Teaneck's Postwar Problems

CONCLUSION

Problems confronting Teaneck can be divided into two classes - those immediate and those remote - the solving of both being dependent on the Township's debt limit, The debt limit of a New Jersey municipality is seven percent of the average of assessed valuations of real property including improvements for the municipality. As the assessed valuations increase, the scope of revenue increases with them, therefore new construction in the Township will be an important factor in determining the time it will take to accomplish all that is desired in the way of improvements.

Because of the suspension of building activity during the past few years, while depreciations automatically continued, the assessed valuations decreased and the source of Township revenue grew smaller. This placed an additional burden upon the taxpayers which has been reflected in a higher tax rate. During this period, the Township has reduced its municipal operating expenses, and has practiced every economy consistent with good management to alleviate the pressure of taxes occasioned by the war. Charges of procrastination flung carelessly in the recent councilmanic campaign were both malicious and unfounded. Additional facilities planned for the Township could not have been provided during the lean years of the long depression, and they must still wait sound financing.

Future Projects

The list of projects that comprise a backlog of public works include sewage disposal; new fire-fighting facilities; additional street paving, re-laying of sidewalks and curbs; completion of the park system; public buildings, including addition to the Municipal Building and increased library space; and bridges over the Railroad at Grayson Place and over the State Highway at the Lincoln Place school.

Of this list, sanitation and the new firehouse are the most important. With the approval of Federal authorities, plans for proceeding with the fire station have been continued and construction will be subject only to the availability of necessary materials. Quarters of a makeshift nature have housed the lengthy aerial ladder truck, dormitories for the men have been inadequate, and the separation of the fire alarm system in a fireproof section of headquarters will make Teaneck eligible for a Class "A" rating by the National Board of Fire Underwriters.

The present fire station on Teaneck Road is proposed as a new Police Headquarters. This important Department has been confined to the basement of the Municipal Building for many years, and has long outgrown these unsuitable quarters.

Solution of Sewage Problem 

The solution of the sewage disposal problem is linked with the development of the trunk sewers planned to serve both the Overpeck Creek Valley and the Hackensack River Valley. As early as 1936, Teaneck took the lead in solving the problem jointly with other municipalities bordering the Overpeck at a meeting in the Municipal Building of mayors and engineering officials of the various towns. Little progress was made until the City of Englewood acquired ownership of the City's sewerage system which for many years was privately owned. Throughout the war years it was impossible to initiate action on the trunk sewer plans and Englewood still empties raw sewage into the Creek. Much of the sorry condition that has caused unpleasantness in the sections bordering the Creek emanate from sources beyond the control of the Teaneck Council.

On April 3, 1945 the New Jersey Legislature created the Bergen-Hackensack Sanitary Sewer District Authority and vested it with the necessary powers to negotiate with the several municipalities and to engineer, construct and operate joint disposal systems. The constitutionality of the act was questioned by one of the towns affected and additional legislation is planned to remove this further delay in the work. The wisdom of shaping Teaneck's sanitation plans to coordinate with the basic scheme of a trunk sewer advanced by the Sewage Authority can hardly be questioned. No alternate proposals, regardless of expense, could guarantee elimination or pollution in these streams.

Modern sewage disposal has developed from scientific and engineering study, and sanitation experts are constantly striving for greater perfection, Therefore, the description that follows is admittedly sketchy and is offered as a rough idea regarding Teaneck's sewage system.

How Sewer Plants Work

When it enters the disposal plants, the sewage passes first through screens of iron which separate out the coarser solid material. This material is periodically removed and buried. From the screens the sewage flows into what is technically known as an "Imhoff Tank." Imhoff Tanks are really two tanks, one above the other. Sewage is led into the upper tank and passes through it at such a slow rate that much of the solid matter in suspension falls to the bottom. The liquid sewage, after having passed through the tank, is emptied into either the Hackensack River or the Overpeck Creek. The solid material which has fallen into the lower tank slowly rots until finally all organic matter is gone, and only inorganic is left. This is technically known as sludge, and periodically is removed from the tanks and spread on drying beds which are covered with glass. This drying process takes several weeks after which the sludge is removed. ,

It is evident that this present treatment of sewage is neither chemically stable nor bacteriologically pure, yet the processes of other municipal plants show no improvement and many are inferior. The situation needs correction but the high costs involved in the further purification of the effluent by individual municipalities indicate the trunk sewer as offering the plan with most lasting value. In addition to an improvement of the sewage disposal system, a storm sewer is proposed for Belle Avenue.

Other Problems

New Construction is not the only field for future planning by the Township. Provisions to ease the traffic congestion in the business areas must be devised. To be effective, parking facilities must be provided as near as possible to the various points for shopping. Large areas at some distance from the stores are not popular, and the time has come when no structure, be it an apartment building, a theater, or large market should be erected that has failed to include in its use of land provision for the traffic it attracts. Where land values are sufficiently low at present to permit areas being used for parking, the time must be foreseen when the values will increase, and basements, even flat roofs reached by ramps, will have to be considered for the parking of cars.

Zoning Changes Needed

Changes should be made in zoning ordinances to eliminate conflicting restrictions. Many business properties are denied the full use of the land where the limitations imposed by a higher class of zoning, prevailing on a street less than 300 feet away, overlap. Clarifying the usages of property will aid marketability and reflect favorably in the values.

The zoning classification known as Class B which allows two-family houses is outmoded. Residential character, formerly attributed to two-family dwellings, is now more successfully obtained in developments of two-story multiple dwellings through the architectural styling and the large percentage of the plot reserved for landscaping. Recognition of the advancement in housing developments has been made in neighboring communities, such as Tenafly and Englewood, and their characteristics which project personal residential treatment have removed much of the prejudice formerly directed against this type of development in neighborhoods of private homes. 

Unimproved land, situated to the east of Teaneck Road, requires considerable study to determine its best potential use to the Township. Observing the trends which are progressing in the fields of housing and economics, and analyzing the Township's problems from the long range viewpoint, is the soundest policy for planning the future of Teaneck. The impatience of citizens will be lessened if inquiry is made into all phases of problems before conclusions are accepted. 

Service on Township committees yields a liberal education to citizens, and frequently sessions of apparent dreariness, such as those which involve many technical angles, contribute some bit of information that proves valuable later. Through the interest of its citizens in the business of government Teaneck has attained an enviable position among municipalities and, as it turns its back on its past fifty years it is the interest of its citizens which will continue most substantially its prospects for a glorious future.

THE END

 

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