Here is a quick recap of the highlights of our Council meeting on Monday.
We introduced an ordinance for $200K to purchase two salt trucks for DPW for snow removal. We did not introduce an ordinance with the Comcast franchise agreement. A public hearing and vote on the ordinance that was introduced will happen at our next Council meeting on January 20th.
We passed all of our resolutions, which included several that are standard finance and tax resolutions at the start of the year. Other highlights include:
Hiring Solutions Architecture to help oversee the town hall/police department repointing project, which will help to eliminate water issues in the building. That project was approved and funded by the Council last year.
Hiring Boswell Engineering to oversee the projects that will occur at the pool and the tennis pickleball courts that we approved and funded last year.
Renewing our relationship with New Jersey Intergovernmental Insurance fund as our insurance carrier. We also hired Brown and Brown for risk management.
Authorizing the acceptance of a $1 million dollar grant from the NJEDA to acquire the parking lot on Lakeside area (to be used as parking by the Township).
Applying for a DCA Local Recreation Improvement Grant for Everett filed.
Authorizing a change order for the Linn Drive Well project, which is almost complete.
Establishing a formal agreement with Cedar Grove for Medical Transport Services. This is a shared service with the two municipalities. Cedar Grove will pay Verona $17,000 for this service.
In new business, we agreed to make an update to our code on when our new reorganizing meeting will occur, now that we changed the elections. We plan on introducing an ordinance to have the reorganization meeting during the first week of January.
We discussed the pool rates and we were presented with a marking plan. It appears we are in agreement with going forward with a 15% increase. I stressed, again, the need to see a rate ordinance that also includes all of the rate changes for the pool - including fees to use the gazebo, non-profit parties, and outside use rental fees. I also asked for a complete list of policy and administrative changes that are happening, as a lot of ideas were introduced in the fall. Finally I asked for further clarification on how the Administration is looking to make staffing more efficient. I have made my opinion very clear that I want to understand the complete package of everything that is changing with the pool (rates, fees and policies) so that the public has a chance to provide feedback on the entire picture. I expect we will get everything in advance of our next meeting so that we can have another new business conversation.
In new business we also had a discussion on a new $15 fee for all Verona business to comply with a 2-year old State law that requires businesses to register with Verona and state proof of liability insurance. I am in favor of this small fee and feel it is reasonable to offset the costs incurred by the Township to administer this law. The fee was calculated off of the Municipal Clerk's hourly rate. There was a difference of opinion amongst the Council on this fee and whether or not we should charge for this. I am sure we will have a follow up conversation at our next meeting.
If you have comments on this or any other matter covered by the Council, I highly encourage you to email us all by using this convenient form: https://www.veronanj.org/councilcontactform.
Next meeting is on January 20th at 7 pm. Hope to see you there.