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Old Tappan council receives departmental reports; police promotion policy advanced for regulation
Summary
Council received updates from fire, library, recreation, planning, DPW and police. The police promotion policy to enable sergeant and lieutenant promotions was finalized and will be routed into regulation; two new officers were sworn in and police statistics for May were presented.
Council members received a series of departmental and committee reports covering emergency services, library and recreation, planning and public works, and police personnel.
A council member providing the fire report noted the town’s OEM preparations for World Cup traffic near MetLife Stadium, that the fire department had responded to several mutual-aid calls in June, and that Rescue 43 had arrived while another truck remains out of service for equipment installation. The report recorded 11 calls for service so far this month, totaling 62 man-hours, and year-to-date statistics of 131 calls and 1,026 man-hours.
Councilwoman Costello briefed the council on library programs (including a summer-reading kickoff and a touch-a-truck event), capital-improvement quote activity for furniture and roofing work, and progress on hiring an HR consultant to assemble library policies. Recreation updates included soccer registration and Camp Serendipity beginning June 29 with weekly field trips.
On parks and operations, DPW staff planted trees at Chestnut Field and the maintenance garage; officials discussed species selection and deer impacts. The borough’s golf course reported higher May revenue ($14,486 above the prior year), a 2 percent increase in rounds (3,796 vs. 3,723), a 41 percent increase in public rounds (620 vs. 439) and $65,000 collected in green fees and carts compared to $52,000 in 2020; the council cited new bunkers and a new booking tool as contributors.
On police matters, Acting Mayor Wacker read May statistics: 1,184 calls for service for the month, permit and traffic-detail revenue noted, and two new officers — Taylor Rubino and Jake Putterman — were sworn in. A retail theft investigation involving suspects identified as Romanian nationals produced at least one arrest, and an ALPR-enabled investigation assisted in identifying a fraud suspect. Multiple letters of thanks from residents were read praising officers’ responses to medical and neighborhood incidents.
Separately, council members confirmed that a promotion policy for the police department — establishing the mechanism to promote to sergeant and lieutenant — has been finalized and will be sent into regulation; the council discussed a target timeline of promoting a sergeant by August and lieutenants in the fall, subject to budgeting.
Council members asked staff to return with follow-up details on any capital work, promotion timelines and operational impacts.
