May 30, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 15 Midland Park borough officials hope the next time will be the charm for getting state funding for the reconstruction of Spruce Street/Highwood Avenue. The council last week agreed to submit the new application to the NJ Department of Transportation Municipal Aid program for the project. Three previous applications for the work, in 2008, 2009 and 2010 proved unsuccessful. “We think we have a better chance this year. The street is heavily traveled and is now in much worse repair,” said Borough Clerk/Administrator Addie Hanna. Capital Alternatives, the borough’s grant consultants, will prepare the applications as they have done for past NJDOT grants. Hanna said that one of the grant writers previously worked for the DOT funding department and would hopefully have an edge in tailoring the application to the required criteria. Hanna said the borough is also waiting to hear whether it will get any funds from a federal transportation program for which officials have also applied. “We could never do it on our own without grant funds,” Hanna said. The project would include drainage, curbing and resurfacing of the mile-long connector roadway. It would likely cost nearly a half-million dollars and would probably have to be done in stages, as other large projects have been done in the past. Previous plans have called for the roadway, which Town to seek DOT grant for Spruce/Highwood again varies in width, to be paved to a uniform width of 29 or 30 ft. New curbs are needed to delineate the edge of the pavement for added safety and to control drainage flow and thus avoid flooding of roadway and private property. Spruce Street residents have complained for years about flooding. In the 1980s the borough provided relief to the worst-affected area by channeling storm water down the ravine to Monroe Street in Ridgewood. The development, known as “The Estates”, was built after World War II with no storm drainage system. The council also agreed to apply for a Bergen County Open Space and Recreation Trust Fund grant to reconstruct the handicapped-accessible playground at the Dairy Street Recreation complex. Any funds received would have to be matched dollar for dollar from the borough’s Open Space Fund. No cost estimate was available at this time. Hanna said the existing playground, which was built up to federal Americans with Disabilities Act standards in the 1990s, no longer meet the code because much of the equipment is outdated. She said the borough’s insurance consultant would be asked to provide an audit of the equipment and its value. Councilman Bernie Holst asked if tree work could be done at the same time and applied for at the time of the grant. Hanna said the work could be done from the local open space fund but would not be matched by the county. Council President Nancy Peet asked that as deteriorating trees are replaced on borough property they be replaced either in the vicinity or elsewhere so as to maintain the “green” landscape of the town.