State of the Township Address...

continued from page 19 community.

There are three things that are on the horizon that are not in our direct control:

• Lackawanna Crossing – NJ DOT and NJ Transit are battling out engineering details as we wait.

• Franklin Avenue Bridge- NJ DOT and NJ Transit are working out cost and design details.

• Openaki Bridge – The new homeowner is participating, which is good news for a dam being rebuilt but will likely add some years to the project completion timeline.

The Hub Times Newsletter is being mailed this week to every home in Denville. (IT was the first week of January and is available at the Town Hall Administration Office)

• It includes an update on the progress of all the projects of the court mandated Affordable Housing developments.

• A Parking Map of Downtown Denville

• A Calendar with all the Garbage and Recycling Pick up dates for 2023

• Information on how residents can sign up for Nixel alerts.

As I stated earlier Denville is fortunate to have a great many volunteers and we are very thankful for their hard work and dedication to our community. It is their commitment that allow us to provide service that we may not be able to otherwise afford. There is always room for more help on almost every Committee, the river can never be clean enough, there are always more people who could use some help, we can make our parks and recreation programs better and the Downtown can never have enough beautiful flowers.

But where we really need some help is at our Fire house. For over 81 years our Fire Department has handled all our First Aid calls for 24 hour a day, 7 days a week. That was until September 2021 when Denville was still the last Morris County Community that could make that claim. At that point it became obvious that it was just too much on the available daytime volunteers. This year we needed to reduce the load once again.

The Town Council and I are extremely proud that The Denville Volunteer Fire Department was able to maintain a 24-7 volunteer First Aid as long as they did. Today they continue to provide us service along with a paid service from Morris County and Saint Clare’s Hosptial. It is our hope that new volunteers will join, and the Denville Fire Department can return First aid to full volunteer service to the community at some point in the future. We put an AD in the latest issue of the Hub Times trying to recruit targeted volunteers, not just teenagers but also young people who were once members of other Departments who just bought a home in Denville and young retirees. Once we get the new message board by the clock tower installed, we will have Ads placed on it from time to time. Four of my five children have volunteered, and they all found it to be a rewarding experience. Anyone interested in any committee please contact my assistant, Danielle Lamont at 973-625-8300x 223 or dlamont@denvillenj.org.

I am sure by now we all know what happened in the Buffalo Bill’s game. Damar Hamlin collapsed after making a tackle. The Recreation Committee and I have been looking into AEDs for our Ballfields for years. We always thought it was a good idea, but being all of our Police Cars are equipped with AEDs and the fact that we could never figure out and no vendor could ever tell us how to make the AEDs accessible to the public and at the same time keeping them secure, so they are available when needed. Our worst nightmare would be someone being in need and the AED not being in the box because of vandals.

When I was at the New Jersey League of Municipalities in November. I passed an AED booth and spent some time talking to the Salesman on just this and unfortunately, he had nothing for me.

I received an email which made me start googling and to my refrained joy I found a company in England that makes something that has some strong possibilities. Naturally cost is an issue but we are Denville and that can be figure that out. I already put the Recreation Director on gathering more information on it. I would hope and expect to receive buy in from all of our partnering sport organizations. I am an advocate for doing it, but only if we can do it correctly.

I would like to thank the entire team of elected and appointed officials for working together. I am very appreciative of our Township staff, led by our Administrator Steven Ward, Police Chief Frank Perna and Public Works Director John Egbert along with all our department heads and each of our employees who are all hard working and dedicated professionals.

We are very fortunate to have great people working together that continue to make Denville the finest place to live, work, raise a family and retire. Thank you and, may God continue to send his blessings to the people of Denville and may God bless the United States of America.