The Woodcliff Lake Fire Department Scholarship application will be available in March.  Please check back then for updates.  Thank you!

The Woodcliff Lake FD is proud to announce their 2012 Fire Officers:



Chief: Jared Shapiro

Deputy Chief: George Lucia Jr

Captain: Dan Schuster

Captain: Nick McGavin

Lieutenant: Alex Kaplan

Lieutenant: Rob Kuehlke

Come cheer on the WLFD as we cook to benefit the Sgt. Christopher R. Hrbek Scholarship Fund!

THE CHALLENGE IS SET…

Who has the best ribs and burgers?
Which team will win the $500 FAIRWAY SHOPPING SPREE?

Local fire fighters are teaming up by department for a food face-off! Each team will be supplied by Fairway Market with racks of ribs, ground beef, ground turkey, buns, salt and pepper, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and other staple Fairway spices. Each team will have the opportunity to prep their food before the event. The competing teams will plate dishes for 6 judges and the judges will decide based on all three dishes. The winning team receives an engraved trophy and a $500 Fairway gift card. All other teams receive a $100 Fairway gift card for their participation. The winning team will also get the opportunity to select a charity for a Fairway Shopping Night. This is a night when a percentage of participating proceeds are donated to a charitable cause by Fairway.

We encourage your to report your power outages to PSE&G, as this can help them rectify the problem sooner.  Please call the PSE&G Call Center at:

1-800-436-7734.

You can also view your municipalities outage status at the following site:

http://www.pseg.com/home/customer_service/outage_info/outagemap.jsp

To the Editor:

The local mayors and town councils have been very vocal about all of their efforts to save the taxpayers money. We have read much about the studies to combine services of the police departments of Woodcliff Lake, Montvale and Park Ridge, as well as the efforts to revamp our five school districts into a more cost-effective and equitable (depending upon your perspective) two districts. It took years for the three towns to come together on a central court system. We all understand some things take time and may be costly in the short-term.

On the other hand, there is not enough said about how our town personnel contribute to saving taxpayer money right now. One prime example of this is the current chief of the Woodcliff Lake Fire Department, Jared Shapiro. In addition to his primary focus on protecting the lives of the borough residents, Chief Shapiro has been diligently working to reduce the operating costs of the fire department, without risking lives or reducing service.

The borough has been paying in excess of $800 per year to refill the breathing tanks of our firefighters. Chief Shapiro, through his network in the first responder community, became aware of an air bottle refilling station that was underutilized by the Fort Lee Emergency Response teams. He was able to get the Borough of Fort Lee to donate the equipment to Woodcliff Lake, enabling the taxpayers to receive huge cost savings with no upfront cost. In exchange for the hospitality of Fort Lee, the Woodcliff Lake Fire Department has offered to fill the air tanks of other fire departments in the Pascack Valley, spreading the cost-saving benefit to our neighboring towns in the Pascack Valley.

In another example of his efforts to save money, Chief Shapiro looked at the high cost of maintaining our fleet of fire trucks. Outraged at paying an exorbitant hourly labor rate for the maker of the fire trucks to attend to the maintenance needs of the trucks, the chief created a relationship with the Borough ofParamus. Paramus extended the service of their highly skilled and certified fire engine mechanics to the borough for 25 percent of the prior service agreement. The new relationship has reduced the material and personnel cost by over 75 percent.

While much has been written lately about how local communities need to reduce their operating expenses by cutting personnel, I think it is important to recognize that diligent employees, like Chief Shapiro, are just as concerned about the cost of safeguarding our communities and can be more effective in reducing costs by being resourceful. On behalf of all the taxpayers of Woodcliff Lake, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Chief Shapiro for watching out for our lives, our properties, and our tax dollars.

Stan Herman

Woodcliff Lake

The Woodcliff Lake Fire Department is proud to announce their 2011 Fire Officers.  Chief: Jared Shapiro, Deputy Chief: George Lucia Jr., Captain: Holly Campbell, Captain: Dan Schuster, Lieutenant: Alex Kaplan, and Lieutenant: Nick McGavin.