Villadom Times Weekly Local Newspaper

Ho-Ho-Kus March 31, 2010 THE VILLADOM TIMES III • Page 3 Ambulance corps ofﬁcial proposes land, building swap by Jennifer Crusco Ho-Ho-Kus Volunteer Ambulance Corps President Carol Tyler has proposed an exchange of local buildings and property with the goal of solving multiple organizations’ needs. Addressing the borough council last week, Tyler urged the governing body to consider a multi-faceted property trade that could begin if the borough sold a piece of its property to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The land in question is a piece of parking lot adjacent to Post 192’s existing building on Cliff Street. That sale, Tyler noted, would allow the VFW to carry out its tabled plans to construct a modular building on the empty lot. The ambulance corps would then assume ownership of the VFW building, and would eventually raze that structure to make way for new construction. The final piece of the puzzle would be for the police to spread out into the building the department now shares with the ambulance corps. Tyler pointed out that the ambulance corps building has a sally port, which is needed by the police for the secure transportation of prisoners. “I know money’s tight,” Tyler told the council. “The ambulance corps has discussed it. We’re the easiest to move, and we have everything the police department needs.” Responding to Tyler, Mayor Thomas Randall said, “Anything that doesn’t cost us any money is good.” He added that the borough would keep Tyler’s concept in mind when planning for the future. The VFW has previously asked the borough to sell the Cliff Street property to the post for $1 to allow the organization to fulfill a plan to construct a new building. The VFW now has limited access to its existing building due to a lease agreement that allows the Ramapo Valley Railroad Club to use most of the structure. When the VFW presented its plans to construct a new home for the post, the veterans offered the model railroad club space in the new building, but the club did not support the construction plans. Commenting on the proposed swap after the public meeting, Tyler said she would like to see the borough reuse the space it now has available. She noted that the VFW would like a permanent home it would be able to use on a full time basis, and pointed out that the space now being used by the ambulance corps is needed by the police department. Tyler pointed out that the ambulance corps had been located at the current VFW building on Cliff Street approximately 50 years ago. The corps later moved into the old borough hall on Franklin Turnpike, which has since been razed, and subsequently moved into its current location in the building adjacent to borough hall. Ho-Ho-Kus Police Chief Gregory Kallenberg told Villadom TIMES the state requires police departments to have a sally port, but he believes Ho-Ho-Kus has been “grandfathered;” that is, the state acknowledges that the borough’s police headquarters was constructed before the mandate took effect. New construction now requires the addition of a sally port. The chief said this secure means of transporting prisoners would be a preferable to having individuals brought into headquarters past civilians through the parking lot the department shares with borough hall and the fire department. “We outgrew the building the day we moved in,” Kallenberg said. He pointed out that advances in technology and changes in state requirements for booking individuals and for providing alcohol tests and fingerprint scans have forced the department to push into the detective bureau and into the conference room. The department is currently archiving all of its records in an attempt to save space, he added. “Things are very tight,” he said. “I’ve been talking about these space issues for several years.” �� Spacious 1BR Call for details �� NOW RENTING �� 201-488-5085 �� YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD NEWSPAPER NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED LEADER IN CONTEMPORARY VARICOSE VEIN TREATMENT �� 265 Ackerman Ave. Ridgewood, NJ 201 791 9339 www.chubackveins.com �� 201-934-7755 119 Interstate Shopping Center, Ramsey, New Jersey Intersection of Route 17 & Franklin Turnpike ADVANCED HEARING SERVICES, INC. Thomas J. Higgins, BC-HIS*, ACA** www.HearNJ.com Supervising Licence. NJ Hearing Aid Dispenser * Licence # 743 Member International Hearing Society *Board Certiﬁed by the National Board for Certiﬁcation in Hearing Instrument Sciences. **American Conference of Audioprosthology