July 16, 2014 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 3 Franklin Lakes YMCA preparing plans for expanded community center by Frank J. McMahon The Wyckoff Family YMCA is proceeding to prepare plans for the expansion of the Franklin Lakes Community Center at the Pulis Avenue Recreation Field at the end of Vichiconti Way. According to Joy Vottero, executive director of the Wyckoff Family YMCA, the construction of a storage building, referred to as the “annex,” will be located next to the community center, and construction is expected to begin on or about Sept. 1. When that building is complete, Vottero said the equipment and supplies currently stored on the building’s second level will be transferred to the annex so the interior renovation of the recreation building can begin. Vottero advised the borough that the internal renova- tions of the recreation building are expected to commence after the football season in late November, and that will include the renovation of the core of the building to create functional and attractive program spaces. In June, the Franklin Lakes Borough Council unani- mously approved the ordinance, which authorized the 10- year lease of a portion of the Franklin Lakes Community Center to the Wyckoff Family YMCA. Under that lease, the YMCA agreed to spend just under a million dollars to construct a storage building next to the recreation center and to renovate the second floor of the existing recreation building, which is currently used for storage, into three physical fitness studios and a bathroom. The terms of the lease call for the YMCA to be solely responsible for all utility, insurance, and operational costs and expenses of the recreation building and all improve- ments and upgrades of the recreation building will be the property of the borough and will be surrendered at the ter- mination of the lease. According to the lease, the YMCA will upgrade and improve the present community center, including a refur- bishing of the structure and the installation of all new equipment at no cost to the borough. Those improvements and benefits will be available for the enjoyment and use of the residents of Franklin Lakes and surrounding com- munities. The ordinance adopted by the borough council pointed out that the Franklin Lakes Community Center has been (continued on page 17) NBCUA completes service extension into business district The Franklin Lakes Business District Sanitary Sewer Project, launched by the Northwest Bergen County Utilities Authority, is complete and fully operational, the authority announced last week. The project, designed to serve commercial and resi- dential properties within the business district of Franklin Lakes and the surrounding area, was the result of discus- sions between the authority and the borough, dating back to 2005. The sanitary sewer system installed by the authority consists of two gravity collection systems servicing Frank- lin and Pulis avenues, a pumping station located at the Franklin Crossing Shopping Center, and a force main that conveys the collected waste to the authority’s interceptor in Mahwah and then to the wastewater treatment plant in Waldwick. NBCUA Chairman Brian Chewcaskie called the improvement “a big victory for the environment by replac- ing six outdated, privately-operated treatment plants and a host of individual aging septic systems.” The system was designed to serve the businesses and residents along Franklin Avenue and was installed by the authority at no cost to the taxpayers of Franklin Lakes. Although properties along the route are not required to con- nect to the system, several property owners have already connected and NBCUA is presently processing several additional applications, according to the authority. The sewer line is designed as a trunk line, with the capacity to accept sewage flow from much of the area adja- cent to Franklin, Susquehanna, and Pulis avenues, begin- ning at a time when the borough installs the necessary local sewer connection piping. Specific streets identified during (continued on page 19)