BY STEVE KELMAN
CORRESPONDENT
CRESSKILL, N.J.—Borough officials announced last week that the first meeting for the borough’s 125th anniversary—or quasquicentennial—will be held at the borough hall on Wednesday, Dec. 19 after the regularly scheduled mayor and council meeting.
Mayor Ben Romeo is encouraging all boards and committees within the borough to participate in what is expected to be a number of events that will happen next year. These could include a town picnic, parade, fireworks, concerts, and a time capsule. Romeo said organizations being contacted and expected to participate in the planning for the celebration include the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, the American Legion and school groups.
“I am also encouraging citizens to come out to this meeting [on Dec. 19] and participate,” he said.
Borough officials said that they expect the kickoff date to be May 11, 2019, the exact anniversary of the date the borough was incorporated in 1894.
Before incorporating, Cresskill had been part of a larger territory called Palisades Township. That all changed in 1894, when a piece of legislation called the Township School Act was passed. To equalize education opportunities, it consolidated individual community school districts into larger township districts. As a side effect, the consolidated township district took on the debts of the smaller districts now under its purview. Being saddled with debts from neighboring communities wasn’t something taxpayers were prepared to accept.
The new law had a loophole: A community could shed responsibility for the regional school debt, as well as gain more local control, if it broke away to form an independent municipality. As a result, small communities scrambled to incorporate as municipalities. Cresskill was one of 27 municipalities in Bergen County to incorporate that year in a phenomenon widely known as “boroughitis.”
—Kristin Beuscher contributed to this article