Wednesday, November 9, 2011
A draft of the study will be sent to nearby municipalities for comments before a final draft is made available
At the most recent Westwood council work session, Borough Engineer Stephen Boswell said the Pascack Brook Study was near completion. “We’ve put in substantially more than 40 hours on this report,” Boswell said. Officials decided that before a final draft of the report is completed they will send it to neighboring municipalities for feedback. Mayor John Birkner Jr. said there are no other updates to report in regard to the study, but once it’s complete officials will take it to the Department of Environmental Protection to make a case for changing operational procedures. At the Oct. 18 council meeting, residents who live in flood-affected areas - who formed a coalition called the Hillsdale and Westwood Flood Solution Coordination Group - …
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Westwood mayor says the governing body will move forward with the study as planned to try to find a solution to area flooding
Members of the Hillsdale and Westwood Flood Solution Coordination Group came to the Westwood council meeting Tuesday night with their attorney to follow up on a lengthy letter they presented to officials at the last meeting and ask the council to allow them to meet with the engineer conducting the waterway study currently being conducted. Attorney Don MacLachlan presented officials with a new letter Tuesday that asked, in part, for the council to authorize members of the group, council members and the borough attorney to begin negotiations with United Water to reduce reservoir levels. The letter also asked the council to authorize Borough Engineer Stephen Boswell to meet with flood group representatives to address questions and concerns …
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Citizens from Westwood and Hillsdale have united and retained counsel
Dozens of residents attended the Westwood council work session Tuesday night, along with a lawyer they have hired, to ask officials to provide additional information about the engineering study of area waterways that they recently authorized and to consider some changes. Calling themselves the Hillsdale and Westwood Flood Solution Coordination Group, the residents have organized in the last three months and hired attorney Don MacLachlan, who works out of Upper Saddle River, to represent them. MacLachlan brought a lengthy letter to the council meeting that he handed out to all members of the governing body, which outlined all the information the group is seeking. He said members of the group, who have experienced numerous floods in the past…
Grace Hogan
3:30 pm on Thursday, October 20, 2011
Westwood residents clearly see the Emperor Has No Clothes. Mayor Birkner's public relations campaign featuring him as a man for the People ran amok when he excluded the public from the UW meeting with the Task Force in August. Rather than meet with the public on the 21st of September as scheduled, he was insistent that the Council approve the commissioning of the Boswell Engineering study. The … more ›