Important Message from the Town of West New York

TOWN OF WEST NEW YORKmayorroque

Mayor Felix Roque, MD
428 60th Street •West New York, New Jersey 07093

(201) 295-5100

March 1, 2014 Dear Resident,

I want to begin by thanking you for your cooperation and patience during this very difficult winter season. Our Department of Public Works staff has worked very hard to ensure the safety of all motorists and pedestrians.

As the Town of West New York and our nation battle tough economic times, we are thankful to see continued investment in our Town. In my continued commitment to improve your safety and quality of life my administration has implemented many initiatives that I’m proud to share with you in this briefing.

Our work is never done when it comes to public safety. Thanks to the professionalism of our dedicated officers, I am confident that our proactive efforts will continue to keep our families safe and maintain our community’s high quality of life. Below are some of our most recent achievements:

• Three new officers have joined the West New York Police Department and five additional officers are at the police academy and soon will join the department.
• Closing of three illegal gambling establishments
• Continued efforts to further reduce crime as we did in 2013 by 24%.

• The WNYPD received an Outstanding Community Traffic Safety Achievement Award from AAA New Jersey for its
efforts enforcing traffic safety, and the established a community policing team whose members daily interact with business owners and residents daily.
• The Office of Emergency Management plan was updated to ensure emergency preparedness efforts are
appropriately coordinated within the Town and all external partners.
• The WNYPD teamed with the NJ Department of Community Affairs by taking part in “Project Medicine Drop”
which allows residents to safely discard of prescription medication in a drop box located within police headquarters.

As the spring months approach and we look forward to the warm temperatures and the opportunity to enjoy outdoor activities with our family and friends. I am delighted to share the following improvements, upgrades, and remediation projects:

  • Road improvement projects on 51st, 60th, 65th, and 66th streets.
  • Improvements to Washington Park recreational facilities and new design implementation to better site lighting and security cameras linked to the police station.
    • Improvements to Miller Park to include the installation of a large spray park area and various upgrades to the bathroom facilities, lighting and security cameras.
    • Remediation and improvements to Veterans Park’s infrastructure, amenities such as outdoor exercise equipment, lighting, landscaping and the installation of security cameras.

    Please visit our website at www.westnewyork.org and select “community calendar” to view all upcoming cultural celebrations, and activities. I hope to greet in person at one of the many programs available for all to enjoy!

    In closing, I ask all of you to join me in refusing to allow distractions to take us away from the job at hand. I remain confident that this year we can expect to continue seeing ongoing fiscal recovery, reduced crime rates, better schools for our children, a steady stream of capital improvements, and new revenues that will enhance our quality of life.

    Together West New York will continue on the rise and moving forward! Remember together we can and West New York will.

    Mayor Felix E. Roque, MD.

1 COMMENT

  1. I think all the bad outweighs the good every week you see something new on this guy he has even gotten national media attention channel 9 has something about the town every week about the elections being moved the FBI visiting west New York on a weekly basis it doesn’t end

  2. Mayor Roque Why than are there numerous Traffic Lights out of order through out our town since last Fall?

    51street and Hudson Ave and 62 street and Hudson Ave Just two examples.

    These Traffic Lights have not worked since at least September 2013. Mayor Roque your Bull Sjht is not believable anymore. Remember you are a Liar by your own mouth.

    Lets not mention your DPW does not plow our streets properly or at all during or after a heavy snow fall. Mayor Roque you can’t fool anyone anymore.

  3. Mr. Mayor,
    You write interesting letters. I agree with you that Police Director Antelos is a good man and will continue to do good for our town. Are you talking about the same DPW that was so poorly mismanaged, it was not adequately dispatched to clear crosswalks of snow and ice to make it safer for our residents? I personally witnessed the aftermath of a woman who at one of too many such uncleaned intersections. She fell on the snow and ice on one of the crosswalks at 67th and Park Avenue several weeks ago causing her to bleed by her mouth area. As she continued to walk to Guttenberg, she was assisted there by Guttenberg Police who also dispatched WNY Police. Did the heavy snows cause DPW Commissioner Vargas to wait several days before shoveling his “house fire deemed suspicious” wife’s home while other property owners got warned to shovel their property? The terrible job of the DPW.this winter is not due to the efforts of the hard working workers there, it is emblematic of very poor leadership. Any fiscal reasons for the poor response must be laid at your feet, Mayor Roque. What have you done to bring our taxes back to pre-2009 levels? Do you deny that you told me that “Mayor Vega was dealt a hot handle”? You absolutely know why our taxes not only have not returned
    to pre 2009 levels, but have remained over 20% higher since. As YOU said, “Vega was dealt a hot handle.” Will you transparently tell the voters who gave Mayor Vega that ‘hot handle’? How much is WNY still on the hook for in regards to the WNYMUA 100 million dollar debt that Mayor Sires inherited but did not significantly reduce? Do you think it is fair for you to claim that the appeal of your politically motivated theatrics of 2/19/14 to move the April School Board Election to November is nothing more than a ‘distraction’ when you denied the ovrrwhelming majority of the voters who denounced your position on an elected board as well as your candidates? Do you think it is ethically or financially fair to the non abated, over-taxed owners or their renters who must also absorb part of the high taxes in higher rents, or to our public schools which receive no school taxes, or to the County which receives a very small portion of taxes otherwise due, when you continue to kiss up to the developers along the waterfront and elsewhere by giving them tax abatements up to 30 years?! In the 2013 Series a and.b bonds you issued, which largely use new borrowed money for old borrowed money, you include language which exposes the tax paying property owners to be on the hook for this. Why don’t you be.Honest and tell the non-abated property tax owners(and by extension their renters) that you stabbed in the back when you granted additional properties tax abatements, that the abated properties, by the agreements you signed as well as your commissioners and Mayors Sires and Vega and their commissioners exempt these very economically well-off tax abated property owners from having to share in receiving tax hikes to deal with our fiscal revenue stream which has been siphoned off to politically connected developers like Roseland which gave $15,400 to Albio Sires in 2006 Congressional cycle ?NO DOUBT because of his overly generous 30 year tax abatements he gave to then (with the full support of his then town administrator and.curent Congressional Aide and Weehawken Mayor, Richard Turner.)If you can’t be honest with yourself (your flip flops on endorsing Krylos, then Menendez) hiring a political hack (Jerry Lange) who roundly criticized you in the past and personally profited from his votes as commissioner for those water front 30 year abatementsby buying a unit there for.$397k in ’97 and selling it for 820k in ’07, Kissing up to Mayor Sacco after threatening to run against him, giving a town job to a son of Assembly Speaker Prieto, then accepting his endorsement of your candidate Commissioner Caridad Rodriguez against Freeholder Chairmen Jose Rodriguez whom you seek your revenge for him standing up to your son’s computer hacking of his computer ‘See what you can do’ Shielding Commissioner Ruben Vargas who has had two bankruptcies, his own property with multiple code violations att 5512 Grant Place subject to a Sheriff’s
    Sale, ditto to his wife’s home at 74 67th street which sustained a 3 alarm fire on 11/30/11 “deemed suspicious” which could have killed my wife and I living next store; making his DPW (which you politically took from the able Commissioner Dr. Count Wiley) IN CHARGE of the building dept. which issues code violations! and putting Commissioner “house fire deemed suspicious’ on executive committe with oversight of our fire department! I hope you consider the damage you’ve done, Mayor Roque when you are voted out of office or are escorted out by the Feds, whichever comes first.

    • Pat, I guess from now on we will just “conduct” WNY government business on this blog…Then Felix can stop coming to meetings eg this Wed 3/19 🙁 & avoid the humiliation of being hooted out…
      PS…I think theses mayors need to experience the fear of God; w/him being escorted out in bling!

  4. Why is Lou Cannao making over $120,000 with Over Time to waste gas every Day/Night besides not working for this outrageous salary year after year? Count Wiley this is mostly on You!

    Also there is another Cannao making $155,000 at the BOE.

    • why are you bothering with him? He is a gopher, and I there is no way he makes that much money. If you want to look at the real crooks check out the people that get paid that you never see. At least he’s around and from wny.

  5. What is the point of having power, if you have none? Albio Sires, Angelica Jimenez, Nicholas Sacco and Bob Menendez now run West New York. Roque has become a puppet for the machine. As Pink Floyd sang “Welcome to Machine……”

  6. Add this to your list Mr. Mayor of things to clean up.

    1. Clean up the corrupt, non-professionals that work for the WNY HOUSING AUTHORITY, starting with Robert A. Di Vincent. He is a slum lord and pays his housing employees as if they were illegals, probably some of the employees are illegals. Lol.

    2. We have lots of drugs and gangs at 515 54th street housing building especially on the 2nd floor.