It is customary that the Mayor begins the first meeting of the year with a “State of the Borough” address.  And so I will give you a brief recap of 2009 and a glimpse towards 2010.

In 2009, we honored many of our local residents – Al Backus for 60 yrs on the PLFD.  We thanked several servicemen and women who returned home from Iraq or Afghanistan.  And we were amazed at the number of young men to earn the level of Eagle Scout in a single year.

We celebrated when we finally got through the permit process and saw the starts of our Streetscape and Willow Field projects.  Both are for the most part funded by grants.  And both will make a major difference in our community so were well worth waiting for.

In 2009 we saw upgrades to Hershfield and Murrin Parks.  We implemented our own Reverse 9-1-1 system.  Our Flood Advisory Bd jumped into the task of CRS participation.  Our Lake Restoration Committee addressed the growth in our lake.  The Shade Tree Commission planted another 150 free trees and was recognized as a Tree City USA program.  Our Historic Commission developed a walking tour of our historic landmarks.  And our Recreation Commission had another banner year with an increased number of programs and participants.

And unlike other communities these successful committees were made up of volunteers.

As we do ever year, we came together for the Memorial Day Parade, the Chamber of Commerce Car Show and Holiday Stroll, the River Cleanup, National Night Out and of course our own Pompton Day with the fireworks display.  We also started a new tradition with the Toys for Tots Train.  And in true Pompton style we had the largest crowd and the largest number of gifts donated.

But 2009 wasn’t all peaches and cream – we faced many challenges.  Our first challenge was the budget.  We decreased spending but our surplus and aid decreased even more and so our taxes went up even though we spent less.

Mid year we faced several tragedies with the loss of two young residents and the murder/suicide.   Our community came together to support each family involved.

And we have three contamination sites that are being addressed.  The PSE&G site on Montclair, the old Roth/Cho Cleaners in the center of town and of course the Dupont plume.

The NJDOHSS had been saying all along that there were no problems in the plume.  So when they released their report in December – even though it was a preliminary report and even though it was inconclusive – it had us end 2009 with red flags.

2010 has been a busy year already.  We have been working with many agencies on the continued cleanup sites in town.

At the site of the old cleaners, indoor air samples at the Teen Center and another business were elevated.  Both sites will immediately be getting vapor mitigation systems while other work at the site continues.

And the Dupont cleanup will continue to be our biggest challenge.  On New Years Day when Councilwoman Reicher spoke of the unique make up of this council and the different talents that each of them brings to the table I decided to take advantage of those talents and address the plume in a different manner.

The Borough will have a more active role.  Each Council member has been given an area of the Dupont cleanup to work on…

Councilman Marples will be working on increased communication with the residents.  He has experience in this area and has shown his effectiveness through his websites. 

Councilman Simone is an engineer and will be working on the mitigation systems.

Councilman Kent is an environmental scientist and will be involved in all the long term cleanup projects.

Councilwoman Reicher is an attorney specializing in land use.  She will be involved in direct meetings with Dupont.

And Councilman Serra is in Health Research and he will be looking at the health concerns and studies.

Council President Steele is in banking and I’m a Registered Nurse and Office Manager.  We will be involved in each of the areas with the assigned Council representative.

Since New Year’s Day we have been involved in many meetings.

We had a joint meeting with the USEPA, NJDEP,  NJDOHSS and state and federal representatives.  During the meeting we discussed increased involvement by all the agencies but especially the EPA.

We talked about the long term cleanup of the plume.  At the December meeting in the high school, Mr Chapin said his organization could get immediate results to the problem through their molasses process.  We are asking that Mr Chapin submit a proposal to the NJDEP for their review.

All the agencies present again stressed the need for every home to have a mitigation system installed ASAP.We said that we needed something in writing from all of them to give to ALL the residents of the town since not everyone can attend meetings.  We said we needed an update so the USEPA and NJDEP are working on a joint letter.  The letter will be in our hands tomorrow and we will mail it to each household in the Borough.

We traveled to Trenton for a follow up meeting the DOHSS.  Senator Pennacchio joined us for the meeting along with the Commissioner of the DOHSS.

The Health Dept will be organizing a Citizens’ Advisory Committee on health issues.  They will also be looking at cancer numbers for the entire town and may do a more in depth study.  They are working on a separate update to ALL Pompton Lakes residents which we will mail out.

All three agencies – the USEPA, NJDEP and NJDOHSS agreed to return to PLHS for another town meeting.  It will be Monday, Jan 25 at 7PM.

While we were in Trenton we met with the transition team for Governor Elect Christie.  Assemblymen Webber and DeCroce set it up for us.  That team will be discussing PL with the soon to be named Commissioners.

And finally we had a meeting with Dupont representatives from Wilmington, Delaware.  For the Borough to mail letters or consult with technical experts is going to cost money.  Each mailing will cost approximately $4,500.  We don’t feel the taxpayers should be burdened with that expense.  Dupont agreed to give the Borough a $75,000 grant to cover these expenses.  We will be able to do what WE feel needs to be done without the additional expense.

As we said from the beginning – the vapor intrusion issue is very involved.  And at times it will overshadow all the good that is going on in town.  But there is progress and that’s good.  This Council will continue to represent ALL the residents of PL on this issue and all issues.