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Teaneck Library Prepares for its Renovation



PUBLISHED BY TEANECK VOICES

7/1/2024

Contents:

  • Teaneck Library Prepares for its Renovation
  • County’s Home Improvement Program – A Partial Alternative to AINRs?
  • Results: The June Democratic & Republican Results Unpacked
  • 200 Gather for Reshma Kahn’s Council Campaign Launch
  • The Week That Was – June 24 to 30, 2024
  • This Week in Teaneck –July 1 to 7, 2024
  • Current Line-Up for the 4th of July Parade


Announcements

  • 4th of July Flyer
  • The July 4th Votee Celebration


Contacting Teaneck Voices:

  • Email: teaneckvoices@gmail.com
  • Phone: 201-214-4937
  • USPS Mail: Teaneck Voices, PO Box 873. at 1673 Palisade Ave. 07666

Teaneck Library Prepares for its Renovation

By now, our readers presumably know that the Teaneck Library will be closed for a major $1.6M renovation, likely sometime in September. The renovation may take only 8-10 months but the Library is making plans now to accommodate a 1 year renovation period.


In the past 10 days the Library has made a concerted effort not only to explain what is being renovated (and why) but also how Teaneck residents can continue to conduct library business during the hometown facility shutdown.


Library Director Hyun gave a 4-minute update on renovation plans at the beginning of Teaneck Council’s June meeting. Voices has created a YouTube video of her statement at youtube.com or click the picture below

A one-hour briefing about the renovation and the alternate library services available was given at a well-attended meeting in the Library auditorium on Sunday afternoon June 22. That briefing included a 14-slide presentation and a Q&A period. Images of 3 key slides are included at the end of this article and the entire slide presentation is available if you click here:


Full Presentation Slide Deck


A major issue is how residents can obtain a nearly full set of library services in the interim once our library closes. The primary locus of services (including the transfer of several library staff) will be at the New Milford Library located at 200 Dahlia. (The quickest route is north on River Road to Ridge St. in New Milford – take a right and bear right to the Library on your right). This simple map provides the route.

New Milford’s library has agreed to expand hours to nearly replicate the Teaneck Library schedule – including on Sunday afternoons. However, Teaneck Library card holders can borrow and return library holdings to any of the 78 libraries in the BCCLS (https://www.bccls.org/)


For readers who want a condensed 2-page Q & A of all this prepared by the Library, go to Voices’ website Click Here


Finally, our Teaneck Library is preparing a special renovation web page for its website (www.teanecklibrary.org) that should, according to Librarian Hyun be available soon.

County’s Home Improvement Program – A Partial Alternative to AINRs?

In last week’s Voices edition (Click Here), we addressed the ongoing discussion about whether Teaneck should hire a Code Compliance Officer as an effective way to maintain both private and commercial property in Teaneck to ensure high quality of life and property values for our residents.  (See attached letter from a Voices reader)


Those on our Council who oppose hiring such an official worry that more rigorous enforcement of our code would lead to neighbor-to-neighbor harassment. Some suggest that the real victims of such enforcement would be those residents least able to afford the cost of code-compliant repair.  Their alternative – further implementation of Areas in Need of Redevelopment (AINRs) – has thus far had mostly the horrific effect of handing developers special tax breaks for the erection of huge rental facilities detrimental to residential neighborhoods. One side effect of the AINR solution is that options for smaller-scale development – including auxiliary dwelling units (ADUs) remain stalled. 


But what if as integral to a new code-administration effort the Town could direct the attention of those whose properties need improvement to a funding source ready to underwrite the cost of repair – with interest-free home improvement loans with no monthly payments or fees whose principal need be repaid only when the property is sold or changes title?  Could there be a program where Teaneck property-owning residents themselves simply reach out to the County officials to move through a relatively uncomplicated process? 


Just a Fantasy, right? No! 


In fact, for years Bergen County’s Community Development Division has offered its HIP program – its Home Improvement Program - that is making 25-35 loans a year to income-eligible Bergen County home and condo owners.  The program makes loans up to $17,500, the one-page application for which is clickable on the program’s website.  The types of improvements covered by the program include virtually all of the code-challenged repairs an enforcer could cite.  


Could HIP address issues currently cited as the blight that ushers in the AINR process? Yes! As each has been completed, Voices has reviewed all 9 of the Town planner AINR “investigations” where “blight” has been identified. The clear majority of the individual property citations could have been completely addressed by much less than the $17,500 that HIP’s loans can provide. 


If the search engine on the current Town website is correct, no mention of this HIP program has been made on the website in at least the past 5 years. And we certainly know of no outreach about it to Teaneck residents.


Our readers need not wait for the Council to refocus its cumbersome “how do we spruce up our town” bias by always invoking the incredibly expensive, litigious, and neighborhood-destroying process that AINRs involve. We urge those of you who want to explore your eligibility for HIP to read what is found on the HIP website. Click Here


Check out the current HIP flyers – in English and Espanol – immediately below.

Letter from a Voices Reader about Litter

Dear Teaneck Voices,


Thank you for your knowledge base, community vigilance, and informative reports to the township residents. Your write-up about codes and lack of enforcement prompted this note.


In the spirit of sharing, I would like to let you know that the high levels of litter in Teaneck have prompted me to go out with trash bags and gloves and collect garbage on many occasions. 


When I have asked the police department to follow through on fining those who litter (Teaneck has a code) I've been told in so many words that they have bigger fish to fry and that many people dump their residential garbage in public trash bins instead of paying for garbage removal, straining the already-full public trash bins. (My issue is with random litter discarded nowhere near trash bins.)


As the Teaneck population continues to grow, combating increased litter and public apathy about it is just one more thing that the township must account for.  


Last week, I collected 5 Hefty bags of litter from the (long overdue for renovation) Teaneck/Hackensack Bridge and surrounding areas on Anderson Ave. No doubt the townships will both say that this area is a "no man's land" belonging to neither Teaneck nor Hackensack and thus beyond their aegis. It may take for me to ask the Hackensack City council to ask the sanitation crew of Johnson Park, which abuts the bridge, to take on this task.


Since no good deed goes unpunished, I will add that in spite of every protective glove and clothing worn, I got mites/scabies from the bridge trash collection. (Not looking for sympathy here.)

Results: The June Democratic & Republican Results Unpacked

What’s with the election of Republican and Democrat party officials every two years in the Town’s June primaries? 

By voting in the June 4, 2024 primary, party-affiliated and registered Teaneck residents - both Democrat & Republican - selected new or incumbent residents to positions on either the Bergen County Democrat or Republican Committee.


Simultaneously, these selected residents became members of their party’s municipal committee. Each of Teaneck’s 23 voting districts had the opportunity to choose 2 residents - irrespective of gender - to represent the district in their party’s county and municipal committees.  In principle, a potential of 46 residents from each party could have been selected. 


The 2024 primary did not select 46 members for each party’s committees.  44 Democrat members were chosen in the primary – there was no selection of Democratic members from Teaneck voting district 23 (see below). There were Republican members selected from 17 of the 23 Teaneck voting districts, although only one Republican member was chosen in two of those 17 districts. 


For readers who want to know who now represents their voting district, there exists only one official document of which Voices is aware to find out who and by what vote party committee members were chosen for BOTH parties.  That document is available on the Teaneck website at Click Here - or go to the Elections section of the Clerk’s Documents and Forms entry and scroll until you find the document 2024 Primary County Committee Summary Report with Write-In Details - 6-14-24.pdf.


If you want to see the results for Democrats, go to that document’s pages 34 to 37. To see the Republican results go to pages 67 to 68. 


This year’s Teaneck democratic party primary was unusually contested and drew a higher than routine number of eligible party voters to the polls in many voting districts.  The Bergen County Democratic Committee supported 34 named candidates of whom 27 were selected; the Bergen County Jewish Action Committee supported 24 named of whom 16 were selected.

To place a name on the ballot for either party required submission of petitions to the Township Clerk – and the number that each potential candidate had to submit was 5% of the votes cast from that voting district in the preceding primary.  Typically that 5% can be a very low number since turnout in primaries is typically low.


But if NO potential candidate had submitted the required number of petitions in a specific district, there could still be a primary winner if enough party-affiliated voters had written in a specific name.  To count, the required number of write-ins is, again, 5% of the votes cast in that party’s voting district in the relevant preceding primary.  For example, we can see how primary write-ins played an important role in the selection of this year’s Democratic committee members. In District 11 there was only one named candidate on the ballot – but there were more than 100 write-ins for Alan Sohn who was, then, selected as the second committee member for that district. By contrast, in District 23, no candidates had submitted the required petitions, but there were 11 valid write-in votes.  There were, however, only 2 write-ins for any one individual in this year’s District 23 Democratic primary.  Since 70 votes had been cast in the relevant prior primary, a write-in candidate needed 5% of 70 (i.e. 3.5 rounded up to 4) to be selected. Hence, no write-ins from District 23 were selected in the 2024 primary.


What happens when the primary itself leaves a potential party member’s seat vacant? By state statute, according to the Bergen County clerk’s selection office, the party’s own by-laws specify how each party’s selected membership can then  - if they so desire - make appointments to fill the vacancy. In this case, at the re-organization meeting of the Teaneck Democratic Municipal Committee (TDMC) that occurred on Monday, June 24, 2024, the newly-elected TDMC members by roll-call vote selected the two members for District 23. The two selected (Helen Hamilton and Marlon Sheppard) were, as it happens, both eligible Democratic voters who live in District 23. However, the committee could have chosen individuals from any Township voting district. In sum, the TDMC now has its full complement of 46 members

The TDMC’s 6/24/2024 re-organization meeting also selected TDMC’s new officers by roll-call vote.  Alexandra Soriano-Taveras was re-elected Chair; Quran Gee & James Edmonds were selected Vice-Chairs; Noah Liben was selected Recording Secretary, Shahanaz Ajumand was selected Corresponding Secretary; Tom Abbott was selected Treasurer.  TDMC’s website is Click Here.


Voices has not been able to learn when the Town’s new Republican committee will next meet. Click Here for the Teaneck Republican website 

200 Gather for Reshma Kahn’s Council Campaign Launch

On a perfect Thursday, June 27 afternoon, at least 200 gathered in FDU’s Rutherford Room for a launch of the 2024 Teaneck general election calendar by way of a vibrant and enthusiastic introduction of her Teaneck Council candidacy by community activist Reshma Kahn. 


Kahn is best known in Teaneck for her unprecedentedly effective leadership in gathering the several thousand 2020 petitions that paved the way to the Town electorate’s decision to consolidate its elections – including its biennial Council elections - in November.  At the launch, her advocates repeatedly emphasized that Kahn would not only bring organizing skills but to Council her advanced management training with degrees from respected management schools in both India and the United States and significant subsequent managerial experience. 


Pointedly promising to represent every Teaneck resident if elected, the candidate was preceded to the microphone by a parade of diverse Teaneck leaders and office holders (past & present; municipal and state).  Observers were quick to note that the numbers and groups included in the launch’s turnout signaled an unprecedented level of early support for a candidate entering electoral politics for the first time. 


Kahn also promised to devote her campaign and office-holding to local Teaneck issues, likely an unspoken reference to the recent failure of some Teaneck officeholders to devote time and attention to issues crucial to  Teaneck’s functioning and well-being – particularly fiscal ones – while embroiling the residents in international issues that create inflammatory emotion and rhetoric between cultural groups in town.  


Importantly because of Reshma’s tenacious 2020 work, Teaneck will on November 5 be electing 3 Council members for 4-year terms at the same time they elect 3 members of the Board of Education for 3-year terms, while also voting for a President, a US Senator, a Congress member, a County Sheriff and two members of the County’s governing board, its Commissioners. 


Note:  Reshma Khan’s campaign launch is the first of others we will see in this campaign season. We expect Voices will be invited to attend these campaign kick-offs for other local candidates.  To the extent possible we will continue to provide our readers with news these events may generate.

The Week That Was – June 24 to 30, 2024

The Township’s advisory boards were the focus of most of the Town’s public meetings this week. Several of these were canceled. Voices has some information about several but not all of the meetings for which there were no videos or videos posted. Minutes of all the meetings should eventually (by Code) be published.


Advisory Board on Community Relations – Tuesday, June 25. The discussion apparently focused on the ACBR’s selection of Feldman award winners.


Teaneck Historic Preservation Commission – Wednesday, June 26 – See the Commission’s posted video Click Here



Municipal Open Space Trust Committee – Wednesday, June 25 – Discussion included review of current and pending park projects and discussion of the Council resolution with language for the 2024 MOST voluntary taxation referendum for 2005-8 that voters will be asked to approve on November 5, 2024. The Council’s 2024 language tracks with prior MOST referenda. The Committee’s video is posted at Click Here

This Week in Teaneck –July 1 to 7, 2024

Jaclyn Hashmat becomes Teaneck’s Manager – Monday, July 1, 2024. Teaneck Voices welcomes the Township’s new chief executive on her first day.  Readers may want to review the Township Code’s list of the Manager’s Duties, the Council resolution making her appointment, and her employment contract, all of which are found as the lead post on Teaneck Voices website, or Click Here


Teaneck Celebrates July 4 – Thursday, July 4 begins with the parade down Queen Anne to Votee and the Family Celebrations in Votee.  See our 3 July 4th  Announcements

Current Line-up for the Teaneck Annual 4th of July Parade

WILL YOU MARCH WITH US? Township of Teaneck Annual 4th of July Parade | Current Line-up & Invitation


Teaneck Independence Day Parade - Thursday, July 4, 2024

Line-up at 9:00 AM, March at 9:30 AM


West end of Queen Anne Road, beginning near Highwood Street, ending at Votee Park. We recommend viewing after Johnson Ave.


Below is the current lineup. If you would like to participate, please email clerk@teanecknj.gov with your organization's info & an estimated amount of participants.


For any updated info or last-minute additions, please check our website - www.teanecknj.gov - & Facebook page - @TeaneckNJgov. Please contact clerk@teanecknj.gov with any questions.


First Division – Queen Anne Road – CVS Parking Lot – Highwood St.

Teaneck Police Department Escort; Teaneck Fire Department Color Guard; Bergen County Sheriff’s Department


Second Division – Queen Anne Road – Queens Court

Bergen County Firefighters Pipe Band; Teaneck Township Council; NJ LD-37 Assembly; Bergen County Commissioners; Teaneck Board of Education; Teaneck Youth Advisory Board; Teaneck Poet Laureate


Third Division – Queen Anne Road – Grove Street

Blue Chip Chorus; Girl Scouts of the United States, Teaneck Chapter; Boy Scouts of America & Cub Scouts; Teaneck Community Charter School; St. Mark’s Episcopal Church; 40+ Double Dutch; United Methodist Church; Black Box Studios; Teaneck Food Pantry; National Coalition of 100 Black Women; 4 Corners Church; Teaneck Jewish Community; Teaneck Road Business Community Alliance


Fourth Division – Queen Anne Road – Pine Street

Clarity Festival Band #1; American Legion Post #128 and Auxiliary; Veterans of Foreign War Post #1429; Jewish War Veterans; Cedar Lane Management Group; Teaneck Chamber of Commerce; Rotary Club of Teaneck; Advisory Board on Community Relations; Fairleigh Dickinson University; Teaneck Creek Conservancy; Brightside Family/Age-Friendly Teaneck; Five Star Living; Friends of the Teaneck Library


Fifth Division – Queen Anne Road – Herrick Avenue

Teaneck Republican Municipal Committee; Teaneck Peace and Justice Coalition; Coalition of Teaneck Neighborhood Associations; Veterans for Peace, Chapter 21 NJ; Teaneck Democratic Municipal Committee; One Town One Vote; St. Anastasia Church; Filipino American Society of Teaneck (F.A.S.T.); Arbor Terrace; Teaneck Juneteenth Committee; Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Bergen County Chapter; Kappa Alpha Psi; AUCC; Garden Club of Teaneck;


 Sixth Division – Queen Anne Road – Van Buren Street

John Duke Band #1; Teaneck High School Football Team; Teaneck Athletic Organizations; Teaneck Lancers; Teaneck Southern Little League; Teaneck Junior Soccer League; Teaneck Junior Football League; Teaneck Jr Basketball League; John Duke Band #2


Seventh Division – Queen Anne Road – Griggs Avenue

Ohr Saadya Band; Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Bergen County Chapter; Nu Beta Beta Chapter (Omega Psi Phi Fraternity); Teaneck League of Women Voters; Teaneck Golden Eagles; Pathfinders and Adventurer Club; Alpha Sigma Chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.; Mary Kay Cosmetics; Bischoff's


Eighth Division – Queen Anne Road – Sherman Ave/Johnson Ave

Clarity Festival Band #2; Teaneck Volunteer Ambulance Color Guard; Teaneck Volunteer Ambulance Corps; Teaneck Fire Department and Chief; Box54 and Field Unit

Announcements

Contacting Teaneck Voices


Co-Editors: Dr. Barbara Ley Toffler and Dr. Chuck Powers

IT Editor: Sarah Fisher

By Email: teaneckvoices@gmail.com

By Phone: 201-214-4937

By USPS Mail: Teaneck Voices, PO Box 873. at 1673 Palisade Ave. 07666

Teaneck Voices' Website is www.teaneckvoices.com


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