Village Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening.

This is the Ridgewood Village Council Public Workshop. The date is July 8, 2026. The time is 7.32 PM. 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 the same as provided by law of the schedule, including the date and time of this meeting. This was also posted on the Village of Ridgewood's legal notices page at RidgewoodNJ.net. Roll call.

Council Member Mortimer.

Here.

Deputy Mayor Perrin. Here. Council Member Weitz.

Here.

Council Member Winograd. Here. Mayor Valdez.

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 let's go right to public comment. I don't think the mic is on. There's a button at the bottom, and there's a green light that will indicate the sun.

Green?

So much better.

Hi, Leo Ruan, 705 Kingsbridge Lane. I'm a Ridgewood resident. I'm following up regarding my wife's public comments at the last Village Council meeting. Her comments were trying to encourage Ridgewood Village Council to create more disability-inclusive housing for the town. Thank you, Councilmember Winograd, for following up with my wife regarding her comments. I would like to give the village council and village manager a printout from the Bergen County United Way, which lists current and future housing developments. As you can see from the printout, neighboring towns are active in increasing their inclusive housing. Allendale currently has four housing complexes. Fort Lee and Ramsey each have two housing complexes. Meanwhile, Mahwah and Fairlawn, each of two housing complexes, are in the process of building another one. Other towns like Waldwick, Hillsdale, and Hawthorne are currently building or planning to build future developments. According to the Bergen County United Way, Ridgewood only has a 31-year lease on inclusive housing at 257 Ridgewood Avenue for independent and shared apartments. I'm advocating that Ridgewood Village Council create a committee to help increase the town's inclusive housing and explore how the housing can fulfill its state affordable housing requirements. A possible suggestion for inclusive housing is a site at the old Franklin Avenue Town Garage since its central location in the town. Ridgewood is always trying to find ways to help our children feel included in the community, like access Ridgewood Week, sensory dinners, and pullover properly. Ridgewood Public Schools even developed the STEPS program, which is a transition program after high school that allows our young adults with special needs to have work opportunities in the community navigate downtown, and use public transportation. The program gives our young adults a sense of belonging and inclusion in the community. The next phase in any young adult's life is finding housing. For young adults with special needs, finding housing is even more challenging since there's a severe inclusive housing shortage. My son is fortunate enough to have found inclusive housing in Ramsey, There were over 50 applications for the six units in the building. Moreover, each of the Bergen County United Way housing complexes have very long wait lists. In 2006, at the time my son was diagnosed on the spectrum, the autism rate was one in 150 children. Now it's one in 30. Thus, the dramatic increase in individuals diagnosed on the autism spectrum will take a very limited inclusive housing selection worse. I know it takes years for completion of a project like this from conception to when the residents finally move in. However, I'm hoping that the Ridgewood Village Council will consider creating a committee to add more inclusive housing in town. As for my son's apartment building, it will be built in partnership between the town of Ramsey, Bergen County Housing Development Partnership, Bergen County United Way, and Madeline Corporation. I can give anyone on the council a tour of his building, his apartment and building. Thank you.

Thank you, Leo.

I'd just like to note that I'm only reading this as my wife Susan. The I is all her.

Thank you. We are aware. Thank you, Susan. Thank you, Susan. Anyone else? Seeing no one, we're going to go to our hybrid access. Emily, you're up.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Wonderful. Thank you so much. My name is Emily Kaffkart. I'm a Ridgewood resident and the secretary of Ridgewood's Access Committee. I'm appearing today on behalf of Access to thank Council and the Village for supporting our efforts to create a 4th of July accessible viewing area for the parade. And of course, I also want to thank Mr. Jim Schimmel for his extreme generosity in donating the use of his beautiful building. Because of your efforts, multiple people expressed interest in participating in this pilot program, and 20 people were able to attend the day of the event. Incidentally, it was initially 48 people who RSVP'd, but understandably, there were some cancellations after the parade was moved in response to the heat. Families with mixed abilities and ages were able to experience the parade together in a comfortable, welcoming space. Many of them had never been able to fully enjoy this cherished community tradition before. The indoor viewing area allowed seniors, children with sensory sensitivities, and medically vulnerable individuals and individuals with mobility challenges to participate fully and safely. By way of example, your willingness to open your doors allowed a multi-disabled child to see the parade for the first time in her wheelchair with her family. A young boy with sensory issues to be able to tolerate the festivities. and a disabled veteran to recall his love for the parade from his boyhood and enjoy it once again. The feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive, with attendees expressing deep appreciation for having an inclusive option. We'd like to extend our gratitude specifically to Mayor Paul Vaggianos for liaising with Mr. Schimel, the host of our event, Councilperson Siobhan Winograd, our access liaison, and the entire council for voting yes on the property use, Keith Kazmark and Carol Balkowski of Village Hall for promoting the event, arranging parking, signage, police report, probably many other things behind the scenes that I'm not even aware of. Lieutenant Jay Chuck and his officers for managing parking and security around the deck in the restaurant. Access member Kara Robinson-Deutsch for overseeing and managing the entire effort. This proved to be a significant amount of work, but was so impactful for the community as she saw firsthand. various other access members for providing supplies and support, Gwen Huck and Julie Schnidberger for volunteering, and of course to Mr. Schimmel. So again, thank you all very much for prioritizing this effort. I think it really made a difference to the community. The committee is very pleased with how the pilot program went this year, and we look forward to continuing these efforts in the future. Thank you.

Thank you, Emily. Anybody else? Seeing no one, I'm going to close public comment, and we will go to our manager report. Keith.

Mayor, before we do that, just to Mr. and Mrs. Ruan. No worries.

I'm going to get good at this one day.

Just on the subject of disability housing, I just want to. call for the fact that Councilmember Winograd and I have had multiple meetings now with a group called Community Options. They have inquired with the village about the possibility of finding housing, whether it's dilapidated housing that they want to refurbish, whether it's new construction. They are actively looking through available properties in the village of Ridgewood. And not only have they spoken to myself and Council Member Winograd, who I think has communicated this back with the Access Ridgewood Committee, but they have also been in close contact with our affordable housing planner, Beth McManus. So those conversations are ongoing. And if there are properties that anyone from the community sees that they believe could be the right fit for community options, please share them with me. And I'll be glad to pass those on to Sakena and the other representatives from that organization.

Keith, can I just ask one question? By the way, this is fantastic. We fully support inclusive housing in the village for a number of reasons, most importantly because it's the right thing to do. With that said, I know you mentioned Beth McManus. I know our next affordable housing mandate is a decade away, but I assume whatever good we do here we can get credit for against the next affordable housing mandate?

Not only the next affordable housing mandate, but we are also still chipping away at our unmet need, which will make the more we do now, the easier it will become in 2035. So Beth's actively part of that conversation. And with veterans housing or disabled housing, you do get additional credits towards your unmet need if you pursue that in the community.

It's an absolute win-win. I know, I think in this case, I speak for everyone in the council, we'd be extremely supportive of whatever creative way or whatever support we can lend for this housing for, again, all the reasons we've been discussing.

Sure. Siobhan, I don't know if you have anything you want to add because you were in that meeting with us.

So I just, obviously I'm the access liaison and I took this meeting and outside of the credit we get, there's the social responsibility and on access what we hear time and time again, access is primarily filled with parents or siblings who are looking at care that exceeds college goes on forever, and the desire to have them local in a place that is familiar with people that they love, that's the real credit. With this housing obligation, property is that, you know, it can be a home, which is, you know, a self-contained home, and we're looking at all elements of that. It tends to benefit the neighborhood it drops in because they come with professional services and provisions. I also want to say I see a lot of members of access in the back row who are such advocates for this. Since the developments outside of Ridgewood, we've been seeing members from those facilities come and attend the sensory friendly dinners, which is great. So we've been very very aware of them because they're coming. The nieces and nephews are here. But these conversations are great because it's obviously a social responsibility. But it keeps a person who is, in some senses, vulnerable closer to the life that they lived and loved ones. So we're going to be advocating for it. Again, we don't have a lot of private property. And we don't have a proposal in front of us now. But we can talk more. And I'm grateful Suzanne did write me. And we had a lovely email exchange. And thank you for that.

I did want to say that there is also some disability housing at Ridgecrest, and I have, yeah, West Bergen Mental Health, and I have been approached by two groups for their children's housing, and they made proposals, and I asked them to continue with the proposals. They did not, but I will refer them to you.

That'd be great. And again, if you have suggested properties that you think might be a good fit, especially knowing the needs of the population, feel free to pass them along to me. We'll pass them on to Serkaina and we'll pass them on to Beth McManus so that they can review them and see the viability that's attached to those particular sites.

Anybody else? And now.

Thank you, Mayor. So I'm going to ask the council tonight to indulge me Most of my committee reports of late have been brief. Tonight, unfortunately, is not so brief, so I'm just issuing a warning before I begin. But thank you, Mayor. First, I want to start off by saying that it's been a challenging few days navigating the weather here in North Jersey with our 4th of July festivities and the Saturday evening storm, which caused significant damage in and around the village. And I feel for our neighbors in Paramus who were hit very hard by Saturday's weather event. I want to thank the 4th of July committee, the volunteers, our first responders, and our employees who worked hard and were very nimble in adjusting and preparing for the parade and trying to hold the fireworks display on Saturday evening. Fortunately, we were able to move the parade up by one hour to beat the heat and keep attendees safe. With the fireworks, we were not so lucky. OEM, the police department, and the fire department monitored the weather all day, and when we decided to move the parade up, the fireworks forecast still allowed us to hold the event. We gathered at about 1 p.m. after the parade to discuss the fireworks, and based on those weather forecasts, we made the decision to move the show up by 45 minutes which would allow for the fireworks display to go off at approximately 8.30 and provide an additional 45 minutes to clear Vett's field after the conclusion of the show. We revisited that decision shortly after 5 p.m. and decided to move forward with the agreed-upon schedule. It looked like the storm would arrive just after 10 p.m. At about 6.55, the model was updated, and it showed that a new thunderstorm cell had formed and was set to be over Ridgewood as early as 8.45 p.m. The immediate decision was made to cancel the fireworks. As we all know, thunderstorms in this extreme heat are very unpredictable, but please know that there was a real effort by our emergency responders to hold the show, but definitely the decision to have safety come first was paramount. At the end of the day, we made the right decision, albeit not the easy decision. Following the cancellation of the fireworks, the Ridgewood Fire Department, after discussion with the fireworks vendor, determined that they needed to be set off and detonated, as they could not safely be repackaged and removed for reuse at a later date. The police department secured a perimeter led by Captain Ender, and the fire department oversaw a controlled detonation to eliminate any risk posed by the deteriorating weather conditions and increased winds that evening. Unfortunately, because public safety resources from throughout the region were assigned to the FIFA World Cup match on Sunday, July 5th, the personnel required to safely conduct a rescheduled fireworks display on Sunday were simply not available. And I just want to put in perspective, because this number sort of wowed me, But we have between 60 and 70 sworn police officers that come and secure Vets Field and the area around Vets Field and man the detours in order for us to hold the fireworks display. So we have a lot of outside resources. We have police officers from as far away as the Palisades Interstate Parkway police. who come to Ridgewood on July 4th to enable us to safely hold that fireworks display. So I think that was just a good tidbit of information. The Village is currently discussing the possibility of scheduling an alternative fireworks display later this year. We're holding that discussion with the Fourth of July Committee as part of the overall celebration of America 250 this year. So stay tuned for that. With all that went on this weekend, I do want to remind residents to sign up for our weekly e-blast and alerts for non-emergencies. You can do that through our website to best stay informed during these types of events. In the immediate aftermath of the storm, our police, fire, and EMS services responded to approximately 110 calls for service during and after that storm. We had at the peak over 800 calls PSE&G customers in the village without power. As of this morning, we were down to zero. So I want to thank the representatives from PSE&G, the line crews, our parks division who worked a tremendous amount of hours between Saturday and today and are still out there working in the coming days to clear all the debris curbside, along with our streets division. The village and the police department have remained in contact with PSE&G even today, after everyone was restored, to make sure that they are following up and removing any materials that have been left in the village as we clean up from the storm. To assist residents with storm cleanup, our Streets Division has been conducting and will continue to conduct a special yard waste collection this week into next week for downed branches and vegetative storm debris. Please place branches and yard waste curbside, and our crews will collect them as they work through the village over the course of this week. I received a report this afternoon that they are about 50% of their way through the village. However, some areas that have already been collected, now additional debris is being put curbside, so we appreciate everybody's patience as our crews continue these store recovery efforts. Bergen County plans to mill and pave Maple Avenue from the Hohokas border to the Glenrock border with milling beginning next Wednesday, July 15th. The paving schedule will take place the week of Monday, July 20th, most likely starting on July 22nd. They will begin at the northern end of Maple Avenue near Hohokas and work south towards Glenrock. This will certainly impact traffic flow in the village and we appreciate your patience during this time. Please remember that this is a short-term inconvenience for a long-term improvement. And there will be communications through our e-blast going out to all residents here in the community. We will also have special communication that goes out to camp parents and grade and pool registrants so that we can keep them informed about how to access our recreation camp and the facilities during the work on Maple Avenue. The remediation work at the Zabriskie-Shedler property is coming to completion. North Star Environmental was delayed this week due to the significant rainfall over the weekend and the ability to pull trucks onto the property. We are hopeful that in the next week to 10 days that they will be able to wrap up their efforts there. There is some material that still needs to be removed from the property once conditions allow. Our tax assessor has reported to me that of the 7,400 residential properties in the village, over 6,000 have already been inspected by appraisal systems. There are a total of 8,100 line items, which are individual properties on our tax rolls in the village, and the firm is completing the balance of residential inspections in the next few weeks, and then they will move on to commercial and industrial properties in Ridgewood. Our senior parking permits are now on sale and are available for eligible Ridgewood residents 65 years and older to park in the central business district for a flat annual fee of $75. A prorated permit for the remainder of 2026 is available for $37.50. Permits may be purchased at the reception desk in the lobby of Village Hall. Please bring your New Jersey driver's license, New Jersey vehicle registration and payment So far, we have sold almost 70 permits since July 1st, just in the last few days.

Time number 11.

We are pleased to announce that the Ridgewood Health Department has been informed that they have been awarded a $119,000 local public health infrastructure grant for fiscal year 2027. The funds from the grant will go to offset the employment of a full-time health inspector, thereby also defraying the cost to taxpayers. I want to congratulate Jack Tankos, the Deputy Director of Northwest Bergen Central Dispatch on his retirement this week. Jack has served at Central for over 33 years at a wide variety of positions. He has assisted the community through countless emergencies from floods to snowstorms to hurricanes and through events like September 11th and other large-scale emergency responses. Just want to thank Jack again for his service and wish him the best of luck in his retirement. On Friday, July 10th, that will mark my third anniversary serving as village manager here in Ridgewood. I want to just say and thank everyone for their support over these last three years. It has certainly been an honor and privilege to work alongside our village council members, our dedicated employees, committed volunteers, and our amazing residents who care deeply about this community. Looking back over the past three years, I am proud of the progress that we have made together to strengthen our finances, modernize our infrastructure, improve communication, and enhance the quality of life that makes Ridgewood such a special place to call home. While we have accomplished a great deal, there is still much work to do. Continued investments in infrastructure, flood mitigation efforts, downtown viatility, parks, public safety, our water system, all of these will remain priorities and our efforts to preserve Ridgewood's unique character while planning responsibly for the future will be paramount. I remain committed to working collaboratively with the council, our directors, employees, volunteers, community organizations, and our residents to build on the strong foundation that we've established together. I truly value the community spirit and engagement of so many residents here in Ridgewood. The progress we have made over the past three years belongs to an incredible team of public servants and volunteers who work every day to make Ridgewood one of New Jersey's premier communities. I look forward to continuing to working together, getting things done, and serving the residents of Ridgewood in the years ahead. Just a few announcements. First, as a reminder, our two day per week irrigation schedule is in effect. Odd numbered addresses for irrigation are Tuesday and Saturday, and even numbered addresses for irrigation are Wednesday and Sunday. On that topic of water use, I just want to note that water demand reached a historic level for Ridgewood water back on July 1st. They had recorded its highest single day consumption in a decade on July 1st this year, and the fourth highest daily demand in 32 years in the system. A total of 15 plus million gallons of water was pumped and purchased on that date to meet customer demand. So that just illustrates for everybody the importance of water conservation. And despite this weekend's rain, we are still dealing with drought conditions throughout the state. The Ridgewood Senior Bus continues their new hours from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday. If you have a medical appointment, need to go grocery shopping, or would like to go to the mall, please call Beth Spinato in the manager's office, and remember that we are now going to ShopRite in Wyckoff each Wednesday. The Guild sponsors Music in the Night at various locations downtown. Those are on Friday nights through Labor Day. The free summer concert series at the Cash Raw Shell continues on Tuesday and Thursday evenings in the months of June, July, and August. We encourage everyone to come down for some great performances at the Shell. The Chamber of Commerce Farmers Market continues on Sundays through November 1st from 8.30 to 2 p.m. at the train station on the west side. Music in the park is taking place on Saturday evenings from 7.30 to 9.30 at Venice Square. This coming Saturday night, July 11th, Jam will be performing. The Ridgewood Guild is sponsoring free movies in the park on Wednesday nights from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. at Venice Square. Wednesday, July 22nd is a showing of The Little Mermaid. And finally, our upcoming council meetings. July 15th is a public meeting. August 5th is a work session. August 12th is a public meeting. All start at 7.30 p.m. And that concludes my report, Mayor.

All right, I got it. Good. No, that was the tale that everyone needed to know.

You can all wake up now.

Thank you, Keith.

And let's go to council reports. Frank, kick it off. I just wanted to say how wonderful I thought the parade was and thank all the volunteers that made that possible. And just participating in that makes you really proud to be from Ridgewood, to see how many people are cheering and just what a great community we have. And so thanks to all the volunteers that made that happen. Great. Thanks, Frank. Ed?

Yeah, so I have a couple of things. So about a week and a half ago, I had the privilege of going to Our Lady of Mount Carmel to wish Father Ron a happy retirement. I was fortunate enough to be able to inform the congregation that it was Father Ron Day as per proclamation of this council. Really, really touching tribute to a really, really great man and a real spiritual leader and just beacon of our community. And I wish him the best in retirement and also want to thank the church for the warmth that they showed me and inviting me and showing my way around at least the Catholic Mass, which I don't attend all that often. Also had a couple days after that, had the opportunity to attend the Michael Feeney Police Academy graduation. This is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful thing. Our police and some of our firefighters, our other first responders volunteer a tremendous amount of their time at the end of the school year to put on a police academy, it's a three-day police academy for middle school students. They got to see first responders in action, got to meet with them, really got to see what it is to be a part of something bigger than yourself. It was almost all completely done through volunteer hours by the people that already give the most to this village. It was a real privilege to be able to speak to the kids, meet some of the parents, but to also be able to personally thank our police firefighter and other village employees that volunteered their time to put the police academy on. Also, as everyone said, You know, this is a very, very busy time of year for those of us involved in July 4th festivities. I won't repeat all of what Keith said, but I will say this is my fourth year serving as liaison to the Fourth of July Committee. The amount of planning and work that gets done by our first responders and by volunteers is amazing. This is hundreds of hours of work that is done completely free. We use no taxpayer dollars whatsoever. Tara Masterson, Leah Gisellin-Saitel, and their just small army of volunteers deserve just so much credit for the work that goes into it. Unfortunately, the fireworks didn't work out as planned, but that's what happens when you live in New Jersey and it's July 4th, weather happens, but still did not detract from, I thought it was a wonderful day, wonderful parade, and a really wonderful tradition. Also, our first responders, some of which were working 12, 14 hour shifts to keep us safe. Again, we just see a parade and some fireworks, but again, the amount of work that goes into that is truly mind-boggling. And then finally, Keith, I did not realize it was your anniversary. I appreciate you reminding us of that. As I have said publicly and privately, I believe that amongst the best votes I made sitting on this dais for the last three and a half years was appointing Keith. I cannot thank you enough on behalf of a really grateful village for all the work you've done and look forward to continuing to thank you year after year for the work that I know you will be doing going forward. But I'm really glad you're up here and I'm really glad you're sitting at this dais. Thank you, sir. Thanks, Evan. Siobhan.

Sure, so I have a couple of updates. I want to begin by welcoming the Madison Rose, which is our newest cocktail lounge, and I want to thank our clerk's office, who worked tirelessly to make this happen. One of the interesting bits of information is liquor license are controlled at the local level, and Heather did a lot to make this happen. There are now eight in circulation, which is the first time in forever. Several had been in the pocket, and Heather really worked with that, and we went out. Pam, Heather, and I went to the soft opening, so I'd like to encourage everybody to check out, if you're over 21, our newest business, and thank everybody who made that happen, most especially Heather. On Monday before July 4th, many volunteers got ready to make our downtown beautiful, including Shade Tree and the Deputy Mayor and I. We had our fourth annual Mulch Monday, which was wildly successful, incredibly hot, and kind of funny because I don't even mulch my own yard, but the trees look good. We did lose a couple, I think about five downtown trees because of the winter and the harshness, but we're very grateful to our shade tree, our mulchers, and everybody who volunteered on a very hot Monday of a very hot week. I too just want to say a couple things about 4th of July. First of all, happy 4th of July, America. 250 looks good on you. But as many of you know, we've been trying to figure out how to incorporate access. And last year, Evan, Paul, and I, not all at the same time, created a committee for access to participate in the parade in some capacity. And Cara Dutch, who was referenced, is probably like the best parade volunteer ever. And she wrote a very long note. She's lived in this town for eight years. One of her children was one year in the parade, but because she has a child with disabilities, she couldn't even see that. This is the first time her family's been able to attend the parade. And it was really made possible, Paul negotiated the deal, this council supported it, Evan's parade committee really embraced us, and I just want to say how meaningful it is. I've said this before, I'll say it again. Access and the sensory friendlies are very much in the neurodivergent space, but there is no one brush that paints access, so we were very grateful for the people who needed to take medication, couldn't stand the heat, had maladies or mobility issues, so thank you to Tara. I also want to say, on Keith's anniversary, one of the most interesting things about 4th of July, in addition to the hard work, was our beautiful communication. Four years ago, Evan and I ran on a campaign of enhanced communication. And when I was seeing the updates, it was like, boom, shield, boom, canceled, boom. And that really led to greater public safety, greater awareness, and better family planning. So I'm thankful to everybody. But those communications really shone very bright, kept people in the right place, and I'm very grateful to the communications staff, particularly Carol, who really, I'm sure everybody here saw, it was just pumped out. Everybody knew what was going on. There wasn't a lot of confusion, and that was beautiful. And happy anniversary, Keith. We'll be celebrating Keith all month long. I'm not going to say any other secrets about that.

I think the third anniversary is the one you stop at. Pam.

Okay, the planning board met last night and we reviewed Ordinance 4099. That's the one that we liberalized the types of activities that the houses of worship in Ridgewood could have on their property. And they liked the idea very much. And they also suggested a change to make it more certain that the churches in the non-residential areas could also participate in this. And so I'm not quite sure how we're going to deal with that, but I thought it was a good suggestion that they had.

Well, if you want me to, I know we spoke about this earlier. I did see that letter today that came in from the planning board. I did have a discussion with John Barry, the village planner, about it. We're going to try and give it the benefit, any positive benefit that it might come through, but we're going to report back to the ordinance committee before we introduce this next week and decide which way to go.

Okay. Okay. I also wanted to let people know that the garage fourth floor is going to be closed tomorrow for building the fence around the fourth floor. Mulch Monday was a lot of fun. It was hot. And if you're going to do it next year, the shadiest street is Broad Street. that's what I got assigned thank you so let's see Green Ridgewood has been going door-to-door to the restaurants to to make sure that they understand the new law skip the stuff that goes into effect on August 1st that is that when you have takeout that they don't automatically put a forks, knives, chopsticks, condiments into your bag, and that they wait for the customer to say, I would like these things. Or they can say, or they can ask the customer, do you need forks, knives, spoons, etc. So, And let's see. They are still accepting sign-ups for Sunday's Park Work Day, which is going to be in Grove Park. And the weather so far looks like it's going to be absolutely perfect. And the flyers are in the lobby. There's a QR code. Sign-up's easy. It's like name, address, telephone number. That's it. It will be this Sunday, July 12th, 10 to 2 o'clock. Park on Berkshire Road and walk along Grove Street to the trailhead. Our leader is very educated, a very good teacher. And we're going to be split into three groups to blaze the trail and maintain the trails. It is important to show up at 10 o'clock because if... If the group goes further into the park, you might never find us. So don't get lost. Just show up at 10. And you have to wear closed-toed shoes and bring plenty of water, bug repellent. It's so shady there, you probably don't need sunscreen. And gloves. The parade. It was so nice to see Congressman Gottheimer there and Senator Kim. I was really honored to have them there. And I also wanted to let you know that there were no, despite the heat, there were no major emergencies. A couple people started feeling bad, but they were able to go home in their own cars. So that was really amazing in that heat. And that's all I have.

Thanks, Pam, and thanks, Siobhan. I didn't thank you for your report, but we appreciate it. And I want to take a moment and also talk about 4th of July. I know it's a little redundant, but the truth is that Keith did not really go into the detail about the effort that was made this weekend. It was crisis upon crisis. And the 4th of July committee, led by Tara Masterson and Lee Gilson, who I have no idea why they do this because it is so much work and so much effort. They are already planning for next year. Literally, they start July 5th. Keith and his team, led by Chief Judge Jeremy Kleiman and Chief Lyons, were all hands on deck with their teams, making sure that everyone was safe from the heat that Pam just mentioned during the parade. to the thunderstorms that, think for just a moment, had they waited a little too long, how many people would have been out on the field and a mass evacuation would have been a disaster. But they handled this so well, I was incredibly impressed. So I want to thank everybody who was involved in that. I also want to thank all the people who led that access committee location that Emily Cathcart mentioned, Gwen Houck and Julie Schnickerberg, who hosted it, Jim Schimmel, who not only did he allow us to come in there free of charge, but he saw a number of things that he thought would be necessary to take care of before families with kids with disabilities could come in there. So not only did he do it at no charge, he did it at considerable personal expense because he wanted this to be done right and well. This was the first time we're gonna do it. It won't be the last. I'm hoping that we don't do it at Jim Schimel's place because that would mean that he's been vacant for a year. So we'll go someplace else. But it was really a great weekend. And Keith, three years. It's been, I wanna say that I don't think everyone truly appreciates the accomplishments that that happened because Keith has been here. We try and give staff direction, but they gotta get it done. And Keith is a get it done kind of guy. And we are all grateful that he is here. So Keith, happy birthday. Thanks for being here. And now, let's turn it back over. I believe we have a presentation by the Green Ridgewood Committee. David, come join us.

Thank you. Welcome. Good to be here again. Before I start... Let's begin.

You are, because everyone doesn't know who you are, we do.

Sorry. David Refkin, Green Ridgewood Chair. Great. Before I start, I just want to thank you, Mr. Mayor, Pam, and Keith, for all your support as we work with Bergen County on the application for climate resilience. When we see the weather, the damage... The impact that extreme weather has on people and their safety, their livelihoods, it just raises so much more why this grant application, $2.2 million that we're applying for and why it's so important. Thank you for all your support and wise counsel on that. This is gonna be a little easier. Community energy plan. This is something that Green Ridgewood got involved with with Sustainable New Jersey about a year and a half ago, and we're right at the deadline. So this is really a plan to how does Ridgewood save energy, cut costs, and reduce emissions. And there are grants available to help make us do this, not only for the village, but for our residents also. So I'll take you through a quick presentation. So we got a $10,000 grant from Sustainable New Jersey, which is money from the BPU, Board of Public Utilities, and this is a planning grant. So it doesn't give us money for implementation, but it helps us plan. So the plan that we have, and I'll go through this in more detail, is a menu of various energy initiatives that we chose, Green Ridgewood chose, that we thought were the most important for the community in terms of reducing energy and saving dollars, especially with high electricity costs and high gasoline costs. And they go across transportation, renewable energy efficiency, and buildings. And what we're looking for is feedback from the council and from residents of Ridgewood. We will be holding a public session tomorrow night at 7 o'clock at the senior lounge on the first floor of Village Hall to get input from folks, from residents. We did this a year and a half ago, but now that we're at the end of this process, we are checking again. And if any of you have input that you'd like to provide, please reach out to me in the next few days. I'll go through the schedule soon. But we really want to know are we prioritizing the right initiatives or are there other things that we should be considering? And part of this is this is stage one. There's a second stage where they're are, and I'm gonna say my wording here very carefully, significant grant opportunities. In the last round, there was up to $250,000. That amount is to be determined what it will be potentially next year. Sustainable New Jersey working with BPU and other providers of the funds such as PSA&G, they're figuring out right now how much money they have. But by adopting this plan, we then become eligible for implementation funding. Okay, so here's some basic data that's in the plan in terms of residents and households. We have 1,367 registered EVs in our community, which is pretty substantial. It's pretty significant. It has grown quite a bit when the last time we looked at this. We have a lot of opportunities to improve our energy efficiency, and not surprisingly, where our greenhouse gas emissions come from, it's residential electricity, gasoline usage for cars and trucks, commercial energy, and heating fuels to heat our homes. And that's what one would expect. That's pretty typical. So moving on, so we have 12 proposals. I'm going to highlight a few of them, so I'm not going to go into too much detail, but I can if you'd like me to at another time. So on the transportation side, one of the key things here is looking at alternative fuel vehicles, which includes EVs and plug-in hybrids. So we know that the cost of EVs have come down substantially. The performance of EVs has improved. And it looks like we're going to have high gasoline prices for a while. I mean, even if the war ended soon, we have infrastructure that's been damaged. It's going to take a long time. So the whole calculus really has changed from where we may have been a couple of years ago, and also the quality of the EVs. Also, public EV charging, which of course we have some, and then community EV outreach, which is another one of the initiatives here. From an efficiency perspective, The key thing here, and some of this work has been done through another program called the Direct Install Grants and Loans that Carol has been leading up and at some point we should probably talk more about that, but we're looking at municipal facilities and doing audits and getting a lot of data. What's the low hanging fruit? What are some of the opportunities to put in, spend some money on capital where we can get money back and get some of this as grant money as well as low interest loans to improve our energy efficiency. I think I've spoken in the past about with electricity rates going up so much, anything we can do to be more efficient by putting in, taking out old ineffective equipment or inefficient equipment and replacing it has a very fast payback these days. Also, we reach out to residents talking about energy efficiency and we may do that at next year's Earth Day Fair. Next, equity innovation, look at e-mobility transit options, and then a local microgrid, which was one of the Columbia recommendations two, three years ago. The county has been looking at this, and we need to talk with them and see if there are opportunities that the county is thinking about, because they had a big effort a year ago to look at local microgrids. Renewable energy, this is not easy. However, and the costs for some of the renewable environmental energy aggregations aren't as competitive as we'd like them to be. But maybe there's opportunities for solar powered on some of our buildings, some of our roofs. Solar is the cheapest form of energy right now. And we should look into more detail on that. And then buildings. the village might want to consider having a green building policy and also the planning board, and I'll bring this up at the next planning board meeting, consideration of a green development checklist, which we've talked about before, but it kind of got lost with everything else that we're doing. So obviously Ridgewood already has public EV chargers and there's also some work at Ridgewood Water going on about that, so we do have a head start. So again, those are the highlights, but there's a lot more to this plan. So what we're asking from you is what initiatives matter most, is anything missing, and are there any concerns or barriers? And again, public session tomorrow night, senior lounge from seven to eight. Also, comments can be sent to greenridgewood at gmail.com, and we do need all the input by July 12th. We're on a fairly tight timeline here. So next steps, tonight, tomorrow, gather input. Over the next few days, revise the plan with public feedback if necessary. July 15th, the council adopts the plan by resolution, which I believe we have a version tonight that gets introduced. Is that the process? Or it gets introduced next week?

No, it's a resolution, so it doesn't go through introduction and second reading.

Okay. Got it. We should know that. And then after adoption, then we have detailed planning for the initiatives, and then additional grants, as I talked about, are potentially available for implementation. So again, Use less, good for the environment, lower costs for taxpayers and residents. This is all good stuff. It's not always the easiest, but there's really great opportunities, and more so now than ever, especially with the cost of energy. And that's what I have for tonight.

David, that's excellent. Thank you so much for your efforts on this. It was a great presentation. Council, questions?

Just thank you, Dave. Appreciate it.

I just hope you're incredibly grant worthy.

Thanks. Okay.

This is great. Thank you all. Especially coming right on the heels of the last grant application. Takes a lot of stamina.

We've been busy. Okay. Thank you. David, thank you so much. And now we have another presentation from Ridgewood Water on our annual drinking water quality report.

So, Mayor, I'd like to invite Bill and Lonnie up to the front table and take you through the 2026 Annual Drinking Water Quality Report, which actually are the results from calendar year 2025, so not to cause confusion. And then they'll take you through the items listed on tonight's agenda relative to Ridgewood Water. So, Bill?

Good evening, all. Welcome. Welcome. Thank you. Thanks for having me. So first, I want to start by thanking Carol. Carol, from start to finish, did the postcards.

Bill Kowski.

Yes. Director of Communications with her intern, Brianna.

And if you could just take a moment, because everyone doesn't know you both, just to introduce yourselves and what you do at Ridgewood Water.

My name is Bill Birwas. I'm deputy director of Ridgewood Water.

And I'm Yolanda McCollum, environmental engineer with Ridgewood Water.

Thank you. So thank you again. So Carol did this from start to finish from technical oversight to graphics, everything for the first time in Ridge of Water history, we've done it in house. I think it looks beautiful. I urge everyone to take a look at it from customers to council. I love it. Um, We started this project, I did, in 2017. If you take a look at our website, this report used to be all text. It was mailed to every single home. Now it is full color, it's got pictures of our employees, it's got charts, graphs, it's beautiful. And it's no longer mailed to every customer. We have found that it is not green to send 15 pages to 20,000 customers. So now we send you a beautiful postcard. On that postcard is a QR link. which you can scan with your phone. It'll take you directly to a PDF of this report. There is also a direct link to our website where you can find the report. Lastly, if you do want a copy, you can stop by my office. Customer service will print you out a hard copy. We do that just to save paper. This has grown over the years. It's now 15 pages, so to mail that to 20,000 people is not great.

So with that said... Bill, could you just talk about because I know we've had some inquiries even to the manager's office about this. The timeframes in which the testing was conducted that the results are contained in this report as it relates to the timing of this report being made available for public consumption. Could you just talk that through?

Absolutely. So the 2026 report will contain 2025 data. It is the full calendar year of 2025. That is a requirement of the EPA and the DEP. Now why that is, is there's hundreds of thousands of tests that need to be summarized by every water system in the state and even the country into this one document. If you'd like more up-to-date information, that can be found on our quarterly notice that's sent out to every customer regarding PFAS. Furthermore, if there's anything pressing, such as like a tier one violation for nitrate, we'll notify you immediately and directly. This is for those tier three kind of contaminants that are not of the utmost importance or threat to the public, I should say.

Very good. Any questions on that? I know this has been a,

topic that's out there for public consumption questions comments i i just want to say about a million years ago pam and i were on the water committee for the legal women voters and we did a graphic that pales in comparison to this if rich were here remember it was water 101 pam and it is you know it's such a important topic and it's such a great resource to have people have this available and have it be palatable so Thank you to you guys for the testing. And thank you to have the thought to make it more concise. Because I think every time we mail something, you know, you get that flair. And the more information that we can provide, the better. And the more palatable the information is, even better. So thank you. Of course.

And Bill, just one other question. So as we come to the end of the build-out of the PFAS treatment centers, we'll have all but one done by the end of this calendar year. Cedar Hill will be done in the first quarter of next year, and that was only because of the DEP requiring an archaeological study at that site up in Wyckoff. Can you just talk about how this report and also the quarterly reports will change once we hit those milestones?

Yes, so the quarterly reports will phase over time. It takes some time. Even when the treatment goes online, it's considered a running annual average. So that's the average of four quarters. Once those four quarters go below the MCL, it can be removed from that quarter. LCL? Maximum contaminant limit. So for PFAs, it's usually 14 or 13, or a federal of four. Once we get below that, the quarterly notice is stopped for that facility. So you're gonna receive that quarterly notice for Cedar Hill for up to another year after it goes online.

However, that does not mean that we are not at undetectable levels of PFAS once the whole system is up and running. That is correct. So the drinking water will be at undetectable levels. However, because the DEP requires those quarterly reports to continue, for up to a year, you're still going to receive potentially four more reports.

That is correct.

Before they cease.

And you will also see it in the 2028 Consumer Confidence Report, our annual water quality report. It'll be in that table from the prior year's data. 2029 should be out, completely out. So what else is in this report? It explains where our water comes from, what we test for, and how our results compare to state and federal drinking water standards. It also includes water quality information for the water we purchase, that is Hawthorne Water, Veolia Water, and Passaic Valley Water Commission. It's a highly technical document. If anybody has any questions, reach out to customer service. You can also email customer service at cswater at RidgewoodNJ.net, or you can go to our website and contact me directly. I'd be happy to guide anybody through any questions they have. For more up-to-date information regarding PFAS, status of construction projects, or compliance, you can also refer to the website or the quarterly notice, which is on the website.

Anybody else? Great stuff. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Let's continue with our agenda. All right. It's still water. It's still water. More water. Yeah. Let me just grab it.

So the second item on the agenda is a sole source contract with a not to exceed of $21,544.22. This is the Emerson. Emerson is the sole source provider for Ridgewood Water SCADA system. SCADA is the heart and brains of the Ridgewood water system. It is the computer system at Ridgewood headquarters that controls every treatment facility. Emerson is the contractor that works on it. So we're looking for 10 days of service at a cost of $21,544.22. Questions? Let's go. All right, number three is award a contract to Montana Construction for the West Glen Avenue water main replacement. This bid was reviewed by our professional consultant, Suburban Consulting, and Montana was determined to be the lowest qualified bidder. The project is $4,723,000. That's for 6,000 linear feet of pipe on West Glen Avenue. Questions?

Well, good. There goes $4 million. There you go.

Well, not necessarily. My understanding is that the supplemental bids that you see in the middle column, that we might not have to spend that money.

Correct.

That is a supplemental amount of, you may have that directly in front of you. It's $129,000.

Yeah, so it could be less. It could be $4.593,800. There's a supplemental bid of $129,200. Good.

Anybody else? Let's go. All right.

Fourth item is field services for HOC. HOC calibrates, repairs, and certifies our chlorine and phosphate analyzers. These obviously analyze the chlorine and phosphate in the system. They're at every treatment facility. So this is done twice a year at every point of entry. It's a not to exceed contract of $60,410.63. Questions? All good.

Okay, the next item is for professional services for amendment two. This is for the lead service line replacement program. We have been using CDM Smith as our consultant this whole time since the inception of the program. They've been doing all the planning, design. Their first amendment was for the implementation part of it, which is the construction management and inspection services. So once we kicked that off and we did that amendment in 2024, between that time and when the project was actually kicked off, the DEP changed the requirements for inspection services. And this actually took a lot of people throughout the state off guard because when their project was already underway, they didn't get a pass. They had to change and add services. So what we did was at the time to the DEP, we didn't add this money at the time because we said Ridgewood Water could provide supplemental inspectors from our own staff and we had to give resumes and prove that they were capable inspectors. However, when it came down to it and the contractor started and there were four crews running and it was just so much going on, our staff was completely stretched too thin as it was. And so we said, go ahead, use your budget, use the entire inspection budget and go as far as you can. And then we'll have to supplement it due to this change in the DEP regulations. So now we're doing that addition. And that's what this amendment is for, to take us through the rest of contract one. And then we'll have a new proposal coming forward for contract two in the next few months that will be for a new professional services for that whole contract two.

Questions? A comment. I just want to say that the ones that have been done already have been fantastic. As I said before, my house was done, and it was like having a NASCAR pit crew just at how quickly they were able to do it and how efficient they were and professional. So I think this is a great consultant, so I want to stay with him. And I want to say to you, you've been communicating so well with all your emails and just fantastic job, so thank you.

Thank you. It's been interesting. I've gotten to know a lot of people. And I know some people, it was a very straightforward process. Others had much more excavation, much more restoration required. And the restoration, as everyone has always said that's done any of these projects, is the hardest part. And that's what we're finishing up in the next couple of months here. So we're doing our best to keep the contractor going and finish this up nicely and get everyone restored. So thank you for that.

Thanks, Lonnie. Yeah. All good. Next.

All right. Item six is water capital bond ordinance. Two items were presented to council and included in the 2026 Ridge of Water Capital program and request. They were approved, and subsequently an oversight caused these items to not be submitted for bond ordinance. This is a correction to that ordinance. Again, they were approved. It's just a correction through the finance department.

So this was already authorized, and now we're going to essentially amend that authorization. After talking to bond counsel and Mr. Rooney and Mr. Calbee, this will bring it up to the full amount that's necessary to conduct these projects. Good. Questions?

Let's go. Number seven is to authorize a change order for construction services. Originally Suburban did the design of the West Glen water main replacement, and now Ridgewood Water is requesting a change order for them to do the construction, administration, and inspections of that project. The cost of these services is $51,980. Of that fee, $41,653 is covered by an unused balance of the design fee. Therefore, the change order amount is $10,327.

Is this, again, because of the DEP's requirement of more inspection?

This is unrelated to the lead service line. This was us choosing suburban because we had leftover money from the design. Now we're having them, instead of getting three quotes and going out for somebody else to do the administration, we're using that additional money to do the oversight of the project.

Anybody else? Let's go.

Number eight, this one's exciting. This gives revenue to the utility for $500,000. We did a bid, and this is for the lease of property for the co-location of wireless telecommunication at the West Glen storage tank. Four bids were received for the lease of the tank and ground space, and this award is for the annual lease.

This is going to bring in about half a million dollars a year. And just to expand on that conversation, I'm working with Rich Calbee and Rich Charlton to evaluate all of our potential antenna improvements. We have the Glenrock antenna down at Water Pollution Control. We have the tank up in Midland Park. And we are actively talking about how to maximize the real estate on top of both of those towers in order to get as many carriers that it can sustain on board to maximize this source of revenue. So this is the first step in a process. You will see more of these along the way as that evaluation continues.

This is real money. Real money. And that water tower looks like a good spot.

And this has a direct impact on what we need. into our consideration as to rate adjustments moving forward, because as with the municipal budget, applies to the water budget too, if you can find revenue to come from other places, it takes the burden off the customer base.

Every dollar the quarry list company pays us is a dollar less we have to charge our customers. Exactly.

It also improves public safety. I mean, Westland is a cutoff, and I know that there's been issues with reception up there. We have a park up there. So not only do we get the revenue, but we get enhanced communications. God forbid they're should be a public safety emergency. So I think it's great for all the obvious reasons, but Willard historically is very bad service. So hopefully this will be improving it for those residents up there, which is like another little side benefit.

Yeah, we're pretty happy over here.

Me too.

Next. Item nine is to authorize a shared service agreement with Midland Park. As you know, with the PFAS project, we tore up a lot of streets. Permit requirements. require us to pave from curb to center line. Midland Park wants to go into a shared service agreement to go center line to the other side, essentially paving the whole street through our vendor and cost. They would then reimburse us through this agreement. So that's an authorization of shared service agreement.

Great plan.

And again, not only in Midland Park, but we just had a meeting maybe two weeks ago between Ridgewood Water and Ridgewood Engineering, sort of the first of its kind, a little bit. But we are talking about undertaking these types of initiatives too. Whereas Mr. McGrath puts together our road resurfacing program for ensuing years, we're looking at what Ridgewood Water's plan is to pave some of the streets where they're doing the lead service lines or doing some other improvements where they need to be in the ground. And we're looking to dovetail the two departments to try to pave in every situation where it's practical, curb to curb rather than curb to center line.

Perfect. Great. Great move, really. Thank you. And thank you very much. I think you guys are done.

Thank you. I just want to say happy three years. Oh, thank you. Thank you for your leadership, oversight, and most importantly, the opportunity to sit here tonight. Thank you, sir.

Go water. Keith, I think it's you now.

Thank you, sir. First, tonight under parking, we have an amendment to Chapter 265 of the Village Code, vehicles and traffic parking at the Pease Library. As most know, there are two tenants at the Pease Library that fall under lease agreements with the Library Board of Trustees. One is Central Dispatch, which is located on the lower level of the Pease Library. The other is Baller Engineering. We have some inconsistencies with the lease and the ordinance. That has been fixed in practicality on the streets with different signage, but we need an ordinance to support the appropriate parking and the assigned spots. Bowler has one spot that's on the street that was previously being used by Central. They've now expanded their staff because they're growing at that location. They're asking for the library to meet the terms of the lease by granting them that spot on the street. So this will clear up all the... conflicts within the ordinance to make sure that both tenants are assigned all the spaces that they're required to have.

I'm a little confused about the southwest parking lot. Isn't that the parking lot that's behind Tarvin Realty?

Yes, there's a stairway. You mean the one that's up top?

Nope. No. It's at the corner of the library place.

Okay. Do you want to look at the map? You have the map?

No.

Okay. Here, I'll pass it to you.

It was emailed to us, but then it was .

Let's see. Oh, okay. So if library place goes like.

Keith, you're saying it's just to clean up any.

This is just to clean up so that the assigned parking spaces as per the library lease agreements that the ordinance supports those agreements.

Yeah, we discussed this at one of our last library meetings. We're contractually obligated to provide some of these spots to the folks who are leasing space in P's, and somehow it got messed up.

This fixes that, and I would just remind everyone that the rental... We had a summit on this in my office to make sure that everyone was assigned accurate parking.

Oh, okay. Now I've gotten oriented. So this... this parking lot that is behind La Lanterna, and it's the shape of a quarter of a circle. Is that entirely municipal?

Let me just see it.

My question is, do those buildings that face onto West Ridgewood Avenue have any parking in that?

The one that looks like a baseball field? That is not municipal park. There is parking for Pease Library up here on the actual corner. All of those spaces that face the Pease Library and that also face away from the Pease Library in that corner, those are parking for that facility.

Okay.

Okay?

Everybody good?

Yeah. Let's go. Okay, under budget tonight, we have the award of contract for the NJDOT grant, South Pleasant Avenue, resurfacing phase two. Bids were received on Wednesday, June 24th. We had eight registered plan holders eligible to bid, six returned bids. The low bid was for $464,193.59. That low bidder is Smith Sunday Asphalt Construction Company of Wallington. They are also the contractor who was awarded our 2026 capital paving, so that's going to work out well, having one vendor in the village. This will take us from Grove Street to East Ridgewood Avenue, and the grant amount from the NJDOT is $247,065. Pretty good? Yep. Let's go. Next item is the award of contract under the state contract for body-worn cameras for our police department. You have a memorandum from Lieutenant Chuck. This is to enter into one year of a five-year agreement with Axon Enterprise Inc. from Phoenix, Arizona for body-worn cameras. We'll have 60 units for officers, special law enforcement threes who are assigned to the schools and for our parking enforcement officers. These units from Axon have been utilized for several years, and the cost for this agreement is $121,149.74. The annual cost includes the hardware, software licensing, technology upgrades, unlimited cloud-based evidence storage, advanced redaction software, equipment replacement, technical support, and ongoing system maintenance.

Everybody good? Well, I'm sorry to be so ignorant, but one of the good things about these is that it comes with a fully supported and scalable platform. What does that mean?

That's the software that they can look at it and you can, it's not just a video, it's how you can search the video, how it's stored and all that, so that's what a platform would be.

My understanding too is that these devices, as the technology advances, we will have the ability to move forward with those enhancements while having this equipment.

As opposed to having to get new equipment. And the redactions are done by AI?

For Oprah.

But it's not a human. I mean, that's extremely time-confusing.

Well, there is a human who is involved in making those redactions. For example, we had that video recently with somebody in the media who had a ticket, and you saw that when the police officer was holding that person's driver's license, that area was blurred out. So there is a human component of making those reductions.

Okay.

All right?

Thank you. Good.

Let's go. Okay. The next item under budget is award of contract under the Educational Services Commission New Jersey Cooperative Pricing for in-ground vehicle lift for the streets department. You'll remember this was the priority from Mike Junta over at the Streets and Fleet Division. So you have a memo tonight from James McGrath requesting the purchase of a new rotary in-ground lift to replace the existing lift that was previously installed in July of 2010 that no longer functions and that the manufacturer no longer makes replacement parts for. This is a purchase through the co-op not to exceed $47,800.

But Keith, my understanding from reading this is that if they, in their excavations, hit water, they might need more money.

That's true.

So I just want to set expectations. This isn't necessarily hard and fast. They might be coming back.

Fingers crossed.

Yeah.

Let's go. Next item under policy is to amend Chapter 265, vehicles and traffic, free parking on federal holidays. So there has been some discussion in the community, and we've had some inquiries into the manager's office about when is free parking applicable on federal holidays. And after discussion with staff and the history of how we have dealt with this, our recommendation to the council is that we fix the holiday calendar as the actual holiday. So for example, this past year, July 4th was a Saturday, Village offices were closed and observed the holiday on Friday, but as it applies to free parking, and we're also gonna talk about the use of commercial equipment and landscaping operations relative to the federal holidays too, the free parking would be on the holiday itself, not on the day that the Village was closed for the holiday.

Everybody good with that?

Yeah. Let's go. Okay. Along those same lines, that same logic would apply to the update of Chapter 222, which is the commercial use of power tools, manual tools, motorized construction equipment, landscaping, and yard maintenance equipment on holidays. We are recommending, again, that the fixed calendar dates of the actual holidays be codified and that any verbiage relative to observance of a holiday be removed. And a great example in talking to the building department about this is, for example, if Veterans Day is on a Sunday, the village offices would be closed on Monday the 12th. Do we really want to be in a position where we tell a resident that they're contractor who's putting an addition on their house, or their person who's coming to clear their property of leaves during that time of year, that they shouldn't be able to work on November 12th. And that's really the logic on both of these issues as to why we're recommending that it be on the actual holiday.

Makes perfect sense.

Though some holidays move around.

Right, so you mean as far as day of the week?

Yeah.

Well, Veterans Day is a perfect example of that.

but some of them don't even have fixed numbers of dates.

Correct, but on that calendar year, the rules would apply on that holiday.

You mean like Thanksgiving? Yeah.

Right.

Okay.

I mean, for example, we're also closed on Black Friday here, but that doesn't mean that your landscaper can't come and clear your leaves on Black Friday. It's not a federal holiday, so. that there's a distinction between holidays that are being observed by the village offices and the actual holiday itself, and that's what we're trying to align to.

I think it's great. I think we just ran into this year the birthday thing where Juneteenth was a Friday and July 4th was a Saturday, so sort of like... One-two punch.

This clears up... It makes it very simple, and if you're a visitor coming to Ridgewood and you want to park downtown, it's July 4th, it's free parking. You don't have to worry about whether it's July 3rd or...

Let's go.

Okay, the next item is to update the snow and ice removal. With the weather outside, I guess it's an appropriate time to do this. But you will see as this ordinance is redlined and underlined, we the code enforcement office is recommending that we add verbiage to this ordinance that would allow for a width of 20 inches or more on sidewalks. that all corners and crosswalk entry pads would be required to have the snow removed on private property. They're also looking for verbiage that would be added to remove all snow and ice in and around all fire hydrants, and that recommend.

I think that should be on and around. I don't know how you get snow inside, so on and around. Yeah, right. What did you just say, on and around? I apologize.

Okay, I mean, I think you've accomplished the same thing, but we can change it to on.

Yeah, and also, that phrase is, it's a sentence fragment, and can they make it into a full sentence?

Yeah, Matt will clean this up before we hand over the ordinance for the council. These are just the recommended amendments that the fire department and code enforcement are suggesting. What's that? Sharon.

Oh, Sharon.

Yeah. We're also looking to... address owners, tenants, and occupants in the B1, B2, P, and P2 zones. And we need to add verbiage there as well that covers all corners and crosswalk entry pads. So those are essentially the additions that we want to make to this ordinance and the changes that we want to make to this ordinance. And again, the fire hydrant aspect of this has been recommended by Chief Judge.

No, I think that's great, Mitch. Everybody good? Let's go.

A lot of amendments tonight. The next is an amendment to Chapter 263, which is valet parking services operating requirements. There are two changes that are being recommended by the police department. They are looking to permit the use of temporary vertical panel signs identifying the point of pickup for valet parking services. So it's just a different type of sign. That's

What does it look like?

It's a sandwich board.

It's an A-frame?

It's an A-frame. So that would be a change from the signage that is permitted now. And then the second item is to change the prescribed times and dates beginning at 9 a.m. throughout the day and evening to as late as 3 a.m. the following morning. And the reason the police department is recommending that is because you need to reserve the parking spaces to be used for valet all day long. even though we weren't starting till later in the day with the valet pickup. Now this would allow them to utilize the valet all day because they're already renting those spaces in order to provide that service. Next. All right, number five under policy is to amend chapter 190, land use and development, permit shared parking arrangements for institutional uses subject to certain requirements. Matt, do you have this one? I didn't have notes on this one. Oh, yes, okay. So, my bad. This one is an ordinance that would allow us to address the dispute that is happening now between Westside Presbyterian Church and the Board of Education. Institutionally, the Board of Education has had a lease agreement with Westside Presbyterian Church for their staff and for any events that occur at GW middle school for the use of the parking spaces at the church. There is a current application before the zoning board of adjustment for Westside where this issue has arisen. I've spoken to Rich Matthews, the business administrator at the school district, along with the superintendent of schools. I've also spoken to the president of Westside Presbyterian Church. Everyone is in agreement that we need to change the effect of zoning to allow for that lease agreement to continue moving forward as it was raised as an issue at the Board of Adjustment. Mr. Whitaker, who is the Board of Adjustment attorney, in addition to Matt, thank you for refreshing my memory on this, because this was a late add-on to the agenda, and also the school board attorney are all in sync with this zoning change needing to happen in order for that lease agreement for GW Middle School to continue with the church.

Questions? I'm sorry, if I can just add to it. Just for the record, I don't know that it's going to be ready to be introduced next week because there's still some discussion going on. I think the intent was to present and discuss this with the Ordinance Review Committee. I think we have a meeting a week from tomorrow. And then today we just got some proposed wording, not in relation to a review of this, draft, but proposed wording from the attorney for Westside, so we haven't even looked at that yet. Is this time sensitive? Well, it is time sensitive in the sense that, from what I understand, as long as we're working on it and have it underway, they're going to be able to resolve the issue between Westside and the Board of Ed. The application, I think, is on hold until September. So as long as we have it going and can introduce it, hopefully in August, then it'll be, I think everything's copacetic and everything will work out that way.

Yeah, I just want to make sure because this, I mean, as a GW dad, they need to have parking. It's very important. And it's got to get done. Like, you know, staff parks there and for the first day of school, like, we got to have this, we can't have this be a problem.

And as I said, this was a late starter to this agenda, which caused my confusion. But the reason that this was a late starter and that I asked Heather to add it to the agenda was because this is time sensitive. And we need to at least have this underway so that there is a level of comfort between the church and the school district, despite the fact that this has been in effect forever. Because if there is not adequate parking at the church for GW Middle School, There is nowhere else, and I've had this conversation with Chief Lyons, there is nowhere else for that parking to spread to for the beginning of school the first week of September. Exactly.

I just want to make sure, because the introduction of the ordinance is legally enough. It doesn't need to be adopted, because if it does, we need to take our calendars out.

I wasn't privy to those conversations, but from what I understand, and talking to Bruce Whitaker, Bruce Whitaker's discussions with the attorney for the applicant, Westside Presbyterian, was that as long as it's underway and the introduction, we don't have to, even if we were to introduce it tomorrow night or next week, we wouldn't have it, it wouldn't be effective until September anyway.

So we did map this out already. So if we are not in a position to introduce a week from tonight, and we're gonna hold that discussion at the July 16th ordinance working group meeting. That would then take us to introduction on August 12th. We have a work session on September 2nd, which coincides with the opening of school. So if we had to, just to make the adoption process complete, you still have the estoppel period, but you'd have adoption we would do a special meeting as part of the work session on September 2nd. We mapped out the calendar dates.

And from what we understand, that timing is good with everybody. Good. Okay. Great.

Okay. Next item under operations is to authorize the 2027 NJDOT grant application for the resurfacing of West Ridgewood Avenue Phase 2. Our aid request is $360,000 for a project that's estimated at $422,000. This will take us from Maltby to Garber Square on West Ridgewood Avenue.

Great. Awesome. Yep. Let's go.

The next item is to appoint through a professional services contract an administrative agent for affordable housing. Piazza & Associates has been the village's administrative agent for... affordable housing for some time now, and that contract is up for renewal. This is the person who administers our affordable housing in an equitable way, and that is a not to exceed contract of $7,500. Good, let's go. Next item is a donation for irrigation for the Children's Sensory and Butterfly Garden at the stable. We have a memorandum from Director Bigos. The cost of the irrigation installation was $1,750, and she is making the recommendation that we accept this donation from the Conservancy for Ridgewood Public Lands.

I'd just like to say that I thank the Conservancy for their continued support, and for anyone that's never been to the Butterfly Garden, I think it's one of the most beautiful places in our village, and I'm just so thrilled at how much they do, including the Daffodil Festival, the Butterfly Garden, and just, they're all around good people.

I agree. Can I just, while we're all here, Heather, on the interoffice memo, you're using a 25 resolution.

Actually, if you got tonight's update, it did say 26, 27.

Thanks.

And under operations, the last item, item four, this was also a late starter, and I want to thank Heather for adding this on. This is an agreement with the borough of Midland Park. to outline inspection services from the fire prevention bureaus in both municipalities when it comes to the Kukin Brothers property, which straddles the municipal boundaries between the two municipalities. They had appointed a new fire prevention official in the Borough of Midland Park, which brought this to light. We wanted to make sure that we had an agreement in place that outlines the responsibilities of both municipalities and how we would work together to complete inspections, especially on a property that's as sensitive as that. So the governing body in Midland Park has already approved this agreement, and we're seeking approval next week.

Everybody good with this? Yep. We are good.

That's all I have, Mayor. That concludes my report.

Excellent. Let's go back to public comment. Wow. Okay, then. I'm going to close public comment. We have no one on hybrid access and entertain a resolution to go into closed session.

So moved. Be it resolved by the Village Council of the Village of Ridgewood that the Village Council meet in closed session on July 8th, 2026 at 7.30 p.m. or soon thereafter as the matter on the agenda can be reached. And is that closed session be held in the caucus room on the fourth floor of the Ridgewood Village Hall, 131 North Maple Avenue, Ridgewood, New Jersey. Be it further resolved that the matter to be discussed in closed session is limited to legal matters to include fair share of housing. This matter is allowable under NJSA 10.4-12 at SEC. Be it further resolved that the minutes of this meeting shall be made available to the general public. One such matter has been deemed completed by resolution of the Village Council. Do we have a motion? So moved.

Second. Thank you. Good night everybody.