Open Space spending rules may change

By Daniel Jackovino, Staff Writer
Bloomfield’s council voted Monday that it will amend the town’s Open Space ordinance. The amended ordinance, as yet unwritten, will allow for funds previously dedicated to Open Space purposes to also be used for maintaining local public parks and for historical preservation. The vote was 5-1 with Councilman Nicholas Joanow objecting. Councilwoman Margaret Dunigan was absent.
The amended ordinance will conform to the state’s Open Space law, according to Township Administrator Yoshi Manale, and allow the town’s Open Space monies to be used for additional purposes. The amount to be initially appropriated will be $250,000 for the Department of Public Work and Park’s next budget. Those funds were separately approved by the council, 5-1. Joanow, who protested the amount eliminated an entire year’s worth of Open Space tax, was again in opposition. The town’s director of finance, Robert Renna, told the council the town’s Open Space account presently held $1.9 million.
Joanow had not wanted the proposed amendment to include both park maintenance and historical preservation. He suggested two separate amendments be written, one for each purpose. Township Attorney Brian Aloia interjected this would necessarily require separate public hearings for funding either purpose. Joanow’s colleagues did not support him and one amendment was approved.
“We can amend the ordinance to include historic preservation, but not the maintenance of public parks,” Joanow protested. “I am absolutely opposed.”
“I have a bigger problem with $2 million in an account and it’s not being used,” Mayor Raymond McCarthy replied.
The mayor added that only a parcel of land off Lion Gate Drive, known as the De Simone property, is presently foreseen requiring Open Space funds.
That funding will be between $100,000 and $200,000, according to Joanow. It will be used together with Green Acre and New York-New Jersey Bay Keeper funds to preserve wetlands buffering the flood-prone Third River.
Redirecting Open Space funds into the town’s budget has been argued previously by the council with Joanow and Mayor Raymond McCarthy locking horns over it. Last year’s budget included a one-half cent decrease in the Open Space tax of 1 cent per $100 of assessed property value. This was done to permit residents some small relief. Joanow had not objected to that proposal because a townshipwide re-evaluation at the time had doubled property values, off-setting the decrease. Joanow is a former council liaison for the town’s Open Space Trust Fund Committee.
His argument Monday was although the town’s Open Space account has remained relatively untouched for 10 years, it provided the township with financial leverage should it request Green Acre funding.
“Leverage is the project, not the money,” McCarthy countered, alluding to the fact that a good idea will draw money.
Joanow added Open Space funds could be used for a “Rails for Trails” project whereby the right-of-way of abandoned train routes are transformed into pedestrian and bike paths. If undertaken and completed to the satisfaction of its local advocates, one proposal envisions a pathway stretching from Montclair through Bloomfield to Jersey City.
“That’s going to be very expensive and the county must get involved,” McCarthy responded. “It’s what the county executive can do in Trenton.”
The Essex County executive is Joseph DiVincenzo Jr..
The township’s Open Space Trust Fund was approved by voters in 2001 in a non-binding referendum. It provided for a separate tax dedicated to the acquisition of land for open space preservation. The referendum also permitted the funds to be used for “maintenance of lands acquired for recreation and conservation purposes.”
Asked on Tuesday in a telephone interview if he foresaw using Open Space monies for historical purposes, the mayor did not dismiss the idea.
“Maybe the train station,” he said.
McCarthy was referencing the historical train station located on Lackawanna Place between Glenwood Avenue and Washington Street. It is not owned by the township.
“That’s one of the things we have to look at,” he continued. “That’s a no-brainer. The Open Space fund is not a rainy day fund. People want it for historical preservation.”
Asked to respond to the mayor’s plans for the station, Joanow said the idea was initially his own and he suggested it to Manale who included it on the night’s agenda. He added the mayor wasn’t being altogether forthright when he said the De Simone property was the only foreseeable project for Open Space funds.
But the councilman admitted to some misgivings for proposing historical preservation to be included in the amended ordinance, acknowledging the voters did not agree to this in the 2001 referendum.
“I was trying to save half the baby,” he explained. “I’m as guilty as the mayor for enlarging the amendment.”
He said he hoped by splitting the amendment in two he would find council support for historical preservation but not for park maintenance. He did not.