The Record from Hackensack, New Jersey • 12

Northwest Bergen Oakland Ramsey Ridge wood Saddle River Upper Saddle River Waldwick 3 Wyckof Wednesday, JANUARY 14. 1981 Allendale FrankSn Lakes Glen Rock The Record Ho-Ho-Kus Man wan Midland Park drop peciaiassessmeni; pian Hesson Associates of Franklin Lakes. The council had hoped to use the two firms to reassess residential and commercial property for 1981. But at a meeting yesterday morning with representatives of the firms, Butler, and county tax-board secretary Dante Leodori, it was decided that the firms could not complete the work in time for the 1981 assessment. New target date "We indicated at no time that this would be an easy solution," said Butler of the aborted reassessment plan.

"It was determined by our tax assessor and the individuals representing the county that this was not workable within the time constraints." Butler said the council has now targeted 1982 for completion of a comprehensive revaluation, although he said there may still be op Fort Lee is changing its face By Sue Warner Staff Writer RIDGEWOOD A plan to have two new firms conduct a special reassessment of the borough waS dropped yesterday, because the firms could not do the job before the March deadline for filing 1981 assessments with the county Board of Taxation. Mayor Edward Butler made the announcement at last night's council meeting. The council had hoped to arrive at a new tax structure for 1981 after more than 1,200 residents appealed their 1980 assessments to the county tax board, charging revaluations of their property made by Automated Valuation Services (AVS) last year were inaccurate. At Thursday's council work session, council members heard presentations by Certified Valuation of Randolph, in Morris County, and School-bus driver wins trial delay By Betsy Morris Staff Writer MAHWAH The trial of Mona Smith, the Saddle Acres Nursery School bus driver charged with drug possession and careless driving in November after the bus she was driving overturned, has been postponed. Mahwah police requested the delay because they are still waiting for state police to identify the substance found in a bottlecap in Miss Smith's purse.

The new date for the trial, which had been scheduled for last night in municipal court, is Jan. 27. Also found in Miss Smith's purse after the accident were 22 grams of marijuana, two syringes, and four hypodermic needles, according to police. Police said they were not able to test whether Miss Smith, 20, had been driving under the influence of drugs because she had been given painkillers shortly after the accident. She and the two children in her bus were injured on Nov.

7 when the bus she was driving crashed into a telephone pole on Masonicus Road and flipped over onto its roof. Eric Krings, 4, of 111 Catherine and Jason Greenberg, 5, of 69 Oweno and Ms. Smith were all taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, N.Y., and eventually released. After the accident, Mahwah police sent the bottlecap found in Miss Smith's bag to a state police laboratory in Little Falls to have its contents analyzed. The tests had not been completed so police asked that the bus driver's trial be delayed, said Lt.

Robert Kratchman of the Mahwah Police Department. He attributed the two-month delay to a backlog of work at the laboratory, and said it was not unusual to wait that long for the state police to do such an analysis. Miss Smith, a Ramsey resident, had worked as bus driver and assistant teacher at the Saddle Acres Nursery School in Saddle River since "-Vv -K 4 "-Vs. 'V, that the council has considered not paying AVS's next bill, but had not reached a final decision. Angry residents, many of them members of the Ridgewood Committee of Concerned Taxpayers, also charged Village tax assessor Phi-.

lomena Gan with incompetence in her supervision of the reassessment, and urged she be fired. Butler said it is beyond the council's authority to dismiss Gan. He said state taxation Director Sidney Glaser has agreed to review Can's performance, and if he finds signs of misconduct, Glaser may call for a hearing that could result in her firing, even though she has tenure. In other business, the council authorized bond ordinances of $60,900 for improvements to the village hall and $95,200 for improvements to the sewage plant. Warning fails to stop budget OK By Debra Di Gregorio Correspondent HO-HO-KUS Despite a warning that it might lose most state aid, the board of education last night adopted a tentative budget of $2,287,515 that anticipates more than $300,000 in funds from Trenton.

Governor Byrne recommended yesterday that the state eliminate the minimum aid to wealthier districts, including Ho-Ho-Kus, an action that Assemblyman W. Cary Edwards, R-Oakland, warned the board about last night. The tentative budget is up 8.5 percent from 1980-81, within the state-imposed limit of 9-percent limit on budget increases. The district antici- "Regional education can't do anything but harm. I think that the town of Ho-Ho-Kus has a far greater responsibility to educate its children than the state does." Arthur Campbell pates revenue of $307,846 in state aid and $14,224 in combined state and federal aid.

The tentative tax levy is $1,860,336. Board Secretary Babette Brown said that if the state eliminated its aid to the district, the board would have to start all over with a new budget. "This is the third set of figures that we have gotten from the state this year," she said of the state aid estimates sent before the governor made his recommendation. 1 Another proposal from the state this one from the state Board of Education also drew fire last night. The state board has been pushing for regionalization of small school districts like Ho-Ho-Kus.

4 "The question is not whether or not you should regionalize," said Edwards. "The question should be who will have the power to do so." Edwards said that if a district fails to educate its children, then it is the state's reponsibility to do so. i "Regional education can't do anything but harm," said Arthur Campbell, a borough resident since 1934. "I think that the town of Ho-Ho-Ku3( has a far greater responsibility to educate its chiL-; dren than the state does." His remarks drew round of applause from the 30 people present. in 'park5 slip from park into reverse.

The slippage in Fords is believed to have caused 6,000 accidents, which resulted in 1,710 injuries and 98 deaths, federal officials reported. Ford and the government have settled the case, in which Washington wanted the defective cars and trucks recalled and repaired. Ford is to send special notices warning its customers that the gear might slip. tions for disgruntled taxpayers who hope to have their 1981 taxes reassessed, without having to appeal to the county or the state. Of the appeals filed at the county level, 538 reductions were granted, 302 stayed the same, and 312 were withdrawn or dismissed because the property owner did not follow through on the appeal.

Another possible remedy was quashed by borough attorney Sidney Stoldt, who said the county would most likely not accept a proposal to apply a flat assessment to the village's 1969 tax structure to arrive at a 1981 reassessment He said that would probably be unacceptable because the county board had already ruled the 1969 structure was outdated and discriminatory, and ordered the village to reassess its estimated 8,000 properties. In 1977, the village -hired AVS of Ebensberg, for $112,650. Councilman Barry Fredericks said last night Staff photo by Al Paglione the snow a snow-covered Oakland corral. said the entire building may eventually be converted to offices. Also conditionally approved was Jack Levin's plan for four custom homes ranging from $250,000 to $350,000 on two-acre lots near the intersection of Pleasant Avenue and West Saddle River Road.

Levin bought the 10 acres from Mrs. Theodora Spaar, who has retained her home there. wall while into "reverse," which is the gear next to park. In the Levine mishap, the car apparently went from park through reverse and neutral and into drive. In the Ford matter, the National Highway Safety Administration, at the end of a three-year investigation of 23,000 complaints, said that Ford cars and trucks, including models produced as long ago as 1969, had a tendency to Fort Lee's on its way to becoming a full-grown city, with a sophisticated population pushing 50,000.

And it's blossoming as fast as the economy will permit builders to find the money for high-rises. Some old-timers don't particularly like some of the changes, which have transformed Fort Lee from a sleepy bridge town into a bustling urban refuge for immigrants who crossed that bridge. Many natives, however, love the changes and are, in fact, performing much of the face-lift themselves. Take the Fierro brothers, for instance. Alfred Fierro and his brother, Daniel were born and raised in Fort Lee.

Their father, Daniel owned a gas station for many years in town. The elder Fierro, who is 84, still lives in Fort Lee. Lifting house into 20th Century The Fierro brothers, both lawyers, have in the past several years effected a striking change in four old houses they own, all within sight of each other. From ramshackle houses that TOM Trr tk i had retained perhaps only a modicum of charm, the buildings were transported into the 20th Century by the imaginations of Fort Lee architect Robert Neblung and his associate, Ray Boos, whom the Fierros hired. The most startling structure is the wood-and-glass contemporary house at 230 Main which is occupied by the Fierros', the architects' offices, and two other tenants.

The old house at 230 Main was lifted several feet off the ground to make way for new underpinnings, and then its entire frame was covered with attractive Swedish wood siding. The front of the building facing Main Street is glassed in, all the way to the second level. The windows are slotted, with one long one following the indoor stairway, which can be seen from the street. At the top, the peaks of the old house were retained, but new windows and, of course, the blond siding replaced the former material. "I think if anyone looks at our building, they would have to agree it is a vast improvement over what was there See FT.

LEE, Page C-5 Planners approve industrial building By John Pangburn Staff Writer UPPER SADDLE RIVER The planning board last night approved the site plan for a building proposed by Design Productions for the new Wenko Industrial Park. The building, including office, shop, and warehouse space, will be on a lot adjoining Ramsey and next door to another recently approved 1 Chevy plows through Horsing around in Jeff Anderson tends his horse in industrial building. Ramsey residents have been concerned in the past that the new construction would cause drainage problems and lower their property values, but planned fencing and screening has solved such problems. No one objected to the project last night. The firm designs plastic display equipment.

Frank Sabatini, engineer for Design Productions, She said that one of her neighbors "heard the crash, ran over, and helped me out of the car. He said, 'You know the car is still in Mrs. Levine said she has reported the incident similar to ones that prompted thousands of complaints filed against the Ford Motor Co. to the National Highway Traffic Safety Committee. A spokesman for the Center for Automotive Safety, a Washington-based consumer group, said that several complaints about General Motors transmissions have been received, but not enough to establish a pattern or prove a design defect.

Louis Rickard, sales manager of Don Francis Chevrolet, the Hackensack firm where Mrs. Levine purchased her car, said the incident Is the first he knows of. Neither Chevrolet nor General Motors has sent information to dealers alerting them to possible defects, he said, and added that he was "puzzled" by the mishap. Ford agreed to notify customers Referring to the Ford experience, he said that the complaints were of the automatic transmissions slipping directly from "park" By R. Clinton Taplin Staff Writer 1 FAIR LAWN A 61-year-old woman was shaken but uninjured when her four-week-old Chevrolet Monte Carlo ran away with her.

As Miriam Levine of 17-11 Radburn Road told it to police, she had parked her 1980 Chevrolet in the driveway Monday evening with the engine running, put the automatic transmission in park, set the hand brake, and then left the car to put her garbage out. "I went back into the car to move it up slightly, and as I released the hand brake, the car shot forward with the shift lever still in park position and went through the garage door and out the back of the garage, knocking down the back wall. My foot was on the floor brake all the while. The car finally stopped in the backyard." Witnesses verify victim's account Mrs. Levine said that three of her neighbors witnessed the event and verified that when her car came to rest, the transmission lever was In the "park" position.

"I'm still shook up over it," she said yesterday. NORTHWEST Allendale, Elmwood Park, Fair Lawn, Franklin Lakes, Glen Rock, Ho-Ho-Kus, Mahwah, Midland Park, Oakland, Ramsey. Ridgewood, Saddle River, Upper Saddle River, Waldwick Reporters Lucy Komlsar, Betsy Morris, John Pangburn, and Sue Warner cover this area. To contact a reporter, 'please 646-4480 or 646-4479 For Information on how to submit club news, program listings, or news Items for Down Our Street and Around Town, please call Lorraine Matys: 646-4348 4.