Village council clarifies code violation penalty issues

At the June 4 Monroe Village Board meeting, resident Tom Lapolla, who is also running for Assembly District 99, questioned the idea that certain property maintenance violations could lead to jail time for the offender if the village of Monroe updates its code to say such violations could be considered criminal offenses. Speaking during the public comment portion of the meeting, Lapolla cited an article published in The Photo News and sought clarification, noting he, as a former code enforcer himself, understood the importance of preventing violations, but never saw jail time being imposed for minor offenses.

Counsel for the board told Lapolla that imposing jail time would be at the discretion of the justice court, as well as the discretion of the code enforcement officer.

“I seriously doubt anyone is going to be thrown in jail because their lawn is too high.”

Lapolla said that he understood that jail time might be imposed for serious offenses but worried about how the law might be applied. He urged the board to be mindful in how they craft the property maintenance code.

“Be very careful how you write this law because it impacts the whole community. Threatening people with jail time, even subtly, is a very scary motion.

Airplane Park & South Pond

During the meeting, Trustee Andrew Ferraro provided an update on the plans to upgrade the playground at Airplane Park. He shared that he met with the designer from Play By Design and with children from Pine Tree Elementary School.

“They had a lot of ideas,” said Ferraro regarding the students. “They’re so looking forward to this, so that’s the first step in the right direction.

The village of Monroe has awarded the bid for its South Pond dredging project to Spectraserv of Kearny, NJ. With a bid of $1,265,247, the company had the lowest offer among the five bids submitted to the village for the project.