Allendale August 15, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES III • Page 3 Mayor wants detour plan devised by September 4 by John Koster Allendale Mayor Vince Barra said he wants a traffic detour plan devised to eliminate the gridlock that transpired after the first few days of Bergen County’s construction of a new stop light at West Crescent Avenue and Myrtle Avenue. Allendale Police Chief Scherb said, with Mayor Barra concurring, that the detour should be worked out with the input of the mayor and council, the police, and the borough’s consulting engineer after the traffic pattern is somewhat more established. “We have three weeks to do some kind of planning with it,” Mayor Barra said last week. “Sept. 4 is Doomsday.” “There have been some rough patches,” Chief George Scherb said of the first week of construction at this busy intersection. “As the detour goes on, more and more people are planning alternate routes....the people are staying away from West Crescent Avenue.” Police officers said they had seen motorists sitting in stationary cars with road maps of Allendale spread out over their knees. The fact that Allendale has a number of roads marked for no left turn or no right turn may have contributed to the confusion. Mayor Barra and the Allendale Borough Council had notified residents that the intersection would be shut down through cooperation with local newspapers, Reverse 911, and the most recent edition of the borough newsletter. The result, police officers said, was that a substantial number of residents appeared to know the intersection would be closed before the county started the work. While many motorists planned alternate routes in advance, but a lot of people who drive through Allendale on their way to other towns did not anticipate the construction until they found the intersection closed last week. “A lot of the people who are having problems are not residents,” said Allendale Police Officer Michael Dillon, who attended the meeting with the chief. “Everybody I stopped (on Aug. 9) was from out of town. In general it’s going well... It’s a learning process for all of us.” Mayor Barra described the traffic he experienced at 5:20 two days in a row as “gridlock” and concurred with the council that something concerted had to be done before the schools reopen. West Crescent Avenue is a primary route to the Brookside School, the Hillside School, and Northern Highlands Regional High School. West Crescent also takes motorists from Ramsey, Mahwah, and New York State through the heart of Allendale and on to Waldwick and Midland Park and to the turns for Wyckoff and Franklin Lakes. Council members had hoped the construction project would have started at the end of June so it could have been wrapped up before the schools opened in September. But the fact that Bergen County was finally taking action was seen as a benefit not to be tampered with. The county will cover all the costs of the project because the traffic light involves county roads. (continued on page 11)