Secaucus has adopted a $64,203,932 budget for the 2022 calendar year. The Town Council adopted the budget at its June 28 meeting. Chief Financial Officer Pat De Blasio broke down the budget during the hearing at the meeting.

De Blasio said the budget process was started it in January and February of this year. The budget has remained the same from the introduction to the public hearing.

This year, the town will see a tax decrease for the average homeowner. This is a nice surprise for homeowners, as the town was previously anticipating a small tax increase.

“The overall tax rate, as it stands today, the average homeowner is expected to go down by $12 on houses valued at $176,000,” De Blasio said. “Naturally if your house is valued higher, the projected tax increase would be larger than that.”

While the town is still recovering from the impacts of COVID-19, it also had to cope with inflation in 2022.

“We have lots of different impacts on this budget,” De Blasio said. “It was a different year for all of us. We had inflation running at 8.6 percent. And we have tax to deal with. We have a levy cap at 2 percent, and we have a budget appropriation cap at 3.5 percent.”

Despite inflation and other challenges, the town has kept within the tax levy cap and budget cap.

“I’m pretty proud to say we met both of those caps,” De Blasio said. “So our budget is in full compliance. A few days ago, the DCA reviewed our budget and gave us the green light. So all is good.”

Since the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs has given the okay, the town has put their budget into affect.

“With the tax decrease, we’re pretty happy about that,” De Blasio said. And that’s about the summary on the budget.”

Secaucus continues to recover

First Ward Councilman Rob Costantino, who is on the Finance Committee, touted this year’s budget, all things considered.

“There’s a lot lately, inflation being at 8 percent and health insurance costs going up, and pension stuff, and all the other things that go into running a town has increased,” Costantino said. “It puts a lot of pressure on these budgets, and it’s really difficult year after year. Things like increasing police department, as many cops as we have now and all the things that go along with it, COVID-19, revenue shortages with people working from home and not using the train as much, the parking tax, and the hotel tax, and people not traveling with gas prices being as high as they are.”

Constantino listed the various things in the budget that have been affected by both COVID-19 and inflation, from decreased revenue from hotel and parking taxes, to increasing the police department and addressing budget shortfalls with federal funds. The town is using $1,145,754.33, the other half of its $2,291,508.66 in American Rescue Plan money, to address budget shortfalls as it did in 2021.

“There are so many things that put stress on the budget,” Costantino said. “I’m proud to get to this point where we’re able to sandwich these three taxes from the town, the school board, and the county and come out with this where there’s a help to the taxpayers for one more year. We’ve been doing this for 12 years and we’ve had favorable budgets for a long, long time. And it’s really difficult to do. I’m proud of this budget, I’m proud of all the work everyone does. We’ll get back at it now and try to create those surpluses we need to so that next year we’re in the same boat.”

Costantino said this year’s budget should not hamper efforts next year, come budget season.

“I think most year that we do this, we try to avoid impacting future budgets with the decisions we make now,” Costantino said. “It’s getting harder, because of all the things we just mentioned. But with all the professionals and the way things have been going, let’s knock on wood that things keep on going this way. “

Costantino and De Blasio both thanked everyone involved in making the budget a reality during the hearing.

The council voted unanimously to approve the budget, except for Mayor Michael Gonnelli who was absent. In his absence, Third Ward Councilman William McKeever chaired the meeting. 

The council also voted unanimously to establish a municipal budget appropriations limit and CAP bank. For more information, go to secaucusnj.gov.

For updates on this and other stories, check www.hudsonreporter.com and follow us on Twitter @hudson_reporter. Daniel Israel can be reached at disrael@hudsonreporter.com. 

Secaucus police have arrested a Jersey City man for a number of car thefts and burglaries.

According to police, on June 23 at 2:34 a.m. a resident of Luhmann Terrace called and reported that he observed several individuals attempting to burglarize vehicles. Upon the arrival of Sergeant Stephen Hurtuk, he observed three individuals flee the area on foot.

Sergeant Hurtuk pursued the trio on foot and was able to place Tyhaze Williams, a 23-year-old of Jersey City, under arrest. Other responding police units established a perimeter around the immediate area, but despite the use of Hudson County Sheriff’s Department K-9 Units, the two other suspects remain at large.

At the time of his arrest, Williams possessed property that was stolen from a resident’s vehicle on Grace Avenue that was burglarized. Additional evidence linked Williams to the attempted to burglary of three additional vehicles parked on Luhmann Terrace. Evidence was also obtained that Williams burglarized another vehicle parked on 1st Avenue.

Later in the morning patrol officers responded to the area of Lucht Place, which is a short distance from Luhmann Terrace. Police located a Nissan Pathfinder, Honda CRV and a Toyota Rav4.

The Nissan Pathfinder was discovered to be stolen from North Bergen, on the night of June 22. The Honda CRV was discovered to be stolen from Born Street in Secaucus and the Toyota Rav4 was discovered to be stolen from 2nd Avenue in Secaucus. Both the Honda CRV and the Toyota Rav4 were stolen on the night of June 23.

Also at the time of his arrest, Williams was found in possession of the key to the stolen Toyota Rav4. The investigation is ongoing and additional arrests may be made.

“This arrest was made possible because of the partnership we have developed with the community,” Chief Dennis Miller said. “The resident’s keen eye and reporting of suspicious activity led to an immediate police response. I want to thank the Hudson County Sheriff’s Office for their assistance, but I also want to laud the efforts of the Night Tour Commander, Lieutenant Thomas Malanka Jr. Lieutenant Malanka has redeployed his manpower and used innovative approaches to address these types of crimes that are occurring during the night to protect our residents’ property while they sleep. Additionally, I cannot stress enough that residents need to lock their car doors to curtail this crime of opportunity!”

Williams was charged with three counts of Burglary, three counts of Criminal Attempt to Commit Burglary, Conspiracy to Commit Burglary, three counts of Theft, two counts of Receiving Stolen Property, Obstructing of the Administration of Law, and Resisting Arrest. Williams, was lodged in the Hudson County Jail.

Anyone with additional information on these burglaries or if they did not initially report their vehicle was burglarized, can contact the Secaucus Police Detective Division at (201) 330-2052 or detectivedivsion@secaucus.net. These charges are merely accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

For updates on this and other stories, check www.hudsonreporter.com and follow us on Twitter @hudson_reporter. Daniel Israel can be reached at disrael@hudsonreporter.com. 

Secaucus has officially designated an architect for the new senior center project in town at 101 Centre Avenue. Mayor Michael Gonnelli and the Secaucus Town Council voted unanimously to pass a resolution doing so at a meeting in late May.

The architect chosen for the gig is Clarke Caton Hintz for $440,000, the existing architect for some Secaucus contracts. According to the resolution, the Chief Financial Officer determined sufficient grants funds were available to award the contract.

The plans are necessary before any construction can begin. Meanwhile, demolition of the old senior center and environmental remediation of the site is complete.

New senior center needed

In August of 2021, the Secaucus Town Council voted unanimously to adopt a bond ordinance to cover the cost of the new senior center totaling $7,818,670. While the bond will foot most of the bill, the town has received a number of grants and is using other monies to supplement the project such as from town reserves.

The move came after the town realized that oil tanks underneath the old center had been leaking for a number of years. Environmental remediation work needed to be done at the three buildings that composed the old center, but because some of the contamination leached under the foundation, officials said it was cheaper to start from scratch then to remediate the existing center. The old center was demolished before contaminated soil that was formerly beneath the building was removed.

Now plans are in the works for the new center. While the new building will primarily serve as a senior center during the day time, for the rest of the day and evening the facility will serve as a community center for residents to hold events and meetings. When the new senior center opens, it will be larger and more accessible to the handicapped. Amid the ongoing construction, the community center on Front Street is functioning as a makeshift senior center.

Project design coming along

In a interview after the passage of the resolution, Town Administrator Gary Jeffas gave an update as to the status of the project which has been in the design phase since at least the beginning of this year.

“The architect was already our architect for professional service contracts that are awarded every year,” Jeffas told the Hudson Reporter. “But since this is a specific project for the senior center, we got their proposal. And we approved a resolution so that all of their services under that proposal are billed to the senior center.”

Jeffas said the architect has already been working on the project, but now have been officially designated as such and will be billed specifically for their work on this project. He added that the architect has gotten to the schematic phase of the design, which he believes is the second of three phases.

“Now we’ll have to look at it, review it, and then it would go into the third phase of architectural design,” Jeffas said. “That is like the final details, when they’re getting down to the nitty gritty. That’s the electrical, the plumbing, the beams.”

Next phase in 2023?

The third phase may take some time to complete. However, by this time next year Jeffas expects the town to be going out to bid for a construction contractor.

“I think their estimation is towards the early winter time of this year to be done,” Jeffas said. “So hopefully we can bid the project in Spring of 2023.”

For updates on this and other stories, check www.hudsonreporter.com and follow us on Twitter @hudson_reporter. Daniel Israel can be reached at disrael@hudsonreporter.com.