Thank you, New Milford.

Thirty-seven years ago this September, my husband and I bought what was supposed to be our starter home and moved to New Milford  from Passaic. We  had two little girls, Elizabeth - 4 and Marissa - 2. At the time we owned a small camera store on Main Street, M&M Camera, and were very excited that we were going to live in the community where we had our business. Our new home was quirky and far from perfect, but for our young family it was the right fit. 

The first thing we did was get our name on the long waiting list to join the New Milford Swim Club. We joined the Couples Club sponsored by the New Milford Jewish Center and met other young couples with similar family situations. We quickly entered the social and community life of New Milford. We joined with the community to protest the closing of Washington School, which was supposed to be our neighborhood school. It was closed despite the outcry from the families whose children attended Washington School and from families likes ours, whose children would be starting at that school. I was very impressed by the passion I saw at the meetings I attended and felt at home amongst the people I met who were fighting to keep New Milford from losing one of its great resources, a neighborhood school. We didn’t win that fight, but at least we tried to keep that school as part of the buildings component of New Milford’s educational assets.

Instead, of going to Washington School, first Elizabeth and then Marissa attended Gibbs School. It was a lovely school. We felt confident that our children would be learning in a serene environment designed to allow children to float to where they belonged. We finally made it into the Swim Club, where our oldest daughter competed on both the Swim Team and Diving Team. Meanwhile, I joined the PTO, became active in B’nai B’rith Women, joined a bowling league and made friendships that have lasted all the years I’ve lived in town. I attended Board of Education meetings and even ran for a seat on the Board. I lost by a handful of votes and never tried again, but it was worth doing and I have no regrets. Can’t leave out the Princess League. I never missed a game. It was one of the great pleasures in my life to watch my girls participate with their peers and learn about life by playing on a team.

My children got older and moved to the Middle School and then the High School.  And then, one day as I drove past the High School on my way to work, I realized that for the first time in about 15 years I had no children in the New Milford School system. That was a revelation and a sure indication of time passing. So much of our lives revolve around our children. 

In the late 1980s New Milford was at a crossroads. Williams School, underutilized and unloved, was going to be sold. With Lauren Mahrlein leading the fight, we organized and convinced the Board of Education that New Milford was in desperate need of a new library and couldn’t afford to lose one more patch of open space. What a thrill when the new library opened in what had been Williams School. Once again I saw first hand how organizing for a cause that will benefit your community can be rewarding and successful. Because of our efforts, New Milford has a library it can be proud of and a sports field that is used by young New Milford athletes.

After nearly thirty-seven years, we are getting ready to leave New Milford.  Our starter home became our happy ever after home. However, it’s become apparent over the past few years that it was time to start thinking about retirement and whether staying in our home was the right to thing to do. While we were trying to come to a decision, we read to our horror, that the United Water property was going to be sold to a development company and that the Shop Rite was going to be its main tenant once the deal went through. Never one to let decisions I disagreed with become a reality without a fight, I began attending Board of Adjustment meetings to see exactly what was happening and to connect with other residents who were as upset as I was  about the proposed development.  We joined together and SOD was born. New Milford has never seen anything like it. What was once a done deal is now a maybe not. What was a community never known for grassroots organizing now has residents from other communities asking for SOD’s help in setting up similar groups to fight the voracious developers who are eating up Bergen County. And while all this was going on, my husband and I continued to discuss our options. When we located a 55 and over community not far from our older daughter in New York State, we knew that the time was right to make our move.

It is bittersweet to be leaving New Milford before the fight over the United Water property is resolved. But I know that members of SOD and those residents who oppose this development will continue working together to stop this development from going forward. As for leaving New Milford after all these years, well that’s an entirely different story. While I know this is the right decision for us, an underlying sadness keeps pushing its way into my thoughts. I leave the rock garden that fills me with pleasure everytime I gaze out of my kitchen window and see the plants and flowers I painstakingly nurtured. The memories of my beloved pets who shared my home during the years we lived here are never far from the surface. The memories of my tiny little girls playing in the leaves in the backyard make me smile. I leave the familiar faces I see as I do my errands in town or spend a summer afternoon at the Swim Club, or peruse books at the Library.  Parties, graduations, and, yes, funerals, flood my memory banks as I am packing up to go.

Thank you New Milford. Thank you for being a place of warmth and community.  Thank you for welcoming a young family and nurturing its component parts to maturity. Thank you New Milford for being a safe haven. Thank you for helping me raise two beautiful, independent and thoughful daughters.Thank you for everything.