December 19, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 31 to children about drugs, signs of use and abuse, and current terminology and trends. Educators who attend the presentation will receive 1.5 hours of professional developLibrary board to meet ment credit. For more information, contact The Midland Park Memorial Library Jayneburke@gmail.com. Board of Trustees will meet on Wednesday, Scouts aid pets in need Dec. 19 at 7:30 p.m. The meeting will be held in the library located at 250 Godwin Helpless pets need support this holiday Avenue, Midland Park. Meetings are open season. Midland Park Cub Scout Pack 157 is to the public. now collecting pet food, supplies, and toys to be distributed to local pantries, rescue shelters, and those directly affected by HurAlliance and PTA ricane Sandy. Drop-off locations are 253 present ‘15-Minute Child Break’ Paterson Avenue, Midland Park (bin located The Midland Park Alliance and the Mid- near side door) facing Linden Place. Local land Park Elementary Schools PTA will students may also leave donations at the host the Partnership for a Drug-Free New collection binds at Godwin and Highland Jersey’s 15-Minute Child Break program on schools. The collection will take place until Jan. 17. This one-hour program will begin at Dec. 18. For information, call Sue Steccato 7:30 p.m. in the Highland School gym at 31 at (201) 873-8322. Highland Avenue. The 15-Minute Child Break is a multiCommunity Thrift shop media presentation that provides inforannounces holiday hours mation on the importance of the parent or caregiver’s role in substance abuse prevenThe Community Thrift Shop, located on tion. Discussions will include how to talk the lower level of the Midland Park Shopping Park Windmill Center at 85 Godwin Avenue will continue its Holiday Boutique through Dec. 23. The store will be closed from Dec. 24 through Jan. 1. The shop will reopen Wednesday, Jan. 2 for receiving and shopping from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The regular schedule of hours will resume the following week: Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. On Mondays, the shop will be open for receiving only from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sixty member organizations benefit from the shop’s sales, including area churches and other businesses. For further information, call (201) 652-7661. School musical fundraisers set The public will have an opportunity to support the Midland Park High School musical, “Legally Blonde,” by participating in Community Eat Out Week. Eat at Blue Moon Mexican Café at Boulder Run Shopping Center in Wyckoff on Tuesday, Dec. 18, and Rosario’s on Central Avenue in Midland Park on Wednesday, Dec. 19. The restaurants will donate a portion of their proceeds to the musical. Participating diners will need coupons for both restaurants. Coupons are available on the Midland Park High School website. Go to faculty, click on Donna Halliwell, and then select the musical page. Coupons are also available by e-mailing Dhalliwell@midlan dparkschools.k12.nj.us. Press releases for this column may be emailed to editorial@villadom.com. Deadline is Wednesday at noon. Letters to the Editor (continued from page 18) “O’Hagan who is a Realtor...He said in the last 6 months, no house in the borough had been sold for more than $500,000.” In fact, per newjerseymls.com, since March 30, 2012 there have been 8 homes in Midland Park that have sold for $495,000 or more. Personally, I have been involved with three of these properties. One of the homes (215 Hill Street) sold for $539,000. I represented both the buyer and the seller. The most expensive property sold this year was 262 Vreeland Avenue, which closed on Nov. 6, 2012 for $575,000. I marketed and sold this property personally. Midland Park is a great place to live and to own real estate. Through this point in 2012, Sal Poliandro from RE/MAX Properties has approximately a 15 percent market share of the overall market and 25 percent share of the Midland Park luxury market (homes that sold $495,000 or more). Our office figures are higher. In 2011, there were 49 total residential sales in Midland Park. Through Dec. 9 of 2012, there have been 57 homes sold in Midland Park. Currently, there are only 12 active homes for sale in Midland Park. On average, 4.75 homes per month get sold in town. With 12 active, that is only 2.5 months of inventory. Six months of inventory is an even market. Clearly, Midland Park is in favor of sellers currently. High demand and little inventory means prices should be trending upward. Now is a great time to sell your Midland Park home even if it happens to be worth more than $500,000. I hope this sheds a little more accurate picture of the current Midland Park real estate market. Sal Poliandro Wyckoff latest revaluation, while some received tax relief. Unfortunately, the defeat of the referendum doesn’t address our pressing structural needs at our school facilities. I am reaching out to you (residents) to encourage our board of education and our mayor and council to develop a plan together in order to maximize the tax revenue that is generated annually. I often have the feeling that the two bodies represent different constituents, instead of representing all of Midland Park. We have only so much in tax revenue available (after non-discretionary items) to reinvest in our community. Let’s do it wisely and together. Does Midland Park have a five-year plan? How does this referendum fit within the scope of what we want to accomplish at the town level? Did the mayor and council meet with the board of education to better understand the scope of the referendum and to possibly seek opportunities to work together, while identifying economies of scale? For most of us our homes represent our single largest investment. We should want to maximize the potential return by reinvesting in our community, which includes our schools. We do have a responsibility to our taxpayers to provide appropriate services at reasonable tax levels, but we have an important obligation to our children/students, too. If we are going to have a Midland Park school system, we should strive to have one that brings pride to our community and success to our students. By bringing these two leadership bodies together we will hopefully eliminate the misinformation that has been disseminated throughout our community, such as a readily available location for our high school students outside of district and reported graduation numbers that are a fraction of reality. With accurate information we can begin to address the serious problems that we face. Yes, we did pass a referendum nearly eight years ago, but as you may recall the initial attempt was defeated and the subsequent proposal was less than half of the original project. Those projects that were eliminated during the last go around didn’t either disappear or get miraculously fixed. Unfortunately, the Piper is, and we need strong leadership to answer the bell. Russell Kamp Midland Park Midland Park’s fourth and fifth grade girls both won the annual Mike Blake Basketball tournament in Upper Saddle River. Tournament champs Dear Editor: The Midland Park Board of Education referendum has been defeated. Now what? The $15 million price tag on the proposed improvements clearly got the attention of many residents who questioned the size and scope of the proposed project. I completely understand that many Midland Park taxpayers are stretched at this time. In addition, roughly a third of our residents have seen their taxes increased as a result of the Seeks school/ council cooperation