BY JOHN SNYDER
OF PASCACK PRESS
EMERSON, N.J.—Department heads presented their capital requests for the new budget in six-minute appeals Feb. 19, reinstating an approach to finance that new Mayor Danielle DiPaola said she was pleased to see the council embrace.
She also warned that it is “inevitable” that municipal taxes will rise, though she said the finance committee will work to keep the pending bond ordinance to a minimum.
Capital requests included a hooklift truck and sidewalk repair funds for the Department of Public Works; a replacement pumper truck and packs for a growing Volunteer Fire Department; replacement breath test and fingerprint machines, a pole-mounted security camera, and a new interceptor for the Police Department; and either an audio upgrade or full audio-video system at Borough Hall, at the recommendation of the borough clerk.
Councilman Chris Knoller, head of the Finance Committee, predicted “a tough budget year… We’re not going to discuss any numbers but we’re working very hard to make it palatable and
reasonable.”
He said he was looking to introduce the ordinance March 19.
Here are highlights from the capital request session:
Pumper truck feeling the grind
Volunteer Fire Chief Tom Carlos said he’s been working on a five-year plan and would like to stick with it. He warned that the pumper truck, a 1998 model, needs at least $30,000 in repairs and is two years shy of retirement.
He said he has two estimates on a replacement, both at approximately $630,000, and that the lead time to get a unit is two years.
He said prices recently climbed $30,000 “due to tariffs the president is putting in.”
“If it was a ladder or a rescue truck I would say we could hold off, but it is a pumper,” he said.
He also requested almost $230,000 to replace all the packs for all the trucks, as these will expire within the next two years.
He said approximately $10,000 was needed for gear to outfit seven new members added since the previous budget talks.
“In 2022 I’d think about replacing some of our gear. Maybe put some money aside in the budget. You never know, we might get new members and be right back here asking for the same thing again,” he said.
Councilman Jim Bayley, liaison to the Fire Department, was first to commend Carlos on the new officers, who bring the department’s active roster to 47 members.
“This is a tremendous increase, attributable to you. Congratulations on getting seven new members out to the Fire Department. That’s big,” Bayley said.
New interceptor, breath test unit, and a camera on a pole
Police Chief Michael Mazzeo said the department is being forced to retire its breath test and fingerprint machines, as current models will no longer be updated or maintained.
He said he had money available to meet part of this need.
He said the department’s 1993 Suburban keeps breaking down, another vehicle is in rough shape, and would like to have new Toughbooks—mobile computers for rugged use—in the fleet.
Mazzeo referred to a brochure for Suffern-based Total Recall Corp.’s CrimeEye-RD-2 rapid deployment portable video surveillance system, a streaming camera that mounts to a pole and can provide evidence of car burglaries and the like, he said.
He explained the unit could be moved anywhere video surveillance is needed, and said he spoke with his counterpart in the Borough of North Arlington, who added two of the $15,000 units to his inventory and recommends it.
Though it’s not entirely a capital request, Mazzeo also made a pitch for money toward law enforcement accreditation through The Rodgers Group, which says it reduces agencies’ exposure to liability, cuts operating costs, and inculcates a culture of professionalism.
“I believe we’re going to have problems, we’re going to have a lot of code problems. I would love to become accredited,” Mazzeo said.
He alluded to deficiencies at the police station’s site in Borough Hall, which a consultant said last year was “practically functionally obsolete.”
Hooklift truck and sidewalk funds
• Perry Solimando, superintendent of the Department of Public Works, requested a Ford F550 Super Duty hooklift truck and $30,000 for sidewalk safety repairs. He said that amount would cover “anything the town shade trees damage, and we’ll split that up with emergency building repairs.”
He said last year he spent $15,000 to keep Borough Hall’s boilers working.
Later in the meeting, the council agreed to start resurrecting the Shade Tree Commission, which disbanded five years ago, warning of a list of trees that were then appearing to pose a danger.
Live from Emerson!
Borough Clerk Jane Dietsche put in a plug for upgrading the council chambers’ sound system, which she’s been noticing is producing interference and static.
She said upgrading the audio alone would cost $6,192; adding a single camera brings the cost to $9,702.
DiPaola has been leading the charge on the council for delivering public proceedings via streaming. Right now, some meetings are audio recorded and made available on the borough website.
Read all about it
Camille Valentino, head of the Library Board of Trustees, made no new capital requests but took advantage of the opportunity to thank the borough leadership and residents for their continuing support of the library.
It’s all about transparency
According to DiPaola, who won election Nov. 6, 2018 in part on the strength of her promise to run a more transparent government, in recent years the borough administrator, sometimes with the CFO, met with the chiefs outside of council meetings then reported to the council.
“I thought it was important for the full council to hear from the department heads what the need is, see them ask for it, and hear from them what the urgency is in getting some of these capital items,” she told Pascack Press Feb. 20.
Last May, when she was a councilmember, she noted that “Emerson has been a financially stable town for a long time and this year is no different. Moving forward, however, I’d like to see a control on legal fees and the use of surplus.”
She called for “thinking outside of the box to increase revenue and not always to look to the easy fix of development, which if it keeps increasing may leave the borough in big trouble in years to come as there will be no more land to develop.”
