Home Care In Pine Cliff Lake, NJ

Two white cement piers with a big blue sign that hung between them announcing "Entrance to Pinecliff Lake" are remembered by long-time residents with a Main Street (Union Valley Road) recollection of West Milford Village of the past. A real estate office was on the left hand side of the entry road (Vista Road) to Pinecliff Lake – next to where Century 21 Real Estate is now located - in the 1930s.

In his writings about the West Milford Village area of 80 years ago, the late Arthur Cahill noted this early real estate office was where Mrs. LaRoe, Lou Brown and Joseph Gormley were the agents for home sales and rentals. More recently the current brick building of Century 21 Real Estate on the site was built by the late Real Estate Broker Nell McCann, who was also with Century 21.

"There were only a couple of year-round homes in the development (in the 1940s)," wrote Cahill.

"All the others were summer vacation homes with no heat or water available when the summer season ended."

He said the original water supply for the Pinecliff Lake community was supplied by a gravity-feed reservoir at the top of Cliff Road. A large pipe brought the water down to the main line along Bearfort Road and to the other side of the lake to Pinecliff Lake Drive where feeder lines took the water into the homes, continued Cahill.

The water was shut off just after the end of October and it was turned on again about May 1.

"This was some (difficult) job because all the lines had to be shut off and drained because they ran along the top of the ground or were just down in the ground a couple of inches," continued Cahill. "All the pipes in the homes had to be drained too."

If the water remained in the pipes during the sub-zero West Milford temperatures there was danger that any water left in them would freeze and break the pipes.

Cahill remembered Arthur Wilson as being the man in charge of everything at Pinecliff Lake. It was Wilson who took care of the water system.

All the roads at the Pinecliff community originally were unpaved – dirt roads. Cahill recalled that Wilson used a large road grader machine to grade the roads. He made sure all the drainage ditches were open and did any repairs that came up around the development.

Mail was delivered out of the Newfoundland Post Office along Union Valley Road to the point of where it intersects with Route 511 (Greenwood Lake Turnpike) in Hewitt. In the 1950s mail was still delivered from Newfoundland by the late carrier Leslie (Les) Post. He lived in Texas with his daughter.

A man and woman in charge of the clubhouse were recalled by Cahill as being Willie and Anna Pfeiffer. He said they frowned on kids from the West Milford Lakes community coming over to Pinecliff Lake.

"We managed to sneak over in the evenings and have fun with the girls," said Cahill. "I don’t know who may ever read this story so I better not go into any details."

He said fishing was good off the dam by the spillway. Perch and bass were caught there, he recalled. Cahill remembered that once in while the boys would be spotted from someone from Pinecliff Lake. Then they were made to throw the fish back and leave that area. If they saw someone coming in time the boys would run from the dam onto the road and head for home, he said.

"I’ll never forget the times we had with Mr. Goebel’s wagon that he carried his rowboat on," remembered Cahill. "He had a four wheel horse buggy with two axles and a frame up the middle and a rope around the front axle near the wheels for steering. We would lift the boat off the buggy and ride down the hill on the buggy."

He told a tale of one night when they were moving fast down the hill and the rope they used for steering broke.

"Into the ditch we went!" said Cahill. "All the right side wheels had broken spokes. We picked up the spokes, dragged the wagon back up the hill, put the boat on it and laid the spokes by the wagon. I bet that puzzled him for awhile! Somehow he found out that some kids were responsible for this – but then again – what kids would do a thing like that?"

WEST MILFORD — A bill that would divert $500,000 from state boat registration fees to manage and maintain Greenwood Lake each year passed muster with the state Senate Environment and Energy Committee on Monday.

The bill, which returns to the Senate for review, mirrors recently adopted legislation establishing an annually renewing $500,000 fund for Lake Hopatcong. The bill's sponsor, state Senator Joseph Pennacchio, said he is seeking to guarantee Greenwood Lake stewards that same ability to safeguard their lake and the 3.5 million people that use its water each day.

“Greenwood Lake is a wonderful resource for New Jersey,” said Pennacchio, who represents portions of Essex, Morris and Passaic counties. “It is practical public policy for our state to establish a dedicated funding source to ensure the preservation of this treasured natural resource.”

Crossing into New York State, the 1,920-acre lake is a popular destination for recreational boaters, fishers, and water sports enthusiasts. Greenwood Lake is also the headwaters for the Monksville and Wanaque reservoirs that provide water to much of North Jersey.

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For decades, however, the lake’s shallow New Jersey end has been choked by invasive aquatic plants and made dangerous by loosening lakebed stumps. The bi-state commission tasked with its protection and preservation has likewise been confounded by a lack of steady funding for stump reduction, plant removal, and herbicide treatment programs.

An attempt to gain revenue through lake user fees for boaters about eight years ago failed due to a lack of coordination between state lawmakers in New York and New Jersey.

“It’s the first time in the 16-year history of this commission that we’ve ever gotten this far towards permanent funding, said Paul Zarrillo, the Greenwood Lake Commission’s New Jersey chair. “It’s much needed and well overdue.”

The Senate Environment Committee unanimously approved the bill to return to the Senate floor. If adopted, S-2167 would set aside $500,000 each year solely for the maintenance, protection and enhancement of the New Jersey end of the lake.

Tim Wagner, West Milford’s council president, was with Zarrillo in Trenton on Monday lobbying for the bill. Wagner said he is hopeful the bill gains enough bi-partisan support to get through the legislature in time for the 2019 budget.

“We’re confident we’re going to get the support, but you never know,” Wagner said.

Zarrillo added: “It’s just a great first step. We have a long way to go.”

Wallisch area flooding is the worst residents can remember West Milford - They hadn't seen anything like Irene. Ever. And the hope of many residents of Madelyn Avenue in West Milford is that they never do again. Some of the longtime homeowners on this quiet block not far from the center of town feel it wasn't just Hurricane Irene that dumped a torrent of water on their neigborhood, flooding not just their yards and basements but their homes and garages too. "It's never, ever, ever done that before," said Cynthia Klukoski, a 15-year resident of Madelyn Ave. "At 5:30, there was no water out in front of my house. By 7 a.m., it was up to the top of my porch steps." Klukoski and some of her neighbors believe it wasn't just the hurricane that devastated their neighborhood. They feel a partially opened sluice pipe at the Pinecliff Lake dam helped to flood their neighborhood. "It would have never come up that fast on its own," said Klukoski. Debbie McGovern agrees. McGovern and her family have lived by the creek for 17 years. They've seen flooding, but nothing like this. "The water came up 19 inches in my home," said McGovern whose entire first floor was ravaged by the flood waters. Four feet of the sheetrock had to be cut off from around the first floor rooms and disposed of to stop the mold from spreading. Carpeting and flooring is completely pulled up and gone. There is a water line halfway up her stainless steel dishwasher. "In 17 years I've never had water in the house except during Floyd, and then we had six inches over the course of three and a half days of rain." McGovern, too, said the water was still in the streets by 5:30 on the morning of Aug. 28. Within one hour, it was trickling into her home. By 7:30, when the fire department was rescuing her family and many others on the block by boat, the water was waist high. She feels the surge of water came from more than Mother Nature. She, Klukoski and other neighbors heard from a resident of Pinecliff Lake, which is upstream from their neighborhood, that Pinecliff opened the dam and released water down into the Belchers Creek and possibly their neighborhood. "We were told they opened the dam," said a 33-year resident who did not wish to be identified. That wasn't the case, according to Ed Spirko, acting president of the Pinecliff Lake Homeowners Association and a member of the Pinecliff dam committee. Pinecliff speaks out "Pinecliff Lake was not lowered," Spirko said. "That is just wrong." What did happen, Spirko said, is that a 24-inch sluice pipe was opened up 30 percent the day before the storm and closed the day after. "The water was 1.7 feet above the top of the spillway," said Spirko. "That spillway couldn't move the water fast enough. Opening the pipe had a negligible effect on the neighborhood." Usually, Spirko said, the water is an inch above the spillway, if that. But he estimated with 12 inches of water in about 12 hours, the water simply couldn't move quick enough. Spirko said the state Department of Dam Safety encouraged communities to lower their lake levels in anticipation of the hurricane but Pinecliff didn't do that. If they did decide to lower the level, they would have needed a permit, he added. They do open the sluice pipe every year at the end of the summer, usually in late September or early October. Spirko explained that the water in Belchers Creek overflows not from the flow coming from above but more from when Greenwood Lake backs up. "If Greenwood Lake rises, the whole of Belchers Creek rises," said Spirko. "If water is high in Belchers Creek, it's because Greenwood Lake is high. " Spirko said he'd be happy to meet with the residents of the Wallisch area to discuss what was done and explain the physics of it all. And, he said, he was very grateful for the investment Pinecliff Lake residents made in rebuilding the dam in 2003. "The thing we should be happy about is that the Pinecliff Dam was able to hold during such a big storm," Spirko said. "This was the biggest test yet. They should be happy about that." Gratitude isn't exactly the feeling residents on Madelyn have right now. Of course McGovern, Klukoski and other longtime residents are grateful no one was injured, but some lost everything they have. A young family had just moved into one of the houses on the block and lost everything they own, McGovern said. They were taken by boat with their one-week-old baby. Much of their furniture, as well as the possessions of many others, still sits outside waiting for pickup. And that's another issue. Klukoski said the trash collectors are leaving regular garbage out there and refusing to take it. "It's not garbage from the flood," she insisted. "It's regular garbage and they are not taking it. It's been sitting there for three weeks." They've had to rebag the garbage several times, she said, because of the bears. "It's just not right," said Klukoski. "We work hard. We pay our taxes." Are you still struggling from the recent storms? Go to www.westmilfordmessenger.com and add your comments to this story.

WEST MILFORD — An area developer is seeking to upgrade a Union Valley Road strip mall and anchor it with a Dollar Tree discount store in 2019.

Raymond Eshaghoff, president of North Bergen-based BSG Management, said he has spent the past two years developing redevelopment plans appropriate for the site known as Belcher Run. Located in the development-restricted Highlands Region and within the Pinecliff Lake floodplain, the site abutting New Jersey Avenue is a challenging one to improve, he said.

“For a couple of years, we have been trying to reposition this center,” Eshaghoff said. “I think we finally have come up with a complex that works.”

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The plans, which are expected to come before the local Planning Board in the coming months, are to reduce the complex’s 25,000-square-foot footprint. The existing fitness center, a flat-roofed building tacked on to the original structure, will be removed in favor of parking and a new wing will be added for an expected discount store, according to the plans submitted to the Highlands Council.

“We’ve gone back and forth with so many different concepts,” Eshaghoff said. “We finally said, let’s go back to the drawing board and if we need to reduce the square footage, we’ll reduce it.”

As the strip mall is currently configured, the structure is used for retail, office and apartment space. All those uses are expected to be retained, Eshaghoff said, but with a Dollar Tree acting as an anchor store.

As its name hints, Dollar Tree sells many of its products for $1. Cleaning supplies, candy, books, toys, seasonal de?cor, electronics and health and beauty items are all sold at the chain founded in 1986.

The Virginia-based company has North Jersey stores in Oakland, Wayne, Hawthorne, Clifton, Lodi, Fairfield and Paterson but few stores both north of Interstate 80 and west of Interstate 287.

The Belcher Run shopping plaza at 1592 Union Valley Road is assesed at

Dreams of being able to paddle a canoe or kayak along Belcher’s Creek as a recreational activity are expected to come true sometime soon.Plans to clean up the creek that flows between Pinecliff Lake and Greenwood Lake, restore the waterway into a passive recreational area and seek open space funding from the township were presented at a meeting of the West Milford Environmental Commission Monday night.Aided by a grant from the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions, the commission will begin to clear brush and debris from the creek in the coming months and will transform the water basin into a place for canoeing, fishing and hiking, Chairman Steve Sangle said.Present at Monday’s meeting was representation from Greenbrook Estates which borders the creek, Greenwood Lake Commission Co-Chair Paul Zarrillo, Mayor Michele Dale and Councilman Luciano Signorino. The township officials offered their support for the project. During the meeting the commission approved a motion to recommend an amendment to the township’s open space ordinance to permit the currently available one-third of the open space funds to be allocated for the acquisition or rehabilitation of open space properties along the creek.Belcher’s Creek is a five-mile tributary that flows from Bearfort Mountain through the center of town and empties into Greenwood Lake.At present, the creek is a major source of nitrates and phosphorus that dumps into the lake.The water from Greenwood Lake flows into the North Jersey District Water Supply system reservoirs in Ringwood and Wanaque.The reservoir system supplies drinking water for over 2 million north Jersey residents.“Restoring the creek to its natural state will help insure that the water running through it will be cleaner,” Sangle said. “In addition, once the project is completed it will provide an enhanced recreational area in the center of the township for residents.”The restoration project will be implemented in phases. The first phase to determine access points to public lands along the creek is underway.Under the direction of Zarrillo, this task started with a survey of public streets leading to the creek.Once all the access points have been determined the next phase will be to employ teams of volunteers to traverse the waterway and remove overgrowth and debris.The project will be supported by the New York-New Jersey Trails Conference.Environmental Commissioner Don Weise, an official with that body, has pledged to support walking paths in designated areas along the creek.Much of the land along the waterway is already publicly owned.The commissioners conduct monthly water tests of the creek. The grant will supply new testing equipment to more accurately gauge nitrate and phosphorus levels in the water.Test results are then shared with the Greenwood Lake Commission, which recently received a $90,000 planning grant from the New Jersey Highlands Commission. The bi-state group is also seeking $500,000 annually from the New Jersey Legislature to clean up the lake.Both Sangle and Zarrillo are encouraged by the outpouring of support for the project.“This is a major undertaking that will clean the water and restore the natural beauty of the area,” Zarrillo said.