Repaving of Euclid Avenue in Hackensack is complete, and it's smooth and beautiful

LOOKING GOOD: A mixture of asphalt, stone, sand and gravel never looked as good as they did on Thursday evening, when Euclid Avenue between Summit and Prospect avenues was reopened to traffic after being paved for the first time since the early 1990s. Euclid is one of 11 streets in Hackensack being repaved before the end of 2019.

NO DRIVEWAY BUMP: The layer of asphalt appeared to be a little thicker than the original, judging from the elimination of the "bump" when we drove our cars into the driveway and garage. The other 4 blocks of Euclid Avenue, which ends at Main Street, were repaved several years ago.

JULY 2018: Years of patching and pothole repair left parts of Euclid Avenue looking like this in the summer of 2018, above and below.

YEAR-ROUND POTHOLES: The neglect was evident when potholes hung around throughout the year. Read: Use some of hospital's millions to fix streets

A modest proposal: Hackensack should use some of HUMC's millions to fix streets

A PATCHWORK OF PATCHES: Hackensack hasn't paved the block of Euclid Avenue, between Prospect and Summit avenues, for more than three decades, according to longtime residents.

A GOOD THUMPING: Potholes like these, above and below, are found along the entire length of the block, and though small, they can rock even a heavy luxury car like the one I drive.

SUMMER POTHOLES: Who ever heard of potholes that go unfilled through the summer? Welcome to Euclid Avenue in the Fairmount section of Hackensack.

EDITOR'S NOTE: With my property tax bill approaching $19,000 a year, I want more than tax relief from the millions of dollars the city will receive from Hackensack University Medical Center, a so-called non-profit that pays its CEO more than $3 million a year.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Have you heard the latest news in the decades-long battle between the city and the hugely profitable but tax-exempt Hackensack University Medical Center?

In a new deal, approved by the City Council on June 26, the sprawling medical center will pay $4 million a year for six years in lieu of property taxes -- a total of $24 million by the end of 2023.

City officials estimate the medical center would pay $19 million annually in property taxes, if it wasn't tax exempt, and say they hope to use some of the $24 million for tax relief.

A tax cut would be welcome to me and the thousands of other residential and business property owners, but I'm sure I'm not alone in hoping some of the hospital's millions can go to improve the quality of life here. 

Euclid Avenue

That means fixing some of the patched, potholed and broken streets in Hackensack, including my block of Euclid Avenue, which hasn't been paved in more than three decades.

Of course, Hackensack isn't alone in having poor pavement:

Tenafly, Englewood, Teaneck and Bogota -- the towns I drive in or through most of the time -- have dozens of doozies.

Yet, residents of Hackensack and other towns in Bergen County pay some of the highest property taxes in the nation.

Non-profits

In Hackensack, residents resent having to carry the hospital's $19 million tax obligation, which is shifted onto every home and business property owner, and reflected in their high tax bills.

City residents also carry the tax burden of other non-profits, notably Bergen County government, the county jail and homeless shelter; state Superior Court, Fairleigh Dickinson's Hackensack campus, Bergen Community College and the Bergen County Academies.

$3.3 million salary

Robert C. Garrett, CEO of Hackensack University Medical Center, was paid $3.3 million in 2014, according to NJ.com, which cited records from the Internal Revenue Service.

Garrett issued a statement after the City Council approved the $24 million payment plan in lieu of taxes, saying the deal "further deepens our commitment to this community."

He also claimed HUMC is "the largest employer in the county," and that the medical center is "the city's economic engine," but provided no figures to substantiate either claim.

2015 ruling

In the summer of 2015, state Tax Court Judge Vito Bianco ruled Morristown Medical Center should lose its tax-exempt status -- in part because of its parent company CEO's $5 million-a-year pay package.

Today's non-profit hospitals generate "significant revenue and pay their professionals salaries that are competitive even by for-profit standards," NJ.com said, quoting Bianco's ruling.

Months later, a settlement was reached that allowed Morristown to remain a non-profit entity, while paying out $15.5 million over 10 years to help offset property taxes.

The multi-year deal with Hackensack is similar, so let's hope residents get both tax relief and smoother streets as a result.

Elite pilots reject extra work to continue their noisy flights over poor Hackensack

This sleek but noisy business jet flew low over the Fanny Meyer Hillers Elementary School in Hackensack in April 2016 -- just one of the many hundreds of private jets that are destroying the quality of life in towns near Teterboro Airport, which caters to celebrities, CEOs and other members of the 1%.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

Hackensack officials and residents know that many aspects of their daily lives are out of their control.

Property tax bills would be lower, if the county seat didn't host such enormous tax-exempt entities as Bergen County, Hackensack University Medical Center and Fairleigh Dickinson University -- none of which "give back" to city residents.

The quality of life would be so much better, if the city and neighboring towns weren't under the noisy flight paths of both Teterboro and Newark Liberty International airports.

And after a City Hall hearing on the abandonment of a quieter flight path for private jets heading to Teterboro, city residents also realize a decline in the quality of local reporting at The Record of Woodland Park appears irrevocable.

Six-month experiment

The Teterboro flight-path trial began on April 4, 2o16, and ran for six months, until last October, in an effort to cut noise for hospital patients, Prospect Avenue high-rise residents and elementary school children.

But the headline on The Record's story on Friday indicated the trial just ended:

"Relief from

air traffic

stalls for

Hackensack"

A much better headline ran on Thursday's report from the online Hackensack Daily Voice, which quoted airport and Federal Aviation Administration officials:

"Quiet Flight Path 

Was Too Much Work For Pilots"  

The lead paragraph:

"HACKENSACK, N.J. -- An air traffic control manager at Teterboro Airport said the trial flight path for incoming planes -- originally implemented to diminish aircraft noise and avoid Hackensack University Medical Center -- was too much work for pilots and thus abandoned."

The Record's lead paragraph on Wednesday's hearing talked about the six-month flight-path trial as if it just ended, and noted "there were few answers about steps to take next."

'Far less work'

Daily Voice reporter Cecilia Levine said:

"Testing began April 4, 2016, and ran for a continuous six-month period. Simultaneously, pilots had the option of utilizing the flight path that they were accustomed to -- RWY 19, which flies directly over Hackensack Medical Center [and] Prospect Avenue, the most densely populated street in Bergen County -- and other residential neighborhoods.

"That flight path utilizes an instrument landing system, the most common approach utilized by pilots which requires far less work than the quiet visual approach, officials said.

"Over the course of the six-month trial period, only 234 planes utilized the quiet visual approach.... Officials said the manual entry of landing waypoints increases the workload for pilots and requires a lot of 'heads down' time when they are supposed to be flying."

Levine also reported that in answer to a question from Deputy Mayor Kathleen Canestrino, "FAA officials said that both flight paths could work with instrument-landing systems."

Mayor John Labrosse's wife, a teacher at Hillers Elementary School in Hackensack, said on hot days, the windows must be kept closed so students can hear teacher's instructions without noise from business jets and other aircraft that pass over the school.

Filled with jargon

Record Staff Writer Rodrigo Torrejon quoted a lot of aviation jargon from Gary Palm, Teterboro air traffic control manager, for why most pilots refused to use the quieter flight path:

"One of the reasons given for pilots opting not to use the test flight path was waypoints.

"... A charting company removed the coding for waypoints depicted as visual reference points from aircrafts' flight-management system. This made it so pilots would have to input the coding manually mid-flight, causing safety and time concerns....

"The coding was removed due to pilots flying waypoint to waypoint instead of over Route 17."

Neither reporter defined "waypoint," which in air navigation is an intermediate point on a route.

New flight path didn't end noisy takeoffs

Was new flight path delayed or ignored?

Food coverage

The Better Living section on Friday and on June 9 was missing both restaurant inspections and dining-out coverage.

Since the weekly restaurant reviews ended last November, The Record has been running "food crawls," and articles recommending or ordering readers to try certain dishes and restaurants.