Councilor's Concerned By County's Funding Plans For Montclair

At least one Township Council member has expressed concern over the lack of attention given by the council to Essex County's funding plans for Montclair.

Earlier this month, the Neighborhood Child Care Center on Maple Avenue came up the big winner when funding plans were announced, according to the Essex County Division of Housing and Community Development.

According to Township officials, the table below presents the County's intended funding for Montclair projects. The public hearing on the County’s plans for funding is scheduled for Wednesday, June 1. Here's a summary of what was requested by the Township Council and what was funded:

1. Neighborhood Child Care Center
Requested: $150,000
Funded: $150,000

2. MNDC Project Oasis
Requested: $60,000
Funded: $45,000

3. MNDC Adult School
Requested: $28,400
Funded: $0

4. Interfaith Hospitality Network
Requested: $40,000
Funded: $30,000

5. United Way
Requested: $50,000
Funded: $30,000

6. BlueWaveNJ
Requested: $80,000
Funded: $50,500

7. COPE
Requested: $48,500
Funded: $30,000

8. HOMECorp
Requested: $57,000
Funded: $30,000

9. Family Service League
Requested: $35,000
Funded: $0

10. Hollow Day Care
Requested: $9,000
Funded: $0

11. Montclair Township
Requested: $41,750
Funded: $41,750

12. Montclair Township
Requested: $156,640
Funded: $0

13. Montclair Township
Requested: $194,375
Funded: $0

14. Montclair Township
Requested: $244,300
Funded: $0

The Neighborhood Child Care project at the top involves money that will go towards completing the organization's facility near the Bay Street Station. The Town already is in the process of looking at giving Neighborhood Child Care some $257,000 for completing work at its center.

Meanwhile, Hollow Day Care—which accommodates 24 kids in after-school care—has been awarded nothing.

Councilor Cary Africk said he's concerned that United Way—an organization that does "so much for the Town"—is receiving less than BlueWaveNJ while Hollow Day Care is being completely shut out.

Here's what else he had to say about the funding plans:

"There is more to financial accountability than just expenses. We are seeing just how important it is to also focus on revenues, including grants at the Federal, State, and County level. CDBG is a Federal program and deserves much more attention from the entire council than we are giving it.

"The failure to request funding for Town projects to be at the top of the priority list, and then to be allocated zero, means that the Town will have to issue debt for those projects. We have always put Town projects at the top, but not this year. 

"And the explanation for the difference from the 'amount requested' to the 'amount funded' is two-fold. First, there wasn't sufficient money to fund every project. Second is that after we got a better idea of the total amount to be provided to Montclair, the requested amounts were changed, zeroing out some projects, changing the dollar amount for others. No one seems to know 'who' made the changes. The County says it wasn't them."