The Villadom Times Weekly Newspaper Online-Aug 11, 2010 Issue

August 11, 2010 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • Page 13 Area 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 statemandated 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 Allendale Mayor Vince Barra said last week that a $5,000 study could possibly lead to a shared service agreement among the Allendale, Saddle River, and Upper Saddle River police departments. “We’re going to get the results of the study back in about six weeks,” Barra said late last week. “This is very preliminary. It’s just to give us some ideas and options.” The Allendale Council awarded the $5,000 contract to Jersey Professional Management of Cranford to conduct a preliminary assessment of the Allendale Police Department’s organization and to provide recommendations. Earlier this year, the borough approved a resolution to explore the sharing of police services including patrol and dispatch. Ofﬁcials site budget constraints as an impetus for Allendale studies shared police services the review. Mayor Barra stressed that the study is extremely preliminary and that no decision had been made at the present time. The concept, ofﬁcials said, is not a merger of the three police departments, but rather one of shared services. Chief Robert Herndon of the Allendale Police Department, a 41-year police veteran and Vietnam combat veteran, had announced his retirement earlier this year and will be leaving the department later this month. Allendale has a completely new police headquarters, completed a few years ago with state-of-the-art facilities and equipment. J. KOSTER 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 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. 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