Full Notification

Leonia Day!
 
Spring is in the air and to help us celebrate this annual milestone Saturday, May 4th is Leonia Day in Wood Park from noon to 4:00 pm.  Our Recreation Department is ably overseeing the festivities.  This year is special not only because we have a live animal petting zoo, balloon animals, face painting by the LHS Service Club and other activities for the kids, we will be opening the new Municipal Center. 
 
Leonia Arts has arranged for an art show on the second floor of the new building featuring Leonia artists (a page out of our history books as an Artist’s Colony) and our outstanding police officers will be giving tours of the first floor Police HQ to anyone who is interested.  
 
The Leonia Volunteer Fire Department will be distributing free hot dogs, chips and soda.   Kulite Industries (Leonia’s #1 taxpayer and corporate great neighbor) is sponsoring free ice cream for Leonia residents and several of our local merchants including Wolf It, Johnny’s Haircut, Kindred Yoga and Frank’s Chess Academy will also be featured.  Of course, no Leonia Day is complete without the Biergarten hosted this year by Hackensack Brewing.  There will be something for everyone, young and old alike.         
 
The Shade Tree Commission will be celebrating Leonia’s designation the past 35 consecutive years as a Tree City.   The Environmental Commission, Historic Preservation Commission, Rotary of the Palisades, American Legion Post 1, Community Chest, Sports Boosters, MACORE and many other groups will have tables set up to share with you what they are working on and perhaps pique your interest.   Check out the many ways they are contributing to Leonia’s continued quality of life and ask yourself if you would like to be a part of that effort.  Volunteers are always needed and welcome.  Please click here to complete a volunteer form based on your interests.
 
This year, for the first time in a very long while, you will see a new Leonia Chamber of Commerce to better link the business community and to appeal directly to Leonia consumers.  I see this as another big step in the right direction and am personally hopeful we will ultimately have most, if not all, Leonia businesses as part of our new Chamber.   The success of our business community and merchants is all of our success and whatever we can do to support them is important and not just limited to spending your money at Leonia merchants for their products/services.  (Although that is a big help too).  
 
May 4th is also a date of note to most Star Wars fans. As in, “May the Fourth Be With You”.   So please feel free, if you are so inclined, to dress up as a favorite Star Wars character. 
 
We hope to see all of our Leonia neighbors at Leonia Day this year!
 
Affordable Housing
 
Turning to a more serious matter and something we absolutely have to get right…
 
Renowned affordable housing attorney Jeff Surenian presented to Leonians the reality of the new affordable housing law and what it means for NJ municipalities including Leonia at the April 15 Mayor and Council meeting.  Suffice it to say, it was eye opening.  You can see for yourself here.  The session was very well attended by your neighbors but if you aren’t already familiar with the challenges being posed, please take a moment to watch this video of the meeting.   It is important you become informed about this important issue.
 
I’m a proponent of affordable housing.  But I hate this new law.  Why?  It is a good example of taking a noble concept and mandating a roll out without adequately considering its practical implementation.  This new law and the obligations it imposes on NJ municipalities was railroaded through a developer-friendly state legislature without consideration for how it would actually work.  In my view, inadequate consideration was given to the very real environmental impacts, the infrastructure stresses on sewers, schools, municipal services, the very likely declines in Quality of Life, taxpayer costs etc. that are all imposed.    
 
Your governing body along with the efforts of our Borough Administrator, the Planning Board and the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Redevelopment and Revitalization will work together as intelligently and proactively as possible to protect Leonians interests and still meet our mandated obligations.  Being informed of what is involved and the implications of the new law will make you quickly realize we are all in this together. 
 
Please watch the April 15th presentation.  It is at the very beginning of the Mayor and Council meeting here.  This will serve as a great primer on what’s happened and what you can expect in the near future.  I urge all Leonians to take a few minutes and learn about it here.  This is going to be a big deal for Leonia. 
 
New Municipal Center Building
 
As noted above our new Municipal Center building will be open to the public for Leonia Day on May 4th.    This is the first public building which we have opened in over 50 years which was actually designed for the purpose we are going to use it.  Our Recreation Center was a former theater and skating rink, our Fire Department (and current police station) was a former garage.  The current Borough Hall was a telephone exchange building back in the day. 
 
In contrast, our new building was designed for the purposes it will serve – a Police HQ and a Court.  The second floor Court will also be used for Mayor and Council meetings as well as the Planning Board, which is additional value for the tax dollar.   The Violations Bureau which is part of the Court will be moved from Borough Hall to the new building.  The Office of Emergency Management which works closely with our first responders will have its operations nerve center in the new building too.
 
When all is said and done, we are coming in at more than $2 million under budget.  That’s good news.  Of course, the building still cost us $12.5 million which is clearly a lot of money and represents our biggest single Leonia infrastructure investment to my knowledge in the past 100 years.  And, as I’m sure you know, we really had no choice.  NJ authorities told us we could no longer use the police department because it was out of compliance with current minimum acceptable standards.  Similarly, the county told us the Court at the Senior Center (another repurposed building, in this case built by Dr. Frances Tyson for the Girl Scouts) had to be shuttered as a Court. 
 
Over the past three years, we have posted regular updates on the website about the new building.  You can find Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s), design specifications (excluding the first floor which is a secure facility), financials, and decision-making details.  Please check here for those regular updates.
 
As I walk through town, I have been asked repeatedly about the scooped-out areas in the grass surrounding the building and what these might be.  They are natural rain gardens to assist with drainage.  Natural grasses and flowers have been planted and will come up during the Spring.  These natural rain gardens supplement the permeable pavers which we’ve installed on the roadways surrounding the building to assist with rain water absorption.  This is a good example of the borough ‘practicing what it preaches’ in terms of each of us doing our best to manage water runoff, especially important when we’ve experienced two “century” storms with extraordinary flooding in just 5 years.  Permeable pavers will decrease flood waters moving down Fort Lee Road in a big storm. 
 
I’ve also been asked about signage for the new building.  We will be installing in the next couple of weeks additional signage below the Leonia Municipal Center sign on the side of the building facing the library as well as a Municipal Center sign with the Borough Logo (also known as the Hixson sign) on the wall facing Fort Lee Road. 
 
As great as it is to put this particular infrastructure project behind us, I should mention we have a lot of work to do with some of our other necessary infrastructure upgrades.  This includes, but is not limited to, the Leonia Firehouse, Recreation Center, and current Borough Hall.  I will no doubt be discussing these in future status updates.   Our need for more $ through more ratables is keen, especially when you consider the additional and necessary infrastructure upgrades right around the corner. 
 
Redevelopment/Revitalization Committee
 
To help us increase ratables, intelligently address our affordable housing obligations and help Leonia achieve sensible/timely development, we established a Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Redevelopment and Revitalization to increase public support and drive consensus.    If ever there was a group with a huge job and important work in front of them to help us navigate some difficult near- and long-term challenges, it is this committee.
 
On Thursday evening May 9th at 7:30 pm in the new Municipal Center building at 7:30 pm, we will host a Town Hall to discuss the all-important revitalization of Leonia beginning with Fort Lee Road below Grand Avenue and along Willow Tree Road.   I hope to see as many Leonians as possible either in person or participating virtually on May 9th.
 
Under the very able leadership of Co-Chairs Dr, Frank Livelli and Pat Botten, we are blessed to have 6 other Leonia neighbor volunteers, all extraordinary in their own right, serving on this committee.  Hear what they have been working on concerning the future of our town on Thursday May 9th and have a chance, at the same time, to weigh in with your own thoughts. 
 
For our borough to thrive in the future, we must undertake sensible redevelopment and come up with the best approaches to do that now. 
 
Getting answers to municipal government questions
 
We’ve set up a new mailbox at [email protected] for you to send questions and get accurate/up to date information concerning municipal government and municipal services.  Using [email protected] will get you a more consistently reliable and timely response.   It will also help minimize confusion when inaccurate responses posted on list serves from well-intentioned neighbors won’t have to be corrected or undone.  Please consider giving [email protected] a shot next time you have a question.  This in no way is meant to limit the dialogue on listserves or other forums but only help ensure the statements and facts being shared will help inform a more helpful/accurate understanding of questions being discussed. 
 
Happy Passover
 
To help celebrate and recognize our diversity as a community, I want to wish a very happy Passover to our Jewish friends and neighbors.  Chang Sameach!  (Which is Hebrew for happy holiday.)  
 
 
That’s it for now… Hope to see you at Leonia Day on Saturday, May 4th in Wood Park.  Please be sure to come out and celebrate being part of our wonderful community!
 
Bill Ziegler
Leonia Mayor