Mayor Proclaims 2012 a 'Good Year for Kinnelon'

Mayor Bob Collins is confident, "it's going to be a good year for ," as he told the borough council Monday night.

The mayor and councilmen reflected on the last year and commented on their hopes for the future of the borough during the council's reorganization meeting. Returning councilmen Gary Moleta and Ron Mondello were sworn in, along with Kinnelon's fire chiefs, commissioners and borough committee members.

Nearly every councilman, as well as the mayor, brought up the financial difficulties the borough was faced with this past year and will be faced with moving forward in their remarks.

"A recession always hits the private sector first before it hits the public sector. Well, the bad news is, it's here," Mondello said.

Mondello said that he would like for the council to continue to explore shared services in 2012, but made a point that he believes in "cooperation, not consolidation." The councilman said that the small-town feeling that Kinnelon provides its residents is invaluable.

However, in newly appointed Council President Dan O'Dougherty's remarks, he said he would like the council to urge the to consider consolidating their administration and operating with a with other local school districts. He also said he would like the borough to consider merging municipal courts, a concept Collins later said he supports.

"I believe that we, in Kinnelon, need to move more proactive toward shared services," O'Dougherty said.

Collins reminded the council and public that he was not in support of the 2011 municipal budget and said that it did not achieve the goals he had in mind for the governing body. Councilman Stephen Cobell warned the public that there are financial hardships ahead.

"There's no doubt that we will be having a challenging financial situation in 2012," he said.

But 2011 was not an easy year for the borough either, the mayor reminded the council. Faced with several winter snow storms, the and a heavy , the weather was, at times, the borough's biggest enemy.

Still, Kinnelon's residents rose to those challenges, Collins said, and the councilmen pledged to work hard in the upcoming year on new ones. Included is Councilman Jim Freda's quest to have an built in the borough. Freda has been working the past several years, but especially in 2011, to bring a turf field to Kinnelon, as the existing borough fields are in poor shape and turf would allow for more playing time for Kinnelon Recreation participants.

Recently, Freda at to the board of education, which agreed to have committees work with Freda to examine the possibility.

"We will have a turf field in Kinnelon within a year and we will not use borough dollars," Freda said, explaining that he plans to coordinate a fundraising committee.

Freda also thanked the volunteers who organized in 2011, noting that 20 percent of the borough's population was in attendance.

While volunteers were sworn in to committees Monday, Mondello motioned that the council table the appointment of council representatives on the committees and said the councilmen only received information about the appointments a few minutes prior to the meeting.

In Collins' remarks, he promised to work harder with the council to learn what they would prefer so that items such as this would not need to be tabled during meetings and so that he could understand the pleasures of the council beforehand.

"Even though we're not on the same page, we're on the same chapter," he said. "I know we're in the same book."