June 22, 2011 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • Page 3 Area Bergen County is now in the process of assembling plans and specifications for the replacement of the bridge on Lake Avenue in Midland Park. Robert Mulder, a Bergen County engineer, explained that the specifications should be ready by the end of this month. The county anticipates that it will accept bids for the bridge replacement in July and August, and subsequently award the contract. The construction project will involve the removal of the existing bridge and the realignment of the replacement structure, Mulder said. The company that receives the contract for this project must adhere to the Department of Environmental Protection’s restrictions for working within a stream. Mulder noted that the work schedule will be discussed with two nearby businesses, the A&P supermarket and Kuiken Brothers, which have Lake Avenue access points. The goal is to coordinate the construction schedule to minimize the amount of time the crews will be at work in the area. The engineer noted that the existing bridge is a brick Lake Avenue bridge project planned and steel arch structure that was built in 1900. Two concrete sections were added in 1931, when a widening project also took place. In the 1990s, the A&P added a pedestrian bridge in the area to provide access to the supermarket’s parking lot. He explained that there was once a culvert farther away and a pond, for which Lake Avenue was named. Mulder said the stream now runs toward the bridge abutment and washes it out from time to time. According to Mulder, the existing bridge is undersized in terms of the weight of the vehicles it can accommodate. At present, the Lake Avenue bridge allows 17 ton, three axle box trucks, and 35 ton five axle trucks. Those limits, he said, should be 25 tons and 40 tons, respectively. The New Jersey Department of Transportation recently made approximately $29 million in aid available for bridge projects throughout the state, including the Lake Avenue project. The bridges that are slated for repair or replacement with DOT funding are rated structurally deficient, obsolete, or scour critical due to the amount of erosion that occurs around the structure of the bridge. Bergen County Executive Kathleen A. Donovan has appointed County Public Safety Director Brian Higgins to succeed Bergen County Police Chief Uwe Malakas, who has retired. Higgins, a resident of Mahwah, was a county police captain when he was appointed to a public safety position in January. He will serve in the dual positions of chief and public safety director and will continue to have overall responsibility for the offices of emergency management and highway safety. Donovan said that merging the chief’s position with the director of public safety post is part of her plan to improve overall efficiency and cost effectiveness through consolida- Higgins is public safety director tion. Higgins’ salary will be $175,555, reflecting an annual savings of approximately $288,000. Higgins has been a police officer for 23 years. He holds a master’s in education from Seton Hall and is a graduate of West Point School of Command and Leadership. Donovan said she will shortly announce the members of a blue ribbon commission, chaired by Bergen County business leader J. Fletcher Creamer Jr., which will recommend ways to avoid duplication and overlapping public safety services provided by the county and its 70 municipalities. Donovan stressed that any merging or consolidation of municipal services would be accomplished on a voluntary basis with appropriate incentives. Successful outreach Glen Rock Women In Community Service members Joan Coughlin and Amy Neberline recently collected food and other essentials for people in need.