Page 10 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • October 19, 2011 Wyckoff Wanderings Chamber plans meeting The Wyckoff Chamber of Commerce will meet on Thursday, Oct. 20 at Abma’s Farm, 700 Lawlins Road at 8 a.m. The Abma family will present a history of the farm, and Stacy Antine will discuss the educational programs on growing and cooking fresh food the farm offers to students. Breakfast will be served. The Chamber invites members present their business to the club through the new Chamber Member Showcase program. E-mail wyckoffchamber@gmail.com to RSVP. Friends sponsor Puppet Show The Friends of the Wyckoff Library will offer a program for children, “Lolly’s Variety Show,” on Sunday, Nov. 6 from 3 to 4 p.m. at the Wyckoff Public Library’s temporary location, 637 Wyckoff Avenue. The show will feature marionettes and puppets provided by Bobi’s Puppets. Tickets are $5 per child and may be purchased at the library’s circulation desk. For more information, call (201) 891-4866. Learn about pruning shrubs Celeste Stapleton will discuss shrub pruning techniques at the Wyckoff Area Garden Club’s Oct. 19 meeting. The session will begin at 7 p.m. at the lake house at the Wyckoff Family YMCA, 691 Wyckoff Avenue. Stapleton trained at the Bronx Botanical Garden School of Horticulture. She is an advocate for plant rights and is on the staff at Rohsler’s Nursery in Allendale. Library offers Halloween craft The Wyckoff Public Library invites children of all ages to visit the children’s corner of the library, where they can make a special Halloween craft anytime from Oct. 24 through 28. The library’s temporary location is at 637 Wyckoff Avenue. For more information, visit wyckofflibrary.org or call (201) 891-4866. Rummage Sale set The Ladies Aid Society of the Wyckoff Reformed Church will hold a Rummage Sale on Thursday, Oct. 27 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the education building located at 580 Wyckoff Avenue. The sale will feature clothing, jewelry, household items, knickknacks, toys, shoes, and more. Receiving days for donations are Oct. 25 and 26. Nursery school sponsors Diaper Drive 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 Children’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. ‘Music Feeds the Soul’ benefit set Grace United Methodist Church, located at 555 Russell Avenue in Wyckoff, will present its second “Music Feeds the Soul” concert on Saturday, Oct. 22 at 7 p.m. Music from a variety of genres including Broadway, classical, Gospel, and more will be performed by vocalists Lori Vanderaa, Steve Gant, and Steve Zimmerman, and instrumentalists Alan Newman, Melissa Kay, and Susan Harris. Admission is $5 and one non-perishable food item. Proceeds from the concert will benefit CUMAC Food Pantry in Paterson. For more information, contact the church office at (201) 891-4595, or e-mail KVanderaa@hotmail.com. For information about CUMAC and a list of recommended food donations, visit www. cumacecho.org. Register for winter recreation programs The Wyckoff Department of Recreation and Parks will hold registration for its winter programs on Oct. 22 from 10 a.m. to noon, and Oct. 24 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the Eisenhower School Cafeteria at 344 Calvin Court. The wide range of basketball activities available include recreation basketball leagues for boys and girls in grades three/ four, five/six, and seven/ eight, and a high school league. The registration fee for all levels is $70. This year, boys and girls in third and fourth grades will participate in a league type program on Saturdays rather than the clinic style program run in the past. The adult open gym program, held at Eisenhower School, will begin Nov. 28. Pre-registration during the above dates is required. Space in this program is limited to the first 100 Wyckoff residents who register. The registration fee is $60. Wyckoff Recreation also offers wrestling for children in grades two through eight, an indoor soft-stick lacrosse program for boys and girls in grades one and two, and cheerleading squads for girls in grades five through eight. The girls cheer for the travel basketball program. Registration fees are $50 for the first and second grade lacrosse program, and $70 for wrestling and cheerleading. For details, call (201) 891-3350. Club hosts Alzheimer’s Awareness program The Alzheimer’s Association will present its “Alzheimer’s Awareness” program to the Woman’s Club of Wyckoff on Wednesday, Oct. 19. The meeting will be held at the clubhouse located at 176 Wyckoff Avenue. The group will hold a business meeting at 1 p.m.; the program will begin at 1:45 p.m. Everyone is welcome to the program. For more information, call (201) 891-2435. Prayer group welcomes new members Moms in Touch invites mothers and grandmothers in Wyckoff to pray for their children, grandchildren, and their schools. The group gathers weekly. For details, visit www.momsintouch.org or call Carol at (201) 312-4720. Verizon, T-Mobile appeal zoning board’s decision (continued from page 3) was considered since the original application had been for a 110-foot structure and had been amended at the suggestion of the board to accommodate more than the two co-locators. However, because five affirmative votes were required to approve the use variance, the 4-3 approval constituted a statutory denial of the request. Verizon Wireless will be represented by Richard L Schneider, Esq., and T-Mobile will be represented by Gregory D. Meese, Esq. Although the companies are competitors, they occasionally agree to co-locate on existing or proposed facilities to avoid the construction of multiple sites. Verizon filed its original application in July 2009, and was joined by co-applicant T-Mobile in March 2010. When Verizon made its application, T-Mobile was already seeking approvals for a cell location at 44 Godwin Avenue, which is located across Rea Avenue from the Verizon site. The zoning board asked its planning consultant to review the applications and make a recommendation as to which site could accommodate both carriers. The borough’s professionals recommended 80 Godwin as the preferred site, and the two companies subsequently filed a joint application. The companies’ equipment enclosures would have been located next to the tower in an 18-foot by 40-foot area. The board held nine hearings on the combined application, and heard expert testimony from radio frequency experts retained by the board and by the applicants. The board retained Ronald Graiff as its expert in radio frequency engineering, while radio frequency engineer Glenn Pierson testified on behalf of the cellular carriers. The civil action states that Pierson “established the existence of a gap in wireless communications coverage for both Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile in the Borough of Midland Park that included, but was not limited to, the commercial area at the intersection of Godwin Avenue and Goffle Road which comprises the major retail shopping district in the Borough of Midland Park, as well as significant residential areas located to the east, west, south and northeast of the commercial area.” The document claims Pierson presented supporting documentation regarding these gaps, which reportedly would have been remedied by the proposed cell tower. After multiple hearings, the board denied the application. According to the civil action, the board’s resolution of denial “did not make any finding of fact or conclusion of law that disputed the existence of a gap in existing wireless coverage by Verizon Wireless or T-Mobile in the geographic areas identified by Mr. Pierson, nor did it dispute the fact that approval of a wireless communication facility at the property would meet the coverage objectives of the carriers. In fact, the board’s resolution of denial made a specific factual finding that its own independent radio frequency expert found that, ‘the site was justified in his mind,’ and that ‘it provides the necessary coverage.’ The board also found, ‘as stipulated, the 80 Godwin site will meet the Verizon Wireless coverage objectives at the proposed site.’” The applicants claim they demonstrated there was no municipally-owned land that could have been used for the tower that would have met their coverage objectives. The civil action also states that the board’s independent radio frequency expert agreed that no municipally-owned property would have been suitable for the co-applicants. The cellular carriers also state that their experts investigated alternate sites for a tower, but found there were no existing structures that would meet their goals, no other sites were available and suitable for a facility, and any alternate sites would also require a use variance.