Page 8 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • October 31, 2012 Franklin Lakes Ordinance provides for grant and professional fees by Frank J. McMahon The Franklin Lakes Council has adopted an ordinance that appropriates $173,950 for the payment of grant and engineering fees incurred for several capital projects in the borough. The appropriations include $14,650 in grant professional fees for the McCoy Road paving project. The repaving of McCoy Road within the borough was recently completed. That road extends from Colonial Road, just past its intersection with the I-287 highway overpass into Oakland and back into the borough and connects with Colonial Road about half a mile farther south. It is a heavily traveled route between Franklin Lakes and Oakland and is used by parents and students who travel to and from Indian Hills High School in Oakland. Oakland recently approved an application for the subdivision of a 40-acre site on McCoy Road into 24 residential lots. As a result, Oakland has not yet repaved its portion of McCoy Road. The ordinance also includes $24,300 in engineering fees to obtain regulatory permits for accessible trails and bridges at the Franklin Lakes Nature Preserve, and $75,000 to cover the construction and installation of two 40- to 45-foot long bridges at the preserve. Grants and donations will offset the cost of the project at the preserve. Obtaining the NJDEP permits for the trails and bridges at the borough’s nature preserve is the first step leading to the design and planning and construction of the trails and bridges. A $60,000 appropriation will cover the engineering fee for a proposed study and the preliminary design of a sewer extension for the municipal complex on DeKorte Drive. This potential sewer connection would be part of the sewer system project currently being constructed in the borough business district. The project would extend the sanitary sewer main at Pulis Avenue to the police station, the municipal building, and the public library. The ordinance states that the project costs listed above are not current expenses, and they are purchases the borough may lawfully make as general improvements. The source of the appropriations is the borough’s capital surplus fund. There were no public comments made at the meeting when the ordinance was adopted, and the council voted unanimously for its adoption. Midland Park Council incumbents (continued from page 5) help make our great police department even better. “Thirdly, the Midland Park Love Fund, started by my great uncle Senator Garret Hagedorn with several other residents, is a great help to those in town who are going through financial difficulties. Using social media, I would like to see a ‘Love Fund exchange’ be put into place. This online exchange would be a Midland Park-only closed group. People could post things that they are in need of or things that they are getting rid of.” Pruiksma also said he does not take credit for major accomplishments as an individual. “We as a council work together as a team. We work with the department heads to achieve the goals which will better the community as a whole,” he said. As the Recreation liaison, Pruiksma said he takes pride in the advances and programs in that department and the tremendous volunteer effort which makes many of them possible, including the all-volunteer Recreation Board. Pruiksma, a landscape contractor, is a 25-year member of the Midland Park Volunteer Fire Department, and vice president of the Oakland Chapter of Fellowship of Christian Firefighters. He is a member of the Hometown Security Task Force of the NJ League of Municipalities and the NJ Disaster Response Crisis Counseling and is the NJ Advocate for the Everyone Goes Home program of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. Considine “We (the mayor and council) are committed to keeping government local and small as well as the taxes under control. I will work hard in 2013 to implement conservative solutions for our town,” Considine said. Considine, a retired IBM executive and US Navy veteran, is a past Grand Knight of the Midland Park Knights of Columbus. He has chaired BSA Troop 157 for the last five years, served on the board of recreation for three years and is the secretary of the Midland Park United RepublicanClub. Since 1994, he has been a Nativity Church Eucharistic Minister. He chairs the council’s Public Safety Committee. Residents will also vote on renewal of the Open Space Trust Fund, for which $39.20 a year is collected on the average house. Continuation of the trust fund will result in no additional taxes. Polls will be open from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m. on Nov. 6. Districts 1, 2 and 4 vote at the Firehouse on Witte Drive; District 3 votes at Memorial Library; and District 5 votes at the Church of the Nativity’s O’Connell Hall on Prospect Street.