Mayor Continues Efforts to Talk with School Board, Announces Several Borough Events

WOODBINE – Through the gloom of snow and sleet, Council held its regularly scheduled meeting March 4 with Mayor William Pikolycky keeping his perfect record of never having cancelled a meeting because of inclement weather.
Pikolycky first addressed the ongoing matter of meeting with the borough’s school board to ascertain how they are dealing with the district’s financial deficit and what the board is expecting from the borough.
“I sent them the letter per their request through Superintendent Lynda Anderson to meet,” Pikolycky said. “Obviously they don’t want to meet with the entire Council. They haven’t replied yet, but I expect the meeting will take place and we’ll be able to get together soon.”
Councilman Michael Benson, chair of the Education Committee, added, “The proposal from us, that we meet as a small contingent, will provide a type of preliminary ‘Workshop Council’ that we can build on.” “By the time the meeting is set it should be about the time when the school board has its deadline to have in place its budget, probably end of this month, and we will be able to have then both the past and present finances before us,” Pikolycky said.
Borough Engineer Lewis Conley announced that he will be doing an advanced session for planning and zoning officials April 11 at the Cape May County Technical School. “We’ll be presenting ‘oddball’ cases for professionals who have some experience so that they can stretch themselves and learn something new,” said Conley. This course will be preceded on the same day with a mandatory course for planning and zoning officials. Both courses are sponsored by the New Jersey Planning Association.
Councilman Hector Cruz shared that the Borough’s Third Annual Basketball Night would take place the next day, March 5. This event allows Woodbine school children to travel by bus from the Borough to attend a 76ers basketball game as special guests and then after the game the children will be allowed on court to play ball.
Also announced was that the First Baptist Church in Woodbine will be holding its Walk-a-Thon to combat autism April 11.
Per the state’s environmental recovery plan, Woodbine has been designated as both the drop-off point and the pick-up point for the county’s 16 municipalities for trees available to residents for planting. Drop off of the trees will be April 16 and residents can pick them up April 17. There will be an assortment of nearly 30 species both indigenous to the area such as white cedar and white oak as well as ornamental tress such as magnolia and dogwood.
“These are much more than seedlings, they are two to four foot trees,” explained Pikolycky. “And it is well worth residents’ effort to come and pick up and plant.”
Pikolycky informed Council about the 26th annual Pinelands info day March 14 at Stockton. “If you haven’t registered yet, this is worth looking into for its wealth of information about the Pinelands region. As Stockton is a partner with the borough for environmental programs it’s nice to see this being held there.”
To contact Camille Sailer, email csailer@cmcherald.com.