Page 4 THE VILLADOM TIMES III • May 15, 2013 Allendale Farmers Market to open June 1 by John Koster The Allendale Farmers Market sponsored by the Allendale Chamber of Commerce will be ready for business from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 1, with some fine-tuning for future safety by Police Chief George Scherb and Borough Engineer John Yakimik. The borough council is due to vote the formal approval at the May 23 public meeting, but the plans now call for about 10 vendors of produce and baked goods at the Allendale railroad station from June through November. Chief Scherb told the Allendale Borough Council last week that Sergeant Todd Griffith would be available working straight time -- not overtime -- due to police scheduling and that Sergeant Griffith, Allendale’s traffic officer, would supervise the first Allendale Farm- ers Market to make sure that traffic posed no threat to pedestrians. “We really don’t know how this is going to play out unless we’re there to evaluate it,” Chief Scherb said last week. “Sergeant Griffith is as good as they come in terms of safety,” said Council Member Ari Bernstein, who had urged safety supervision, while supporting the concept of the market. Councilman Bernstein said he still wished the market could be shut off so that the vendor area was not exposed to traffic on all sides. “I do want to stress that safety before anything else has to be our first concern,” Council Member Bernstein said. “Always,” said Yakimik. He said he had sawhorses (continued on page 18) The Allendale Borough Council has dropped two local sites from the inventory of Council on Affordable Housing locations and has reduced the intensity of permitted construction for a third potential sitea. Mayor Vince Barra and the council voted unanimously last week to change the zoning of the un-built section of the Trinity Episcopal Church lot and the portion of open land adjacent to the Hillside School from multi-family to singlefamily zones. The section near the Ramsey border called the Farmer Property at 321 East Crescent Avenue near Arlton Avenue was changed from multi-family zoning to single-family zoning, with a standard of eight fair market value houses and two affordable houses if and when the lot is developed. “You are to be commended. You and the planning board as well, for acting in a timely manner,” resident James Thomas told Barra and the council at last week’s meeting. Thomas, however, asked the council to consider the petition now before them to prevent any unusual zoning on the Farmer Property. A number of neighbors came to the meeting, but did not speak at the public session. Outside, they spoke among themselves about drainage issues with the property and said they hoped to see it left undeveloped. At the meeting, Barra said the Allendale Planning Board had unanimously approved the plan for rezoning the three sites, and sent the approved plans back to the borough council, which also voted unanimously to adopt the changes. Under Barra’s administration, Allendale has received kudos for its compliance with the need for affordable and special-needs housing to such an extent that the borough has more than fulfilled its state mandate, primarily using state and federal funds to avoid burdens on the taxpayers while providing special-needs housing in attractive multiunit developments. In other business, the council adopted a Phase I watering restriction to cope with the dry weather which -- as council members noted wryly -- ended in two days of heavy rain just before the May 9 meeting. “Our water needs have spiked over the past two weeks,” Mayor Barra said. “We’re hoping that we’ll stay at Phase I.” In Allendale, Phase I restrictions mean that those with odd numbered addresses may use sprinklers on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. Those with even numbered addresses may use sprinklers on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. No watering at all is permitted on Monday. The mayor also noted that Allendale had once again received outside money for borough maintenance: $150,000 from the New Jersey Department of Transportation for road resurfacing and $12,000 from the Clean Communities fund. “We got more money,” Barra said. “We don’t stop. We just keep going.” The state DOT money will be used to resurface West Allendale Avenue, Ivers Road, Central Avenue, and Erie Avenue. Allendale Borough Engineer John Yakimik noted that this money represents the second time that some of these roads will be resurfaced with DOT funds. Restoration of Allendale’s arterial roads had been a major priority of Barra’s administration. J. KOSTER Borough dumps two COAH zones, amends third