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New Milford is pleased to welcome you to our web site! Nestled in the heart of Bergen County, New Milford, "The Birthplace of Bergen County" was incorporated in 1922 and is proud of its unique small town character and flavor. Our community provides excellent public services, quality education and strong recreational programs. We also have a long tradition of dedicated community volunteers that contribute to all aspects of the community from emergency services, environmental protection and historic and cultural education. In an effort to increase the lines of communication between the borough and its residents, we now offer a place along the information super highway to communicate online with citizens, local businesses, and visitors – a “virtual Town Hall” that is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (including holidays!) Our site is designed to offer basic information about New Milford’s latest developments and public safety. Here you will also find information regarding our boards, committees and commissions, garbage and recycling, agendas for upcoming meetings, a borough directory and important public notices. Our website is a work in progress. We will continue to update the website with the latest information regarding our community and we hope that you visit us often! Once again, we thank you for visiting our website and helping us to make New Milford a wonderful community to live and raise a family. For demographic information please visit http://www.city-data.com/city/New-Milford-New-Jersey.html
For more information about the 2010 Census, please follow the link below.
http://2010.census.gov/2010census/ |
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Welcome to the start of the second decade of the new millennium, year 2010. You, the people, have elected a new councilman, Howard Berner and re-elected Councilman Keith Bachmann. Our reorganization meeting is on January 4th at 7pm. Our work session meeting is January 11th and our public meeting is January 25th. The borough services are closed on Monday January 18th for the observance of Martin Luther King Jr Day.
I would like to bring something to the forefront. While the council settled with all the bargaining units (unions) for library, public works and borough hall employees, we are in binding interest arbitration with our police department. What is binding interest arbitration? It is a state mandated process for settling collective bargaining disputes between a local government and a police employees’ union. It allows a union to bring in a third party whenever economic issues, such as salary percentage increases, longevity pay, shift and rank differentials, etc., unfortunately remain unresolved after at least three negotiating sessions. At that point, considering guidelines contained in the law, the arbitrator has the power to impose the terms of the new contract. We are looking forward to a settlement that is fair to both our police officers as well as our residents.
Personnel expenses are the largest single allocation in most government budgets. Salaries and benefits account for more than 25% of our expenditures. But at the same time while local governmental agencies are reducing their forces, they are facing greater demands for services. That leaves major questions about how to trim staffing costs while limiting the negative impact that goes along with those reductions. What makes the most sense? Layoffs? Pay cuts? Furloughs? New Milford did not reduce any of its staffing in 2009 while the municipal portion of your tax bill increased by only $85 per average household.
How was that possible? The council made across the board budget cuts in nearly every department as well as continued to utilize grant monies and pursue shared services with our neighboring municipalities.
I strongly believe that in this post recession economy, there are six rules to live by; Live within your means; today’s fiscal policies will have to address the realities of our economy; Look to the future; It’s time to set long term priorities and stick to them. What we do today will affect us tomorrow; Stop deferring expenses; When the economy enters a recession as deep as this one has been, it is natural to cut back on equipment, infrastructure and capital maintenance programs. Get department heads involved, they’ll tell you what our needs are. Protect retirement obligations; the reality is that we have to fully fund annual contributions to the plans or else the recovering costs will escalate in years to come. Dedicate your surplus; mostly our surplus funding is dedicated to reducing our tax burden on its residents. Set up a rainy-day fund; the problem with this in today’s society is with the increased costs and declining state and federal aid, those rainy-day funds are non existent. Those rainy day funds are for those unforeseen periods in time for retirement buy-outs, emergency infrastructure projects, large capital investments and open space acquisitions.
With a little luck and some help from our representatives in higher places, our economy will begin to pull out of its depression in the latter parts of 2010. That help needs to come from county, state and federal governmental partners with new stimulus monies, the real estate markets and new job markets to get unemployment back under single digits.
What can you expect in 2010? You have elected us to watch your local dollars and we are doing that. We promise to continue working hard in the upcoming year to the best of our ability in an effort to make New Milford a wonderful place to call home.
I hope this message finds you in good health but if not, I pray for a speedy recovery. I look forward to seeing you around town.
If you see a citizen-soldier, remember to thank them for our most treasured gift . . . FREEDOM!
May God Bless New Milford New Jersey and the United States of America.
I remain,
Frank DeBari
Frank DeBari, Mayor
New Milford Borough
***DISCLAIMER***Please be advised, the Mayor and Council do not endorse the Town Planner Calendar, therefore the information provided within should not be relied upon. |
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The next Public Meeting to discuss future plans for Van Buskirk Island and the historic buildings will take place at the Oradell Borough Hall (upstairs meeting room) on April 8 at 7:30 PM. There will be a short panel presentation describing what has taken place since we last met in November, followed by an open question and answer session.
Senior Citizen Dinner Theater - on Wednesday, March 24, 2010, the New Milford Board of Education will sponsor a dinner-theater for New Milford Senior Citizens. The dinner will be held in conjunction with a performance of "Rent: School Edition," by students of New Milford High School. Seating for the dinner in the high school cafeteria at 5:30 pm will be limited. Theater only tickets for a 7:30 pm curtain call will also be available. For ticket information, please call New Milford High School at 201-262-0172 ext. 2001.
The New Jersey State Library has created a web site that provides assistance to New Jersey residents and businesses to help them through tough economic times. The site has a wide range of useful links that may be of assistance to local officials that are trying to assist their residents address their concerns. The site: http://gethelp.njlibraries.org/ has links and references in the following areas: - New Jersey Work Tools
- New Jersey Financial Tools
- New Jersey Housing Tools
- New Jersey Health Tools
- New Jersey Parental Tools
- Tools for Seniors The New Milford Woman's Club, meets the 3rd Wednesday of the month at 1:00 pm at the St. Matthew's Lutheran Church, 225 Center St., New Milford. Welcome to all women of neighboring towns, for more information please call Ruth Warren, 201.265.9093.
REGISTER TODAY FOR WALK MS ON SUNDAY, APRIL 18, 2010! Join over 10,000 participants at one of 14 beautiful walk site locations. You can create a team or volunteer and walk towards creating a world free of MS. From the Jersey Shore to the NYC skyline-there is something for everyone! The First 500 Registrants Will Receive Special Recognition on the Walk MS Website! This years walk sites are located in: Belmar, Flemington, Freehold, Hamilton, Hewitt, Ridgewood, Roseland, North Brunswick, Sandy Hook, Seaside, Somerville, Cranford, Jersey City, and Roxbury. For more information about the walk location near you, please visit http://walknjm.nationalmssociety.org
If you need assistance with Foreclosure Issues or to learn about what resources may be available, please refer to the following links. For additional information, please contact 1-888-995-HOPE or one of the counseling agencies listed on page 2 of "Foreclosure Fast Facts". All information contained in these links is available to download and copy for distribution.
1. Foreclosure Fast Facts: A 2-page listing of assistance, numbers to call, and general assistance, including counseling agencies experienced in foreclosure: http://www.nj.gov/dca/hmfa/foreclosureprevention_resources.pdf 2. The NJ HOPE (Home Ownership Preservation Effort) website provides information about resources that are available for homeowners who are delinquent in their mortgage payments, need counseling or have questions: http://www.state.nj.us/dobi/njhope/
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