Mayor's Address
Good evening, everyone and Happy New Year. Like you, I am so grateful to be a member of this great community. Each year seems to bring more good fortune to our community and 2024 was no exception.
I want to welcome our three newly elected Councilpersons Don Rinaldo, Valerie Wass and Alex Vandusen. I know that they will continue to lead Mountainside by maintaining low and stable taxes, maintaining our property values which continue to rise, supporting a high level of services that our residents expect and deserve by providing recreation programs for residents of all ages, maintaining and improving our infrastructure, our roads, and sewer system and to preserve the single-family residential character of our community. I am sure that these new Council people will provide new and innovative ideas to further improve the quality of life in Mountainside.
I have always fought to maintain the high quality of life that makes Mountainside the attractive community that it is, and I will continue to do so. In order to keep taxes stable, I will continue to do what we have always done.
First, we will continue to vigorously apply for grants. In 2024 we received over $725,000 in grants. We have already been approved for $302,976 in grants for 2025 and we will continue to vigorously apply for additional grants and expect at least another $500,000 in grants for the upcoming year. These grants will help cover the cost of maintaining our infrastructure, our roads, and our sewer system and to enhance and expand the services and programs we provide our residents.
This past year we completed curb construction, drainage improvements, driveway repairs, milling, and paving of Shore Drive, Bayberry Lane, Birch Hills Constitution Plaza, Rolling Rock and the Library parking lot. In addition, we are in phase 20 of our Pothole Repair Program. We have repaired hundreds of potholes at a cost of $44,000.
Through our website you are now able to report potholes on all Borough roads. These requests will be investigated by our DPW Superintendent and added to our list to repair if warranted.
We received a $50,000 Federal Grant which was used to purchase turnout gear for our volunteer Fire Department and a state and County grants to light the tennis / pickleball court and Deerfield School. This Thursday we will be flipping the switch for these lights for the first time in 8 years. Union County grants were obtained by the Municipal Alliance for incorporating strategies in the schools and the community that address underage drug and alcohol awareness and to help support senior services to fund our Handyman Programs for seniors who qualify, to install smoke and CO2 detectors for free and to offer transportation to seniors two times per week.
Second, we also continue to participate in multiple shared services that keep our taxes under control, including the Joint Insurance Fund, Westfield Board of Health, UC Server for Information, Flu Clinics, UC Public Assistance, UC First Alert, UC Print Shop, UC DPW Equipment and Truck Loan Program, Emergency Services Mutual Aid Program, which includes Police, Fire, and Rescue. We have also entered into a shared Services Agreement with the Board of Education to provide 2 full time Police Officers to help enhance the security of our children, teachers, and staff at Deerfield and Beechwood Schools. We also provide snow plowing services to the Board of Education. These cost savings and grants enable us to better serve our residents and boost our quality of life with a variety of recreational programs and infrastructure enhancements. For example, the Recreation Department has expanded upon existing programs for children, adults, and seniors to include additional multisport camps, more pickleball lessons and lacrosse camps. The recreation department works with our senior citizen coordinator to improve programming for our seniors including health and fitness classes, game nights, technology workshops, Bingo, and craft events.
However, the true essence of why Mountainside is such a great community is “Our Volunteers”. Volunteers are the fabric of small town living and the backbone of our community. We have a great Volunteer Fire Department as well as a Volunteer Rescue Squad. Through their leadership, both organizations have been able to recruit new members, especially young members, allowing both organizations to respond quickly and effectively when emergencies arise. They continue to spend countless hours in training, preparing and maintaining equipment to keep Mountainside safe. We owe the Fire Department and Rescue Squad a great deal of gratitude for their services. I thank both organizations, they are fabulous. However, even though they have done a great job in recruiting, it doesn’t mean they don’t need more volunteers. If anyone is interested in volunteering, they should contact the Fire Department and Rescue Squad or Borough Hall. We also have a number of volunteer organizations: Mountainside Youth Softball and Baseball, the Elks, Mountainside PAL, VFW, Lions Club, Rotary Club, Friends of the Library, Beautiful Mountainside. We have Daisy, Girl Scouts, Brownies, Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts. We just passed another proclamation for an Eagle Scouts. Since I have been on Council and have been Mayor, our town has had 22 Eagle Scouts. These are all excellent volunteer organizations that help to provide numerous additional programs for our children and adults (including seniors), and I encourage all who can volunteer for these incredibly important organizations to join them.
Together with our residents we have celebrated many outstanding community events in 2024 which include the Annual Baseball and Softball Parade, Memorial Day Celebration and Parade, the Annual 4th of July Fireworks, National Night Out, Veterans Day Celebration, Tree Lighting, and various activities at the Hetfield House and Levi Cory House and the Menorah Lighting. All of these events just enhance the small-town suburban feeling of Mountainside.
I wanted to also provide the following updates. This past year, the state has established Mountainside Affordable Housing Requirement for the fourth round at 177 units. The Borough Professionals are working to reduce and satisfy this requirement while still maintaining the single family residential character of Mountainside. The Borough is also working with two of the largest landowners in the Borough to ensure when their properties are developed for single family residential homes only.
The New DPW Garage facility is almost completed. This building will give the DPW a true facility to store their equipment which is much needed and free up more new parking spaces at Borough Hall.
With the help of Beautiful Mountainside, we have now finalized the plans for the park on the corner of Mountain Ave and New Providence Road and are in the process of obtaining grants to fund the improvements without using tax dollars. I expect tremendous progress to complete this park in 2025.
The Borough continues to work with Our Lady of Lourdes to complete the purchase of the fields behind the church. For many years these fields have been used by all Mountainside residents especially our children for recreation purposes including soccer, baseball, and basketball. This purchase will preserve the fields as open spaces for recreational purposes and to prevent any future residential development. Most importantly, this project will not affect your taxes.
Lastly, we are moving forward with improvements at the Mountainside community pool although no plans have been finalized, we will be seeking input from our residents as these plans are developed.
I want to congratulate the Mountainside Deerfield Elementary School and the administration, teachers, staff, students, and parents for being one of nine public schools in New Jersey to earn the National Blue-Ribbon Award for high student achievement from the U.S. Department of Education.
I also want to recognize our Senior Meals Program which will celebrate their 5th Anniversary on March 23 of this year. They have delivered to date, 37,481 meals which means that over $444,353 have gone to local businesses that continue to support this program.
Mountainside is a gem. I am proud to serve as the Mayor of Mountainside. I will pledge to maintain the quality of life in Mountainside and our long-standing record of making decisions about the challenges that we face in Mountainside that are in the best interest of Mountainside. We must always strive to keep Mountainside the great community that we all love.
Happy New Year to everyone, God bless Mountainside, and God bless all of you.