Hackensack, NJ Community Message Boards

This racist flyer is being distributed in certain areas of Hackensack..  Those involved should be ashamed and the rest of us should be disgusted.

Mr. Morrow wrote a book "Way Down South Up North" about growing up in the somewhat segregated community of Hackensack.  His sister was the first African American school teacher to obtain a teaching position in Hackensack (Nellie K. Parker).  Interesting reading if it is still in print.

I believe that a bank will be built on the site.

The Board of Adjustment hearing on the LTACH was devoted to questions about the impact of traffic and parking.  The public questioned the applicant’s traffic expert and there were several issues of concern that were raised.

The traffic engineer testified that he was not able to find a comparable facility, LTACH, dialysis and adult day care all in one building, and that required information dealing with number of employees for each activity and their shifts, hours of operation for each facility as well as number of deliveries, vans, ambulances, etc was all provided by the applicant.  This raised concerns because the applicant’s facility, Prospect Heights, has significantly less parking than necessary and delivery vans have limited access to the building on Prospect Avenue.  There was also concern that Prospect Heights’ employees that now park off site will utilize the LTACH garage reducing the available parking.  The traffic engineer had not considered this anticipate problem.

The other major issue was the impact of the additional traffic on the existing situation on Summit and Prospect Avenues.  The engineer had never visited the site during the morning hours and was apparently unaware of the long lines of traffic at the traffic lights at the four controlled intersections studied.  The engineer was clearly of the opinion that there was so much traffic already on Summit and Prospect Avenues that the additional traffic projected from the new facility would have little impact.  Questions raised by Summit Avenue residents who testified there were times they could not exit their driveway because of the continuous line of cars in the street were not addressed.  The ability of delivery vans to access the LTACH were of concern to the residents on Prospect Avenue because it would require traffic to be stopped to allow the vans to enter the driveway.  Stopping traffic on Prospect Avenue, which is used by many emergency vehicles, was of no concern to the engineer.

The Board of Adjustments expects to have an additional traffic report by their traffic expert available for the next meeting in February.

Highlights of Bergen Passaic LTAC April 15 hearing

The hearing was limited to testimony by the applicant, Mr. Richard Pineles and to questions from the zoning board and the audience.  The hearing ended at 10:30 PM and will be continued at a special meeting on May 14.  The first order of business is expected to be continued questioning of Mr. Pineles.  Some highlights from the meeting:

The proposed LTAC would occupy 12 stories and would accommodate 144 inpatient beds.  The applicant presented a certificate of need to the board.  It was noted that the certificate was for 72 beds and not for the 144 beds proposed.  This issue was not resolved.

The top 4 stories would house an 84 patient dialysis center.  The center would operate from 6:00 AM to 5:30 PM, 6 days per week and could handle about 250 patients a day.  Assuming that as many as 20-25 patients per day are residents of the LTAC facility, that leaves some 225 patients per day to be transported to the facility.  Logistics of the transportation have not yet been discussed in detail.

In addition to these activities, the facility would have a medical adult day care facility with a capacity of 250 clients at any time.  This program would operate from 7:30 AM to 5:30 PM, 6 days a week.  Logistics of the transportation of these clients remains to be discussed in detail.

The applicant indicated the facility would employee some 500 people, both on day and shift work and that these employees would be assigned to park in the on site 5-story below grade garage.  When questioned about employee parking at Prospect West (336 Prospect Ave), the applicant admitted that there was insufficient parking and that employees were required to park nearby on the street, but that would not be the case for this facility.

I encourage others to add their observations.