August 11, 2010 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 5 Wyckoff Resident, committee discuss library expansion by John Koster The Wyckoff Township Committee reported last week that the plans for the $3.7 million expansion of the Wyckoff Memorial Library are progressing, although a contract has yet to be signed. The construction project, they said, will not cost the taxpayers any additional money. Plans call for the library to be expanded by 4,000 square feet for the use of children’s and teenage programs, freeing up space for more books and CDs for adults. Wyckoff Township Committeemen Brian Scanlan and Kevin Rooney disagreed with Jerry Goetting, a resident who said the expansion was taking place at the worst possible time and should be done on a more modest basis. Goetting’s commentary did provoke one concurrence: Mayor Rudy Boonstra and Township Committeeman David Connolly said they wanted construction to proceed, but that starting immediately, the state-mandated contribution from the township to the library should be curtailed, and the money formerly aimed at creating a surplus should be channeled into tax relief. The library board has been able, through the state-mandated contribution from the township, to put aside the money needed to pay for the expansion without bonding or any direct impact on Wyckoff taxpayers. Connelly and Boonstra did not share Goetting’s conviction that the expansion is over-ambitious, but they concurred that the township’s contribution from this year and in the future should be put into the general township operating fund. Earlier this year, the township committee negotiated the transfer of $302,000 from the library fund to the township. A six-figure transfer is also anticipated next year. Goetting spoke at the public meeting to object to the size of the project. “I have never seen it crowded,” said Goetting, who says he visits the library every other day or so, and sometimes twice a day. “I have never seen it crowded with children. I have never seen it crowded with adults.” Township Committeeman Brian Scanlan said an extended telephone survey of 75 random Wyckoff residents whose names came from the registered voter rolls showed that only two of the people Traffic deplored by township man A Wyckoff resident upset by heavy truck traffic in his neighborhood streets deplored the export of dirt he said was being hauled by large trucks from Ridgewood to Abma’s Farm in Wyckoff. Jerry Goetting said the heavy truck traffic on Lawlins Road, taking dirt excavated from the artificial turf installation at Ridgewood High School, has led to noise and traffic congestion. He also asked whether the soil had been examined for possible toxic contamination by weed killers or other chemicals. “I’m in favor of the farm. I have no problem with the trucks taking mulch away, but I don’t want to have toxic waste in it,” Goetting said. “You’re making some good points there,” Mayor Rudy Boonstra told the resident. The mayor added, however, that the Wyckoff Police Department, in cooperation with the New Jersey Department of Transportation, had run a stop check on trucks in the Lawlins Road area a few weeks before to make sure the trucks were being operated safely, and said he hoped this might at least encourage a responsible attitude toward safety on the part of truck drivers. Township Committeeman Kevin Rooney, a trained arborist with professional landscaping and agricultural experience, said the soil would have had to be tested and approved before it left Ridgewood. Rooney said that Goetting could probably convince Ridgewood officials to locate the legally required test records if he did some homework. Members of the Wyckoff Township Committee added that the committee’s relationship with Abma’s Farm, which grows and sells farm produce and hosts bucolic entertainment, is not just friendly but fiscally prudent. When Wyckoff put out contract request specifications to remove leaves for composting, the only other bidder wanted Wyckoff to pay him $120,000 to remove the leaves, while retaining the right to sell the compost afterwards. Abma’s took the leaves at no cost to the township for composting. The relevant contract was renewed at the same meeting as part of the consent agenda and was approved by unanimous vote. J.KOSTER interviewed with about 10 questions were opposed to the expansion. (After the meeting, Scanlan advised that the number of randomly surveyed residents was actually 86.) Scanlan also told the resident that the Wyckoff Library circulates approximately 200,000 items, which he said indicated a very active library for a town with a population of 17,000. “I think it’s a very well used institution,” Scanlan said. Mayor Boonstra, long active with the library, said that budgeting had enabled the library board to accumulate enough funds to expand and renovate without asking the township for anything that could lead to a tax increase. Goetting commented that children already have their school libraries. However, observers noted that the expansion aims to benefit the general public, including teens and adults who have no access to school libraries or any personal interest in their collections. Township Committeeman Kevin Rooney said he had just returned from two weeks in Europe and said he hoped that the library would expand the community interest in classical music and serious reading, two areas that he saw as more endemic in Europe than in the United States. 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