Watch: Quality-of-Life Issues Facing Mahwah

Last week, the library board hosted the first half of its second annual ‘Meet the Candidates’ Night.

Four of the five candidates running for three seats on the Mahwah township council gave introductions and answered five questions at the event.

Watch the video for the candidates' answers to:

• What do you feel will be the biggest quality of life issues facing Mahwah residents over the next three years? How would you like to see them addressed?

Highlights of what they said:

Lisa DiGiulio

• Traffic, taxes and services
• Keeping taxes down by controlling expenses
• Very opposed to Crossroads for several reasons; don’t like the way it was done, going to bring traffic and be a hang out; don’t think it will be a big ratable
• No way to get up Route 17 on Friday or Saturday
• Home values/ access will be affected
• Planning is way to go; Crossroads was not properly planned

John Roth

• Quality of life tied to cost of living
• Need to keep taxes as low as possible, keep services – happy balance
• Infrastructure in township is aging – streets, vehicles, water department
• Put budget together with eye to future

Jonathan Marcus

• Tough financial times for many
• Keep tax burden as low as possible
• Current traffic problems on Route 17/287 will only get worse with Crossroads; hopeful current talks on how to solve existing problems go through
• Shop locally, invite businesses we want and need

Steve Sbarra

• Quality of life is a personal decision
• Crossroads traffic will be major issue in West Mahwah, not Fardale
• During Irene, community came together to help, makes Mahwah great
• Continue to fund programming for seniors
• No blanket answer, look inside yourself for quality of life

See the candidates answer other questions from the event:

Introductions

What roles do you feel privatization and shared services play in municipal governments today? Do you have any ideas for applying these tactics to Mahwah?

How do you balance the need for ratables with the desire to maintain Mahwah’s character?

The second half of the event will be Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Mahwah Senior Center. The township's two mayoral candidates will be featured at that event.

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