We held our first regular council meeting of 2010 this past Tuesday evening. Present were myself, Council President Engelstad, Councilman Galassetti, and Councilwoman Marchak.
First off, we recognized 16 recent students of the month from Bradley Beach Elementary School, (four each for the months of September, October, November, and December 2009). Most of the kids and their parents attended, and it was a joy to do. The teachers provide Councilman Engelstad with a little background on each child — favorite subject, favorite activities, career aspirations, and he reads them out as the children come up and accept a congratulatory letter from me and the council. It is a lot of fun to get to know a little more about the children, and recognize their efforts, and those of the teachers and superintendent.
Councilman Galassetti discussed his support for the idea of painting parking stripes or brackets on Main Street. this is something I think should be a top priority for 2010, along with improvements to crosswalk placement and marking, and overall traffic and especially pedestrian safety improvements. We will be strapped for cash, and this is a low-cost way to improve quality of life, public safety, and business conditions. Painting parking markings on Main Street will require collaboration with the state, and may result in having to clearly mark out the last 25 feet of each block as no parking, per state law, but what we lose in linear feet we will more than make up for in what’s called “parking efficiency.” People naturally park farther from one another than is necessary. Giving them the lines on the street forces the cars closer together resulting in better parking capacity.
The Borough Administrator provided an update on the north end boardwalk parking area. The area has been cleared of nearly all stored items. What few items remain will be transferred elsewhere shortly. We are undertaking a review of how best to make that area visually attractive, while allowing for the variety of essential functions that it performs for the town. But certainly some of the storage habits were bad habits.
In the regular meeting, we adopted three ordinances. The first allows the council to set beach locker fees annually, which is cheaper and easier than doing it by ordinance change. The second appropriates $30,000 from our existing captial fund balance to install solar panels on the public works building. The third alters the order of business on the agenda, streamlining the two meetings into a single meeting, and moving any executive session to the very end of the meeting.
We approved meeting minutes from October and November, approved several special events, including a repeat of the Chamber of Commerce’s highly enjoyable LobsterFest. Mark your calendars — Sunday, July 18th. It so happens that a clebration of the Bradley Beach Elementary School’s centennial is planned for July 16th and 17th, so that weekend looks like a potentially fun one for all.
We transferred budget appropriations to finalize balancing out our ‘09 budget, paid our bills, and awarded the contract for the Load and Pack vehicle for the beach. This vehicle lifts and dumps garbage and recycling cans into an onboard dumpster. It can do with one operator what formerly has taken four people and a truck to do, reducing labor costs and on-the-job injuries.
We reappointed our borough auditor for another year.
Please note that the annual rabies shot clinic will be held at the firehouse on Saturday, January 23, from 2pm to 4pm.
With the consent of the council, I reappointed a long list of people to various paid and volunteer positions in the borough (I’ll try to post a list here soon.)
We then retired into executive session to discuss personnel matters, and continue our contract negotiations with the PBA. It was a long session, but the specific status of the negotiations is confidential at this point.
As a result of the discussions, when we returned to the regular meeting we took the action of amending the Borough Administrator’s contract. She had agreed to aid the borough by reopening her contract and starting to pay part of her healthcare costs and foregoing any raise in 2010 (mirroring the terms of the contract we settled with UFCW Local 152, which represents the office staff and public works). In exchange we recharacterized her sick and personal leave as a single category — paid time off; we allowed her to bank up to 75 days of paid time off for use as sick leave in the event of a serious illness, but having no cash value upon retirement, and we eliminated her flex time bands.
I appreciate the leadership, understanding and dedication displayed by the Administrator, by Local 152, the clerk, and the CFO, in understanding the borough’s situation, and making these sacrifices in a time of great financial strain.
Council meeting summary, 01/12/2010
Happy New Year, everyone.
We held our first regular council meeting of 2010 this past Tuesday evening. Present were myself, Council President Engelstad, Councilman Galassetti, and Councilwoman Marchak.
First off, we recognized 16 recent students of the month from Bradley Beach Elementary School, (four each for the months of September, October, November, and December 2009). Most of the kids and their parents attended, and it was a joy to do. The teachers provide Councilman Engelstad with a little background on each child — favorite subject, favorite activities, career aspirations, and he reads them out as the children come up and accept a congratulatory letter from me and the council. It is a lot of fun to get to know a little more about the children, and recognize their efforts, and those of the teachers and superintendent.
Councilman Galassetti discussed his support for the idea of painting parking stripes or brackets on Main Street. this is something I think should be a top priority for 2010, along with improvements to crosswalk placement and marking, and overall traffic and especially pedestrian safety improvements. We will be strapped for cash, and this is a low-cost way to improve quality of life, public safety, and business conditions. Painting parking markings on Main Street will require collaboration with the state, and may result in having to clearly mark out the last 25 feet of each block as no parking, per state law, but what we lose in linear feet we will more than make up for in what’s called “parking efficiency.” People naturally park farther from one another than is necessary. Giving them the lines on the street forces the cars closer together resulting in better parking capacity.
The Borough Administrator provided an update on the north end boardwalk parking area. The area has been cleared of nearly all stored items. What few items remain will be transferred elsewhere shortly. We are undertaking a review of how best to make that area visually attractive, while allowing for the variety of essential functions that it performs for the town. But certainly some of the storage habits were bad habits.
In the regular meeting, we adopted three ordinances. The first allows the council to set beach locker fees annually, which is cheaper and easier than doing it by ordinance change. The second appropriates $30,000 from our existing captial fund balance to install solar panels on the public works building. The third alters the order of business on the agenda, streamlining the two meetings into a single meeting, and moving any executive session to the very end of the meeting.
We approved meeting minutes from October and November, approved several special events, including a repeat of the Chamber of Commerce’s highly enjoyable LobsterFest. Mark your calendars — Sunday, July 18th. It so happens that a clebration of the Bradley Beach Elementary School’s centennial is planned for July 16th and 17th, so that weekend looks like a potentially fun one for all.
We transferred budget appropriations to finalize balancing out our ‘09 budget, paid our bills, and awarded the contract for the Load and Pack vehicle for the beach. This vehicle lifts and dumps garbage and recycling cans into an onboard dumpster. It can do with one operator what formerly has taken four people and a truck to do, reducing labor costs and on-the-job injuries.
We reappointed our borough auditor for another year.
Please note that the annual rabies shot clinic will be held at the firehouse on Saturday, January 23, from 2pm to 4pm.
With the consent of the council, I reappointed a long list of people to various paid and volunteer positions in the borough (I’ll try to post a list here soon.)
We then retired into executive session to discuss personnel matters, and continue our contract negotiations with the PBA. It was a long session, but the specific status of the negotiations is confidential at this point.
As a result of the discussions, when we returned to the regular meeting we took the action of amending the Borough Administrator’s contract. She had agreed to aid the borough by reopening her contract and starting to pay part of her healthcare costs and foregoing any raise in 2010 (mirroring the terms of the contract we settled with UFCW Local 152, which represents the office staff and public works). In exchange we recharacterized her sick and personal leave as a single category — paid time off; we allowed her to bank up to 75 days of paid time off for use as sick leave in the event of a serious illness, but having no cash value upon retirement, and we eliminated her flex time bands.
I appreciate the leadership, understanding and dedication displayed by the Administrator, by Local 152, the clerk, and the CFO, in understanding the borough’s situation, and making these sacrifices in a time of great financial strain.