The idea that just because we spent it last year we should spend it next year is one whose time has passed. Nobody likes cutting services, but nobody likes paying taxes either. We all pay for Memorial Pool, then get charged to use it. Instead of waiting to run out of money, lets put up for auction a long term lease which could include Walsh Pool. This would reduce the borough´s costs, allow the pools to be upgraded and in the case of Walsh, actually used. They cant be moved, and the users will fund their cost. Let the private sector take the risk.

I have used our library, even donated a few books, but I never knew how expensive they are. I wonder how many people use it vs how many pay for it. We are worried about raising a small fraction of its budget in new taxes,when can save millions by regionalization or simply shutting it down and giving every resident a nook or kindle.

Bergen County has roughly 67 public libraries. How would you propose regionalizing the system? There already is a a cooperative in place that allows any card holder from any local public library to use any resources from a library in the coop. Are you talking about 2 or 3 larger facilities? How would you account for parking and traffic? It's nice to throw ideas out there, but maybe you could expand upon them?

Privatizing the pools would be a bad idea. No company would come in and run it for profit, because there isn't much of a profit to be made. Maybe if that company allowed people from all over to come, but then you'd be complaining about riff raff from other towns. And again, you have an issue with traffic and parking. And I would almost bet it would end up like the Old Mill pool on Paramus Road in the end.

Add some ideas on how to do it instead of these "cyber" driveby's with comments that have no substance.

facilities like the library and the senior center are seperates fair lawn from other towns and make it a great place to live. seniors from neighboring towns envy the programs our seniors are offered here and it would be a shame to use them.

heres an idea- skateboarding is by far one of the most popular sports among kids these days. unlike basketball and other sports it is very hard for kids to find a safe spot for them to enjoy thier hobby. so if we end up converting walsh pool into a skate park why not invite the kids from nieghboring towns to use it for a small fee. if we charge out of town kids $5-10 to use our park the town would make a lot of money.

This article needs to be corrected. This increase may bring us in line for the cost of service, but we pay much more than neighboring towns for our water.

I wish our Republican led council was as concerned about finances when they were hiring 2 lawyers that get paid much more than the previous two and deciding to pay the salaries of 2 managers instead of one. Seems they prefer to take care of their own instead of the people in Fair Lawn.

BellairBerdan: Are you kidding me???? Have you seen what they paid the previous lawyers because of bad management and decisions that benefited the lawyers? You really need to do some homework instead of spewing some nice talking points. And from what I am reading and hearing about the new manager he is already saving the taxpayers LOTS of $$$$ with wise decisions, not indecision.

The water hike is just another result of a bad council mixed with incompetent borough managers over the past few years. ...Chris....,you cant stop progress, the libraries are doomed to meet their demise. E books can be loaned , and you do not even have to prove residency. You can be from Fair Lawn or from Jupiter and no one would know. A small area is all you need for e book rentsla or loans, not a giant building. Usage will dictate the direction. ......Adolpho is my father, if a skateboard park would make tons of money, you would see plenty of them all around. If anything, the costs are astounding, insurance alone kills the idea. BellairBerdan, it doesnt matter which party is in charge, they are all the same.

Well, well, isn't this a funny thing, last year Swine, Turdeschi and Weintraub pushed a ZERO increase all while boro finances appear to have been dwindling, as Boro Manager Metzler recently sited, "If this borough does not generate another $1.5 to $2 million in new revenue in this year, we will fail next year,” so what did the old crew do? The old council turned a blind eye and sold Fair Lawn residents snake oil, knowing things were bad, and now the new council is saddled with taxing double because of these democratic pukes! Sell the Library, Community Center and Memorial pool now, because all of these locations are losing money! Lower the operating budget and bank money from sale and its a win-win!

dad- lets face the facts cosgrove and his republican running mates this previous election were all on the board for the community center. maybe since you dont live in fair lawn you arent aware of this. so it is accurate and fair to blame cosgrove. stop dwelling on the past dad, you call out the dum-ocrats all the time but you refuse to hold the republicans responsible for thier action and give them cute nicknames.

hahahaha repukeagains.... classic dad

hahaha how did i miss this one earlier
"shoved a 13 million dollar white elephant up the colon of the taxpayers. ."
whether you agree or disagree with me dads opinion and views i think we can all agree that the guy is on point today

The fundamental problem is the Republicrats and Demlicans both think its okay to use other people's money to fund their social goals. They tax everyone, then provide benefits to a few. When challenged on this, we get the typical tear jerking responses. Its for the Seniors, Its for the Kids. Its really for their votes. The narrative always attempts to separate the cost from the benefit, but the money comes from us. They are bribing us with our own money. The only chance we have to stop it, is for more people to become aware.

Awareness is key, however, its a long up hill climb when an election is won with 2000 votes or less. You are so correct in the play on emotions when trying to get something passed. Just look for all the drones that post children first signs when the school board is getting ready to ram another one deep. FL is managed by ego, plain and simple.

Here is another thought, since Metzler acknowledges the water rate hike is a tax increase, aside from the reelection aspirations of the Republicans, who benefits by raising water bills which are not federal income tax deductible vs property taxes which are?

Why should our Two Bit Politicians do any thing for our puny dollar contribution, when they get thousands from the lobbyists and big businesses?

My take on the Rec Center Mike: Should have never been built. Here is a different take:
You pick the top draft out of college. You give him a really long contract worth a ton of money. He turns out to be a bust. What do you do?
We need to work with what we have. The center was supposed to be built with donations and money from the general fund. That was a lie all along. Ganz and Co. had every intention of bonding it and having their friends write the bond for almost 300K. The center was supposed to be 6M. Ended up 12M. (If memory servers me correctly, George Frey wanted 1M for improvements and a second level to the existing one.) Would have been more, but Cosgrove did a great job overseeing it. It was going to generate revenue. Not quite. You couldn't fit the parents in the gym to watch a rec BB game let alone host something. And hiring someone to rent the thing out for corporate functions didn't go so well either.
To shut it down and leave it there unused would be a complete waste. It is an albatross financially, but someone needs to come up with some creative ideas for it. It may be able to generate some revenue, but I don't think anyone in the Boro has the ability to make it happen. It should have had a complete plan submitted first.

This is why government doesn't work. It wasn't put out for Referendum because it would have never passed. 5 people should not make a 30M decision on something that was not a necessity.

George Frey said to me "Stu, all I asked for was a second basketball court." And Ganz took it from there.

You mean, "It's not tax money but a grant from the county/state" Ganz bends the truth?

Stu,
I was told he wanted to do some improvements to bring it inline with the times and I believe a second level.

Harold,
No grants, Wienstein actually thought he was going to solicit 6M in donations. Or so he told people. Ganz said if he could raise the funds, it would come from the General fund.

And us Generals will be paying for the next 20 years.

Try 25 years @ 1M per before gas, electric and staffing.

Chris, your "top draft out of college" is a very good analysis regarding risk that the private sector takes. However, although they try to be, the Fair Lawn council is not a private sector entity. Government has no business in business. The Rec Center is a prime example.
I had an investor tell that I should pull out of the market if my losses exceed 40%.Personally, I would pull out at the 25% mark. I know what amount of risk/losses with which I am comfortable. It's different when you spend other people's money.
To date, no one has had an idea how to salvage the mess with this Rec Center.
Closig the facility would have an immediate positive impact on the town. The gas, electric,staffing and maintenance bills would be eliminated.
The town could then try to privitize the facility or simply keep it closed.
Bottom line: Every day it remains open it costs the private citizens.

Mr Paine,
The reason it cannot be used for private functions---->insurance. The insurance would not cover liabilities outside the original scope of its intended use. So, if it was rented out and someone got hurt, the town would face additional lawsuits. That equates to more taxes.
Keeping the facility open is a lose, lose situatiion.
I would like to see the town cut our loses ASAP. Like I said, it's easy spending outher people's money. I am tired of paying for the political mistakes.

Mike,
Closing the Rec Center with 25 years left of payments totaling almost 1M per year would not be the right course of action. What needs to be done is to try to make the most of what we can with the facility. Currently there are activities for kids that go on there, as well as activities for other residents. My question is: If this is indeed a "community" center, why do we have a need for the Senior Center? What does that cost us per year to operate? What is the current membership? How can the Rec Center accommodate the programs currently held there?

As to my analogy, I was trying to say that we're stuck with it, so try to get the most out of it. A pro team would try to position the player to get the most out of them. That's what needs to be done to the Rec Center if it were to be used as a revenue generator as we were told it would be.

Just like the pool, no one is going to take the Rec Center. No profit to be made. There is no parking, and past the theater, there really is nowhere to host an event of any kind.

My family sure doesn't use the rec center because there's nothing there for us. It's all special use-- but then we aren't fitness walkers or basketball players. Maybe more programs or a better use of the space? I'm going to the Y with my young kid in the winter to give him a place to run around and play. I wish the Rec Center could provide that instead, I'd gladly join.

We do use the library a lot. I could see joining with another nearby township for a joint library that has better parking and is less ugly, but what township would do that? Too much home rule here in NJ. There would still be service and materials costs; I'm not sure how much you think you would save on that.
And who would buy or rent the library building if we tried to sell it? No parking and awkwardly placed.

As for the pools, why start by letting non-Fair Lawn people buy memberships at a higher rate? see what that does to help them break-even.

The wreck center/ganz mahal is a textbook example of whats wrong with our local politicians. They steal from us under cover of law, then bribe us with our own money. They pander for a few years in hopes of gaining name recognition for larger political office or other personal gain. The secret is getting out, and soon they will be too.

I had dinner with some friends this weekend and a buddy of mine had some interesting ideas.

1. The senior center could easily be sold and 8 new ratables could be erected. In order to maximize our return on that, zone it as two family which is in character with the area.

2. Take that over flow lot which none of the adjacent property owners want, and make it the skate park. Its already paved, has parking, etc. Post some signs that the park is open from 10am to dusk (or 6pm which ever comes first).

3. Take the profit from the Senior Center sale, add parking along the Conrail tracks at the Wreck Center, and use the building to combine the two.

After all, aren't Seniors a part of our community too?

Mr Metzler, where are you? Council, Hello?

"These are the times try men's souls"

The original building was there over 50 years and was still useable, it's amazing that the Parks Dept. Building was not destroyed by flooding, it's lower and closer to the river then the building that was "unusable" and had to be replaced with trailers. Even if they had quick disconnects on the service connections the wheel bearings would have been frozen, the tires rotted and the hitches probably would have fell off. This was a ploy to have a the town council memorialized by the shanties, which where bought and paid for with "free" grant money from the county, "at no expense to the town". I don't remember any public discussions at the time.
WE WHERE SCAMMED!!!!!!!!!!
This is my 2nd post re: trailers. You gonna remove this one too

WHoops! Wrong article if I was a politician I could say I misspoke. Following two stories at once is rough for us old folks.
Especially when we keep getting bamboozled.