Page 10 THE VILLADOM TIMES III • February 6, 2013 Waldwick The Waldwick Mayor and Council last week began preliminary discussions on the proposed 2013 capital budget and made reductions in some areas geared towards lowering the municipality’s bonded indebtedness. “We have to borrow less and start paying down our debt. Some expenses we are obligated to, such as the HoHo-Kus Brook project, and some are fixed costs, but some things are flexible” said Councilman Don Sciolaro, who chairs the council’s finance committee. The borough’s total debt, including paying off the municipal building, the public safety complex and the new water tank on Franklin Avenue in Wyckoff totals $14.7 million, Kratz said. “We have deferred and eliminated some projects to bring us to the total of just under $1.6 million of which a net of just over $1 million would be indebtedness,” said Borough Administrator Gary Kratz in presenting his original recommendations for 2013.. Those numbers were further reduced during the meeting to $1.442 million total budget and $896,000 in new moneys when anticipated grant moneys are factored in. Kratz told the mayor and council that original requests from borough departments grossed more than $2.2 million. The council decided to reduce in half - from $200,000 to $100,000 - the amount allocated to the local road resurfacing program. Sciolaro said that while fewer local roads would be tackled, $350,000 in capital funds was going towards the rehabilitation of Lindberg Parkway. An application for a Transportation Trust Fund grant of $150,000 to offset a portion of this project is pending. Borough council aims to cut down on borrowing Kratz said local roads to be done would be chosen based on their condition. Another project the council felt was important to continue funding this year, albeit at a reduced amount than originally proposed, is to continue expanding the municipal drainage system to allow for sump pump connections. Kratz said there is no balance in the inflow and infiltration account from previous appropriations. “We can’t tell people they are forced to connect if we cut the funding,” said Mayor Thomas Giordano. “It can be done piecemeal,” Kratz said, in agreeing to reduce the allocated amount for I&I from $100,000 to $75,000, the same amount spent last year. Kratz recommended adding another $50,000 to the Ho-Ho-Kus Brook project to do the work without the help of the Bergen County Mosquito Commission. The borough has already earmarked $165,000 from previous budgets for the flood control project. Kratz explained that the original intent was to use the mosquito commission to dredge the brook in the vicinity of Dow Avenue to alleviate flooding problems. A separate contractor would have hauled away the silt and done the bank stabilization work. Kratz said, however, that using different contractors would have required storing the silt on private property until it could be removed, an option he said was unacceptable. He said hiring one contractor to handle the entire project would also be more cost-effective in the long run because it would avoid delay extras. “All bids contain a timetable for the work to be done, and the way this project should be done, the material should be moved off-site as quickly as possible. The players have to work in tandem, and without a definitive commitment date from the Mosquito Commission, that makes that difficult running the risk of delay change orders from our bidder. The pricing contained here (new estimate) eliminates the Mosquito Commission from the equation which is $40,000 of this cost and makes an adjustment to the original project estimate that was given to you almost two years ago,” Kratz told the council. Fire Company No. 2’s headquarters will also receive special attention this year, with $45,000 allocated for new hardiplank siding. Additionally, funds are being allotted to connect the firehouse and the adjacent ambulance corps building into a generator to service both buildings. Conduit will be run through the parking lot between the two buildings prior to its planned repaving this spring. The number of harassment, intimidation, and bullying incidents in the Waldwick Public Schools has gone down dramatically in the year since the HIB law went into effect. “For the first semester (September to December, 2012), our district teams have investigated eight alleged cases of HIB and four, or half, have been found to be incidents of HIB. At this point last year, we had 21 alleged cases and five were found to meet the criteria for classification as an HIB incident,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Patricia Raupers told the board of education at a recent meeting. “It is apparent that staff members, students, and parents are becoming more aware of the differences between cases of student conflict and HIB incidents,” Dr. Raupers explained. The 2001 law defines HIB as: “Any gesture, any written, verbal or physical act, or any electronic communication whether it be a single incident or a series of incidents, that is reasonably perceived as being motivated either by any actual or perceived characteristic, such as race, color, religion, ancestry, national District handling far fewer HIB cases origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, or a mental, physical or sensory disability that takes place on school property, at any school-sponsored function, on a school bus, or off school grounds in cases in which a school employee is made aware of such actions.” “As you can gather from that definition, the gesture or act must be directed at an individual due to an ‘actual or perceived characteristic’ such as those listed in the law. Therefore instances of student conflict such as those based on disagreements over issues, personality conflicts, and breaks in friendship, do not constitute instances of HIB,” Dr. Raupers explained. Dr. Raupers said that each investigation is quite time consuming and labor intensive, since every case has to be examined by a school-based team and reviewed by her and the district anti-bullying specialist. “Despite the incredible amount of time required to do this well, I am proud to say that due to the commitment of the teams, each investigation has been conducted within the required time,” Dr. Raupers concluded.