Municipal News

Last Updated on Tuesday, 01 August 2017 19:16

By Charlotte Hopkins

It was reported that over the holiday weekend in July that someone entered the Borough garage, removed the riding lawnmower, and later returned it with two flat tires and a damaged casing.

There was some debate over who had keys to the Borough garage. They are also not sure if the keys could have been duplicated and loaned out or lost and not reported. Council President Lew Miller will be looking into the incident further to find out who could be responsible for the incident. Miller also requested that the locks be changed and only one key be made available. Those entering the garage will have to sign out to use it.

In other news:

It was reported that Elizabeth Borough Police confiscated 5 bricks of heroin from the streets of West Elizabeth. It was not certain if this was the drug bust from the traffic stop in June or during a separate incident outside Tim's Corner Bar. At the traffic stop in June, the car was initially pulled over for having a tinted license plate.
A local resident, whose home is on the demolition list, attended the meeting to request that he be given a chance to save his home to use it for storage. The property owner also claimed the son of a council member was told “he could have whatever he wanted out of the house.” The accusation was not looked into since the council member was not in attendance at the meeting. There were several times that he had to run teenagers off of the property and asked what he could do about that. He was presented with a list of criteria that must be met before the house can be removed from the demolition list, security, health, and safety being among them. The house has already been condemned by the County. If the criteria is not met within the allotted time given, the borough will move forward with demolishing the property.
Councilwoman Louise Biddle inquired to the status of the demolition of the mobile homes next to the First Street playground. She is hoping the children of West Elizabeth will have better memories of playing at the park other than seeing two old trailers. Biddle stated, “That is sad for the children to see. I don't like that.” Miller assured her that steps have been made to remove the trailers.
A solicitor from the Sanitary Authority presented documents that needed to be signed. Miller was hoping to have them reviewed by their engineer before they sign them. Other council members felt they should be signed at the meeting since the representative was already there with the necessary paperwork.
Coyotes, known as “lifelike stalking predators,” will be put in at the baseball field. These have been proven to keep the geese from the field. The field was being littered with feces from the birds.

No information was provided for police calls answered in the month of June.