March 6, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • Page 7 Mahwah Seniors balk at possible reduction in budget by Frank J. McMahon About 80 Mahwah senior citizens turned out at the last Mahwah Senior Advisory Board meeting to voice their objections to the council’s recent recommendation to reduce the senior activities center’s 2013 budget by $6,000. Many of the seniors had written letters to the council members and several spoke out against what they described as a budget cut and urged the council members to reinstate the $6,000. Attending the meeting were Mayor William Laforet and Councilmen John Spiech, John Roth, Harry Williams, and Steven Sbarra. Spiech voluntarily left the dais and did not participate in the meeting in order to avoid creating a quorum of the township council, which would require public notification of the meeting. The recommendation to reduce the senior center’s 2013 budget was made at the council’s Feb. 7 public meeting when several department budgets were reviewed as part of the council’s overall review of all department budgets. Four members of the council, Roth, Williams, Sbarra, and Roy Larson voted in favor of reducing the senior center’s budget while three, Spiech, Councilman Charles Jandris and Councilwoman Lisa DiGiulio voted against the budget reduction. A statement from Susan Small, the coordinator of the senior activities center, was read at the meeting. In that statement, Small pointed out that the center is very active and is the envy of Bergen County. She claimed the reduction would have “an enormous impact on the senior center” and would result in a reduction in the number of classes provided by at least three, representing a 27 percent reduction in functions at the center. Resident senior Dorothy Vanderbeek told the advisory board and the council members that the senior center is an asset to the town. She said she has always voted for the township’s school budgets because they are important and she said the senior center is also important to the town and it doesn’t cost the taxpayers a lot of money. Other speakers emphasized the value of the exercise classes for the health and happiness of the seniors who can’t afford the cost of joining a gym, and one speaker, Felicia Fox, said the senior center is why she moved to the township. Lou Rizzo, who said he has lived in Mahwah 50 years, urged the council members to listen to the pleas of the seniors and change their minds and to tell them at that meeting that they will not cut their budget. Williams responded that he has an open mind on the subject, but he wanted the seniors to hear the logic of why the recommendation to reduce the senior citizen budget was made and then work together to find a reasonable solution. (continued on page 10)