HILLSDALE—The Temporary Steering Advisory Committee for a Community Center and Turf Field told the Borough Council on Jan. 11 that it hopes to present options to the public for its review and feedback at the council meeting of Tuesday, Feb. 1 or 8.
Councilmember Anthony DeRosa made the announcement. Member Abby Lundy concurred, telling Pascack Press on Jan. 12, “The mayor [John Ruocco] has urged us to think outside the box and that is what we will do at the next meeting with DMR [Architects].”
She said, “We will discuss utilizing current assets and the feasibility of looking at this capital project in phases and three components, those phases being a turf field, a space for seniors, and a recreational community space.”
She added, “We will seek to gather DMR’s opinions and then query the Citizens Advisory Committee to best understand their collective wants and needs and how we can propose working them into a cohesive plan within our budget.”
Lundy said, “I anticipate being able to bring a report on these meetings to the rest of the governing body and the public no later than the second meeting in February, although we will make every effort to do so by the Feb. 1 meeting.”
DMR Architects had estimated the amenities at $16 million, leading to council reconsideration of what started out a $10 million proposal.
Most council members are rethinking how to achieve a community center concept without an actual building — or with a smaller building — as a first step to reduce costs.
Less than a week after the council majority said they would involve the Citizens Advisory Committee, councilman Zoltán Horváth wrote Pascack Press, Jan. 17 (see Letters), calling the Steering Committee out and advocating for a referendum vote on any future community center and turf field.
Horváth says in part, “This proposed community center project started out modestly in 2019, and then morphed into an avalanche of add-ons. What was first achievable for $2.5 million has now become a $11.5 million boondoggle, not including another $4.5 million for the field.”
He says, “They are now in damage control, scrambling to reformulate their ‘dreams,’ with no mention of input from the mayor’s Citizens Advisory Committee.”
Horváth, a reliable ally of Ruocco’s, said he and the mayor “believe a town-wide referendum is a wise idea given the dollars involved, along with the secretive manner and unprofessionalism displayed by council members to date.”
Ever since Ruocco divulged the $16 million estimate that DMR Architects presented at an early December Steering Committee meeting — which Ruocco attended as an ex-officio member in place of Horváth — he and a council majority have sparred over whether he should have revealed the estimate.
Accentuating a grievance Ruocco has had with the majority, they’ve disagreed over whether the Steering Committee has been transparent.
Ruocco has repeatedly criticized council members since early 2021 when the majority included $500,000 in the municipal budget as a down payment for a $10 million bond issue to pay for a new center and turf field.
He charged then that the council was putting aside taxpayer funds for a project that was at best ill-defined and not publicly discussed.
A majority of members disputed this view. All members of the governing body are Republicans.
This year, the 5-1 council majority revised council bylaws to oust Ruocco as an ex-officio member of standing committees, limit his ability to sit on advisory committees, and even change the order in which he speaks in closing out council meetings.
He now must speak first. He had apparently much preferred to get the last word.
At the Jan. 11 council meeting, Ruocco and the 5-1 council majority again clashed over what the Temporary Steering Committee on a Community Center and Turf Field was doing and why the mayor-appointed Citizens Advisory Committee — and residents — had not yet been informed or involved in what’s being discussed for a community center and turf field.
New Council President Janetta Trochimiuk said the council only originally planned to spend $10 million on a community center and turf field, and noted the $16 million estimate was “way higher than we had ever anticipated it to be.”
She said the Steering Committee would now consider “other possibilities here in town” such as the public library, parks, Stonybrook Swim Club, and other local indoor or outdoor assets that might allow the town to offer summer camp activities, basketball, and recreational opportunities.
“These thoughts are going back to DMR in response to the $16 million,” Trochimiuk said.
She said based on the $10 million budget, “[we] just have to sort of rethink how we’re going to do this. Nothing’s been presented because there isn’t anything to present.”
She said plans were “going back to the drawing board. We’re kind of in the beginning of how we’re going to move this forward.”
Horváth questioned the council’s pushback when he called for a meeting with the Citizens Advisory Committee to seek their input: “How can you give the citizens something that they don’t want? I think it’s foolish to do it that way.”