Special Meeting Summary: Emergency Services Building, August 13th, 2025

On August 13th, the Verona Town Council had a special meeting to review, in great detail, aspects of the proposed Emergency Services building. This special meeting lasted over four hours, and can be viewed here.

Let me start off by saying that everyone on the Township Council understands the importance of building a new police and fire station. From previous meetings and public presentations, the Administration has successfully demonstrated that a new structure is needed. In addition, it was determined that we needed to move both the police station and fire house #2, as both building sites are just too small to accommodate the specifications required by both departments.

The Council purchased property on Pompton Avenue to build a new facility. In June of last year (2024), there was a very big public presentation on the Emergency Services Complex, which at the time included the Rescue Squad. For a year, the Council and the public essentially received very few updates on the project. In the meantime, the Verona Rescue Squad pulled out of the project.

We got our first significant update of the year at our June 23rd meeting, where we saw new plans for the building and a revised cost estimate. The building cost is estimated at nearly $40 million dollars and will result in a tax increase of $350 per average assessed property.

The Mayor requested that we have a special meeting with the architect and building committee so that members of the Council and public could ask all of our questions in public at one sitting.

That special meeting happened on Wednesday, August 13th on Zoom. Councilwoman Holland objected to the meeting's timing, since a lot of residents are on vacation in mid-August. I had asked the Administration for a robust communication plan to ensure the public knew about this meeting, but I found that the promotion of this meeting was limited. In addition, despite asking for certain materials as part of the discussion of the building on June 23rd, the Council did not get the presentation for this meeting until just a few hours before the start.

The meeting was very lengthy, and covered a lot of great detail. Here are some highlights if you are advancing through the replay.

• We went through a detailed run-through of the costs for construction, site work, and to furnish the building

• The specifics of the site, including the parking, slope, and wetlands, were then discussed

• We covered the the previous projects our architect has designed that were similar to this project

• We went through a benchmarking analysis of this building vs other sites

• Police Chief Kiernan and his team then went through aspects of the building (1 hr into meeting). This included the inclusion of a OEM/large conference room, a virtual training room, a conference training classroom, fitness center, a hand to hand combat training room, and resiliency space.

• Fire Chief Nicholas Poliseno then went through the aspects of the building for the fire department (2 hr 50 min into the meeting). He covered the inclusion of a ready room/multipurpose room, officers' meeting space, and locker rooms.

Public comment then started 3 hrs and 45 minutes into the meeting. There were some very knowledgeable residents who asked some great questions.

One question that keeps coming up is why not build the police station on the Lakeside lot that we purchased. Early in the process we eliminated that site as not being big enough for the police station, and then we received a $1 million dollar grant from the NJ Economic Development Authority to purchase that lot for parking for our downtown and transit. We cannot modify our plans for that site.

So after 4+ hours, where does this leave us? Well, Councilwoman Holland and I asked a lot of questions during the meeting, some of which were our own and some were from the numerous questions raised by residents to the Council. We are waiting for follow up materials from the Administration on the issues we raised. In addition, after the meeting, I realized we didn't discuss the building's placement at all (i.e. setbacks), so I requested that we cover that topic at our meeting on Monday September 8th. I want to ensure that the residents that live nearest to the site have a chance to understand where this building sits.

Alex Roman recused himself from the discussion and subsequent vote on this project, as he lives adjacent to the site. That means that the remaining Council members all need to agree to move this project forward. Toward the very end of the meeting, I raised concerns that the Mayor may have potential conflicts with his consulting business and OEM role, and how that might impact the votes on this project. You can watch his response to the concerns that I raised at the end of recording of the meeting.

The Administration wants us to vote on moving forward this fall. That means the time is now for residents to ask questions about this new facility and provide comments on the meeting in August and the proposed design. I hope you watch the meeting and join us on Monday, September 8th. In addition, you can review the posted materials here: https://www.veronanj.org/EmergencyServicesBuilding.

If you are sending written feedback, we ask that you send it to all four members of the Council here: https://www.veronanj.org/councilcontactform.