Message from Mayor Madden: The Summer of our Discontent
Approaching the ending of our summer plans and activities, it seems that there were more things that we wanted to accomplish. Even with the best laid plans, this epilogue becomes the very reprise of each passing summer.
How do we break this persistent cycle? Do we attempt to plan more efficiently or leave off some of these items from our bucket list? I have always tried to live by the old adage; “if you fail to plan then you will plan to fail”.
This conundrum seems to pervade both outside as well as inside of Borough Hall. In other words, some positive and some not-so-positive events do occur every year. The similarities are striking.
Our Plans and Their Status
For instance, although years in the making, our streetscape, along Bound Brook Road, plan is finally coming to fruition.
On the flip side, we have spent many hours in conversation, meetings and emails attempting to resolve the erosion problem with the folks on Heather Lane. I call this an urgent environmental emergency (one of two lingering in the Borough). The agencies that initially offered to help were FEMA, Army Corp, Green Brook Flood Control Commission, DEP, State OEM and the list goes on. One by one they all bowed out. I have called Senator Bramnick to come out and take the tour. He was quite surprised to see the damage. Next, I called Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman to also come out to see the problem. Hopefully she will visit soon.
I urge residents to contact your representatives to remedy this issue as one house has already been condemned and if nothing is done, the domino effect will claim the other homes. I believe that federal funds can be available in this case. Unfortunately, the Borough cannot get involved with private property.
More Good News, Bad News
On a positive note, we have recently purchased the Foreign Express property at 302 Union Ave. The vision is that this will be a nice addition to enhance the Victor Crowell Park entrance, including parking and rest rooms.
On the flip side, we are still facing the ecological and environmental damage of our historic Creighton Lake, which occurred when on August 1, 2021, a major N.J. American Water main burst, bringing to our lake much debris and chemical discharge causing a massive fish kill and extremely high E. Coli contamination (in my opinion). One month later we were hit with storm Ida, further exacerbating the damage. This is now a “swirling vortex of entropy). N.J. American Water has absolved all responsibility for the damage. Again, Senator Bramnick took the tour to view the ongoing problems with our lake.
The road to success in these two problem areas, in my opinion, is to scour every possible related resource and inundate them with persistence until resolved.
“Success is not final; failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston S. Churchill, former Prime Minister.
Mayor John L. Madden