Juvenile Detention Center

[Editor]

This is an ongoing debate. The original location in Paramus was the prime candidate for the new Juvenile Detention Center, but the residents successfully shot it down. 

Rockleigh is the next candidate:  Click here for story.

Hackensack has been mentionend a bunch of times. 

"There are buildings that have been abandoned here [in Hackensack] for years that could be made use of," he said in an interview. "That centralizes your officers, your medical staff and your support staff in one area."

Freeholder Tomas Padilla, a Hackensack police officer, said he opposes building a center in the county seat, because it is already home to several county agencies, the jail and the county homeless shelter.

[Editor]

Latest story:  Rockleigh detention center plan falters

[Editor]

Latest story:  Proposed juvenile jail's remoteness questioned

[Editor]

Latest story: Teterboro site eyed for juvenile jail

[Editor]

From today's "Your Views" in the Record:

It is about time the Bergen County Juvenile Detention Center finds a new home ("Teterboro site eyed for juvenile jail," Page L-1, July 18). After former Republican administrations let this issue lie dormant for years, County Executive Dennis McNerney is showing leadership in planning to relocate the center to Teterboro.

Due to its proximity to major highways, this location is easily accessible by car and public transportation. It is also located near other county facilities that families may need.

I urge the borough of Teterboro to work with the county to make this proposal a reality.

Lou Bigelow
Ridgefield Park, July 1

I read "Teterboro site eyed for juvenile jail" (Page L-1, July 18) concerning Bergen County's attempt to spend $8.8 million to buy a 2½-acre warehouse property for conversion into a replacement juvenile detention center. It would be interesting to know what the total conversion cost would be, since the property certainly meets no standards as a detention facility now.

Another more pointed question arises: Why does the county need to spend more money on yet another ratable piece of private property? Based on 1999 assessor's records, Bergen County owned well over 9,000 acres of land in 45 towns -- over 14 square miles, or about all of Paramus and Hackensack combined. That excludes any acquisitions made in the last six years, like the site of the new homeless center.

Surely the county has a site the right size available somewhere; it's less than .02 percent of the county's holdings. Do the freeholders really need more land? Can't they think of a less expensive solution, such as adding another floor onto the proposed homeless shelter?

Of course the cost is a lot less "expensive" than the loss of votes if the freeholders again propose construction in anything but an industrial area. The Teterboro choice is a low political risk and involves no courage to make, but in light of the over-taxation of our citizens, isn't about time the county used more brains and guts and less taxpayer money?

Douglas F. Job
Paramus, July 19

[ericmartindale]

I think it's a great idea.  When everyone from Paramus was at the Freeholder meetings screaming, I was the one who first said publicly to put it in Teterboro.  And a year or so later, when everyone from Rockleigh and Northvale was screaming, I again said to put it in Teterboro.

Why Teterboro? Teterboro is nothing but a tax haven for industry.

I explained to the Freeholders at their public meetings that there are 70 municipalities in Bergen County, but there is only one that has NO RIGHT to complain about the loss of ratables. That town is Teterboro.  They have no right because the whole town is setup from DAY ONE to have as little population as possible, so that the industries there don't have to support a school, a real police department, etc. That's why property taxes there are virtually nothing.

Those who say Teterboro was selected because there are few voters there to object are off base.  There's a philosophical reason behind it, and it amounts to SOCIAL JUSTICE. These industries should support social services in their community, and finally it is happening. If anyone doesn't like it, they can complain directly to me, since I'm the one who floated the idea in the first place.  It's good to know the Freeholders are listening to public comments at their hearings.

And I still say, as I did almost 20 years ago in a letter to the Editor of The Record, that Teterboro should be abolished as a municpality altogether.

[hamburglar]

The county freeholder board would have zero accomplishments if they didn't have Eric pulling their strings.

[average Joe]

wait hamburglar,you mean eric DIDNT invent the intermet?

[Editor]

Record editorial:  Problems with third try to build juvenile jail

[Editor]

Latest story:  Juvenile detention facility advances

[Editor]

County quietly opens juvenile detention center
Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2013 9:11 pm
by John Ensslin

Quietly and without any fanfare, Bergen County’s $22.7 million juvenile detention center in Teterboro has opened for business.
 
The center took in its first eight clients of Feb. 7 when a group of Bergen County juveniles were returned from Union County, where they had been housed on a contract basis.
 
County officials disclosed that the facility is open during the freeholder’s budget hearing Wednesday for the County Human Services Department
 
The department would see 24 percent increase in salaries and wages under the budget proposed by County Executive Kathleen Donovan, rising from $6.4 million to $8 million.
 
Much of that is due to operating the juvenile detention center and a related youth shelter which will cost about $1.8 annually to run, officials said.
 
The building’s price tag, operating costs and relatively small population prompted some “buyer remorse” among some freeholders.
 
“I understand that the state is regulating us to do certain things,” Freeholder John Mitchell said. “I just think there probably would have been a better way to do it, a more economical way.”
 
County Administrator Ed Trawinski said when the Republicans took control of county government in January 2011, they initially suspended construction.
 
“We came to the conclusion that the cost of terminating the construction would put an additional burden on the tax payer,” Trawinski said.
 
He said the state juvenile justice commission mandated most of the features that drove up the cost of the project. And the county’s old juvenile detention center in Paramus could no longer be operated in a safe way, he said.
 
Before the first juveniles arrived, the building was pressed into service in October as a temporary shelter for Moonachie and Little Ferry residents who were displaced by flooding in the wake of Superstorm Sandy.

[just watching]

I remember the very first person to publicly call for moving the Detention Center from Paramus to Teterboro. It was at a Freeholder Meeting in which Paramus residents were up in arms about the existence of the facility near their homes, and some were calling to find a new location in Hackensack, anywhere in Hackensack.  A Hackensack resident then made the argument that Teterboro is a tax haven for industry with a very very low tax rate, almost nobody lives there for the relocation decision to be a political liability, it's only a mile and some change to the Bergen County Courthouse, and that Teterboro contributes nothing as a location for the social service needs of Bergen County.  Now, so many years later, it has happened.