Page 6 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • August 10, 2011 Franklin Lakes Nature preserve will have informational kiosk by Frank J. McMahon The Franklin Lakes Council has unanimously agreed to award a contract to the Belleville firm of GK Brothers Construction, LLC for the construction of an informational kiosk for the Franklin Lakes Nature Preserve. The kiosk, a small roofed booth, will be constructed at the beginning of the main trail near the upper dam, and it will cost $4,750. Gregory Hart, the borough’s business administrator, advised that half of that cost may be covered by a Bergen County Open Space grant. Hart told the council he received seven proposals that were reviewed by the Franklin Lakes Nature Preserve Executive Committee before a decision was made on this particular design. GK Brothers will provide all the labor and materials to construct the kiosk according to the plans prepared by Merisa Tiberi of Boswell McClave Engineering, although the signage in the kiosk is not part of the GK Brothers proposal and will be provided after the kiosk is constructed. The kiosk will be about 10 feet high and about four feet deep with a slanted copper roof supported by half cut log posts set three feet in the ground. The design includes several simulated wood panels that will contain information about the nature preserve, such as a map and the rules and regulations for the use of the site. The design also includes a shelf with Plexiglas covered inserts that might contain push pins, small pencils, and scrap paper. The 143-acre nature preserve that is dedicated to hiking, fishing, and birding was officially opened at a ribbon cutting ceremony on June 11. The event was held at the entrance to the nature preserve, which is located on High Mountain Road in North Haledon, just south of the Franklin Lakes border. The nature preserve is a passive recreation area that features hiking paths, a small picnic grove in a stand of pine trees, good fishing, and scenic views that attract birders who wish to view the nesting and migratory birds that frequent the property. The borough purchased the nature preserve, formerly known as the Haledon Reservoir, from the Borough of Haledon in August 2006 for $6.6 million. The cost was covered by a $2.9 million grant from the Green Acres Division of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and a $2 million grant from the Bergen County Open Space Preservation Trust Fund in addition to the $1.6 million in borough bonds plus an additional $100,000 that was later authorized for various miscellaneous expenses. The site originally contained 149 acres, but a 5.3-acre portion of the site was removed from the purchase when it was realized that part of the property was owned by the High Mountain Golf Course and not by the Borough of Haledon, which owned the reservoir. In 2008, an advisory committee recommended changing the name of the site from Haledon Reservoir to Franklin Lakes Nature Preserve. The Bergen County Board of Taxation has established the Borough of Franklin Lakes’ tax rate for the 2011 fiscal year. The borough’s property tax bills will be based on that new tax rate. The borough’s total tax rate for 2011 is now $1.53 per $100 of assessed valuation. That total tax rate is comprised of a Bergen County tax rate of 21.7 cents, the Bergen County Open Space tax rate of three tenths of a cent, the borough’s school district tax rate of 62 cents, a regional school tax rate of 43.1 cents, a library tax of 3.7 cents, and the municipal tax rate of 22.2 cents. The new total tax rate of $1.53 will result in a $15,794 property tax for the homeowner whose property has the borough’s average assessed value of $1,032,252. This property tax is $166 lower than last year. Last year’s total tax rate of 1.246 was set prior to the bor- County board sets borough’s tax rate ough’s recent revaluation, when the average assessed value in the borough was $1,280,901 and the property tax for the homeowner with that average assessed value was $15,960. The property tax obligation of a property is determined by multiplying the property’s assessed value in hundreds of dollars by the tax rate. In April, the borough council adopted a $15,706,403 budget for 2011 which was predicted to increase the borough’s municipal tax rate from 21 to 26 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. That tax rate is now represented by the 22.2 cent municipal rate set by the county plus the 3.7 cent tax rate for the library, which is being separated from the municipal tax for the first time this year. That municipal tax rate increase, however, results in a lower property tax because of the reduced average (continued on page 23)