Westwood Council Approves 'Tough' $16.8M Budget

The Westwood Council unanimously approved a $16.8 million budget that includes a 1.97 percent tax increase from last year during their meeting Tuesday night.

The average borough homeowner with a property assessed at $398,000 will see an increase of $84 in municipal taxes. The total tax levy is increasing by $244,889 according to borough CFO Durene Ayer.

Officials said this year's budget was unusually difficult. A decrease in the borough's assessed value meant that the average homeowner would have seen an increase of $28 without any spending increases. Revenue also dropped by about $16,000, according to Ayer.

"This was probably one of — if not the — most difficult budgets I've worked on in 18 years," Councilman Peter Grefrath said.

To combat the reduced revenue, officials have planned to spend about $1.5 million of the $2.25 million surplus. Borough auditor Gary Vinci said Westwood has been good at regenerating its surplus over the past six or seven years. Officials also cut about $700,000 from the amounts requested by different departments.

Where the Money Goes

The largest portion of the budget — 74 percent of appropriations — will go toward municipal operations, according to Ayer. That includes both the salaries and wages of borough employees and other operating expenses, which each make up about 50 percent of that sum.

Of the borough's various departments, public safety gets the largest piece of the pie, making up 48 percent, according to Ayer.

Some of the increases in this year's budget were mandatory, such as contractural salary increases and employee insurance costs. The costs of garbage disposal and recycling are also increasing, as are pensions and debt service.

Electricity, sewer fees and capital improvements were all cut in this year's budget.

The borough is still planning some capital improvements, including new DPW and Fire Department equipment, a 911 system upgrade and the planned improvements on Broadway, among others. Some of these items will be paid for with grants, Ayer said.

Board of Health Facing Workload Increase, No Additional Personnel

Board of Health President Betsy Beckman said their workload decreased when the Pascack Valley Hospital closed, and they agreed with officials to replace one full-time position with a part-time position until the hospital reopened. HackensackUMC at Pascack Valley is expected to host even more births than the old hospital did, meaning Board of Health employees will have even more to do, according to Beckman.

The Board of Health currently has two full-time and one part-time employees. They are responsible for inspecting restaurants, birth certificates, death certificates and numerous other duties, according to Beckman.

If the board does not get to either replace the part-timer with a full-timer or even add a second part-timer, they will likely have to close their window in the Municipal Complex for "a couple hours a day," Beckman said. 

Beckman said that if they do not get an additional employee, they will likely send their budget request as one lump sum instead of an itemized list next year.

Third Year of Library Cuts May Mean Reduced Hours

More than a dozen residents spoke against cuts to the Westwood Library's budget for the third year in a row during the meeting Tuesday. The speakers included parents, a school board member, the executive director of the Westwood Chamber of Commerce and a man who took ESL classes at the library after a stroke caused him to lose his ability to speak.

"If you want to better yourself, the only place in this town to go is the library," resident Jim Drew said. "It's the heart of Westwood, it's the brain of Westwood."

Officials budgeted $701,110 for the library after amending the budget to add about $14,000 from another department's salary line and about $4,000 from 2012 surplus.

The budgeted amount was down from a peak of $759,766 in 2010 and $712,798 last year.

Councilwoman Cynthia Waneck noted that the library is still funded beyond the state-mandated minimum of $656,953. The minimum dropped this year because of the drop in the borough's valuation, but officials knew it "would have been burdensome to the library and its programming" to drop the budget further, she said.

Library Director Martha Urbiel said they have managed to maintain their hours so far, but that will likely change this year.

"We're really feeling the squeeze," Urbiel said.

Officials said they had a hard time choosing what items to cut.

"My heart is being pulled in all different directions," Councilwoman Igrid Quinn said.

According to Councilman Robert Miller, "no one likes this budget."

"Not liking it, but respecting it, I vote yes," Miller said.

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