HILLSDALE—Mayor John Ruocco told the borough council on Feb. 8 that developing a plan to move the public works facility from its flood-prone location should be a higher priority than siting a new community center or an artificial turf field.
He said he did not know why DMR Architects had not yet prepared a feasibility study on moving the DPW, noting that it was tasked with that assignment as part of its larger study on possible sites for a new community center and artificial turf field.
Member Abby Lundy has said plans for a center and new turf field would be disclosed in early February.
She and Council President Janetta Trochimiuk, chair of the public works committee, said they would look at putting funding for a DPW facility move into the 2022-2023 budget.
The DPW facility, at 371 Washington Ave., off Broadway and behind Kings Food Markets, is subject to flooding from the Pascack Brook — and lost much of its road salt to severe flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Ida in early September. (See “Borough loses hundreds of tons of salt in Ida deluge,” Pascack Press, Oct. 15, 2021.)
Trochimiuk said moving the DPW had come up at meetings and that Ruocco’s comments on it were “not necessarily on target.” Where Ruocco says it was prior borough engineer Chris Statile who first suggested that the borough move the DPW complex to another location and began pursuing that idea with Suez last fall, Trochimiuk says that she was not aware of any possible watershed property offered by Suez Water as a possible site — and suggested she meet with Ruocco to discuss that further.
Also, she said she was not aware of any moves for a DPW shared service with another town, as councilman Frank Pizzella suggested. “There’s been no real conversations about it as far as I know.”
She said she only recently learned that the new borough engineer, Colliers Engineering & Design of Red Bank, had recommended moving the salt shed into the borough-owned West Lot.
Trochimiuk said she would look into options for the DPW facility, such as moving it, keeping it on-site with flood mitigation improvements, or investigate a shared service arrangement with another town’s DPW.
Tietjen, who is starting as business administrator in Wayne Township in Passaic County on Feb. 22, said two engineers told him recently that any improvements or flood-mitigation measures that might be taken at the current DPW facility would require “extensive permitting” from the state Department of Environmental Protection.
He said their “professional opinion” was that the DPW facility should be moved to another location.
Just recently, Ruocco announced the resignations of Tietjen and DPW Superintendent William “Billy” Haffler — who told Pascack Press in the aftermath that he felt he lacked borough support to properly maintain the DPW facility. Tietjen and Ruocco gave other views. (See “Borough admin, DPW chief resign, Pascack Press, Jan. 31, 2022.)
The borough held closed-session interviews for Tietjen’s replacement on Feb. 10.
Ruocco said that either DMR Architects or the business administrator needs to get a cost estimate for building a new facility as well as a firm location.
He said prior borough engineer Chris Statile had estimated a new salt shed at $120,000 and that it might be built on the borough-owned West Lot parking area downtown, or another suitable location.
Lundy said the Temporary Steering Committee on a Community Center and Turf Field will meet on Feb. 16 with members of the mayor-appointed Citizens Advisory Committee to get feedback on plans.
Both the steering committee and citizens committee were appointed by Ruocco.
Ruocco said the citizens committee was to be a “focus group,” providing input on steering committee ideas and plans.
Ruocco has chastised steering committee members Lundy and Anthony DeRosa for not consulting with the citizens committee, and has oft taken issue with the council majority.