Wyckoff April 17. 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 5 Township committee weighing soliciting, signage by John Koster The Wyckoff Township Committee established a consensus on several issues, including the idea that residents should have a right to peace and quiet without disruption by sports soliciting or excessive signage. Committee members spent a large portion of last week’s work session trying to forge a compromise to allow a real estate consortium to solicit for funds at a municipally-sponsored sports event. The funds collected would be donated to the Wyckoff Volunteer Fire Department and the Wyckoff Volunteer Ambulance Corps. The committeemen, speaking as individuals, liked the idea of donations to the emergency service organizations, but were uncomfortable with the concept of allowing commercial interests to openly solicit for funds on municipal property. “We will not sanction soliciting at sports events,” Mayor Rudy Boonstra said after the township committee achieved an informal consensus. Discussion had been moving that way for about a half-hour. “This thing came up very quickly and it doesn’t seem all the pieces fit together completely,” Township Committeeman Kevin Rooney said at the beginning of the discussion. “We need some more information.” Plans, which township committee members characterized as somewhat vague, called for real estate personnel with identification tags to ask spectators at Pulis Field to contribute to the emergency services. The use of visible corporate identification was the first request to be discarded, as far as the committeemen were concerned. A couple of committeemen, notably Douglas Christie -- a long-time Wyckoff Volunteer Firefighter -- and Haakon Jepsen, thought the idea of asking for funds during a sports event was a bad idea. Christie said residents have one day of the week to spend with their families and should not be disturbed by donation requests. Jepsen said the collection might detract from the annual Labor Day fireworks, the Wyckoff Volunteer Fire Department’s big official fundraiser. “It has to be planned more thoroughly and with all the ducks in a row to make it work,” Mayor Boonstra, also a long-time volunteer fireman, said at mid-point. “I, too, am okay with using municipal property for this with all the details worked out....Rather than verbally soliciting at games, perhaps they should provide some kind of flyers.” The ultimate decision was that the specific request for fundraising this month was rejected and the would-be sponsors would have to apply for permission a minimum of one month in advance and with more detailed information before any permission could be granted. The second issue discussed was to determine which locations on Wyckoff’s public thoroughfares would be (continued on page 21)