Page 8 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • September 28, 2011 Wyckoff Landscaping volunteers honored by township committee by John Koster In Wyckoff, Sept. 11 was a day of profound remembrance -- and Sept. 20 was a night to honor the work of the living to honor the dead of 9/11. Mayor Kevin Rooney and the members of the Wyckoff Township Committee honored the Wyckoff Department of Public Works, local landscapers who sometimes serve on advisory boards, and other volunteers who rallied to support refurbishment and expansion of the monument to the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The local project was completed in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, and volunteers were able to finish in time for the Tenth Anniversary of 9/11. Some of the donors and volunteers were present at last week’s meeting of the township committee, but all of them, present or absent, were honored with proclamations and brief but sincere accolades from Mayor Rooney, with the township committee members concurring in his approbation. Several volunteers collaborated to restore the park-like area in front of Wyckoff Town Hall. The project was dedicated to the memory of those who died on 9/11, including the 11 township residents who died at the World Trade Center, and those firefighters, police officers, and emergency workers who died or otherwise suffered during the rescue attempt. The Wyckoff branch of SaveATree, Rooney said, donated the service of removing a diseased and dying Norway maple to make room for a new landscape bed. Dottie Van Dorn, owner of Wyckoff Florist, donated the floral piece displayed during the Sept. 11 ceremony. Ken Wendelaar of Ken’s Auto Electric, LLC donated the wiring that made the candle lighting at the ceremony possible. Bill Butler of Landscape Dynamics, who is also a Wyckoff Shade Tree Commission member, donated the labor and the sod for the lawn where the ceremony was conducted. Bill Bushman, owner of Center Hill Landscaping and a member of the Zabriskie House Board of Trustees, donated the landscape design, labor, mulch, wall stone, and stepping stone for the refurnished garden area. Mark Borst of Borst Landscape & Design, and Glenn Sietsma of Siesma Landscaping Contractors, both members of the Wyckoff Shade Tree Commission, both donated advice and labor for the lawn that is part of the project. Scott Fisher, Wyckoff’s director of Christopher P. DePhillips, Rudolf E. Boonstra, township committeemen; Kevin J. Rooney, mayor; Glenn Sietsma, Scott Fisher, Mark Borst - Shade Tree Commissioners; Ken Wendelaar, Dottie Vander Horn, Bill Bushman, Brian D. Scanlan and Thomas J. Madigan, township committeemen. public works, and his crew -- Chris Altieri, Len DeBlock, Ken Dyer, Jake Dykhouse, Richard Hagedorn, Carmine Lepore, John Mormino, Bruce Richards, Jim Schaffer, Keith Tanis, Richard Truncellito, Joseph Vander Platt, and Marc Walker -- were honored for the hard and skillful work they put in to get the memorial area in shape for the ceremony following Hurricane Irene. The storm flooded basements and knocked down trees, limbs, and power lines all over Wyckoff only a week before the Sept. 11 dedication. “Scott and his team worked in extreme unyielding conditions...never complaining, never acquiescing, never forgetting the reason why they were working: to give back to a community where 11 residents were among the 2,977 innocent victims who lost their lives,” Mayor Rooney said. Members of the Wyckoff Township Committee and some of the neighbors who live near Rambaut Lake differed sharply about whether repairing or replacing the dam that holds the 7.5-acre lake in place is a project for the neighborhood or the entire township. Three neighbors criticized members of the township committee whom they said had seemed to imply that the 21 homeowners who live around the lake are completely responsible for maintenance of the Rambaut Lake Dam, a projected tentatively budgeted at $650,000. The three Rambaut Lake neighbors, Tom Buda, Marjorie Immerman, and Charles Lieberman, pointed out that Beekmere, the corporation of lake-side neighbors that pledged to sustain the lake financially, has been defunct since 1986, and that many residents had bought their homes without knowing any agreement had ever existed, and were certainly not bound by it today. Mayor Kevin Rooney and Township Committeeman Christopher DePhillips countered that a new resident group the township committee had offered to assist with moral support and a co-signed loan application appears Rambaut Lake neighbors urge assistance with dam to have vanished after committee members felt they had reached an agreement last year that could have worked for both sides. The Wyckoff Township Committee had declined to use taxpayer money to cover expenses of Rambaut Lake when a relatively small percentage of the population derived benefit from the lake. “Approximately 20 to 30 homeowners both on and off the lake have voluntarily supported maintenance of the lake and dam for the past 25 years at an average cost of approximately $750 per family per year,” Buda said at last week’s meeting. “These funds were allocated primarily for water treatment, minor dam repair, et cetera, and in support of the preservation of one of the last remaining areas of green space in Wyckoff.” “My husband and I remain committed to do our share, but not to pay for another person’s share,” said Marjorie Immerman. She said she was upset to read statements that the neighbors who lived around the lake were responsible for the upkeep of the lake, meaning the replacement of the dam. (continued on page 18)