Montclair Councilor Williams Holds Community Meeting; Crime, Traffic, Public Infrastructure Discussed

MONTCLAIR, NJ - Montclair Third Ward Councilor Rahum Williams held the first of what promises to be many community meetings for the Third Ward during the tenure of Mayor Renée Baskerville.  The new councilors serving under Mayor Baskerville have already set an aggressive schedule of community meetings in the next month as part of the new council’s efforts to be more communicative with and more accountable to the residents.  By contrast, members of the previous council under former Mayor Sean Spiller held few community meetings; in the Third Ward, then-Councilor Lori Price Abrams held no community meetings at all, not even after COVID restrictions were lifted.

Councilor Williams’ maiden community meeting on August 22 at the Montclair Public Library included guests from different departments to discuss different issues with the residents, and a couple of them gave repeat presentations from Fourth Ward Councilor Aminah Toler’s first community meeting (her second one is scheduled for September 17). Norma Tassy, Montclair’s Director of Administration, Code Enforcement, and Environmental Affairs, opened the meeting with her presentation on the Vision Zero program, saying that everyone in Montclair has a right to safe travel within the township.  The plan of Vision Zero is to redesign streets to be inclusive for pedestrians and cyclists as well as motorists – the “Complete Streets” concept.  The “zero” of Vision Zero is to reduce to zero the number of traffic fatalities by 2028.  Tassy also presented a list of streets that the Department of Community Services hopes to repave and/or re-curb by the end of the year, the list of which is included in a photo with this article.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE FREE TAPINTO.NET NEWSLETTER

Tassy said that the township is becoming more vigorous in enforcing traffic laws, and she added that more flashing beacons – ten in the Third Ward alone – have been installed to allow greater safety for pedestrians at crosswalks.  More efforts to curb traffic violations were needed, according to the residents in attendance.  One resident complained that there were too many people speeding through the neighborhood around the library.  Resident Maggie Joralemon also had a concern, saying that motorists were making fast right turns from Bloomfield Avenue onto South Willow Street without concern for parked cars right around the corner.  Councilor Williams, aware of the situation, said he spoke to the township manager about it a nd hopes to get the township engineer to come up with a solution.

Tassy also promoted Montclair’s expansion of 20-mph school zones designed to get motorists to slow down at and near school locations.  Several signs for the new school zones have been posted, and signage will continue to be installed as more school zones go into effect.

Also at the meeting were Montclair community police officer Tyrone Williams and two regular officers who talked about crime prevention.  Much of the police’s presentation was straightforward stuff, reminding residents to lock up their valuables and not to leave them in cars parked outside overnight – not every resident has a garage – and to lock their cars.  They recommended that residents conduct a routine security check in their homes, checking to see that their doors were locked, and they also recommended that residents get outdoor lighting, especially motion-activated lights, to discourage burglars at night.  The police also asked pet owners to take advantage of their special situation, asking them to look for anything suspicious while walking their dogs and also paying attention to their dogs’ behavior at home that might suggest an intruder on the premises.  (How cat owners would help keep houses and neighborhoods safe was not addressed.)

Officer Williams also addressed traffic concerns, mainly about the traffic light sequencing on Bloomfield Avenue and what could be done to make it more consistent.  He reminded the residents that, as part of County Route 506, Bloomfield Avenue is a county responsibility and the county would be the entity to address concerns over Bloomfield Avenue to.  He did concede that traffic problems at the Five Corners area a couple of blocks up form the library was an ongoing issue, most notably the awkward geometry of left turns from South Fullerton Avenue onto Bloomfield Avenue.

DOWNLOAD THE FREE TAPINTO APP FOR MORE LOCAL NEWS. AVAILABLE IN THE APPLE STORE AND THE GOOGLE PLAY STORE .

Lisa Johnson, Montclair’s environmental sustainability officer, reiterated many of her points from her earlier talk at Councilor Toler’s community meeting.  She emphasized the importance of planting more trees, especially in small areas of the Third Ward as well as the Fourth Ward, to lessen the burden from pollution and high temperatures.  Johnson reminded the residents that trees are “magical” in their ability to absorb carbons and cool air temperatures, and she talked about the five-year partnership between the township and Montclair State University’s sustainability office to expand the tree canopy with newly planted saplings and to preserve the existing trees with strategic pruning.  Johnson said that anyone wanting a public tree planted in front of their home can contact her at ljohnson@montclairnjusa.org .

Residents voiced issue of their own to Councilor Williams after the presentations, with one resident decrying a scam involving phony parking attendants at concerts at the Wellmont.  Scammers disguised as parking attendants have been getting motorists at the South Fullerton deck entrance, arriving for a concert at the Wellmont Theater, to pay an exorbitant fee for self-parking that is in fact quite cheap.  Councilor Williams, in addition to acknowledging the issue of the scammers, said that more efforts were needed to educate residents and out-of-towners of how inexpensive and convenient parking in the decks actually is.  He expressed an openness to charging more for parking at metered spaces to encourage greater use of the decks.

One resident also voiced opposition to the use of Belgian blocks in new curbs, saying that the poured-c0oncentre curbs, especially the ones reinforced with metal strips along the edges, can withstand the impact from tires of parallel-parked cars better than curbs made of Belgian blocks, which crack more easily.  Other concerns from residents included the need for more BigBelly garbage receptacles in the commercial areas to reduce the overflow of the receptacles and the plans by CVS to close its Bloomfield Avenue store earlier than planned – September 29 instead of December 31 – creating a great void in Montclair Center. One resident wondered if there might be a way to incentivize the landlord to fill the vacant store more quickly.  This follows Lululemon’s closure of its Montclair store next door to the Bloomfield Avenue CVS.

Councilor Williams expressed a concern of his own – the crumbling of Montclair’s public buildings.  The meeting came close to being derailed by the library’s malfunction HVAC system, and several other public buildings, from the municipal building to the Clary Anderson Arena, have outlived their design lives or need extensive repair. Councilor Williams told his constituents that the need to invest in such public spaces is greater than the money available to do so, and he said that some “tough decisions” will have to be made in how to pay for these investments without increasing the already ominous tax burden on residents.

“We have to be honest with ourselves,” the councilor said.

For more local news, visit TAPinto.net