West New York plans to bond additional millions of dollars for the construction of a parking garage in town.

The West New York Board of Commissioners have voted unanimously to introduce an ordinance that would bond $3,450,000 for the construction of a parking garage at the site of the 57th Street Parking Lot. This is one of three surface parking lots currently being converted to parking garages by the town to increase parking, including the lots at 51st Street and 54th Street.

The money that would be bonded in the ordinance introduced at the board’s March 23 meeting is in addition to millions the town has already set aside for the project. The town previously appropriated $8,550,000 in parking utility bonds in support of the project, in an ordinance adopted by the commissioners in February of 2021.

The move to bond more funds aims to finance the additional cost of the project. The maximum amount of bonds to be issued for the project is now $11,590,000, according to the ordinance.

More parking spaces at 57th Street

In early March, the West New York Planning Board conducted a courtesy review of the project, endorsing the move to add more parking in town. The existing surface parking lot is around 94 parking spaces. The new planned garage will hold approximately 197 parking spaces. 

To the north of the parking lot is 58th Street, to the west is Bergenline Avenue, to the south is 57th Street, and to the east are buildings. The entrance would be on 57th Street. Underneath the first floor drive ramp is storage space for the town. The three-story parking garage has multiple stairways and an elevator.

The history of the town was taken into consideration when designing the facade of the parking garage. The brick design is meant to highlight West New York’s history as a former textile industry hub. The brick patterns aim to emulate that and the surrounding neighborhood. 

Pedestrian walkways approximately 13 feet in width will run around the perimeter of the building. Construction is estimated to complete by mid-November of 2023.

Officials eager to address parking problem

After the ordinance was introduced, Mayor Gabriel Rodriguez touted the project which aims to alleviate the parking problem in West New York.

“We are very excited to once again be voting on something that is going to improve the parking situation in the town of West New York,” Rodriguez said. “I thank everybody involved, the town administrator, project manager, all the commissioners, engineers, and architects. This is something that our community needs and we are happy to vote yes moving forward.”

Also at the meeting, the board voted to send the project back out to bid, in search of a construction contractor to build the parking garage. Project officials sought bids to be presented to the board by April 20, and it appears that things are on track to meet that timeline.

A public hearing and vote on the ordinance, as well as potentially further discussion of the parking projects, will be held at the next board meeting. The West New York Board of Commissioners will meet next on April 6 at 6:30 p.m. via Zoom. For more information, go to westnewyorknj.org.

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

West New York Gabriel Rodriguez addressed recent back-to-back crimes reported on the week of March 14 in response to resident questions. The conversation was prompted at the March 23 meeting of the West New York Board of Commissioners.

“Details have just been very, very limited,” resident Mark Bloomberg said. “Is there anything you can share with the public on the most recent crime?”

Bloomberg is referring to a string of reported crimes starting on Monday, March 14, according to computer aided dispatch (CAD) reports that was highlighted by a story in the Hudson County View.

Three incidents the week of March 14

At approximately 11:35 a.m. West New York Police Department responded to the Wireless Express at 5010 Bergenline Avenue on a report of an armed robbery. According to the dispatch reports, the owner of the establishment told police the robbery occurred about 20 minutes ago and refused medical attention. No other information was available as the investigation remains an ongoing.

On the same day, at approximately 4:07 p.m., the West New York police responded to reports of shots fired incident at the intersection of 62nd Street and Park Avenue. According to the report, the victim was shot in the leg and received treatment on scene before being transported to Jersey City Medical Center. A nine millimeter bullet shell casing and a knife was recovered from the scene

The following day on Tuesday, March 15, at approximately 7:57 a.m., authorities responded to 139 66th Street and found a man dead on arrival outside the home. No additional details were available.

Rodriguez can’t say much

In response to Bloomberg, Rodriguez noted the matters were on going, so details that can be released to the public are limited.

“Obviously these are points of concern for all of our community, beginning with myself,” Rodriguez said. “As you may understand, these types of conversations are limited, due to the fact that there are ongoing investigations. We cannot comment in detail.”

However, Rodriguez assured these were not random, yet personal incidents.

“I can tell you that they are not random acts of violence,” Rodriguez said. “These were incidents between individuals who knew each other. That doesn’t make it any better, but they were personal in terms of involvement. That alleviates a little but of the stress that comes with situations like this. But unfortunately, we cant really comment further than that, but thank you for your concern.”

Bloomberg asked about the dead bound found, which Rodriguez said he cannot provide any additional information. Bloomberg thanked Rodriguez for the details he did provide, and asked him to provide feature details as they become available.

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

As West New York addresses what officials in town consider to be a top issue, parking, residents have voiced concerns about some aspects of their efforts.

Jackie Granchamps, a West New York resident, said at the March 9 Board of Commissioners meeting her concern is the way parking space line repainting has been done on some streets in town. She is not the first resident to bring up issues with the town’s line repainting.

“The issue of parking has been something that has been on my mind recently,” Granchamps said. “I’ve lived in West New York for four years and I’ve never been able to get a paid parking spot in any of our garages. It’s really at a premium. I’m finding now with a lot of influx of other areas, parking is at a premium. There’s also a lot of unsafe behaviors because of the lack of parking. What I’m finding now is that even Boulevard East, which used to be a parking spot of last resort is full even by 6 p.m.”

According to Granchamps, the line repainting has exacerbated the existing issue: “The parking spots have been drawn so large, it’s actually cut down on the number of parking spots quite a bit.” She suggested redrawing the spaces smaller on one side of the street as a compromise to keep some of the new larger spaces. 

“The larger cars that are being accommodated by these larger spaces can be still used, but the majority of cars in our neighborhood are compact cars and they would fit,” Granchamps said. “For instance, three large spaces can accommodate four or five compact cars.”

The other problem she pointed out was motorcycles were taking up one large space. 

“What we can do is put in dedicated motorcycle parking. We could have in one large space, five motorcycles parked as long as everyone parks with their nose against the curb. 

Rodriguez highlights parking plan

Mayor Gabriel Rodriguez thanked Granchamps, who has lived in West New York for four years.

“As I’m sure you’ve known, parking is probably our number one issue,” Rodriguez said. “We are in the most densely populated area in the nation, which translates to obviously a lack of parking. We’ve identified that we understand residents need for parking. There hasn’t been done much for parking in many years. We are not going to make that mistake.”

Rodriguez noted that the town is undergoing a plan to construct three parking garages on three existing municipal surface lots at 51st, 54th, and 57th Streets, with all in various states of the process. Additionally, the town is adding angled parking among other measures designed to add spaces.

“We’ve already got plans to create three garages to already established floor lots to remedy that,” Rodriguez said. “We’ve already started creating diagonal parking in some of our areas. We’re serving different avenues to see where that can be implemented because that adds parking.” 

Rodriguez, addressing Granchamps’ specific issue with parking lines, said that was done in order to provide more order to parking and prevent vehicle damage.

“I completely understand your frustration in terms of size, but the problem that we were having before was that cars were getting damaged because people were trying to fit cars where they didn’t fit prior,” Rodriguez said. “But every solution that we try to provide, our solution can also encounter other issues as a result. That is an ongoing problem for the town of West New York, but we are addressing it as best we can.”

Rodriguez asked to continue the conversation offline with Granchamps to listen to any new ideas to potentially solve problem. 

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