Last Monday the Verona Town Council had a meeting. Here are the highlights of what we discussed.
We had a robust discussion on a new policy on attendance for our volunteers of our boards in commissions. It turns out almost every member of the Council had concerns with how this proposed ordinance was drafted, so it was not introduced. I advocated for a process where we give a warning to volunteers whose attendance falls below 70% of meetings attended in any given year, and then start a removal process when attendance falls below 50%. I appreciate our volunteers so much, and they are all juggling a lot of very important things - childcare, demanding jobs, taking care of a relative, and their own health. Despite best intentions, some of our best volunteers at times miss a few meetings here and there, but may be actively participating in sub committee work behind the scenes. We don't want to create a policy that punishes them. We agreed as a Council to keep working on this and we will get back to it at a later date.
We introduced an ordinance of $150K to bond for the preliminary planning expenses for the improvement of Everett Field. Next meeting is the big vote to move this forward, which will be another milestone in the development of the project.
We passed a lot of resolutions. The one we discussed most was requesting the Township of West Orange Planning Board to deny the application of the West Essex Highlands LLC unless the application is revised and up to date on stormwater management rules. Residents have been advocating for Verona to protect our interests on this proposed development that will be on the border of West Orange, Verona, and Essex Fells. Our Administration asked our Township Engineer to review the plans, and they did have concerns with the stormwater management plan. If stormwater on the site is not adequately delt with, it could run off into the Peckman and then exacerbate issues that our residents face on Derwent, East Reid, and other streets that border the Peckman. We passed the resolution unanimously and it will be presented to the West Orange Planning Board.
With almost no discussion or public comment, we passed a resolution designating 320 Bloomfield Avenue and 11 Church Street as an area in need of redevelopment. This is an odd L shaped property that was formerly the site of Verona Aluminum. The next step for the Council would be to craft a redevelopment plan for the site. Residents that live in the area should be prepared to actively comment on any proposed plans that are presented to the Council and Planning Board.
Other resolutions of interest. We passed a change order that increased the contract for the reconstruction of Douglas Place, not because the project went over budget but because we added additional work to the project to fully use all of the grant dollars we received. We passed a small change order to the PFAS remediation project for Linn Drive. We appointed contractors to do very important work on long standing and critical projects at the wastewater treatment plant.
We agreed to go into a memorandum of understanding with Essex County on our use of their traffic signal poles to attach automatic license plate readers. As a reminder, Congresswoman Sherrill helped to secure funding of automatic license plate readers for many West Essex towns to combat auto thefts.
A new Qualified Purchasing Agent was appointed, which is a required position. We appointed a contractor to plant trees on Balston, Whitney, and Windemere. We also accepted a grant for $10K from the New Jersey Division of Highway & Traffic Safety Grant Program.
Finally, we appointed three new members of the Recreation Committee.
If anyone has any comments or questions on any matter discussed, please don't hesitate to send an email to the entire Council here: https://www.veronanj.org/councilmeetings.
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