped us with, and I'm sure our administrator will talk about our new civic center. That was all donated by this builder. The whole revamping of that whole building was all done at no tax dollars. It was done by the developer himself. So I'm excited to see that happen, and that's all good news. You know, I was going to hold their foot to the fire a little bit if we didn't have a restaurant. Right now restaurants are a little tough with the costs, but I'm glad to see that they have somebody coming in, and that's good to see. I had a couple meetings with our building department over numerous complaints that we've had from residents. I'm just going to remind residents in general, you cannot run a business out of your home, okay? So, you know, you can't run any kind of business, a landscaping business, a rental company, that's just not allowed. And especially if neighbors start complaining, you will be called out and be fined for that, and it's not a cheap fine. So keep that in mind. There's processes in place if you want to have a business, and it has to be zoned for a business. I had the privilege, which I always love, of going to summer camp and talking to the kids and, you know, talking to kindergartners about what we do here is a little – Challenging at best I can tell you that but they you know all the camp counselors were great and a lot of the kids were great and You know to a lot of the kids and I forget because I've been here a long time They don't know that where they have camp used to be a swimming hole and people used to come from all over like a beach and set up an umbrella and sit around the lake and They just are amazed by that when you tell them those kind of stories or you tell them that George Washington slept in this house and in this house and Actually, that day was very hot and we met in Lenox School, explaining to them, if you look carefully, you'll see boys and girls on the school. Back in the day, this was the one school we had, and the boys went in one side and the girls went in the other side, and they kind of didn't meet in the middle. We had high school kids there, we had middle school kids there. They were all amazed by all those things. They had great questions. I just love doing that, so that's always fun to do.

Let's see, what else do I have?

We had some issues at Carlo Field, and I've got to thank the MUA for stepping in to help us fix some situations we have down there. Everything is up and running and ready to go. Willow Field has made it through its first real season and without breaking anything, which is a good sign. And now the grass can grow and the trees can grow. We've got some time put aside and we can move forward. We've started the garbage pickup in Oakland You know we expected some bumps in the road nothing crazy, but we've had some bumps in the road and everything's working fine I just have to Remind everybody nothing of the garbage pickup for our Pompton Lakes residents is changing You have the same days the same pickups the same ways you've done your garbage for many years the only advantage you're going to get is probably at the end of August, beginning of September, we will now pick up your grass clippings from your house. So that is a big difference from what we used to do. And I will tell you, one of the things when I ran 20 years ago was to get grass clippings picked up. I never got anywhere with that. But just by chance, it worked out for us to have the grass clippings picked up. So it is working. We hired 10 new employees for the DPW that are working in Oakland and then working for us after the fact, after they're done with their work in Oakland. More to come on that. And now that the chief came back in, when you were out, there was a lot of conversation on two things, which either you can talk about it now or in your report. Speeding on Wanaque Avenue and at the crosswalks especially. So coming up from my side, this neighborhood, the kids want to cross to go across the street, and they're younger. Cars are not stopping at that intersection. And you could explain this better. the marking or the explaining of how long a car has been sitting in a parking spot, you know, there's a three-hour limit and how we're addressing that.

So you want to do that now or you want to do it in your report?

I can do it in the report. Okay. And that's my report. Council President.

Thank you, Mayor. May I want to first... I have my deepest condolences to the family of Frank Dalton. He's an icon of a public servant to this community for over 30 years. He was a fireman and a first aid responder and he will be missed by many, many and his legacy will live on. I attended a ribbon-cutting at Vizio's martial arts in on 1 Q Avenue we had over 80 people attend including the students of the school and these big Chinese dragons they were very interesting and it was very exciting experience they gave a wonderful demonstration and everybody really enjoyed it so our downtown is really being used and we have new businesses coming in so all of the items that were discussed here by our residents and shop owners and is very important to keep the businesses here. So I'm looking forward to hearing how that's going to happen. I also attended the open space meeting. We met at Lakeside Avenue at the Mueller property. We call it a field trip, and sometimes we need to do that instead of just meeting in an office. And we took a look at what was necessary to improve that property. That property was purchased by open space funds about, I want to say, 12 to 15 years ago. and we haven't touched it. So now we're going to have an opportunity to make some improvements on that. We're looking at the road. We're looking at removing the fence. The Open Space members are very excited about doing that, and I believe we're going to be getting grants with our administrator. We're going to be looking at grants with that. So we're looking forward to finishing that part of the acquisition. That's also because it was acquired with open space funds. It's 100% paid for out of open space. So we're looking for county open space funding to match. We also discussed at the meeting the Joe Grill field, the Willow Sports Complex, and the signs, the signage. The open space committee is looking to create a large complex sign with the field locations. Steve, Councilman Steve Banks is going to be talking a little bit about that or?

I didn't put it in, I can talk about it.

Okay, it's up to you, but I don't want to steal your thunder.

Yeah, no, don't, you're not stealing it. Okay.

Steal away, is that what you're saying?

But because it's a, because it's a, that project was paid for, we paid for that through open space funds. And the open space committee spent years on trying to get that property to do exactly what we've done. And they're very proud of that. So now we're talking about signage. So we'll be talking about that with the borough administrator, the mayor, Councilman Begg, and myself. Okay. We had a major discussion regarding tickets for tenants, landlords or store owners who continue to place garbage along Wanakew Avenue without utilizing the proper garbage cans, storing their garbage in inappropriate time of day. and hours, and we are going to be discussing that again with the property maintenance officials and the police officials. You know, there's a lot of Facebook pages. People love to put these pictures on Facebook, but honestly, we had a wonderful presentation by our chief last council meeting. He discussed all of the ways to handle this. He went through every ordinance that we have. He made really good suggestions. And so now we have to implement them to make the town exactly what we need to have. Thank you for that. And I thank you for coming and talking about that. Randy. On a personal note, I completed my security awareness training course, which is two hours of my time doing cyber security training, which we all need. It's painful, but it's done. If you didn't, you won't be able to use your computer. I also want to thank Kristin Russell, the young lady who is our planner, and Mrs. Novak. She is the chairman of the Redevelopment Agency. This is a long time coming program. We wanted this many, many years ago, but it finally came to fruition. And this plan, I was on many of those calls. I'm a part of that project. It's called the Guidance Design Program with the mayor. and I want to tell you this is essential. We have to have this in order to have good future development and it'll help the developers and it'll help our townspeople. It'll give guidance to keep it in a nice historic but at the same time develop what we need to have developed in an appropriate manner. So that's very important that we pass that. I'm also attempting to get the PAL members, the council members, and the Fleischer family together in August for a photo of the park benches that were placed in Hershel Park in honor and memory of Rich Fleischer. Hopefully we'll have that in August. I was going to ask our attorney for the fourth month now, what the governor's office and if they've actually responded to our letter that was sent to her regarding the DuPont $75 million payment to the state, because I'm asking for at least 20 million to come back to the town, people who were actually damaged to our residents and our taxes. And I want some restitution for the injuries that happened here. And Marcus and Marrera, our attorney, put together a letter. I think you've sent three out. And I want to know, has there been any response to the third one?

No response at all. And as you recall, the state prevented the towns from making the claim because the state pursued the claim themselves. And then they kept the money and aren't allocating it to the effective towns, which is really problematic.

Well, the fact that they did that is of harm. But the fact that they don't even answer us, that letter represents 12,000 people. So that one letter should be answered. And I don't know what we're going to do. We have to send another letter. We need another phone call. But we have to have an answer to that. And I want to thank you for doing that. And that is my report.

Thank you. Thank you for reminding me of Frank Dalton. He's a typical Pompton Lakes person who spends his time and energy, besides working all day, taking care of family and doing all those things, putting his hours in to the fire department, the volunteer ambulance squad. He will be surely missed. He was still going to meetings and active calls up to a couple of years ago. So condolences to the whole family. Councilman Begg. Thank you, Mayor.

I attended last month's historic meeting. Still in the process of organizing the 250th anniversary event. We have another meeting coming up, so I'm sure we'll kind of solidify that at the next meeting. Open Space, again, we met at Lakeside Park. It was a really good meeting and everybody did seem to be pretty energized about just the future of the Mueller property and improvements that could be made down there. Hopefully a sidewalk getting put in from Jefferson down at Chandler Court. So we did discuss the signs and we'll have another meeting coming up about that as well. because that was a pretty big deal to the committee. I also went to the trails committee. They met two Saturdays ago. It was a little bit of a light crew despite that. Work still got completed. The next trail maintenance is August 9th at 9 o'clock, so there's many people that can get out there. Things are growing, especially with the way the weather's been, so I'm sure the trails are starting to get overgrown already. And then lastly, Recreation wanted me to make a few announcements. So the paddle boat and kayak rentals are available every weekend from 10 to 3 through Labor Day. There's also cornhole and ping pong that you can use down there as well. Pickleball is happening every Monday and Wednesday nights from 6 to 8 at Herschfield Park. Volleyball takes place on Monday nights from 6 to 8 at Herschfield Park. National Night Out is coming up on August 4th from 530 to 830 in the high school parking lot. The fire department's hosting their 125th anniversary from 2 to 8 at the firehouse. And I got to relook at what that date was. It was August 22nd, I think. Something like that. And then Pompton Day is Sunday, September 6th from 11 to 5 on Lakeside Ave. Starts with the 5K and the fishing derby in the morning. Fireworks will end the night at 8.30 over the bridge. And then the last thing is senior breakfast is August 15th at the Elks. RSVP by calling 973-839-4167. And that's my report.

Thank you for reminding me. That's open to any seniors here in Pompton Lakes. You don't have to be a member of a club or anything else. So if you want to join the senior luncheon that's inside, they have a band and they have free food and stuff going on there, you're more than welcome to come down. I think you just called the number you just said to give us a count, right? That's what we really need. One thing I forgot in my report, with all these electrical problems we've been having in the last month, I will be having a meeting with what they call the North Jersey mayors, with the representatives from Jersey Central, the chair people, to bring up concerns that we have in our towns. Yes, we'll talk about lightning things, but one of the biggest concerns is the whole structure in the state is very old. So we had, and a good example is we had one street where our transformer blew out three times, and all it is is a switch to switch it to turn it back on. But they were so inundated with power issues, they didn't turn that switch on for five days. That's not fair to the residents to be out of power for five days, and all they have to do is replace a switch that takes five minutes. So those are the kind of things that Jersey Central, for us, because that's what we use here, has to be more responsive to. I'm not asking them to rebuild seven poles that came down. I'm asking them to send somebody to replace a switch that's going to take 20 minutes, and it's going to put, I don't care if it's only 50 residents, back with power. We had elderly there. We had people with newborn babies. It was a real situation at some points, and they had no place to go. I am going to push hard with that, and I can tell you there's been a lot of pressure from the other meetings they've had with southern mayors and mid mayors over the same situation so hopefully something can get done it has to come from the state they're going to have to push very much harder to update our infrastructure with with power because it's going to become an issue as we move forward um councilman santos scott you have a report yeah i do thank you mayor uh first thing is i attended the uh

First concert on the lawn with the 3F band. It was well attended. It was a packed house. Wendy's was there. They were handing out hamburgers, french fries, chicken nuggets, and iced tea to everybody. And they had plenty of food. It was well, like I said, it was well attended. Also attended the room cutting and physios. And same thing, that was a nice presentation that they did. I attended the board event. EDUCATION MEETING. SO DR. AMAROS'S LAST BOARD OF ED MEETING WILL BE AUGUST 13th. I'M SORRY, AUGUST 11th AT 730 AT THE BOARD OFFICE. AND AS WELL AS THEY APPROVED THE APPOINTMENT OF DENISE VELEZ, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS. HER TENURE WILL START ON SEPTEMBER 1st, 2026. They also passed a warning of cut for new running track bleachers and press box at Hirshfield. The bid came in at $2,600,000. This will include new bleachers box. So the new bleachers for home team will not be on the same side. It will be on the visitor side. There will be no bleachers on the hydas right now. The track will be not a, it will not be a circulation track. It will just be the track which is there, but they will surface it with, what kind of surface?

They didn't say what kind of surface, like a rubberized surface.

A rubberized track, which would interfere with floods. And let's see here. Oh, and then I attended the MUA meeting. Their annual report for the body is out. You can get that full report on their website, which is www.ptps.com. dot T-L-V-M-U-A dot org backslash customer hyphen information backslash. So you can go on that.

I got that.

One more time. Also, water meters here, a lot of the water meters are 20 years plus. and there's batteries in them, and the batteries are going to start going bad or old, and the water company will come around and install new ones, but they will contact them in order to schedule a replacement date. And they will be on every house if you're only on the meters that aren't working. And they ask you every once in a while You check your meters, make sure they're not leaking and they're not cracked. This will save you water costs. Sewer responsibilities. Do not put your grease down, grease or oils down your sinks because this could clog your sewer lines, which if your sewer lines are clogged, it's your responsibility and most times the homeowners will cover that. And then also, water concerns, discolored, smelly waters. That's caused by mineral settlements in pipes. Although it's displeasing, there's no health risk. Rotten egg odor is caused by pockets of hydrogen sulfates. Run your cold water for five to 10 minutes until the water runs clear. Cloudy water is caused by bubbles or calcium in water. When left sitting, bubbles rise to the surface and dispute calcium carbonate. So just it's no problem. And then hardness of the water refers to the concentration of non-tossed minerals, calcium, magnesium. It's characteristic. So groundwater has no advice that that... adverse effect on the health. According to the National Academy of Sciences, it may contribute to healthy diet. And that is my report.

Thank you. Yeah, they just came in and replaced my meter. It only took five minutes. They were in and out in five minutes. So if they're asking you to replace your meter, I would let them in. That way you don't take a chance. So thank you. Councilman Bennett.

Thank you, Mayor. I want to start off by thanking Ms. Russell for the design guide presentation. As mentioned previously, it's long overdue and will definitely help our downtown maintain safety. certain look Lakeside Commons you mentioned before which was the where the Salvation Army building was previously was an old building with a huge parking lot and not very well maintained the redevelopment agency before I became involved worked very hard to get it to look the way it does today including matching pumpkin lakes high school in the post office in the design it did not look like that initially correct correctly so it's a beautiful building I'm glad that it looks the way it does. The redevelopment agency met last week where we approved the Smith project. This is the building that goes along Colfax between Wanaque and Lakeside. This project has been back and forth a few times with the redevelopment agency and started out higher. It's currently going to be a four-story building with retail on the ground floor with a coffee shop on the corner. um i think it's a good project it looks way better than what we have currently today i believe the next step is a planning board review uh it'll be us it'll come to us okay um the library board did not meet this month the next meeting is september 21st i also want to congratulate vizios uh for their uh grand opening the the uh ribbon cutting was very well attended And lastly, the summer stroll, which was canceled last week or a couple weeks ago due to the air quality. The next one is on August 21st. And that's my report, Mayor.

And just to reiterate what you said, the Smith project, which is coming back and forth, this is what the redevelopment agency does. They told them the building was too high. They told them there was too many units in it. They reduce it. They want less units. They're not going to give up any retail. Initially, they were trying to give up the retail on the bottom floors. There was going to be a garage there. So the redevelopment agents didn't accept any of those things. So these developers had to keep coming back, keep coming back, changing it, changing it, changing it, until finally they're going to keep all the retail. When I say they're going to keep all the retail, all the businesses that are there now will be offered retail back in if they want to come back in. And then if they don't, then it's offered to other people. And then the parking, there is no more parking structure being built there. It's all going to be internal in the basement, and we're going to sell them spots out of the pond hole. So that's how the give and take goes back and forth, the redevelopment and planning board. The next step, you're right, would be coming to us and then eventually the planning board. Okay, attorney, have any report?

I have no report, Mayor.

Thank you. Administrator. Thank you, Mayor. Please note that the County of Passaic has awarded the borough a $10,000 grant for what's called the America 250 program. So we're using this funding to support T-shirts for the Pompton Day and Pompton Day 5K, as well as American-themed patriotic inflatables for Pompton Day. So I want to thank Steve and Karen Murphy for all their work in helping me with that, so that's good news. On tonight's meeting agenda, we did have several contracts on, namely for the Hirshfield Park Phase 3 improvements project, which consists of the resurfacing of all of our walking paths in Hirshfield Park. We do have a bid opening scheduled for August 19th at 10 o'clock a.m. with a likely construction date after Pompton Day. So that's good news. We also have a bid opening for what we call Miscellaneous ADA Curb Ramp Upgrades Project, which consists of curb ramp upgrades on Riverview Road, Pine Street, Riverdale Road, Durham Street, White Way, Harding, and several other streets. And this project was funded by a $165,000 Community Development Block Grant from the county. In addition, we are working on the bid specs for the Lakeside App Phase 1 project, which again is the resurfacing of Lakeside App from Jefferson App to Chalancourt and Chalancourt. And we're hoping to go out to bid in September for that project. So that is a to be determined schedule for that. And then lastly for the contracts, we had on a contract for the Pompton Lakes Public Library exterior upgrades project, which is funded by $750,000 worth of federal and county grant funding. And we're hoping to go out to bid for that project over the winter for a spring project. So lots of projects going on. I just wanted to point out and thank Meridia Capodagli for returning to the Civic Center to address several drainage related concerns as well as the installation of a new drain in the police department parking lot. and additional sidewalk at the rear of the Civic Center, which, as the Mayor knows, allows for egress out of the Meridia Building onto borough property. So we're looking forward to that. I did want to thank the DPW for all their work in the hot summer for the garbage and landscaping. So I just wanted to appreciate them and all their hard work that they do for the borough. As the Mayor mentioned, the Civic Center is now accepting applications for rentals from residents for parties such as bridal showers, baby showers, birthdays, graduations, et cetera. That process will begin on or after August 1st, and residents are advised to contact the Borough Clerk's Office for the application. So we're looking forward to that. I also wanted to recognize it was on tonight's agenda, and I know that he'll be here at a future meeting, but just wanted to congratulate Police Sergeant Jonathan Williams for his retirement from the ball after years of dedicated service to the community and residents. So thank you to Sergeant Williams, and I know Chief will echo sentiments on that. And lastly, as the mayor indicated, our shared services agreement. with the Borough of Oakland for solid waste recycling and vegetative waste collection services is ongoing. The staff is doing a great job with making some last minute modifications with Oakland and finishing the collections much earlier than we had anticipated. So we're looking forward to continuing that successful agreement. Thank you.

And I'm going to echo your thanks on the DPW because we've asked them to take care of what we're doing in this hot weather. But we've also asked a bunch of new guys to come in and pick up garbage in a new area. And some of these cans are not being the right weights. And there's a lot of involvement in heavy cans. And they haven't said, I'm not going to do it. They're working with us to make it happen. So, you know, especially in those days, it's 105 degrees outside. You know, we've got to give them credit for that. Also, thank you for reminding me about Johnny Williams. He's been a long-time officer here. It's glad to see him retire. I hope he enjoys his retirement, and we'll talk to him more. And lastly, the only thing I'll say is I just want to wish Karen Murphy a healthy recovery. She's had some issues, and she'll be moving forward. Hopefully, we'll be ready to go for Pompton Day, which we're always looking for Karen when we're there, so hopefully she'll be there ready to go. Any questions for the administration? Nope? Okay. Motion to open the meeting for public comments. Oh, I'm sorry. I always forget the chief because that's new. I'm sorry. Forget that. The chief's report.

Oh, yes. All right. So for the month of June, the department, as always, continued to be very proactive. We responded to a little over 2,010 incidents, of which 1,144 of them were dispatch calls for service. Our patrol officers increased their traffic enforcement this month. They conducted 294 motor vehicle stops and they issued 255 motor vehicle summons as part of our ongoing commitment to improving our roadway safety. Our detective bureau remained very active, handling 15 new investigations while continuing several complex investigations in coordination with our county, state, and federal law enforcement partners. Department personnel also participated in the law enforcement torch run. We helped out with the school graduation ceremonies. We had our annual award ceremony and continued planning for our national night out. Internally, we continue preparing for our upcoming reaccreditation, which should be happening in the middle of August. We made advancements in technology, communication initiatives, and we remain in the background investigation phase for hopefully an additional officer to replace Chief Clark. Overall, June was another productive month. And I want to thank every member of the department for their continued professionalism and dedication to serving the residents of Pompton Lakes. And then as for Sergeant Williams, Sergeant Williams begins his terminal leave in August and his official retirement date will be December 31st of 2026. another night so that we can honor him. He has 20 years of dedicated service to the borough and the police department. And then he has a number of years prior to that with the MUA. So, you know, we're going to wish him well as he does a good job here. As for some of the points that you brought up, where would you like me to start?

Hey, where are you?

Okay. As for WannaQAV and speeding, what I will tell you is that we are actually in the process of another traffic study right now. The last traffic study that was done on WannaQAV was done The results came in July 22nd, or actually the study was conducted between July 22nd of 2025 and July 28th of 2025, so almost a year ago. I can tell you in that study, the study did not identify any speeding issues on Laniquav. There were 22,976 vehicles which traveled in that portion of the roadway. The average speed on Laniquav was 22.5 The majority of vehicles which were caught speeding were doing so between the hours of 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. Again, that study was from a year ago. We have a current study now taking place on 1QF, and we'll give you that report when that study is done. As for the ordinance, there is a three-hour- Well, let's go back. The crosswalks.

The crosswalk, especially the gas station, the max crosswalk.

So it was the complaint that they're not the cars are not stopping stopping.

You know, you know, the resident that brought it up makes a good point in that, as you know, that's a cut off for a lot of kids coming up from that side of town to go back to the other side of town for whatever reason. And, you know, we have young kids crossing there, especially when there's no crossing guard there in the summertime. Really, we need to enforce the stopping of those cars at that, especially all crosswalks, but especially that one.

Yes, I mean, it's definitely It's definitely an issue. We want our residents to stop or people that are doing business in town to stop. As always, our officers are informed of that if they observe it. They definitely should be taking action in those situations. I'm sure part of the problem is that when these things are happening, unfortunately, there's not an officer in the area. If that's the case and someone witnesses that, I would tell them that they could always call the police department, report it to us, make sure that they get the registration from that, the license plate number on that, and we can work with that person. And if they want, they can file complaints. Unfortunately, we can't file complaints because we But that being said, you know, I can see how that's...

So how does the new cameras work? Can we use that?

Cameras can't be used to enforce the motor vehicle violations. Our officer actually has to witness it. So there are states or there are some traffic cameras, I think, in other cities, like a red light camera in some cities. I'm sure there's ordinances that have to be written and there's guidelines with that, but what happens with those infractions, they're not the same as if an officer writes them. So if they're a moving violation, if you get a moving violation, you get points on your license. In the cities that have those cameras, like those red light cameras, They can get a monetary fine, but there is no, you can't get the movie violation points and I'm not too sure with the law and the statute on how that how that how that would be regulated. I think their ordinance would have to be written and things of that nature and their guidelines.

All right. So, years ago, we used to do sting operations on the crosswalks, putting our own officers in the crosswalks. Yeah. Something we could do again. You think.

We can definitely attempt to do it. The problem is in order to do a detail like that, you need four or five officers. You need two officers that are going to be in a vehicle on either side, and then you need the decoy officers going through the crosswalk. I will say this.

I think... A little training goes a long way with that. We make a couple of examples of people. I live up there. I see it all the time. Most cars, a lot of cars are not stopping there. You see a young child trying to cross the street there. We shouldn't be taking a chance. I would say we should try to do another sting operation there, even if we have to include overtime or make it work somehow.

I think a first step too is I'm sure there We can put some literature out on social media reminding everybody that they need to stop for pedestrians that are in the crosswalk. We can put it on our traffic sign, too, that we have posted on wanting to stop at the crosswalk, things of that nature to help. point in public.

And we had talked almost two years ago about asking the county for one of these mats. You step on the mats and it turns the lights on flashing, especially at that intersection because it's a very popular intersection. Is that something you think would work or not work?

I mean, it definitely helps on you're talking about like the I think we have one on Ramapo out. By the church. By the church. By the church, yes. So I walk through there daily. I think anything that lights it up would definitely help, especially in that major intersection.

Only when folks are crossing, though, because if it's flashing all the time, people are going to go.

Yes, you have to hit the button, and then when they're ready to cross, it'll flash. I think it'll definitely wake people up. It might be something that we could do.

So Mike, maybe we can reach out to the county. If I may add, Mayor, so as part of the county's road resurfacing program, every year the borough puts forth candidates that we would like to see resurface. So last year we had submitted for Hamburg Turnpike. This year the county is paving Hamburg from Terhune to the Bell. And this year we requested Wannacue Ave knowing all these concerns going on with the hopes of having Wannacue paved next year or the year after. So I think in the meantime we should discuss with the county what we would like to see as part of a potential project to get ahead of it. before it's too late and they're out to bid for a project and strictly just resurfacing the street without any pedestrian safety modifications. So we can have a meeting about that.

And I'll call the county executive myself because they did have some, about a year ago, they had some extra funding and that's how they got the Ramapo light in, just had some extra funding. Let's see if we can push them a little bit to get that. And that's a busy intersection. I don't think they're going to deny us if they can do it to put it there. So let's have that conversation with them.

Yeah, I think it would be a good one, especially during the, and we have the crossing guard out there during school, but if it's something where we can get that light out there and it gives us the option of also turning it on so that it's always on during school hours, that would definitely help the crossing guard out in that intersection.

All right, so let's work on that. All right, now let's talk about the parking on Wanaque.

Yeah, so there's a... The current ordinance restricts parking for three-hour increments Monday through Friday from 9 AM to 6 PM. After 6 PM, they can park there as long as they want. And that's only Monday through Saturday. Sunday doesn't apply, and certain holidays it doesn't apply. As for the trucking of the tires. It was a very useful tool back in the day. Unfortunately, about 2019, there was adverse ruling. I want to say from that it constituted a Fourth Amendment violation for a search so we kind of went away from since then there's been some other cases that have happened but there really hasn't been any clear guidance with that so long story short being is that pretty much all police forms have gone away gotten away from chalking tires really the only way to do that is you kind of have to have some type of camera there, which we now do have a lot of cameras. So can we use the cameras for that? We can use the cameras for that to show that it didn't move.

So that's an easy thing right now, right? We can kind of pick a day, say a Tuesday, let's ticket everybody on Tuesday who's there longer than three hours. And then, you know, next month it's a Wednesday or next week, whatever it is. So we start educating the public a little bit that they can't do this.

yes we would have to you know so right now we have uh the one uh public violations officer which is which is uh officer uh eckers uh he definitely gets out there does the meters uh with park mobile and things like that um he also enforces the pommel and stuff like that um so um unless someone is reporting that to us too, we wouldn't necessarily know that a car is there for over three hours unless he actually goes there and then that car has the meter violation because you can't renew the meter after three hours. Well, you can't with a coin. That would be the only, yeah. So if they do it that way, there would be no way for my officer to know that that car was there over the three hours.

Well, we would by camera, though, wouldn't we?

We would, but there would be no way. So he would have to observe it, issue him, let's say, a summons for the violation, or let's say he happened to observe that car at some time for whatever reason, and then look to enforce that particular summons.

you know, otherwise it would be like looking at a needle in a haystack through all the cameras and all the, so what I'm suggesting, and maybe I'm wrong, but let's just pick a day of Tuesday from 12 to three. We just go through, we pay someone to go through the films and see if a car has been there three hours and we, and then we have the plate. So we just take it.

I, I, yeah, I get what you're saying, but it would be, it would be, it would take the person off the road and then they would be hours and hours looking at video and, And then there's multiple, multiple videos. And then like you.

Yeah, it would have to be only one video, right? Can't go through 17 videos.

Yes, yes. And you'd have to almost look at that individual car in that area to make sure it didn't move. It just wouldn't. I don't know if that necessarily would be feasible.

I get it, but I understand, and I've heard it from other residents too, and this is something I just learned from our attorney. I guess handicapped plate people don't have to put money in the meter.

They're spending more time. There's a couple of different ones. There's handicapped disabled veterans. You can have a placard, and they're meter-exempt.

But they still have to follow the three-hour.

No.

They don't.

No. As a matter of fact, I did, while we were here, 39-4207 says that a person with a disabled placard, handicap placard, could only be ticketed after overstaying by 24 hours. Oh, my gosh. Yes.

Okay, so that becomes a situation. So if they know that, then they know they don't have to move their cars, correct? Correct. Is that what we're saying?

Correct.

That's not a great rule. May I refine that? No, you can't right now, no, sorry.

So, I mean, if there is a violation and someone were to report it to us, we would definitely take the action, and that's where the cameras would come into play, because then we can go to that particular area, make sure that the camera covers that area, let's say, and then look for that car that was described to us, and then we can go back and see how long that car was actually parked there.

So we're talking about two different things. That's for non-handicapped. A handicapped or a placard, there's no restriction, they can stay there forever.

No, 24 hours.

24 hours, move it once, then bring it back 24 hours, correct?

But our, but our 1AQ app is a little bit more restrictive in the fact that we have no overnight parking. So because we have no overnight parking, they wouldn't be able to park there. 24 hours anyway.

Right, but they move and they come back. All right, so that's the one side. Then what you're suggesting is if residents or storefront owners or whoever notice a car that they think has been there longer than three hours, they can make either an anonymous call to the police department or give their state their name and say, hey, look, I think this car's been there longer than three hours. Do some research on the camera to see if it's been there.

Correct.

Okay, so that's the way we want to handle that. Is there any patrolling that looks at that?

Yeah, so, so Officer Eckers as the PBO, one of his main responsibilities is the traffic enforcement and the pothole and on WannaQF.

So that's something we should just remind him to keep an eye on. Yes. Because I've heard it from somebody today, but I've also heard it, for example, by the bakery and other areas. And I've spoken, at that time it was the bank. The bank found it easier to just keep putting money in the meter in front of the bank as an employee than walking around to the back of the bank and parking where they could park there all day. And their basic argument was, I'm putting money in the meter, I'm not breaking the law. But they are breaking the law if they're there longer than three hours.

Yes. Yes. Per the current order. Yes.

All right. Any questions from the council on this?

Would we be able to limit three hours, reduce it to like an hour in front of certain stores?

Because the store people are shopping more than an hour, eating more than an hour, drinking more than an hour.

They have to get an ice cream.

Well, you can't just pick one spot. No, because you've got a restaurant there, too. You've got Max right there.

Randy's is down from Max.

Yeah, but you've got a Spanish restaurant there, too.

I'm going to say one or two spots.

Yeah, but the other restaurants are going to say, I have people here that I want to stay two hours, three hours. You can park elsewhere. One or two spots to get ice cream off. Yeah, but then every store is going to say, I want that in front of my store. Like the bakery is going to say, I want that in front of my store. Okay. Cardinal Cafe is going to say, I want that in front of my store. Okay. Thank you. So I think unless we come up with a better suggestion on this, if they call it in no matter where they are on the street, we'll take a look at it. But the way I heard it from the initial person, and they might have another chance to speak when they come up, is that there was also handicapped ballards that are in the car that we can't really respond to unless they 24 hours in the spot.

Correct. And they don't have to pay the meter.

And they don't have to pay the meter.

So it's not only handicapped, disabled veterans. It's a different placard.

Okay. Any other questions?

On the crosswalk flashing signs, I've been in towns where the crosswalk signs don't flash all the time.

You push the button, and then they flash. I might have missed this. And I've been in towns, too. They have the flashing lights, and they also have, like, little flags that the people walk across the street with flags, so they go back and forth. This way, the traffic knows that somebody's trying to cross.

You know, so that might be an idea, too.

I haven't seen that, but is that something they do? I don't know.

I don't know about the one with the flags, but that's kind of along the lines of what I'm saying. We have the ones that flash already with the button. I'm sure there's got to be some type of addition that we can put it where we can go in there as well and then make it so that it's constant. Let's say when the crossing guard is there through a peak time, so it constantly warns that kids are constantly going to be crossing and watch out for the cross. crossing guard, and then you can turn that.

And I remember a couple years ago, and they haven't done it since, but they used that special paint on those crosswalks that kind of shined more and was more stronger on the street than typical white paint. Again, that's not us, that's the county that does that. But maybe we can ask the county, I don't know if they can revisit that. They use a special paint.

And if I may add, the borough did recently purchase a new professional line striping device that the DPW will be utilizing. So we are planning on restriping all the parallel parking spots and crosswalks. on WannaQ app at some point.

Yeah, we should do that in August, right?

Yeah, so we'll see when that is. Okay, any other questions?

No? Okay. Motion to open the meeting for public comments. Motion. Second. Councilman Benning, Councilman Bay, all in favor? Aye. Against? Anyone from the public like to address? Oh, I didn't miss workshop. No, you don't have workshop.

I'll address.

Sure, come on.

I'm going to take exception to what the Chief said in regards to... I just need your name and address. Pardon me? I just need your name and address. Randy Pratt, 322 Wanaque Avenue, Palmton Lakes. Under the code here, it says that a handicapped person is either the driver or a passenger in that vehicle. I can assure you, Chief, that the person that is sitting in that parking spot is not the handicapped person that tag is for. I think the excuse that we've heard tonight that we're going to use these cameras. I had a young lady who came to me several months ago from Lenox Avenue where her car was hit and run. And she knows that I have a video camera outside of my shop. And she was looking for a specific car. because her neighbor saw that car hit her car. Unfortunately, I don't have high-tech camera work there. Allegedly, she came to the police department to ask if they had video camera. And she was told, allegedly, that the police do not monitor those cameras. So in order for the police department to monitor those cameras for a parking violation, If no one's monitoring it...

It wouldn't be monitoring. They go back into the system and say, we need to look at the time frame between this and this.

I get that, Mayor. But again, what I'm hearing is pass the buck down the road. Get a meter made... One of the things, Chief, that you spoke at back in February, March at that Chamber of Commerce meeting when we first met, and again, it's a pleasure to meet you again, and this is not, please don't take this personally. This is just an aggravating situation that is taking place in our town, and it's hurting my business as well as other businesses around me when people consistently in my opinion, break the law, and there's no consequence.

So when you say break the law, you've got to mean more.

Meaning that they're extending their time in the parking. But a meter may won't fix that. I understand that. But if there's not consistency, and I spoke with one of your officers about this, if there's not consistency in giving fines to the people who are breaking those parking regulations, then it's like the broken windows theory. You break one window, then you find a second broken window, and then you have Helter Skelter.

Even if we were to hire a meter maid, they would still have to, within that three hours, identify that car hasn't moved in three hours.

Maybe this is a question for the borough attorney. I'm not putting you on the spot, but I know, and I've read it as well, what the chief was indicating about the mark on the tire and stuff. If the law is specific to a chalk mark, Can it be a crayon mark? Can it be a sticky mark? Can it be something else?

I haven't seen the case, but it's got to be having physical contact with the vehicle.

Okay, so why have meters then? Get rid of the meters. Totawa Union Boulevard in Totawa, there's no meters. There's literally no lines painted on the road. And you said earlier, Mayor, and I heard this back in the 1980s when I lived in town, Wannakewab is a county road.

Take it back from them. Can't you take it back? They won't do that.

Have a resurrection, okay? Do something. Because the walls and everything, it really is frustrating. And I'm sorry to take this out on you, Chief, but there needs to be something done. And sometimes I have found in 46 years of being in Pompton Lakes, that it moves like a dead snail. Things don't get done. And all I'm asking is that if there's a law in the code and it's on the books, enforce it with regularity and with consistency.

That's all I'm asking. And I hear you. And there's two parts to that. Usually the snow removal on the... They did a horrible job on the county roads during the snowstorms. That's not my guys doing a bad job. That's the county doing a bad job. We call the county. We say, look, guys, you didn't come and file this. There's snow against the doors, but we're held at their stuff. We can't say, come do this today. They come when they come. So that's the first thing. The second thing is there is a law on the books, but the law has been changed about marking the tires. So now it becomes an issue of how do I identify that car hasn't moved in three hours. Now, you're the one who also brought up the handicap part of it. It seems to me, and I just learned this myself, that we don't really have anything to say about that. They could be there for a while.

All right. So you just brought something up about snow removal, that you have sidewalks where business owners are not removing your snow. That is correct. We could find that, yes. I can give you names and business names, okay, and the people who own those businesses that they are not removing their snow. I'm out there breaking my back shoveling. Well, I should probably be in Key West, Florida, enjoying the sunshine during the winter, but I'm out there putting salt down and making sure that my sidewalk is clean.

And we do it that way. I can tell you we do it for stuff. You give them some time.

No, you don't, because there were three storms this year. The person next to me didn't do her sidewalk at all.

How do you know they didn't get a technique?

They didn't. I know. They didn't.

I can't tell you.

They didn't.

But let's work with the problems you brought in. That's why we're addressing what we're talking about. I got the chief here. I think to start with, I think the best scenario is if you see someone you think is longer than three hours, even if you think, just call the police department. It's not a big deal. Make a quick call. They'll review the tape on that car and keep a track on it. See, the problem is what I think he's saying is we can't just sit someone in front of a camera 24 hours a day to watch that. We just can't do that.

Just to clarify, the cameras, I don't know who this individual was, what officer that they spoke to, but the information that they got was incorrect. Those cameras are monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week in our dispatch center. That being said, there's over 20-something cameras. looking at that portion of Wanaque Avenue. We have a number of cameras on Wanaque Avenue. If that individual followed up with the proper personnel and or supervisor and they had that accident, then someone could have looked at those cameras and tried to identify who hit her car, because there is a camera that monitors that section of Wanaque Avenue. So if it's within the last 30 days, please tell her to come in and we will try to attempt to find them. And then, you know, as for our officers, or specifically Officer Eckers, you know, we are consistently on WannaQAV in the pothole. We do our best. We can't be out there, unfortunately, 24 hours a day doing that. And a meter made, it would be the same thing. They're not going to be out there. So there's always going to be – it's not a perfect process. I would say my guys do their best to enforce the statutes on 1QAV and in the pothole. But there's going to be times and issues where things slip by. But, again, if you have an issue, please don't hesitate to call our dispatch to address your concern.

Okay, Chief. I'm not looking for 24-7. I'm looking for between the hours of 9 to 6, Monday through Saturday, which you earlier mentioned, if I heard you correctly, Monday through Friday. It's actually Monday through Saturday, unless something has changed. Then I won't be putting money in the meter on a Saturday. That's the first thing. The second thing is that you have a black BMW that sits in the same parking spot every single day, five days a week, just past the bus station, bus stop there, by now. And I've seen people almost getting hit right outside, 700 feet from where we're standing, on Wanaque Ave and Lenox, trying to get across the street there. Never once in six years have I seen a ticket or an officer giving that BMW who exceeds the three hours time limit. I've seen a white Honda, who's a business owner, making K-turns and U-turns, almost getting T-boned in the middle of Wandaque Avenue. Now, you know it's a double yellow line. You can't cross that double yellow line, let alone make a K-turn. Now, you have video cameras out there. I'm happy to call you and say, hey, check out that video and check it out.

Yes, but we can't enforce motor vehicle summons off of the video camera. That's a wall. So if you come in or call us, we'll be more than happy to take the complaint. You're always welcome to also file a complaint as well.

That shouldn't be my job. That should be your job. I'm sorry, Chief. That's your officer's job. Mary made a very good point earlier about people setting up a sting operation. Wayne did it very successfully over on Ratcher Road a few months ago. You start handing out tickets on Wanaquee Avenue, you see how fast you clean up Wanaquee Avenue. Get your patrol officers out there and start handing out tickets. That's all I have to say.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Anyone else from Public Electric?

Good evening, . I had no intentions of saying anything, but I've been around a few years, so maybe I can shed some light. I have been saying for years we need a traffic light at Colfax and Wanaque. They're both county roads. That intersection right now is a problem. When this new Smith project gets done and the Washington building gets done, and school opens, it's going to be a mess. So I would suggest that the county install a traffic light now. Traffic lights provide gaps. If you go to any zoning board meeting or planning board meeting, that's all I talk about is traffic gaps. When the light turns red, it provides a traffic gap for people to cross. It slows down traffic. in that main street, right now you've got a thoroughfare from the railroad tracks right down at Library, like a speed racing course. The traffic light, the infrastructure at least should be put in now, like they did in Riverdale at Riverdale Road and North Ponta Turpline. The infrastructure's there, it's ready for the light. Put it in now. Mr. Crowley talked about paving on a QF. Let's get that infrastructure in the ground now before that road gets paved. And then, when time comes, they can put the signals up. But that signal light there, and I did traffic for years, the special police officer in that corner, when we were in our heyday with stores on 1Q Avenue. It will break up traffic, it will slow down traffic, it will provide people the ability to cross. We've heard this 100 times, and they did it one year, a couple years ago. The white crosswalk line should be painted in April or May, not August or September. People are walking that main street in the summer. They're out there. They're going to Randy's Ice Cream. They're going to the diner. They're going wherever. They're going to Sushi Place. I told you at this council meeting, I came out of Max with my son after dinner, and it was almost impossible to get across that street because you can't see the You can't see the crossing at night. Now you mentioned reflective paint. The county will only strike the road when the road is repaved. They'll come in and they'll strike it, which they do. But once that's done, and I've been told this by the county, it's our responsibility to paint those white lines, which our borough has always done, but they always do it in September. It should be done in April or May for the summer. The other thing, they're not visible. Because of the cars parked on both sides of the street and because people are looking for the address that they're going to, you come up on those crosswalks. Now, if you go down Door Sideway, you go down Colfax Ave, any of these streets that have recently been repaved with federal funding and county funding, they have those gray-yellow crosswalk signs with a square sign with an arrow underneath it that points right to the crosswalk. We don't have anything like that on 1QF. You go down Walnut Cue Avenue, you might see that one blankie sign. I grew it in there. After a while, you get mesmerized by it. You don't even see it. Now, the winter school, I believe, put the one in. You push the button in the middle of town. And, you know, those things are beneficial. There's no doubt about it. But the courseworks have to be better marked with signage. And I would suggest looking at Door Sideway, looking at Colpex Avenue, see how they did it there, and mimic that. Okay, you see that as you're going down the road. But I think the traffic light should be discussed ASAP as a vote. Get the county to put that in. That'll provide your gaps. It'll slow traffic down, trust me. Okay, I got a lot of experience out there over the years. I watch traffic when I'm walking through town. And, yeah, these problems can be addressed, but we've got to get on top of it and just get the job done, in my opinion. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else from the public? I'd just like to ask you. Well, I want to finish.

Yes.

Anybody else? Motion to close the public session. Motion. Councilman Bennett? Second. Council President Kent, all in favor? Aye. Against? I'll let you talk in a minute. Al, just remember, though, that the county approves all the projects we put in. So if they wanted a light, they would have said, no, we want a light there. They don't want a light there right now. So the problem is we could ask for it, and the county still says, no, we don't see a need for a light there. So, you know, it's an uphill fight. I agree, maybe a light would help there, but the county has to be on board with the light. And we do have to push them, yes, but at the end of the day, when they get these projects done, the Smith project, the lakeside, they go to the county for their approvals. The county doesn't tell them we're thinking about putting a light there. So that's the first thing, but I'll let the chief, you had something you want to say?

Yes, I just wanted to, so I just want to make clear that, you know, I take every resident's and business owner's concerns very, very seriously. The bottom line is that for Pompton Lakes, we have a 24-man department. My first priority is making sure that the residents get the services that they need by responding to emergency calls, ambulance calls, calls for service, and things of that nature. Secondary to that is that I expect every officer to go out there and try to be proactive in their enforcement. And when I mean proactive, issuing traffic summonses, getting on YQF, and looking for infractions, that's proactive policing. Unfortunately, when when they're tied down with other calls, because we, for whatever reason, we only have three men on shift and two men on shift at times, there's precedence to those calls. And then I think as a council, we need to understand that if we have two people responding to calls, then it becomes difficult for us to be proactive in some of these other pursuits that we always want to do. But I have to say that my officers, and I have to say this, they do a very good job, and the sergeants out there do a very good job balancing being able to handle calls and being proactive. And I think if you look at our numbers and what we do, We strive to be the best we can be. We're always striving to do better. And like I said, you know, my point to the gentleman was not to put it on his shoulders, because I'm very aware of what I need to do in my job. But my point was is that if we are not there, because we can't be on 1AQ Ave., all the time um in order to help us we need our residents to report what those infractions are um and if we don't have the report then we can't take enforcement we don't necessarily know so i thank you for coming out and and letting us know further about the issues i want to qi um and we will get out there and do our best to address them um but i would report every resident if they and do our best to go out there.

And let me remind the public, and again, I understand the public won't know this, By law, we are not allowed to tell police officers to go write more tickets anywhere. That's something we can do. They have to take the responsibility as part of their job they take seriously to write summonses. But I can't grab five officers and say, start writing 10 more tickets on 1AQ Avenue. It doesn't work that way. And it's against the law, actually. But the other thing I would say is, too, I mean, we don't normally have two-man patrols out. I mean, normally if we could have, there's three or four-man patrols.

Correct. So during the on other types of thieves. Unfortunately, that's what we're working on.

And I think the final note I'll make on this, if we could, it doesn't have to happen tomorrow, we can really readdress the sting operations on the crosswalks and on the parking, because I still, I do agree with one of the things that one of the gentlemen said is, we ticket a couple people, people will pay attention. Same thing with the graffiti. I know Councilman Bennett's on top of the graffiti. Once we get that one person that we know is doing it, let's write a ticket to them.

I don't know if you remember, we had put together an active enforcement detail throughout the town. We had good results. Yeah, let's do it again. We had good results.

Okay. Okay, approach the floor.

Anybody approach the floor?

No? Okay, motion to adjourn into closed session. Motion. Second. Councilman Vague, Councilman Bennett, all in favor? Aye. Yes. Thank you, everyone, for coming. We have to go into closed session. If you want to take my cell phone number, I'll be glad to give it to you.

If you want to take my cell phone number I'll give it to you whenever you have a question.

In closed session we discussed personnel and negotiation matters. Motion to adjourn? Motion. Second. Councilman Bennett, Councilman Begg, all in favor? Aye.

Against?

Okay. Thank you.

No meeting for another month.