November 2, 2011 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 19 Park Windmill Brancato to address auxiliary Janet Brancato, a registered dietician from Valley Hospital, will present “Cooking for One or Two” to the Midland Park Valley Hospital Auxiliary on Wednesday, Nov. 9. The meeting is set for 10 a.m. at the Faith Reformed Church, 95 Prospect Street. New members are welcome. The meeting will include a discussion of the auxiliary’s participation in the “Adopt- a-Family” program. For more information about joining the local auxiliary chapter, call (201) 652-0873 or e-mail joanncotzlevine@o ptonline.net. MPHS to host benefit dinner The Midland Park High School community will sponsor its Second Annual Neuroblastoma Research Benefit Dinner on Tuesday, Nov. 15 from 7 to 11 p.m. at the Brownstone in Paterson. The dinner is being held in honor of three-yearold Andrew Goodell. Andrew is the son of Midland Park High School teacher Jacqueline Goodell and her husband Aaron Goodell. The Goodells, along with younger son Alex, reside in Hawthorne. Last year’s dinner was a benefit for the Goodell family as they put their lives and careers on hold in order to take care of Andrew. At this time, Andrew is N.E.D. (no evidence of disease); however, there are still thousands of other children stricken by this devastating disease. Unfortunately, there is also a 50 percent chance that Andrew’s cancer will return. This year’s dinner will directly benefit children in the care of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. The parent organization “Band of Parents” provides ongoing financial support to Sloan for research for a cure. The event will feature dinner, dancing with music provided by a DJ, and a prize basket fundraiser. Tickets for the dinner are $40 and may be purchased by sending a check made payable to “MPHS Internal Fund: Neuroblastoma Dinner” c/o Brian Ersalesi, Midland Park High School, 250 Prospect Street, Midland Park, NJ 07432. For more information, contact Brian Ersalesi at bersales i@midlandparkschools.k12.nj.us. Register for recreation basketball Midland Park Basketball Association has announced that registration is now open for recreation basketball. The program is open to boys in kindergarten through grade 12 and girls in kindergarten through grade 9. Parents interested in coaching, assisting with fundraisers, or being team parents may indicate this on the registration form. Registration forms may be picked up at the Baseball Card Store at 45 Prospect Street or at the DePhillips Center on Dairy Street. Forms are also available by e-mailing jerrymercadante@hotmail.com. Baseball meeting set The Midland Park Baseball Association will meet on Tuesday, Nov. 8 at 7:30 p.m. at the Community Room at the DePhillips Center on Dairy Street. Topics to be discussed will be the 2012 recreation and travel season. All are invited. For more information, e-mail midlandparkbas eball@gmail.com. Sign up for Fall Story Time Registration for Fall Story Time at the Midland Park Public Library will be held now through Nov. 4 in the Children’s Room. Programs include Toddler Story Time, which will be held on Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. from Nov. 9 through Dec. 14, and Preschool Story Time, which is set for Thursdays at either 10:30 a.m. or 1:30 p.m. from Nov. 10 through Dec. 15. Story Times are developmentally appropriate and encourage children to interact with books and express their creativity through open-ended craft activities. A variety of music, movement activities, and learning games will be incorporated. The Midland Park Memorial Library is located at 250 Godwin Avenue. Call (201) 444-2390 for details. Deadline is Wednesday at noon Letters to the Editor (continued from page 17) Wyckoff assessed value of $810,000), has been enormously successful in attracting grants for Wyckoff to preserve open space. During the first five years of our fund, 20072011 inclusive, it raised $1.2 million. Because we had $1.2 million in our trust fund, Bergen County Open Space gave us $1.9 million to then complete the purchase of the Russell Farms site after its remediation. Our open space fund will expire at the end of this year. On the ballot this Nov. 8 is a public question requesting continuance of the trust fund. The tax per average assessed house of $810,000 is $40 annually, and over the five years, our Open Space Trust Fund will accumulate about $1.2 million. We have a recommendation from Bergen County Open Space for a $1.3 million grant for Maple Lake, 27 acres of wilderness off of Cedar Hill Avenue. (The state Green Acres office has also listed Wyckoff on its website as the potential recipient of a state Green Acres grant for open space preservation based on an application made last year.) We need renewal of our open space trust fund to preserve Maple Lake. Our open space trust fund monies could also be used to preserve farmland. During the 15 years I have lived in Wyckoff, I have seen our farms and open space disappear and the subsequent loss of some of our town character, as well as a huge increase in the volume of traffic. By maintaining our fund, we can continue to leverage it to generate access to Bergen County and state grants to preserve open space. I encourage all Wyckoff voters to vote yes on the public question to renew our open space trust fund on Nov. 8. Christina Holstrom Wyckoff Dear Editor: We are supporting Tom Madigan and Doug Christie for Wyckoff Township Committee. The integrity of these two and their families is reason enough to vote for them in the upcoming election. We could fill a page of past, present, and future qualifications of volunteer work they do for Wyckoff taxpayers. This would prove their long-term commitment to Wyckoff. We know they will work to keep taxes low, support all in Wyckoff, and obtain county open space funds. They are leaders and should be elected on proven qualifications and not ride the coattails of popularity. In these turbulent times they let you know what they stand for as they are members of the Republican Party and working for all in Wyckoff. Vote for Tom Madigan and Doug Christie, tried and true. David and Mary Connolly Wyckoff Dear Editor: The election of a mayor for any size town is an imported decision to make. Midland Park has a rich history of volunteerism and giving due to the people who make up the town. The diversity of the people of Midland Park determines the representation of government, which determines the make up of the common unity of the town. The person I feel best to represent the town is Bud O’Hagan. I met Bud in the Lions Club. He gives up his time to help other people, if it is setting up the Christmas decorations by the pump houses, delivering food to shut ins, and standing in the cold to collect food for those in need. He does this without complaint, without adorations, and without people knowing. He works in the community, which brings a unique perspective of what the community’s needs are. If the people of Midland Park elect Bud as mayor, they will have a leader who will be there to serve the people. He will bring to the office of mayor exceptional qualities of leadership, understanding, and duty that the people will be better off than before. I hope when you go to the polls in November you will vote for Bud and the rest of his team. I would. Robert Hazen Wyckoff Dear Editor: I feel compelled to clarify and provide a fact-based perspective in response to a recent inaccurate editorial (letter) regarding the Dairy Street basketball courts, which appeared in the Villadom TIMES. Despite what was conveyed in the editorial, the fact is that there were almost 80 pieces of correspondence during the last 24 months related to the resident’s concerns, with a good portion of the correspondence provided directly to that resident. In addition to that correspondence, I personally went to his home and met with him at his kitchen table, subsequently met on-site at the courts with him, and other residents, along with multiple members of the governing body. In addition, I brought each of his concerns to the council in the timeliest of manners. Since the fall of 2009, we have received a variety of complaints/concerns from the resident related to the basketball courts, including a possible pavilion over one of the courts, balls finding their way into his yard, language and behavior by children he deemed inappropriate, use of the courts by organized league teams making too much noise, landscape screening and, lastly, the noise from the backboards. To date, I and other council members have canceled the notion of pursuing a pavilion, increased the landscape screening around the courts, reset policies and procedures for use of the courts, extended the height of the fences, performed corrective work to the brackets at our engineer’s recommendation in 2010 and most recently the DPW has implemented recommendations for sound deadening from the manufacturer. It has become apparent to those close to this ongoing situation that we’ve reached a point, and arguably gone beyond it, where we’ve reasonably addressed the concerns of this individual at continued expense to all Midland Park taxpayers. I hope this helps clarify. Joseph Monahan, Mayor Midland Park Mayor responds to letter writer Support for GOP team O’Hagan will provide leadership, vision