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Residents thank borough for outage response; council hears questions about police fleet, paving and bulk pickup
Summary
At the July 13 meeting residents thanked officials for outage response, asked about police vehicle replacements and whether electric vehicles are feasible, and raised paving and bulk-pickup concerns; the police chief and borough administrator responded with operational and program limitations.
Residents used the July 13 public comment period to thank borough leaders for outage response and to press officials on service priorities and capital projects.
In public comment, Lauren Schnitzer of Tulsa Avenue thanked Mayor Bush, the police chief and DPW for on-the-ground communications and response during multi-day power outages on July 3 and suggested assigning a council member to each borough quadrant to improve community communications during emergencies. “The mayor had constant communication, and I wanted to thank you for that,” she said.
Resident Kunhwan Lee (85 Myrtle Avenue) asked several questions tied to the capital plan and DPW resources: why police vehicles are being replaced, whether the borough is considering electrifying vehicles in light of the master plan, whether the Edgar Poole parking lot will be paved or left with permeable surfaces, and why bulk pickup capacity appears limited.
Police Chief Artie Flaherty (introduced by the mayor) said many patrol cars have high mileage and described replacement on a roughly one-car-per-year basis to maintain safety and reliability. “Some of the cars have over a 120,000 miles on them... at a rate of 1 car per year, it keeps us safe,” he said. On electrification the chief and other staff advised that DPW and operational requirements make a full switch to EVs premature: DPW is not currently equipped to service EVs and battery life and cost remain operational constraints.
Borough administrator Melissa Prostin addressed the Edgar Poole parking-lot plan and bulk pickup. She said the master plan is a planning-board guidance document and explained the parking-lot work will include permeable surfaces, shade and tree plantings and will conform to stormwater regulations; the project is moving toward a bid package. On bulk pickup she said the service is labour intensive, not unlimited, and borough staff must balance safety and resources so that employees are not placed at undue risk when handling manual bulk collection.
Why it matters: these exchanges highlight residents’ concerns about service levels and how capital funds and staffing priorities are set. Officials described trade-offs between long-term capital investments and on-the-ground operational services.
Next steps: staff will move the Edgar Poole paving project toward bidding and the police department will continue to manage fleet replacement within the capital program; residents may also comment at future meetings.
