Verona Council Gets Back to Business

After a once-a-month summer meeting schedule for July and August, the Verona Township Council met this week to get back to business for the fall.

Before the meeting began, a special action was taken to acknowledge the Verona winners of the . The Mayor and Township Council were pleased to present a trophy to the first place, male, Verona winner, Nick Lukas, who came in at 17 minutes, 44 seconds.  The first place, Verona, female winner, was Anne Stusnick, who completed the route in 22 minutes, 31 seconds. Stusnick was not able to attend to receive her trophy. This year there were 750 runners participating in the race. Five kilometers converts to approximately 3.1 miles. According to UNICO President, Linda Gayle Alati, “We must thank all of our supporters, sponsors and township services for their efforts to make this another success. It’s a small town like Verona that gives us the opportunity to join all the different organizations and support one another.”

During the Manager’s report, Joseph Martin, Township Manager began with a recap of the Township’s successful actions to weather Hurricane Irene. “Verona was very fortunate compared to nearby towns and part of that was a function of prior planning. Thanks to our DPW, police, fire, rescue squad, county services and PSE&G for their quick responses.”

Martin cited examples of the strain put on the waste-water management facilities, “On a normal day, three million gallons of water are pumped through out treatment plant. We pumped over 20 million gallons through there on the Sunday of the hurricane.” The manager did mention that there was minor flooding but the consequences were minimal.

All of the Council Members voiced their gratitude to the Township’s services, especially for the quick clean-up afterwards. Councilman Kevin Ryan reminded everyone that Essex County was declared a disaster area and there was FEMA money available for those homeowners affected by storm damage. In addition to filing claims online at www.disasterassistance.gov, additional instructions were forthcoming from FEMA and will be posted on the Township’s website, veronanj.org.

Before moving on to ordinances and resolutions, Mayor Frank Sapienza made an announcement regarding schools’ opening this week. “Please use caution when riding around town because there will be more kids present and crossing the roads.”

An ordinance was introduced to amend the Vehicles and Traffic code in Verona. The most notable change will be to the three-way intersection of Sunset Ave. and Park Ave., near Verona Park. It is scheduled to become a three-way stop sign intersection to avoid the near, and not-so-near-misses that frequently occur at that location. A second reading, public hearing and adoption vote for the ordinance is scheduled for Sept. 19.

Of the resolutions, an authorization was made for the Township Engineer to submit an application for a Community Development Block Grant for street improvements to Church St. and Park Place. According to Joseph Martin, “Monies became available because grants are not used in a timely fashion by other municipalities. Township Engineer, Jim Helb, noticed a not-so-prominent notice of the grant availabilities and we will apply.”

The meeting was adjourned as remnants of Tropical Storm Lee continued to pelt the Township’s already-saturated grounds.