Village Council - Regular Meeting

assist. That was it. Yeah. But really Well, actually carry them on their back.

Good evening. This is the Ridgewood Village Council public workshop agenda and it's March 25th at 7:30 p.m. Let's call this uh meeting to order. Adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by a posting on the bulletin board in Village Hall by mail to the Ridgewood News the record and by submission to all persons entitled to same as provided by law of a schedule including the date and time of this meeting as per public law 2025 chapter 72. The notice was also posted on the village of Rididgewood's legal notices page at rididgewoodj.net. Roll call. Council member Mortimer

here. Deputy Mayor Parin here. Council member Whites here. Council member Winterrad here. And Mayor Vajanos is absent. Please join me in a flag salute.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Deputy Mayor, if I may, um, before we proceed to public comment, I just like to take an opportunity uh to ask Heather to talk a little bit about our new public notification section on our website. As you know, the state law has changed to allow for municipalities to advertise their legal ads on their municipal website rather than it published in the newspaper. Um, and I think it might be an opportune time for Heather to just explain that for the public. Okay. Um, public law 2025, chapter 72 changed the public requirements, publication requirements for official public legal notices. Starting on January 1st, 2026, local governments had to publish public notices twice a month in the newspaper, official newspaper through December 31st, 2026. And this must include a link to the municipality's web page for official notices. The notice must include complete text that each legal notice of the local government may be obtained or viewed on the public entities of village of Ridgewood's website and provide the hyperlink. And then starting on March 1st, local governments also have to publish their legal notices on their official websites. So we've done that as of March 1st. The municipality may publish legal notices in a print or online newspaper if they choose, but they still must also publish them on the municipal website. The notices must also include a hyperlink to the secretary secretary of state's public notice web page and that's been done as well. Um, so the it just indicates that the website must be

accessible free of charge with the items conspicuously placed on the website. Um, notices must be displayed for at least one week or other time period as required by law before transferring the notice to the archive. The notices must be archived for at least a year, but the archive is not subject to the records retention schedule established by the state records committee or the destruction of public records law. So after a year, they can be taken off the archive. Um, the village of Ridgewood's legal notices are found on the village website which is www.ridwoodj. widenj.net. You click on the legal notices tile and you'll see various categories. It'll be active notices, bid notices, budget/financial ads, contract notices, meeting notices, ordinances, and then planning and zoning or uh notices. In the case of planning and zoning notices, many times the applicant themselves or a third party such as a law firm may place the legal ad notice and in that case um they those notices will not appear on the villages website but they must appear on an online um publication um or they could be in the official newspaper. So that's the only exception is if a third party places the ad that is not going to necessarily be on the villages website. So that's basically what we're doing. And um the notices are there. All of the um the archive uh folder is not yet there but all of the notices that have been um posted are still posted in the active notices. So um the archive is coming.

Thank you. Sure. We'll go now to public comment uh for three minutes max per person for to for no more than 40 minutes. And just make sure the mic is on. The green light is on. Yeah. And you don't have to

It doesn't sound on. Oh, thank you. She's on.

So, my name is Jackie Crane and I've lived in the village of Ridgewood my entire life and I currently live uh my residence is 257 Rose Court and um I will have lived in that address for 40 years in June. So, um so I live across I'm talking tonight about and responding to a something I heard uh about public picnic tables being placed in Looney Park. Um, so I live across the street from Looneying Park and I have watched with joy and great appreciation the tranquil beauty of that park in every season over the past 40 years. Life in the park is like an active Norman Rockwell painting, children sledding on the hill or building snowmen, pick up football games when high school alumni come home for the holidays, kite flying, frisbee catches, yoga, tai chichi, exercise sessions, and parents teaching their children athletic skills and just having fun in a beautiful setting. I want to state first and foremost that I strongly object to the proposed placement of picnic tables and trash recepticles in the natural and pristine landscape of Looney Park. Earlier today, as I turned from Meadow Brook Avon to Rose Court, I looked at the bucolic and serene Looney Park and I envisioned its landscape with picnic tables and trash cans present. The fact that anyone would consider disturbing that beautiful setting by doing this to me is absurd. This proposal is unacceptable to the neighborhood and it should be unacceptable to the town. It is actually a quality of life issue. Looneying Park is a small neighborhood park and should not have its purpose changed to be a picnic ground. Its use as a small open space is valuable and priceless both as as a structured and even more unstructured play space. There are not enough of areas like Looneying Park in the town. As far as the need for picnic tables to actually have a picnic, one does not need a table. I have seen many people picnic in Looneying Park. They spread out their blanket, bring their spread of food, and enjoy the peace and quiet. They lie on the ground and gaze at the blue sky and puffy clouds through

the branches of the trees. And when they leave, they take all their belongings and trash away with them, leaving the park as clean and undisturbed as they found it for others to enjoy it this in the same way. In scouting, both boy and girl scouting, that process of leaving a natural environment undisturbed by your presence is known as the principle of leave no trace. I believe we and you as the council should recognize the benefits of leaving no trace and not add picnic tables and trash cans to this unspoiled natural green space. Placing the tables and trash bins throughout the park would not be beneficial to the natural environment nor to the citizens who come to enjoy it because they would be unnecessary obstacles to the open spaces where activities are taking place. My final point, and I want to emphasize, is that this one-of-a-kind patch of greenery in the middle of our town gives each and every person who uses it, and there are many who do use it, exactly what they want and need. It is truly a paradise in our midst. And formerly placing picnic tables and trash recepticles in this park will infringe on all the fun and healthy activities that take place there. The only thing Looney Park could benefit from would be to have more shade trees planted in it and not have picnic tables and trash bins springing up like weeds. I think we should all appreciate what we have and the natural beauty that surrounds us should be enough. Bottom line, please leave Looney Park alone. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening. Ann loving Ridgewood resident. Um, I wanted to say a couple things about the downtown suggestions. Actually, I see that the flower pots have been emptied of their pine branches and you know the the winter decorations and they're empty and therefore they are collecting trash. They have cigarette butts in them. They have soda cans, coffee cups because they're big wide open containers and I guess it's better to have the trash going there than on the street. But I was going to suggest that maybe we could plant pansies because those are cold weather flowers. They they're not expensive. They will do well until the summer flowers go in in miday or whatever. On the subject of flower pots collecting trash, the trash cans that were purchased a couple years ago really don't seem to be working out too well. Um the hole is too small. There's that lid that you have to go under the circle around the hole. They're just covered with chewing gum and stains and whatever. And I think what we have seen by people using the flower pots is that a big open receptacle is actually better. And I'm hoping that the cans that we used to have are still in storage somewhere and we could admit that those new ones aren't working out well and go back to ones that that are going to collect trash better. Another thing I wanted to mention about the downtown regard to train tunnel. Um, a couple years ago when Lorraine Reynolds was still on the on the council, she was able to get two of the three convex mirrors, safety mirrors returned. they had been removed for some reason. And um so there's there's one at the west side and the east side at the bottom of the ramp and staircase, but we never got the third

one which is at the bottom of the central staircase. And that's actually a fairly important location to have one. I'm sure they can't be very expensive. And I'm thinking it was probably an oversight that that one wasn't returned. I'm in that tunnel a few times a week and I wish that could be done. And lastly, also regards the train tunnel, um I think it's months ago now that all the advertising signs or billboards were taken out and I believe that was in preparation for the plans to have the refurb and then ultimately murals put in. But in the meantime, um, the advertisements are gone and I assume they brought in revenue. I mean, there were lots of them and they were actually colorful and pretty and interesting. You know, they announced different things going on. Uh, so it' be nice if we could get an update or we're going to just be like looking at that horrible mess without the colorful decorations for a long time yet. Thank you. Thank you, Ann.

Uh Glenn Mosquitz, 257 Rose Court, Richwood. Um by the way, you don't have to give Oh, I don't think my address give your address.

Okay. Didn't know that. Um you heard from my my wife. She's very emotional about that park. She feels this very special place. Um in fact over the years we she forgot to mention we we donated several trees that have been planted in that park in memory of her parents and but I think more practically and I try to understand our community's wants and needs and until yesterday I had no indication I would be here speaking tonight but so many neighbors have gotten excited about this issue hearing rumors about picnic tables being placed in the park. Um, designing an effective picnic area for your community uh park requires careful consideration of numerous factors that extend far beyond simply placing tables and benches in open spaces. If not properly planned and maintained, these areas can erode a suburban sense of place. While picnic areas are often considered a positive amenity, they can introduce several negative impacts to suburban communities, including increased noise, traffic, parking congestion, health and management challenges. Noise and privacy disturbances um in picnic areas, especially those near residential homes, can lead to noise pollution, music, increased activities, disturbing the peace and privacy of the residents. uh traffic and parking issues should be pretty evident in and of itself. There's already a problem. Sometimes you park, you have to get around cars, the streets are narrow, but I mean that's not not as much of it, but it is a problem. You overwhelming our local infrastructure. I mean um there's also cost factors that are involved. The the costs go well beyond just the initial installation. Poorly maintained areas can lead to litter, sanitation issues, uh sometimes attract crime, loitering, vagrancy, safety hazards. Um as well as picnic tables increase rodent activities by providing easy access to food scraps, crumbs, spills uh from drinks, which

attracts mice, rats, raccoons, which already live in the park. Um uh uh so furthermore these tables also can be places where uh provide shelter and hiding spots for pests, insects and other things. Overall we see something beautiful. Some people feel they see something beautiful they need to improve it. Sometimes simple beauty is worth left being left alone and appreciated for what it is. We have a gem in our presence. Everybody around there, all the residents feel that way and don't really want to see changes to something that we feel is perfect. Thank you. Thank you, Glenn. Anyone else?

Uh, seeing nobody on remote who wishes to comment. I'm going to close public comment. Does anybody on the deis wish to speak to any of these topics?

I do. I think. Okay. So, um, thank you to everybody for who came. I just want to make a couple clarifications about the picnic tables because I had some outreach. Apparently, there was a social media post gathering information on this. At no point has the council suggested that picnic tables be placed in Looney Park. It came as a suggestion from the public during the process. We did not place money into our budget this year. We did not have the discussion and we were um our interactions with this were responding to a public inquiry into placing it there. I want to thank the neighbors from Metobrook area. Um, fun fact, my mom was born on Metobrook and so I'm very familiar with the area and I agree with all your sentiments. Um, so no money has been allocated this year. I personally do not have plans in supporting it for many of the reasons highlighted. I do want to remind the public that we did place four new picnic bait um benches and tables that are underutilized at our brand new pavilion in Habernickle which has shelter and all of that. Um, and I want to thank you for the shade trees because another fun fact is that Looney Park is named for the founder of the Shade Tree Commission that the man planted I think 25,000 trees in Ridgewood and he had an relationship with Samuel Braden and that's because my grandmother told me that. So I think the full council is not in support of that and I just didn't want you thinking it was an idea generated from here and I want to thank the neighbors that wrote us the letters today. Um on keeping going I just want to make sure with the trash cans um because there's always this um my first year on the council we replace the trash cans and the decision on which type of trash cans is not insignificant. Obviously I'll take you to the extreme after the Boston bombing. There's liabilities with what kind of trash cans we have because of bombs being placed during crowds, which is why for again old school, the stone ones that we all used to love that were big were removed because a bomb blast could cause

fragmentation. Um the decision and the recommendation for these trash cans came from parks, signal, and sanitation. When we don't have a cover on the trash can, it rains into it and it becomes too heavy for our sanitation department to actually lift it. We had many discussions about how to worst case scenario is the pizza box and it's inevitable that if we don't have the cover, it causes rain and sludge and really disgusting things. So, um, we do have extra trash cans. So, if you see one in need of a power wash or anything, please let us know. And I also just want to reiterate that the upon taking my seat, the ones that were here, the plastic ones that blew away, um they're they're no longer they were not salvageable. I believe there's like four or five of them in circulation in the Hudson Street garage, but we can't bring them back because they were all effectively destroyed during their life. So, if you have any questions about that, you know, we're here for it. We understand the garbage can is a seemingly, you know, main street issue, but there is a lot of thought and and without the cover, we would injure somebody who worked for the village. Um, and that's it. That's all my comments if anybody else wants to say anything.

Anything else from the

Yeah, just to thank you for um raising the issue with the the picnic tables and as Siobhan said um that to be clear that if that were to happen, it would come from the STA and we would vote on it. It does not come from our parks and recck department and there's no um reason or anybody who I think that's really supporting doing picnic tables for some of the reasons that you listed plus others and having been on the parks and wreck board for six, seven, 14 years, whatever it's been. I can tell you that um as a picnic table, it's not just as simple as putting the table somewhere. It's a ripple effect. So you do have to look at the entire implication of the park and what could potentially happen and we have a great staff at parks and wreck and those are the kind of things that they look at and make recommendation to us. So um thank you for being here but don't worry about it through through you deputy mayor just on the um train station train tunnel um we did an analysis of the profitability of those advertisements um in speaking to Bob Rooney and I know Carol Belcowski did some research into this too. Apparently those advertisements were profitably profitable before CO. Um but the agency that was selling them I guess based on COVID those profits went down considerably and in preparation of the work that we want to do at the uh at the tunnel uh to rehab it. Um we made a decision to remove those u those advertisements. Um and in fact at next week's at Monday's council meeting we'll be looking at three grant applications. two of which will be for the historic tunnel under the train at the train station and and I will look into uh the third mirror. I know Chris Rutishauser before he retired um had done a review with signal of where those mirrors should be placed and Rich Charlton did install the ones that you mentioned. Uh but I'll look into that matter uh tomorrow morning.

All right. So, next we have a presentation on the reassessment. So, come on up. Uh,

so, Deputy Mayor, I'd like to introduce our tax assessor, uh, William Palumbo and the representatives from Appraisal Systems, uh, Robert and Michael. As we've discussed at previous council meetings, um the village was notified back in December of 2024 that the county board of taxation here in Bergen County approved a revaluation order uh for multiple municipalities in Bergen County for 2026. Um one of them being Ridgewood. Uh the others just for public notice is uh Fort Lee, Hackinack, Hillsdale, Midland Park, Mbell, uh Rivervale, Rutherford, and Woodridge. So all of those municipalities uh were under this order from the Bergen County Tech Tax Board uh to undertake a re-evaluation in 2026. In discussing this with Bill and he went back to Mr. Leighton in Bergen County, um he's the tax court administrator. uh we had multiple discussions and the TA county tax board approved the village to go through a reassessment process rather than a fullthroat re-evaluation. Uh so tonight uh representatives from appraisal systems along with Bill are here to present to the council uh what this means, how it'll affect our residents and what the next steps are. I will just comment that we had a letter that appraisal system sent out to all owners of real property here in the village. We had anticipated those letters hitting at the end of the week after this presentation. Believe it or not, US Postal Service moved more quickly than they normally do. People started receiving those letters yesterday. So, we've we've gotten a good amount of phone calls into the assessor's office, my office, and the clerk's office, and we're fielding those

as they come. But it's very important to note that the village will be hosting a community forum um on the reassessment process um for everyone in the that's interested from the public to come here in our council chambers on Tuesday, March 31st at 6:30 p.m. Uh these gentlemen will be at that meeting as well. they will make a similar presentation to what the council will hear tonight for the public and then the public will be able to interface with them and ask any questions to understand the process um as we commence. So, Bill, I'll turn it over to you.

Just just one thing. I just want to highlight one thing you said and make very clear that this is something we're required to do under law. This not something that we really have an option to do. I think that's important for people who are going through this process now. And secondly, and Bill, if you're going to cover this, please please do. Um, I do want to talk about difference between a reassessment and reevaluation because I'd want the people at home to understand the advocacy uh, Keith that you and Bill did on behalf of the village as well. So, Bill, if you'll start off just explaining how we got here, right? Um, the the what the county tax board's order means uh, to the village, take us through the process, and then we'll go through the specifics uh, with Rob and Mike from uh, from Appraisal System.

Sure. Uh, good evening, mayor and council. Um, so I started as the assessor in the end of January 2022. Uh, at the time we had a ratio of 84.43. So that's just saying market value. We were assessed at 84%. This year we're at 60%. Uh, what that means is as houses sell for more than what we have them valued for, uh, we are skewed more and more from market value and assessment being in line with each other. So, as this gets worse and worse and your numbers get lower, you are then now being looked at, hey, you might have to do a reevaluation or a reassessment in order to bring everybody up to market value and then say everybody across the board, this is what your tax burden is going to be going forward. Um, we were ordered, we're not the only ones who were ordered. We were ordered for full revaluation to take effect of 2027. Um, we are redoing our tax maps and we look to see our maps will not be finished by the end of the year. State law, your maps have to be finished before the first foot hits the ground for inspections. So, we discussed it and said, "Well, the alternative is a reassessment. Not only is a reassessment going to be better in our situation because our records are so good because not only have I been on top of them for the last so many years, Mike Barker, my predecessor, was on top of things for many years and the revaluation firm is the last one to do it in 2012. So, we know our records work. We can work very well with this firm because we have in the past. Um, really what it is is our numbers and not only us, everybody's gone down with our ratios. That's why so many other municipalities have been ordered. So, we went to a reassessment because not only is it required because we don't have the maps ready, but it's actually cheaper. We're going to save, I think, about $400,000. So, rather significant number.

Great. Um, thank you. You know, this way, you know, they're they get to use our records. I get to be more involved than instead of just handing it off to them and saying, you know, let me know in a couple months. So this way I'm going to be more involved. We're going to be more on top of things and we're really going to make sure we get this right. Excuse me. The last reevaluation in Ridgewood,

the last re-evaluation was in 2008. The last reassessment was in 2012. So it's been 14 years. It's not a requirement every 10 years you have to do it. 10 years was kind of the thing people were doing for a while because you saw the ups and downs of the market. Now it's really just when are your numbers so out of skew that it's required in order to fix things.

So, so two things that I want to point out. Um there there's been some discussion in the phone calls that we received and somebody sent me something from social media um that this is an effort by the village to raise revenue from taxation. That is not the purpose of a reevaluation. That's not the purpose of an assess of reassessment.

No, we were ordered to do this. It's not our decision. But the other thing that I want to point out is what drives this is a change in real estate values. Um where homes and other real property in the village are going for significantly more on sale and what people are willing to purchase them for than what they're assessed at in the village tax records. And the one thing I will say about Bill and and his assistant assessor Renee in the tax in the tax assessor's office is they are on top of following up with every building permit that comes through. So if you put a deck on your house, if you put an addition on your house, if you're going to rebuild your house after you purchase the land, this tax assessor's office is on top of following up on that unlike any tax assessor's office I've seen. So that part of it is it doesn't contribute to that concern with regard to the ratio. This really has to do with where we are on a real estate market um in these last four or five years that has moved our ratio from 84% down to that 60% number.

Correct. So with that, I'd like to turn it over to to Rob at Michael uh to take us through their presentation.

Yeah, absolutely. Uh thank you for having me once again. My name is Rob Russia. I'm a vice president of appraisal systems. I'm going to be the project manager of this job. With me is Michael Copelan. He's the assistant project manager. So, we're going to be working with Bill, you know, on this uh project. Um everything you guys brought up are great points, which we'll cover on Tuesday. Um on Tuesday, we're going to go into a more in-depth presentation. It'll probably be about 45 minutes or so, and then it'll be followed by a Q&A. Tonight, I'll just give you a quick rundown, about 15 minutes, and answer any questions. But uh just to piggyback on what Bill said, the difference between a rebound and reassessment, he pointed out all the reasons why it was beneficial to do a reassessment here. And I just want to let you know that the scope of work for a reevaluation or reassessment is exactly the same. So you're getting the same service as a reval by doing this reassessment. So there's nothing's going to be uh cut in corners or short changed here. So you're getting the full reassessment, okay? just for the reasons that Bill pointed out, it is cheaper. We didn't have to go through the maps. We didn't have to go through as many obstacles to get this on for next year. So, for the presentation on Tuesday, first and foremost, what I'm going to do is explain to the public what a reassessment is. And quickly what a reassessment is, it's when an outside firm comes in and with the assessor, we're going to appraise every property in town, vacant land, commercial exempt properties, residential, and we're going to bring the values up to 100% fair market value as of October 1st of the pre-tax year. So in this case, we're going to value as of October 1st, 2026. and then the town will use these new values for property tax purposes for the 2027 tax year. That's what a reassessment is. Now, importantly, what I'm going to get into, which was already spoken about, by law, revals and reassessments are

revenue neutral. No money is going to be gained from this process. And we got to make that clear. The town is not going to gain any more taxes. It's a redistribution of taxes to ensure that everyone's paying their fair share. That's what a reassessment is. So the example I like to give, okay, we're still up. Oh, there we go. It it's mathematical equations, right? So the town has a total amount of taxes that need to be collected each year. That comes from the three budgets, school, county, local. All right. Then what the town does is it takes its total net taxable value. All taxable line items added up together. You divide one into the other and you come up with a tax rate. That tax rate gets uh applied to every property owner in town and that's how they determine how much taxes a property owner pays. Very simple. What's going to happen next year is that that next net taxable value is going to increase. Okay. The market has gone up since 2012, but that end result taxes collected is going to remain pretty much the same. Now, we could account for little adjustments in the budgets, but because the net taxable value is going to go up and the end results going to be the same, what happens is the tax rate is going to drop in this at the same factor and that's how we're going to collect the same amount of taxes. So, I'm going to have examples on Tuesday and I'm really going to hammer that point home on how this stays revenue neutral. Okay. Now, what we're also going to explain here is why we're here. And first and foremost, we're here simply because we were ordered. We said that, but it's worth repeating. And we're going to repeat that quite a few times on Tuesday. The reason why you were ordered is because the state and the county, they run a couple of different studies to test the uniformity of the

assessments that are on record. And the studies that they found showed that the assessments really weren't uniform, plain and simple. So, first and foremost, as Bill mentioned, the last time there was a reassessment was in 2013. Okay? So right there, when you think about it, the property owners are paying taxes in 2026 on an assessment that was placed on their property in 2013. When you just think of it like that, that really doesn't seem fair. I mean, we all know there's been a ton of changes in the market since 2013. And properties don't appreciate or depreciate at the same rate, right? You got vacant land versus commercial versus residential. Within residential, you have colonials versus ranches, town houses versus condos. So, there's been so many shifts that right there that tells you that these assessments aren't uniform. Again, as Bill mentioned, the second uh study is that ratio. Right now, you're at 60%. All right. So, what that's saying is that on average, the assessments to their sale prices that are happening are coming at 60%. the town really uh the state really wants to see that close to 100%. All right, so we're getting pretty low and there was a substantial drop in the last couple years. It hasn't been gradually. It's been a large drop. Now, on Tuesday, what I like to do is I I'll keep the math kind of simple, but I like to give an example of what that ratio means because a lot of people don't understand what that means. is if there's a property right now that's assessed for 200,000 and it sells for 400,000, that's a 50% ratio. Okay? So, every sale that comes in through town, uh, Bill reviews and he reports that to the state. Now, if every sale in town was coming in at 50%. The county and the state probably wouldn't be happy. They want to see that out 100%. But they would say to

themselves, you know what, if all the sales are falling at that rate, that means everyone's pretty much being treated uniformally. The problem exists is when some of those sales come in at 75%. Other sales come in at 25%. All right? The town may operate at a 50% ratio, but that standard deviation is large. People at 75% are paying too much in taxes. People at 25% are paying too low. So again, when this exists, we bring it up to 100%. So everyone's at an even playing field. So that coefficient right now is at 15%. And that kind of lags behind. If you did not do this reassessment, that would probably jump up significantly next year. So again, what that's saying is that sales on average, they take out the outliers, are selling 15% above 60% and 15% below 60%. So those studies alone tell you that this this is a good time to do this.

Rob, is the general rule of thumb that at the end of this a third are going to go up, a third are going to go down, and a third are going to stay the same, give or take. You know what? I honestly don't know where that figure came from, but it seems to work out that way, right? It it seems to apply to most cases when a reassessment or a reval are undertaken by a community. Yeah. And and and to be totally honest with you, it kind of depends on what people consider neutral, right? A town like this, if you want to consider $250 in taxes, say either way is neutral. I would agree with you. I think potentially probably a third will go up, a third will stay relatively the same amount, and then a third will go down.

But I think it's important and and this is it's one of my pet peeves because it's a complicated topic and and folks on social media like to boil everything down to a sentence or two. And this is more than a sentence or two, but when you talk about revenue neutral, the fact that this will not in and of itself raise additional revenue for the village, merely it'll change the ratio that individual property owners pay on the overall tax bill, that's what's key. And so I have no problem with folks disagreeing with things that we do up here. But when there's misinformation out there, which is what I think may happen here because this is a fairly complicated topic, um I am concerned, but really appreciate the clarity and transparency that you're giving to this process. And again, also appreciate that you'll be given the same presentation uh individually on Tuesday. And just to take that to the next level, sure.

The school budget is still going to be what the school budget is. The municipal budget is still going to be what the municipal budget is. And the county budget is still going to the county portion is going to be what the county portion is. There's no new money collected. Correct. What's happening here? What's happening here, and this is more for the public's edification, is we are going to go out and we're going to assess what each real property is worth in today's market. And then the taxes in a fair process are going to be assigned based on that assessment, that new assessment that's derived by your company.

Correct? Yeah. And again, I'll try to explain it in a couple different ways because sometimes it hits home differently. You know, I like to use a pie chart example that I'll give where it's really just a redistribution of taxes and the pie taxes collected is not going to change, but the individual slices of the property owners, they're going to shift. Some people seem to understand that. And then I have two examples here, and I'm going to spend a lot of time on this on Tuesday because this is like an exact example of what a property owner will probably face, you know, at the end of the year. And this kind of ties everything in we were just talking about how it really stays revenue neutral and how the town doesn't gain money from this. So if we just start from the top, you know, property A 2026 assessment. So on record today, their assessment is $715,000. Now I I will really explain that $715,000 is an assessment that was placed on the property back in 2013. It's not valid for 2026. But in today's world with a tax rate of 2.89 again the way you figure out the taxes you take the assessment times the tax rate divide that figure by 100. This property owner is paying 20,000 664 in taxes. Okay. Now I kept speaking to that net taxable value and I'll get into more detail about this. Your individual property tax implication is solely going to depend on what your property does in relation to the entire average of the entire town. So for example, if that average increase to that net taxable value, and I'm just making up this figure goes up 1.7 times, what that means, again, it's a mathematical equation. The tax rate will come down by that same factor. And again, I'll explain that's used in

budgets from 2026. We know that's going to change. It changes every year. But in this case, that means for 2027, the property owners could expect a tax rate dropping from 2.89 to 1.806. That is important. We're probably going to put that in the value letter at the end, but we need to when we give these value letters, I'm going off a little tangent. um with these new values, we got to give the new value some context behind it. What does it mean for you? So in this example, their 2027 assessment, if they go up the average 1.7 times, they would expect a new assessment of 1.144 million. Okay? But when you take that new 1.144 million and times it by the tax rate of 1.806, 806. As you can see, the taxes are virtually identical. So just because your values increase and doesn't mean that there's going to be an increase in taxes. And that's how this all stays revenue neutral. And what I like to do is give other examples because I want to be as honest and transparent as possible. Some properties are going to go up and some properties are going to go down. So if your property goes up more than the average, so your property increases more than the one point um seven times in this example. So you go from say 715 to 1.2, that's the bottom one. If you work out that example, you're going to go up to 21,000 and change. If your property increases less than the average, as in the 1.1 million, you're going to see a property tax decrease. So that's how it all works out. And when I give this example, I usually see some heads nod in the in the audience. So because they start to understand how this all ties together. What I also like to do just because we've been doing this for the last couple of years, I usually have someone who would raise their hand

at this point and say like, "Hold on, I understand what you're saying. This all makes sense to me, but why are you guys doing this now? It's the height of the market. the inflated values are going to cause our assessments to be higher and therefore the town's going to gain more money. You're going to tax us too much. And this is where I like to just give a quick another example and really explain to everybody that there's really no good or bad time to do a reval reassessment. As I mentioned, we're picking a specific time uh in history, October one of the pre-tax year. So, it doesn't matter if the market goes up, down, or stays the same. As long as we treat everyone at that same standard at the same point in time, we can ensure every property owner that they're paying their fair share and they're being treated fairly. And at the end of the day, I think that's all we're looking for. So, what I like to do is I give um looks like it looks like I have to update this. Um,

so what you're saying, as long as the same value criteria is applied to each property as of October 1st of this year, right, then the where the market stands, the real estate market at that particular time, really doesn't matter as long as everyone's being treated the same, which is what your charge is in conducting the reassessment.

That that's that's our simple. So I'm going to go through another example real quick where I give an example where the market goes up even higher which shows that all that happens is the tax rate comes down further and I'll go through that you know to save time it's the same example but again really hits home. Then next after that comes the seven steps of the reassessment process. Um this is the majority of the presentation. Again I will jump through it real quickly. If anyone wants to stop me and ask questions I'll be happy to do so. But the first step I want to explain is, you know, the inspection process. Basically explain to them about the intro letter, which again I do believe hit today or yesterday. Um, so I'll go over, you know, the substance in the letter and what that means.

Um, this is my last question. Sorry. So this is great and obviously we're always grateful to Bill because we have more access to these questions. My question on the letter after what happened and I I understand the disclosure. How do you get ahead of the idea that people think it's a scam and how can we we might want to talk about that just loosely because it's a work session. So the feedback we've gotten from like I would say I heard from five people thinking it was not real. You know how like you I tell my mother throw it out throw it out right and so people were questioning it's real. Do you have that problem? And do you have any suggestions? you know, we're doing this now, but we even today after it being on the agenda, we've been hearing things from the council like how have you had any successful ways of having the public understand it's a legit letter?

Yeah, I mean it it's a great question and it's funny because when I talk about this, I actually look to everyone and say like let's work as a team here. We're not the enemy. Let's work together. And especially with the IDs, I say let's get the word out. And I think we're already doing a great job. you know, there's a link on your website that directs you directly to our website. You know, you don't have to navigate. Takes you to the page. I'll go over all the information that we have on our page, but just getting the word out, you know, with social media and everything. Um, I'll go through we really do our best to kind of announce where we're going to be working, who's going to be working where. So, we we try our best just to, like I said, get

No, we want to be helpful with that. Uh, you know, you guys understand what I'm saying that a lot of people are trained and conditioned to say no, no, no, no. Funny story, my son once won a lottery and they mailed them a letter and we hung up on them 85 times and then they called the school to say it was legit. So people I'm I'm more worried about that and I think we should think how can Ridgewood be helpful. Keith, I don't even know if the police if it's appropriate, but we've had good presence since this went out on social media, but in my limited exposure with my neighbors, I would say half thought the letter wasn't legit.

Yeah. I I mean, listen, before we start, and again, I'll get into IDs next. We we give what is called the staff information sheet. Has the picture of the inspector, their inspector number, their car information, their vital stats. Uh the assessor gets a copy of that, the town clerk gets a copy of that, and the police get a copy of that right off the bat. Everybody who steps foot in uh Ridgewood is going to be posted on their website. And do you go by re like area? Do you go by block? So everyone Okay. So that's good to know because we could do that.

Yeah. And and and I'll point this out like our IDs are going to look exactly like this one on the screen. And like I said, what what I tell at this point, like do not under any circumstance let anyone into your property that does not have this ID. And listen, we don't get offended if anyone has any concerns. We're going to encourage them. Call the police, call the assessor's office. We are on on record or actually go to our website. So like on our website, you know, just to jump ahead. This is mass appraisal and one of the questions that will come up is can you make appointments? We can't. That's not in the scope. So, we do have to work doortodoor and I could explain how we do that process, but what we try to do is give the property owners a sense of where we're going to be. So, for example, there's a part on our website that says inspector's locations. So, the property owners will be able to go on our website, click this um document, and it's a work in Excel spreadsheet that gets updated. Once your property is issued, you'll see it on the list. If your property is not located on that list, that means your house has not been issued. Do not expect anyone to come to your property. But once your property is issued, it will tell you who was issued to and when it was issued. And we always say once your property is issued, give it about 2 to 3 weeks for the inspector to get there because we can't tell you exactly, but we're going to give you a good amount of time. So you'll be able to go on and say, "Okay, my property was just issued to inspector 107 on this date. There's another section that you could click on inspector 107 and Sarah's information is going to pop up. So, we want to give you a heads up like not only should you expect someone to come to your property in the next couple weeks, but Sarah for in this example will be coming to your property. So, we really try to do our best to get the word out that way. And I'll go into a lot more detail with that on Tuesday. But yes, so that's that's what I want to talk about our our IDs on this slide.

Um, if I could and one one other way that you can help as a council is making sure that the lines communication are open with the local police because we are happy if someone feels uncomfortable and says I'll go do another house and if they feel they're comfortable they come out they say all right you know what I checked you out with the police we're good. So that's you know but if the police are aware that we are doing inspections in an area it makes the situation fine. We don't mind if a police officer comes and says always just double-checking on the neighborhood, you know, making sure that you were the person who was supposed to be there, but as long as they know that someone's going to be there, um that is that is a very key thing that you can do as a council is making sure that they're also on board. Okay. And then really now we get into the presentation. Again, I'm happy to slow down with you, but you know, in terms of speeding up, we go through what a site inspection is, how that could affect your property in a positive negative way. We show examples of each. Um, we explain to um the property owners how we actually measure the homes and how we sketch the homes and what the final product would look. Um, we go through different styles of home, what we're looking for, and again, I'm going through this real quick right now. We're while the inspectors out there, they're looking for the overall quality of the home, the condition of the home. I'll give different examples. Um, this is a question that always comes up, you know, because we do come unannounced during that first visit. A lot of homeowners get nervous. Hey, what happens if I'm not home? And we're used to that. That's going to happen about 80 to 90% of the time. So, if a homeowner is not home, I'll spend some time on this. What we're going to do is our best to do that exterior inspection during the first visit when it's still light out. And what we're going to do is we're going to leave what we call a yellow call back card on their door. And it's an appointment card. So, we'll leave a

tenative appointment on this sticker. We leave appointment times typically in the evenings between 5 and 7. Reason for that is that they're not home during the day during that first visit. We just kind of assume they're typically not home. So, it's a little courtesy we try to do, but we'll leave the day and the time and the number. If that day and time is not good, call the office. We'll be happy to reschedule. We do these appointments all day. So, if we just happen to miss you during the day and you prefer a daytime appointment, you're more than welcome to it. We do work on certain Saturdays and Sundays. So, if you um prefer a weekend, we could accommodate that. We do our best to accommodate these times for the property owners. Um, then I'm going to get into the uh interior inspection, explain to them how the inspector kind of walks on uh every level of the floor, and I'll explain to them what exactly they're looking for. Most importantly is the overall condition of the home, the condition and quality of the kitchens and bathrooms. So, I'll go through different examples of the kitchens and bathrooms. Attics and basements are always a good question. what is considered a finished basement, what's considered a finished attic. So, I'll go through that and point out different qualities and conditions of that.

Um, I'm also going when when you're doing the interior inspection, you can take your shoes off or do you have booties? I mean, it's a great question. I mean, I started as as a field inspector and I I always said I should get those uh booties to put on. Um, I actually just got had slide on shoes and I think a lot of inspectors do that because listen, if they want you to take your shoes off, I always did, you know, there was never an issue and it's always take them off, do my thing, and leave. So, we we we do our best to accomplish. So, we can encourage residents to say, "Take your shoes off."

I always take my shoes off. I I take my shoes off now. Even when I go to a house, I take my shoes off because I just And they're like, "Oh, you don't have to." I'd still rather do it because I don't want to. It's not worth being accused of. Uh it's it's not worth it's not worth having something on my foot, not realizing it, and then stepping on a carpet.

No, no holes in your socks. You got to check that before you go out. Um but this is good. So, while we're going through the presentation, a lot of homeowners will probably say, "I'm a little hesitant to let someone into my home." So, probably due to COVID, you know, the state had uh approved what is called a virtual inspection and we've gotten pretty good at it and it works just as well. I will say at this point it probably takes a little bit longer to do a virtual inspection, but the accuracy is just as good. So, I'll go through how if you still or don't feel comfortable with let an inspector in your home, how you could do kind of like a video conference and I'll go over the number of ways and explain how that happens. But so now you could have that that option as well. I'll go through the second visit. This is during those call back appointments that we scheduled to do the interior inspection. This is kind of important. If we go back to the property for that second time and the homeowner is not home again, we're going to leave another notice on their door. This we just call our blue estimate. So, this is where I really take time to explain that like our company and the assessor, we're obligated that if we do not gain access to the interior of the home by the end of this process, we have to estimate at the highest most reasonable potential. Okay? It's just to ensure that the people who cooperate with the process that no advantage is being gained by not cooperating. So, by that estimate, we're either going to be right on the money or we're going to be too high. And we're well aware of that. It's the highest most reasonable potential. I'll get into that, but I'll explain. Everything gets explained on that card. We're going to tell the property owners right there. What's going to be listed in your home if you do not let us in, how many bathrooms, the condition, the quality of your kitchen, bathrooms, whether or not your basement and attic are finished,

the quality condition. If the information's wrong, there's a number on the card. We could still schedule an appointment at at any time. Okay. So, we're going to be in the field for a long time doing these inspections. Condos, town houses, it's the same process. I'll go through that. The only difference is we'll use master deeds as opposed to measuring to confirm, you know, unit sizes, layouts, and bedroom counts. I'll get into our analyzation and how the neighborhoods get um carved out and how we treat each neighborhood um different. and we want to compare similar homes and this is how we keep uniform. I'm going to go through um how we review all this information. Then we get to step number four. This is what I was talking about this uh preliminary value letter. This will happen towards the end of the year. We can't send this out before November. But at this point, I'm going to go back to that example where I gave about the net taxable value. At this point of the game, we're going to know where that net taxable value is going, what that increase is. So, we'll be able to at this point predict what the tax rate would have been the prior year using the prior year budgets, and we'll send what we call a pre preliminary value. We could put the taxes in there to give homeowners a sense if they're going to go up, down, or remain the same, which third they're in. And I want to be clear, this is still not final. We like to share this information before it becomes final. So at this point, this is where we put a lot of useful information on our website. I could go through that now briefly with us with you and then homeowners get the chance to meet with us. So right now we have the inspector locations, inspector IDs, all that information. Once step number four happens, what we're going to do is put that net

taxable value up. We're going to put a predicted tax calculator up on our website. The neighborhood map that we create is going to be posted on our website so people can see what neighborhood they're in, what houses they're being compared to. We're going to post all the sales that took place in the last two to three years, and then we're going to post all the assessments. Okay? We're going to be as transparent as possible, and I'll explain to the property owners how they can navigate our website and how they can use those those reports. Step number five, if you still want to speak to someone and you don't want to use our website, we're going to hold informal meetings where we'll go over your property record card. This is where homeowners that disagree with their new proposed assessment. They could talk to us, share their concerns, share why they think it's too high or too low. And at this point, we could still make changes. Anyone who has a meeting with us will get a follow-up letter as you know to the result of the meeting. Step number six will happen into the 2027 tax year probably around February. This is where all the information gets turned over to the town and the county. And then I'll explain number seven which at this point if people still are not satisfied I'm going to explain to them what recourse they have at this point. and it's file an appeal with the Burton County Board of Taxation. I'll explain them how they go through that process and what it means for them. So, I did rush through a couple of these slides. I hope you don't mind. Like I said, you know, the presentation on T Tuesday will go into more detail, but I think we touched on the main points here of of the presentation. And if anyone has any questions or suggestions, I'm open to it.

Any council members? No, this is really well done. Thank you so much. Really very clear.

So, our goal from here is really focused on public outreach, which is why we're having this meeting next week. It's why the letters have already been sent out. And I understand that, you know, snail mail is not what it used to be. Um, people have a tendency, as Siobhan suggested, to to discard it. Um, but that's just our first effort to get in touch with all of the real property owners in the village to be able to start this process. We are going to put out on social media uh which actually went out last night and today um some notification about this. Uh Carol in my office, our communications director, is working on this being a major focus in the e-news on Friday. Um so that it legitimizes the letters that were sent out and encourages people to come to the community forum on Tuesday to ask these questions. And then at that point, it really starts to fall on appraisal systems through trial and error and repeat visits to try to break through to to get um access uh to the residents uh to their properties in order to do the business that they need to conduct. But we are going to continuously work to try to communicate this message about the reassessment, its impact um both physical impact of having to visit the property and financial impact on how this will uh be implemented heading into 2027 villagewide. Um but that is going to be a major source of our messaging over the next few months.

Sounds when do you start the inspections? So, we're we're we're going to hold off to after the meeting on Tuesday and then we're going to have a quick discussion on where to start. It's really kind of just kind of seeing what makes sense and uh we're probably going to start the following week. So, we're we're looking to start right away. And then when do you think you'd be wrapped up by as far as uh visits to properties?

You know, I I always say the first visits I'm going to anticipate we're going to be done by the end of summer is my best guess. Now, the value date is October 1st, but that doesn't mean you have to be done or, you know, so you know, I do anticipate by the end of summer. As far as the interior inspections, they never end until that last day the tape gets kind of submitted. Okay.

Um, after our first visit are all completed, we're going to send another postcard out to kind of keep the word going. Hey, we didn't get a chance to get in. A lot of times people play this game where they don't want to let us in until the value letter comes out. So the value letter generates another wave of inspection. So inspections, like I said, first visits end of the summer, I would say, but it really truly never ends. And the value letter will go out in October. No, the value letter by law can't go out before November 10th.

Okay. So my guess just from previous uh revals and reassessments a good time would be like end of November, beginning of December and that gives you plenty of time to hold the meetings and still and that's that's statutory that date I believe. So I would just say that um Ridgewood Water did such an excellent job with the the lead lines and letting like they went area by area where they're working. So anything that we can steal from them I think would be great here too. and we can have those conversations. We we did a lead service line program where we had to do similar type of outreach. So if there's any best practices that Ridgewood Water established doing that process, we can share that with you as well. Sounds good. Thank you.

My only question for the meeting, this is awesome. Are we going to put this on the website? So, I think what we will likely do, uh, Councilwoman, is we will take the presentation from Tuesday for the public and we will have that posted to the to the village website so people can access it if they're not with us on Tuesday night.

Okay. And just two things because, you know, I live where my mom is. Um, the font could be bigger for our population when you have a meeting here. We get constant criticism up here. Um, and I don't have my glasses with me. I can read it. and two if we could have paper copies because people love paper sometimes when they come to these meetings so they leave and if you need help from us in making that happen but you know we in terms of our presentations we get a lot of feedback on font size so anything we can do to make it as readable as possible because the room's rather large I think it's awesome by the way just yeah no thank you I I appreciate that absolutely and yeah paper copies for sure okay

any other question thank Thank you for having me. Thank you. Thank you, gentlemen. Okay, we'll go on now to the manager's report.

Thank you, deputy mayor. Uh, I'd like to start tonight with some good news. Uh, for the second consecutive year, the village has earned a mayor's wellness campaign healthy town designation from the New Jersey Healthc Care Quality Institute. Um, I want to thank everyone who was involved in the mayor's wellness campaign. Uh, starting with, uh, Dawn and her team in the health department, uh, the folks over at the library, my office, uh, with Carol Belcowski and the outreach to the community, and to all the residents and all of the village employees who participated in the campaign. I want to congratulate everyone, and I want to again um, thank them for having this distinction and this honor bestowed upon the village. Also, good news. At the 2026th Best of Bergen Awards Gala, 2011 Magazine confirmed what we already know, that Rididgewood has the best downtown in Bergen County. Uh, so thank you to everyone who helps to make our central business district such a vibrant place to shop, dine, gather, and celebrate. I also want to extend congratulations to five other Ridgewood winners. Um, first of all, the Ridgewood Public Library was deemed the best public library in Bergen County. So, congratulations to Lori and her team. Um, in addition, Bethlehem Early Learning Center, Park West Tavern, Suk Pastry, and Van Dyke's Ice Cream, who are also honored through the Best of Bergen program. We'll be holding two community meetings. One we talked about already here tonight uh but worth repeating on April 1st. Uh that one will be with uh appraisal systems to discuss and answer any questions regarding the reassessment. I'm sorry I checked that. That's March 31st. March 31st with appraisal systems. That's next Tuesday night to discuss and answer any questions regarding the

reassessment. And we will have a second meeting on Monday, April 6th, and that will be with the residents of the Shedler neighborhood where they will have the opportunity to hear from Matrix New World Engineering, who's our environmental consultant on the remediation work that needs to be done at Shedler. Um, we'll also hear from Northstar, who is the contractor who was awarded the remediation contract and will be doing the physical work at the location. We'll also have representatives from the Ridgewood Police Department uh to talk about their oversight of the project, traffic concerns, um and arrival and um relative to um bus stops and the ability for families to get their kids to school. Uh that project is slated to begin later in April. Um, both meetings, both the reassessment meeting and the Shedler meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. It will be here in the courtroom and there will be hybrid access to both meetings. There was a great turnout last Monday evening for the Rididgewood Parks and Recreation Department summer job fair. We're looking forward to a great season of summer camp, uh, great season at Greatton Pool and throughout our park system here in the village. Um, I did put up a social media post yesterday. Um, after a very rough winter, we have had a lot of reports of potholes throughout the community. Uh, Mike Juna, our street supervisor, and his team have been out filling those potholes. Um, however, if anyone does discover one, please email me directly at kcasmarkidwoodj.net. Um, my email is also on the village manager page on the website. If you send us a note with an address, um even better yet a picture of the pothole, uh we will get that over to Mike's team at the streets division and make sure that it is filled in short order. Uh please

note that the village council public meeting next week, uh the work session will take place on Monday, March 30th, rather than Wednesday, April 1st, in observance of the Passover holiday. And finally, um, in the next few days, residents will be receiving our 2026 budget newsletter. Uh, this outlines some of the things that we discussed during the budget introduction um earlier this month. Uh, some of the challenges that the village faced in putting the 2026 budget together. It'll also break out the 2026 municipal appropriations um, by department and expense area. and we'll also break down the six parts of your property tax bills from the schools to the village, the county, the library, and the two open space trust funds. Just want to reiterate to everyone that there will be a public hearing on the 2026 village budget on Wednesday, April 8th, at 7:30 p.m. right here in the courtroom as part of our public meeting that night. Just a few announcements. Uh, the Ridgewood Health Department will be hosting a blood drive tomorrow, March 26th, from 11 to 5:00 in the Youth Lounge here at Village Hall. Walk-ins are welcome, but appointments are encouraged. We encourage people to register at NYBC New York Bloodcenter.org/latesia. Liia A. Council chat will take place on Saturday, March 28th from 9:00 am to 11 am in the caucus room right across the hall here from the courtroom on level four. Call for reservations 2011-670-5500 extension 2207. Residents can attend council chat without an appointment, but those with reservations will have priority. Online registration has begun for grade and pool or will begin for grade and pool and tennis and pickle ball badges on April 1st. You can sign up through

community pass. Preseason badge distribution or in-person assistance will be available Monday through Friday at the stable from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and in person at the Graden badge office on Saturday, May 9th and Saturday, May 16th from 10:00 a.m. to 12 noon again at the Graden Pool Badge Office. Village Hall will be closed on Friday, April 3rd in observance of Good Friday. There will be no garbage or recycling pickup on that day and the recycling center will be closed. Village Hall Chamber of I'm sorry, the Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce presents Easter in the Park at Memorial Park at Vanessa Square on Saturday, April 4th from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Join us for an Easter egg hunt, pictures with the Easter Bunny, music, games, vendors, and more. For more information, contact the chamber office. Yard waste collection season begins on Monday, April 6th. Please check the village count calendar for your collection area. And lastly, village hall upcoming meetings. March 30th, again, that's this Monday night, will be our next work session. April 8th will be a public meeting, which will also include the budget adoption, as I said earlier, and April 22nd will be a work session. All meetings start at 7:30 p.m. And that concludes my report, Deputy Mayor.

Thank you, Keith. We'll go to village council reports now. Councilman Mortimer.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor. the Ridgewood Art Council tomorrow night at the library starting at 7 PM. We're going to be hosting our artist Tara talk with Tamara Freeman. Um, so I would encourage everyone to go because the art council events are always free. Whole lot of fun. So head on over to the library tomorrow night at 7 and we'll see you there. Open space met on March 18th and this year Open Space will be rolling up its sleeves and getting things done. In addition to some of our annual park walks, we are going to be hosting work days in the park. This will be in conjunction with the New York New Jersey Trail Center. So stay tuned to learn how you can help beautify some of our parks. We'll also discover ways to promote our parks. And last, we discussed the daffodil festival. Citizen safety met on March 19th. Uh big chunk of the discussion was regarding traffic at Dormis and Acriman during drop off and pickup at Orchard. The Ridgewood Police Department and Engineering Departments were both there. They offered some suggestions and they're going to be doing some further investigation on some of the points that were brought up and will be reporting back at next month's citizen safety meeting. Site triangle updates. Two additional properties have come into compliance and five new warnings have been issued. To date, the total number of compliances is up to 136 units, which is fantastic. Ebikes. The Ridgewood Police Department reported the state is currently working through the specifics for how to enforce the law uh on ebikes and they are encouraged because they're expecting some of the changes to that um law so that it'll be more beneficial to the different types of ebikes. incident report last month, February, accidents actually trended up over the year before in February 25. We discussed why the

increase possibly happened and we were landed on the snowstorms that were this past month as we're all well aware and last year we didn't really have that kind of weather. Also, next time you're downtown, check out the smart street banners that are hanging on the poles that reminds drivers to actively be looking for pedestrians. And special thanks to our signal department for hanging those up. Parks and wreck met last night and we discussed the projects parks and wreck has planned for 2026. This includes a new playground and pavilion at King's Pond. And speaking of King's Pond, the PRC board will be holding a future meeting at the park. And some would say it's to look at how beautiful the pond is. I say it's to visit the Beaver family that lives there. As Keith mentioned that the parks recess and they received over 30 applications, so they're feeling really good about filling all the roles at Graden and in the summer camp for the summer. We also talked about the new safety fencing that's going in around Graden and uh we're very happy because it's going to make the pool area safer for everyone because people can't just slip in or out. Also, the skate park is going to be resurfaced this year. And I learned an interesting fact that I'd like to share. Out of all the different amenities in our village, the skate park is the most used one. Who would have guessed? Um, and last we also discussed the daffodil festival which is coming up at the end of April. And speaking of the daffodil festival and thanks to the parks and rec staff, I'm happy to report that slowmo may be back. So stay tuned and look forward more information to follow. And just know it's going to be a May to remember. And that concludes it, Deputy Mayor.

Thank you so much, Councilman Whites.

Uh, so two of my committees met. Board of Ed met met two Fridays ago. Great meeting. Went the full hour. Uh library met this past week. Want to congratulate and thank Carolyn Hulk for assuming the presidency of the Rididgewood Library Board of Trustees. Also want to thank Gail Campbell who's led us uh who's had been a tremendous leader for the last few years. She's staying on um as the vice president. So really thrilled we're going to have her there. Um for anybody who's interested, we did vote to move the library meetings to the third Tuesday of the month instead of the fourth Tuesday of the month just accommodate some schedules. But that will be posted um as needed. Um and just also talked a bit we talked about a lot of stuff but the passport um the passport services that the library center offering last year um they are booked solid for the next few weeks. Um a real testament I think to what the library did. Um finally I too want to push the rigid art council uh counsel will be there. It should be a great event.

Council member Winrad. Sure. So, I had several meetings last week on Friday. Access met um and we had a myriad of discussion. Um I'm pleased to report that we have put together a splinter committee to deal with um the Fourth of July honoring all abilities. Um and we have a plan in the works that's going very well. I want to thank Evan's committee and Paul, even though he's not here, for embracing the idea that the parade is hard for people with disabilities to get to and participate in. So, um, thank you to Jamie and Carara for helping handle that. We also had a discussion that Hilt and the parks department is running, um, a St. Patrick's Day event with trained, um, specialists and it's incorporating more of the special needs, kids with, um, issues and opportunities in socialization. So, thank you to Nancy for all of that. And we have created a splinter group as well to address inclusionary playground planning and our next steps in the village. As you know, we are swingless on the municipal side and access is determined to see a combination of a handicap swing next to potentially a bucket swing for an infant and a lap swing for a child. I want to thank parks for being so open to us. Obviously, Frank's been intimate in this as we begin to develop other areas. Um they're very warm on the idea of inclusionary playgrounds. So, thank you to everybody from Access for the meeting on Friday. On Monday, we continued at Access tradition with a St. Patrick's Day celebration at Mc Murphy's. I want to thank Mc Murphy's because this is the prime example of why we have these dinners. In addition to having them accessible and friendly, um they had a visual menu, so if a non-verbal child wanted to take part in ordering, there was a simple point application. It was incredibly well attended. Uh we took over the balcony and all the kids and everybody had a great time. So, thank you to Mc Murphy's and everybody who participated in that. The big event of

last week, which I am thrilled to announce, is on last Wednesday. Nancy Begos and I um were lucky enough to attend the New Jersey Historical Commission's award at Mammoth County. Um we went down because last year the village nominated Isabelle Alano for her tireless work on the Zerski Shedler House. Um and we were among several recipients of a hard to come by award. Uh it was it was a delightful experience to go down with Nancy and her family. Um her husband and her boys and her grandson accepted the award and we were so thrilled. I have the booklet here and I've shared it with my council. Um we are hoping to announce it to the community on ENS. However, the photographer who took the event has not sent us the pictures yet, but we are going to be bragging about this both digitally and a little bit more. Um, I just want to say thank you to everybody who helped apply for the award that was so deserved and everybody who supported it. I know that legal, our grants, and our clerk's office all had a hand in it. Um, and it was truly an honor to be there with her family. A very special day. If anybody wants to see the book, you can come look at it. And I have extra copies, but please don't take this one. Um, and lastly today, I had the residential flood advisory committee, which is excellent. We had perfect attendance, which was exciting. Um, we went over several things. Um, enhanced communication on what to do when and if there is a flood. We've been working on that, not only talking about how to prevent some flooding, minimize it, but also the reality that flooding is inevitable in certain low-lying areas and what we can do about it. We're going to be working on further promoting and creating an awareness of a flood dam on private property because there have been residents who've been had success with that. Our next meeting um we will be hosting James McGrath from engineering because now that Chris is not there we'll be working with him and Evan this

is for you. There was a slight mention of even residential flood advisory is progoat because of the removal of poison ivy in the storm water drainage. So, uh, all kidding aside, we will be discussing the low the goat at another date related to the park, but they are very useful in flood mitigation and clearing out drainage pits that people cannot get to. And uh, that is it. That's my report for this week

through through you, Deputy Mayor. Just two things on the flood advisory board. Um, one, we had David Refkin join our Zoom meeting this afternoon with the flood advisory board to talk about the initiative that Green Ridgewood is engaging with with six other communities um in this area of Bergen County. Um, I think the flood advisory committee was very excited um to hear about Green Bridgewood's initiatives and um Lori Howard is one of the res one of the residential uh flood advisory board members who is also involved in that initiative. So there's um some synergy between the fl the the the residential flood advisory committee and Green Ridgewood. So we're excited about that. Um and in addition to that um one of the things that James McGrath is going to come talk about is we are planning a capital flood mitigation project this year. Uh there are there's a significant buildup of shos throughout the um Hocus Brook. Uh there are some trees and some other uh dn snagging efforts that need to take place along the Saddle River. Um so we have somewhere between four and $500,000 in old capital funds and some FEMA money uh that was meant for flood mitigation that we're going to couple together. Um and they're going to draw up some bid specs and we're going to move forward with that project later this year. Um so we are definitely making some some good progress in that space.

We also want to warn you that David liked it so much he might appoint himself. So we I mean I want to just give a shout out to Joan because uh he stepped in. Joan Hubertes who was our um liaison has stepped away and we're thankful for her service and um we missed her today but David did represent Greenwood very well and and at Monday's council meeting we're going to discuss a partnership with NJIT on some flood mitigation efforts as well uh that James and uh Rich Calby also an alumni from NJIT have put together. So that'll be a discussion item for our work session this coming Monday.

Excellent. Thank you. Uh the central business district advisory committee met on March 12th. We discussed the blade sign ordinance amendment. Uh we also discussed outdo outdoor retail sidewalk displays and how to help um disseminate information about the new law skip the stuff which is uh that restaurants or eeries are not supposed to give plastic forks, knives, spoons, straws unless the patron asks for them. So not automatically put them in the bag with the takeout. Uh we um also talked about now Walker Associates is doing an analysis of parking in downtown Ridgewood. It's starting with a survey and uh the how how to distribute the survey survey was a big topic at CBDAC um because we want the most people as possible to answer the survey. That way we will get the most reliable data um for their evaluation. So when you see that Walker survey come around, please consider answering it. Um the Chamber of Commerce had a really wonderful event. It was a ribbon cutting for Suk Pastry. It's been here for 15 years. Uh this was an anniversary ribbon cutting. They've actually the owners actually retired and the new owners were there John and Roomie Thompson. And uh don't worry though because the back of the house is all the same chefs. And so the food will be just as good as it was

before. Uh let's see. And uh Keith already mentioned Easter in the Park. that's put on by the Chamber of Commerce and that's always a lot of fun. Uh I did want to mention law enforcement appreciation day will be April 12th this year. That is to recognize law enforcement from several communities and many of our police officers will be there. This is at the um Church of the Good Sheeperd in Glenn Rock. That's at 233 South Highwood. That's the corner of Rock Road and Highwood. And there will be um uh a color guard and blessings given. And uh if you can attend, everyone is welcome. And that's at 10:00 a.m. on April 12th at the Good Sheepardd. And that's all I have. So now we'll go on to our discussion items with the budget. Thank you, Deputy Mayor. Uh, so the first item uh for discussion prior to the special public meeting is the memorandum from James McGrath relative to the professional traffic engineering services uh for the signalization intersection design for Oak Street and East Glenn Avenue. Uh so the engineering department went out for RFPs. Uh they were collected back on Thursday, February 5th. Uh there were eight proposals that were submitted and the proposals ranged from a low of $43,950 to a high of $136,200. Uh James is making a recommendation uh to award the contract to Bright View Engineering of Livingston. Uh they were the low bid at the 43950.

Uh this work effort will be to design the Oak and Glenn traffic signal and create bid specifications for us to be able to go out to bid for the work. Uh the one caveat I will mention is when the um the yellow light that was upgraded at that intersection was installed, those improvements were made with this being the next step in mind. So, we anticipate that the cost of construction of that light will be significantly less than if it were a new signalized intersection rather than upgrading it to actual traffic signalization rather than the blinking light that exists there today. And this contract I'm sorry, go ahead.

So, two points I just want to make for clarification that it's a full signal. So, it'll have red, yellow, green. So, there'll be stopped and all that. The design is for a full signalization of the intersection. Correct. And then I I want to shout out to Rich Charlton who had the foresight to put the work in right now. So it'll save us money down the line. And the third point is that um as soon as we can because this needs to coordinate with the Maple and Glenn Light. So we still need to have that conversation with county. Um, and I just, you know,

so I I think the intention here, Councilman, is to have this approved, which is why it's on the special public meeting tonight, so that once we have um Bright View, this is my first dealing with this engineering firm, but uh I think James did James did his due diligence, but Bright View Engineering once they're on boarded um for this project, then they will be part of those conversations that we need to have with Burton County.

Excellent. And then just the last last thing I'll say um because I do like traffic lights is that what what we're talking about Glenn and Maple is that the idea is to put a left lead. So just the light only if you're heading north on Maple and want to go west on Glenn. And so previously we thought you need a left turn lane, but it turns out you only need a left light. And so getting these two signals to work together will make it more efficient for everything. So thank you. I'm excited about this. look forward to it.

I don't have any questions, but I want to say a couple things. You first of all, I want to say thank you to Frank and even Lorraine who's not here because this has been such a long time coming. Um, anecdotal story, I got my first car accident at this corner. Um, I think in 1990, um, Glenn Avenue has seen a lot of improvements and on their own they're good, but together they're even better. And I just want to thank engineering for the sidewalk improvements on the lower part, the upper part, and all the hard work. This is this is going to be great. And Evan, um, some of your neighbors were asking me about this at the gym the other day, so I'm going to let you tell them, but this is just wonderful, and I'm so excited to vote on it and award this.

Yeah, I too want to thank Frank for your leadership on this. Um, this issue has been being discussed for at least as long as I've been on this day. Uh, and as long as I've lived in that neighborhood, there's been at least two to three fairly serious accidents at that intersection every year. So, Siobhan, you were not alone in that. I think Lorraine's, one of Lorraine's kids was in an accident at that intersection. Uh, as some of you know, I have a new driver coming into the family this year as well. So, thankfully, she will not have her first accident there as a result of the hard work of the village. And Keith, also want to thank you and James for pushing this through. Again, this has been stalled forever. Um, all seriousness aside, um, sorry, all joking aside, um, this will make for a much safer, um, and also will help with a lot of the traffic that's backed up around there, especially with that left leading turn for anyone that's there as a kid as a school out. It's an absolute mess and this will absolutely fix that problem. So, thank you all.

And and last, just to be clear that it's more than just a few accidents a year that that that intersection sees um over 13 accidents a year. So, over averaging over one a month. So, it actually is one of our worst intersections, which is why we're investing in it. We're moving right along. So, and um just to reiterate, this contract is not for installation. It's for design. It's for design, creation of the bid specs, and then we would do that as a separate work effort. I did build some money into the capital budget for construction.

So, it's not just the design and uh bid specification. So, we may have to bridge that, but we do have some money for construction included in the capital budget that was adopted. Okay, let's go forward. The uh the next item is the 2025 appropriation reserve transfer resolution. Um we have $48,000 being transferred within the current fund and $425,000 being transferred with in the Bridgewood Water Utility Fund and the explanation is on the last page of the memo. Any questions? Okay.

Okay. On policy, um, item B1 was removed from the agenda. Uh, there is some additional conversation that needs to happen with the ordinance working group before we finalize that initiative. Um, item B2 is the approval of the revisions to the field policy. Um, we did receive some slight modifications to the document that was originally circulated before the last council meeting uh that were made uh by the board of education. Most of those changes affect board of education properties as opposed to village properties. Um, and there were a few cleanup items uh within the document, but I am very happy after two long years of reviewing this policy and I think Nancy Beos is happier than I. But uh we are finally ready to recommend to the village council uh the adoption of all of the revisions to the field policy so that both the village and the board of education are current on use.

Thank you. Yeah. I'd like to thank Councilwoman Winterrad for spearheading this and then making sure that all the different groups were treated fairly. Um having read this document, it's so much clearer now. So I appreciate all the work that she and everyone else did to make this solid document. I I want to thank my fields committee. As you know, when you see the fields distribution list, it's like 42 members. So, imagine changing a policy amongst 42 members. Um, I want to thank the board of ed, all the lawyers involved in everybody. This is, as Frank said, one of the biggest victories is it's much more palatable to the general reader, and of course, thank you to Nancy. So, this is very exciting. And I thought it was going to take two months, not two years.

And the biggest win is we're approving it before board of ed. And the last item uh before the special public meeting is on the operation side and this is to resend and replace ordinance 4087 which is blade signs. Uh there was an issue with planning board review on this. Uh this is the same ordinance that the council previously introduced and adopted. Um needs to make a stop off at the planning board in between. Uh so we're asking that this ordinance be reintroduced this evening. And now I'll take a motion to suspend work session and convene the special public meeting. So moved. Second. Order. Yes. Parin. Yes. White.

Yes. Yes.

Uh this is the village council special public meeting March 25th, 2026. And the time is now 9 o'clock. Call to order. Oh, okay. That's right. Okay. Adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by a posting on the bulletin board in Village Hall, by mail to the village to the Ridgewood News, the record, and by submission to all persons entitled to same as provided by law of a schedule including the date and time of this meeting. As per public law 2025, chapter 72, uh, the notice was posted on the village of Rididgewood's legal notices page at rididgewoodj.net. Roll call.

Council member Mortimer still here. Deputy Mayor Par here. Council member Whites here. Council member Winterrad here. Mayor Badiana is absent. Um, I move the first

comments. Oh, sorry. Any comments from the public? Good evening again, Ann Loving Ridgewood resident. Uh actually, um the deputy mayor asked clarification for something that I was going to ask for clarification on. I can't believe that we're spending $44,000, not for a traffic light, but for somebody to design a traffic light. I I just uh I know that village government costs a lot of money, but that's just outrageous to me. I mean, it doesn't look like that complicated of an intersection to me. It's like a t I I just commenting that's all. Thank you, An. Anyone else? Seeing no one else, we'll continue. I'll close public comment. Does anybody want to speak to issues raised? Okay. Um, we'll go on. Uh, this is introduction of ordinance 4094. I move the first reading of ordinance 4094.

Second. Mortimer. Yes. Parin. Yes. Whites. Yes. Wonderrad. Yes. So ordered. Will the clerk please read ordinance 4094 by title? An ordinance to rescend and replace in its entirety ordinance number 4087 to amend chapter 190 of the code of the village of Ridgewood entitled zoning and section 190-122 entitled signs and section 190-122H10 entitled late signs. I move that ordinance 4094 be adopted on the first reading and that April 8th, 2026 be fixed as the date for the hearing thereon. I second the motion. Mortimer. Yes. Heron. Yes. Whites. Yes.

Winter. Yes. Through through you, Deputy Mayor. Um, relative to ordinance 4488 for public hearing, I just want to mention that we do have Matt Jessup, who is our appointed bond council here with us tonight. Uh, so if there's any discussion pertaining to this particular ordinance, Matt is here to abley answer any questions anyone may have. Thank you. I move the clerk read ordinance 4088 by title on second reading and that the public hearing thereon be open. Second. Mortimer. Yes. Perin. Yes. Whites. Yes. Winterrad. Yes.

Will the clerk please read the title of ordinance 4088. a bond ordinance providing for soil remediation at the Shedler property in and by the village of Ridgewood in the county of Bergen, New Jersey, appropriating 1,600,000 therefore and authorizing the issuance of $1,350,000 bonds or notes of the village to finance part of the cost thereof. The public hearing is now open. Uh, anyone here in the courtroom have any comment? Uh, excuse me, want to speak to this? Seeing no one, I'll go to remote. Uh Ellie Gruber, your hand is up. Go ahead. You're unmuted.

This is Emily Gruber. Thank you very much for taking this uh this call. Uh I'm talking about this ordinance. Uh as both the resident and the president of the Subriski Shedler House, I've object to this bond ordinance. This entire project will ruin a community, cause safety and noise problems. Your application was denied by the one group that had the legal task to fully analyze your plan, the Historic Sites Commission. So, you then altered the plan slightly and went to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection for approval and an end run so that you would have approval. You knew that a 2018 promise by the village to the residents was made to erect a smaller multi-use field, no lights, more trees, and you had offers for use of the house. But when you were elected, you discarded all community agreements. You refused an offer to make the house a modest home for documents and small ga gatherings. You disparaged the neighbors. You discarded traffic concerns. You destroyed any sound barriers to Route 17. You misled the residents by stating that the 2018 plan endorsed turf without fully disclosing that it specifically called for further studies about safety of turf. In addition, you have failed to comply with D regulations because there's no plan for the cultural center, no funds allocated, no plan of business to explain how the center will be operated. In addition, the D resolution allowing the athletic field required certain compliance elements which should not have been established or satisfied. Therefore, it is premature for you to be

authorizing these funds. In addition, the matter is on appeal and the legal issues are not yet resolved in favor of the municipality. Thank you. Ellie, did you want to speak to remediation of the soil, which is what this bond is about? I did speak to that. Okay. I object to the bond ordinance. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? I don't see anyone else on remote, nobody else in the courtroom. And um therefore I move that the public hearing be closed. I second that motion. Mortimer. Yes. Aaron, yes. Whites, yes.

Wonderrad,

yes. So through you, Deputy Mayor, I just want to be very clear to Miss Gruber and to the rest of the folks watching at home that this ordinance specifically is exclusively to back up the lo to to support the financing mechanism we need relative to the loan that we're receiving from the Bergen Joint Insurance Fund and the environmental GIF. This is not a bond ordinance that will fund in any way the development of a park at the Shedler property. So much of Miss Gruber's comments tonight had to do with park development. Obviously, she's on record with with her concerns about that. I I appreciate her concerns. Um I understand we're her position on this topic, but this specific bond ordinance is not related to park development. It's exclusively a financial mechanism for us to be able to process the loan that we're receiving from the Bergen Joint Insurance Fund.

Thanks for that, Keith. And to be Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Thanks for that, Keith. And to be clear, this is to clean up dirty soil. I would think this is fairly non-controversial. And again, also Keith, want to thank your efforts um with the GIF to get some of this money uh relieved as well as gets a better interest rate. But to be clear, I don't think anyone um up here, regardless of our whatever our opinions are of what should happen on that property, think that the dirt should be left as is. So I very much support this ordinance and suspect the majority of my colleagues do as well.

And and along along those lines of council member White's comments, there is no choice here. We are mandated by the Department of Environmental Protection to clean up this site and this loan that we're receiving from the Bergen Joint Insurance Fund. um is our mechanism in addition to funds that were previously appropriated by the village council to do this cleanup and to do this soil remediation pro process. Um it it's very different from the um debate in the community about the park development project. This is something that is required and that we have authorization from not only the Bureau of Solid Waste at the NJD, but also from the um from Shipo, from the State Historic Preservation Office uh to move forward with this site remediation aspect of what needs to be done at the Shellet property.

I I just want to say a couple things. First of all, when we have a public hearing regarding a bond, it's typically expressly only for that. So uh because this has been sort of um obviously the the park development is a contentious issue in our community. There should be no contentious on remediation which is statemandated. So the unfortunate fact is that the five of us with even Paul not being here did not place this dirt there on the property. There has been a clamoring. We have the obligation and we're going to clear it. To do that we have to spend money. The money tonight has absolutely nothing to do with park development. We could leave it. it could be 100% passive and this step would still need to occur. So, while I respectfully understand the debate about the development of the project, I want to make sure that the public understands that these millions of dollars are required spend because prior administration placed dirty dirt. And I think the sentiment from the community should be that that has to be addressed, which is what we're doing tonight. So, I just want to thank everybody who put it together. I want to thank our bond council. I want to be gracious to the GIF who's loaned us this and hopefully this will remediate it and get um get the the land restored to where it was when we purchased it. So that's all I want to say.

So it's up to you now. Um so on that I move that ordinance 4088 be adopted on the second reading and final publication as required by law. I second that motion. Mortimer. Yes. Per yes. Whites. Yes. Wiggrad. Yes. I move the clerk read ordinance 4089 by title on second reading and that the public hearing thereon be opened. I second. Mortimer yes. Heron, yes. Whites, yes. Wiggrad, yes. Will the clerk please read the title of ordinance 4089?

An ordinance to amend chapter 190 land use and development by repealing existing article 13 affordable housing in its entirety and replacing it with a new article 13 affordable housing. The public hearing is now open. Seeing no one in the courtroom or remotely uh I will now close public comment. I sec. Oh, sorry. Mortimer. Yes. Aaron, yes. Whites, yes. Yes. I move that ordinance 4089 be adopted on the second reading and final publication as required by law. I'd like to second that motion. Mortimer, yes. Heron, yes. Whites, yes. Wiggrad,

yes. The following resolutions number 26-96 through 26-98 will be adopted by consent agenda with Rumbok by the village council. They will be read by title only. Award professional services contract professional traffic engineering services upgrade of signalized intersection Oak Street and East Glenn Avenue. Authorize 2025 budget reserve transfers and approve revisions to field policy. I have a motion. So moved. Second. Watermer. Yes. Parin. Yes. Whites. Yes. And wiggrad. Yes. Okay. I need a motion to adjourn the special public meeting and reconvene the work session. So moved.

Second. All in favor? I I opposed. Okay. And now we will return to our work session agenda item 13C1. Thank you, Deputy Mayor. This is the award of contract under the state contract for the purchase of diesel fuel and gasoline. Um, this is our first request for the year, hopefully be our only request for the year, uh, to appropriate a not to exceed amount of $500,000 to buy gasoline and diesel fuel as needed from the New Jersey state contract. Any questions, comments from the deis?

Half a million dollars. I'm with you. Let's go electric. I have never seen a bill this this high for for our fuel. It's astounding, but it's it's across the nation. And again, it was one of the major considerations with the budget introduction in addition to healthcare and um snow removal and some of the other major issues that we're dealing with. But to be clear, if prices do go down, we're not obligated to spend the full amount. It's just depreciation. And so there's still hope, right? Absolutely. I mean, you know, we're it's a very hard thing to predict, especially under the current state of the world. But, um, you know, if if those

appropriations are not expended by year end, you know, they'll be able to be canceled and moved over the surplus later in the year. But, um, right now, we need to prepare for what we may be looking at in the next few months. Yep. No, agreed. Um, item D1, um, is actually what I referred to earlier, which was the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Center for Natural Resources, partnering with the Municipality on Flood Mitigation. I'm actually going to ask to hold this to revisit it on Monday. Um, there's a couple questions that came up today that I need to fill in the blanks on, so I'm going to ask Heather to add this to Monday's agenda uh, with the council's permission. Oh, okay. Okay. I did just want to say I love the concept.

Yeah. the the concept is great. I just I need I need to fill in uh a couple of the blanks um before um before I ask you for your consent. So um I have James working on getting those answers and we'll have them by Monday and then we'll be able to discuss this and still vote on it at the April 8th meeting. Great. Then I do have a question. Sure. Will uh will a hydraologist from NJIT be one of the researchers? I believe so. Okay. I will confirm that but I believe so. Thank you.

Okay. Um under E operations we have uh two requests for resolutions. One is to endorse the submission of the recycling tonnage grant um as it's been prepared by Sean Hamlin's office. Uh resolution is attached. I have a question about the resolution. Okay. Uh on the last wherefore paragraph on the first page, it references the calendar year 2025. We we do this retroactively. So the dates are the dates are correct. Gotcha.

Okay. And then finally, uh we have a memorandum from Lieutenant Chuck of the Ridgewood Police Department declaring property surplus uh for multiple police cars as listed in the memorandum and the attached resolution. I love the names hower, siren, and amp. And that concludes my portion of the agenda, deputy mayor. Okay. And we will go back to public comment.

Good evening, Michael. No, Ridgewood resident. I wonder Is that Is that mic on? Because we're not hearing. Yes, it's on. speak up a little bit.

Michael, no Rididgewood resident. I wanted to thank Mr. Kasmark. I spoke to him about a month ago about a situation with the Saddle River uh down by Grove Street. Um the Saddle River comes straight and it sort of makes a left-hand turn right next to Grove Street. And right at that area, there's a massive uh sandbar that's probably 50 feet wide that blocks the river. And what's happening is the river keeps going closer and closer to Grove Street. And I'm glad to see that they're putting some money aside to try to uh scoop out the sand bars that are in there. Um so that was one thing. Uh second thing, I'm glad to see that we did away with the bell or appears that we did away with the bell. I didn't think it was necessary. And the last thing is about the appraisal. I wish we could have asked them some questions. So, I know there's a meeting coming up on Tuesday, but I was around for the last uh re-evaluation and the one thing that sort of puzzled me was that um when the person came to my house, uh we have two levels and there was a bathroom on the second floor and he said, "I don't really need to go up there. You know, how many fixtures do you have?" And I said, "Well, we have three fixtures." And he said, "Oh," he says, "Okay, that's all I need to know." I noticed on the slide tonight they're going to look at the condition of kitchens and bathrooms and stuff. So when they had the last re-evaluation, I said, "Well, if house A has a $5,000 kitchen and house B has a $50,000 kitchen, it's still the same number of fixtures in kitchens and bathrooms." It didn't make any sense to me. So hopefully that'll be straightened out. I'll try to come back for the Tuesday meeting to ask that question. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? Cynthia O'Keefe Ridge Rididgewood resident. I think this is on. Yes, I see the green light.

Um, so I guess my question about the um the meeting in April, I believe you said it was April 8th if I'm not mistaken. Oh, sixth. Okay, sorry. Sixth. Um, how do you plan to communicate out to not only the Shedler neighborhood, but I guess the wider community because there are other people, you know, out outside of our neighborhood who are interested in what's going on. Um, so what's the the method of communication to ensure because that's not that far away and we have Easter coming up. Um, so how are we going to get the word out? Not everybody's on social media. Um that's I think an important consideration to make. Um one thing I did want to mention is you know um you're passing this bond ordinance but um I I believe the that matrix um agreed that the burm should be removed. I don't know if that's because you know uh you you're in favor of it or if they truly believe that the burm should be removed. Um but I you know and and then the uh the remediation plan submitted to the NJT was then approved. But I guess my question has always been if that was a consideration because it is quite a bit more money to remove all those boulders. There are a lot of like red rocks. Um I don't know if you've been over there and you've seen these rocks but there's you know giant boulders and other things that you know will also be you know costly to remove and I guess dispose of somewhere. Um so those were my two questions. Um it is important again to get the the word out to to people so that they can make accommodations um and get you know get to these meetings um after work because you I think believe you said it was at 6:30. And just one last comment and this is

just me being a little nitpicky. when you guys are all up there talking when someone's speaking. I mean, it's like a little rude and also it's hard for I couldn't hear what Ellie Gruber was saying. So, you know, it was hard enough to hear her based on maybe it was her phone, but also a bunch of you were were having a little chat fest and like whatever you were talking about must have been important, but it also takes away from our ability to hear the caller. So maybe you don't realize that, but I had a really difficult time hearing her, you know, given the fact that the acoustics have been improved. So just a little something for your suggestion box. Thank you. Thank you, Cynthia.

Uh good evening, Mayor and Council Boy Loving Ridgewood resident. Uh, with respect to the reassessment, one thing that I did not hear uh, tonight and talk pretty fast so maybe I missed it was changes to the neighborhood, changes to a neighborhood that have taken place since the reval in 2008 and how those are going to be taken into account as far as the reassessment is concerned. Um, for example, Valley Hospital doesn't exist anymore at that location. That means that the traffic in that neighborhood is significantly down from where it was when the hospital existed, which could impact the value of the homes in the area. They may be more valuable now that there is less traffic. Uh there have been a number of highdensity housing projects built which have created traffic specifically on Broad Street. So who is going to work with this team to ensure that they are familiar with the the changes in neighborhoods that could or could not have an impact in the value of homes in those areas. Uh those are changes that have happened. Valley Hospital, the construction of some highdensity housing, but perhaps more important are changes that are likely to happen like Kensington. Can that be taken into account or does that have to wait until that's actually built? Uh certainly right now there may be some hesitation on the part of folks who buy homes in that neighborhood not knowing what to expect. So that may be affecting the value of homes in the area. So again, who is going to be working with um you know, Mr. Palumbo works for the village, but is he going to be the one that exclusively works with this team to ensure that they are familiar with changes to neighborhoods that have taken place since 2008 that could impact the value of properties in the area. So, that is something that I did not hear discussed tonight and I'm

hoping that that goes into the mix in terms of uh what's going to be looked at in terms of values. Thank you so much. Thank you. Anyone else in the room? Okay, nobody else in the room is interested in commenting. We will go to uh remote. Uh Ellie, you're up again. Hey. Um I'm sorry they didn't have a chance to hear me. Yeah. Can you speak closer to your phone or to your mic, Ellie? Okay. Sorry. Is that better? Yes, it is.

Okay. The reason I made the comment last week when you announced the agenda, the exact words of your bond ordinance were Shedler property soil remediation, adoption of a bond ordinance to officially fund the cleanup and development of the Shedler site. When you had the bond ordinance tonight, you took away those words. My comment was based on the original notice of your bond ordinance which was posted last week and I think it's a little bit disingenuous first of all to tell me that I'm inappropriate when I was making my comments based on what you originally posted as what you were supposeding what you were proposing for the bond ordinance again your exact words were adoption of a bond ordinance to officially fund the cleanup and development of the Shedler site. So, I am not misspeaking. You changed the words of the bond ordinance you voted on tonight.

Thank you, Ellie. Thank you. Anyone else? Seeing no one, I will close public comment. Does anybody on the deis wish to comment?

I I would, Deputy Mayor. Um first of all to Mr. No, thank you um for those comments on the Shaw over by Grove Street. Uh that has been identified for engineering as a place to uh consider as we put together the scope of work uh for the flood mitigation project. Um with regard to the reassessment, I think it's a great question um about the uh the visitations um and the the fixtures. Um I do know that they're supposed to put eyes on it. Um, I don't know as we get to crunch time, as the deadlines loom, how flexible they are with that, but I think that would be a great question to be asked on, um, on Tuesday evening. Um, to Cynthia, uh, with regard to the means of communication, every resident in the Shedler neighborhood is going to receive a letter from me. Uh, we're trying to get those out by the end of the week. Um, it's going to outline the scope of work. It's going to outline um the, um, police presence. It's going to invite residents to come to the meeting uh that's scheduled for April 6th. There's also going to be a QR code on the letter uh that is going to allow people to sign up on a Google form uh to include their name, their address, their cell phone contact, and their email. Um and there'll be multiple fields to allow for multiple people in the household to receive those notifications um during the course of the project in case there is any type of health concern because that is one of the things that came up and was a prominent discussion uh back at the November resident meeting. Um, with regard to the burm, nine, if I my memory serves, nine of the 14 sections of the burm that were tested, um, came back with soil that would need to be excavated. So based on that and based on the ability to delineate the areas of the burm um of

where that contamination starts and where that contamination stops is what led matrix to make the recommendation to the village to reme to remove the entire burm as part of this remediation process. So, I just want to be clear is I know back at that November meeting with the residents, there were concerns about retesting and how do we know that all of the um all of the affected soil and material is going to be removed. If we tried to delineate the areas of the burm, it would have become it would become very difficult to figure out exactly how to remove nine of the 14 sections that were tested. Um, and with regard to talking over Miss Gruber, um, I I did lean to Matt because um, the conversation was supposed to be specifically about the contents of the Boden ordinance, which was the remediation piece, and that was what I I asked Matt um, whether he thought that we were off topic on the top on the public hearing aspect of this. Um, with regard to with regard to Mr. loving. Um I will uh I will certainly ask about neighborhood changes. Um I can't answer that specific question. What I can tell you is that they cannot project what might happen in a neighborhood futuristically. Um what Rob said tonight was very specific. It's a snapshot in time on October 1st of 2026 where those valuations land for each of the properties in the village. So there will be no uh hypothesizing or or consideration of what might come next. Um but whether or not there has been any type of significant change in the neighborhood, I will pose that question and ask them to address that at the public meeting on um on Tuesday night. And with regard to um what this bond ordinance covers, Matt, if I could just

ask you to come up um to address that specific item that Miss Gruber mentioned there at the end. as Matt comes up, what I what I can say to the council and to the public is that this ordinance is a mechanism to utilize the loan and the loan is not covering park development. The loan only covers the soil remediation. We would be in violation of the terms of the loan if we were to use it for anything other than remediating the contaminated soil on the site. So with that said, Matt, if you want to address that aspect of it, I would appreciate it.

Uh, certainly. So, good evening, Deputy Mayor and Council. Matt Jessup, McNadam Scotland Endowment. Uh, I just want to read specifically from section 3A of the bond ordinance, uh, which of course is the same bond ordinance that was introduced. You could not amend between introduction and tonight final adoption. Uh the improvement hereby authorized and the purpose the purpose for the financing of which the bonds are to be issued is soil remediation at Shedler Field including all work and materials necessary therefore an incidental thereto and is more particularly described in section 31 little i3 of bond ordinance number 4045. Bond ordinance 4045 was a bond ordinance you adopted last year in connection with the exact same project soil remediation at uh Shedler Field. So this bond ordinance does not authorize uh further development improvements etc. It is limited to soil remediation at Shedler. And and Matt, can you further explain uh just because it has come up at a previous council meeting uh the interface between the loan that we're receiving from the Bergen Joint Insurance Fund and the mechanism that's needed through this bond ordinance uh to process that loan or to support that loan?

Yep. Uh simply put, municipalities in New Jersey have very few ways to uh enter into loans or to borrow money. Uh that is of course intentional. State law is very strict on your ability to borrow money in any fashion. Any loan that you undertake as a municipality needs to be adopted by a bond ordinance. Now there are other mechanisms if you were to do a loan through an improvement authority for example but they are very limited and specific circumstances. So in this case you have a general loan coming in from the GIF not unlike if you've received green acres loan funding before as opposed to grant funding. Same thing. We do a bond ordinance which under state law is what is necessary to evidence your ability to and authorize your ability to enter into that loan. Um you don't necessarily actually physically issue a bond to evidence the loan. It depends on each loan. Uh you may have a loan agreement instead. Regardless, you need this authorization under state law in order to be able to borrow money. So there is no guarantee that there's going to there's a need for debt service depending on how we structure the payments moving forward. Is that correct?

Uh correct. Thank you. I don't know if anyone else from the day has any questions for Matt. Okay. Thanks Matt. Appreciate it. Thank you. I think that brings us to the end of our agenda.

I I did just want to add uh two things. So with respect to um neighborhoods that have had development that already exists, one bill will be able to see those on the tax map. So let's take Broen Cadillac. Broen T Cadillac has a reassessed value. So they will the tax assessor is uniquely qualified to see the financial impact because all those maps are updated. I know that because when we look at it from my neighborhood, we saw a lot of development around it. So if you look at an area that's past the point of development, Broen, um, Kent Smith, all of them, they're at a new assessed value and they'll see that similar to Valley, you know, Valley wasn't on the tax map and now they will be. Um, I did just want to say two things that with respect to our relationship with Matrix, we are solely reliant on the recommendations from the LSRP. It's not us telling them. And this is similar to like when the board of ed had the remediation at Orchard. I'm very proud of our LSRP and the choices we've made to hire them. And so we are reliant on the recommendations they make. And lastly to Ellie that I think the clamoring over here at least from what I could understand from me is that our public hearings are limited in scope. We can't have if we have a hearing about A, we can't have people talk about C, D, E. And that's just because Pam's the chair and its record. So we were trying to make the decision when the development discussion occurred to let the free speech comment go or say this is particularly to the bond. So we let the comment stand and we just want to say apologies if it seemed rude but when it comes to a public hearing speech is incredibly limited and we were seeking clarification as to whether that comment was in and Pam let it in as the chair which was the right call but that's what we were really discussing. Um that's it.

And deputy mayor, I have one thing I just want to add with regard to the tax appeal pro I mean the the u reassessment process and Mr. Loings comments. Um you know much of the data and much of the information that is used and utilized during the reassessment process is prior property sales whether they be commercial properties or residential properties. With regard for instance was brought up Valley Hospital moving out. There'll be two years of data with regard to property sales in that area. if there's any significant change that's comp, you know, certainly compressed into their consideration and how that gets adjusted uh with something going forward just because it's going there might be a change in a neighborhood going forward and and how to deal with that and you're not allowed to at least project what might happen. But at the same time, it's not as if you're cut off from having an avenue of approach with regard to the tax assessor and what potentially may be any increase that you get in your assessment. There is still a process available to address that so you're not being shut out because there might be some type of a component of a change in a neighborhood that has an effect on your assessment. So, and much of this is going to be based on comps. So if since Valley Hospital moved out in April of 2024, you know, if houses in that area have sold for more because of reduced traffic, because of less, you know, interference in the neighborhood, so to speak, then that will show in the comparable sales during that time period. Um, that combined with the inspections to determine, you know, the value of the interior of the house. Is it a, to use Mr. No's point, a $5,000 bathroom or a $50,000 bathroom or kitchen? Um, you know, those those are the determining factors in in in establishing the new value.

Any other comments? Okay. Yep. Do we have a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Second. All in favor? I I