Upcoming Projects Detailed at Verona Council Meeting

It appears to be the time of the year when attendance at the Verona Council meetings dwindles, as holiday activities seem to take priority. This contradicts with activity for the Township’s governing body as preparations begin for the new year.

During the Manager’s report, Joseph Martin invited Township Engineer, Jim Helb to provide an update on projects currently taking place. The Centennial Field access road has been completed with landscaping to take place this week. Also, beginning this week, work has started on the reconstruction of Church Street with completion scheduled for the end of December. With Church Street being the location of the Verona Rescue Squad, plans were made to relocate the emergency service vehicles to locations on both sides of the Township and the Peckman River to enable quick response.

Funding for the Centennial Field Drive will come from the New Jersey Green Acres Program while costs for the Church Street project have been submitted for reimbursement from Community Development Block Grants.

Jeff Hayes, Director, Administration & Technology and Library Director, Jim Thomas, provided the next update regarding the upgrade of VTV, the Verona Public Access Cable Channel. No longer analog, the television equipment is now all digital thanks to new electronic components in place, purchased through a grant from Comcast. Thomas, who oversees the channel, is now trained in the operation of the components. Additional personnel will be trained in the operation so updates can be made to information and programming on a timely basis. The picture will be improved as well as the ability to feature messaging in two different screen zones in addition to the primary content picture. According to Thomas, “This will allow for a message ‘crawl’ at the bottom of the screen, a program guide and primary content to be viewed all at the same time. You will no longer need to go through all the slides to get to the program guide.” Thomas also added that athletic games and school productions will now be able to be broadcasted depending on the abilities to film and produce a program in the future.

Returning to the Township Manager’s report, Joseph Martin announced, “We have now crossed the $600,000 threshold for the costs related to the October snowstorm clean-up. This does not include the costs related to future tree replacement…but it clearly is the most expensive storm event in our municipal history. We are fortunate that the state has convinced Federal Emergency Management Agency to declare Essex County a disaster area. So we will receive reimbursement for a substantial part of the eligible costs…my hunch is at least 400 [thousand dollars] of the 600 [thousand dollars] will be eligible."

Throughout the meeting, all members of the governing body took their turn paying special tribute to Jean McEnroe, Verona’s Township Clerk, who died on November 25^th at the age of 59. McEnroe, who moved to Verona in 1955, worked for the Township for 19 years. Praises included comments on her wonderful work ethic, warmth and friendly smile as she greeted the people who came to her office on the first floor of Town Hall. Jean McEnroe worked for the Township, through her illness, right up until four weeks before her passing. It was unanimous that she will be greatly missed.

In addition to the five “housekeeping” resolutions voted on, Resolution #126 concerns authorizing the Township Engineer to submit an application for 2012 Community Development Block Grants listing three target projects. These include street improvements to Personette Avenue and Depot Street; purchasing a backup generator for the Linn Drive well; and construction of handicap accessible improvements to the Verona Public Library.

Resolution #127 regards authorizing the Planning Board to investigate the former Bahr Lumber property on Durrell Street, to determine its redevelopment direction.

All seven resolutions were approved and adopted.

Residents are to take note that the Council meeting scheduled for January 2^nd is now rescheduled to Tuesday, January 3^rd, because January 2^nd is a holiday. The next Council meeting will be held on December 19th.