Untitled Document

The Record (New Jersey)

WANAQUE ROAD PLAN GETS BOOST
FREEHOLDER CHIEF: IT'S NEEDED

April 1, 1997
Section: NEWS
Edition: 2 Star 4 Star
Page: l01
The Record
By JAN BARRY, Staff Writer

Passaic County's top official affirmed Monday that plans for a proposed county road through this borough are on track, despite the protests of residents who don't want traffic roaring through their back yard.

Facing a crowd of more than 100 people at a forum at Lakeland Regional High School who cheered every statement by road opponents, Freeholder Director John "Jack" O'Brien initially said the freeholders have made no decision on the project. But pressed to put the matter to a public referendum, O'Brien dropped his stance of neutrality.

"I agree with your Borough Council. I think the road is necessary," he said. "It's a bitter pill to swallow. When you elect someone to represent you, you have to live with their decisions."

Two other freeholders at the forum declined to say whether they support the project, for which the county already has spent more than $500,000 on engineering plans. Freeholder Norman Robertson said the freeholders had to look at the larger picture of traffic congestion affecting commuters from neighboring Ringwood and West Milford.

"We view this as a regional problem," Robertson said. Borough officials and county engineers contend that paving an abandoned railbed to provide a new route between Route 287 and Ringwood would provide traffic relief for Ringwood Avenue, Wanaque's main street.

Opponents say the proposed road would open residential neighborhoods and environmentally sensitive lands around the Wanaque Reservoir to increased traffic and development pressures.

Freeholder Walter W. Porter Jr., who heads the county public works committee, seemed to be taken aback by statements from a former borough councilman and Mayor Warren Hagstrom that past requests by the borough to put in traffic lights on Ringwood Avenue had been turned down by county road officials.

Michael Greenspan, a former borough councilman, suggested that putting up traffic lights on Ringwood Avenue, part of the proposed bypass road plan outlined on Monday, might solve rush-hour traffic congestion without the expense of having to build a new road.

"I didn't realize" there had been such requests, said Porter, after Hagstrom confirmed there had been.

"It makes sense," Porter said of the traffic lights proposed for the two intersections on Ringwood Avenue at Doty and Conklintown roads.

Robertson told the audience he was taking notes about such proposals and would ask county officials to review the entire project in light of them.

Most of the speakers blasted the proposed road project in the words of one woman who lives near the route as something that would "ruin my life."

Two people rose to defend it. One of them was former Freeholder Richard DuHaime of Bloomingdale, who championed the project as needed to cope with future traffic growth in the upcounty region.

The other supporter was Earle Tufford, a Wanaque resident who works for the North Jersey District Water Supply Commission, which operates the Wanaque Reservoir. "Without this road, this town won't be able to grow," he said.

In reply, a woman shouted: "We're afraid we're going to grow into Wayne or Paramus