Adventures At A Township Committee Meeting

Well now, once again, I attended the Wyckoff Township Committee meeting of 7 AUGUST 2012.

Allow me to state that this one was different. We all heard from the Coast Guard Auxillary on their request to be relieved of a $ 25.00 fee to use the Larkin House for meetings. Now I am positve that the Auxillary does wonderful work. I am sure they are dedicated people. They provide a valuable service. That said I have to wonder why they made this request.

Ok the arugment for, as I have been best able to deduce was that they 1 - Have a membership of 60, dues paying people, 2 - they were founded in 1939, 3 - This particular group was started in Wyckoff, by Wyckoff Volunteers ( and now they have all of TWO members from Wyckoff ), 4 - They patrol Greenwood Lake.

Now I am going to plead that the "use fee" NOT be changed for this organization. IF there was some benefit to Wyckoff I MIGHT think about it. However; just because you were started in Wyckoff does not mean Wyckoff residents should psy for you.

The Larkin House fee was established in an attempt to do some offset of the costs of operation from the RESIDENTS of Wyckoff. Right now, we residents pay 99 percent of the bills for the Larkin House. We pay for the electric power, the lighting, the heat, the air conidtioning, the TOILET PAPER, grounds maintenance, snow removal, cleaning. The Township has to open the place and close it up. Our DPW Manager cleans it up, straightens it up and does the best he can. I don't think it was in his job description however.

The fee, small as it is, cannot hope to cover all the costs. The Larkin House, is just that. A house; that requires a LOT of work. If you have been there it needs paint, it has some outside areas that require repairs, it needs new carpeting, and it needs a lot of general repairs. Right now, those things are not budgeted. In any municipal budget some things just cannot be done. And this is just one example.

SO, in order to attempt to make something up to operate this place Mr. Rooney introduced the ordinance to help cover the costs. A very wise idea and thoughtful in just how can we reduce all the costs that Wyckoff has. I must applaud Mr. Rooney and the Committee for doing this.

$ 25.00 per meeting. Hmmmm, here we are; we have people who owns boats and air planes, can leave work to patrol a lake an hour away from Wyckoff. And yet they cannot find one person who can pay the $ 25.00 fee out of 60 members ?

I know I would LOVE to have a boat. But the costs are huge for the returns. Frankly, if you can own a boat, you can find the $ 25.00. If the Auxillary were patrolling Zabriskie Pond MAYBE I would be in favor of not having them pay. Short of that, I urge the Committee to NOT relieve them of this small fee.

Next up we had another episode of the Mr. Goetting show. Since I am using my First Admendment rights here - Mr. Goetting really needs a hobby.

What was distressing with his usual littany of complaints, some of the answers he was seeking, he would have known had he attended the Committe meetings where they were addressed. I cite his current demands for the Library audit. Had he been at the last meeting he would have known that the audit had a problem, needed to be reformatted and that the audit would be available at the next Library meeting on 20 AUGUST 2012.

But the catterwalling that really got to me was his loud complaints about the costs of replacing a ramp to meet ADA requirements. Anyone who knows anything about the ADA knows that the rules are ever changing. One step further there really are lawyers out there who make their living running complaints and law suits just on ADA "violations". BUT in THIS CASE the old ramp was falling apart and that failing ramp was verified as "bad" by our own Township engineer and our own DPW Manager. But on he went about the expense.

The expense has been paid for by a grant for $ 120,000.00. ( Mr. Goetting used a figure of $ 150,000.00, can I have the difference please ? ) If your going to complain, rant, and rave at least have your facts correct. At least find out what the underlying reasons were, and by gosh, do not go attacking the Committee and by extension Mr. Shannon for "over spending".

Frankly it seemed more of an insult to Mr. Shannon and the Committee. These men work VERY hard to keep the costs of operating this Township as low as possible. I have found Mr. Shannon to be one of the finest men I now know. He is dedicated to operating Wyckoff in a responsible and ethical manner. These comments, made tonight, were an insult to Mr. Shannon, not to be tossed off as a joke, be should be addressed with an apology.

It was a HUGE insult to The Mayor and the Committe also. There is a finanance committee that looks carefully at each and every cost. They do a great job and a thoughtful job. These men do not spend the people's money with abandon ( unlike the Federal Government ). We have a 1 percent tax increase because of a storm, NOT because of reckless spending.

Did the Committe file and receive a grant from the County for this porject. YUP they sure did. Did that money come from us, sure did AND residents of Teaneck, residents of Alpine and so on. Just as we pay for grants in other towns, so do those residents pay for grants in Wyckoff.

I am positive that the Township did not wake up, one morning, as say to itself, "Gee; I have nothing better to do today, so let's replace a ramp at Town Hall and put in a new doorway so we are in compliance with the ADA". AH, yes, please to remember it would cost a LOT more to defend the Township against the suits and penalties for NOT being in compliance.

Thus I suggest that some need to grow up and do our research BEFORE we pull the trigger of loud complaint, when there is no reason to. AND in the process just downright insult the men who have dedicated so much to "do the right thing".

I further suggest stamp collecting. MUCH less stressful.

So it was a very interesting meeting. And now I am in my home office wondering just how this Committee and Township Administrator can take this without wanting to just wring some necks. I know I could not. Then again I am not one for all the things these men have to do. I would last one meeting before I had alienated everyone. Thus I must put my full support behind the men who want to do these jobs. Constant complaint and very few "well dones".

For me it is a true well done for Mr. Shannon, the Mayor and the entire Committee. They are all much better people than I can ever be.

I also suggest, as always, for everyone to attend our Wyckoff Township Committe meetings. They are in no way boring, they can be quite good, and a person can learn a lot. You can speak your mind when appropiate and you will be received with an openness not shown by many towns I have seen. Ah and who knows you might just have another episode of what seems to be a never ending show.

To close, tonight, my THANKS to Mr. Shannon for all his hard and diligent work to keep Wyckoff a safe, secure, and an honest Town to live in.

John A. Unglert