We had a Council meeting on Monday night. The following is a summary of what was discussed.
We approved both additional monies and a vendor to complete the renovation of the tennis and pickleball courts for a total cost of $570K, minus $75K from the Local Recreation Grant. Thank you to the nearly two dozen Verona residents who wrote to us about this project this week. As I said at the meeting, I am excited to finally get this project to construction phase. Previous Councils and Administrations let these courts degrade so much that we needed to do a temporary safety fix of re-paving with asphalt to keep the playing surface safe. I have been a big supporter of this project from the beginning. Some of the colleagues delayed the planning phase of this project, but through the hard work of the advocates from this community, this has finally passed with a 5-0 vote. Construction will commence in the Spring.
Last night we also approved the cost and vendor for the re-lining of the "big pool" - which will also occur in the Spring. The total cost will be $575K. We also approved some bond repurposing in order to have the total funds to repoint Town Hall. $340K of previously approved bonds were now dedicated to this project. This project is long overdue, as water is seeping into the Town Hall building in multiple places, causing issues.
We also approved a small change to our parking code. The first is to change the parking rules on Gould street, which will open up parking after 9:30 am on school days. Hopefully this will add new parking spots for our Town Hall, Library, and Middle School. We also made some changes along Bloomfield Avenue on parking meter collection to align with current practice.
Much to my surprise - the Council introduced an ordinance to change Verona's non-partisan municipal election from May to November, starting in 2025. I was surprised that this was added to the agenda based on the extensive comments some of my colleagues made against the measure when we last discussed this in June and July, and their lack of support to conduct a voter referendum this past November on the potential change. There seems to be a complete turnaround in some of my colleagues' positioning since that time, with cost being cited as the reason to make this change.
We discussed the matter about 1 hour and 10 minutes into the meeting. As a recap of when we last discussed changing the election, you can read the following updates:
While I am supportive of this change, I am disappointed that we missed the opportunity to engage 9,000 Verona residents who voted in November to ask them when they wanted these elections to be. I have focused on resident engagement during my two terms, and this could have been done in a way that would have increased voter engagement on the matter. The juxtaposition of my approach with Mayor Tamburro's was very stark at this meeting. He highlighted how talking to a few elected officials from other municipalities two weeks ago helped formulate his opinion to support this change, while he still doubled down that a voter referendum was not necessary.
South Orange, Verona, and Cedar Grove were the only three towns to host May elections on the odd numbered years. South Orange already voted to change their non-partisan elections from May to November, which most of my colleagues appeared to not be aware of. Since some of the costs are split three ways, at this point we will face increased costs if we stick with the May election.
As a reminder, if we make this change we are locked in to November elections for the next 10 years. In addition, everyone on the Council gets a 6 month extension of our terms. Our elections would remain non-partisan.
I encourage members of the public to send us all feedback on whether or not we should move the election. You can do so by sending us an email here: https://www.veronanj.org/councilcontactform. You can also attend the public hearing as part of the December 16th meeting.
Moving on, we approved an emergency appropriation of $200K to help to facilitate the purchase of two DPW dump trucks that we need for the snow season. We hired contractors for the primary clarifier pump station project, which originally received approval back in 2021. This is one of the projects our new Administration finally got to construction stage. We also approved some contracts with Highway Traffic Control and MGL Printing.
Finally, the Council declared the Verona Public Library as a book sanctuary library. I applaud the Library Board of Trustees for bringing us this resolution to support. It clearly states that the Verona Township Council opposes the censorship of books and materials. Our Library has a material selection process that is fair, deliberative, equitable and accessible, and patrons are free to explore and engage with different perspectives to form their own views.
To contact the Council on any matter, feel free to send us your feedback using the following form: https://www.veronanj.org/councilcontactform
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