April 19th 2010 Workshop Meeting

[admin]

There is a council meeting tonight in borough hall. A full report will be posted tomorrow.

[Mike Rosseel]

Cant wait Brian, Please let us know about the dispatcher situation, very curious to hear about that!!!

[BrianSullivan]

Apr 19, 2010 16:26:16 GMT -5 Mike Rosseel said:

Cant wait Brian, Please let us know about the dispatcher situation, very curious to hear about that!!!

Mike, there was basically nothing about the dispatcher situation discussed last night. Not from the governing body or the public. Other than that, it was a nice meeting and later when I have more time I will post about it in further detail.

[BrianSullivan]

Last night's council meeting as a fairly easy going one.

Starting with public comments, Mr. Baldwin had some choice words for the landlords in town. He made claims that they are gauging the tenants, holding security deposits back, passing fines onto the tenants, and landlords need to do better job maintaining their property.

A woman name Christine mentioned the new state law requiring motorists to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks and asked the Chief to ensure it is enforced in town.

Th agenda was fairly light. There was a second reading to the budget introduction. The public meeting will be in May.

There was a second reading for mandatory recycling in town. This is necessary to secure grants. It was also mentioned that recycling reduces trash costs. Recycling costs half of what regular trash does.

There was an introduction and authorization for a bond ordinance for the acquisition of a fire department vehicle.

The Mayor and Council also recognize Rich Matteo for five years as the little league president, a title that is not held for that long. Rich has been given teh distinction of being the longest serving president of the borough little league.

There was also a proclamation making April 30, 2010 as Arbor Day in the borough


On the workshop agenda we have a few interesting items.

Mel O'Neil form the borough YMCA did a nice video presentation showing off all tha the YMCA has to offer for the kids in our town.

James Wasser, Superintendent of the regional schools made a presentation to the council. He mentioned that times were tough and the schools are doing all they can with the budget and have not sacrificed the quality education one bit. Apparently, the regional schools are cutting 81 positions across the board. It was mentioned that 80 percent of the budget goes to personnel costs.

Wasser also mentioned that the Borough High school had been subjected to an evaluation. Without having the report released yet, the chair of the evaluation committee referred the borough high school as a perfect school.

Wasser mentioned that he does not understand the backlash against the very high school taxes that we see at this time in the state.

Tye regional budget is on line for people to see for themselves.

Councilman Newman brought up the Citizen Budget Review committee concept for discussion. This will be reported on in another post.

Council comments were light and mostly reminders of news that is already out there.

Shnurr did bring up some proposed changes form the planning board. This may be tied in with the master plan review that is required under state law.

[BrianSullivan]

Wasser mentioned that he does not understand the backlash against the very high school taxes that we see at this time in the state

I wrote the above in my previous write up. It is not completely accurate, but what I wrote in my notes. If I recall, Wasser mentioned that he does not understand the "anti education" tone and has never seen it so bad.

My notes were reflective that I consider him clueless for even making that statement.