Last night we had an efficient meeting where we moved forward a variety of initiatives.
We introduced three ordinances. The first increases the funding for the new ADA inclusive playground and adult fitness area at the Community Center, which now will include an ADA compliant bathroom. The proposed ordinance to increase the funding of this project is set at $510K, to be offset with a grant of $200K from the Essex County Community Development Block Grant program. The second ordinance is for $125K in bonds for new police dash cams, which have not been replaced since 2014. The third ordinance is to adjust the fees for lead based paint inspections for certain rental properties. All three ordinances will receive a public hearing at our next meeting on February 22nd. You can send a comment to the entire Council on any of these proposed ordinances by going here: https://www.veronanj.org/councilcontactform.
We passed several standard resolutions that relate to tax and finance that are required at the start of every financial year. We did award the contract for the Community Center playground project to Picerno Giordano construction. We also awarded a contract for the Linn Drive Well project for our PFAS remediation project to Sovereign Consulting. We hope to have that well back on line by Fall of 2024. We authorized the submission of a Green Acres request for the property the township preserved by the Peckman and Commerce Court. We appointed the firm Friend & Wenzel to be the Municipal Prosecutor of our court (which is now shared with North Caldwell) and Mr. James Pomaco as the Municipal Public Defender. One of our liquor licenses was transferred from Amadeo Inc to Jimmy's Restaurant LLC. We also accepted a small grant for body armor for the police department. We also had a second hearing for our Essex County CDBG 2024 application.
We went into executive session to discuss a few matters.
A preview of some items for future discussion. We will be getting a new draft of the Everett field presentation possibly for our next meeting. In February we are going to have some very significant conversations on our water and sewer utilities. Stormwater management will also be discussed soon, as will parking and parking rates.
These conversations will be very interesting and important! I hope you join us at our next meeting on Monday, February 22nd.
If you have any comments on this or any other matter, please email the entire Council here: https://www.veronanj.org/councilcontactform.