Borough Council - Regular Meeting

We're good. Yeah. This meeting is called to order in accordance with the open public meetings law in accordance with chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975. Adequate notice of this meeting has been provided. This meeting of February 17, 2026 was published in the Courier News NSTAR ledger and placed on the burough's website in Ben Board of Burough Hall. A copy of this notice is available to the public and a copy of the statement shall be included in the minutes of this meeting. Mayor Brian Gallagher here.

Council members Terresa Bonner is excused this evening. Andrew Ki here. Glenny here. Randy Pittz is excused this evening. Gina Stravik here. And Roger Verum

here. Please stand for the salute to the flag. 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. Okay. Um, departmental reports and notices typically are as listed, but I will uh go into them very briefly. Uh again, effective April 1, uh on or around April 1, uh garbage bags of solid waste are no longer allowed to be placed on the curb for pickup without being placed in appropriate garbage receptacle. Um we're actually going to have a quick demonstration on the uh the types of cans that will be allowed. The burrow is in the midst of a new bid for a garbage contract. Um and uh part of that new contract is that uh uh the hand carrying of garbage cans will no longer be allowed. It has to be in the proper receptacles now uh so that the mechanized arm from the uh from the garbage truck can actually pick up the uh the cans. So uh probably a good idea for us to start to push that out on social media as well. Kevin.

Yep. Um, additionally, um, election district number eight is moved from Lincoln Hose on Warren Street to the Somerville Civic Center, which is this location, 24 Robson Street. And again, I think that's another one we can push out on social media as well. Um, uh, there is a revaluation order. the uh the county uh board of taxation has created a revaluation order for the bureau of Somerville effective for the tax year 2029. So typically that would be done during 28, Kevin, or is that done in 27? The I'm sorry, the activity will start in 28.

Okay. Um as we get uh closer to that, we'll have much more information. Um this is typically something that is done um every 10 years or so depending on the valuation formulas that the county has. Um and we've uh the burrow has achieved that level in our our housing. So uh it's time that that is done. Uh and then we've also received a letter from the planning board with a resolution recommending block 124.01 and block 130 lots as redevelopment area. That's the west end redevelopment area. Uh that's the uh the granite building. Uh and that area. More information to come uh from the uh from the planning board on that. Uh let's go into committee reports. Andrew,

uh historic advisory committee meets this Thursday uh here in case anybody wants to come and hang out with the historic advisory committee. And I um there are some updates as to what's going on around town uh for the uh 250th. Um, I'm not gonna attempt to say semi cesquit. Yeah, there you go.

Um, in specific, we're hoping to be able to put up flags all around town, including adorning the burrow hall. Uh, that's a discussion I think I need to have with somebody else, not here. But um we are also working with our branch of the library to work out how to view put up for public viewing a limited edition print of commissioned at the time of the bsentennial to show nostalgic views of Somerville's historic landmarks. Um in addition to that we're going to have a list of resources including books, videos, and online resources uh on the American Revolution in Somerville area. um Middlebrook technically has uh and it's been distributed to social studies curriculum supervisors at Immaculata and Somerville public schools for their use. Um there was an event on the 15th that has already passed, but on the 22nd the Heritage Trail Association will again run its signature five generals of Middlebrook bus tour. Tickets are available for purchase online. Um, and there will be a bunch of people from the advisory committee or the historic advisory committee there. On the 14th at the uh Ryarden Valley Community College uh all day there will be a middlebrook symposium series um organized by these last four years by a Somerville resident uh Bob and Linda Bar under the opaces of the heritage trail association and will be held uh virtually as well. For information on what that event will be like you could visit the heritage trail association. There are other events that are coming at the Wallace House, the Fourth of July, uh reading of the Declaration of Independence at Immaculata, and a few other uh events that are we're still working on the details. Mostly follow the county website because everything's being consolidated there if you want to know more. Um that's all I have on the historic advisory committee.

Great. All right. Thank you, Gina.

Yes. Uh regarding the board of health, uh they will be meeting March 18th. Um all are welcome to attend at the Warren Street uh health office, Summers County Health Office. Um, I think the latest bulletin I saw was RSV and flu viruses are down. So, um, hopefully no one's ill. I know it went around at Christmas. Um, as far as the, uh, my position with the, uh, rescue squad as leaison, uh, I have to report that they have, uh, answered 133 calls from the month of January. Uh, 63 as of February 13th. Um, they are also, I've reported before, celebrating, um, in two years their 100th uh, anniversary. So, in fact, the committee's meeting tonight on that. Uh, if there's any uh former squad members out there or family members uh connected to the squad that has any memorabilia or history to share, um I'm sure they'll be happy to receive that. And then um the uh rescue squad auxiliary is hosting a fundraiser for the squad uh for new equipment and that is a pancake breakfast on March 7th. I hope to see you all there. Um and um it is from uh 8 to 10 at Applebee's. It's only $15 and that uh that supports uh the the event for the squad. So, um uh I will be waiting tables. Uh so, if you want to be served by me, um I'm pretty good at it. Work my way through college serving tables. And then I had three sons and waited tables. So, at any rate, um do do come out and support the squad. And if you can't come, make a donation. Um there'll be some press coming out. So, thank you.

Great. Thank you, Gina Glenn.

Great. Thank you, Mayor. uh environmental commission met here last week and uh a couple other save the dates. Seems like we have a very busy spring here in the burrow coming up with a lot of great events uh including the Earth Day cleanup and green fair which will be on April 25th. More details to follow. Also, if you're interested in applying for a garden spot at the Jcott Community Garden, those that lottery for that will also be coming up soon. Excuse my voice. Um so keep an eye out for details for that on our social media. Um also at the meeting there was discussion of uh working on a fairy house trail which hopefully will involve the different schools and other organizations in town and uh bring some uh interesting uh natural artwork to our parks which would be great. Um also the commission talked about supporting the burrow's community energy plan as well as continuing the Petersburg restoration. Our next meeting will be March 10th at 7 PM right here at the Civic Center. So, please come out.

Excellent. Thank you. Thank you, Roger. I have nothing this evening.

All right. So, then we can go right into our presentations. So, first up, we have uh our Brownfield success stories, the ARCGIS story map. Um this is something that Mr. Driver had sent to me. It was a synopsis of a uh a case study that uh that showed good policy, good planning. uh as as noted by the DP. Um and we have with us tonight uh Ron Wankowski from the DP and Ron has been our liaison since 2008. Um when he came on board uh was kind of at the tail end of a lot of the planning that we were doing and one of our goals was to make friends with the D. And uh and you know there's a lot of angst over the D. There's a lot of angst over state agencies. Um, what I can tell you is over the course of many years, uh, Ron, in particular, Ron and the D have been instrumental in helping the burrow, uh, solve a lot of issues very creatively on the landfill. Um, and they've stuck with us. Uh, it's been a long effort. Uh, but the results are very apparent as to what we have now. Um we've gained access to $28 million in uh haz hazardous discharge site remediation funding. Um and uh um that's money that uh that we did not have to spend. Those were that's essentially grant monies that we received. That's a lot of money. Um as Ron said before we started, it's a landfill in New Jersey and it takes a lot of money to clean those up. Um but uh but we've been making great strides. Um, and uh, so I'm going to turn it over to Colin and uh, you can intro Ron because I know he's got a lot of titles these days or at least a lot of responsibilities.

Thanks. Just briefly, you turn turn on your

Okay. Yep. You've taken half of most of my thunder anyhow, but I've worked with Ron for 18 years. God. Um, and we've worked through a lot and we're really a a brownfield development area which includes more than just the landfill. We're talking about this whole area here um stretching up to the the New Jersey state um area, the wetlands there all the way down to the junction of South Bridge Street and 206. So Ron is our go-to guy and he's also the guy that reviews all theum environmental engineering plans and and cost estimates and if it doesn't get past Ron, we don't get the money. So, we we've been very fortunate. And um I'm going to hand it to Ron now and he can tell you how we became a success story. And then when he's finished, I've got three quick videos to show you so that you get an idea of the size of what we've been working on for the last 20 years. All yours.

All right. Um so, love being here. Uh the last time I was probably in this spot was 2010. when we were doing sitewalks to do the environmental investigations. So, it is truly a success story. Um, as you'll see, we have three that we've highlighted here in this. There you go. Um, in our story map. So, anyway, a little bit about me. So, I've been with the department for almost 34 years. Um, I've been in the office ground reuse for 19 of those years. Um, and I became involved with this project in 2008 and then obviously became a BDA in 2000 uh late like fall 2009. So I've been involved for a very long time. Um, so we had uh an hourly and I think he went to Blouse and I think they use a different version of story map for school. So he was aware of it and then we had another uh employee another hourly who also knew story map. So they came to us with an idea like hey let's put our success stories in this interactive GIS tool that you can show before after uh you know little information about our program. So we started it a while ago. We got busy with other things and then my predecessor left and I took over and realized that we needed to get this finished. So we made a a mad dash towards the end of the year and the commissioner loved it. He wanted to see it. So, it was it was nice to, you know, end his tenure with with him glowing over our success stories and particularly his story map. So, um I don't want to take too much of your time, so I guess I'll just go through it real quick. Um we'll be a little hard here. Okay, it's on my computer. So, um so basically what it does is it it highlights our our pro our main programs. Um and so we mentioned hazardous discharge determination fund. Um that's basically

our grant that we give mainly municipalities uh counties and uh redevelopment agencies to do investigation and cleanup of contaminated sites that are brownfields. Um as as the mayor said, we've probably given around 28 million for uh about 10 11 sites within the BDA. Uh these this site, the transit sites were part of the BD are part of the BDA. Um so again, this is very exciting to see something like that turn into this this this awesome complex of apartments and and uh town homes. Um, I don't want to go over everything because it'll just take too long. So, I want to just, you know, kind of tell you about what the brownfield development area is. So, it's it's basically a collaborative partnership with municipalities, you know, that have neighborhoods that are impacted by multiple brownfields. And we have an application process and part of the application process is strong public um desire to want to do these redevelopments and that's in the form of the steering committee which uh which is a big component of the brownfield development area and they can be made up of city officials, property owners in the BDA, they could be uh members of a parish, they could be just anybody in the community that wants to show strong support for the redevelopment. So that's you know so we try to foster um community support for these projects. Ultimately, what happens to these BDAS is up to municipality, but when we get everybody involved and we we had these steering committee meetings a lot back in the day. Um, and you know, you see the fruits of that labor here. So, I'm not going to go through all of this, but you know, this is a BDA, but it's also a landfill redevelopment, which is my specialty. Um, this is Tony Finley. He wanted to be on here, so he's one of our

BDA coordinators. He loves being, you know, he loves being out, you know, front facing. The landfill de redevelopment program is huge because that's what I've been working mainly on. And this I had EDAS mainly with landfills in them, which, you know, makes sense. So, we're hoping to get this landfill redeveloped with solar, you know, sooner rather than later later. It's been it's been a a lot of hurdles between D land use issues, DPU issues, and I think we're almost there. And the cool thing about the story map is that it shows you this is just a landfill here, a before and after. So, this is actually Anglesy Beach Colony landfill in North Wildwood. Yes, we put million-dollar condos on a land on landfills. Uh, but just an idea of what this tool can give you. Um, so the main reason we're here is because, uh, like we have like three or four like big BDAS that have had a lot of success. Somerville being one of them. Camden, you may have heard of the Camden Croc Center. Uh, that's a huge one for us. Uh, Perth Amboy is another one. Thomas Money Park and Palmyra just recently putting affordable housing. and you know, two huge warehouses on the former landfill and part of the the Palmyra BDA. So, with with this, we wanted to highlight, and this might be part of the footage that I know you might show, but

you're stealing proud of my I'll scroll right through that, but this just gives you an idea of of what the sites look like. So, this I think right here is part of the Richard Fuel site. Yeah. Lot four, which is now those nice uh apartments. So, this is this is actually that's another success. of the BDA. Um, I'm not going to bore you with all the like the details, but I mean it was a landfill and anything like a rich fuel oil would have uh you know diesel fuel, gasoline, whatever kind of products. Yeah. This is where the Soma apartments are now. Yeah.

Yeah. This is land. This is probably one of the sitewalks I mentioned when they started clearing to do investigation in the green seam like the stream area between the two loes of the landfill. Um I think that on the left is Mike Lambert for if you remember him mayor from Geioint. Um and this is just some you know more pictures of of what we did you know was clearing and grubbing that was trees.

Yep. Um you know this is this is what the stream looked like back in 2009 2010. Um that's Greg Giles my geologist that was on the project a long time ago. Um yeah, you know, just more where the stream comes in of what it looked like. And this is, you know, while it's getting reconstructed. Uh that was a pretty lengthy process. We lined it. We brought in like special top soil to uh hold the um plants for the green seam because you need like very high carbon top soil for that type of application. Um so it was a really great project. I mean, I think I think we gave about 12 a.5 million just to that green scene project alone, that remediation, because it because it costs a lot to clean a stream and gut it like that.

And if I'm not mistaken, the water that hits the rare river now is actually cleaner than the rare river. It's probably uh this is this kind of gives you just a quick map of of the BDA. The green area is the green seam. The blue area you're this is where we are. Um and over here in the red area. Oh, sorry. In the red area, that's the wetlands. Yep. And then you can't see it, the little orange, that's the uh Richard's free wall lot where the Soma apartments are. So, it just gives you an idea. And hopefully, we're going to finish

the rest of the landfill with a a different cap than we're used to. We actually got okay to use a geocynthetic cap on the top that has like grass built into it. Um there's land use reasons why, all kinds of things. I don't want to get into that, but it's actually pretty innovative. So, I look forward to get that getting done. Um, and what else? Oh, so here here's like a nice little before and after of what it was. And you can see some of the apartments. Sorry, let me scroll down here. You can see where some of the uh our development here is where we're standing and the landfill before and after we did the green seam. even it's not the rest this part and this part aren't even properly closed but it looks way better than it did. This is the green seam area that we we closed and capped right here. Um but it was it was a great project and look forward to you know getting the rest of the landfill done. And of course we all know you know we drove by some of these getting here. So, and I, you know, I can always let Colin talk about the impact he knows more about than as far as the socioeconomic impact of of all this. I'm I'm the tech guy. And we This isn't obviously it's not Somerville landfill, but we added this there to show that this is what will happen eventually when we we develop with solar on the rest of the landfill. And that's about it for that. And then there's other projects, but

yeah, we don't need to see those. I put this in there. Want to swap seats or move across or something? I'll move across. Okay. Is that show available on uh It's online. Yes, it's online. So, if you just type in New Jersey Brownfields

and you probably get to our website and it's on the right where it says story. I actually have it pulled up if you want here just to show you. Thank you. I won't take up too much time because you've got a bike race waiting to talk to you as well. But um the BDA not only um has it made it possible for us to or the program made it possible for us to remediate something that cost a lot of money. Um being this is the ad for us proactive. A lot of the requirements of the BDA program required public meeting, public input. And we had this thing in 2006 called the visioning project. And the visioning project had about 180 residents um participating over about 15 months to come up with a vision for the future. That vision was actually put into the redevelopment plan and um what we see today is a result of that visioning and it it shortened our time with the uh steering committee and with with the brownfields committee too because we had done so much of that work. So let me see if I can

that's and the visioning plan any redevelopment plans are very are part of the

just swing that mic to you. They're they're part of like divisioning plan and redevelopment plans are part of the BDA application. The the the more of those types of documents you had, the better scoring was because we do score them. Um and we really we didn't have any since 2009 till we just added 12 more the beginning of last year. So we have 40 BDAS now. And another interesting as far as HSR's concerned, BDA communities get up to 5 million a year. If you're not a BDA, municipalities can get up to three. So, it gets you an extra two million a year for remediation, which again, when you have a big landfill project that costs 15 million, you only need to come in three times instead of like five or six

because you have to come in yearly. All right, you ready? Sorry.

Oh, come on, machine. Why don't you have a mouse here, Kevin? There we go. There you go. These are only short videos, but they actually so show the site nearly in its entirety. That brown bit which we have there that underneath that is one of the best storm water management systems that we've seen around that takes the storm water from the eastern part of town runs underneath all of that and comes add into the green seam in in the wetlands up there and uh it retards the flow of water and uh it's quite amazing. But the the two brown spots that you're seeing both here

and does it also biio-mediate the water as it comes through that? No. Okay. No, the the the wetlands do a little bit of that, but

that's where the solar will go. Then you you over here uh the southern Avalon buildings and this green area up here is is the buildings that we're in. And this parking lot is the building that's going to be built. So, it's rather fascinating to see it from the sky when it was first started. It's going to be finished. What kind of wetlands are there?

I forgot. You talking like class one, two? Yeah. Always wet, sometimes wet. We we they seasonally very wet with some of the They try They tried to call them one at least up where the uh transit properties were, but I think we might have got them down to two. like I forget the the nomenclature for that because it was a contaminated site, right? We're like, why how would it place one, you know, how can it both be extremely sensitive? Got to talk over the top of them while this thing's rolling.

But this is just about complete, but it puts it into context when you looked at the first video I showed where it was just moving dirt around. Now, these this is the wetlands that it's flying towards now. And hopefully um working with Ron and some of the other people we'll get some money. We we tried going to the county to get money to uh put boardwalks through that wetlands area and get rid of the invasive species and replant. Um the county didn't come to the party unfortunately. So we we've got to find alternative sources. the cost of going back to the the wetlands. Um, just to to show you real quickly, starting at the the trails that are already on the green seam to come up through here and come up and get to the old Dutch parsonage and and the Wallace House. Um, it'll be about a million and a half dollars. So that's something that we're we're continually looking to find the funding. And then I've got one final one which is a different perspective entirely because it's heading north from where station road now is and it just shows the the the whole site um as it was I guess it was completed because they're still doing you know they started work on this particular area but it's in the fall so it's brown.

Um, but you can see the green seam there. You can see the the trails um leading through it. And it's just a an interesting perspective of how large the site really is. When we talk about the green seam, we just think of that little bit of creek running through the center of it. But we've remediated a tremendous amount more. So, I've really said, "Oh, I should tonight unless you got any questions." Any questions? So, well done.

Yeah. Just uh first a thank you. Um you know, obviously this is a project that has it's it's you know, 20 years in the making. Well, longer than that because because it was uh the landfill ceased operation in what the late 70s, I believe. And then it was in litigation for about 10 or 15 years. And uh and then we made the economic decision that uh that that it's not this isn't about litigation, it's about economics. And that's kind of when everything shifted. And and we did this huge visioning session. uh brought the the the people from town in and and they the people from town are the ones who developed what we're sitting in right now. They drove what uh what this area should look like. Um and then we developed partnerships and I think that's what's critical. We didn't look at the D as an adversary. We looked at them as a partner in trying to figure out how we can do things economically quickly in the state's time frame of quickly um and and creatively at times. And I think we we took some some leaps and d took those leaps with us and uh and looked at you know a very unique situation and said yeah let's give it a shot and uh and it worked. Uh we took a piece of property. If anybody had been up on the landfill, Rich, I think you we you were brought up on the landfill. Um it was just it was not a good place. Obviously, it was filled with trash. Um it was just it sometimes it was a dirt bike path, sometimes it was a uh um

city. Tense city. Absolutely.

Um other times it was a dumping ground for various items. Um and uh and we took it and we created something. Not only did we create a another neighborhood in Somerville, we cleaned up a very contaminated piece of property in the state. And uh and that's to me a success. So we returned a piece of property to a production a productive functioning uh part of Somerville. And and that's pretty cool. And I can almost guarantee that about 90% of the folks that live here now have no idea what this looked like 15 years ago. None. And and I think this may help to uh to educate them, which I think is good. So Ron, thank you for 18 years of uh of continued success for Somerville. Please take back to your team uh Somerville's thanks for being a good partner with us.

I'll do that. Um just to add the the BDA and Our office of brownfield and community revitalization is about partnerships. We don't want to look, you know, we never want to look at things adversarily, you know, because then nothing gets done, you know, we try new things, we try different things and having the fund really helps. I mean, that's that's a huge component of it. Money makes it work. Yeah. So, yeah. Uh, no, this has definitely been my best project that I've worked on. So, I I like seeing the fruits of our labors here. So, thank you. Appreciate Appreciate. I'll give you a dollar later. And we pre we appreciate you taking the time out to come out at night. So, thank you very much. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks.

Yeah. We remember the old steer committee meetings. We did them three four times a year that night. So, so I remember said it's been a while because I was almost forgetting exactly not how to get here, but wow. It's been a while since I've been here. So, definitely need to get back up here, especially when you close the landfill. Yep. Thank the rest of it. Thank you. Thank you. Looking forward to it.

Yeah. Yeah, and I think that you bring up a good point that, you know, the next step is the uh the solar and we're waiting for hopefully final approvals fairly soon and uh once that happens, it'll cap the uh the landfill and we'll have a solar farm up there. So, more to come. Um all right, next up is the tour of Somerville presentation. I think everybody is familiar with the tour of Somerville. Um if you're not, you will be. Uh the tour has seen a renaissance of sorts over the past uh year or so and uh all due to the folks that are here tonight. So we have with us tonight um the tour's president Eric Alvarez, uh the vice president Sheldon Hajes, treasurer Ellen Nardoni, and uh secretary Rich Wrightman. And uh they're here to talk to us a little bit I think about uh the past race and what's coming up bigger and better for uh for this year. So, you're on, guys.

All right. Well, thank you for the introduction. Thank you for having us. Um, we uh we just wanted to to come out and uh tell you how we did in 2025. It was the 80th anniversary. Uh we celebrated every Memorial Day obviously. And um it was it was a good success. We had a lot of people out and and let me pull up the numbers for you. So, um, like I said, it was the 80th running. It's been running since 1940. It's run on Memorial Day for those who don't know, uh, in honor of the first two winners who died abroad. Uh, they were in World War II and ever since it's been, uh, held on Memorial Day. Um, so in last year, we had over 10,000 attendees in town. They spent an average time of over over two hours in town. Uh, 138 minutes. Uh they 78% lived within 30 miles. So that means I guess 22 lived outside of 30 miles. So uh and 49% lived within five miles of of town. Um we had a number of athletes from around the world. We had 17 different countries represented or 13 different countries represented 27 different states. Uh last year's women's winner was a Cuban national champion and former Olympian. Uh last year's men's champion was a uh the Criterion National Champion for the United States. Uh it was a it was an exciting race all around. Uh we got a lot of interactions on social media. Uh over 11,000 uh 300 or 332,000 impressions uh and over 700 followers gained on our social media account. Um, so all that translates into a number of things for the town obviously. Um, and we think that, you know, by putting a concerted

effort into into organizing a a top tier event every year. Um, I think that's only going to help the town. And this year we have some uh some more plans. So I'll let Sheldon take it over from here.

Thank you very much, Eric. Ladies, gentlemen, thank you very much for allowing us to speak today. I wanted to take a couple moments to highlight something that we are planning and very excited to roll out this year for the 26 event. Um, we've been talking for a few years about an expanded community zone. Uh, for those of you who've been there on race day, uh, and the courthouse lawn there, we've had some bounce houses and things like that. We certainly want to continue to do that, but we also want to enhance that area, a bigger draw, not only for the community, but for those outside of Somerville, so we can continue to not only celebrate the race, but celebrate the town. One item that we're particularly focused on this year is, as you can see on on the left side of this map, is um a Finston community zone. We're very focused on safety. So, we're going to have a Finston smaller sort of uh adult beverage zone there uh with some bleachers with prime time uh with prime access to watching turn one, which for those of you who have seen the race, turn one is extremely fast. It's exciting. Um a lot of activity happens there. So, we're we're looking to roll out um sort of a beer garden style area there. uh safe, you know, police officers uh EMT those folks located very close as well as enhancing a few food trucks there on the bottom uh near Verve Ka area uh and some vendor uh 10x10 tents there in the street. We've been working with uh not only excuse me not only our production uh crew for the race but also Dan Castle with the DSA and some other folks. Uh I know there's been some chatter. Um we're obviously going to roll that roll that opportunity out to those local vendors, those local restaurants that might want to participate. Um but really have that as a big draw in that area and also enhance more of the kids activities in the lawn. Uh we're hoping to iterate again once more this year and make it uh

a better and safer event every year to come. With that, uh, I think, uh, if you have any questions for us, where we do meet, uh, monthly, um, the first or the second Wednesday of of the month, the location changes, but, uh, you know, where to find us. We have an email address and a website. Uh, the tour of summerrville.com is the website with more information. Um, we're looking forward to putting on a great event and like Sheldon said, we've been working with the DSA uh pretty closely this year and we're hoping that that will enhance the community zone. Uh, we have I believe Dana has already uh floated the idea to some of the local vendors that are interested. Uh, you know, and and we're happy to have, you know, local local businesses first. So, awesome. Yep. That's great. Um, obviously it's It's an iconic event for Somerville. Um it's an iconic event for the uh for the bicycling community and uh you know Somerville has always embraced it and uh and that's not going to change. This is just a wonderful wonderful event um for a whole lot of reasons and I give the four of you credit uh for kind of uh creating that renaissance for the race. Uh it's something that has been needed and uh last year was the buzz around town was best year ever. Best year ever. And and it was it was to to get a crowd to stay there from 10:00 in the morning until close to 7 at night. 6:30 I think the it's about 6:30 the last race ended

and it was it was phenomenal. The weather helped. Um, but it was uh, you know, the the whole event was just fantastic. Um, from from morning to evening uh, wellrun, eventful, memorable, and pretty darn cool. So, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. I I I was there last year. It was tremendous. Um, I just wanted to know what the financial health of of uh, of the organization is. how we doing and will and will the uh new area be a fundraiser?

So, uh to answer the second question first, yes. Um we intend to fund raise the the area, the community zone as best we can. Um and with respect to the the financial health, the 2025 race is all paid off. So there we have nothing carrying over into into 2026. We're fundraising as we speak. Um Ellen Ardon is leading the charge on that. over there. Um, but she's doing a great job. And we actually have uh we've we've been working with a sports marketing agency as well to garner some higherend uh you know um uh sponsors. So hopefully we can I I think I think I can say that the financial health is is we're trending in the right direction.

It's our number one priority. That is you're not you're not in the red. That's a that's that's the right direction. Yeah. Getting better every year. That's the goal. A little bit better every year. I hope I didn't misspeak. Right. Okay. All right. Well, thank you very much. Awesome. Thank you.

Thank you all for all the work you do. I mean, I I grew up going to this race, walking up from my house and watching it all day. I I got a press pass when I was in middle school. They let me in and meet the the winners circle and take pictures and we wrote a you know, for the middle school newspaper. And uh you know I I don't know that I've seen that excitement since then until last year. And so I'm I'm I'm honored to be part of the committee and meeting with all of you, but it's all you guys are doing the work and it's it's really coming a long way and I can I can't wait to see what it's going to be like this year. Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah. Glenn is the liaison to the uh to the bike race and uh he's taken that mantle very seriously and and I think that's great. Is there anything in particular other than what the burrow has done in the past to help out? Is and maybe that's not a good thing to ask. Uh maybe you can answer me privately as as to whether this Did I say we were doing well financially?

No. Um I I think just in addition to the normal road road closures, we just are looking to work with the the town as hand and glove as possible. Really make things as as smooth as possible for everybody. get, you know, one of the things that we've been talking about is uh is getting uh getting students involved through community art programs or, you know, writing prompts or whatever the case may be. Uh so it really is a community event first. Uh it's a free event uh as well for to spectate in you know it's you don't as Richman is is often uh to say uh it's a it's a world class world class athletes for free.

World class athletes for free. So uh it's it's a truly unique event and you know it's a privilege to to work on it. Well if there is something I'm sure Glenn will bring it back to us and uh and we'll see how we can handle that. Absolutely. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Appreciate all you do.

All right. Um, you want me to give you a second, Kevin?

Yeah. So, I'll just do a quick little intro. So, so as we talked about at the beginning of the meeting, um the burrow uh is out to bid for a uh a contract for our garbage hauling, our trash hauling. And uh and as part of that, there will be restrictions on what types of garbage cans can be utilized uh with any with with ultimately whoever is selected as the as the hauler. Um the the big reason is because uh trash hauling has become extremely expensive and obviously they're getting away from having two and three people on a trash truck hauling cans, lifting cans and and moving them. Currently the uh the hauler that we have has the articulated arm that picks up the garbage cans. And I think over time he's educated the town very well or the company's educated the town very well on the advantages of these uh different types of of garbage cans and I think a lot of the town has already moved that way but there are a number of folks that that have not. So um part of that new contract we are enacting ordinances or we did did we already enact it? We did

uh correct. Yeah, back in uh um actually it was 2024 when we uh enacted it. So, so as part of that um this the the ordinance will be implemented and and enforced uh once that that does happen. So Kevin, you're on.

Great. Thank you all. Um the uh as the mayor said, and it's actually a perfect day because we talked about cleaning up a landfill. So um where does all the trash go? So, we did the governing body did change the ordinance in 2024 which goes into effect um as as we get a new contractor on board. The we currently have the bids out for solid waste. Solid waste bids are different than all other bids. They go out well ahead of everything else. Um and and historically I've been through several different bids here. Um and usually there's challenges. there's questions that come about. The bids are due back on on March 11th. Doesn't mean that the winner will get awarded and immediately start. There's a lot of things that play into that uh timeline. Um what one is in most cases you do get a challenge when it comes to solid waste and secondly the bidder's familiarity with the municipality plays a role in understanding it as well. Our estimated date for a new contract would be April 1st. Um and the bids can be anywhere from three years to five years. So you the municipality would have a contractor at the minimum of of of three years. The ordinance that went into place says no long no more garbage bags. Um that was done not only just for the fact that haulers use hydraulic arms, but also it's just cleaner. Um it it'll uh we did have some issues on Main Street this year and this will be our struggle on Main Street. The second item where it says you don't place ashes in containers, that's actually in the ordinance. We did make that change, but we didn't, you know, fortunately we for the most part um we haven't had that issue. And recycling material again is not allowed in the garbage. And then on

the bottom line, refrigerators, no automotive bodies or engines. We don't do that at all. Um there are people that do some work at their homes and and they look to dispose of it. uh there are recyclers in the area that will take that uh in material. So the containers, that's the big issue here. So we're gonna, you know, right now folks could put out a bag or they could put it in an inappropriate not not an appropriate container. This would require a sturdy plastic container. 96 gallons is the the largest you can go. And I'll wheel some out and we'll we'll we'll show you what that looks like. The ordinance does say no heavier than 70 pounds. That's not potentially protecting the truck. It's probably protecting you. Um the truck can actually lift more than 70 pounds, but the fact that it goes on the street and there are opportunities where you may have to bring that back for whatever reason, we want to ensure that that it's it's it's not heavy enough where you can't wheel it. And what happens now is is is you're allowed four bags. In this ordinance, we're changing it to two containers. Now, I will tell you the math is much more favorable to this ordinance. So, the containers fit more than four bags. So, you actually get more bags before you have to buy stickers. The reason we're doing this is because of the automated arm. The collection times and the dates should remain the same. That that doesn't change in the ordinance. It doesn't change in in in the bid specifications. And the same thing holds for bulky items. Uh we'll still be selling stickers at Burough Hall. Uh the garbage containers, like I said, are limited to two household containers per household. And when I show you the containers, uh you you'll understand how that math kind of works. Um and then if you needed to buy more,

if you had uh more trash, uh one sticker would be for a 65gallon container and two stickers for a 96gallon container. So, for some reason, if you had three 96gallon containers, you would have to buy two additional stickers for that extra container. Um, and obviously, previously you allowed four bags and um and then stickers were required. Now, you'll have six to eight bags that fit into two containers. So, you'll see that that math works out more beneficial for the property owner. And then of course we ask you to recycle and not because the one thing that that uh containers do is they tend to hide things. So we are asking people to stay with their recycling habits to ensure they recycle. Now I'd like to wheel those out here so that you can get an idea of what they are. This is this will work on the uh hold on let me grab my microphone this particular one will work on the hydraulic arm. Um this is ideal actually. Um it's for a smaller household. It's got the ability for the for the uh for the arms to to grasp and it actually has a grasp bar in the front which is which is helpful. Um,

but but that's it's the grass bar isn't required.

Well, I will tell you that that it's not in the ordinance ordinance. The ordinance is requires a sturdy plastic container. Um, this is ideal because it goes against the curb, it opens up and and the trash comes out and and you wheel right back up. So, this is pretty ideal. The grab bar I I also do collection at my house. My my uh it's private. Um, it doesn't actually have a grab bar. it grabs it and and and and flips it. So, so, uh, in consultation with our current hauler, um, the grab bar, a lot of folks out there currently have containers that that, uh, don't have the grab bar, but if you wanted something that was certainly sturdy, that that adds a little sturdiness to it. And then this is the 64gallon. So, if you needed a little larger can, um, gets a little more clunkier. So th this is an appropriate can as well. And what happens here is this is a 64galon. So again depending on on your expectations of collection. The 64gallon you you would still be able to put two 64gallon containers out. That that's what you would get. And then if you added a third one you would have to buy a sticker for that if you were putting that out regularly. I assume I have seen it and I know neighbors do get along. Um sometimes they share each other's garbage. So just like they do in my neighborhood sometimes, you know, you peek in your neighbor's garbage can, they're half empty and you text them and you say, "Hey, can I drop something else in there?" And provided that it's not a car engine, you're in good shape. And then this one is the very large one. And this is the largest one you're allowed to have. This is the 96gallon. We call this one the Gallagher. because for some reason that household has a lot of trash. But if you but if

you if you did have two of those, right? So if the size of this is is tremendous, you could certainly fit um and I'm not suggesting a small body, but you could certainly fit someone in there. Um you can easily get, I don't know, maybe four or six garbage bags in there. If you're if you have the ability to have two of these at your household, you would have two of them and you would be doubling the size of the household trash that you could throw out. Um again, so you could have one then the second one you'd have to get a sticker. The the you get two of these and the third one you get a sticker. Oh, okay. Yeah. But the sticker would be two stickers. Okay. Opposed to the third one of this one would be one sticker.

Got it. And this is really, you know, this one comes apartments, main street, which is going to be our struggle. Um, where this would be more usable on on a main street application. So hopefully that gives you an idea. And then as the mayor said and and the council members have spoken to me earlier, we are going to start um pushing out a little more social media as well as pushing out just information on this because again um the current hall has been very nice to share a lot of information and and suggested that more people have these cans than less people. So the transition will uh it's not a 100% transition but this is a requirement of the property owner or the occupant to provide that can depending on their lease. The burrow is not supplying it and the hauler is not supplying it. Um obviously we have local uh places in in Somerville local some places outside of Somerville but that these this is can these cans came from a local um place in the municipality. So they're available. we encourage to get them. Um right now if you buy them, you could use them. Even though they're doing hand pickup, they they'll certainly accommodate. So hopefully that gives a quick um education on what our expectations are. Um and then hope hopefully, you know, everything goes well in April 1. But that is our timeline. Like I said, there's a lot of variables that could play a role into that as well. And we're going to have these at Burough Hall if in case somebody wants to come and take a look at it.

Yeah. So, what we'll have is currently we sell the sticker program at at the at the Burough Hall. So, we'll have these in the hallway during that process. And hopefully the folks that pick up, you know, the bulk stickers. Now, what happens with the bulk, you know, you know, there are some bulk items that tend to be small. And the reality, if it fits in the can, it's fine. Um, but bulk items usually are listed on our bulk listing sheet that provides you any bulk items that you could send out. And then obviously, you know, we'll have to continue to encourage recycling. If you don't have a container that has a lid like that, this is fine as well. if it didn't have a lid as and as long as it was sturdy and and so and and uh of plastic material you could still use that. You just don't put the lid on it because the lid will end up in the in in the in the truck, right? So, as long as it has a lid that flips, you're fine. If not, uh if it doesn't have one that flips, then the lid should remain off of it and it gets backed up to a curb. Now, you know, listen, the municipalities around us, Bridgewater and Hillsboro, they have private garbage. The the the homeowner pays for that garbage. Uh folks that live in Hillsboro and Bridgewater be very familiar with the process. You hire the hauling company. The hauler actually supplies the can. Um in those scenarios, and then that's what you pay for. Uh Rarin, they they do have municipal pickup with the municipal employees. So this is kind of uh a little different than the the municipalities around us but um probably consistent with much more of the state.

All right, questions. What landfill does our garbage go to? So under the bid specifications, it requires it to go to a transfer station. It goes to Pyus Lane in Bridgewater to they call it BRRI. I think it's called Bridgewater Resources. the the the bidspec requires it to go there. What happens with landfill? Even though the the bidder is only bidding on labor,

the landfill cost we pay. So that's a pass through, meaning that the the hauler will pay them and we'll pay the hauler. Um the uh when we with the current hall we did have if you recall during the flood BRRI was flooded so it did have to get transported out if if there's if there's when you're transporting it out it's actually less expensive to go to a different landfill. problem is you have to add on mileage course. So the mileage cost will kind of offset the the benefit of BARRI is we get all our information so when we're applying for grants we know exactly what uh what materials were collected there

Pennsylvania does it does it go to Pennsylvania where it ends it ends up after Barri it ends up wherever BRRI um has their agreements with. Gotcha. Okay. All right. Thank you.

All right. At this point, I will ask for a motion to open the meeting to the public. So moved. Second. Discussion. Roll call. Council members. Andrew Ki. Yes. Glen Deny. Yes. Gina Stravik. Yes. Roger Verm. Yes. All right. Meeting is open to the public. Please state your name and address for the record and please address your comments to me. Hearing none. I'll ask for a motion to close. So moved. Second discussion. Roll call. Council members Andrew Ki. Yes. Glend Deny. Yes. Gina Stravik. Yes. Roger Verm. Yes. All right. Ordinances for introduction. We have number 2785 which is an ordinance to exceed the 2026 MUN municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap bank. Kevin, can you give us just a very brief overview on what that is?

Yeah, the you see this every year. What this does is is uh it allows us as we're developing the budget process to utilize the monies that we had banked in the prior years if we need it. Okay. Uh public comment on 2785 hearing. None. I'll close public comment and motion for introduction. Please. So moved. Second. Discussion. Roll call. Council members Andrew Kiy. Yes. Glenzene. Yes. Gina Stravik. Yes. Roger Verm. Yes.

All right. 2786 is amending chapter 102-95 article 11 entitled zoning creating subsection H entitled affordable housing. Uh this is a result of all of the work that was done in 2025 by both the burough council and the planning board uh to craft a uh our affordable housing uh components. Uh public comment on 2786. Hearing none. We'll close public comment and motion for introduction please. So moved. Second discussion.

I just want to say uh I think it's pretty historic and and meaningful that this council has taken it up and this administration has taken it up and passed uh an affordable housing program uh for our municipality. Considering um not that anybody didn't do what they were supposed to in previous years, but that we never formalized a requirement and never really committed to to doing this. It's it's great to be a part of having that happen. So, just want to take a pat on all of our backs for for giving it a little extra push to make sure we were the ones to solve this problem. Thank you. Um, further comment. Roll call. Council members Andrew Kiy. Yes. Glen, yes. Gina Stravik, yes. Roger Firm,

yes.

All right. 2787 is amending chapter 102 entitled land use and development article 11 to create the affordable housing overlay one zone on block 127 lot 4 in the burrow of Somerville and provide appropriate development regulations uh therefore um this is in regards to um property on Bell Avenue uh which has seen the subject of a number of different lawsuits including the latest lawsuit which uh challenges our affordable housing Um this uh this will address all of those issues. It will it will establish zoning in that area uh which will allow for uh affordable housing as part of a uh uh a development and uh this creates the zoning ordinance behind that. So public comment on 2787 is now open. Hearing none, I'll close 2787. I ask for a motion for introduction.

So moved. Second. Discussion. Roll call. Council members. Andrew Ki. Yes. Glen Deni. Yes. Gina Stravik. Yes. Roger Verm. Yes. All right. Ordinances for public hearing and adoption. Uh 2781 is amending chapter 75 entitled fees adding section six entitled special service charge. Kevin. Uh this has to do with the charges under OPRA. This kind of ratifies uh the process when we have uh opra requests that require a significant amount of work. Okay. Including uh video reduction.

This this really is is the impetus for that that the video from the police department and and the work that's involved in uh redacting and so forth. Um so this kind of ratifies and gives the public um a very clear fee schedule as to what that would cost. Okay. I'll ask for a motion to open the public hearing on 2781. So moved. Second. Discussion. Roll call. Andrew Ki. Yes. Glen Deny. Yes. Gina Stravik. Yes. Roger Verm. Yes. All right. Public hearing on 2781 is now open. Hearing none. I'll ask for a motion to close. So moved. Second. Discussion. Roll call. Council members. Andrew Kiy. Yes. Glen Zeny. Yes. Gina Stravik. Yes. Roger Verm. Yes.

All right. Uh motion for adoption. So moved. Second discussion. Roll call. Council members Andrew Kiy. Yes. Glen Deny. Yes. Genus Traic. Yes. Roger Verm. Yes. All right. 2782 is amending ordinance number 2776-25-1103 establishing a salary range for employee titles to be paid to certain officers and employees of the Burrow of Somerville. This just creates the uh the different titles and the uh pay ranges of those titles, both minimum and maximum for those titles. Um, I will ask for a motion to open the public hearing. So moved. Second. Discussion. Roll call. Council members. Andrew Ki. Yes. Glen, yes. Gina Stravik. Roger Verm.

Yes. Uh, public hearing on 2782 is now open. Hearing none. I'll ask for a motion to close. So moved. Second. Discussion. Roll call. Council members Andrew Kiy. Yes. Glen Deny. Yes. Dina Stravik. Yes. Roger Ferm. Yes. All right. Uh, motion for adoption, please. So moved. Second. Discussion. Roll call. Council members, Andrew Ki, yes. Glendee, yes. Tina Stravik, yes. Roger Ver, yes.

All right. 2783 is amending section 80-7 entitled additional required inspection and fees subsection C and D to clarify the Burrow of Somerville receives a fee unless waved by the burough council and the fire marshall, fire inspector, or designate is paid in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement or salary ordinance. Kevin, uh, correct me if I'm wrong. This just cleans up an existing ordinance uh and clarifies that the pay scale of those uh in the fire marshall's office are paid at their prevailing rate under the union contract. That that is correct. Okay. Um I'll ask for a motion for public hearing. So moved. Second.

All right. Who was that? Discussion. Roll call. Council members Andrew Kiy. Yes. Glenn Deny. Yes. Tina Stravik. Yes. Roger Verm. Yes. All right. Uh public hearing on 2783 is now open. Hearing none. Close. 2783. Motion for adoption. So moved. Second. Discussion. Roll call. Council members. Andrew Kiy. Yes. Glen Den. Yes. Tina Stravik. Yes. Roger Verm. Yes.

All right. I got through that one without forgetting whether we uh we closed one. Uh we are pulling off um excuse me uh 080. Uh that uh settlement agreement is not fully complete yet. We will be taking that up at our next meeting. Are there any others to be pulled off? All right. Uh 75 is memorializing the zoning board members listed below with terms. 76 authorizing application for funding through the governor's council on substance use disorder and authorizing acceptance of the award. 77 approving the Spartan Spirit 5K on Saturday, May 30th at 8:30 a.m. contingent on Office of Emergency Management and Police Department approvals. 78 is approving the Alpha Romeo owners club to utilize parking spaces in front of the historic courthouse on May 29th and August 21st from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. for cruise night display. 79 is accepting a grant up to $40,500 from the hazardous discharge site remediation fund program through the New Jersey Economic Development Authority and the Department of Environmental Protection. 81 is authorizing temporary appropriation for 26 current operating municipal budget. 82 is adopting job description for seasonal lifeguard. Do we have a motion?

So moved. Second. Roll call. Council members Andrew Ki. Yes. Glen, yes. Gina Stravik. Yes. Roger Verm. Yes. All right. Bills and vouchers. Roger. Uh it is the first quarter, so tonight's a little more uh than we normally go through. Uh but I make a motion to pay bills and vouchers in the amount of 9,516,418.91.

Second. All right. Uh, dis discussion. Roll call. Council members Andrew Ky. Yes. Glen, yes. Gina Stravik, yes. Roger Ferm, yes. All right. Um, Miss Stravik, I will entertain a motion for adjournment, please. Motion to adjourn. Second. I was going to wait for that. I'll second it. Uh, all in favor? Opposed? This meeting is adjourned. Thank you.