I am posting this information for my husband, a candidate running in the city council election, because he has not received confirmation of a screen name on this site. He applied monts ago and as yet has not been approved.
1. The Pension Holiday: Deferring the pensions is not in the interest of the citizens. This deferrment comes with 8 ½ % interest. The interest the first year alone will come to about $240,000. Add that to the interest for the remaining years and that pension deferral will cost almost double. Can’t for the life of me think of a reason why you think that is good for the taxpayers.
2. The Emergency Training facility = unnecessary burden on the taxpayers. We already have a state of the art facility in Mahwah. Why burden the taxpayers with a duplicate of something we use for free. If you were at the last council meeting you would have heard our city leaders state they will still be using the facility in Mahwah. Yes we pay county taxes for that facility but we will continue to pay those taxes after this facility is built. We also will pay heating and air conditioning costs, maintenance, instructors, and of course added insurance.
3. At the last council meeting, the city leaders claimed they are not sure what the emergency training building will be used for. They also stated the cost will be about 1.2 million. Add it up. $1 million dollars was appropriated for this facility in 2006 and a bond for $950,000 of the $1M was sold in 2007. We have been paying interest on this bond since then. As reported in the county seat, $575,000 of the $1M (from HUMC) is going towards this bldg. At the last council meeting $400,000 more was appropriated for this building. $950,000 plus $575,000 plus $400,000 comes to 1 million eight hundred seventy five thousand dollars. So far! All for a building the city leaders said they are not sure of what the use will be. Do you really believe this is in the best interest of the residents??
4. Don’t forget this building is in a flood zone and the City Manager stated they will raise the roads to get to the building. And, don’t forget there will be mandatory testing of the soil. If lead is found and the soil and needs to be remediated, the cost will skyrocket. Resident requests that the council hold off on this project until the soil testing was complete fell on deaf ears.
It would have been nice if the $575, 000 earmarked for the emergency training facility went to creating better recreation facilities for the children living in this city. If there is a true need for anothrer command post, why not utilize the Anderson Street property the city recently purchased or one of the many other properties the city owns?