Dear Editor:
In Mayor Barberio’s latest Message from the Mayor, he has attempted to glorify what should be regular duties of the mayor into something of great importance. Whenever such an opportunity arises, I am astonished at how long the Mayor’s arms are that he can reach around and pat himself on the back for just doing his job.
In his latest attempt to promote himself and his administration he has yet again attempted to turn the mishandling of the lack of air conditioning in the Lake Hiawatha Library into a public relations victory. Let’s examine the facts and see how his version stands up.
It was known before the cooling season began that the A/C in the Lake Hiawatha Branch was not operating correctly. This should have been a red flag to act to restore the HVAC system to complete working order. That was not the course of action taken by the city. Instead they waited until the hot weather arrived and then gave the staff the choice of taking vacation time or going to another location across town. As a member of the town council and the Library Board Councilman Neglia should have been front and center to ensure the situation was remedied immediately. That of course did not happen, the building was not fully usable until the beginning of August. So rather than the Mayor saying he was sorry for the lack of services he instead is trying to spin it into a stellar performance.
The L.H. Library branch still has lighting issues indoors with fluorescent tubes that have been in need of replacement for months. It’s a library folks! It is easier to read with good lighting.
The parking lot lights have only had half of the lights working for over a year. The city knows there is an underground conduit that failed causing the wiring inside to short circuit. Rather than scheduling the replacement of the conduit and wiring which should take all of a day if planned properly, it seems as if the city feels a job half completed is good enough. Is that what we are paying high taxes for to have incomplete work written off as a job well done? Perhaps an alternate to installing an underground feed would be to string overhead wiring from the working pole and fixture to the non working fixture. That of course would depend upon the fixture poles being able to hold the weight of the overhead cable. In either case this needs to be addressed before the weather turns cold and blacktop patch becomes unavailable should a small trench need to be dug.
Our taxes continue to rise ever year partly because of shortfalls from the taxes that will not be collected from PILOT Program properties. This shortfall will become worse every year as more of these spaces are occupied.
No matter what the Mayor and his developer friends tell you these PILOT deals are not good for the average home owner in Parsippany who will be burdened to pick up the shortfalls in tax revenue for decades to come. That is right DECADES! The city gave 30 year sweetheart deals to the developers for reasons unknown.
Election time is just around the corner. Do you think life has gotten better during the last four years under Mayor Barberio? I know many of my fellow residents do not, so come election time get out and vote for a change in City Hall and make Parsippany a better place to be.
Richard Suarez
