State of the Township Address...

continued from page 16 renovations to the basketball court, back tennis courts, built 2 new pickelball courts and installed new bleachers at the basketball courts. We also added a very basic small tee-ball field for 5- and 6-yearolds that we plan to enhance over time.

• We paved the road inside James F. Dyer Park at Cook’s Pond and removed the last of the old outbuildings on that property.

• The Township’s relationship with all of our schools is excellent especially in the area of school security, with each school either continuing to have a School Resource Office or Class III Officer assigned to it.

• We took the opportunity to preserve what is purportedly the oldest home in Denville at 560 Openaki Road. This property has a rich history which goes back to at least the 1750’s, owned by John Losey as a half-way house for travelers, while the upper room was used as a school room and later a Tavern house. Denville’s folklore places George Washington near this house during the Revolutionary War, at a nearby barn where he had his horse re-shoed. In the winter of 1780, in search of food and supplies for the vanquished troops camped outside Morristown. The tavern house would have been a likely resting place for Washington and his entourage. Hard evidence of Washington’s stop at Losey’s gristmill can be found in the Congressional Register in the early years of the 19th century, when John Losey’s grandson, Jacob Losey, and his business partners, petitioned Congress for reimbursement for the grain taken for use by the Revolutionary War soldiers. We are currently securing the house for winter and working with the Historical Society on our future plans as a potential mixed use Museum Annex.

• We are working with the library to renovate the old 2 room schoolhouse at 501 Openaki Road. We have preserved a precious part of Denville’s history and by turning the 2 classrooms into all-purpose rooms, we will help give the library much needed room for additional program space. This will in no way alleviate all their space needs but will help in the short term. The 2022 budget included funds for architectural concept plans to be developed. USA Architects submitted their plan options to a subcommittee made up from members of the Library Board, Town Council, and Administration. The Library Board and Council will be meeting at the end of January to discuss the options and course of actions we may want to take to preserve the building and utilize it as a community room.

• Designs have been made and finances are in place for a new all-purpose rectangular turf field with lights and a parking lot at Veterans Memorial Field. Specs are being finalized and it will be out for public bid in the coming week or so. It is our hope that we will award a contract this winter with work commencing this spring.

• Our Planning Board’s calendar is full. Reviewing the court-mandated applications related to our affordable housing obligation.

Your Township Administration as always, will remain steadfast to its cardinal goals of proactive flood mitigation, continued downtown economic revitalization, upgrading our infrastructure, outstanding public health and safety, providing great senior, recreational and social programs, improving our efficiencies, all while running the Township in the most costeffective manner possible.

We have made some significant strides with the Army Corp of Engineers to bring a significant future Flood Mitigation program to Denville. Although not the direction we had originally hoped, there is still a path to Flood mitigation relief for many local property owners. The key to receiving Federal funding we learned is a complex formula based upon the federal government’s return on investment in comparing the mitigation costs vs. the flood insurance payments during a storm.

Our plan of building larger-scale flood infrastructure was generally disqualified by the Army Corps in large part due to their extremely conservative cost estimates. However, the Army Corps found that raising homes, performing wet and dry flood-proofing of homes and businesses in a targeted area had an excellent return on investment.

Although we had hoped to cross the finish line with the Army Corps several years’ ago, staffing issues on their end and the continual reassignment of new staff seems to have accounted for our multiyear delay to get to this point. There is light at the end of the tunnel, and I am in constant contact with Congresswoman Sherrill’s Office who has advised that the Army Corps is aiming for potential early spring 2023 public presentations.

This is still a very exciting proposition and puts the Township in a great position to have the federal and state government potentially fund up to $12 million dollars to perform some of the most comprehensive flood mitigation improvements in the history of our community. So, when we are looking at acquiring that $12 Million

Dollars, we must put frustrations to the side and remain ever diligent and persistent.

We have submitted a TEA-21 grant application for Downtown streetscape improvements for Diamond Spring Road. This is the same grant that we received 3 times previously to perform the streetscape on Broadway and First Avenue which brought Denville $1.6 million. This is a very competitive grant program and have been turned down twice before on our Diamond Spring Road application but will not give up until the entire downtown is complete. In order to separate us from the pack, our application is shovel ready and we have proposed more than double the required matching funds to show our local commitment to the project.

I will be asking the Council to allocate at least as much money in road paving as last year as we continue to try to keep pace with our road paving program. We anticipate providing our recommended list to the Township Council in the next couple of days in advance of our January 21, 2023, budget hearing with the Engineer.

The DPW is planning on paving the driveway at Gardner Field from Field #1 to Todd Johnson field. We are working with the Board of Education to replace the retaining wall and stairs at Todd Johnson Field, replace the guard rail along Savage Road and add trees along Savage Road and along the Riverview School Parking lot at Field #5.

Based upon a review after a 2021 NJDEP mandate, Denville is fortunate that we do not have no lead water mains in our water system and only have 12,220 feet of galvanize steel pipes on a select number of streets in Lake Arrowhead, Peck Meadow neighborhood along with a few of the streets we service in Mountain Lakes. Prior to 2031, we will have to replace the galvanized pipes and anticipate grant funding to become available and are exploring other funding options such as the infrastructure bank. The 2023 budget will include a request for funding to develop a replacement plan.

We will begin the long-awaited water meter replacement project throughout the entire Township. This phased project, which is anticipated to take 5 years, will put a state-of-the-art radio-controlled water meter that will eliminate the need for a water meter reader to physically go read the meter at each house. We have continued on page 19