Exasperated Zoning Board Suspends Application to Next Meeting

Zoning board members were sure of one thing when they left Wednesday night's meeting at borough hall.

"Next meeting is going to be a very long meeting," Chairman Ken Trumpore said.

It's all because of Michael and Larysa Gruber's application to purchase land near their Oakdale Avenue home and use the garage on it. Resident Constance Kneule-Madden doesn't want the application to go through—or at least on the Grubers' current terms—and seems ready to fight it.

The meeting began with the Grubers' attorney, Douglas R. Henshaw, warning the board that discussion of their application could take all night.

And it almost did.

Henshaw came prepared with expert witnesses and a court reporter. Henshaw's first witness, land surveyor Gary Whorley, spoke for almost an hour before Trumpore suspended the application to next month's meeting.

Whorley was first interviewed by Henshaw, then cross-examined by Kneule-Madden's attorney, Robert J. Inglima Jr. Inglima's long, winding questioning sequence often irked the board and drew sighs from the impatient crowd.

Inglima even spent a few moments asking the board how much time he had to cross-examine Whorley.

"I'd like to know where we're going," Trumpore said to Inglima as he questioned Whorley. "This is a licensed surveyor. He is certified in his trade. I'm sure that he has done it correctly. And I don't know where you're going with your line of questioning.

"You're taking up a lot of time for no reason that I can see."

Editor's note: Click here for more coverage from Wednesday's zoning board meeting.