For Wyckoff's New Mayor, Maintaining Small-town Charm A Family Affair

You could say being Mayor of Wyckoff is akin to a family enterprise for Kevin Rooney. His father-in-law, the late  Henry 'Hank' Shotmeyer Jr., served as Mayor of Wyckoff in 1988 and 1998. So Rooney says leading the township in 2011 is a responsibility he takes both seriously and personally.

With just two months under his belt juggling both mayoral responsibilities and his own business, a family-owned real estate management and development company in North Haledon, Rooney says the experience thus far has been both rewarding and challenging, if not a bit time consuming.

“It’s exactly what I expected,” Rooney said. “I’ve always worked between 80-90 hours a week, so my family has been use to my ability to multitask and I continue to do that. When you elect to become a public servant it means putting your responsibilities to the township first, along with your business and family. You juggle all three and you make it work."

On an average week Rooney, who last year served as Deputy Mayor, says he spends about 40 hours in Town Hall juggling a multitude of mayoral tasks that run the gamut from leading the township committee and attending various official town functions to even presiding over a small handful of weddings.

“The biggest challenge right now is dealing with the budget. That’s always a concern,” he says. “We’re looking to have the leanest budget possible without impacting services for the community and impacting the tax base. Last year we had about an $80 increase overall. We’re looking to do better than that this year. We all recognize we have a two percent cap that we have to work with. We want to have the lowest tax increase possible keeping in mind we had one of the worst Winters in recent decades."

It’s an eventful time to be Mayor in Wyckoff as a number of potentially impactful applications and proposals are being heard before various committees around town. Whether it’s the before the township committee; the before the Planning Board or the Christian Health Care Center's Vista before the Zoning Board, each initiative could potentially impact the landscape of the township for years to come.

“The town has some large applications before the land use board right now, some of which  (the township committee) doesn’t have any control or input over. But our goal is consistent with our Master Plan revision...that we want to maintain Wyckoff’s small town charm and character,” Rooney said.

One of the proposals that does sit before Rooney’s township committee is a proposed $3.5 million renovation project to Memorial Complex & Town Center, Pulis Fields and the Larkin House which would include installing artificial turf at Memorial and Pulis, as well as adding lighting at Pulis.  While some of the initial presentations by the Parks and Recreation Foundation have been met with pushback from some concerned residents, Rooney said he believes the group is attempting a necessary task.

“That foundation is one that will help Wyckoff achieve some goals.  There’s a definite need to improve our sports fields, but we have to look at how that change will affect other people,” Rooney said. “You can’t keep everyone happy, but my goal is to do what’s best for the town in a way that doesn’t impact others negatively.”

Recalling his late father-in-law, Rooney said he hopes to live up to his standards while maintaining Wyckoff’s small town charm.

“When you sign to do this job you do it because you want to help improve the situation and leave it better than when you started.”