Please send your questions, comments and suggestions to Teaneck Voices. We will be publishing more columns on Running for Municipal Office and the Historic November 2022 Municipal Election.

If you are not registered to vote, please make it a priority to do so. To complete a registration form or for more information regarding voting in Bergen County, please click onto the this link.

If you are not sure if you are registered to vote in Teaneck, you may search here.

To check the details of your voter record, you may sign up here.

Under NJ State Department of Environmental Protection regulations, the replacement trees must be planted in public parks. So PSE&G’s trees could not be planted in Township public spaces such as the space between sidewalks and Township streets where we need many, many new trees to replace those that are dying or being removed every year.

If these documents are satisfactory, the Township must then prepare a deed in which the three plots are deeded from the Township to the Township, but with the condition that the three parcels may only be used for park or recreational purposes. When all these steps have been taken, the $1.9 million in the segregated account can move to the Township’s general accounts.

But DEP regulations also allow the Council to use the $1.9 million to acquire other undeveloped land in the Township and add that land to our park system. It could be used, for example, to fill in gaps in the Hackensack River Greenway or the Greenbelt or buy smaller undeveloped properties to create pocket parks. 

One month earlier, on January 6th, Burgis argued that the proposed 20-unit residential facility at 54 W. Englewood Ave met the criteria for being granted a d(1) use variance. Because, he claimed, the application is consistent with the 2007 Master Plan. 

When members of the public - in Good & Welfare – questioned why the late delay request was granted, the Chair opined: “There was a last-minute cancellation – I think it was a personal matter - I don’t know the reason. I don’t know why they wanted to carry it unless there was a really, really good reason.” 

No, Mr. Chair, no reason was given.

Teaneck Voices' Notable Woman, Victoria Fisher, now a trustee on the Board of Education, remembered Dr. Pruitt being her principal when she was a kindergartner at Longfellow School. Principal Pruitt was an extraordinary role model to young Victoria who now is sharing her love for education with Teaneck Public School children just as her role model Dr. Zita Pruitt did.

“I would make a BIG DEAL out of that.” When the kids could read their first little book, teachers were told to send them to the principal’s office “I wanted them to come to Principal’s office for some good stuff!” She had a chair in her office – The Reader’s Chair – and the child would sit in the Reader’s Chair and read their story to her. She would congratulate them, saying “Now that you can read, you have entered a whole new world,” and she would give them a little star that said, “I am a reader.”

Bryant Principal Pruitt started something most parents take for granted these days: an afterschool care program. She was a working mother with 4 kids and needed that program herself. She had the idea of parents running it, rather than the school itself. When she proposed it to some of the principals, the response was “No way, we’ll be here till 6 o’clock watching kids. No, parents can’t do it.” Zita took it to the parent teacher associations and told the parents she would help them get it launched.

She told them how to frame the proposal to the BOE and how to get it through. And she supported them. The BOE approved it, and the Working Parents Association was formed. Since Bryant was a central school, when the kids moved on to the other schools, their parents started the same afterschool programs in those schools. “It’s my baby, my gift to Teaneck,” she says. The program became SACC (School Aged Child Care). After School Child Care in Teaneck is still going strong!

In 2003, Dr. Zita Pruitt co-authored a book, Schools as Professional Learning Communities, which has been translated into several languages and used internationally. The book is still being sold, and before Covid, Zita spoke at conferences and meetings all over the country.

Section 33-16 of the Code of the Township of Teaneck makes the legal status of SPRAB very clear:

Teaneck’s code goes on to describe a required entity whose 9 members' eligibility requirements would bring a level of professionalism and training to the evaluation of development plans and projects that Teaneck badly needs. Provisions to assure that this Board's recommendations would not delay needed action are carefully woven into this well-written code, specifically designed to improve new site plans.

Incredibly, this required Board has no current members. All its former members’ terms expired 6 years ago. The Board is not even listed on the Town Website among Town entities. Residents from all over Town have begun to ask the question: Why doesn’t the Town have a functioning Site Plan Review Board?

Appointments can be scheduled at www.hackensackmeridianhealth.org/en/covid19/schedule

Free at-home COVID-19 tests ordered on www.covidtests.gov and delivered by USPS. Limit of 1 order per household. Each order contains 4 individual tests.

In an effort to keep the senior center staff and participants safe, all are required to be fully vaccinated and provide proof of vaccination. Mask wearing and social distancing are required.

Forms for the spring session are available February 14 in the senior center lobby, outside of the recreation office on the first floor and online on the town website. Spring classes begin in March.

Teaneck Library Services and Schedule have been altered due to COVID: See updated schedule

There are only two municipal meetings in Teaneck this week, and both will occur on Thursday, February 17. The Board of Adjustment meeting will completely coincide with the MLK Black History Month Virtual Series (see announcement below) 

Public access and opportunity for input limited by Advisory Board ordinance* (see below)

Notes: This special meeting has been called as a continuation of the hearing on an application first discussed early in the Fall for a 30-unit multi-family rental in the B2 zone at 205 Cedar Lane. At the prior hearing (1/6/22) only the applicant ‘s architect testified. For those residents seeking to prepare questions or comments about this application, a video of the architect’s 1/6 testimony and of the drawings presented can be seen/heard at Click Here

For those looking for agenda information about Teaneck’s land use boards.  

Events at the Library: Click here

Click onto the link below to attend on February 28 at 7:30 p.m.

Link for this Thursday: https://vimeo.com/676303704

We're pleased to announce our first ever Teaneck eCitizen Program for adults! This program aims to teach participants how to:

January 19 to February 23 is now FULL. This Program will be offered again in March and April. Click here for more detailed information about this Program.