Page 4 THE VILLADOM TIMES III • July 25, 2012 Allendale Two major construction projects set to begin by John Koster Two major construction projects are set to begin in Allendale next month, and members of the Allendale Borough Council urge motorists to plan alternate routes. Bergen County’s installation of a traffic light at Myrtle and West Crescent avenues is set to begin Aug. 1. Plans call for the area to be closed for two to three months. This project will take place during some of the same time as another county project: the replacement of the bridge on Brookside Avenue near Donnybrook Road. Both roads approach the K-8 schools in Allendale and Northern Highlands Regional High School. The project at Brookside Avenue is expected to result in road closing that could last nine to 12 months. Borough officials noted that the 70-year-old bridge at Donnybrook had been considered for five years, but no funding had been available until now. The borough ran the risk of losing the funding for the project if the work did not begin this year. As a result, replacement effort is due to begin next month. Councilwoman Jacqueline McSwiggan recently reported that the plans for both projects seemed to be on schedule for two ground-breakings, one around Aug. 1 and the other before the end of the month. “Myrtle and West Crescent Avenue will be closed,” Mayor Vince Barra advised at a recent council meeting. “We are shooting for -- and hoping for -- an August construction.” Councilwoman Elizabeth White noted that the county requires the long-awaited light to be completed in 90 days. She said she hopes it will be mostly completed in 30 days -- in time for the re-opening of school. White added that it was not possible to postpone construction because Bergen County, which is paying all the costs, is calling the shots. “We can’t stop. We can’t say it will be inconvenient,” White said. “We just have to go.” The area involved -- Myrtle Avenue and West Crescent Avenue near the center of the borough -- will be closed during construction so the work can be completed as quickly and efficiently as possible. Members of the council, while concerned about the trafTwo Boy Scouts who attended a recent Allendale Council meeting had a number of questions about the pending attempt to ban illegal sump pumps and redirect waste water in the right direction. Boy Scout Merit Badge contenders Brendan Routh and Lowell Schudel questioned Mayor Vince Barra and Councilwoman Jacqueline McSwiggan, and soon had a comprehensive description of the sump pump program, which is still in its formative stages. Allendale is in the process of instituting a program of initially voluntary inspections to ascertain which residents are violating sump pump restrictions and adding to everyone’s taxes for sewer service -- including their own. “You don’t need a permit to install a sump pump. Some people have gone out, bought a garden hose, and dumped the water in a slop sink -- and that’s illegal,” McSwiggan explained. Schudel, who will be studying physics at Columbia University in September, and Routh, who is still in high school, had no trouble understanding the impact of gravity on waste water. What they wanted to know was what the council intended to do about it. McSwiggan said that, once the plans are completed, Allendale will ask residents to permit voluntary inspections of homes which they believe may conceal sump pumps, and will offer to help the residents reinstall the drainage devices so the water goes into the proper drainage program and is not dumped indirectly into the sewers. fic associated with both of these projects, found a certain satisfaction in finally getting Bergen County to fund and complete these two projects. No details were available at press time about the exact costs, but Bergen County, not Allendale, will be picking up the tab. Scouts question sump pump project Brendan Routh and Lowell Schudel. “Our hope is that most people will voluntarily comply,” McSwiggan said. “If there are individuals who don’t let us into their homes, we have ways of doing this. There are (continued on page 23)