ITEM OF MILLBLIRV .4VD SHOR T HILLS Thursday, December 15, 1983 u u u t t - V^i fl5Np. 50 30 leo i* |M-r | ope. * I I per 1 W l» Mull to Y««r Don Serving the township for 95 years 0 Member. Audit Bintmii «C C|rril)tiltoii« Record 2-day: raid causes home and street flooding here Road. White Dak Ridge Road. Tall Pine store's roof tietoie it leaked through into the Close to six inches of rain delugtd too ~ Monday, the Commonwealth Water Co. By Wednesday morning township firemen T?moe Brook H.f^Milarve-v Drive. Par guages measured 2.94 inches of fallen water had responded to 26 calls for help indraining nonage Hill Road BortweJI Terrace, Jeffer Lane. Birch Une. Hobart Avenue. (l i f e building township and the rest of northern New Four imnoi ‘automobile accidents; at and Tuesday an additional 2.77 inches felt flooded basements, and more requests wen- son Avenue Trov Drive Ridgewood Road ilills Road and Woodfield Drive Managers Jersey Monday and Tueqftay causing exten­ Greenwood Drive Oakdale Avenue. Locust at'Lord and Taylor on Millburn Avenue ask tnbuted n- ram aeie reported topdhee Mon sive flooding but surprisingly . few for a total of 5.72 inches, a record for a 2-day still coming in at thattime Street. Rippling BmodJltive Meadowbrouk ed for help in removing water from the automobile accidents. storm in this area. Homes were flooded on Church Street. $15 m illion school budget to be unveiled A proposed 1984-85 school budget (f new purchases or increased costs in fm|B Adjustment will convene m Town Hall to $15,122,769 will be presented to the public 8$ predicted rise, Mr. Brennan said. consider approval of the board's proposal to the Board of Education meeting Monday Also on the agenda Monday is a review of lease the South Mountain School gym evening at 8 p m in the Education Center. the board’s plan to turn a portion of the nasium to the h eigley School of Gymnastics According to board business ad­ 4-acre Short Hills School tract over to the A number of South .Mountain residents have ministrator Ronald Brennan the figure township for a playground and to sell the objected to the operating hours of the school represents an 8 per cent increase over the rest for single-family home lots. Township which would include-evening and-Saturday 1983 84 budget of $14,042,000. Committee members Robert Denise and classes The current expense portion of the propos­ Cynthia Fuller are expected to be present, ed budget amounts to $13,886,289 — up 6.9 Mr. Brennan said. The hoard's plan hit a snag The South Mountain gymnasium question per cent over expenses for the 1983-84 school at the Township Committee meeting last is the only item on the Zoning Board's Mon­ year. Mr Brennan noted this increase in­ week when a group of residents proposed day agenda No elected members of the cludes $569,571 for negotiated hikes in converting the property into/ a con Board of Education are scheduled to attend salaries for faculty and staff. dominium. but the board will be represented by an at The capital outlay account for 1984-85 with At the same time that the Board of Educa­ torney and by a member of the administra-- tipn, Mr Brennan said a tentative figure of $660,000 is scheduled to tion is meeting Monday the Zoning Board of fund (he purchase of $262,825 worth of com­ puter equipment for student use. The remainder of the budget figure is designated for debt service which does not appear on the April school election ballot f or residents’ approval. When board finance chairman Roger Chesley presented the budget guidelines in REFLECTION S— Buildings along Millburn Avenue day through the magic of reflection as torrential rains November be projected an increase of 5 per cent to cover inflation but did not include near the Maplewood line were doubled in size Tues fell throughout the area. Plan board OKsEssex project For the second time in seven months, the Penney Jr. while another board member, The project approved by the Planning street level. The DEP will not permit the construction of a building which has an oc Planning Board has approved the construc­ Louis Weinberg said'the developers “were Board last week differs from the Esplanade cupied first floor which is below the 100 year tion of a retail store-office building on Essex givip^more to the t,own than the town was concept which received clearance from the Street, midway between Main street and giving ny**—'" ~ saahf.boatdto.Jund.. - flood line. As a result of that state ruling, the Lackawanna Place. Planning Board chairman Robert Heintz, At the time Esplanade developers envi­ Esplanade developers revised their plans The project, Millburn Esplanade, cleared in announcing his favorable vote on the pro­ sioned a 3-story high building with the the Planning Board at the organization’s ground level and second floor occupied by ana, after receiving DEP approval for the December 7 meeting by a 8-to-l vote. ject; said he had "tremendous long-range revisions, brought those new plans to the concerns about parking” in the center area, small rttail shops and the upper level rented The only dissenting vote was cast by Ed­ local board but that those concerns were not due to “this as office space. ward Mazur who argued the township was The revised plans pul before the township building.” Mr. Heintz, in his justification bf That plan, however, ran afoul of the N.J planning body last week call for a 4-story “giving away too much" in terms of a park­ the parking variance, noted that the Department of Environmental Protection high building with the ground fluni level of ing variance to justify the project’s ap­ municipality’s traffic consultant hadcited a earlier this autumn. The DEP ruled, based solid "fill. ' proval. “Surplus tit spaces” in the parking lot on municipal data, the site of the project The first occupied level of the building - The Esplanade project approved last located on the Glen Avenue side of the was in a flood hazard zone where the level of actually its second floor is.to be devoted week was a 4-story high building of20,967 tar Millburn railroad station. the 100 year storm was nine feet higher than to retail use while the upper two levels will, square feet with no on-site parking provid­ be rented as office space ed. A building of that are£ would normally Although the building approved by the require in excess of 60 on-site parking Planning Board last week is higher than the spaces. County completes repairs one approved in June, the area devoted to In contrast to Mr. Mazur’s position other Planning Board members cited the stores and tfffices will be slightly smaller .in availability of parking spaces in the terms of square footage than (he structure Millburn railroad station parking lot and (be at Diamond Mill Pond originally; pfanheW H The reduction in area is attributat|B||§the “trade off” that the construction of the Once again Diamond Mill Pond on Before the water was returned to Dia­ Esplanade would provide to the municipali­ upper level being setback l-rpra the Brookside Drive will be open to township mond Mill Pond the parks department building’s exterior walls The upper floor ty. fisherman, but the 1984 angling season may brought in a boat-like aquatic weed contains 6. too square feel th'ejither oc­ The “trade off” is represented by a be short lived. harvester to remove the swamp growth that walkway which the Esplanade developers cupied floois aie 7 414 square feet and 7,462 Water has been allowed to flow into the sprouted and grew during the drainage square feel will construct from Essex Street to Millburn basin that for the past year has been period. This work was done in mid Avenue. The developers plan to demolish Last week's meeting of the Planning primarily a breeding ground fbr swamp November. the Millburn Avenue store now occupied by Board was the final meeting of that body for- grass while engineers from the Essex Coun­ Restoration of the 3.5 acre pond formed tile Record Mill and use that space to pro­ 1983. As one of its last acts of the year, board ty Department of Parks, Recreation and by the west branch of the Rahway River, is vide the link to Essex Street members reelected Mr Heintz and Willard FAREWELL- Retiring charter member trv'inq Trachrhan ri-callsin^: Cultural Affairs repaired concrete on the being financed by the county parks capital Burns to serve as the organization’s 1964 The parking variance-walkway trade-off earjy days on the First Aid Squad w heJ|w SfcifriBianco wav a 1947 f*gVCJ dam located at the down-stream end of the improvement account (P 'retu||l|| Pam- 4) chairman- and vice chairman- was described “on balance as good for the pond. town” by Planning Board member John S. Water will be allowed to accumulate at Diamond Mill and the pond will be stocked with fish by-spring, if the state approves, said parks director Williiam C. Scalzo All anglers Over 14 must have state licenses. Aid squad loses last charter member According to parks department chief engineer Michael Cerra, the pond may have retired the Mdlhurn sffbfS'! woman had fallen,down a flight <>t stairs ^Sistiah m lj|LI m & h l jodav.