Council Approves Roughly $1.93M For Capital Improvements

The Fort Lee Borough Council adopted a bond ordinance Thursday authorizing slightly more than $1.92 million for a variety of capital improvement projects, ranging from office equipment, to road resurfacing, to sport utility vehicles and other equipment for emergency services, a backhoe for DPW and improvements to borough parks and buildings.

The ordinance appropriating a total of $1,928,500, of which $1,832,075 is financed through bonds or notes after $96,425 in down payments, was scheduled for public hearing at Thursday's regular meeting of the Fort Lee Mayor and Council and adopted unanimously.

The capital improvements planned with that money (with “appropriation and estimated cost,” “estimated maximum amount of bonds or notes” and “period of usefulness,” respectively, in parentheses) break down as follows:

Office equipment for the Borough Clerk's Office

($5,000; $4,750; five years)

Sport utility vehicles for the Fire Prevention Bureau

($70,000; $66,500; five years)

Purchase and installation of antennas for the Office of Emergency Management building

($1,500; $1,425; 10 years)

Equipment, including a photocopier, for the Office of Cultural and Heritage Affairs

($2,000; $1,900; five years)

A sport utility vehicle for the Building Department

($30,000; $28,500; five years)

Safety equipment and gear, generators, gear racks, a vehicle exhaust system, a computer server, computers and software and a sports utility vehicle for the Fire Department

($350,000; $332,500; five years)

Equipment, including stretchers, for the Ambulance Corps

($20,000; $19,000; 15 years)

Resurfacing and other repairs to storm-damaged roads for DPW

($370,000: $351,500; 10 years)

A backhoe—a piece of excavating equipment—for  DPW

($130,000; $123,500; 15 years)

Equipment for the Fort Lee Community Center stage

($150,000; $142,500; 10 years)

Dispatch, camera and scheduling systems for the Fort Lee Police Department

($230,000; $218,500; 10 years)

Furniture for the police department

($20,000; $19,000; five years)

Improvements to unspecified borough buildings and parks

($400,000; $380,000; 15 years)

Computers for the borough administration

($150,000; $142,500; five years)

The Borough Council also approved or advanced all other ordinances, resolutions and consent agenda items on its regular meeting agenda for July 21, which can be downloaded from the borough's website.

In addition, public hearings were scheduled for Aug. 18 for the following two ordinances that were introduced at Thursday's meeting:

• Ord. #2011-16--Appropriating a $155,100 Grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for the Preparation and Implementation Of an Energy Efficiency Strategy
• Ord. #2011-17--Amending Chapter 216 Fire Prevention, Article I Adoption of Standards, Section 6 Amendments to Fire Prevention Code of the Borough of Fort Lee to Authorize the Building Department Sub-Code Official and Code Enforcement Officials of the Building Department to Have Enforcement Powers for Sub- Sections (35) and (36) (Fire Zones)