Page 18 THE VILLADOM TIMES III • May 16, 2012 Waldwick All are welcome Handicapped fans wanting to catch a game at Borough Park in Waldwick on the field adjacent to the refreshment stand can now use a brand-new ramp installed by Councilman Greg Bjork with the support of the Waldwick Lions Club. Bjork and his crew put down the 50-ft wood walkway over gravel from the parking lot to the seating area last month, and gained the appreciation of the mayor and council in the process. “They did a great job, and did it in a day,” said Councilman Charles Farricker. Also contributing was the winner of the recent Gold Raffle, who donated his winnings to the project. The Waldwick borough engineer will be asked to look over dredging cost estimates generated by Friends of White’s Pond to establish a benchmark for future discussions, Mayor Thomas Giordano said last week. The mayor and a council committee met with White’s Pond representatives last week to discuss points of interest related to preserving the pond. “It was a good meeting, a good open dialogue,” the mayor reported during the council session following the meeting. “We all have to be on the same page before moving forward,” he added. Giordano explained that the White Pond committee’s estimates don’t match the town’s, so the engineer will be asked to attend the council meeting on June 12 to discuss the issue. “If we can do work without burdening the taxpayers, we’ll do it. If it will burden the community financially, we’ll have to look for a new route,” he said. The borough hopes to apply for Open Space Trust Fund moneys for the work. Friends’ organizer Andrea Mistretta was also encouraged by the meeting, the first this year between the two groups. “The large endeavor to dredge White’s Pond takes time, but we feel we are starting to make steps toward progress,” she said. Engineer to review cost of dredging White’s Pond Since a major cost in the project is the trucking away of the dredged material, resident Al Coldon, present at the council meeting, suggested enlisting local landscapers to take the material to use as top soil. “Give it away for free. They supply the trucks. Put an ad in the paper and see what you get. Soil is valuable. The material you get can be mixed with topsoil,” Coldon suggested. “We’ll get the engineer’s recommendation, but we’ll look at all the options before we make a decision,” Giordano assured Coldon. The 7.8-acre lake off Hopper Avenue was last dredged in 1974. The dam was built in the 1930s as a WPA project, and the lake was used as the town’s swimming pool until the new pool was constructed on Hopper Avenue. Another dredging was planned a few years ago when the borough had the opportunity to dump the dredged matter at Overpeck Park free of charge. The $3 million cost of transporting the sediment to Overpeck killed the project. More recently the borough has undertaken harvesting weeds, floating tree limbs and other debris and accumulated leaf litter from the lake and applying algaecides as necessary in hopes of preempting dredging the shallow lake.