Glen Rock
January 11, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • Page 3
Mayor’s 2012 pledge: Physical progress, fiscal caution
by John Koster Glen Rock Mayor John van Keuren set two key goals for the 2012 borough council: physical progress in improving the borough’s facilities and fiscal caution in drafting the municipal budget. “I’m confident that this council will put together a municipal budget which will deliver the needed services without any extravagance in it,” Mayor van Keuren said at the end of last week’s reorganization meeting. He cited two projects he hoped to make progress on in 2012. He said the borough wants to find a fixed location and draft a viable plan for a second senior housing complex in Glen Rock to augment the existing senior complex just off Rock Road and near the central business district; and to complete the renovation of the Glen Rock Recycling Center off Doremus Avenue and the adjacent parking lot. The recognition of the need for a second senior housing complex was established at council work sessions in 2011 and mentioned during the political campaigns, but neither the site nor the plans for the building have yet been settled. The reorganization saw the seating of John van Keuren to his third four-year term as mayor, and the installation of Carmine Nogara, a financial professional also active in the Glen Rock Volunteer Fire Department, as the deputy mayor. Nogara replaces Councilwoman Pamela Biggs in the deputy mayor’s seat. Mayor van Keuren praised Biggs for her service as deputy. Biggs was re-elected to her second term on the council in November along with Councilman Art Pazan. Russell Teschon received the oath of office as municipal magistrate and Denley Chew, Marion Driscoll, and Michael Peters took their oaths to new terms on the Glen Rock Board of Adjustment. Glen Rock Borough also voted to maintain the Length of Service Award Program, which provides a small pension entitlement to long-term members of the Glen Rock Volunteer Fire Department and the Glen Rock Volunteer Ambulance Corps. Biggs and Nogara abstained from voting approval on the LOSAP item of the consent agenda because their membership in the groups concerned could have been perceived as a conflict of interest. LOSAP was approved by the other council members. Rabbi Rachel Schwartz and Glen Rock High School Senior Patrick Moscatello spoke at the opening of the meeting. Rabbi Schwartz is active in hospice care and in the Jewish High Holy Days children’s programs at the Glen Rock Jewish Center. She spoke of the importance of volunteers. She concluded by affirming that anyone who needed to ask for help in Glen Rock should never hesitate to do so. Her speech was warmly received by the audience. Patrick Moscatello, the Glen Rock winner of a previous Veterans of Foreign Wars essay contest, spoke about the importance of pride in serving in the military. He used the examples of the national and military response first to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and then to the attack on the World Trade Center – which killed 11 Glen Rock residents – to highlight America’s response to danger and hard times. “I often see every now and then as I walk around my town, veterans from various wars selling the famous poppy flowers to support our military,” Moscatello said. “As I look upon the faces of these veterans I see not a war-stricken person who was scarred by his or her experiences in the war, but rather a veteran (who) is filled with the pride of serving our nation in the greatest way possible.”
He also mentioned his personal pride in his own grandfather, “Airman John Traficante, who while touring through Europe was the first airman in the 60th Troop carrier wing of the United States Air Force – Europe to log 1000 flying hours on his C119 airplane in 1955. This man, my grandfather, has expressed to me the most pride in the military that I have ever seen. Pride never left him or this great aircraft’s crew.” Moscatello was also applauded warmly for his winning essay and his sentiments.
Legendary WNEW/WFUV disc jockey Pete Fornatale will present the “Story of Woodstock” on Jan. 29, 2012. This vivid multi-media presentation includes rare audio clips and video footage of the artists who played there. This program will take place at 3 p.m. at the Glen Rock Jewish Center, 682 Harristown Road in Glen Rock. Fornatale, one of the architects of Progressive Rock FM in the ‘60s, has one of
Legendary DJ Pete Fornatale to present ‘Story of Woodstock’
the most recognizable voices in rock radio. He has been a fixture on the New York dial for four decades, starting his career at WFUV in November 1963 as a Fordham undergraduate hosting “Campus Caravan,” and then moving to WNEW-FM in 1969 and K-Rock in 1989. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 the day of the show. Contact Rob Weiss at (212) 448-6217 or rmajw@optonline.net to purchase tickets.