October-November 2001 Edition

Council Candidate:  Allan Caan   1.  Why do you want to be on the council? I believe being elected to the council will allow me to continue my service to the community in a more effective manner. I believe right now, Fair Lawn is a town with excellent services and value for the dollars we spend and I want to keep Fair Lawn headed in the right direction. Anyone can talk about lowering taxes and providing more services, but we all know the truth.    What I am looking for is to get the most services for the least amount of dollars. What I want to see is if there are more efficient ways for us to get the same services. Is there a way to pool the ordering of supplies to be more cost efficient and get the best price? I believe we need to look at the bidding process for services and make sure services go out to bid on a schedule to make sure we are getting our dollars worth. With the markets as competitive as they are, we cannot stand still expecting companies to give us the best prices if we are not constantly checking other vendors to see what they offer.   2.  Why do you think you would be a good council member? Four years ago I decided that I would like to serve Fair Lawn as a councilman. I felt in order to do the job the way it should be done, I would learn as much as I could to do the job effectively. Now, due to my experiences over the years on many Fair Lawn boards and organizations, I have gained a great deal of experience in not only how the boro operates but changes that need to take place. I currently serve on the Planning Board and have served on the Library's Board of Trustees, the Rent Leveling Board and the Financial Planning Committee. Through this service I have learned how the boro operates and have initiated changes to procedures wherever I saw the need to do so. For example this year on the Planning Board, I initiated several changes streamlining the application process, which saves the applicant and the board members from wasting a great deal of time. Last year I wrote and received a grant to eliminate the co-pay for low income parents costs for hepatitis B shots given to their children by the boro.   Currently I am the President of the Fair Lawn Rotary Club. As a member of Rotary, I have actively been involved with Fair Lawn High School. I am Rotary's advisor to the high school's service organization, the Interact Club. I am also on the district's Youth Leadership Award Committee, which sends high school juniors away to a leadership retreat at no cost to students. I am on the district's Gift of Life Committee which provides heart operations to children of families who would not normally have access to the healthcare they need. Through my initiative, Rotary just donated the new football scoreboard to the high school at Sasso Field. Because of Rotary's contribution the money earmarked for the scoreboard can now be directed to more educational programs.   I am a member of Fair Lawn's Chamber of Commerce and its scholarship committee as well as being a member of the Knights of Pythias and our Cystic Fibrosis campaign. I also am a sponsor of All Sports.   I believe all the experiences I have listed will help give me a better understanding of what the people of Fair Lawn want our town to be. I do not believe as some that being a councilman is an entry level position that requires no previous significant experience servicing the boro. Without the time I have put in working with all these Fair Lawn boards and these wonderful civic organizations, I would not know anything of significance of what I know today about Fair Lawn.   3.  What would you like to accomplish in the next four years? I already mentioned earlier that I would like make sure we are getting the most for the dollars we spend. We need to also make sure that taxes stay stable in the boro so we all can still afford to live here, especially our senior population. This alone will take a great deal of effort. I also would like to provide some new services to the people of Fair Lawn. I want to create the Fair Lawn Veteran Volunteer Coalition. The purpose of the coalition is to provide additional benefits to our Veterans and Fire, Ambulance and Heavy Rescue Squad members who provide for us seven days a week 24 hours a day. This coalition will be made up of voluntary providers of services that will offer a variety of discounts for a variety of services throughout Fair Lawn. This program will cost the people of Fair Lawn nothing to run. I want to find a way to provide a discount for prescription drugs for the seniors in town who currently have no coverage for prescription drugs. This program will cost the people of Fair Lawn nothing to run. I want to provide parents with children going to college a benefit to make the tuition payment a little more bearable. I also want to work with county and state officials to institute the Amber Alert System in the tri-state area. Amber Alert is a system which sends out notices to all media and other emergency systems when a child is abducted. Statistics show that the first three hours after an abduction are the most critical in finding a missing child. This program has already been instituted in many regions throughout the United States. Being part of Rotary's KidCare Program where a child is photographed and fingerprinted for identification purposes in case of an emergency, I believe the Amber Alert system is the next step to protect our children.   4.   What is your opinion on three issues that are often raised in Fair Lawn News: (a) Broadway, (b) River Road, and (c) traffic/pedestrian safety?   Broadway and River Road:  When it comes to redeveloping Broadway and River Road there are certain things we must come to terms with. No matter the good intentions of any committee attracting business we would like to see in Fair Lawn, we must deal with the reality that there are five malls in Paramus with huge parking lots that we are competing with. What Fair Lawn needs to attract are businesses that are unique or have a niche which will attract shoppers from other towns. Broadway especially, is currently not suited for the type of business we would like to see. The lack of parking and the barrier down the middle of the road make development that much more difficult to achieve. The county which controls these roads have been less than helpful in our efforts to revitalize these areas. Also as far as Broadway and River Road are concerned, we must always balance the need of the businesses with the residents of those areas. As a member of the Planning Board, I have reviewed many applications.  Enhancing the needs of all parties has always been a priority.  One area that I know I differ from my opponent is the proposal by the Broadway Committee to deepen the commercial zone by 100 feet into the residential area which could effect homeowners all along Broadway. At a recent Planning Board meeting I completely rejected this blanket proposal, but my opponent supported it.   Traffic/Pedestrian Safety:   As for traffic/pedestrian safety, we are limited in doing most things we would like to do by the county. We are constantly being denied when we ask to put in the traffic lights we want. I recommend at the next opportunity we vote in a county executive who is sympathetic to our needs. In the meantime, I think we should put in pedestrian yield signs at dangerous intersections as they do in some surrounding towns, of course if the county lets us. The signs seem to work especially in Ridgewood.   5.  What do you think are the other top issues? In talking to the residents of Fair Lawn, I believe an overwhelmingly large percentage of people believe things are pretty good and headed in the right direction. I have actually been surprised when I ask most people what their concerns are, they usually say they are satisfied. People have been very supportive of the current council, especially Mayor Ganz, and the job that they have done for Fair Lawn. I hope I have the opportunity to do the same. I share and support his vision for Fair Lawn.   6.  Anything else you would like to say? I would like to thank the Fair Lawn News for the opportunity to talk about some of the issues. I look forward to meeting as many voters of Fair Lawn as I can between now, election day and beyond. I truly look forward to having an opportunity to continue my service to the community.     What Do You Think?: Send an e- mail to editor@fairlawnnews.com or post a message on the Fair Lawn News Discussion Forum.