March 6, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 15 Wyckoff Wanderings Fall soccer registration announced The Wyckoff Recreation Department will hold registration for the fall soccer season March 16 from 9 to 11 a.m. and March 19 from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Both sign-up dates will be held in the in the Eisenhower Middle School Cafeteria on Calvin Court. Registration may also be completed at the recreation department office at Woodland Avenue Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Northwest Bergen Soccer League is for players born between Aug. 1, 1997 and July 31, 2005 (grades 3-8). Girls will play on Saturday mornings, and boys will play on Sunday afternoons. Both practice once a week. A wallet size photo is required at registration. The fee is $80 per child. High School soccer players are also eligible to participate in the Northwest Bergen Soccer League, but the town is limited to two teams. Only the first 40 registrations will be accepted. All others will be placed on a waiting list. The high school league is co-ed and practices once a week, typically on Fridays. Games are played on Sunday afternoons. The fee is $85 per participant. The first and second grade instructional soccer programs are for players entering grades one and two in September 2013. Programs are held on Saturdays. First grade boys will meet from 9 to 10 a.m. and first grade girls will meet from 10:15 to 11:15 a.m. Boys and girls in second grade will play more structured games on Saturday mornings. The registration fee for these programs is $60. Children who will be entering kindergarten in September 2013 are invited to register for the kindergarten instructional soccer program. Kindergarteners will meet on Saturday mornings from 9 to 10 a.m. or 10 to 11 a.m. at Pulis Field on Wyckoff Avenue. The registration fee for this program is $60. Children in kindergarten through grade two may participate in both soccer and football. Children in grades three through eight may not participate in both sports during the same season. For details, call the recreation office at (201) 891-3350. Blood Pressure Program moves to YMCA The Wyckoff Board of Health will no longer conduct its Blood Pressure Program at the Wyckoff Library. Residents may now receive monthly blood pressure screenings on the first Wednesday of the month at the Wyckoff Family YMCA located at 691 Wyckoff Avenue. Members of the Wyckoff Ambulance Corps will be on hand from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Wyckoff Family YMCA is not required, but those who attend the screening will be required to show a photo ID at the main entrance of the Y. For additional questions/information, contact the Wyckoff Board of Health at (201) 891-7000, extension 304. Y to host Spring Egg Hunt The Wyckoff Family YMCA will sponsor a Spring Egg Hunt and a Meet Butter Bunny event on Saturday, March 23. Participants will be invited to collect eggs, decorate a candy house, and meet the Butter Bunny. This event will begin at 10 a.m. Registration required. The cost is $20 per family and includes one house; each additional house is $10. After the egg hunt, participants may enjoy the Y’s free Healthy Kids Day activities. Register by calling (201) 891-2081. The Wyckoff Family YMCA is located at 691 Wyckoff Avenue in Wyckoff. Distinguished Speaker Series continues Temple Beth Rishon invites the community to its Food for Thought Distinguished Speaker Series set for Sunday, March 10. The program, featuring Dr. Richard Freund, will begin at 9:45 a.m. Dr. Freund, director of the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies and the history department chair at University of Hartford, is world renowned for his work on the archeology of Israel, biblical studies, Jewish ethics, and philosophy. He will discuss “Did the Israelite Exodus from Egypt Really Happen?” The program cost is $15 for temple members and $20 for non-members. A breakfast buffet is included. RSVP to the temple office at (201) 891-4466. For more information, visit www.bethrishon.org. Send/receive options (continued from page 5) said. “Do the larger high schools offer more electives?... Yes, but participation in athletics and many other co-curricular activities are limited because students are competing with a much larger population. We have a very dedicated group of educators in the district and some really great things are happening in our schools...maybe we have to do a better job in getting that information out there. I believe we offer a greater opportunity for kids to find out what they’re good at, and we certainly don’t have some of the problems that exist in larger high schools,” he added. Sullivan stressed that the prospect of sending the high school students elsewhere would not solve the facility problems facing the district. “The board has stated a number of times that we don’t see a scenario which would allow us to close any of our buildings. Upgrades to our infrastructure are necessary and we have to find a way to accomplish this,” he said. In December, voters turned down a two public questions seeking $15.27 million to upgrade facilities and athletic fields in the borough’s public schools. Special needs housing (continued from page 6) would be reserved for persons with incomes that do not exceed 50 percent of area median income, which is a maximum of $31,833 for a one person household. Four apartments would be further income restricted to households with incomes that do not exceed 30 percent of the area median income, which is a maximum of $19,100 for a one person household. The conceptual plan shows an entrance drive from Colonial Road leading to two buildings on the north side of the driveway with a parking lot between them. Both buildings would have patios. Both buildings would contain 14 units. The driveway would continue to a T intersection with an existing driveway that leads to McCoy Road and a driveway that would loop to the north to a parking lot and a building that would contain 12 units and have a patio. Last summer, the borough signed a $2 million contract to purchase all of the temple property, except about 49,000 square feet, which the temple will retain as a single-family residential lot for use as a future parsonage. The borough’s purchase of the property was motivated by the state’s recent effort to seize any money that had been in the municipality’s affordable housing trust fund for a period of four years or more, or since 2008, unless that money has been committed for the purposes of constructing affordable housing. The borough plans to address its state-imposed affordable housing obligation by building affordable housing for people with special needs on the temple site using the money in the trust fund that was subject to seizure by the state. According to Borough Administrator Gregory Hart, the borough will use $2 million of the total of $2,622,820 in its affordable housing trust fund to purchase the temple property. Mayor Frank Bivona cautioned that the borough’s contract to purchase the property from the temple is subject to the approval of the borough’s spending plan by the Council on Affordable Housing. The temple congregation had purchased the property about 15 years ago and planned to build a temple there. That plan was denied by the zoning board, but that denial was reversed in Superior Court. A revised plan was approved by the zoning board, but the temple was never built.