Wyckoff October 12, 2011 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 3 Officials approve funding to plan for future goals by John Koster The Wyckoff Township Committee has approved funding for two studies of separate projects that could protect Wyckoff from cell towers in less than optimal locations and could prevent any post-purchase expenses in turning Russell Farms into municipal recreational land. “I think that hiring the consultants makes a lot of sense in terms of the unfunded mandates that are imposed on Wyckoff, and the expenses we incur from these mandates in tough times,” said Mayor Kevin Rooney. “We have to look and think outside the box to find ways to save money through advance planning.” The information Wyckoff acquires from the two separate consultants, Mayor Rooney said, could save money down the road by avoiding far greater expenses if plans were executed without adequate information and led to stalled plans or needless litigation. The township committee approved $5,000 for Declan O’Scanlon, president of FSD Enterprises LLC Wireless Telecommunications Consulting to study the best possible locations for cellular towers in Wyckoff. “We don’t want cellular towers,” Mayor Rooney explained. He said that O’Scanlon – not a relative of Township Committeeman Brian Scanlan – would essentially study those locations where cellular towers could be located in case outside interests made the towers mandatory. O’Scanlon was said to be familiar with the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996, which forbids local governments from outright bans on cellular towers. The agreement to retain the telecommunications consultant was made by a unanimous vote at last week’s township committee meeting. The second and separate township committee agreement was to pay $2,500 to Boswell Associates, the township’s engineering contractor, for a complete study and brief formal report on what Mayor Rooney described as “four crates” of environmentally-related communications between the New Jersey Department of Environmental The taxpayers of Wyckoff will be paying $525,000 over a period of three to five years because the township lost a tax appeal to the owner of the 25-acre Maple Lake tract. Members of the Wyckoff Township Committee said at last week’s public meeting that they would try to spread the tax bite of the $525,000 pay-back over five years rather than three so the annual burden on the taxpayers will be reduced. The committee introduced a refunding ordinance to establish a mechanism for the Township to pay tax appeal funding of the property tax repayment obligation to the owner of the property at Maple Lake, which is not actually a lake, but a section of land that was once a lake and is legally ruled out for construction purposes. Once the ordinance is adopted, the township committee will issue bonds at about one percent to cover the cost of repaying the judgment by the Bergen County Tax Board that taxing the land based on its value as a residential site was not appropriate. J. KOSTER Grace Nursery School in Wyckoff will hold a Diaper Drive to benefit Baby Basics. Donations of new diapers (unopened, any size, any brand) may be dropped off at Grace Nursery School at 555 Russell Avenue in Wyckoff by Oct. 20. Baby Basics, a program run by the Chil- Nursery school sponsors Diaper Drive Protection and Robert Milanese, the owner of the property known as Russell Farms. The communications document the environmental cleanup of pesticide wastes from the site, which was until a few years ago a working fruit and vegetable farm with a rustic farm stand on premises. Wyckoff officials want to make sure that a “no further action” letter from the DEP to the present owner is binding before the township buys the four-acre site for recreational use. The asking price of the Russell Farms site is about $3.1 million. Wyckoff has received a grant of $1,859,000 from the Bergen County Open Space Land Acquisitions Component and has on hand another $1,204,000 from Wyckoff’s own Open Space fund, which adds a half-cent for each $100 of assessed valuation to a municipal fund set aside for land purchase. The township committee has repeatedly noted that all responsibilities for cleanup of the toxic pesticide residue must be defrayed by the property owner before the municipality buys the land and assumes responsibility. The pesticide residue had reportedly ended plans to turn the land into residential housing while the real estate market was still booming. dren’s Aid and Family Services, supports low-income Bergen County families. For more information about Baby Basics, call (201) 261-2800. For more information about Grace Nursery School, contact Amy Vellucci at (201) 891-4895.