Wednesday, June 19, 2013
The new ordinance creates a $700 annual fee for the owners of "potentially dangerous dogs."
Any Fair Lawn residents with a dog ruled to be "potentially dangerous" will have to pony up $700 per year due to a new ordinance. The borough council approved the new law, which sets the fee at the maximum level allowed by the state, during their meeting Tuesday night. The fee defaults at $150 in towns where they don't specify the amount, according to state law. Officials responded to dog owners' concerns that they would have to bear the new fee. Only a judge that can classify a dog as being "potentially dangerous" after it severely injures another animal. "Nobody's going to be coming around saying 'this dog' or 'that dog,'" Deputy Mayor Jeanne Baratta said. Fair Lawn is home to more than 2,000 licensed dogs. Residents from Fair Lawn and …
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Jim Van Kruiningen, a lifelong Fair Lawn resident and assistant to the borough manager for the past six years, will take over as acting manager on June 4.
Jim Van Kruiningen, a 21-year borough employee, will serve as the acting borough manager of Fair Lawn after current manager Tom Metzler steps down at the end of May. Following a closed session discussion Tuesday, council voted 4-0 — Councilman Kurt Peluso did not attend the meeting — to appoint Van Kruiningen as deputy borough manager, Metzler said. He will become the acting borough manager on June 4. "[Van Kruiningen] spent six years with four different managers learning the position," said Metzler, a strong proponent of having Van Kruiningen succeed him. "There's nobody more qualified in the borough to do it." Van Kruiningen, a lifelong Fair Lawn resident and 1990 Fair Lawn High School graduate, spent 10 years working as a police …
Friday, July 27, 2012
The borough will mail out a four-page survey to all property owners on Sept. 1 asking residents what services they need and what services they can live without.
Whether you love Memorial Pool or want to see it permanently drained, visit the library daily or haven’t checked out a book in years, receive email updates about town events or don’t even have internet access – Fair Lawn’s mayor and council want to know. On Sept. 1, the borough will mail all Fair Lawn property owners and tenants a four-page survey with questions about demographics, municipal engagement and social service preferences in an effort to gauge resident opinion. The answers provided by residents will inform the council’s future budgetary decisions around what services the town may be forced to reduce or eliminate in wake of today’s harsh economic realities. “Governing is about setting priorities,” Deputy Mayor Ed Trawinski said …
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Dems made the call for resignation after the Republican members of borough council voted to replace longtime auditor Steve Wielkotz.
Updated at 6:05 p.m. on Wednesday, May 2 Democratic council members Lisa Swain and Kurt Peluso called Wednesday for the resignation of Mayor Jeanne Baratta and Deputy Mayor Ed Trawinski, after both voted Tuesday to replace longtime borough auditor Steve Wielkotz. Wielkotz, who has served as the borough's auditor for over a decade, has been at the center of a county-level controversy recently in which county executive Kathleen Donovan opposed his re-appointment as county auditor, calling him the "poster child for pay to play," and "a Democrat first and an auditor second" according to a report in the Bergen Record. Swain and Peluso contend that Baratta and Trawinski's vote to replace Wielkotz as Fair Lawn's auditor was driven by their …
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Council approved authorization of an out-of-court settlement of the lawsuit brought against the borough by former police Sgt. Michael Messina
On the advice of its legal representation, borough council voted Friday to avoid both the risk and the expense of further litigation and pay out $550,000 to a former Fair Lawn police sergeant who sued the borough and its police chief in 2008 under the state’s Conscientious Employee Protection Act, also known as the New Jersey Whistleblower Act. “I don’t want the people to think that we’re settling because we’re caving,” Deputy Mayor Ed Trawinski said. “We’re settling because I believe in a large part there are sound economic reasons and sound legal reasons for settling.” The borough and its municipal excess liability (MEL) insurance will share equally in the settlement payment to former Sgt. Michael Messina ($275,000 from the borough; $275…
Monday, February 27, 2012
A soon-to-be proposed ordinance would charge residents annually to register their home security system.
Updated on Feb. 27 at 3 p.m. -- Borough manager Tom Metzler will propose to council Tuesday another revenue generation mechanism for the borough: security system registration. While he declined to provide estimated cost figures, Metzler said that under the ordinance anyone who has a security system would pay an annual registration fee and be subject to fines if their system malfunctions repeatedly, forcing police to unnecessarily rush to their address and waste borough resources. There is currently no requirement for residents to register their alarm system, and while fines are imposed after two warnings, they are not tiered based on the number of violations. Last year, Fair Lawn police responded to approximately 1,300 false alarms from a…
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Fair Lawn Democratic county committeewoman Violet "Vi" Etler died on Jan. 8 at the age of 83
During her life, Democratic politcal maven Vi Etler's kindness and wisdom made an impression on all those she encountered. In her passing, borough council would like to ensure those memories live on in perpetuity. To commemorate Etler's public service and dedication to the borough of Fair Lawn, the council has proposed naming a neighborhood park in her honor. The park -- bounded by Elliott Terrace and Eberlin Drive -- is within walking distance of the home Etler shared with her husband, Marty. "I’m delighted that we’re able to honor Vi Etler in a way that we’ll all be able to visit and think about her," said councilwoman Lisa Swain, who proposed the dedication. "She was a champion for women," Swain said of Etler. "She was also a champion …
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
A brief background on recently re-elected councilwoman Lisa Swain and what inspired her to run for office
Lisa Swain said she'd never considered seeking political office prior to running for borough council five years ago. She just knew she was ready to take on something new. "I was ready for a new challenge," said Swain, an experienced triathlete and swim instructor. "I always like to be moving ahead. I’m always ready for the next challenge...I was ready for something and then that fell in my lap." Prior to running for office, Swain served on the Library Board as treasurer and eventually president. Toward the end of her sixth year on the board, Swain said former councilman Steve Weinstein approached her about running on the Democratic ticket for council. "It was a mixture of 'Wow,' excitement. Kind of scary. A little daunting. But I kind of …
Friday, January 13, 2012
A brief background on new councilman John Cosgrove and what inspired him to run for office
It took three decades of prodding from both parties but John Cosgrove finally agreed to run for Fair Lawn borough council in 2011. “I decided to do it this time because I feel that the next four years are going to be some of the most important in Fair Lawn’s history,” Cosgrove said back in October. “There’s going to be some very difficult decisions that have to be made.” A lifelong resident whose family has lived in town for more than 100 years, Cosgrove’s devotion to Fair Lawn is legendary. “A lot of my friends always kid me that Fair Lawn is the center of my universe.” Cosgrove quips. From a quick scan of his resume, it’s immediately clear why he’s affectionately called “Mr. Fair Lawn.” Not only has Cosgrove worked in some capacity with …
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
New manager Tom Metzler is prepared to address some of the borough's most pressing issues at his first council work session Tuesday
Tom Metzler can't afford to spend time leisurely re-acclimating himself to the job. The new borough manager has packed Tuesday's work session agenda with pressing issues that range from the budget to police lawsuits to the future of Memorial Pool. "There are no quick fixes," Metzler said of the budget process, which he acknowledged will be a challenge. "But it is fixable." At Tuesday's meeting he said he'd provide council with an overview of the upcoming budget and discuss his approach to preparing it -- which will run parallel to his approach as borough manager in year's past. The key, he said, will be building a strong surplus, which in the short term will require increasing taxes and finding viable new sources of revenue. Once that's …
Buster Hyman
12:16 am on Friday, April 19, 2013
There goes the police moral that was on the rise... Go quit the academy again Jimmy!!! more ›