Village Council - Regular Meeting

Ready?

Yeah. Good evening. This is the village council public workshop. The date is March 30th, 2026. The time is 7:30. 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 the schedule including the date and time of this meeting. A notice was also posted on the village of Rididgewood's legal notices page at rididgewoodj.net. Roll call. Council member Mortimemer here. Deputy Mayor Parin here. Council member Whites is absent. Council member Winterrad here. Mayor Rajanos

here. Will you all please join us in a salute to our flag? 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. And before we begin tonight, I'd like to ask Pen Miller Jones to come to the microphone. Uh Penn is a new business owner in town and we all want to hear a little bit about it and wish him great success. How are you tonight, Penny?

Uh fine, thank you. Uh new business owner and we've been residents in the town for 15 years now, I believe. So, we're excited to get this started. We're in the process of not only starting our franchise which will be called the Milkshake Factory uh but we're also looking to purchase the building at 6163 Eastridge Wood which was the old Duxiana space. Uh my wife and I have worked in finance for the last 25 to 30 years. We have been looking for something to do that will take us into the next chapter of our lives. and we spent a lot of time looking at franchises. Uh my son was out at the University of Pittsburgh. This company was based out in Pittsburgh. We would go to one of their stores quite frequently and another friend of ours uh has had a decent amount of success in the franchise space and told us that he was getting involved in the milkshake factory. And ironically enough, we knew what it was. Uh so we started to look into it. We spent some time out in Pittsburgh. We went to their discovery day. uh got approved to get three licenses for the franchise. Uh so we have a good deal of Bergen County, but really wanted to have the first location in Rididgewood because we live here and we thought it would be great for the community. Um we anticipate probably hiring somewhere between 15 to 20 individuals. One of the reasons why we really thought this franchise would be successful was just because of the fact that it's milkshakes or ice cream. Uh when you see how this uh space will be built out. We're putting a lot of money into this space. It just looks like it's going to be a fun place for people to work. I think families will be able to come here for dessert. It's right across from the square, so we're hoping that we've got a great location. And who doesn't uh like a milkshake? Uh the business will also sell uh handmade

chocolates and so forth. So the there's stuff for people to enjoy when it's a little cooler out during the uh winter months, but uh we are hoping to be closing on the purchase of the building within the next week to week and a half. Uh Mark and Fonte will be doing the construction for us. So he will be building out the space and we hope to be open by the end of July is kind of what I'm hoping. My fingers are crossed. and then uh a swift brisk business when all the kids are walking back home from school to stop in and get emotion.

Well, Mark, this all sounds very, very exciting. Um I think we're all wondering over here, what is it about the milkshake factory that makes it special? We've all had milkshakes. Why are these, I'm guessing, better than the average milkshake? I think that the family behind the franchise has spent a good deal of time making sure that there is a consistent product. I don't know how many of you actually go to a Van Dykes or to a Hogenas or to Ben & Jerry's and actually order the milkshake, but usually when you order the milkshake, the people behind the counter roll their eyes because it's quite a process that they have to go through. I think that what you'll find here is the the the process or the system that they've put in place uh makes it a lot easier to get the milkshake. I think that you're going to find you get a consistent flavor and taste in each one of them. And I think that that's really what is going to differentiate from the rest of the businesses out there. Uh we do not sell ice cream. You won't be ordering ice cream in a cup or a cone. It's it's simply milkshakes or sundaes. So, um those that want to have ice cream can continue to go to the local spots, but this will be specifically really for the milkshakes.

Well, it sounds very exciting. Council, any comments or questions? All good. No discounts needed for for town employees or anything like that. Okay. We're we're going to discuss that at a later date when we're not on camera. Okay. Excellent. Mark, lots of good luck. Thank you very much. Oh, excuse me, pen. Beg your pardon. I said mark. Sorry about that.

Good. Um, let's go to public comment. Anybody? Seeing none, I'm going to close public comment and we'll go to our manager report. Thank you, mayor. Um, first of all, I want to wish everyone a happy Passover and a happy Easter as we approach the holidays this week. Um, we will be holding two community meetings. the first of which will be held tomorrow night, March 31st, with appraisal systems to discuss and answer any questions regarding the upcoming reassessment. And then on April 6th, we'll be meeting with the residents of the Shedler neighborhood to hear from Matrix Engineering who's done our environmental work over on the Shedler property with relative to the soil testing along with our soil rem remediation um contractor which is Northstar. We'll be working with the Ridgewood Police Department and the Ridgewood Public Schools on traffic and bus routes and all that type of thing. and we'll be able to answer any questions that members of the public have after a presentation from each of those groups. Both the meetings um both the reassessment meeting and the Shedler neighborhood meeting both will begin at 6:30 p.m. here in the courtroom and hybrid access will be available to both um on each of those nights. For those of you who are spotting potholes around town, um just want to again encourage you to email our streets division at streets at rididgewoodj.net. Uh we've set up a special email for the division to be able to receive any specific complaints about potholes that need to be filled. Um last week the budget newsletter arrived at homes throughout the village. Just want to remind everybody that our public hearing on our municipal budget is still slated for April 8th at 7:30 p.m. as part of our public meeting.

Online registration for grade and pool tennis pickle ball badges begins on April 1st. That's this Wednesday. You can sign up through community pass. Badge distribution will be in person Monday through Friday at the stable during regular business hours and at the Graden Badge office on Saturday, May 9th at Saturday, May 16th from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. 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. The Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce will present their Easter in the Park event at Vaness Square this Saturday, April 4th, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. There'll be an egg hunt, Easter bunny pictures, music, games, vendors, and more. For more information, contact the chamber office. Yardway season begins on Monday, April 6th. Please check your printed village calendar for your collection area. And finally, upcoming village council meetings. April 8th is our public meeting. It's also our budget adoption meeting and April 22nd is our next work session. Both begin at 7:30 p.m. That's all I have tonight. Mayor,

thank you, Keith. Let's go to council reports. Frank, yeah, the um last Thursday the Richwood Arts Council had their um artist talk in the library. Um and a special thanks to Mark Caner who uh was the MC for the event and he did a phenomenal job and it was unbelievably packed. It was literally flowing out of the room. So, just want to thank everybody that attended and for everybody else to know you should go next year. That's it. Great. Thank you, Siobhan.

Sure. So, last Friday I had the pleasure of attending the library uh focused strategy group. Um it was amazing. I want to thank our library staff for a wonderful program and it was talking about the library next steps and things that we want to do in terms of a strategic plan. Some interesting fun facts that came out of it is that our library each year welcomes 225,000 visitors with 51,000 attendees at it a myriad of its events like Frank just mentioned. Um each year they make library cards and do all of that. The fun, the one that made me laugh was every year they host the third graders for their visits and they print out all their cards for them and then when they come back for freshman focus they reprint the same cards for the kids. Um it was interesting. One of the things I want to remind the public is that the library um about 10 years ago really isn't just about books. It's about programming, about museum passes. Today I went over and I told I'm not gonna say who, some members up here about um the library of things. You can actually go borrow a leaf blower or borrow a game. So if you haven't been to the library, I suggest you get there because it's awesome. And I just want to say thank you to everybody who was in this information session. Um they have hired a strategist and I'm looking forward to what they have to say. And lastly, um I just I too want to wish everybody a happy everything this week. whatever you're celebrating. I hope you enjoy it with your families and happy everything.

Thanks, Siobhan. Pam.

Oh, right. Uh, okay. I mentioned this at the last meeting. There's going to be a law enforcement appreciation day and the flyers for it are downstairs in the lobby on the table as you enter. And uh this is to appreciate as says uh various law enforcement officers. There will be a color guard and blessings given. And this will be at the Good Sheepard Church at 233 South Highwood Avenue in Glenn Rock. Um the I'm sorry. Oh, that's a April 12th uh at 10:00 a.m. And uh Green Ridgewood will meet next on April 9th in the senior lounge at 7:30 downstairs. The central business district advisory committee will meet at on April 9th as well. That will be at 8:30 in the morning. I just don't know whether that's going to be via Zoom or in person and I don't know what room it's in yet. Um the Richard Arts Council interview with Tamara Freeman was really heartwarming. Many of you may know Tamara Freeman from her years teaching in the Ridgewood school system. Uh, but it really is thanks to her that my three kids know how to read music and love to sing and play instruments. So, she really opened up doors for so many kids in Ridgewood. Um, I really appreciated her telling us about her background and what she's working on now. And it's just fascinating the research she did for her doctorate on music of the Holocaust. Uh, and happy Pesak to those who observe.

Thanks, Pam. And I have nothing other than Zeiss Pesak. So, let's all enjoy the holiday and let's move on to our agenda. Mayor, I'd like to call out Rich Calby, our director of Ridgewood Water. Um he has two items this evening under uh under RW and then one item under budget tonight with regard to a professional service contract award for our drug and alcohol testing and pre-employment physicals. Um Rich is the coordinator um of that function for all of our bluecollar employees for the drug testing and alcohol procedures. So he's going to talk a little bit about that tonight. Rich, thank you.

If I may make a quick announcement, it's okay. Please do. So I'm proud to say Friday we activated the fifth of 12 PAS facilities and today we activated the sixth. So six or 12 facilities are now active. Congratulations and thank you so much. It's good good news. You by the way you can announce those things anytime.

Yes. No, we're we're very happy for that. Okay. So it's actually three items underwater. There was a late late addition. Uh but the first one is um to enter into a collaborative with a company called Revive. Revive is in the business of destroying PAS and they'd like to do a research project with with the utility um to study a means of reactivating carbon in situ inside the vessels instead of having to take the carbon out of the vessels, ship it out of state, regenerate it, and bring it back. Um this will probably be a year-long pilot. um it won't involve any um you know no bother to our current system. It'll just be a wall-mounted um system and we'll only have to just check on it, take the samples and mail them out to the company and then at the end they'll do a full report and provide it for our use and hopefully it proves out um and they get it approved and it might be something we could use in the future to save a lot of time and and money for the operation of our systems.

Good questions. Yes. Is this up and running anywhere else? No. So, we are the guinea pig. They they have the technology to destruct POS which they're using, but now they want to add on to that to create a method whereby they destroy it inside the vessel and then put it into their destruction system before it's taken off site. I'm so impressed with the forward thinking here. I really appreciate it. It's the next step. Thank you. Great. All good. And this is at no charge. No charge. We're just providing some inind services, checking on the system and taking the samples and providing some water. Excellent.

So then the next item is a guide rail replacement by New Jersey Department of Transportation. We were contacted by uh the department that they are um replacing guide rails along Route 17 and Route 208. Um it impacts uh areas of Rididgewood um and Glenrock. um they want to enter or asking that we enter in an agreement whereby they will provide and pay for design and engineering services should they encounter our water lines and that we would then be responsible if we had to move any of those lines out of the way within their their rightway. So it's essentially an approval to enter into those agreements with the state

questions. Generally speaking, how often are the water pipes that close that we do have several crossings along both um highways? So, it's per it's a perpendicular 90° crossing. So, it's not lateral long, but we're coming pretty deep right underground. They have footings on the guide rails. So, that would be the impact. You know, the current guide rails that are in place are not conflicting, but the new ones, they might have new footing locations. Understood. Thank you, Richard. Thank you. Good. Let's go.

Uh the third item under water, this is a supplemental uh bond ordinance. Uh this is to create an appropriation to supplement an ordinance that was approved in 2023 for the four of the biggest POS plants. Uh back in 23, uh council approved a bond order for $42 million. All four projects under that ordinance have already been approved and are actually under construction, but we need to consider the additional fees and administrative expenses and contingencies that the I bank requires us to carry on all four of those loans. And this only came up because we were going to close the fourth and final loan. And Matt Jessup from McMadman Scott flagged it that the existing ordinance from 2023 would be short. So he's recommending an additional $4 million as an appropriation to cover those additional costs, mainly fees that we pay to the I bank for the loan, administrative expense contingencies that they carry on each loan. I could tell you we haven't sought reimbursement on those items. Um so that why I use the word appropriation. This is so we could close the loan. You know, I believe going forward we won't use all of it, but we need to do it to get the loan approved. questions.

All good. Thanks.

And the the fourth item is not a rigid water item, but it's under um budget. Our current uh vendor for drug and alcohol testing and pre-employment physicals is pivoting to a different model whereby they're no longer allowing in-house testing at any of their facilities. So, we sought out and looked for alternatives and actually found one that's even cheaper. So this is a recommendation to move move to a new company, Concentra Health Services. Uh their main office is out of Texas, but they have multiple offices here in New Jersey. They provide all pre-employment physicals for the village, all drug and alcohol testing. In addition, they would oversee the commercial driver's license program um drug testing that's done once a quarter for the entire village in Rigid Water. So, it's a recommendation uh to enter in a one-year contract with them, not to exceed $17,500. Um, they have two locations um near Ridgewood that employees would go to and to see the L testing would be done at any of their drug and alcohol testing centers.

Questions? So, the two for the physical is closed, but where the drug testing ones? There's actually more locations. I I don't know exactly where they are, but you put your location in and they'll tell you the closest facility. Actually, administratively wise, this this is a big improvement for us, too. They have a whole portal online. The employees will actually get a text. One one is in Clifton and the others the other location is in Terboro. Okay. Clifton's closer. Yes. Pretty good. Great. Thank you, Rich. Thank you so much,

Keith. Mayor, our next item is to authorize a property tax refund for block 3307 lot 2 in the amount of $21,567 and 8 cents. This is for a taxexempt veteran. Everybody good? Mhm. Go. Could I just say Rich, you went to uh NJIT, right? Are you going to give it a little shout out before you leave? Yes. You know the I got two degrees from NGIT later. I was I just want to reference it because this is later in our agenda and I thought Rich was going to speak to it and I just wanted everyone to know that all this good thinking and all this water planning comes from an alum. Look at that. One of the best educations in New Jersey.

Chief, have you come up? So the next item, item three is an award of contract for the billing of basic life support services. Um as council may recall, uh we went with Coronus Health. um not long after I got here. It's uh this would be authorization for the extension of a three-year contract. Chief Judge has worked closely with them for BLS billing and seems to have positive results. Right, John? It's been incredibly successful over the last three years with them. So, we'll be looking next year to either continue or rebid it or uh depending on their numbers, they're under the county co-op which we joined last year just in case as a backup as well. So, it's been very good for us.

Questions? Anybody? what makes it incredibly successful. Um, so before fire department started overseeing this, uh, we were talking about 297 to 350 a year. Uh, two year first two years of FD overseeing it was 520 540 revenue and last year was 700,000 in revenue. So it's been more than double above. Great. Thank you. Yeah, it's great. Great. Thanks for Thank you for all your work with them. Yep. Absolutely.

Absolutely. So C4 is a late addition to the agenda and this is a request for a capital reallocation for the purchase request of the new ambulance. Um the chief had spoken to me about this late last week. Um we are down an ambulance unit. Um and we have the potential to secure a new unit um at a significantly lower cost uh than what we have spent in the past and what other municipalities have spent in the past. So, I'm going to let the chief um explain exactly the circumstances that we find ourselves in and what his recommendation is to move forward.

Great. Thank you, Keith. So, Ambulance 48 is the oldest of the fleet. It has reached over 10 years old. Um for most career departments or those who are using it on a busier basis like we are, most people are six, seven, eight, nine years. We're past that. Uh more importantly is we've towed it three times in the last couple months. Uh we've had it out for repair both in-house and out of vendors multiple times and it's just not reliable. It's stopping on the way to calls. It's stopping the patient in the it's there's an issue with it. Um with that we were able to discuss with the person we purchased the ambulance from a couple years ago. He had a two ambulances come in that a career department backed out on. So that's why the price point is at current pricing, not newer pricing. and also why it'd be available within the next 30 to 60 days versus the normal would be about 350 to 400,000 in about two three years. We're looking with a tradein of the ambulance we're going to give willing to give us a trade in for we're looking at 246 in like 30 days. Uh the only catch is we'd have to transfer money from the engine syncing fund to pay for this. So we don't have to do emergency appropriation, but we would have to transfer that money, reallocate it,

and we're okay with that with the

So listen, ideally, the sinking fund was finalized this year to get us to the 1.2 million that we need to secure the fire engine apparatus, but we need to have a working fleet of three ambulance in order to properly response respond to EMS calls. So we've discussed this at length over the last few days and you know I don't think there is another recommendation because at the end of the day the ambulance is going to support you know life-saving emergency calls and if we need to reallocate closer to the end of the year um money that would go against next year's capital budget in order to try to get the engine ordered. We can do that. I don't think we're ready to do that yet. I think the priority right now is this ambulance replacement and then as we get to the latter part of the year, we'll talk about maybe doing a a a supplemental bond ordinance to replenish the sinking fund, but we'll apply that against next year's 7.5 million that we traditionally bond for these types of expenses.

Yeah, I I I think you use the word reliable. An ambulance must be reliable. So there's there's another avenue to replenish the scing fund and we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. But right now we need a viable. Yeah. The bigger concern is that that and the other one which also has had many issues recently. If they both were to go down, we'd be three years out and 150,000 probably more. Yep. So that's my one question that I clearly the ambulance goes first. I just meant financially. Are we okay? What is the savings by assuming the abandoned contract? Just are we getting Sorry. you said that we're getting an ambulance that was sort of left by

So if you were if I were to go out today and replace what we currently have actually the exact model I'd say I'm probably in the 44 450 mark right if I were to get just something else run the mill u from this gentleman right now if I were to order because I have an email from him about if I were to ask for an ambulance today and order out he said you're looking at 350 base to start and a couple years I'm looking at a 28 chassis okay right now So this is one of those kind of fell in our lap. We got because of the relationship we had with him, he gave us a call and said, "Hey, this is here." And it kind of just jived with all the problems we were having.

The availability of this particular rig is why we expedited having this on tonight's agenda because if we get the approval from the council here, we can pass a resolution in a week and a half. The chief can with your okay tonight give them a um preliminary response that we're going to move forward with this. we'll be able to resol put this on resolution next week and we'll be able to move forward in short order at a at a significantly discounted rate than if we were to buy an ambulance um other than this. I have one more question. Yes, ma'am.

I've heard that ambulances these days are like emergency rooms on wheels. So my question is, will we after purchasing this vehicle have to spend more money to equip it with um state-of-the-art medical equipment? Perfect question. So everything that's in there we can take out and put in the new um that includes the stretcher, the stair chair, all things like that. The only thing additional which we'd have to purchase is a single radio uh which I have a radio fund for which I'd have to purchase for that as well. that in the install, we're talking maybe $11,000 and I have that money in a separate capital account already. The only thing we need, right, great. Great. Thanks, Chief. Thank you. Thank you all for your time.

Okay. Thanks, Chief. Appreciate it. I forgot to say thank you for all the warranty information that you sent me. You're welcome.

The next item under policy um is something we held over from last week to this week, and this is the NJIT grant acceptance for a storm water management study. Um the engineering department has been talking to the engineering department at New York institute a New Jersey Institute of Technology Center for Natural Resources and we have successfully submitted a grant application uh to study engineering and hydrarology and they want to partner with the village of Rididgewood. Uh the primary goal of this partnership is to design comprehensive flood mitigation strategies, storm water drainage improvements, and other infrastructure recommendation. These fundings will not only benefit the village, but will also serve as a foundational model for other municipalities throughout the state of New Jersey. The great thing about this partnership with NJIT is that there is absolutely no cost to the village. the uh we will be allocated one full-time engineer to specifically work on this project for a 24-month period, two years. Uh they will conduct a detailed hydraology and hydraulics study and perform a formal benefit cost analysis for every proposed solution to ensure the economic and operational vitality of that recommendation is doable here at Rididgewood. Um they're going to there's will be a data sharing component. There'll be collaborative support. Uh there'll be engineering support. Um and at the end of the day, James is strongly recommending this understanding that our flooding issues are not going away anytime soon. And also acknowledging the fact that, you know, unfortunately, and I was excited about it at one point, but we've sort of hit a wall with the Army Corps of Engineers. This isn't a political statement, but you know, with a new administration in Washington, you know, their resources are not what they were before. Um, that's a fact. So, um, this is a good opportunity for us to endeavor, uh, with professional staff

who can make good recommendations, work with our engineering team here in the village. Um, and we're looking forward to your support on this. Great questions. I really liked how you said that whatever the recommendations are that it'll be doable here in Richwood. To me, that's the key statement and I'm really excited about that.

And keep in mind, too, to to complement this, uh had a great meeting with the deputy mayor and with David Refkin, who's the chair of Green Ridgewood. Uh Green Ridgewood is working with six other communities um in the area in this area of Burton County uh to talk about applying for a grant. We applied for it last year. The county actually applied for it last year. Ridgwood was a partner in that endeavor. Uh we didn't receive it from the NJT. So we're hopeful that with the towns collaborating a little longer of a runway to collect data and put a good application together um that these two work efforts when it comes to flooding can complement one another and we can come up as the councilman indicated with some real tangible solutions uh to help our residents when we're dealing with these flooding issues. I just want to say um clearly NJIT is an awesome school. Thank you to James McGrath who isn't here and obviously Rich Calby. We we benefit from that school with highly trained technical people who are already working for the village. I also want to say um the residential flood advisory committee for all the reasons is a little bit frustrated with the lack of federal support. We've been very successful with storm water awareness. We actually on residential flood we have the two rivers. So we've reps there, but we've had a lot of success with our local engineering and storm water. I think people forget that areas like Hope Street really used to flood a lot more than they do and thanks to Peter and everybody at work. So this is so great and um if any member of the public has any academic institution that would like to partner with us, we love that. We've had Bafayette, we've had Colombia, now we're going to have NGIT and I'm just so grateful for this. It's going to be awesome.

Good. Everybody good? Okay. under operations. Uh we have three authorization for grant applications. Uh the first is the 2026 Bergen County trust fund for the municipal park improvement plan and we are looking to submit a grant application for improvements to Upper Citizens Park. Uh you may recall we received $121,000 grant uh and then we matched some of those funds in our capital budget this year uh for lower citizens. This would be for upper citizens and the grant amount requested is $67,320 based on cost estimates.

Everybody good? Let's go. The next is to authorize an application for the 2026 Bergen County Historic Preservation Trust Fund Grant. And this is again for the rehabilitation of the pedestrian tunnel at the Ridgewood train station. Uh the if granted the award, the matching funds would be in the amount of $541,880. Any questions? Anybody good? No, just general excitement. And thank you to everybody who worked on it from the town committee. It's it's going to look so great.

And that project is not one grant, but two. The second is for the 2026 New Jersey Historic Trust Capital Preservation Grant, also for the train station pedestrian tunnel. and the matching funds there would match the county at 541880. So, we're applying at the state level and we're applying at the county level to try to fund the pedestrian tunnel. We also have some dollars put away in our uh 2025 capital projects uh bond ordinance. Um so, we're hopeful that with these grants and with the money that the council's already authorized for this project that we would be able to move forward with this in 2027.

Could I just make a comment? Um, the two county grants require public hearings, so we will be advertising them for April 22nd and so we'll have a special public meeting during our regular work session and then we can vote on those after the public hearing. The New Jersey Historic Trust does not require a hearing, so that will be considered at our regular public meeting on April 8th. And and what we'll do, uh, Heather, if we can, maybe we can invite, uh, Nancy Boss and Carol Belcowski to that meeting to make a short fivem minute presentation on what those improvements would look like so that if the public does have questions as part of the grant application process, they can actually hear from the department directors who are pursuing these grants as to exactly what the aspects of improvement would look like.

And mayor, that I'm sorry. So they um hypothetically, so I know you can't say specifically, but how how when could we get started if we get these grants? Like how long would it take for the grants to we got them? And then how soon after that?

Usually it's the following year. So, for example, with the open space grant for citizens, we learned that we received $121,000 last fall, which then puts us in a position to look at our capital budget in winter of two of the following year, allocate the balance that we would need to complete the project. Now, we have those monies coupled, and we're in design. We had a design meeting on Friday about uh about citizens. So, I anticipate that we'll have a shovel in the ground there probably in the fall. um want to get through baseball season so that and I'm talking specifically about the tunnel.

Oh, the tunnel. Okay. So, the tunnel would be the same, right? So, we would know by the end of the year if we were going to receive those monies. If we had a a delta that we had to fill in order to get the project done, we'd recommend that during the capital budget process next year. And we'd probably be able to break ground late spring, early summer of 2027 if we had all the funding in place. because it right la was it last year or the year before when we had an engineering study done and what needs to be done in the tunnel.

Yeah. So the um architect that we have on this tunnel we actually switched professional service providers for that. So Barton Ross who's our new architect the the plans are complete u because those concept plans needed to be submit need to be submitted as part of these grant applications. Got it. Okay. Thank you very much. Can I see them? Sure. You can you can see Carol. She's got the month file in her office. It's also a good time with the architecture that the repair is finally finished this week, which all the equipment is gone, the ballards are installed, and so that's great. So, we had the, you know, two separate efforts, but I was so excited to see that complete and all the equipment finally removed. Great. And mayor, that concludes my portion of the agenda.

Excellent. And then let's go back to public comment. Seeing no one, I'm going to close public comment and entertain a resolution to go into closed session.

So moved. Wait, wait, wait. Be it resolved by the village council of village of Ridgewood that the village council meet in close session on March 30th, 2026 at 7:30 p.m. or soon thereafter as the matter on the agenda can be reached and has said close session be held in the caucus on the fourth floor of Ridgewood Village Hall 131 North Maple Avenue, Richmond, New Jersey and be further resolved that the matter to be discussed in close session is limited to legal matters to include Valley Hospital tax appeals. This matter is allowable under NJSA 10 court at SEC and be further resolved. The minutes of this meeting shall be made available to the general public when such matters have been deemed completed by resolution of the village council. May I have a motion? So moved. Second. All in favor?

I. Anyone opposed? Thank you. Thank you very much everyone.