Residents across Woodland Park were both saddened but unsurprised that Councilman Dominick DiDomenico has fully embraced the Republican Party and will be running for re-election this fall on the Passaic County Regular Republican Organization line. DiDomenico changed his party affiliation and filed to run for Council as a Republican candidate.

After running as the de facto Republican candidate last year for Mayor, we saw this coming. Unfortunately, DiDomenico has consistently been untruthful and misleading to citizens across our community who supported him over the past twenty years in a variety of campaigns. Now he has fully turned his back on the countless number of people who helped him in every successful election he has ever had – including our Mayor who served several times as his Campaign Manager.

It shows a true lack of character that the same Republicans he railed against as a Democrat, he is now embracing in a last ditch effort to hold onto his seat.

Now that DiDomenico is officially a registered Republican important questions need to be answered. Will he be endorsing our President like he did in 2008? Is he now going to support Governor Christie and the Republican policies that hurt public employees, including police officers? Will he no longer be supporting Congressman Bill Pascrell who has time and time again delivered for our community, worked to address our flooding issues and supported the Councilman in many elections?

I hope all of these questions can be addressed in the coming months as the candidates present their credentials to the residents of Woodland Park.
_________________________________________________________________

CONTACT: MATTHEW P. JORDAN, (973) 714-6115

WOODLAND PARK - The bankruptcy of a large business, October’s unexpected snowstorm, and Hurricane Irene are to blame for the $77 increase in municipal taxes for the home assessed at the borough average of $365,264, officials say.

The mayor and council voted 6-1 at its April 4 meeting to approve a $15,105,093 budget for 2012. That reflects a spending increase of $114,394 over the prior year’s $14,990,699 budget. The tax levy, including the library tax, is $11,475,052. It increased $336,302, or 3.02 percent, over the prior year’s levy of $11,138,750.

The tax levy increase can exceed the state mandated 2 percent tax cap because debt service, health insurance costs in addition to principal and interest on infrastructure loans are considered exempt from the cap, borough treasurer Ann Purzycki said in a phone interview.

Officials did not change any part of the budget between its introduction and its adoption, Steven Wielkotz, borough auditor, said in an interview.

“It’s exactly the same. We haven’t touched anything, which just goes to show you it’s a good budget.” He added, “An increase of $77 given a flood and a snowstorm and a bankruptcy is quite remarkable.”

The bankruptcy of 1225 McBride Avenue, the business which runs a medical building on McBride Avenue, cost the borough $425,000 in lost tax revenue, Wielkotz had said.

Were it not for that bankruptcy there would have been no municipal tax increase in 2012, Mayor Keith Kazmark said.

The other increases in the 2012 budget include approximately $304,000 to pay for a flood emergency, a $166,000 increase in health insurance costs, a $91,000 increase in debt service, a $75,000 increase in gasoline costs, and a $67,000 increase in worker’s compensation costs, according to Weilcotz.

The borough decreased the amount paid for salaries and wages in 2012 by $22,000, Kazmark said.

“No municipality can claim that unless they did a layoff or a furlough,” he said after the meeting.

The salaries were reduced by attrition and because of retirements in the police department and department of public works, Weilkotz said.

The salaries and wages for the mayor and council account for $50,001 of the 2012 budget, which is a $3 decrease from the prior year.

Kazmark said they have applied for $650,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for the cost of last year’s storms. However the budget only anticipates receiving $30,400 from the federal agency.

“I did not want to be put in a position where we anticipated money that we did not receive,” he said.

The budget also accounts for $827,151 in state aid, the same amount that was received in 2011.

Councilman Dominick Di Domenico voted against the budget because he did not want the salary for Pat Lepore, temporary assistant to the DPW superintendent, included in it.

“I’m requesting that we remove from the DPW salaries and wages (about) $60,000,” he said, adding, “We filled a position that had been vacant for a while.”

Lepore makes $58,862 with no health benefits in his new position, Kazmark said after the meeting. The person previously in that position made $89,641 with health benefits, which equates to a savings to the borough of $30,779, he said.

Kazmark said he hired Lepore at the request of the DPW superintendent, who said he needed someone to assign jobs to DPW workers. He said that he could not promote from within the DPW because it would have been akin to promoting a patrolman in the police department to deputy chief.

And Kazmark strongly opposed Di Domenico’s objection.

“I’m not going to sit here on the night of adoption and have you grandstand over something that should have been discussed at a workshop,” Kazmark told Di Domenico.

“I think that this reeks of politics more than it does of proper budgeting,” he said.

Passaic Valley towns will receive a combined $600,114 from the state department of transportation (DOT) to improve local roadways this year.

Little Falls will receive $175,114 for improvements to Ridge Avenue. Woodland Park will get $250,000 for improvements to Overmount Avenue. And Totowa will receive $175,000 for improvements to Lincoln Avenue.

Woodland Park Mayor Keith Kazmark said that now that they’ve been officially notified that they are receiving the funds, they will direct their engineering firm to start work on the project. They also hope to continue to receive funds from the DOT.

“We’ll be applying in subsequent years,” he said. “The DOT monies that we’ve received over the past couple years have gone a long way to improve roads.”

Kazmark said that every dollar they receive from the state offsets money that would have otherwise had to be raised by taxing residents.

The work on Overmount Avenue will include some reconstruction, and possibly replacement of sidewalks, he said.

“Hopefully we will have a shovel in the ground sometime over the summer,” Kazmark said, adding that his goal is to have all resurfacing in the borough done by Columbus Day.

Joanne Bergin, Little Falls business administrator and township funding coordinator, said the construction on Ridge Road is being designed and they will start construction within the year. She welcomes the state funding.

“It is really our only source of revenue to do road improvements so we were very happy we were funded this year,” Bergin said.

“The state government has operated on a very tight budget in light of our economy, so we are always concerned projects like this will fall off the radar,” she said.

Mayor John Coiro was happy to hear that his town will be receiving the funding.

“That’s terrific,” he said. “That’s what we applied for.”

Coiro said the funds will go to both pave Lincoln Avenue and replace some of the sewer lines.

“It’s all to help alleviate the flooding,” he said. “We have to replace some of our lines. That’s an older section of town.”

DOT commissioner James Simpson spoke in favor of the program which awarded 374 grants totaling $76,126,200.

“The Christie Administration strongly supports funding for local aid because it understands how important it is for government at all levels to provide safe streets and roads for motorists and pedestrians alike,” he said. “These grants advance local projects without placing a burden on local property taxpayers.”