Dear Neighbors,
I’m sending you my October greetings and want to share with you updates on the latest affecting our community.
COVID-19 Updates
As of Thursday, 786 Hoboken residents have been confirmed as testing positive for COVID-19. The number of positive tests is steadily increasing, after flattening to around 590 cases for several weeks in July.
With a recent uptick in positive cases, if you have any reason to believe you have been exposed to COVID-19, schedule an appointment for a COVID-19 test with Riverside Medical Group at 15th and Jefferson at least 5-7 days after potential exposure. You can schedule that appointment by calling the CERT Team at (201) 420-5621 (Mon. - Fri. 9 am to 1 pm). Riverside is again offering rapid 15-minute COVID-19 tests results to Hoboken residents and employees who work in Hoboken. You can get your test 6 days a week, Monday through Saturday.
Prompt MD is also hosting testing in partnership with the City on Monday at 605 Jackson Street from 7 am until 2 pm. It’s easy to schedule an appointment - visit www.hobokennj.gov/promptmd. Please remember wearing a face mask and practicing social distancing is the key to keeping our community healthy.
In addition to the City of Hoboken’s COVID-19 public test facility, you can visit City MD on 231 Washington Street, or PromptMD at 309 1st Street, and can walk in without an appointment to get your COVID-19 test at their private facilities. To be safe, we recommend calling ahead of time to confirm the availability of testing. Last Saturday, I walked into City MD’s offices for my test, and from the time I registered to the time I left, it was done in half an hour -- and I got my negative test results (good news!) Monday night. This option is available for you too.
Since March 30th, 31 Hoboken residents have died from COVID-19, and -- thankfully -- that number has remained unchanged for several months. For those of you who have endured such a difficult loss at this extraordinary time, know that you continue to have the full support of our entire Hoboken community. We are with you. Together, we send you our prayers and extend to you our wishes for your comfort, healing, and peace.
Monroe Street Movement Space Closes its Doors After 26 Years -- Thanks and Good Luck to Dena and Luke!
After serving the people of the City of Hoboken for 26 years, Dena Reynolds and Luke Faust have decided to retire to New Mexico. It’s hard to say good-bye to such a special business. Monroe Street Movement Space first came into my family’s lives when Rebecca and 6 week-old Madeline signed up for “Mommy and Me” classes in March 1996, and ever since it has served as a special place for instruction for our children (and later they taught others as instructors) about dance, movement, and art in a safe and supportive environment, whether it was during summers, winter breaks or after school — as hundreds and hundreds of children, teens and adults spent time there, learning and growing, in this special community space.
At a September City Council meeting, we honored Dena and Luke, thanking them for their service to the people of Hoboken and their contributions to educating the children of Hoboken and their dedication to arts, movement and dance in our community. You can watch Councilwoman Emily Jabbour’s and my tributes to Monroe Street Movement Space and hear Dena herself thank the City of Hoboken and so many families for their support and love for the Monroe Street Movement Space here.
To Dena, Luke, Jennifer, and all the teachers and instructors who have worked at Monroe Street Movement Space thank you for all you have done for our families. We wish Dena and Luke a happy and well-earned retirement!
The Adoption of Hoboken’s Municipal Budget
Last week, the City Council passed our municipal budget. COVID-19 had a dramatic effect on our City’s finances and also the State of New Jersey’s fiscal year. New Jersey municipalities received extended deadlines for filing their budgets with the State, which pushed back the initial introduction of the City budget into the summer (typically budgets are presented in the Spring), as Mayor Bhalla’s administration submitted a proposed budget to the City Council in early July. I described highlights of the City’s introduced budget here in my special Budget Update.
Two and a half months later, the Hoboken City Council largely adopted Mayor Bhalla’s proposed 2020 Municipal Budget, unanimously adopting an amendment taking an additional $1.3 million from the surplus (on top of the $3.3 million of non-regenerating surplus already allocated in the Mayor’s original proposed budget). The final budget from the City Council reduced the overall annual tax increase to Hoboken taxpayers from a 1.4% tax increase to a .75% tax increase or $70 per taxpayer. I hope that the City Council’s “raiding” the municipal surplus to offer additional taxpayer relief will be a temporary situation, as Hoboken expects to be reimbursed for substantial 4th Quarter COVID-19-related expenditures that Directors Jason Freeman, Caleb Stratton, and other members of Mayor Bhalla’s Administration are carefully documenting for submission and reimbursement from Federal CARES Act funds administered by Hudson County. These funds will be critical to Hoboken’s bottom line and our ability to regenerate a surplus next year and in future years.
It’s been a long and winding road for me and the other members of the City Council Finance Committee, as we started our work in January. But we appear to have landed in a good place. In the end, a strong collaborative effort between Hudson County and County Executive Tom DeGise, Mayor Bhalla’s Administration (with particular thanks to Hoboken’s Director of Operations Jason Freeman, Finance Director Linda Landolfi and Chris Baldwin), and the Hoboken City Council produced a solid bottom-line result for the Hoboken taxpayer despite a year of unprecedented fiscal challenges. You can read more about Hoboken’s budget here and view the 2020 Municipal Budget here.
COVID-19 Tuition Assistance Is Available for Working Families
Governor Murphy recently announced the creation of the New Jersey School-Age Tuition Assistance Program. The new program provides tuition assistance for residents with school-age children 5-13 years old that are in need of childcare due to virtual learning schedules. To be eligible, your household income must not exceed $75,000 a year and your children must attend school with either part-time or full-time remote learning. For more information -- and to file your application -- visit here.
Hoboken Completes The Installation of 15 Blocks of New Water Mains
On September 22nd, Hoboken completed the installation of 15 blocks of brand new water mains. Many of Hoboken’s water main lines are over a hundred years old and have been the source of disruptive and destructive water main breaks that have been far too common in our Mile Square City. Benefitting from a newly renegotiated contract that the Bhalla Administration negotiated with SUEZ water, the City now receives $2.2 million dollars annually for maintenance and upgrading our aged infrastructure. This year’s effort, just completed, proactively replaced nearly 7,000 linear feet of Hoboken’s oldest water mains which will make a major impact in reducing and preventing disruptions to our water service.
In addition to the upgrades of 7,000 linear feet of water mains, this year’s project included the installation of 272 new service lines, 104 gate valves (which help target and isolate water mains in need of repair), 1 rain garden curb extension, 15 new fire hydrants, 4 green/gray stormwater detention tanks, fresh road repaving, Vision Zero roadway improvements, and long-term infrastructure to help mitigate localized flooding — all of which was funded by our new contract with SUEZ with no impact on our 2020 municipal budget.
Shoutout to A Young Hobokenite Doing Great Things: Noe Abernathy
Noe Abernathy is a “born and raised” Hobokenite who graduated from college in May and is already doing great things. Noe, along with a group of other inspiring young women, were concerned with increasing Generation Z’s voter turnout for national elections and promoting civic engagement in young Americans. Specifically, Noe and her friends wanted to address the voter turnout gap between Generation Z (who historically don’t vote in big numbers) and baby boomers (who do) so they launched a new not-for-profit corporation Voteology.
At the heart of Voteology is a web-based application that helps college students assess where each student’s vote has the biggest impact (for example, at their parents’ home or on-campus), and then provides an interface to assist each student with registering to vote at the student’s chosen congressional district. You can read more about the Voteology and some impressive media coverage here and here.
Noe is the COO of Voteology, where she heads up the not-for-profit’s operations and looks for synergies to expand Voteology’s impact. Voteology seeks charitable donations from folks interested in funding non-profits that advance democracy and promote civic-mindedness among Gen Z and also seeks women mentors who are leaders of organizations who can help support these young women leading a new start-up not-for-profit. Please reach out to me at HobokenPhil@gmail.com if you know of such folks and I will send them Noe’s way.
Congratulations to Noe and your talented team of entrepreneurs and coders for getting this not-for-profit up and running! You make the 5th Ward and Hoboken proud!
Coffee with Cohen . . . the home edition
To practice social distancing, rather than eliminate my monthly Coffee with Cohen constituent events, I turned to the internet. On Tuesday, September 29th, I hosted my most recent Coffee with Cohen Livestream event. Over 160 people have already viewed the event. If you haven’t seen the event, you can check it out here. You can also submit your questions to HobokenPhil@gmail.com and participate, as I try to answer each question. The event is hosted on my Facebook page @Philcohenforcouncil and you can watch it here.
As long as we have this state of emergency, I plan to continue hosting Coffee with Cohen twice a month. My next event will be at noon on Monday, October 12th and I hope to see you there.
As always, if you’d like to reach out with any questions or concerns at any time, or if I can be of any assistance to you or your family, do not hesitate to contact me at HobokenPhil@gmail.com
Stay safe everyone!
Phil Cohen
5th Ward Councilman
City of Hoboken, New Jersey
HobokenPhil@gmail.com
(862) 234-9053
P.S. You can learn more about me and my ideas for Hoboken (as well as read this newsletter and my prior newsletters) on my website philcohen.org.
