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PUBLISHED BY TEANECK VOICES
Managing Editor, Bernard Rous
RAMADAN MUBARAK, A ZISSEN PESACH, HAPPY EASTER
from Teaneck Voices
APRIL 11, 2022 Issue
Contents
Honoring a Lifetime of Service
Notable Women of Teaneck
  • Hallie Wannamaker
Voter Registration Information
Waiting for Answers
The Week That Was
Press Release from One Town One Vote
COVID Updates
  • Rapid Home COVID tests from the Post Office
  • Rodda Center
  • Library Services Curtailed
Upcoming Town Meetings
Events at the Library
Announcements
  • Support Teaneck Voices
  • Bergen County LGBTQ+ Alliance
  • Prayers and Support for Ukrainian People
LETTER TO COUNCIL:
HONORING A LIFETIME OF SERVICE
March 28, 2022

James Dunleavy, Township Mayor
Elie Katz and Mark Schwartz, Township Deputy Mayors
Karen Orgen and Gervonn Romney-Rice, Township Councilwomen
Keith Kaplan and Michael Pagan, Township Councilmen

Dear Teaneck Council Members,

State Senator Loretta Weinberg is a daughter of Teaneck who has given over 40 years of service on the Teaneck Council, in the General Assembly and in the New Jersey State Senate. We, the undersigned, take this opportunity to formally introduce a measure to request that the Municipality of Teaneck honor Loretta Weinberg by renaming Argonne Park located at Aspen Terrace, Teaneck, NJ, the Senator Loretta Weinberg Park.

This initiative aims to make visible the name of a woman who has been a role model to many and who has selflessly dedicated a lifetime to public service. Senator Weinberg's tireless commitment and dedication to our Township and to New Jersey as well as to the United States for more than 40 years has influenced so many lives. She has held the position of State Senate Majority leader, Clerk to the Board of Freeholders, Assistant County Administrator, sat on numerous boards, been an active participant in community organizations, and was Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor.

The Senator has championed the rights of women, advocated for the LBGQT community, health care, gun reform, public transportation, and open government. A proponent of improving the quality of life of her community, she advanced services for children with autism, adults with aphasia, and military veterans. She created the first affirmative-action program, the first shelter for victims of domestic violence in the state of NJ and was an activist for civil rights and the anti-war movement in the 1960s.

Loretta was also able to achieve the go-ahead for the rehabilitation of the Port Authority Midtown Bus Terminal for NJ/NY commuters, sponsored the Smoke-Free Air Act, and received the Legislator of the Year Award. Most importantly she has earned the respect of her peers in the community and on both sides of the aisle in our state and in our country.

It is our hope that the Teaneck Council, our town leaders, will bestow one of the highest honors we have in recognition of Senator Weinberg's contributions and achievements. We ask that you honor her impressive career by renaming Argonne Park in tribute to her esteemed lifetime accomplishments.

For Teaneck to recognize Senator Weinberg, a champion of democracy, and dedicate a park for her significant public service of over 4 decades just seems the right thing to do.

We also propose to erect a historical marker in honor of the original name, Argonne Park, and its historical relationship to the Township of Teaneck. We will continue to honor and to commemorate the Teaneck veterans Captain Stephen Schoonmaker, Pfc Hubert Roches and Basil Smith, who lost their lives at the Battle of Argonne Forest, in the Loraine region in France, in World War I, and Wallace Beveridge, also a World War I veteran who provided the original impetus for naming the Park.

The following is a sampling of individuals who are supportive of renaming Argonne Park to the "Senator Loretta Weinberg Park".
NAME - AFFILIATION
Larry Bauer - President, Teaneck Chamber of Commerce

Linda Burns - TPS Board of Education Trustee and Co-Chair East Votee Neighborhood Association

Judy Distler - Co-Founder, Teaneck International Film Festival (TIFF)

Jane Irwin - Chairperson, Senior Citizen Advisory Board

Gail Gordon - Co-Chair, East Votee Neighborhood Association

Toniette H. Duncan - President, Voorhees Street Association, and NETBPA Corresponding Secretary

Elsworth James - Owner, Comfort Shoe Store, Teaneck Road

Jeremy Lentz - Executive Director, Teaneck International Film Festival (TIFF)

Barbara Ley Toffler - Former Councilwoman Township of Teaneck

LaVerne Lightburn - Vice President, Voorhees Street Association

Gladys Miller Rosenstein - Executive Director, Puffin Foundation, Ltd.

Barbara Ostroth - Chair, League of Women Voters and Residential Sales Specialist at Coldwell Banker Realty

Paul Ostrow - Former Mayor Township of Teaneck

Rabbi Pitkowsky - Beth Sholom

Bruce Prince - Owner, Teaneck General Store, Palisades Avenue

Dr. Henry J. Pruitt - Former Deputy Mayor, Councilman and Former TPS Board of Education President Township of Teaneck and Vice President NETBPA

Ronald Reid - Owner, Razzle Dazzle Hair Salon

Sebastian Rodriguez - TPS Board of Education President

Howard Rose - Owner, Brier Rose Books, Cedar Lane and Former TPS Board of Education Trustee

Lisa Schwartz - South West Neighborhood Association Representative

Rabbi Sirbu - Temple Emeth

Theodora Smiley Lacey - Chair, Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday Committee and Civil Rights Activist

Alexander Soriano-Taveras - Chair, Teaneck Democratic Municipal Committee

Deborah Veach - Former Municipal Prosecutor

Ardie Walser - Former TPS Board of Education President

Reverend Michelle White - Christ Episcopal Church

Marie Warnke - Former Councilwoman Township of Teaneck and Community Scholarship Fund of Teaneck Treasurer

Gloria Wilson - President, North East Teaneck Block Presidents Association and President Ardsley Court & Fairfield Block Association

Judge James Young - Former Judge Township of Teaneck
Sincere regards,

Laverne Lightburn
Theodora Smiley Lacey
Barbara Ley Toffler
Toniette H. Duncan

cc: Listed Supporters
Dean Kazinci, Township Manager
Doug Ruccione, Township Clerk
NOTABLE WOMEN OF TEANECK
HALLIE WANNAMAKER
What do you do if you are an Activist for Social Justice, love Dance, and have a gift for Teaching?

You do what the spirited, creative, powerhouse Hallie Wannamaker did: You use dance to teach social justice.

“I became involved with the Central America Peace Movement of the 1980s and co-founded a women's dance group named the Doan Ket Dance Collective. We held workshops and performed in Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, and NYC to help educate students about community problems and encourage them to become activists for the environment and peace.”

Hallie talks about the month they spent in a village in Puerto Rico educating the community about the chemical contamination of their drinking water. They walked with the children over a mountain to show them the green slime that was seeping into their water and causing illness and skin diseases. Then they choreographed and performed pieces in the community center with political messages about how the villagers could take action.

Hallie was surprised and delighted to get a call just last year from Carnegie Mellon University that this September they will be doing a museum exhibit on her Doan Ket Dance Collective!

When dance is your life, what do you do when you severely injure your back and can’t dance anymore? 

It is impossible not to think of the musical A Chorus Line’s lyric: “Kiss today goodbye, and point me toward tomorrow; Won’t regret, can’t forget what I did for love...”

Hallie dusted herself off and looked toward her tomorrow. She earned an M.A. and became a social studies teacher in a South Bronx high school at the height of the South Bronx devastation – burned out buildings, drugs, gangs, and gun violence. Even there Hallie used the arts – drama, movement, music – in the classroom to guide her students to not bemoan the ruin of their community but to ask “What can we do about it?”

Hallie Wannamaker was born in 1953 and grew up on the outskirts of St. Paul, Minnesota. Her father was a medical research scientist and they also lived for a year in England and Germany; her parents believed it was important to travel, be involved in the arts and see other cultures. Hallie’s parents grew up on North and South Carolina farms; as a child she often visited her southern families and saw the glaring inequities that led to the Civil Rights Movement. At 16, she worked with the Teen Corps to build a community center in Appalachia.

“When I was a teenager, I started a neighborhood dance school in a small one-room schoolhouse down the highway from my home.  I realized I loved four things - dance, teaching, community, and activism.”

She began college at Duke University but transferred to Adelphi University where she majored in dance. After graduation in 1976, she moved to Boston with some fellow Adelphi graduates, where they began their own dance company - The Kineticompany. At the same time, she also became very involved in the anti-nuclear movement and took part in many demonstrations and civil disobedience actions.

In 1979, Hallie moved back to New York City where she taught dance/creative movement at several schools, and in 1990, she met her husband, also a NYC teacher, and moved to Teaneck to start a family. They wanted to raise their children in a multicultural environment such as Teaneck. They have three children, a son from her husband’s early marriage, a honeymoon baby daughter, and a daughter they adopted from China.

With her arts and teaching experience, Hallie found Teaneck a warm and welcoming environment. She was the Pre-K teacher for the Even Start Family Literacy Program where she met Teaneck families who had immigrated from all over the world. She then taught kindergarten at Bryant School and TAG (Teaneck Academically Gifted) at Whittier. True to her “loves,” she incorporated dance, drama and music in her classroom and trained her students in Conflict Resolution.

With all the extraordinary accomplishments in her life, the achievement of which Hallie is the proudest is the Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson Middle Schools’ Building Bridges Day, which she spearheaded in 2001.

Hallie led a large group of parents and teachers to create a day each Spring when all middle school students, instead of attending regular classes, attended workshops to learn more about racism, sexism, classism, and ageism. The teachers designed workshops on topics such as the Holocaust, Disabilities, the History of Teaneck, Dances of the World, Diversity Kites, Songs of Freedom, and even gardening – how to make your environment welcoming and beautiful.

The most special part of the day was led by the physical education and art teachers. The students wrote messages of peace and unity and then created banners and signs with their messages. The PE teachers organized runners from both schools, who ran with the banners and signs to houses of worship – churches, synagogues, mosques, and the Baha’i Center - carrying their messages of Unity and Peace. The “finish line” was the Teaneck Administration Building where the superintendent greeted them and cheered their success.

Hallie comments,

“I believe in developing community through the arts, activism, and project-based learning. I was honored to receive the Matthew Feldman Community Relations Award in 2018 but feel that I was only able to accomplish this work because of the amazing people and multicultural atmosphere of Teaneck. I feel so fortunate to have spent over 30 years of my life here and have raised my children in this special place.”
REGISTER TO VOTE NOW
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.
PRESS RELEASE FROM ONE TOWN ONE VOTE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ONE TOWN ONE VOTE

March 30, 2022

Re: Teaneck Voters Puzzled by Increase in Township’s Proposed Election Budget

When the residents of Teaneck overwhelmingly approved the One Town One Vote referendum to move their municipal elections from May to November, they understood this would accomplish two important goals.

First, it would make it easier and more convenient for Teaneck residents to vote for their local leadership by unifying council elections with the general elections in November.

Second, it would save township taxpayers about $50,000 per election, as the costs for running the May election—particularly the extra expenses of setting up voting machines and paying election workers for a single stand-alone election—would be eliminated. These costs will now be covered by the routine costs of the November elections that are run by Bergen County Clerk's office, which is the election authority for the 70 municipalities in Bergen County.

That’s why many Teaneck residents were confounded when they learned that the Township Clerk’s office had increased, not decreased, their proposed election budget for the coming year. According to Chuck Powers, a resident who closely follows the Teaneck council’s budget hearings, no substantive details or explanations were given for the proposed $61,700 increase in the town clerk’s budget for 2022. [A video recording of council’s 10-minute discussion on the topic can be seen at https://youtu.be/v_n8bZlIKME]

Margot Embree Fisher, a resident who worked for passage of the One Town One Vote referendum, said the proposed increase makes no sense. She recalled that “Mayor Dunleavy issued a vaguely-worded statement last fall that seemed to warn that the change would somehow mean more work for the Teaneck town clerk.”

But, Fisher continued, “At a public meeting of the Teaneck Municipal Democratic Committee last week [March 21] the County Clerk, John Hogan, made it abundantly clear that the only change to the Teaneck town clerk's workload would be a decrease in responsibilities, as the town clerk will no longer 1) design the ballot or 2) certify the results of the election. There is no new work, only less work.”

“The question for taxpayers,” Powers said, “is how can the town council possibly justify increasing the burden on Teaneck taxpayers when the unification of elections decreases costs and shifts work away from the town clerk and on to the county?” Fisher noted that she asked this very question in an email sent to the town clerk and Mayor Dunleavy that has gone unanswered.

Reshma Khan, who was one of the One Town One Vote petitioners, noted, “Common sense dictates that the township budget for elections should be decreased by the direct cost savings of the previous May elections, as well as by the indirect cost savings associated with the decrease in the clerk's workload.”

Former NJ State Senator, Loretta Weinberg, who was also a One Town One Vote petitioner, concurred. “Everyone knows that this council fought hard to keep the council elections in May, when voter turnout is very low. But they lost, both in the court of law and in the court of public opinion.” Weinberg continued, “It almost seems as though the council is trying to punish the tax-paying public for supporting the change.”
THE PUBLIC HAS BEEN WAITING
BUT THE COUNCIL HAS NOT ANSWERED THESE QUESTIONS

  • Almost one year ago, last March 10th, Teaneck Council, the Teaneck Library and Fairleigh Dickinson organized a community lecture and lab series called Walk the Talk. What is the follow-up to this effort to put "equity into action"?

  • Why has Planning Board Good & Welfare been moved to the end of the meeting – late at night and after all votes have been taken? 

  • Why does the Council use secret subcommittees (there are 16) to make decisions instead of holding Workshop sessions where the public can listen to discussion and decision-making? 

  • When will the Planning Board enact an OSRP so Teaneck can receive Green Acres funding support? 

  • When will the Council hold a workshop or otherwise ask for input from residents with respect to proposed additional parkland located at 611 Roemer Avenue, 1603 Ardsley Court, and 75 Bedford Avenue?

  • What is happening with the proposed Alfred Avenue development?

  • The 255-unit building for which the developer will pay no taxes?
  • The cannabis development to grow, process, distribute and sell marijuana?
  • Has our council spoken to Englewood Council about our draining into their drainage system and selling cannabis adjacent to their park? 

  • What is happening with the Holy Name Medical Center and Good Neighbors agreement? 

  • Do Teaneck Council and Planning Board still maintain that the American Legion Drive properties constitute a blighted Area in Need of Redevelopment?

  • Is the council planning to honor Former Senator Weinberg in any way? To recognize her as a daughter of Teaneck, for her years of service on the Council, General Assembly and State Senate? Is the Council considering anything - possibly renaming a park or street after her?
THE WEEK THAT WAS
This was a week when both Council and the Board of Adjustment met – and generated
  1. News worth reporting and
  2. Failed to generate information about which the public should have been informed. 

Progress on recognizing Loretta Weinberg?
Maybe, but don’t hold your breath.

After ignoring – for several meetings - resident requests for Council to recognize the work of retired Senator Weinberg, a letter (see first article above Honoring a Lifetime of Service) went to Council last week urging it to rename Argonne Park. The letter was signed by 29 current and former town leaders – whose names were read in G&W. Council’s discussion of the issue was inconclusive at best. Several Council members announced support for a naming, though not necessarily at Argonne Park.

The action actually taken was to appoint a 3-member subcommittee to develop Township policy on “naming recognition” – not necessarily to address the recognition of Senator Weinberg. Council spent many minutes just trying to name the subcommittee to convey the policy focus – not focusing on the Senator at all.

The subcommittee is to consist of members Katz, Rice and Orgen, although Councilman Kaplan (who advocated a firm policy that naming in recognition of a public person await the death or 5 years of an official’s retirement) tried to get himself appointed to the subcommittee and was then named an “alternate”.
The subcommittee was given no timeline for its deliberations. (Click Here and move the cursor to minute 17 to listen to the extended Council deliberations).

The results of this Council discussion were so inconclusive that in Good and Welfare several residents criticized the Council for its delaying tactics and one resident even proposed that residents begin a petition drive to put the Weinberg naming on the November ballot as a referendum.

Progress on steps to obtain Senior Citizen discounts?
A request from the Senior Citizen Advisory Board asking that Council and Chamber of Commerce support Senior Citizen Discounts from Teaneck businesses and restaurants was welcomed by Council. To see Council deliberations, Click Here and move cursor to minute 25).

Land Use Board Action
The Board of Adjustment finally completed action on one of the many applications which have been continued across multiple meetings. The re-proposed parking arrangements to accommodate the expansion of the non-conforming Bergen Veterinary hospital at Teaneck Road and Sackville won unanimous approval among the 5 eligible Board members in attendance as the result of a concerted effort between the facility’s leadership and the Town. (Click Here and move the cursor to the 3:00 hour mark to see the proceedings which resulted in that decision).

The Board made no progress on several applications which have been heard over a full year period.

And the Board generated a new multiple-hearing requirement for a proposed expansion of a dental facility in the Plaza.

Recognition of Bryant School and Ulysses Kay Way was affirmed by including in the Consent Agenda these recognitions as requested by the Teaneck Historic Preservation Commission

Continued secrecy on changes in 2022 Budget.
However, the Council’s Budget Subcommittee Membership was finally identified.
Though the Council agenda for April 5th called for discussion of information generated by both the 3/17 and 3/24 Council budget meetings, there was no mention of the 2022 municipal budget until a resident in Good & Welfare asked for identification of who sits on the 3-member Council budget subcommittee.

The Mayor responded at the end of G&W by saying that he, Pagan and Schwartz form that subcommittee and that its (closed) deliberations have been “spirited” (Click Here and move cursor to 1:42.15)

This subcommittee is making changes in the Manager’s budget book, changes that will apparently not be revealed until they are embedded in the budget that the Manager announced would be Introduced at the 4/26 Council meeting.

For a video look at how budget information is characterized, Click Here 

Website Mistake: The Township website as of 4/10 lists the availability of both the Council 4/5/22 minutes and its minutes packet. In fact, that is a listing error as no minutes are available – only the agendas for that meeting are available.
COVID UPDATES
PARAMUS COVID-19 VACCINE MEGA-SITE
A new COVID-19 vaccine mega-site opened on Wednesday, January 19th at the former Lord & Taylor store, 34 E. Ridgewood Avenue, off Route 17 in the Fashion Center in Paramus.

Operated by Hackensack Meridian Health, the mega-site will provide children ages 5 and older as well as adults initial vaccine doses and boosters.

Hours of operation are as follows: Tuesdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Wednesdays, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Appointments can be scheduled at www.hackensackmeridianhealth.org/en/covid19/schedule
and walk-ins are also welcome.
Rapid COVID-19 Test Kits Available for Free from USPS
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.
RODDA CENTER

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.
Please wear a mask and maintain social distancing while visiting the library. Other Covid restrictions have been removed. Contactless door-side pickup is available. 
UPCOMING MUNICIPAL MEETINGS
Just two Township entity meetings are scheduled for this week, and only one, the Planning Board, is one where meeting access and agenda information can be expected.

If additional Planning Board information is released, it will be found on the Teaneck Voices website home page under the category Meetings Calendar (or Click Here).

Note: Council has scheduled no more meetings until April 26 and the Manager has announced that he will bring a budget ready for Introduction to that Council meeting. See above The Week that Was to review the very little more that we know about either budget substance or process beyond what is found in the Manager’s Budget Book.

Cedar Lane Management Group
Wednesday April 13, 2022 at 6:30pm.
Public access and opportunity for input limited by the  Advisory Board ordinance (*see ordinance below)

Teaneck Planning Board (PB)
Thursday April 14, 2022 at 8:00pm
It is assumed that this will be a zoom meeting but neither the zoom link or anything about the meeting agenda has been publicly released.

Note: In the Council meeting last week, Deputy Mayor Schwartz referred to the 4/14 Planning Board meeting agenda when discussing his intention to hold community discussions about selected Areas in Need of Redevelopment sometime in the future. A summary of those comments is immediately below. The entire Schwartz statement at Council is found in the 4-minute video which you can Click Here.

*Quote from Ordinance 15-2020 on Advisory Boards adopted by Council on August 11, 2020: 

“Council’s advisory Board meetings are closed to the public. The public can submit items for discussion to the Council’s advisory board chair and council liaison for review and potential for inclusion on their meeting agenda. If the item is placed on the agenda, the chair, with approval of their Council’s advisory board, may invite the member of the public to come and speak to them about the specific issue they want to have discussed”.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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

The Board of Adjustment
The Board of Adjustment continues to run far behind with “scheduled” delays and continuations of applicant hearings requiring multiple sessions now stretching out until at least June. No schedule of agendas for those regular and special meetings are available except that information can be obtained by watching all of prior Board of Adjustment meetings.

For example, how would a resident know how to access the concluding 6th hearing discussion of the 54 W. Englewood application for a 20-unit multi-family facility proposed to be located in a residential single-unit (R/S) zone?

Just 48 hours before the 4/7 BofA meeting, the 54 W. Englewood application was finally listed on the agenda.

Despite this, no reference to that application was made for 3 hours into the actual 4/7 meeting – and when it was finally cited, it was for the purpose of deciding that the application was not, in fact, going to be heard on 4/7 but was being moved to the 5/5 meeting without any notice to the public. And that “delay again” change was squeezed in between two other long applications. If you want to hear it Click Here and move the cursor to 2:57:30 of the Town video

And maybe not then! The 54 W. Englewood application is more than a year old – and there is a serious question whether a quorum of BofA members who have read transcripts or attended all previous hearings will be present. Note that in the 4/7 meeting, leadership struggled to show a quorum eligible to approve applications of much more recent vintage.

The Planning Board
This Board has recently received several assignments from Council requesting that proposed Areas in Need of Redevelopment (AINRs) be investigated, but no schedule for review of those findings has been released.

In fact, no discussion of any sort about even considering an AINR area has been heard by the Planning Board since June, 24, 2021, even though Council has proposed to add no less than 4 additional areas of AINR blight. (For other Teaneck Voices' articles of AINR and blight see Click Here.)


No Planning Board review intended to lead to a vote on the adoption of the Town’s Open Space and Recreation Plan (OSRP) has been scheduled by the PB since the Board received a draft OSRP document in October 2019 – 2½ years ago. The State requires municipalities to update their OSRP’s every 10 years and Teaneck’s last state-approved OSRP document was completed 15 years ago - in 2007.

The judge overseeing the Stop & Shop AINR litigation has scheduled the next Case Conference with litigants (S&S, the Planning Board and Township) for June 9.

Council frequently congratulates itself for having created competent and well-led land use boards. We suspect that that view is not widely shared among those who follow them.
Events at the Library: Click here
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MASTHEAD
Editorial Board
Natalee Addison
Laraine Chaberski
Toniette H. Duncan
LaVerne Lightburn
Charles W. Powers
Bernard Rous
Micki Shilan
Barbara Ley Toffler

Supporters
Denise Belcher
Juanita Brown
Margot Embree Fisher
Gail Gordon
Guy Thomas Lauture
Gloria Wilson
Contributors
Bettina Hempel
Dennis Klein
Henry Pruitt
Howard Rose

Advisors
Theodora Smiley Lacey
Loretta Weinberg